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Councillor Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services
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SEPTEMBER 2004
CAS TIGERS
What can I say! The fans,
club and players are all devastated and heartbroken, 11,000 fans came to
see the end and almost certainly relegation, each one hoping beyond hope
that Cas could pull off a miracle, but it wasn’t to be. Life in
National League one is going to be hard, Cas will lose £800,000 of Sky
money, their players will leave to stay in Super League with other clubs,
crowds will drop, and National League one now has a newly introduced
salary cap of only £150,000 per year to pay for the whole team.
Teams
relegated in the past had the advantage of a parachute payment to help
them adjust, but this has now gone. I will be
there next year like many others, hopefully Cas will be able to retain a
full time squad, and we will bounce back into Super League the following
year when 2 teams are to be relegated to make way for the French squad. I would say
to all the Cas fans "Keep your chin up, we will be back, but Cas
needs us now more than ever so lets be there for them".
RIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME
I had,
coincidentally; a meeting in the House of Commons on the same day as the
hunt protesters broke into the Commons Chamber, imagine my surprise when I
emerged from the Underground at Westminster to what seemed a surreal
setting. The whole of
the area was cordoned off, there was riot police, helicopters, police cars
and vans everywhere, no-one was allowed through, I explained to a
policeman that I had a meeting within the House of Commons, and after
checking my meeting papers and agenda he allowed me through the cordon. I then had to
walk about 200 yards with riot police to my left in front of the building
and a fenced off area manned by police to keep out the protesters on my
right, there was me, on my own walking in this no mans land area, it was
quite an experience.
One thing
that struck me though was how vociferous and angry these people were,
whilst supposedly protecting their right to have their hounds barbarically
rip foxes apart. I can
understand their wish to retain the rural way of live and the pageantry of
fox hunting, but surely this can be protected by other means of hunting
that is kinder to foxes, they could have drag hunting where the hounds
follow a scent. Foxes could
be culled more humanely by shooting if it is necessary.
FRESHAIRE
Freshaire the
regeneration organisation are giving grants to community groups based on
Simpson’s Lane Estate. Organisations
such as football teams, lunch clubs art and crafts, historical groups or
guides, scouts etc, with a bank account and a constitution can qualify for
a grant of up to £1,000 Don’t let
the opportunity and the money go past. If your
organisation is interested contact: Colin Gibson or Vic France at
Freshaire SRB, Five Towns Resource Centre, Castleford, WF10 1 DR,
telephone 01977 723940
ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
At last,
after years of trying we now have had real results, the Headlines in the
Pontefract and Castleford express read "Yob sent to Jail", but
in reality what has happened is that time has been called on a gang of
thugs that have terrorised an estate for some time, I am delighted to see
it, we have to make a stand, I hope that we see more of these sentences
and Anti Social Behaviour Orders until the thugs get the message, we will
not stand for your kind of behaviour which includes vandalism, robbery,
violence, threats and making peoples lives a misery.
Everyone has
the right to live in a peaceful society; I congratulate all those that
were involved in bringing these louts to justice.
5 TOWNS URBAN RENAISSANCE
I attended
the meeting of the 5 Towns Urban Renaissance in September which brought
together the results of the wide reaching consultation that has taken
place about the future of our area, over the past 18 months. The draft
strategy will now be presented to us for final consultation on its content
in October following which it will be agreed at a meeting in November, and
officially launched to the public in December. The document
will then be considered by the council and will be used to prepare future
plans for our area and in the local development framework.
Many
suggestions have been made for Knottingley and Ferrybridge and if some of
them come to fruition we will all benefit as a result, there are riverside
proposals, rail and transport with the suggestion of a new railway station
at Ferrybridge, the zoning of the town into industrial, retail, and
residential areas. The work has
been done and now we have to work to make things happen.
FERRYBRIDGE SUPER HIGHWAY
I am very
pleased to see the new premises of Ferrybridge Super Highway, the centre
which is part of Castleford Community Learning Centre is now open for day
time courses at 11 – 13 High Street Ferrybridge, courses include
computers, induction, clait and ECDL, family history and Spanish. It was
particularly pleasing for me to see this centre open, as I have been
involved in work to get new premises for the centre for a couple of years
since the previous premises on Simpson’s Lane site started to fall into
disrepair. But my
involvement with Castleford Women’s Centre and their work goes back to
the miners strike when the group was formed by a miners wives group, they
are part of our heritage and have gone on from strength to strength, a
success story I am happy to be associated with.
FUNDING FAIRS
In
partnership with the Charities Information Bureau & Voluntary Action
Wakefield District the council are putting on a series of Funding Fairs,
as follows: -
Saturday 25th September 2004, 10am-2pm, at Wakefield Town Hall
Saturday 2nd October 2004, 10am-12noon, at Horbury Community Centre
Saturday 9th October 2004, 10am-12noon, at Westfield Resource Centre, South Elmsall
Tuesday 12th October 2004, 6pm-8pm, at Featherstone Library
WORKSHOPS FOR 25th September 2004 – WAKEFIELD TOWN HALL
10.30 – 11.30 am
(1) West Yorkshire Racial Justice Programme
Find out more about this programme that aims to oppose and empower racially
disadvantaged communities.
(2) The Big Lottery (formerly the Community Fund)
Our aim is to
‘give grants mainly to help meet the needs of those at greatest
disadvantage in society and also to help improve the quality of life in
the community’.
11.45 – 12.45 am
(3) Awards for All
Small grants
of £500 to £5000 for projects that support community activity, sports,
arts and heritage projects. A wide range of projects can be funded, but
you cannot apply for running costs of on-going activities. The scheme is
aimed at small and new groups, who have a constitution and their own bank
account. Receive a decision 8 weeks after you apply.
(4) The
Scarman Trust
Community
Champions offers small grants, of up to £2,000. It is for individuals who
want to take forward new ideas they have developed themselves. Community
Champions aims to develop new skills for community activity.
1.00 – 2.00pm
(5) Not a clue about fundraising?
This workshop
is for groups new to fundraising, taking you through what you need in
place before approaching funders, general tips on planning, fundraising
and identifying help and support.
(6) Small
Grants for Arts Projects
This session
is aimed at local voluntary and community groups who are looking for
funding to support a creative project or activity. We will focus
specifically on DIVA’s Kickstart grants and the Arts Development grants
available from the local authority.
(7) Local
Network Fund
Grants of up
to £7,000 to groups working with children and young people aged 0 – 19.
WORKSHOP FOR SATURDAY 2nd OCTOBER – HORBURY
Awards for
All – as above
WORKSHOP FOR
SATURDAY 9th OCTOBER – WESTFIELD RESOURCE CENTRE, SOUTH ELMSALL
Eastern
Wakefield Micro Grant
Small grants
up to £500 for community & voluntary groups in the Pontefract,
Castleford, Featherstone, Airedale, Havercroft, Ferrybridge, Normanton,
Altofts, Hemsworth, South Elmsall & Knottingley area. The aim of the
grant is to reduce inequalities in health, empowerment & community
participation.
WORKSHOP FOR
TUESDAY 12th OCTOBER – FEATHERSTONE LIBRARY
Community
Champions – as above
All workshops
are FREE, contact John Cryer at VAWD on 01924 267418 to book your place.
OLDER PEOPLES CHAMPION
I have just
taken on a new role of an elected member Older Peoples Champion, (in
addition to my existing duties) the title of which I hate and I think we
should change it, so if anyone has any ideas about what my role should be
called I would like to hear them. There are
other older peoples champions in Primary Care Trusts and Mental health
trusts, so I am not alone in this within our area. My role has
many facets to it more than I originally anticipated, there is no job
description, so it is what I want it to be, but the more I have thought
about older people and the way they live their daily lives, the more I
have come across the many organisations and issues that impact on how
older people manage to get by. I see my role
as certainly being aware of all the available information about services
that exists and to stand up for the interests of older people, as well as
ensuring that older people remain a priority within the council and that
their views are taken on board when services to the public are being
considered. What might
those services be?
In
considering the needs of daily life my initial thoughts are around the
difficulties that are faced by older people, older peoples issues need to
be recognised and are becoming increasingly important. The number of
older people both nationally and locally is growing and people are living
longer. There are around 50,000 people over 65 in the Wakefield district
and this is set to rise to about 59,000 over the next 10 years. This means
we need to consider the wide range of issues that affect older people and
think how we can work together with other agencies to address them.
Examples of
the sorts of things we need to consider include, keeping fit and healthy,
enjoying leisure time, managing our finances, going to social events,
access to transport, choosing where you want to live (sheltered housing,
help to remain at home, bungalow schemes with wardens), home care and
support services, crime and safety, gardening services, energy advice and
keeping warm in winter, provision of meals, care and repair, how do we
physically get to pay our rent, disability and access, carers and support
to carers, health services.
Each one of
these areas is a large subject and I could spend a considerable time
exploring any one of them, we have to consider whether these needs are
being met, if they are, by whom, and are they adequate to meet the needs
of the older population, what are the constraints, is enough effort being
put into improving services, can things be done better.
The more I
think about it, the more there is to this, but as much as anything it is
about being aware of older peoples needs in all the dealings I have with
the council and other organisations and putting their viewpoint forward. We are
looking at a number of ways to involve and consult with older people, one
of them is to develop an older peoples forum across the district to enable
more older people to have their say about all the issues that affect them.
REVIEW OF PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES
The Boundary
Commission for England have just published provisional recommendations on
the 23 September that will affect the Wakefield District. Representations
to the proposals should be made to the Commission before 29 October 2004. Within our
area the Boundary Commission are proposing to split up and remove
Normanton Constituency, which if agreed would give the Wakefield District
1 MP less.
Copies of the
full Boundary Commission report and detailed maps can be viewed at a
number of locations throughout the District from 23 September including,
The Close, Hilltop, Knottingley, County Hall Reception Desk and the
Electoral Services Office, Room 312, County Hall. A copy of the
full report and maps can also be viewed at www.statistics.gov.uk/pbc
BUS SERVICES
I thought it
was just me, and Knottingley, that were experiencing problems with ARRIVA
bus services, but I was at a meeting of the Pontefract Constituency Labour
Party Meeting recently where a number of people expressed disquiet about
the level of service provided. They passed a
resolution that they are not satisfied with the level of public transport
within the constituency and called for action to improve the service.
I have to
agree with them, I do get a number of complaints about missing, late or
withdrawn services, I have also been attempting to get ARRIVA to
recommence the evening bus service on Warwick Estate for over 2 years now,
they did make promises that if CCTV cameras and security screens were
provided on buses they would start running the service normally. Despite Metro
providing equipment, and repeated promises from ARRIVA , I am not aware of
the service running. It is my
belief that ARRIVA feel that they can do as they wish because there is no
competition, they send out glossy brochures promising excellent service
but their standards fall far short of expectations.
Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services
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