Campaign Diary: Days Seven and Eight - white dots and chasing fairies

 

A quiet start to the week - took an evening off from the doorstep as Kathryn had driven to Milton Keynes and back therefore earning rest rather than doorbells. Still most of the delivery is out the door - got Wilsden to sort out but that should be done before the end of the week.

Took a wander up to Harecroft, a little hamlet between Cullingworth and Wilsden, where there were concerns about the sudden appearance of white dots on the cherished stone flagged footways. Residents - quite understandably - feared the worst and that the council were planning to rip them up and lay low maintenance tarmac instead!

Turns out the white dots were a precaution - there had been a couple of attempts to steal the flags while some general repairs were ongoing. Painting white dots on them is a disincentive to theft as it would mark then as stolen! We learn something every day!

Still chasing whoever's responsible for the Cottingley Beck area - want to get on with sorting out what is a pretty important site the management of which is causing local residents (who are, in this case, paying directly for the upkeep) a great deal of annoyance and irritation.

Back to Harden this evening for canvassing - sun's out so should be good.

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When is a saving not a saving? A tale of some libraries

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Readers will know that the Labour leadership of Bradford Council decided – with support from our local Liberal Democrats – that two libraries in Bingley Rural, at Wilsden and Denholme, should be closed as part of the budget “savings”. Along with three other libraries elsewhere, this action was to contribute £70,000 out of the £56,000,000 total saving.

Now, leaving aside the spiteful nature of such a cut, it appears that the saving is rather a fiction. Here’s part of the letter given to “users” of the library:

All the staff who currently work in these libraries will be redeployed to other libraries in the district.

In conjunction with this the Council will consult with local communities about how best to deliver their library service in the light of the reductions to the library service budget. The Council will also carry out a community needs assessment.

So let’s get this right – closing the libraries will not result in any savings in staff costs, there are unlikely to be any economies in the book budget as a result and the Council will also have to introduce new stops in its mobile service to pick up the reduction in service to these villages.

Three out of the five closing libraries are run from Council-owned premises (not specialist libraries but community centres) so there is no saving in rent and the impact on central overheads must be small given these are libraries mostly open just ten hours each week.

In truth – or at least as far I am able to ascertain – closing the two libraries in Bingley Rural will actually save Bradford Council the cost of the rent for space in Wilsden Village Hall (less that £2,000) and a minimal amount in heating and lighting.  It seems to me that closing these libraries merely realises make-believe savings in “full cost recovery” and central overheads that could, in truth, have be achieved without closing a single library.

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How not to make cuts - a lesson from Bradford

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I’ve been pretty straight when asked about the cuts – they are needed because we can’t afford to spend money the way we have for years. At the same time I think we should do local communities and local people the justice of being transparent, open and honest.

On Saturday – just a few days before Bradford Council sets its budget – my ward colleagues and I received the news that the Council’s Labour leadership intended to close the two small libraries in Bingley Rural ward (Denholme and Wilsden). This will realise a saving of some £12,000, we’re told (although it is rolled into the closure of 5 libraries to save £70,000). We got the news from reading the local paper not from the Council itself.

Now it may be the right decision to close these libraries – certainly the levels of usage aren’t great and the opening hours have diminished with each passing year – but the manner in which Bradford’s Labour leaders have gone about it is appalling.  We are being forced into a situation of trying to find ways to keep the libraries open set against a deadline that is now just a few hours away.

I could point out that the Council pays for full-time trade union convenors – to the tune of £300,000 and more. I could observe the team of ‘climate change’ officers costing local taxpayers approaching £500,000. And I could observe that we’re still paying 55p per mile to car users when every one else is paying just 40p per mile.

And I could go on listing example after example of achievable, affordable savings that have, at worst, a marginal impact on front line services. Yet I shan’t – instead I’ll talk about giving local communities a chance. A stay of execution so they can explore, with council officers and others, the opportunities to take over running these local facilities that Labour – out of political spite – has chosen to close.

Here’s what Wilsden Parish Council has to say:

In terms of process there has been no consultation whatsoever with the Parish Council or any other element of the community and the timescale from the announcement in the Telegraph and Argus on Saturday to a decision process on Thursday makes a total mockery of democratic process. The time scale available makes it impossible for the Parish Council to convene a meeting that complies with standing orders to discuss the proposal.

It is also difficult to determine the rationale for the selection. The budget proposal before Council on Thursday recommends closing the smallest libraries referred to in the Bradford Library Service Review 2010.  Size appears to equate with opening hours. The Library Service Review simply records Wilsden as being one of five libraries to have opening hours of less than 10 hours per week (para 3.12)

 However the report then goes on to say in paras 3.22 and 3.23 “in resource terms the provision and use of the thirteen village libraries is broadly commensurate with the staff resources and opening hours allocated” and “given the relatively small floor space available at these thirteen village libraries the levels of use are relatively strong”. Wilsden  (and indeed the other four libraries recommended for closure) does not therefore appear to be a failing library that is not worth retention.

It seems to me that Labour are seeking the maximum service pain so as to realise the biggest political gain.

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Update: At tonight's Wilsden Neighbourhood Forum the nature of Labour's spite was revealed - the saving from closing Wilsden library is a massive £8,000.  That's less than the Executive's travel bill.

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Thoughts following Remembrance in Wilsden

Each year Wilsden Main Street is closed for an hour so we can hold a remembrance service at the War Memorial. And at that service, the Chairman of the Village Society reads out the names of those listed on the memorial.

In one respect this is just a list of 50 or so names and it’s easy to find the recitation dull. Yet these names are of men who died in those two great 20th Century Wars – wars of survival for our freedom, culture and independence. Remembering their sacrifice is the least we can do.

This year, however, I noticed something else. The familiarity of those names – Firth, Ackroyd, Miles, Robertshaw, Lund, Binns – these are local names. I meet every day with people from those very families and it reminds me of the scale of the sacrifice – the effect of the loss on small communities like Wilsden. It wasn’t just that men died but that the scale of death affected everyone, every family and every street.

It seems to me significant that children in Wilsden can be taken to the memorial and shown the name of someone who died for their freedom. Not just a random name but a real name – maybe someone from their family but certainly a name they will know, a name their neighbour or their school friend shares. A real reminder of the price of freedom.

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A brief comment from the front - canvassing in Wilsden & Cottingley

Yesterday saw almost the final flurry of Phil Davies canvassing efforts – and where better to finish that part of the campaign than in my ward! Phil’s hardy canvassing team were joined by a few locals and we set off to knock of the doors of people who are out (one of the unmentioned truths of canvassing, this). And despite the weather we got through a fair old tranche of Wilsden and Cottingley folk.

Now at this point most reports on canvassing tell you how good it was, how the polls are all wrong and how the residents are very impressed by the candidate. Now this being Bingley Rural – where we like to be straight with you about stuff – let me tell you that the canvass was OK. Here are the main highlights, observations and comments:

1. There are a lot of undecided voters. This isn’t great as we don’t know how they’ll vote on the day. However, one quite common response was something like; “I don’t know but definitely not Labour” which does suit Phil as his main opponent is Labour.

2. Other than the occasional local issue just three concerns were raised on the doorstep – immigration, Europe and public finances (debt, deficit, cuts, etc.). May be different elsewhere but that’s been a consistent theme here throughout the election.

3. In the council houses in Wilsden we didn’t find many Tories. But we also didn’t find anyone who would admit to supporting Labour. And I was struck by more than one old Labour voter expressing, in one way or another, that they had “lost faith” or “been let down”.

4. Yet again, I was struck by just how many people had been in contact with Phil. And how every one spoke positively of what Phil had done. Even the man who was a keen supporter of extending the smoking ban was going to vote for Phil – despite them having a vigorous disagreement by e-mail!

So a mixed bag – mostly positive, some negatives but notably a vast swathe of “dunno”, “haven’t made my mind up”, “we’ll see” and – a classic this – “I’m too busy to talk right now!” However, I get the feeling that these undecided voters aren’t – in the main – going to plump for Labour come May 6th.

Now we move to getting folk out to vote (well the Tory ones anyway).

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Why Parish Councils should be encouraged

Wilsden is one of Cullingworth's 'next door villages' and straggles down the valley from the Haworth Road to the Malt Shovel at Harden (which is actually in Wilsden - one of geography's little quirks). Like Cullingworth, Wilsden is a combination of traditional South Pennine mill village terraces and cottages with assorted dormitory estates built over the last 50 years.

Yesterday evening was Wilsden Parish Council - a meeting that brings both exasperation and stultifying boredom. But despite this - and the pettifogging nature of much discussed - I remain convinced of the value we get from Parish Councils.

Last night the Wilsden Parish Council discussed the minutiae of living in the village - the impact of a road closure on the post office, the delivery of the village newsletter (and the worry that there appear to be three of these newsletters) and assorted planning applications for caravans, conservatories and an ugly detatched house. Not matters of great moment but important in their very local, specific way.

So, despite the busibodying, the seemingly endless meetings, the wittering about the tiniest issue and the occasional bout of self-importance, Parish Councils are a good thing - they enhance a place and they do so at very low cost (about a tenner a head in Wilsden). If you don't already have one think about getting one. And thank me when you're sitting through the second hour of a discussion about the Parish web-site!