Cllr. Cooke's Blog.

I’ve just received word that, after a lot of work acting as a go-between and negotiating on behalf of one of my residents, her housing adaptations are finally being delivered. This elderly lady desperately needed adaptations to her property so that she could live a normal life – go to the loo, wash, get up and down stairs etc. And yet, despite being put top of the waiting list it’s still taken around a year and a half for the work to begin.

Fighting for residents like this lady is one of the reasons I sought to become a councillor, and it’s a wonderful feeling when you’re able to make a difference (and now I’ve just taken on the case of one of her neighbours as a result). It’s just a pity you can’t always win these fights.

The really sad thing though, is that it takes so much time and effort to get work done: work that is absolutely necessary if residents are to maintain their dignity and independence. These are thing everybody has a basic human right to – and yet the council would rather prioritise ice rinks and advertising.

Last year the council did not manage to spend £900,000 of its Supporting People grant. Meanwhile the housing adaptations team struggled with a lack of staff and a lack of resources. This week the Labour and Independent groups on the council voted to oppose a Lib Dem budget which targeted resources at reducing the extraordinarily long waiting times for housing adaptations. This too is why I am fighting to get Labour out of office.

I’ve decided to publish the Lib Dem group budget overview online so that residents can take a look if they wish. Our priorities this year have been sticking to a 0% rise in council tax, whilst improving key services like housing adaptations; roads and pavements; winter contingencies; litter and street cleansing; and community safety. We’ve also been keen to avoid some of the more harmful cuts and price hikes proposed by Labour – like increasing the costs of Meals on Wheel; bereavement services and funeral administration; and ratcheting up costs for cash-strapped schools.

Full overview here, together with our concerns about Labour’s budget proposals here:  Salford Liberal Democrat council budget 2010/11 (PDF)

Today the tiny independent group on Salford’s council completely failed to put forward any budget proposals. Instead they stood with Labour, backing them unequivocally. Their spokesman offered hopes, and concerns, but no solutions. Rather, they offered glowing support for Labour and voted with them. It seems that they have become cheerleaders for the ruling group. A real pity that these apologists have forgotten what the purpose of opposition parties is. I’d buy them red rosettes, but then they wouldn’t feel special any more.

The message for voters is: vote independent in Salford – get Labour. A real shame for the death of genuine independent politics in the city.

On 26^th Jan the Labour group used the council press office to issue a spin-filled press release about the council tax level – proposed at 0% (not including fire and police costs, which will probably bring it up to +.75%) – for the next year. They then waited until the absolute limit of the permitted time to tell opposition councillors how they intended to pay for it – council papers for the budget meeting next Wednesday arrived yesterday. Sixteen days later. That leaves opposition councillors just 6 or 7 days to scrutinise their budget and get it approved as legal by the council’s treasury officer.

Every year the opposition, both Lib Dem and Tory, raise the issue that Labour keep them in the dark and leave the release of budget information till the last minute.

Six days to properly scrutinise a 114 page budget of over £220 million is asking a lot. There’s a reason Labour do this – it’s because they don’t like being scrutinised and held to account. It’s because democracy in the form of transparency and accountability is not very high on Labour’s agenda. Keeping power is what motivates them.

I am heartily sick of Labour announcing things like the yearly budget through the press before they inform councillors (like those who sit on the Budget Scrutiny Committee). If they have enough information about their budget to crow about it in the press then they should be prepared to offer up their planned budget for full scrutiny at the same time. Anything less marks them as creatures of spin and obfuscation rather than accountable democrats.

Not so long ago, the imminent arrival of our latest family member prompted me to buy a bigger car (my little Yaris suddenly had one too few seats). Not being terribly happy about purchasing a great big 7-seater car I looked at ways of minimising its environmental impact and made sure to buy a diesel vehicle so that I could run it on biodiesel. I checked for suppliers and was pleased to see that biodiesel could be purchased easily across the country in a 30% B30 mix at Morrison’s supermarket. This week I went to fill up only to find the pump out of operation for the fourth day running. Staff informed me that Morrison’s had decided to stop selling it. I was pretty unhappy about this, so I wrote to Morrison’s to confirm the situation and get an explanation.Yesterday a press clipping from the Times arrived in my inbox via their press office

Here’s the story online:

‘Flexi-fuel drivers left high and dry after Government subsidy U-turn

Drivers who took the Government’s advice and chose a low-emission car could be left with a white elephant after a U-turn by ministers.

Britain’s biggest supplier of biofuels will announce today that it is closing its pumps because the Government is ending financial support from April.

It is the second time in five years that the Government has changed its mind and cancelled subsidies after encouraging motorists to invest in a particular type of green car.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7021180.ece

Anyone else pig sick of this government waving its environmental credentials around and hoping that nobody will notice that they bought them from an online fake diploma mill?

Just after Christmas a Nigerian family who live on the Valley Estate in Swinton were forced out of their homes by racist thugs. A mother and her young children were subjected to a sustained period of abuse and vandalism.  Windows were smashed, BNP graffiti appeared, and abuse was hurled. It got so bad that the police and housing team moved them out of the area for their own safety. At a meeting last night the neighbourhood police inspector told of how people on the street jeered as the family moved their belongings out of the home whilst a PCSO stood guard. I can see the tinned-up windows of their former home from my own garden. Heartbreaking.

Racist thugs sprayed BNP grafitti and smashed the windows of a local black family.

Meanwhile, not far from the estate, but in a slightly richer part of the ward, a young man was recently attacked by four youths, who broke into his house at night and stabbed him in the arm – simply because he is gay. He too has had to be moved out of his home.

Credit it to the police, who reacted swiftly when I spoke to them about the problems. There have been a number of arrests, and two men have been charged after the racist incidents. (C)ASBOs are also being sought against them.  And credit to the brave residents who spoke to me about how sickened they were by the racism they saw around them. Sadly, I learned last night that the abuse had been occurring for as long as two years without decisive action being taken.

It’s clear that the city and the council needs to take a stand against hate crime – and I hope it does so loudly and publicly. And I hope those involved in these two attacks end up behind bars. I for one am sickened and ashamed to think that there are people as evil and unpleasant as those involved living on the estate I call home.

Disgraced Salford BNP candidate given senior party role.

Sadly, with the BNP sending out their hateful material, I expect that more of this sort of thing will happen. Only yesterday I learned that the BNP’s chief local organiser and agent for their general election candidate is the man who they suspended from his EU seat and promised to kick out after he was revealed in the papers as a vile racist who referred to black people as ‘wogs’ (see here and here.). The same man organised an online hate campaign against me for standing up to his bigotry.  Does Salford really need more of this?

If you live in Salford and want to report a hate crime then there are reporting centres across the city – you can find a list here: http://www.salford.gov.uk/reportingahatecrime.htm or you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.