Councillor Andrew Cooper – Speech on Elected Mayor proposals – FullCouncil 2/9/15

 Let’s be clear. Conservative Government pressure to foist a Mayor on Leeds City Region are undemocratic. Referenda across the region have rejected the elected Mayor concept. Local people recognised that it put too much power in the hands of one individual. In 2001, in Kirklees, local people voted 73% to 27% against an elected Mayor. This was much more decisive than the recent Scottish referendum and that was supposed to settle that matter for a generation.

So why would a Conservative Government, elected with 37% of the vote wielding 100% of the power that has just stuffed the unelected House of Lords with Tory lackeys, behave in such an undemocratic fashion? Difficult to fathom I know. The truth is that this is nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with centralised control.

So having rejected elected Mayors on each of our Councils the Government want us to have one over even wider areas stretching across many Councils representing millions of people. The incentive for doing this is to have control over funds which are normally managed by Whitehall. Make no mistake this is not new money this is just about shifting control from a remote Government in London to a remote individual, an elected mayor covering the whole of West Yorkshire and beyond. Even despite this there are some attractions to having more control. In 2013 the Conservative /Lib Dem Government reallocated Euromoney that was destined for Yorkshire to Scotland so one of the ‘Asks’ from Leeds City Region Leaders is to have control of European funding.

On the subject of ‘our asks’ to Government. How many people here have actually seen them, know what they are? You certainly haven’t voted or had any say on them whatsoever. So just as the elected Mayor proposals are undemocratic so are our negotiations on whether or not we should have one.

In case you didn’t know here are some of the headline asks:-

• ·         the ability raise funding through a 10 year infrastructure precept to improve public transport

• ·         power to levy and retain business rates,    devolved budgets and responsibility for major roads including motorways

• ·         Control of a new £500 million Housing and Regeneration Investment Fund

• ·         Powers to incentivise developers to bring forward strategic sites and prevent land banking; and to bring empty listed building back into use

• ·         Responsibility for local energy generation and efficiency

• ·         Responsibility for managing European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in the same way as London.

So say we get an elected Mayor what democratic checks and balances will there be on such a powerful position. Well I believe what is good enough for London should be good enough for Yorkshire. They have the Greater London Assembly elected by proportional representation that can voted down the Elected Mayors plans and budget by a 2/3rds majority. We are being pushed into a less democratic Mayoral model so we need to ensure that we have a new representative body to make sure that an Elected Mayor is more accountable.

If we don’t get these ‘asks’,  (that we have no say about) , will we have the opportunity to vote down any elected mayor proposals in Council? I believe we should have that opportunity. As with all negotiations you have to be prepared to walk away and to recognise when what is on offer from the Government is simply not worth it. We do have to overcome the Conservatives desire to centralise power with a Mayoral model but we also have to democratise our own local electoral arrangements and drag them into the 21st Century.

The Civic Expanse of Doom

The new location of the Councillors offices in Civic Centre 3 means I have to walk across an area I have chosen to call the Civic Expanse of Doom. It is one of the most godforsaken places in the whole of Huddersfield Town Centre. It is the the polar opposite to St Georges Square. Its not the sort of place you would pass through by choice. If you're walking across 'the Expanse' you're either going to Court, the Job Centre or to see your local Councillor, so odds on you could be feeling pretty miserable in the first place.

Jakes Folly

The complete and utter misery of the area was recognised in 2004 by local eccentric Jake Mangel -Wurzel who constructed his own 'Folly' contributing to the sheer awfulness of the area. I remember arguing at the time that it should remain until the Council did something to improve the area. So it is still there, a mocking monument to concrete desolation that is the Civic Expanse of Doom.  What can we do with it? Well I'm sure the Council could throw loads of money at it and try and improve it but that is certainly not something I could advocate in these harsh times and anyway civic regeneration is what happens in London and isn't for the likes of us. One idea I had was to set up a game of 'Blockbusters' on the hexagon embedded squares which are bizarrely and frankly unattractively framed by concrete paving stones. This would be purely to highlight the sheer awfulness of the area and bring it to public attention.

What could be done with the area to lift it? We need ideas that have a low civic expense for the Civic
Expanse. A free market? some planters in the centre? a civic information board? places to sit? Come on people I'm doing all the thinking here? Ok that's off my chest I'll raise the subject again in 2024 when we can mark the 20th anniversary of 'Jakes Folly' or not!

Blockbusters anybody?

PRESS RELEASE - Armitage Bridge gets new HGV weight limit

A village plagued by lorries blocking it and damaging walls has finally had a weight limit established on it.  Armitage Road in Armitage Bridge has been the scene of a number of traffic jams caused over the years by Heavy Goods Vehicles getting stuck on the narrow road. There have also been a number of collisions with garden walls being demolished.

Newsome Green Party Councillor Andrew Cooper said, 

“Armitage Bridge residents have rightly been persistent in calling for a weight limit on the road and local Councillors have been more than happy to back them. The case has been compelling with regular reports of difficulties and inconvenience as a result of large vehicles going through the village, often directed by satnavs. The signs will hopefully reduce the incidences of vehicles using the route and warn them of the possible dangers. I would also like to thanks Kirklees Council officers who recognised the strong argument for restrictions given by residents.”

Summer holiday lunches held for kids in Lowerhouses were a great success.

Lunches were prepared 3 days each week over the Summer holidays with help from local children and charity Worth Unlimited at Lowerhouses Community Baptist Church. The project was led by Wendy Marsden who lives locally and regularly fed 40+ children. The project was supported by the Town Foundation. There were a variety of tasty healthy lunches provided with fresh vegetables and a pudding.

Green Party Councillor Karen Allison who helped out at the lunch events said  “This has been a really positive project and the kids have loved getting involved in preparing meals, laying the tables. I am really proud of them and the huge enthusiasm shown by Wendy who has been so committed to this project.” 

 Councillor Andrew Cooper who helped out with the washing up on the final day of the project said,  "All credit to Wendy and the kids for preparing these great meals for so many people."

The Bird and the Bees

'Alan' the Partridge

 Its been a funny old week. I get a call off Councillor Julie Stewart -Turner one morning saying "You've got a car. Can you go and rescue a young partridge that is sitting by this shop in Lockwood?" So off me and Cllr Karen Allison trot armed with a cardboard box and find the aforementioned partridge, looking a bit sorry for itself and put it in the box. Now it is worth saying at this point for people who do not know Huddersfield that Lockwood is not the natural habitat of partridges. It's like finding a crocodile in the Antarctic or a Lib Dem in Newsome. It's just not their natural habitat. Lockwood is built up, close to the Town Centre and not a place you feel likely to find what some people refer to as 'game birds'. So having rescued the Partridge the question was what to do with it next? We rang Cllr Robert Barraclough, a farmer who living in Farnley Tyas may well have come across the odd partridge in his time. We didn't fancy his first suggestion too much but then he did identify a spot in Farnley Tyas where it would be good to relocate it. It would be in its natural surroundings and be able to forage, so off we went and released it back into the wild. What has happened to 'Alan' now is anyone's guess but hopefully feeling a bit more at home than it was. As casework goes a bit more bizarre than usual. So that was the bird! Next the bees!

Cllr Karen Allison opens the Apiary at Kirklees College Taylor Hill Annex

For a long time I have been keen to get the concept of the Bee-llotment established. We have had A-llotments for years but we need to get more and more purpose built homes for colonies of bees where their hives are cared for, secure and are safe from predators. Somewhere a hive can thrive! I was really pleased to hear that Huddersfield Bee Keepers Association have established an Apiary with 3 hives at the Kirklees College Taylor Hill Annex. Cllr Karen Allison was asked to open it which she was very keen to do and she is even considering getting her own hive. It is an ideal spot for holding bee keeping courses and the links with the College are particularly welcome with opportunities to pass on skills to new generations. This is an important project with the many threats to bees. Their fate and ours, with regards to the pollination of many crops, are inextricably linked. The Bee-Keepers are hoping to build the Apiary up to be a 8 hive site and they regard the area as a great spot for foraging. The next job for us is to look at what we can do to get more wild flower plants in the area. The fact that the Council are cutting back on grass cutting might be something we can turn into a real positive by finding more areas for wild flowers providing new food sources for the new bee colonies in the Newsome area.

The 'Bee- Suited' Cllr Karen Allison

A West Yorkshire/Leeds City Region Mayor?

A Mayor

Kirklees had a referendum in 2001, asking the question whether we wanted an Elected Mayor or not. The result was 27977 (73%)  against and 10169 (27%) for. That's a far bigger margin that the Scottish Independence Referendum and the Scots were told that this should settle that matter for a generation!There's been no clamour for an elected Mayor since then. All the other Local Authorities in West Yorkshire have had referenda on the Elected Mayor question (most much more recently than us) and they have all come back with similar results.

The principal argument against Elected Mayors is that it puts too much power in the hands of one person and that they will inevitably become remote and unaccountable. Rather than just accepting this, the Conservative Government are now pursuing the idea of an Elected Mayor with power across, not just one Council area but across a number of Councils. This would be on a similar basis to the deal that they have made recntly with Greater Manchester. The sweetner/bribe is that the regions will have greater access/control over money, currently controlled by the Government, that is spent in their regions. So we are not necessarily talking new money but perhaps a greater say over how funds are spent that were destined for the region anyway. In some ways this would be a good thing. It would stop Government misappropriating funds like they did in 2013, when nearly £200million of EU funding, allocated to Yorkshire, was sent to Scotland instead. I guess this was part of the strategy to keep Scotland as part of the United Kingdom. The problem is that instead of an illegitimate Government elected by 37% of the electorate deciding the fate of that money there will be a single person, a Mayor, somehow representing millions of people, deciding how it is spent. We have not necessarily made any progress here!

In West Yorkshire and the wider Leeds City Region there seems to be an almost resigned air amongst the Council Leaderships and a feeling that we must bow to the inevitable. So the West Yorkshire Combined Authority has produced a number of 'Asks' to central Government including

• the ability raise funding through a 10 year infrastructire precept to improve public transport
•  power to levy and retain business rates,
• devolved budgets and responsibility for major roads including motorways
• Control of a new £500 million Housing and Regeneration Investment Fund
• Powers to incentivise developers to bring forward strategic sites and prevent land banking; and to bring empty listed building back into use
• Responsibility for local energy generation and efficiency
• Responsibility for managing European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in the same way as London.

These are just some examples of the 'asks' and they are generally positive ones. The problem is that having responsibility for these new budgets will also mean having responsibility for any cuts handed down by central government. It also requires a degree of trust and a belief that Government won't disproportionately cut devolved budgets particularly in areas where the Conservatives have little electoral support.

What has been dismally lacking from the 'asks' from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is anything about improving governance and accountability for the Elected Mayor, that Government want to foist on us. In London the Mayor is accountable to the Greater London Assembly which has a role in scrutinising the Mayor's decisions. With a 2/3rds majority the Assembly can amend the Mayors strategies and budgets. The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System so the number of seats are roughly proportional to the votes cast. If we are being pushed into a less democratic Mayoral model then we need to ensure that we have a new representative body to make sure the Mayor is more accountable. It should also be elected by a system of proportional representation. If West Yorkshire Leaders are opposed to creating a new West Yorkshire Assembly or Leeds City Region Assembly then, at the very least, we need to ensure our own local Councils have an effective scrutinising and vetoing role over any Elected Mayor's budgets or plans. This should  not be the preserve of Council Leaders alone or a small group of  'the great and the good'. All elected Councillors should have a role in debating and amending any potential Mayor's plans. Preferably at the same time and in the same place each year.

Reviewing our own Councils electoral arrangements is long overdue, and this should be considered at the same time that we look at establishing any new potential Mayoral arrangements. With West Yorkshire Councils having elections 3 years out of every 4, we are in a state of almost constant electoral warfare. This is not good for governance and detracts from time Councillors can give to  Council work and community focussed activity. Like York, London Boroughs and many other Councils we should have 'all out' elections in West Yorkshire on a 4 year cycle and ensure that these elections do not clash with General Elections. This will help ensure that we retain a focus on local issues and concerns. In May, when we had General, Local and Parish Elections all on the same day the General Election naturally dominated political discourse. We also have the opportunity to elect Local Councillors through a system of proportional representation. If it is good enough for Scottish Councils then why not English ones as well?

As with all negotiations you have to be prepared to walk away and to recognise when what is on offer from the Government is simply not worth it. We do have to overcome the Conservatives desire to centralise power with a Mayoral model but we also have to democratise our own local electoral arrangements and drag them into the 21st Century.

Newsome Play Day? Don't ask me!

Newsome Play Day has become a regular Annual event. Stalls, picnics, play equipment and Kirklees Youth Service all there, plus loads of kids having a good time. This is another project that is lead by the Newsome Ward Community Forum chaired by Green Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner. I usually drop by say hello, have a chat with a few folks for an hour or so. The real work is done by local people and Kirklees Youth Services staff. Both Julie and Cllr Karen Allison have put hours of work into making the day a success. It is another part of the jigsaw that makes up the strong community lead activities in the area and it is important that it is focused on kids. Having absolutely nothing at all to do with it, all I can really say is that its great that it happens. I guess the strength of the array of community offers in the area is that different people do and lead on different things.