At last some good campaigning weather. I have been out delivering leaflets and canvassing - the feling is very positive.But them all politicians say that! However there has been a very definite uptick in Lib Dem support in the opinion polls - a number show them on 21 %. That means we could be in 24/25 territory by May 6th. Just need to keep going.
Just back from Birmingham where the Lib Dem spring conference was held for the first time. How the place has changed since I used to visit in the 1970s! The mood was very good and a fantastic attendance by delegates from all over the country. My highlight was the appearance of Paddy Ashdown at the Friday night rally. He came on the stage, leaned on the lecturn, put on his crinkley smile, and spoke eloquently for 10 minutes. A true star! Now back to the hard grind of stuffing leaflets through doors in Honley, Brockholes and Meltham.
A very sad week. Friday saw the funeral of John Bakanoba M.B.E. John was a remarkable man. A refugee from Uganda he ended up in Meltham and became a pillar of the community. He had a number of problems when he arrived and was helped by Richard WainwrighMP.As a result he joined the Liberals and remarkably was elected to Meltham Town Council.He was twice chairman of the council and often topped the poll in the all out elections. But he never forgot his roots and set up the Mustard Seed charity which provide money for projects in his native village. I worked with John on many causes - he was a director of Meltham Environment Ltd for example. He will be sorely missed.
A rowdy council meeting last night which set the council tax and budget for 2010-2011. The upshot was that the orginal Labour proposals were amended by the Greens and the Lib Dems and the revised budget was supported by all three parties. The Conservative propsals were voted down and they, the BNP and the Save the NHS voted against the main motion. This meant that among other things they voted against extending the Warm Zone scheme.
I spoke briefly on the Conservative amendment. The main criticism was that they funded a lower council tax by cutting the corporate priorities budget by £2 million. This is a pot of money set up to deal with critical issues which lie outside the normal service budgets - for example a scheme to deal with the effects of the recession or to increase funding on safeguarding as a result of a critical independent review.
We all expected a short meeting - but it went right up until the last possible minute. We had a group of journalism students watching. Would be interesting to see what they made if it!
Just back from a short holiday - a week in Tunisia visiting Carthage, Dougga, Kairouan, and El Jemm. The weather was poor - cold, windy and wet - but probably better than Meltham.
On my return a mountain of emails which I have just finished working my way through. One gave the good news that the Holme Valley Traders Cooperative has raised over £100,000 of funding and will shortly open for business. Well done to all concerned!
You can be sure that if there is no other burning question on the doorstep people will mention dog shit! And so it is now. At both the last Area Committee and the Honley Neighbourhood Management Group this was a major topic of conversation. The impetus came from a decision by my Tory colleague Royston Rogers to campaign for stickers for people to put on their grey bins saying they were willing for people to dump dog poo bags in them. By the way the bags are available from his pet shop! I have asked for our Enviromental Protection service to advise on whether this is a sensible suggestion. The initial reaction from local people is - are you kidding?
Back to the drawing board! The uplaod of the picture did not work. Will try to sort it out. Meanwhile in the real world the Huddersfield Examiner has given top billing to the traffic scheme in Meltham. A major article and the primary editorial are very positive. Just to say that it will feature in our next ward Focus - on its way soon.
As I have posted before, Kirklees Council is at the forefront of improving the ways in which councillors can and should work. Today I filmed some video clips which will go in an e-learning package for council officers. It is about the role of councillors and officers and their inter-relationships. I talked about how I become a councillor, what were the challenges, how I got on with offices, and some of the recent campaign successes I have had. One of the latter was persuading Highways to resurface a road in my ward. For the first time I am including a photo in my blog - showing the road’s present conditon. Hope the technology works - and the road is repaired!
The snow has almost gone and so we can get back out on the doorstep - I was able to deliver two walks in Honley and Wilshaw this morning. I also managed to watch the Politics Show on the BBC which had a feature on the forthcoming general election on the Colne valley constituency. It was filmed before Christmas but was held up by ’snow’ stories. What was interesting were the settings of the separate candidate features. Only the Lib Dem Nicola Turner was filmed in an identifiable location in the constituency - the bus station in Holmfirth. The Conservative was in someone’s front room and the Labour candidate in a bar. Make of that what you will.
The current weather conditions are producing a mixed response from the public. Some emphasise the downside - the difficulty in getting around, the extra heating costs, the danger to old people - whilst others look on the bright side - the beautiful winter landscape, the sense of community, the re-invention of sledging. But what has been interesting from my position is that very view people have been contacting me about the council’s response. I expected a rash of complaints about lack of gritting, empty grit bins, schools being closed, and the like. There have been some - but not as many as I thought. In fact I have had almost as many comments about what a good job the council have done - keeping the main roads clear, making sure the buses were running. Perhaps a touch of the Dunkirk spirit.
