The week ending......26 May 2013.

Busy week as always. Where to start? Well planning is always a busy area that I am involved with, in a big way, at the moment, so let me start there.

Planning

The Save Standish campaign had a huge week this week when we hit our £2000 target for the barrister fee. This is for his opinion on how the consultation has been handled, the outcome and process and what we can do to try and stop this area. We hope to hear back in a week or two with his comments. I would like to say  a big thank you to all those that have contributed and all those that have been out door to door asking for donations, not an easy task at the best of times.

Also Himor, the owners of Bradley Hall Trading Estate have put in a planning application for Barrowcroft wood. area. You can see their plans here. This is yet another housing estate, which is not welcome in Standish. That now brings in the 4th big planning applications for Standish and no doubt more will follow as the wolf's come in. I have called all four applications in to go before the planning committee.

The first application for one of the Core Strategy sites, Old Pepper Lane, has now been asked for some more details as they have not submitted some important documents.

Council Meeting

This week saw the first Council meeting of our new year, the Council's year runs from May to May. This is because elections are held the first week of May and then you would need to vote who is going on to which committees etc. I have now secured more seats on some of the committees, including places and the new health committee.

The Council meetings are always interesting because of things that happen. This meeting was particular interesting because Labour Cllr Emma McGurring, who also represents Standish, hit out at Labour saying they are messing her about and will not allow her on any committees what so ever. I guess they are trying to force her to leave but I don't think this will happen. Whether she leaves or not she is promising to reveal some dark secrets, which if true will blow the lid of some issues. I wait to see if she does reveal the information and how Labour and the Council respond.

Street Scene Litter

Residents have made me more aware of street Scene litter. The kind of things they are talking about are Estate Agents signs and fly posting.

Whilst it is quite usual to have sign outside your house if you are selling it is not right when the estate agents are placing their signs streets away tied to street posts. With that in mind I have had them removed and if they persist then the Council will not only remove these fines but fine the estate agents and developers that out their signs on the Council's property without permission. Hopefully they won't do this again.

20mph zones

The Council are looking to make all the streets in Standish, with the exception the main A roads, 20mph. I have objected to Old Pepper Lane and Pepper Lane becoming 20mph. The Council have now agreed that it would be inappropriate to do this and have now taken them of the list to become 20mph. I have asked them to look at Avondale Street, except near the primary school at school times, and a couple more roads.

Whilst I agree that some rat runs should have 20 mph I do not believe that most do not need to become 20mph and the Council tell me that if a road has an average 24mph or higher then they should not become 20mph. If this is the case why should make roads with average speeds of 23mph or lower 20mph? It seems that this is a lot of expense and trouble for 3 mph.

Time off

So with a bank holiday upon us I hope you all have a great weekend. For me this has meant for a BBQ with friends today and I had the great pleasure of watching Meat Loaf last night for his very last concert. It was amazing. But one thing I liked was when he sang Heaven can wait and dedicated it to Lee Rigby, the off duty soldier, who was killed. I would love for him to re-release this and the funds go to help the heroes cause. It was a horrible and senseless murder. My thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

The weather is looking OK for the morning and if this is the case I might try and sneak a game of golf in and then in the afternoon I am starting to prepare for next week.

Next Week

I am helping a number of residents with some small issues and I will be talking at the planning committee on Tuesday against a small development off Bradley Lane.