The week that ended.....10 Aug '14

I guess the first thing to say was, and I know a few people have messaged me and said where was last week's "The week that ended... 3 Aug '14". Sorry it was mad last weekend so didn't get chance but I will cover that week in this post.

So the previous week say Labour try Big Brother to try and get opposition Cllrs like me, bless. they did this my allowing ONLY them to video the cllrs meeting and guess who the video record was pointing at? :-) Yeah you guess yours truly :-). Labour was hoping for a reaction I had been tipped off because they would not allow us to tape them. However we decided not to react and see what happened. The meeting was flat and nothing much said apart from Labour saying what a naughty boy I had been by exposing them. They really do need to learn that challenge will be oncoming from me and trying to intimidate me with pointing a video camera at me wouldn't matte to me. Why? I stand by everything I say and do!

Then at the back end of the previous week and into this week this Labour controlled Council pushed out a leaflet with some facts, but very little on it about housing in Standish. In the main it said it's all the Tory's fault. I wonder if these Labour lot play cards? Because when they are dealt their hand they have to manage it rather than just blaming the dealing for giving them a bad hand. The old saying if you can't stand the heat get out the kitchen.

But rather concerning is that they just lie and push out mis-information. In the letter/ leaflet they give a figure for housing in Standish. That is wrong. That figure is for house building in the core strategy elements and there are other development that are going on i Standish which makes the figure higher than what they say. I updated the total figure on my blog on 25th July 2014. Here is that link to see the total figure with planning applications. The information on here came from Wigan Council own website.

So that deals with the mis-information, ow for the lies. It says in the FAQ section, Has the Council discussed building on Ashfield? The answer no at no time. This makes me smile because later today I will publish the email trial between the developer and the Council where they start off with the idea, then arrange a meeting between the director of the planning and the developer. Rather then me trying to persuade you that the Council are yet again still lying on this matter check back on the blog and read the emails and you decide if the Council are right that they have never discussed building on Ashfield.

So why the change? Basically in my opinion the council head guys are all from outside Wigan. I mean the Director of the Planning lives over in South Yorkshire so when developers ask him about building on a field in Standish does he have the historic knowledge and significant of that area? No. And when yours truly kicked off about it. They should just come clean about it and if they have genuinely got it wrong to think about building on Ashfield say we got it wrong but we get the message loud and clear and we will now not ever build on Ashfield. Instead they say no it's all lies that we even  discussed it never mind met with developers. Don't forget to check back in the blog to see the proof that the Council met, discussed and agreed that in principle it was a good idea.

OK back to this week. Monday I attended the WW1 service at the cenotaph outside the Globe at 10.20pm. There was a lot of people turned out and after that we all went back to St Wilfrid's Church for another service there. Again the church was packed and I saw an old friend that was in hospital at the same time I was in back last year and it's good to see you are doing well Eddie.

Tuesday I attend Wigan Youth parliament. I had agreed, along with other Cllrs, to allow a young person from the group to shadow us so they can gain an award that they are doing and one element is to shadow a Cllr. The lucky or unlucky person, depending on how you want to look at it :-) , was a young lady called Alice. I told her when I do things I do it all in so I would let her know where and when i am and if she wants to attend she can. Man she is keen, which is great to see such enthusiastic young people about politics. Gives me some hope.

Wednesday I learnt that the second fire engine was off the watch a number of times this week which I was not happy with given that back in Feb I was told by HQ that it wouldn't be happening again. More on this later. I put something on my social network and Greater Manchester Fire service agreed to meet which i am grateful for. I met them later in the week and Alice attended. In the meeting it was discussed my concerns that only having one fire engine to cover from Ashton to Standish is not good enough for me. The fire service point of view it is because of the strikes that are being carried out. Yes I know there are strikes going on but I would have hoped that they could have brought a spare man, because that was all they were short for that second engine, from another area. When I asked this the response was why are people lives better in Standish than another area? Which is not what I was saying because previously Fire HQ had told me backin Feb that for the service to modernise they had to move fire engines and staff round so why not on this occasion? I can fully understand the difficulties that the fire service are going through, I can understand the fire crews problems but I do feel that there are internal politics between the staff and the management going on here which need resolving rather than having a stand off because how I see it is here we, the public are stuck in the middle, and we have a far greater risk of dying in a fire whilst the internal politics go on. I just hope that the two sides can see through the stand off and try and work things out because the sooner they do the risk of us dying in a fire will reduce and that is what we pay our taxes for.

Thursday I attended the Audit committee and I must say this is one of the better workings within the council . All pull together, regardless of party politics. during the meeting I proposed to introduce a new control into the Council's systems and this was agreed. Also I made some more suggestion that were also taken on board. As for other members the chair, Labour Cllr Sweeney did another great job of chairing the meeting. Also Labour Cllr Joel Haddley had a good meeting interjecting. See I can praise Labour too. Again I had Alice attend too. Hope she is finding them interesting.

Also this week the law has been changed to allow any, yes anyone, to video or record, tweet or post from Council meetings. So when the Labour Dictator gets the police to take me out like he did a couple of meeting s ago the tide has now turned and next council meeting I will have a big surprise for him. Smile for the cameras :-)

Surgery was quite this week so it was a good chance to explain to Alice where I am up to with Ashfield as the Village Green public hearing is being arranged as we speak.

Also this week i have been dealing with residents issue that matter to them, including a dangerous wall that is needed to be repaired quickly and some anti social behavior. this week too we had the Beat it team in so I will be going round to those area this week to have a look at those jobs.

Gee, just seen how much I have written for this week, well I will let you go and get a cuppa and put your feet up.