Happy New Year

Can I take this opportunity of wish you all a Happy New Year.

2014 was an interesting year for me. It started with me trying to recover from a huge 6 operation that I had at the end of 2013. That recovery has taken and is still taking longer than what I hoped for but he's hoping that I can resolve it in 2015.

On the old political front 2014 was the year of lies and smear. It was obvious to all that Labour and their puppets at the Council just didn't like the politics that i do - open and transparent. I think most realised that when on my 40th  Birthday I attended a Full Council meeting and sent a tweet out to my followers during the meeting, which said that the Labour leader just said 99.9% of people support the council - he better come to Standish because 99.9% of people don't! In the strangest and most bizarre episode the Chief Executive of the Council called the Police to take me out of the Chamber. An officer was sent from Manchester with blue's and Two's going. What a complete waste of money. More importantly what ta slap in the face to an open transparent democracy and it just demonstrated that Wigan is run like a dictatorship. The episode was even mentioned in the houses of commons and me highlighting this helped change the law to make it possible to video meetings as well as tweet. The Daily Mail summed Wigan Council up nicely comparing it to North Korea. I wonder who they thought Kim Jong-un is in Wigan :-)

Free food for Cllrs scrapped
Also after years of campaigning Wigan Council scrapped, in the main, free food and drinks for Cllrs. Previously this had been costing a huge £70,000 a year, which was ridiculous.

Johnny Depp and George Formby
Years ago I championed the George Formby Society cause of getting George Formby Statue in Wigan. Labour are their leader fought hard to stop this ever happening. But if you have seen the statute in the Grand Arcade you will see it there and it happened. 2014 it was reported that Johnny Depp did a quick secret visit to the statue and Wigan because he is researching George because he is looking to do a film about him. Labour Leader called George a Cloth cap idiot in a Full Council meeting.I wonder if he will stick to his views now?

Save Standish
Rolling on from 2013 was the Save Stansish were after fighting the proposal of 2500 in Standish Labour dominated Council announced that we would get 1000, although it is 1200 already and climbing. Wigan Council said they would look at the traffic issue and to date they have allowed the houses but no proposal nor ideas have come forward, apart from a link round that got huge opposition that the Council wouldn't call a link Rd but just a normal estate rd, which to you and me means a rat run. And why does the Council want to have this rd? Because they own some land that it will pass through and they can charge the developers a reported £10m for the sale of the land to them. Will Standish see that money? Not a penny!

Save Ashfield 
The big and main issue that we finish the year on is Saving Ashfield. It was announced later in 2014, by the inspector that is overseeing my application for a Village Green, that there will be a public inquiry for Ashfield - probably at the end of April 2015. If we this application then Ashfield will be safe for the generations to come to enjoy, just like the generations before them.

At the end of the year we had two great Wigan Rugby legends publically support the campaign and back the public inquiry. These Shaun Wane (Wigan Warriors manager) and Shaun Edwards ( Wales RU Coach- Defense).

These are great supports and backers to the campaign and we thank them both for their support

Summary
2014 was not a good year for me in terms of Democracy or Standish from the council's perspective but hopefully in 2015 I can hopefully be optimistic. Why? The Labour Leader likes the greasy politic career pole that he climbs so well and it is rumored that he will be leaving his seat and running the temp mayor of Greater Manchester. I know some may question why I describe some of these people like I do. To be honest people have asked me when they have met me. The answer. I like to be straight talking and fair. I hate underhanded people. If someone has an issue with someone you can just say it you don't have to go to underhanded backstabbing tactics that some of these people do. Another question are all Labour Cllrs bad? No not at all, there are some with great quality's it is a shame that their Labour Leader does not allow them to be more helpful in decisions, if they were it might be a better Council. Obviously I have met with the Leader on numerous times and to me when men shake hands on a deal they stick to it they don't go back on their word.

It is interesting for viewers of the Council to see that Standish is the only Ward not to have a Labour Cllr (mind you after the last one that was voted out in 2014 - who is soon to be sentenced for expenses offenses you can see why). This obviously annoys Labour greatly but it reminds me of the great 3 Standish Independents Cllrs that we have and the support and work we do with the community of Standish. We have been asked by others around the borough of Wigan if we can help them emulate the huge success that we have in Standish, and we will as this will allow more votes back for Standish when al the Cllrs vote on issues.

So for me 2015 is about Hope - Integrity - Working together and Saving Ashfield !