The Voice of Standish is the Residents.

There has been much talk about Standish Voice's plans to turn the Rec on Southlands Ave into a Car Park. Local residents on that estate and others in Standish are concerned and oppose these plans strongly.

Last Tuesday Standish Voice had their meeting and lots of residents from Standish attended to oppose their proposal of turning the Rec into a Car Park. What also happened was we learnt a lot more.

The meeting was chaired by Gill Foster, who did a decent job of chairing the meeting.

As well as opposing their proposal, residents asked a number of questions. The first one that caught our attention was the fact that residents said that the Drawing was wrong and the Car Park was too small for what was being proposed. Standish Voice revealed that it was actually Wigan Council's drawings and it was ONLY indicative. Interesting!

Then it came clear that Standish Voice had been having secret meetings with Wigan Council on this matter. What we must remember was last June (2016) it was the Standish Independents that exposed this and said that someone had been knocking on a few doors asking residents about their thoughts. After speaking with a few their did not ask any more - as the reaction was clear. Here is that story from June 2016.

Residents asked about the number of people that had asked for this and SV (Standish Voice) said that just over 500 people had said in their survey that Car Parking was an issue. Now SV neighbour area that they chose has over 15,000 people.That's just over 3% of people thought parking was an issue but many did not ask for the Rec to be a Car Park but it has become clear that SV are manipulating that data for their own end.

To be fair I think most people would agree, if they were asked, that car parking is an issue but not their top issue. In that I think we can all agree housing is. But the second issue is traffic and like residents said, if there was a car park then that brings more traffic and unless the Council comes forward with a plan on that matter then a car park will just make things worse.

Also I raised the issue that the consultation online was flawed and that it could be manipulated and people cheat. Paul Ogden, the founder, of Standish Voice said this was the case and they knew about that. If that is true why run a consultation that they knew had flaws? Unless they knew and wanted to use this to make sure that they could do it so the responses reflected what they wanted? The flaws that I am discussing is that people from around the world can vote, in fact some one in South Africa has voted they have said. Another flaw is that you can vote a number of times. Paul Ogden of SV said this was not the case as the IP address would be flagged. An IP address is a unique internet number from your internet connection. A resident rightly said that if this was the case then all those that may go to the Library would not count as 30 people could use that PC and it would only show 1 IP address. As you can see this process was either not well thought out or was well thought out and there to be manipulated for their own ends.

SV could not agree if there is or isn't a covenant on the land and I can tell you that there is. I will scan this in over the next few days. As you can see the residents are not taking this and are determined to fight this and fight they will!

Come back and see more as this fight goes on. I believe that both Wigan Council and Standish Voice should stop this idea and pull this now. The question is will they?

Standish Voice and the hidden agenda

Many residents will have heard about a group called Standish Voice. Many residents will have seen the Xmas market that they organised and also this neighbourhood plan. More recently more people have heard their stupid and ridiculous plan at turning the Rec in Southlands Ave into a Car Park.

They claim to be the voice of Standish People but are they?

What many people don't realise is that this group was started by a guy called Paul Ogden. No problem there so far. However, Paul had never been interested in helping save Standish from all the housing developments in Standish that had been proposed - his choice. However, as soon as a Link Rd was proposed to come out at the side of his house and this would then effect him - he started Stop Almond Brook Link Rd group. There he led a campaign to stop the rd and when that was not going to happen he wanted it to come out at Ludlow Street, away from his house. Not very neighbourly.

Paul is also a strong Labour supporter and he wants a Labour Cllr in Standish. Nothing wrong with his democratic right but there is an infamous document that was left on a printer in the Town Hall where it said Labour's strategy to win seats is to infiltrate and start residents groups. Then never call the Council and agree with them.

Now here we have Paul who start Standish Voice which shouldn't be allowed to be called that as it is certainly not the voice of Standish. In fact Standish Voice always agrees with the Council in fact they even support Wigan Council in all these houses that we are getting. That's right they agree with all these houses. They don't stop there, this Neighbourhood plan that they are talking about, which was first muted by the convicted Labour Cllr Emma McGurrin, will have more land for houses for Standish. They fail to mention that!

He also claims that this neighbourhood status they have will stop houses being stopped in Standish. Guess what they haven't stopped a one and still support the Council's plan for all these houses.

So this so called residents group is nothing more than a Labour Council mouth piece. That's why they agree with the Council to have more houses for Standish - FACT! they want to get rid of the Rec for a Car Park - FACT!

So when they say look at us we are doing this and that ask yourself are they doing it for Standish or for Paul's hidden agenda?

All residents group in my opinion should be non political and Standish Voice is sure as hell not that. Residents that run non-political residents group should get the support of the local Cllrs but local Cllrs or wanna be's should not run them either just like Labour orders their supporters to do.

Covenant Rolled Out

Yesterday after the news that Standish Voice has secretly plotting with the Labour Friends in the Council to turn the Rec on Southlands Ave into a Car Park Standish Independents sprung into action to stop this. We said that there was a covenant on and Standish Voice said this wasn't true! Wrong!

Here is a picture of both Cllr Debbie and George Fairhurst with the deeds and covenant at the rec today. Before and after they spoke with residents on the estate who are not only backing them to stop this ridiculous plan but agree to help.

Residents are furious at this Unelected Labour Quango. One thing is for sure the momentum is growing to stop Standish Voice blackmail.

Standish Independents Cllrs fight the proposal to turn the Rec into a Car Park

So today we learnt that Standish Voice want to turn one of the last pieces of Green Spaces into a Car Park. These are the people that want to say they are the voice of Standish Residents - which is false and here is another reason why.

Their idea is not only ridiculous and against what the people of Standish want but also is against the wishes of the person that gifted the land to Standish.

Standish Independents Cllrs Debbie and George Fairhurst have been straight on the case and they now have a hard copy of the Covenant that exists on the land. Firstly it was not gifted to be used for a car park. So Standish Voice and their Tory mate can get that idea out of their head.

Both Cllr Debbie and George Fairhurst are representing the views of the Standish Residents again and have started the fight against this idea.

Cllr George Fairhurst said, " This land should be used for the children of Stadish. It is disgusting that the Council have left to go and it is not up to Football leagues standards. Even though it is not used for formal games now it is still widely used for informal use."

Cllr Debbie Fairhurst added, " Given the comments have made to me it is crystal clear that they do not want this area to be turned into a Car Park. I know both me and George will battle to keep it from being concreted over and we will ALWAYS represent the people of Standish."

SAVE THE REC

Last Yr the Tory candidate in the local election said he wanted a car park in Standish, something that many people had discussed but we all know there is no room. We then learnt that the Tory Candidate wanted to turn the Rec into a car park - he said that wasn't true and it was us that wanted as a car park.

Well here we are less than a year after and him and Standish Voice are wanting to turn the Rec into a Car Park. They say it would not have an impact on traffic on Green Lane and Southlands- but we all know that not to be true. The people of Standish know that it was the Tory who was supporting this scheme and we will not!

The Standish Independents will fight tooth and nail to keep the Rec as the Rec and we have always said this. We have lost too much green spaces. Keep coming back for more details on how we need to stick together and say to Standish Voice and the Tory - HANDS OFF OUR PARK!!!.

SAVE THE REC  

Get rid of the House of Lords and here's why.............

We all know that we elect our MP's for the House of Commons but the House of Lords is another beast altogether. These people are un-elected and costing the tax payers more than £100 Million each and every year.

It has been a long discussion whether this un-elected quango should stay or be replaced with something else. However, this week this un-elected quango has voted down the Government's Bill on Brexit. The reason - because they are worried about EU citizens in the UK after we have left the EU. What? Are these people mad? They should be more concerned about the people of the UK and their wishes first. For me this demonstrates that now is the time that this quango should go. Because of the cost? Plays a part. But more than that they do not recognise, defend or carry out the wishes of the British People. Therefore they have lived past their use by far and now is the time to close them down.

Close it down but what would replace it another discussion for another time but the first discussion is now close it down and get rid.

Pay back the Money - Hypocrites

Over the years I have accused both the Labour lot and the Council officers hierarchy of being being biased. Of course the lying lot have always denied this. However yet more proof has come out this week.

During the most important meeting of the year for Council, budget we have seen Labour Cllrs use their council ipads to watch Liverpool match's but this weeks' budget yet another Labour Cllr took to tweet consistently.

Now back in 2014 because Labour Leader said in a normal meeting that 99.9% of people like the council and Tweeted that he should come to Standish then, that caused the Chief Executive to order an officer of the Council to call the Police. Wigan Police said they had no one except some PCO's so they sent them. I refused to go. Then another call was put into the Police get a proper bobby down here. Wigan Police No one is available ( probably because they didn't want to get involved and waste tax payers money. So then another call was put into GMP HQ and then an officer was sent racing over from Eccles, yes Eccles blues and Twos going.. After discussion with all the other opposition we collectively walked out.

One person asked how did they know I was tweeted? Simple the Chief Executive of the Council got a junior officer to sit at the back of the room and me tweeting, what a waste. When i tweeted this little girl ran over to her waving her arms and told the Chief executive - who in turned got the Mayor to stop the meeting.

Now Wigan wasted just short of £5,000 on that matter but the council said that was the rules - although they were not. But back to this weeks budget meeting Labour Cllr Mike McLoughlin - who has said in a previous meeting that I was in, " when do we get our food?" stroking is stomach - was tweeting throughout the meeting. Not just one tweet like mine but a number. When questioned by the local press he said that the rules had been relaxed. Wrong!!! The press attend the meetings and they know this not to be the case. So yet another lie. Here is the story in the local press 

So here's what I will be saying when I write to the Council that I should get a public apology and the Chief Executive and Labour Leader should pay the full cost of calling the Police on my occasions. Don't worry the Chief executive is on over £200,000 a year so she would be able to afford it.Then moving forward all Cllrs should be treated the same. Will this happen? Don't bet on it we are taking about Dictators here!