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Tressell Blogwritten by Cllr. Peter Chowney
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May 2010:
May 28th: Reports of disturbances and serious anti-social behaviour on Halton Estate last night. The police were called, and the culprits are known and identified. Although the police attended promptly, local residents were not happy with their 'half-hearted' response. We shall be taking this up with the local PC and PCSOs. May 27th: Ore Valley Planning Special Interest Group this evening. Issues discussed for Tressell included the Broomgrove allotments site (where the contractor has ignored notices to comply with planning conditions) and the Ore Business Park, at Farley Bank, where a developer wants to build high density housing. Most local people appear to be opposed to this, as am I. May 25th: East Hastings Community Safety Special Interest group this morning. A few representatives from the local community there - for Tressell, there still seem to be problems with anti-social behaviour in Bembrook Road, but the police do seem to have this in hand. Impending ASBOs and evictions should hopefully sort it out ... May 22nd: Out canvassing in Ore, helping our candidate Michael Wincott (the council election there was postponed because of the death of Roy Tucker, the Conservative candidate). I was going round known Labour supporters, so an easy job - people seem enthusiastic about voting anyway. May 20th: Second part of the Council AGM in the evening, where we dealt with committee appointments and the policy programme for the year. We moved the adoption of the Labour Manifesto as policy (which had been my idea). In spite of that, it was all pretty amicable, as there's a lot we can all agree on - it's just that with labour in control we'll be rather more determined and assiduous in putting policy into practice. I started as I mean to go on - announcing that I intended to bring a report to the next Cabinet commencing the CPO of the pier. Pleased with that! May 19th: First part of the Council AGM in the morning, the 'mayormaking'. Kim Forward is the new mayor, and an excellent mayor she will be I believe, already dispensing with some of the pomp and robes of the previous incumbent (to the annoyance of some). Richard Stevens sided with the Tories to second their proposal for mayor, who had been last year's deputy mayor, saying that it didn't matter because it wasn't political - but it is of course, as the mayor has a casting vote at council meetings, and kept the Tories in office with that casting vote over the last two years! He was booed from the public gallery for it, which is unusual at mayormaking ... Anyway, all went according to plan, and we had to then sit through the rather tedious civic lunch that follows. A waste of public money in my view, I hope we can abolish it. What is they say about free lunches?! May 17th: Licensing committee meeting in the morning, looking at applications from The Carlisle and Poorboys cafe. Later, went to the opening of the House of Hastings, a shop that's been taken over by local arts groups as part of the 'meanwhile' lease scheme for empty shops. Very promising, lots of people there. May 15th: Went to the opening of the new playgrounds at West Hill and Seaside Road in the morning. Officers seemed to be worried that we'd all fight over who would do it, as we don't officially take on our new positions until the Council AGM. In the end, Maureen Charlesworth (outgoing mayor) did the opening, but it was very low key - not sure if anyone noticed us! May 14th: A meeting with Jeremy and representatives from Hastings Pier and White Rock trust in the morning, where we indicated that we intended to be much more positive towards their ambitions to take over the pier than the Tories had been. May 8th: Contacted in the morning by new council leader (Jeremy Birch) to ask if I wanted to be a Cabinet member, and to take on the portfolio for Regeneration, Planning and Communications. I accepted, of course! That's a big one, particularly with the Local Development Framework at a critical phase, it'll be an opportunity to influence the shape of Hastings for years to come. And of course, it'll be our one big chance to finally protect the Upper Ore Valley open space. May 7th: Woke up to the news that Michael Foster had lost the Hastings parliamentary seat, so Amber Rudd, the out-of-town posh Tory foxhunter, is to be our new MP. But at least the Tories didn't get an overall majority in parliament, so we'll be back soon. Michael Foster was an excellent MP, he did an enormous amount for the town, he'll be missed - I don't suppose that Amber Rudd will ever come anywhere near his achievements. In the afternoon, went to the Council election count. After not very long, it seemed increasingly likely that Labour would take control of the council. Which we did, taking Baird Ward from the Tories, and Castle & Old Hastings wards from the Liberal Democrats. So a day of mixed emotions - it'll be good to be back in control locally at least. May 6th: Election day. I was in Jay's house all day, running the committee rooms (ie where the Tressell Ward campaign is co-ordinated on election day). As we have an excellent new bit of election day software to create 'knocking up sheets' a lot of the tasks that helpers used to do are no longer needed - it's all automated. Still, I sent them all out to get the voters out as people turned up to help. At the end of the day, it looked pretty good in Tressell - relatively high turnout, and a fairly safe majority for Jay, it seems. Not going to the parliamentary count, so back home to bed! May 5th: Finished up the election campaign with door knocking on Farley Bank Estate. Pretty supportive there, dished out our newsletters, met a lot of friendly people. Tomorrow's the big day ...
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