Area Committee Budget Meeting

I enjoyed this enormously on Friday night, indeed at this rate I might have to stand for re election. I have been banging on for years about the insane way we make spending decisions on this committee. Finally my and others concerns have had an effect.

The beautifully named "Inner North West Leeds" Area committee gets about £200k pa of Council money to spend on local priorities. In addition we receive about £400k of Capital funding for a three year period (due again in May). A million quid over three years will never change the world but we ought to be able to do some good locally and set a few strategic priorities.

However IMHO things have become a little sillyl over the last few years. Firstly the bidding process is dominated by bids from Central council departments. If you are lucky its with an inovative idea that needs funding. However in my experience its stuff they are already doing or couldn't be bothered to fund themselves. Thus we can pick up the tab for things that are really central functions and often work that would happen anyway. Of course internal Council bids breeze onto the agenda, often as a seperate item with aproffesional officer supplied to speak in favour.

Secondly every Community group in the area sees the pot as a mini Lottery fund. We receive vastly more bids than we can ever fund. Those groups that can afford full time staff tend to be more adept at pushing applications than those that don't. In addition many City wide groups that happen to have offices in the area apply, often IMHO hyping local work to make themselves more eligable.

With no criteria to work with every Area Committee meeting is dominated by funding decisons. Nobody wants to be the Councillor that "Cuts" funding to a worthy cause, particularly if they have a delegation in the audience. The end result is dozens and dozens of small grants which are impossible to monitor, have no coherent theme and always go to existing organisations at the expense of breaking new ground. These are given by bad tempered Councillors at the end of long meetings leading to emotional decisions that we often regret.

The answer? Well on Friday night 10 of the 12 Councillors for the area met as a "Seminar" with no public present and thrashed out a better way. It was interesting to see the varying arguments develop not on Party Political lines but according to geography and personality. I actually think we took some rather good decisions, including a measure of devolving the budget down to wards where possible as well as recommisioning a raft of successful projects in advance of the new budget round.

Over the next few posts I will try and show case some of these with the aim of spreading best practice. As I left the meeting though I was struck by one liberal conundrum . We have deliberately encouraged a very high level of public attendence at our Area Committees. However on Friday night by removing the "Gallery" for politicans to play to we got so much more done.....

35 Spring Bank Cresent

I often observe that the one thing that the Planning system doesn't allow you to do is actually plan anything. The row over 35 Spring Bank Cresent came to a head this week although not it now seems a conclusion. In my 7 years I must now have topped 4 figures in the number of planning applications I have had involvement with. I single this one out only because it lays bare the limitations of what democratically elected local representitives can do. But also how much worse the system would be with out us.

The facts I can set out - without being sued or sent to the Standards Board - are these. A few months ago 35 Spring Bank Cresent changed hands and joined the 70% of Headingleys housing stock that belongs to an absentee Landlord. Soon after a JCB tore up the back garden, the boundary fence was removed and replaced with a breeze block wall. Soon after that an application was submitted for a very large domestic extension. Through out this process the applicant has insisted that this is to be a family home for himself.

I can't verify the varying allegations that have been made and so won't repeat them here. However its a matter of public record that over the last few weeks enviromental health have been called out several times as have the Police.

What I can repeat is the evidence of my own eyes. I have met and spoken to many residents who are in genuine mental distress, at least one at breaking point. Of course at this point the usual flurry of offers to buy their properties have come. A small residential cul de sac with a healthy community feels its under seige.

Can I deal with the Elephant in the room head on. Yes, this is about Students. With " only " 50% of the houses on Spring Bank Cresent occupied by students it has one of the highest permanent residents ratios in Headingley. All the evidence suggests that once Buy-to- Let numbers go above 50% in a street then the rest tumble like dominoes. Not one person I have met on the street has a harsh word to say about the current student tennants. The issue is fear of what Landlords do to streets once they completely take over.

So to return to actual planning there is little we can do as I had the pleasure of explaining at Tuesdays public meeting. An owner can destroy his garden if he wishes to. Ppermitted development allows walls of a certain size. Its not a criminal offence to begin building work without planning permission and of course you can't refuse an extension just because you don't like the demographic that may or may not live there.

Or can you? Leeds has amended its UDP to include a " Area of Housing Mix" which should preclude further student developments in Leeds 6 and encourage purpose built accomodation nearer the city centre. Had this property been an existing rental one then we could have refused as it would be creating additional bed spaces and reduce the number of family suitable properties in the area.

However the applicant strongly assures everyone that he intends to live there himself.

So you have in the red corner a group of residents who feel there quality of life is being blighted by development that has no planning permission and fear that worse is to come. They demand to know why the Council won't step in and defend them. In the Yellow corner you have Councillors who have to explain the law as it stands. In the blue corner you have an applicant who says his reputation is being attacked. Finally in the black corner you have the "Council" which of course is a 101 seperate sections struggling and failing to pull together a multi agency response. Parts of those 101 sections are far from sympathetic and assume that its all Middle Class whinging.

So what do I do? I'm past the point where I play to the gallery on these cases. I try to be brutally honest with residents what is and isn't a valid planning objection. I try to show a bit of community leadership in making sure the best case possible was presented to the planning panel today. I'm arranging a community meeting with the police to see why they seem reluctant to investigate certain allegations. We will continue to pressure enforcement to monitor the activity in the garden.

Does this satisfy anyone? No, and if I lived there I wouldn't be either. The panel meeting today seemed to reflect the ambuity of the situation deferring the item for a site visit after quite a long discussion. For every statement about things being broadly acceptable in planning terms there was another expressing unease at what was clearly going on.

I have done my " job" of ensuring that residents get a less unfair hearing than they would otherwise have done. However the awkward truth is that who ever Headingley elects the legal frameworks around Buy- to- Let Landlordism are very weak. I can campaign for change and try and be honest about my own impotence but neither will bring much comfort to the neighbours of 35 Spring Bank Cresent.

Walking the Ward

My project for early 2007 is to walk up and down every street in Headingley Ward. I have many motivations for doing so and have always tried to make ad hoc patrols part of being a Councillor. What has proved very interesting though is the first question that everyone has asked me when I have mentioned the idea. " I didn't think you were up for election this year?".

Well I'm not! I should point out that Headingley is a compact, largely terraced and semi detached ward and so this project won't take me that long or is much of a sacrifice. However I will post about each section with a view to sparking some public debate. So much is changing in the area at the moment that perhaps a "State of the Nation" exercise wouldn't go a miss.

If I do have a "Holier than Thou" reason for doing it then its this. Systematically walking up and down with a clipboard always teaches you something about an area. After 7 years as a Councillor and 13 in the area as a resident you think you know it all. Communities will always be more than the statistics in a Council report and so a street by street survey has to be the starting place for any democratic conversation.

I hope any local readers will feel free to post in the comments section what they think.

Full Council

Todays was relatively short at 6 hours 20 minutes. It does stand out in my mind as one of the most bad tempered I have attended and one of the worst for quality of debate. However not having spoken myself I'm open to the charge of hypocrisy. I'm going to score it a "Coalition" win by 53 to 47 if only because the Labour group failed to deliver a knock out blow and really full Council meetings should be an oppositions play ground. That said I thought I noticed the first signs of fatigue in the body language of some on the Coalition benches. Governing is simply harder than Opposition.

There were flashes of real debate on the Councils Empty Homes strategy with both Judith Blake ( Lab, Middleton Park) and Ralph Pryke ( Lib Dem, Burmantofts and Richmond Hill) making excellent critiques of the Councils and Governments failings respectively. A number of Labour Councillors landed blows in an attempt to "reference back" the new Community Engagement strategy but as the Labour Leader seems to have voted for it at Executive Bboard it didn't really come off in debating terms. Numerious legitimate concerns about the Councils implimentation of HMO licencing in Leeds were completely obscured by a ham fisted attempt by Labour to describe the Councils actions to date as an "abject failure". A more nuianced approach might have drawn a bit of blood.

The debates on Post Office closures and Bus Reregulation powers were bad tempered and proceedural blood baths which bizzarely produced unanimous cross party resolutions in the end. Laws and Sausages?

However I couldn't help but feel a pall was cast over the entire meeting by the last truncated debate on a Muslim Cemetery for Leeds. I'm actually broadly supportive of the administrations policy but do question the presentational faracas that ensued. A delegation requesting a Muslim Burial site for the city had begun the Council meeting at about 2pm. A delegation of supporters of this idea had stayed for 6 hours in the public Gallery to hear the white paper debate on the same subject submitted by Cllr Mohammed Rafique ( Lab, Chapel Allerton). When it looked like this debate would fall foul of the guillotine Labour tried to suspend standing orders to give extra time. The administration refused in acrimonious scenes. When we did eventually have time to start this debate the administration then U turned and did grant extra time to hear proposition speeches after another proceedural wrangle. It would of course have just been quicker to have heard the whole thing uninterupted and a lot more dignified. The Labour group is just plain wrong to suggest that there is one view across the whole "Muslim Community" in Leeds and Cllr John Proctor was very brave to say so in public. However I can't help but worry that from a presentational point of view we looked like bickering school children.

And to conclude and show how often Cliches can be wrong the first and best speech of the day was by.... School Children. The opening delegation about wheel chair accessibility from a School in Garforth was moving, technically excellent and probably the only one all day that made anyone change there minds.

Unitary status for Cumbria? a Centralisation to far?

I would be facinated to hear what any Cumbrian Liberal Democrats think of this but as an ex pat I must confess to thinking that someone somewhere has gone bonkers. During my current visit "Home" to Whitehaven I have been following the press debate about Cumbria County Councils proposal for Unitary staus for the County. As is often the case New Labours one size fits all approach to local government is pressuring to end the current two tier system.

Now with half a million people, six Districts, one County Council, a National Park Authority and over 360 principal local authority Councillors, Cumbria does appear to be some what over governed. I've no doubt that signifigant rationalisations could be made and sitting on a Unitary myself I'm aware of the advantages.

However I just don't see how you get round the sheer size of the County which is entirely rural. With its mountanious nature "as the crow flies" short journeys can take hours. Can someone living on the West coast seriously be expected to be governed entirely from Carlisle or worse still Kendal? I understand that safeguards appear to have been built in , extra town councils, Area Committees etc but this will do little than allow people to discuss the flower festival and keep the historic roles of Mayors. I just don't see how you do anything other than centralise decision making. Of course the most powerful argument for some people will be the ambigious nature of the County in the first place. Although a historical geographical expression " Cumbria" is of course the controversial child of Edward Heaths 1974 local government reforms, merging the historic counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland and a big chunk of Lancashire. As some people still haven't got over that, how will a further power/assest grab we viewed?

I'm reminded of Churchills famous quote about Democracy being the worst form of Government apart from all the others. I can't help but feel that the current staus quo of two tier local government for the area is a similar sitaution.

I look forward to people who still live locally telling me why I am completely wrong!

The Starbucks Dilema

An excellent example of the Bermuda triangle that is Headingley politics, are the high levels of support that the Starbucks gets from local lefties. Some of my best plotting has been done in the Ootley road branch. It goes without saying that as a global McFranchise it is of course Evil. However it tends to get a local get out of (Ethical) jail free card because of the local cultural context.

Two things make me mention the issue today. First is the Guardian's piece mentioning the slightly orwellian facility to see your local starbucks density at www.starbucks.com. Follow the links to store locator. With only 7 branches Leeds clearly is ripe for redevelopment. The second is that the long running battle over 83a Otley road has finally been resolved and we seem set to get a cafe nero to challenge for Headingleys coffee crown.

The main reason that sham eco warrors like me enjoy the Headingley Starbucks is that its very good at what it does. Reliable opening hours with no term time fluctuations, fairtrade coffee, a community notice board, the opertunity to tip if they deserve it, even now coffee grounds for my allotment. Along with perhaps superfical commitments to local charities it offers a feel good haven from the drinking warehouse mono culture that dominates the rest of the suburb. My favourite memory is poping in one Sunday morning only to discover the then old Labour MP for Leeds North West, Harold Best sipping what looked like a Latte. Of course we couldn't bring our selves to actually speak to each other but we did occasionally glare at each other over the tops of our Observer's.

I would of course prefer a grungy, indie coffee shop. All the previous attempts haven't been open long enough to make an impact and have frequently sold over price instant coffee in plastic cups.

Perhaps as the Guardian points out today, in somewhere like San Francisco Starbucks "donughting" policy really does put Indie retailers to the sword. But to a ccffee virgin culture like Britain perhaps they are more pioneers than bucanners. Still lets hope that the rumours are true and the 83a Otley Road redevelopment is a Cafe Nero which will help keep everyone on there toes.

Pop Culture Ramblings 3

Spending 2 weeks back "Home" in Cumbria and thus with the family has ment I have had to digest 2 years worth of normal quantities of ITV 1. This is a double whammey. Apart from hours of badly acted, badly written soap opera you also have to endure the same poor actors singing badly as well. Last nights ITV new coverage of the latest British casulties in Iraq and Afghanistan made me wonder if state censorship had been introduced.

The real reason for my grumpiness of course was being reminded what an appaling intellectual snob I have turned into. Or have I? Despite the poor viewing figures I have been engrossed by the latest celebrity Big Brother. I work hard all day in serious jobs and have no problem with Mindless TV of an evening. For all its detractors BB in my view is well aware of of its banality and happily settles down to a PoMO sending up of its self. Seeing "Proper" celebrities like Ken Russell and Leo Sayer self destruct in the face of the artifically created Jade Goody is hilarious.

Which ultimately gives me the bigger cultural creeps? Z list celebrities self knowingly playinmg for another 15 minutes of fame or the Daily Mail - esque murder romp Trial and Retriburtion on ITV 1 last night. My mother thinks that BB is "Vulgar" and sign of British moral decline. Yet she will happily settle down to 2 hours of semi pornographic dramatisation of Murder. The graphic reenactment of the murder of a "perfect" middle class white girl in a leafy suburb is family viewing complete with its one dimensional characters and cliched plot devices. However Jermaine Jackson looking bewildered and being subtling brought down to size is a sign that the Visigoths are at the door.

My point isn't that BB isn't banal. It is. My point is that its a hell of a lot closer to knowing that of its self that ITV1 drama that belittles human trauma with sterotypical reenactments of tabloid crime fantasies. I know which i would rather have my hypothetical children watch.

Bah Humbug!

Black Tuesday

Today the festive season comes to a grinding halt. In fact not so much that as it smashes into a wall. The long period from Hallowe'en to New Years' Day has always been my favourite time of year. It includes my birthday and of the last few years has included the communities' Eid's and Diwali. An extended period of reflection about things past, light in the darkness and eventually looking to the future afresh.

The two events that stand out most are the Rememberence Service at Headingley War Memorial. Seeing the extreme age of some of the men made me realise how close we are to World War Two slipping from living memory. The pround chests baring medals surrounded by the detrius of an alcohol fuelled youth culture on a cold November morning.

The other is turning 34. I have applied both my political and theological training to finding a way in which 34 isn't MID thirties as opposed to EARLY thirties which 33 was. BuUt I have to face cold hard facts.

So today life begins again. Its freezing, I have no money, I have nothing in my diary till Easter and worse still its officially campaign season ( One third of Leeds City Council is up in May). I suspect tonights "This Life" special is going to kick off a year of 1997 nostalgia which will send thirty somethings like me over the edge. Try and bare with me if I share the midlife crisis with you.