Archive for September, 2009

 6th December 2009

First published on 17th September 2009, this account of the Tories’ approach to Labour’s Sure Start is well worth another look.  Just lately Wallasey Tories seem forced grudgingly to make  favourable sounds about Sure Start.  Can it be that they realise just how popular it is?  Are they now trying desperately to distance themselves from the attacks on Sure Start they would be bound to implement if Cameron’s Shadow Cabinet (which includes 14 millionaires) were ever able to get their hands on it?

 Angela, centre, supported the Sure Start ‘Party in the Park’ today, held to celebrate national Sure Start Week.  Sure Start is, after all, a proud achievement of the Labour Government.

So what exactly is ‘Sure Start’? 

Severely under threat, if ever the Tories were to regain power, it’s your Labour Government’s nationwide system of ‘one stop shops’ for parents with children under five.  The Sure Start Centres provide childcare, healthcare, parenting skills, family support and ’get back to work’ training opportunities.

Strangely, considering their Party’s threat to the future of Sure Start, some local Tory councillors turned up for a while.  They were joined by turncoat Denis Knowles who was never elected as a Tory but who can generally now be seen tagging onto Leah Fraser.    

We wonder whether our readers might just think that a tad hypocritical considering that their Party, led by David Cameron, is commited to taking £200million each year from Sure Start, to be spent elsewhere. (Do let us know what you think of that.)

 THE TORY PLAN IS EQUIVALENT TO CLOSING ONE IN EVERY FIVE SURE START CENTRES.

In other words closing a massive chunk of Sure Start facilities when families need them most. 

And on top of this they’ve refused to exempt Sure Start from their planned cuts in future.   But  the public are entitled to ask Labour turncoat Knowles and his new friend, Liscard’s Cllr Fraser,  

“Do you support your Tory party’s declared intentions – to cut £200m a year from Sure Start? 

Turning up for photo-snaps may give an impression of support for Sure Start, so let’s invite them to openly declare that they disagree with their Party’s policy of massive cuts in Labour’s Sure Start provision.

It is said that Man should not live by politics alone.   After 20 years away from the game I’ve just been ‘tried out’ and accepted by a local darts team.  It’s an excellent way to visit and talk to many people in lots of localities, and it’s another way to keep very much in touch with what’s being talked about in the real world.

But nothing’s quite like knocking doors.

This week John and I have been door knocking with our Wallasey Labour MP, Angela Eagle. 

The response is excellent; Angela has built up a tremendous following with her relentless work for constituents since she won Wallasey from the Tories for Labour.  People on the doorstep still vividly recall the years of national neglect and decline under Tory governments.

Later we will be counting and analysing more of the responses to our survey of views in the Tate Triangle locality.

 Last night I attended a meeting of the Council’s ‘Excellence overview scrutiny committee’ – what a pleasant experience to have Conservative and Liberal Councillors all pulling together with Labour, without the sort of petty political point scoring we are used to from some more local Tory councillors. 

Today I will be visiting a local business where the proprietor has asked for some advice; then on to visit a couple who are hard pressed by losing their home and need to be guided towards the application process for re-housing with one of the housing associations.  Then onto meet a couple living in one of the high rises that is due for demolition as they are not yet re-housed. 

Between times I will be delivering some new charity boxes to two more shops where the proprietors have agreed to support one of Wirral’s foremost good causes; then on to meet a resident who tells me his alley gate has been damaged.

At home we will be finishing some packing as my daughter Eleri needs to be driven down to Swansea University where she is starting the second year of her English degree.  Back on Sunday night.

Labour’s Angela Eagle, our Wallasey MP, has intervened to support Tate Triangle residents.

We can reveal that Angela has for some time been in correspondence at the highest level of Tate & Lyle management, nationally, on the vexed question of air quality in the residential area above Limekilne Lane, known locally as the Tate Triangle. 

Meanwhile Adrian and John can report on the local situation.

A questionnaire to residents has produced some clear interim results.  After years of appalling smells, some of which Tate & Lyle managers have readily admitted were attributable to activity on their site, there had been hopes that the managers would agree to meet residents collectively to hear direct from them what their concerns were; to listen to the people, and give hope of improvement. But the (local) managers declined, offering instead to provide ‘guided tours’ of the works for small groups of ‘not more than six’.  Guided tours for small numbers are not at all unwelcome, but there is widespread doubt that they would be relevant to the difficulty residents face.  What residents called for was an opportunity to give first hand accounts to the managers in an open meeting where all can participate.

Nobody has suggested that the company is the only source of the ‘miasma’ – quite the opposite. Very much to their credit Tate & Lyle managers have ’put their hands up’, to use their own term, and admitted that a number of unpleasant incidents were, indeed, attributable to activity at the works.  But they insist there are other sources, too, and they are quite understandably anxious that not all the smells should be attributed to one source.   That is not in question; we fully agree.  

It would certainly be of no benefit to anybody if one company were to be made a scapegoat for smells from a number of unrelated sources.  Quite apart from its obvious unfairness that could result in other sources being overlooked and not being traced.  But, for the residents, the issue is perfectly clear: they don’t want to know where the smells aren’t  coming from, they want to know where they are coming from so that the sources, whatever they are, can be dealt with.

• 95.5% of residents returning the questionnaire said they would not volunteer to go on ‘guided tours’ of six or fewer. 
• 90.5% said they still wanted an open meeting with managers. 
• Over 95% said they wanted ‘practical solutions’ to minimise the smells. 
• 85% said they do not believe that many of the smells come from other sources.
• 89% said that the system of phoning to report smells was not effective.

But – a word of caution – however clearly and robustly these views may be expressed numerically they remain subjective, even if they are attributed to a great majority.  What comes across in conversation with residents time and again is:

“Why can’t there be some independent scientific monitoring of the area to find out the truth?”

Objective evidence is what residents want so that real measures can be taken to eradicate the worst of the smells.  Some comments from residents are so strongly phrased that we hesitate to publish them; but reproduced below are just a few of the (more moderate), unabridged, comments just as they were written:

“We have lived here in ………………… for 40 years.  The smell is so disgusting not only in the day but at night when your in bed it makes us feelsick in all the years we’ve lived here when the Docks were busy never ever has there been a smell like this windows have to be closed cant put washing out.”

“The smells do not do anything for the area.  I own my own house and it is not the best thing if I wanted to sell.  The smells hang around for days, they make you feel sick you can’t open windows or sit outside on a nice day.  They do not have to live with the smells.  It was in the paper the other day about smells in Heswall I think, but we have had this for years it needs to be sorted out and I want to no what - – - -  – - – - -  are going to do about it.”

“Can not have windows open when smells are around, what ever it is causing the smells has given me stuffy nose and chest problems that I did not have when I moved here from ……………………. “

“The smell makes you sick you can’t sit in the garden or have you windows open or door it goes through the house you have to bring your washing in when the smell is arround it give you headaks.”

“The smells seem to be very fishy smells.  They also seem to come on a regular time of the month.  When it is raining or very hot weather, the smells are very bad and come into my home.  I think this is an important isue, and one the should be dealt with imedieatly.  I’m not sure if all of the smells are from Tate & Lyle being that they are very fishy smell.”

“I cannot open my windows because the smell is nauseating.  The smell lingers, I’d like to know if there is a danger to health, am I breathing in chemicals.”

“The smell is very strong it makes you sick and gives you headaches.  You have to close all your windows and doors in the summer days.  And bring your washing in.”

This is an interim analysis; more questionnaire returns are coming in.  These will be added to the final figures althoughwe do not imagine that there will be much variance from views so overwhelming as have been received already.

Watch this space for further developments.