Graham Jones
Hyndburn MP
HYNDBURN is great place. It is my home and I’ll do whatever I can to make it better. I have spoken out a lot recently in Parliament and one issue, the M65 extension is getting a lot of traction now. A big thanks to Councillor Noordad Aziz for his help.
One of the challenges we face is ourselves. To defeat the moaners who constantly try to run the area down, particularly Accrington. The area has its issues but only positivity will make us – including our children – better off. We need community champions, not champion whingers.
It is worth noting that your councillors are happy to answer questions and do so at many public meetings. Calling or emailing your local councillor is quite easy. I find most of them very helpful.
This has come up partly because of the differing views on the trees outside the Market Hall and on the new ‘Pals’ square. There needed to be a much better debate.
Hyndburn Council loves trees and has planted more than any other authority in Lancashire since Labour came to power in 2011, including replanting a natural woodland. It has a great record on the environment including our parks, sustainability and renewable energy too.
It is good that there is debate about the two tall trees outside the Market Hall but this should have happened a long time ago.
This issue was being discussed four years ago:
On February 6, 2013, the Accrington Observer reported the bid for the Market Hall ‘Pals’ square was turned down by the Heritage Lottery. Four months later a re-submitted bid, which I supported and which highlighted how Hyndburn was being shortchanged by the Lottery, was accepted. The Lottery agreed in May 2013 to fund the Pals square to the tune of £1.9million. There have been multiple press reports and public meetings in those four years. Big pictures of a treeless ‘Pals’ square were printed by the Accrington Observer last summer.
The council has tried to tackle the boarded up town centre legacy they inherited in 2011. In 2012, Hyndburn’s Labour Council was turned down by the Tory Government with a bid for £10,000 for shop fronts.
Four years later, Tory councillors have now decided they don’t want the ‘Pals’ square. One also has to ask why would you hand back £1.9million of Heritage Lottery funding (it cannot be used for anything else) and without an alternate plan and with a council that has no money of its own?
I am proud of Labour councillors. With little money or resources, they wanted to tackle a declining town centre, have avoided the ‘fancy design’ mistakes of previous councils and have made what was a difficult decision.
Brexit continues to dominate Westminster and I voted to trigger Article 50 and leave the European Union. Disentangling ourselves is a complex affair and so is taking a lot of Parliamentary time. In two years’ time we hopefully will get a trade deal.
During the next three weeks you are being asked if you want to keep Hyndburn together as Parliamentary seat. The Government are redrawing boundaries. You can have a say in March and it is important you do as there are two options.
The Conservative option is to split Hyndburn in half, part going into the Ribble Valley, part going into Burnley. The second option is the Boundary Commission which is to keep Hyndburn together. Go to the Boundary Commission website to have your say.
It is worth noting Accrington (and latterly Hyndburn) has had an MP since 1885 from the Great Redistribution of Seats Acts in response to the demands of the working classes to be represented. It is a place that means everything to me.