YOUR PICTURE OF THE DAY
Willows are showing their spring leaves and buds, looking towards Ganny Lock, Brighouse by Julia Tum
Calderdale does not need a surplus of new homes, we need to protect the homes and lives of the people who live in Calderdale.
The council has not allocated land in a way that takes the Climate Emergency into consideration.
We need more housing allocated around the main transport hubs, because we need to encourage the use of public transport and offset the negative impact that the plan will have on traffic, congestion and air quality.
We do not need new homes out in the countryside, which will have the worst impact on air quality.
The council should be minimising the release of Green belt land, not finding contentious ways of releasing more and more, despite the harmful consequences.
At the Flood Scrutiny Panel on March 3, 2020 Councillor Jane Scullion stated that Calderdale Council Planning Officers were appeasing landowners and choosing not to build on the brownfield sites that are available in Calderdale because there is too much work involved (this meeting was recorded) – this is contrary to National Planning Policy Framework.
The council should withdraw the plan and do the right thing for the people of Calderdale, given the astronomically high number of objections to this plan.
We need a plan that works for the people of Calderdale.
We’re not asking for much, just a bit of democracy.
Councillor James Baker, Warley Ward
IT was shocking to read the report into the five deaths of homeless men on the streets of Calderdale.
Housing and homelessness is an issue that our Labour run authority has failed to get to grips with.
Across Calderdale many people struggle waiting on housing lists to get a home.
Others live in damp homes that some Housing Associations are failing to bring up to standard.
Meanwhile, West Yorkshire has the highest number of prosecutions under the ‘Dickensian Vagrancy Act’.
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran is leading cross-party efforts in Parliament to repeal the 1824 Vagrancy Act.
As national charity Homeless Link says criminalising the homeless does not address the root causes of their problems.
This year Labour Party election leaflets state their aim is to ‘reduce inequality’.
They are failing homeless people who face some of the biggest inequalities.
They are failing people living in damp social housing, and they are failing all the people who live their lives without housing security.
Whilst the housing crisis is a national problem our Labour run authority ranks in the lowest 15th in the entire country for the number of new homes being built.
The housing strategy ran out in 2017 and Councillor Tim Swift’s Cabinet has been slow to get to grips with the problem.
This is despite plenty of
We’re not asking for much, just a bit of democracy
N DUCKWORTH