Failing bus service is just the beginning of problems with council
AS A COMMUNITY action group spokesperson and NHW representative (of no political affiliation whatsoever), over the past few weeks I have been inundated with justifiable complaints from concerned elderly residents from ‘the Bird Estates,’ situated on the bus route via Falconers Ride.
Indeed, these residents are mainly elderly pensioners and the disabled, who rely on a local efficient bus service which at the moment is unfit for purpose!
At this juncture I must firstly highlight the latest political abomination where Netherton & South Crosland Villages are being taken out of the Colne Valley electoral area by ‘stealth’ public consultation!
Nonetheless we start with complaint no.1 – the horrendous Bird Estates bus service now forced upon us without any meaningful consultation or public notice whatsoever! Moreover, many like myself do not see any reason why First Group Bus cannot divert a 324 service ‘on the hour’ as the service is on an evening/weekends and would be at minimum cost!
Indeed, a reply from the bus company says it would mean altering their timetables and some disruption occurring. SO WHAT? Given the 324 to Meltham from Huddersfield is every 20 minutes, we are taking about one in three buses diverting and resolving the problem. But is this not why bus travel is an essential public service?
Complaint no.2 – School Hill.
After six years’ worth of broken promises/assurances by senior officers/highways council officials, ‘half a job’ has been done and Church Lane is still disgraceful.
Complaint no3 – derelict buildings at the former Town Hall, rumoured to be sold after years of dereliction. Yet Kirklees Council continue wasting public money on such high profile schemes as New St at £250,000 (highlighted in the Examiner on August 23, 2023) that many deem totally unacceptable to a cash-strapped near-bankrupt council.
The answer may be to impose an immediate ‘top-down’ Kirklees
Council restructuring programme, agree voluntary redundancy terms for the council workers affected; and decimate the number of councillors by at least 50% and those who are left made more accountable to their constituents! Why do we need three councillors per ward?
Meanwhile our local problems remain unresolved 10 years on; two councillors have recently resigned to become Independent and then the Labour Party ask us to elect a national Government with probably the same outcome.
Finally, there needs to be urgent change in this appalling waste of council tax resources extracted from the hard-working people of our (former) Colne Valley ward, with a 5% council tax increase approved for April 2024 to continue the Kirklees Council ‘gravy train’ that will eventually hit the public buffers, and in many people’s opinion the sooner the better!
Alan Knight, Netherton
Are we able to deliver plan?
THE Green Prosperity Plan (Letters,
February 17) aims to invest in cheap, clean energy via a publicly owned company and also create zero-carbon industries through a National Wealth Fund.
But, considering the UK’s ongoing problems regarding the provision of health services, education, housing, transport, and law & order, isn’t this new initiative equally likely to stir unease among customers and whoever pays for its expenditure? Are we actually that good at project management?
Sourpuss
No idea over immigration
I HAVE had enough of the income tax from my earnings being used to fund our own skiving work-shy, but to be paying for deadbeats coming illegally into our country from overseas is rubbing salt into the open wound.
Rishi has been foiled at every turn in his attempts to reduce these immigration numbers. However, if the prediction of a turn-over at the General Election does come about I would like to know what Starmer is going to do in regard to the number of people soaking money from the taxpayer? What is Starmer going to do to stop the trade in illegal immigration, and what is he going to do to reduce the number of legal migrants who are playing the system?
I shall make a prediction, Starmer will do nothing. Nothing will change.
Starmer speaks of working with the French! The French are not interested in working with the UK, this has been tried. Starmer, like a fish out of water, will be flip-flopping about cluelessly. Who will he blame then? The man has no plans other than to turn the UK into a thirdworld country.
Closer to home, why are the Labour administration of
Kirklees increasing some service charges, and at the same time reducing services, is this because of their accounting incompetency?
The Labour administration is now being accused of playing “fast and loose” with a public consultation over their proposed rise in car parking charges. A public notice published in the Huddersfield Examiner listed proposed increases car park by car park and street by street in Huddersfield, however, it makes no mention of any public consultation.
These rises in car parking fees could spell the death knell of the town centre and also have an adverse impact on other areas around Huddersfield.
The irony of this is that Labour were culpable for the misuse/loss of our money and they taken no accountability for their mismanagement of funds? And their answer to try and recoup these loses is to increase our Council Tax along with other service charges in the hope it gets them out of a hole which they created. This is typical Labour, and we still vote them into office? Just how dumb are we? Martin, Huddersfield
Strategy calls for renewables
FOR years, people have been saying that the electricity grid would fall
apart as more clean energy systems came online.
This has so far not happened, and climate change means increasingly severe weather remains the most likely cause of power outages.
Most people are unaware that the UK’s electricity demand from the grid has declined by 20% in the last 10 years. With prices for solar panels and supporting battery systems falling, home solar is seeing record sales which takes further pressure off the grid.
Given this, there is clearly slack in the system to allow for the immediate growth in electric vehicles and heat pumps. Grid capacity will need to grow, but we have time because it’ll happen slowly as most car sales are second hand and boilers last a long time.
Also, new grid connections to Europe and improving battery technologies, based on far more abundant minerals, will further support transition.
So why are we dragging our feet? Rishi Sunak said he was going to lift the effective ban on wind turbines in England. What he did wasn’t sufficient because new onshore wind remains harder to build than incinerators.
The outcome, they’re still not being built. If turbines had continued to be built, at the same rate as before the change in planning rules, it’s been calculated this would have reduced energy bills by about £180 a year per household.
We need a strategy, but we have a government too busy dealing with infighting to generate any plan that actually works, just a succession of unfulfilled promises.