Nick Wallis has posted a comment on his blog about the Rise Carr article in the Echo yesterday - effectively blaming the Lib Dems for the state of the area because we have had councillors there for the last 20 years (note to Nick: you had a Labour Councillor there from 2003 to 2007).
Of course, the important thing is who controls the purse strings: and that's the Labour Party. That's why huge amounts get spent on the big Labour-voting estates and Rise Carr gets ignored. A former Labour Councillor said to me last year, "It's no good asking for money to be spent in North Road: it'll always be at the back of the queue. The Labour leadership see it as a Lib Dem ward and therefore don't want to spend money there." Of course, I'm sure that isn't true, but then I'm just an innocent abroad.
There is no estate office, no tenants' association, no community centre or facilities, no urgency to get important repairs and landscaping done. This issue is long-standing. Repairs and improvements have been asked for for many years, but now the residents are fed up with waiting. The fault lies with the political leadership in the Council, for whom Rise Carr has no importance.
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3 comments:
Cllr Toad looky likey asked "We've got the MUGA in Whinfield, and there's the Dolphin and Eastbourne Centres, but what else would help?"
How about resign and let somebody who cares actually listen to what residents want!
The comments on Nick's blog tonight are a real eye-opener. If nothing else, it shows that even those of us (like me and Nick) who have teenage kids, don't listen enough to what they're really saying to us. I think you can safely assume that the outburst on Nick's blog is going to get noticed.
You're right, Mike. I'm not going to pretend black's white and that our youth provision is all it could be - indeed we said as much in our manifesto - and so hence the open question about where we go from here.
It remains the case that overwhelmingly residents in Haughton East and West (from the calls Chris and I have been taking) are very happy that the Council has acted as it has regarding Crow's Fair.
I hope, however, that we can use the outburst of feeling from young people around Darlington constructively to see where we go from here.
Now off to catch some flies....
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