My name is Paul Richardson and today I am pleased to announce that I will be standing in these Elections representing the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)
MY MANIFESTO
This election is primarily
about Little Lever & Darcy Lever – what needs to be done, what can be done
and why it hasn’t been done.
It is also about the whole
of Bolton, the stewardship of the Labour Council and the
state of the town compared to how many of you will remember it.
National politics play no
part in this election. Whoever is elected in this ward won’t make a ha’porth of
difference to what goes on in Westminster.
Labour, Conservative and
Liberal Democrat Councillors are compelled to toe their party lines. As a UKIP councillor
I will have independence of action on your behalf.
The existing Councillors
are tired, stale, out of ideas and lacking in vision. A new broom and a breath
of fresh air is needed in the Town Hall. Without it, nothing will change and
more than likely things will get worse.
SOME ISSUES THAT MAY CONCERN YOU
- The Gross Council Tax levied on the ratepayers of Little Lever & Darcy Lever over the last four years from April 2010 was £22,486,259.50p. (before Council Tax Benefit) – Yes - twenty two and a half million pounds
For
this year and next year, a grand total of £39,748 has been allocated through
the Area Forum for spending in the Ward at the behest of the local Councillors.
That is £19,874 per year.
(By
contrast, Local Councillors received a total of £128,619 in allowances over the
last 3 years)
This
£19,874 barely scratches the surface of
the problems in the Ward and so I will campaign for a fixed percentage of the
Council tax raised in each Ward to be spent in that Ward. This will reduce the
perception that the ruling Labour Group are concentrating spending on wards
where their client voters are in a majority and also provide increased funds in
LL & DL to resolve your issues.
- Week after week, month after month and year after year, the issues of dog mess and litter raise their ugly heads. No amount of signage on lamp posts has made any difference. There is only one answer – Fixed Penalties. However, across the Borough there are only 4 Enforcement Officers with a dismal record. From January 2007 to the corresponding month in 2010 across the whole of the Borough, the Council handed out a mere 86 Fixed Penalty Notices for offences relating to dog fouling, with 10 people prosecuted in the courts. I will campaign for a dedicated 7 day enforcement blitz to be carried out in the Ward every 3 months until the problem reduces or is solved.
- In July 2007 a grand total of £63,000 was spent on a CCTV system for Little Lever comprising 3 cameras which could be moved as required and the associated monitoring equipment which was located in the Police Post in the old Council Offices. Since the sale of the building on 8th Sept 2011, this equipment has been out of use and in storage. This is a scandalous misuse of a valuable resource for deterring and detecting crime and anti-social behaviour. I propose to challenge the new Police & Crime Commissioner to sort out a new location for the equipment so it can be brought back into use.
- Darcy Lever has for many years been the forgotten part of the Ward. It is geographically remote from Little Lever and its residents are generally less attended to. They are currently incensed at the state of Lower Darcy St and are running a campaign to have this problem addressed. I will continue to support them in this until the matter is satisfactorily resolved.
- Whatever side of the Tesco argument you were on, it is undeniably the case that traffic congestion at ‘The Junction’ will be horrendous - particularly at peak periods. Through traffic will avoid this junction like the plague with the inevitable consequence of a rat run being created through the Racecourse Estate. As a first stage of traffic calming, I would campaign for the whole of the Racecourse Estate to become a 20mph zone. There are only four ways in and out – Aintree, Edinburgh, Redcar and Melrose. The cost therefore would not be prohibitive. As a second stage I would campaign for speed bumps along Aintree from Mytham to Redcar. As unpleasant as these things are and even though they wouldn’t reduce the volume of traffic, they would at least slow it down.
ACROSS THE BOROUGH
- A burning question for the future across the Borough will be the Care provided to the elderly in their own homes as well as retirement and residential care homes. At the moment this involves 4,339 clients including 1,669 in their own homes
This
care is financed by the Council in 15 minute packages which I will argue gives
insufficient time for the carers to properly see to the needs of their clients
let alone having a chat with them. This could be your relative now or in the
future or even you.
I
will also campaign that the home carers be paid for travel time between clients
because at the moment they aren’t and are effectively being paid less than the
minimum wage.
- Town Centre parking restrictions are, in my view, a major obstacle to increasing footfall and thus the viability of retail businesses. The Council are determined to remove all Surface Car Parks within the Town Centre boundaries leaving just the Multi-story car parks and on street parking. The management of these has been contracted out for 35 years to NCP (Now NSL) which prevents the Council from extending free parking as they see fit without having to pay compensation.I will argue that the contract between the Council and NSL for the management of parking should be re-negotiated to correct this.
- For over ten years the Council has persisted in directing monies towards those Wards which it claims are ‘Deprived’. In spite of this, it seems these areas are still just as deprived as before, if not more so. Making this problem worse, in 2001 Bolton signed up to becoming an Asylum Dispersal Area and in 2004 became the first location in the North West region to establish a local Refugee Resettlement Programme. I strongly suggest that until we sort out our own levels of ‘Deprivation’, the Council should opt out of this programme.
- The Council boasts a Department of Development and Regeneration at an annual cost of £5.69m. The grandiose projects in the town centre have been stalled since 2009 with little sign of improvement any time soon. The town is blighted by derelict buildings and sites where permission has been granted to the owners either to demolish or develop the site. I will campaign that a condition is applied to such permissions whereby the owner or developer must, within 12 months, proceed with the demolition and subsequent to that either start the new development or landscape the site with grass and shrubbery.
These
are a selection of issues which have my interest and attention. More detail
about these and others will be posted on this Blog as time goes on.
ABOUT ME
My name is Paul
Richardson. I was born in Bolton in 1946 educated at St Edmunds, SS Peter &
Pauls and Thornleigh Salesian College.
I subsequently spent two
years at Salford University studying Applied Physics but left after a motorcycle accident without
gaining a degree.
I have been married 4
times, divorced twice and widowed once. I have seven children and five step
children. I married my wife Kathleen in 2005 when I moved to Little Lever.
I worked as a Maths &
Tech Drawing Teacher at English Martyrs for a short time, at Mullards, Blackburn, as a Laboratory Researcher, GUS Bolton as an
Accounts Office Supervisor and at Hawker Siddeley, Lostock, as a Commercial
Production Controller.
In 1976 I became a full
time Musician and Entertainer until the end of 2009.
I also assisted my wife in
running the Village Tea Room until April 2013 when we sold the business and I
retired.
I now pursue my hobbies of
carpentry and aggravating the Town Hall as well as occasionally entertaining.
Since 2009 I have been
involved in Community issues in Little Lever including being a founder member
of the Love Little Lever Business Forum, the campaign against a Traveller’s
site on the Ascot Rd Greenbelt land, the defence of Leaseholders on part of the
Racecourse Estate against unreasonable demands from the Freeholder, the
campaign to refurbish the Health Centre and for a period of time was Secretary
of the Little Lever & Darcy Lever Pubwatch Alliance.
When Sean Hornby ran as an
Independent Candidate in the 2010 Local Elections, I acted as his Agent
I also spearheaded the
campaign against the new Tesco Store at Pennine Pets and have been a prolific
contributor of letters to the Bolton News on Little Lever and Borough –wide
issues.
| am and have been a
regular attendee at the LL & DL Area Forum.
I run the ‘Little Lever
Blog’ which, if you Google it, shows the amount of my involvement in some of
the above issues. http://www.littleleverblog.blogspot.com
I have tried to improve
the lot of Little Lever and Bolton from outside the Town Hall but now, with the
assistance of your vote, feel I can be more effective from inside the Town
Hall.
My contact details:-
Phone:- 07815 678640
Promoted by Edith D Sexton, 69
Chester Ave, BL3 1XE on behalf of Paul Richardson, 24 Ripon Close BL3 1EQ
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