I am being advised that it is ages since I last blogged.  So much so that the layout of this site is completely unfamiliar to me and, thereby, somewhat confusing.  Why do things have to be continually changed?  It is really so annoying.

Anyway, since I was last here (Before I go on, I’ve decided to ‘phone ALDC to find out if I’m doing the right thing.  Why?  I’ve noticed that the clock in the bottom RH corner is on British Summer Time!!) (Blimey, that was interesting! This facility has had an upgrade last weekend, so somewhat quirkilly I am right at the cutting edge of technology and, no, I do  not want to stay there too long.  I was doing this blog in the wrong place, as well, so it’s lucky that I ‘phoned).

So, since I was last here (or wherever it was where I was??) so much has happened.  The snow has gone away – Hoorah!  On a serious note, the lads doing the gritting did a sterling job and the service has obviously learned so much from last winter (09/10).  Since the turn of the year it’s been coldish, but really dry and, compared with last year, mild.  We’ve probably now got far too much salt in store!!

The Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election got all the pundits worked up.  “Nick has led the LDs up the garden path and will be obliterated”, seemed to be the general trend of comment.  Well, I don’t think so.  Holding our own was a most creditable effort.  And the massive benefit is that the really unlikeable victor will no longer be telling people locally of her undying love of Longwood, Golcar and the Colne Valley.  Will she be missed – a resounding “NO”.  Will she be a good representative for OE and S.  Same answer.

The Efficiencies and Innovations programme (cuts to you and me) are now being felt right across the council.  Officers are suddenly gone and new faces in their places.  It is all very unsettling and I really do question whether Big Man Pickles is just the right guy for the job.  He says with one breath “You’re the experts. Get on with it. Don’t keep coming to me for advice” and then issues the most swingeing reductions on council tax grant ever recorded.  What’s that all about?  Is this good Government?  It must NOT be forgotten what a disastrous administration Gordon Brown was responsible for.  The Labour party are being let off the hook for the unbelievable damage it caused.  How good Osborne is remains to be seen, but the answer to anyone who questions why the LDs are in Government is “How could we prop up Labour’s appalling administration?  How could we even ally ourselves to such incompetent self-denying idiots?  How can the Guardian, which was so linked to the cause of New Government and New Politics, become today so tied in with such disastrous Old Politics.

Just an aside – it really is heartening that the Yes camp is 10% ahead on the AV campaign.  Mind you, a long way to go.

But to the main point of this missive.  The LDF.  So much ignorance, so much rhetoric, so much misleading of the public.  I have become so concerned at the level of misinformation, particularly being peddled by local Conservative MPs, that I have requested Cllr Ken Sims in his role as Chair of the Development Scrutiny Committee, to advise whether there is a statutory duty for Kirklees to press ahead with its LDF consultation.  It seems that the council should do so, according to Ministers Shapps who says in a letter received 14 February that “councils should to prepare their development plans”.  He has copied the letter to Jason McCartney, so it will be interesting to see whether an apology for misleading the public will be forthcoming.  In addition, Minister Greg Clark has said, this year, that councils should produce a local plan calling for “swift progress as a matter of urgency”.

But will such ministerial comments have an effect on Colne Valley’s ignorant MP.  Hey, I hear you cry, that’s a bit harsh.  Well, is it?  If Mr McCartney continues to state that the LDF process should be scrapped, but gives no reasons for such a statement, that is surely ignorance.  As no reasons are given, then he cannot be accused of being, as Bernard Ingham so eloquently put it so many years ago, “economical with the truth”.  But to be so misleading is not the activity I would expect from my elected member of parliament and at the very least he could put the record straight.

As to the events in the public consultation meeting in Meltham, well words ought to fail me, but they won’t.  What people may not know is that the chair of the Valleys Area Committee was advised that there could only be one public meeting for each Area Committee in Kirklees.  She argued that the Valleys Committee area covers a full geographical third of Kirklees and that it was unacceptable to expect residents in one part of the Authority to travel considerable distances whereas in other areas, the distance would be minimal.  Her argument prevailed, but with no thanks from the Tory councillors in Holme Valley South, and two meetings were arranged in Milnsbridge and Meltham.

At the planning meeting, it was agreed by all councillors present (including Cllr Sims and, indeed, Cllr Lyons) that the format would be as a drop-in centre so that officers could answer as many questions from  members of the public as might be tabled.  This worked extremely well in Milnsbridge, but there appeared to be an orchestrated opposition on the night of the meeting to these proposals in Meltham.  I wonder who organised that then?

And finally, there seems to be a consistent rumour being touted that councillors have been gagged.  Well, no-one has ever gagged me and if such a gag was presented, I would be the first on the rooftop shouting about it.  So, to all those Tories (and it’s only Tories who have raised such matters with me), can I suggest that you find some more convincing arguments to utilise, otherwise I might be forced to the belief that you have a specific and vested interest in making the LDF process fail and the only one I can understand is the possibility for unbridled and unplanned development which would be done simply for the gain and profit of the developers.