Casework
Here is just some of the casework that i am and have been dealing with:
- Social Services issues, due to savage County Council cuts.
- Many Housing issues, on a daily basis.
- Fought to get a controlled crossing point on Netherhampton Rd. A Zebra Crossing will be installed near the junction of Norfolk Rd. There were no objectors to the recent advertised order. Works are due to commence on August 4th.
- Pushing for Real Time displays in Bus Stops in West Harnham - The Tories missed us out! Officers are currently working on a list of Bus stops that have been provided by us to be upgraded.
- Pushed for traffic calming measures on Norfolk Rd by the shops. A traffic order was recently advertised showing the new scheme. The lines have now been painted.
- The Environment Agency flood scheme for West Harnham. An exhibition of the modified proposals took place at the Rose & Crown. The scheme has now commenced.
- Fought to get the Town Path resurfaced, but we didn’t get the “resurface” as was originally promised. After four months, works are still to be done.
- A footpath/cycle link from West Harnham to the Cattle Market/Sportsfields. We made a request for funding and this got the approval by the City Area Committee in October 2007. The path will be constructed in January 2009. Hurrah!
- Have criticised the dilapidated state of the listed buildings on the Old Manor site on Wilton Rd to the NHS PCT. The County Council have now pulled out of any development here with the PCT. We await yet again to see what will happen on this site, but we have heard that the PCT are to develop this site in the near future.
- Have heard and supported the concerns from worried parents about when a new Highbury Primary School is going to be built. The amended planning brief got the full support of the City Area Committee when it met on March 8th 2007. I invited the cabinet member for Education along to the school - she very kindly took up the offer. We met at the school on April 25th last year and she was given a tour around the school. She was presented with a 160 signature petition from the Home & School Association, demanding that the new school be built by September 2008. I presented the petition to the County Council meeting on May 8th 2007 and requested that the new school be built as soon as possible. That dream has now come true, as the old school (built in 1921) has now been demolished and a new school is now being built!
- With no political will from the previous Tory controlled District Council, my District colleague and I got the ball rolling for the Harnham School’s green travel plan proposal for Saxon Rd. Residents were involved in the process all the way on proposals to alter the junction at Saxon Rd/Parsonage green, with traffic restrictions to non residents of Saxon Rd and permits for residents. Approval was given to the scheme early last year and the work was carried out during the school summer holidays in 2007.
- The County Council have now dropped their planning application for the Brunel Link/Relief Road, much to the delight of many local people. To date they have spent more than £1.9million on the now defunct scheme!
- I have criticised the County Council’s ‘one-council’ bid, saying it will be too big and too remote for the residents of Salisbury. The Tories spent £68,100 on consultancy fees for the bid and budgeted a further £350,000 in 2007-08 to be funded by council tax, at a time when they have savagely cut services to the needy. My view has been expressed at both the district & county council on this subject. A South-Wiltshire unitary would be far more in touch with Salisbury, rather than the Wiltshire-wide one proposed by the Tories. Salisbury District Council will be abolished in April 2009. The new unitary council takes over in May 2009. There will be 98 councillors representing the whole of Wiltshire.
- I am fighting Tory Boundary proposals to split Harnham up, moving some parts into St Martin division for political reasons. This is quite ridiculous as they are clearly Harnham. Residents are furious and will fight this proposal with the Boundary Committee. On a recent Surgery, attended by about 40 residents, Option 2 for the City was on display. This does not ’split’ Harnham and received unanimous support. This option will be submitted during Stage 3 of the public consultation, which ends on 25th August.
