In
depth
Key Policies.
I will bring information to the public
wherever possible through this website.
I will seek to stop dissemination of incorrect or misleading
information.
I will give public access to everyone through this site of
my voting record at council meetings. Something, that is not
easily available from any other candidates, if at all.
I will, as far as is practical, with help from the
on-site polls, vote for the policies that my ward
electorate want. NOT what I desire or a party enforce
on me.
I will implement a system where, should 50% of the electorate
in my ward express a desire to remove me as a councillor then
I will stand down with immediate effect. A democracy should
be judged by the ability of the electorate to remove the elected
representatives.
I will implement policies from time to time based upon what
the people of Waterhead desire in the true spirit of democracy.
More
general policy.
General.
Without speaking to every
member of the ward it is impossible to know exactly
what people want. I hope to gauge the views of the
constituency through open forums, regular meetings
and via the interactive polls and forum on the www.vote.allsopp.com
website. Naturally, as I live in the ward, I will
find out what other issues are pertinent through
talking to people in the street and walking the
area. Whilst there is no particular point on www.robert.allsopp.com
that I object to, there are other issues that I
wish to cover.
Far too often when I talk to people they expect
“someone else” to do everything for
them and when I dare to suggest that perhaps THEY
should do something I am looked at as if I am an
alien. I can only help people as far as they are
prepared to help themselves. I cannot do everything
for everyone, the communities have to work together
to solve their problems but I will do my best to
facilitate that.
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Libraries,
Parks, Open Spaces
In an ideal world there would
be a full library in every ward and the borough would
have a copy of every important book that could be requested
and transferred between libraries. Each area would
have green land and open spaces for people to play
and socialise. However, in the real world that would
not be possible due to financial constraints and would
be impractical. We have to strike a balance. I strongly
believe that libraries are an essential service and
are seriously under funded. I will push for a system
to be put in place whereby a book can be ordered at
any time for borrowing online through the Oldham council
web site. Simple idea, easy to achieve. We often hear
about the “award winning gallery” but do
you know anyone that has visited it? I think the money
would have been better spent elsewhere improving libraries
instead of closing them. As for open spaces, in my
short 33 years the number of small plots of green land
and trees seems ever diminishing and as I talk to people
who have lived in the borough longer they paint a depressing
and familiar picture of continued housing and loss
of green land. Within the laws of planning applications
I will oppose continuing reductions in our open spaces.
Waterhead is lucky in that we have Greenacres cemetery,
Waterhead park, the playing fields at St Annes' primary
school, Counthill school, the lands around Constantine
St, Strinesdale reservoir, the Medlock Valley and the
playing fields off Turf pit lane and more. These are
assets for the area. We live in a green part of the
borough and I would like to maintain that.
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Racism
and Race politics.
My views are broadly similar to Robert Allsopp,
which you may want to check on the site. From personal
experience I have seen the effects of racism and
the bigotry shown by members of Oldham of all sides.
I am often struck by the anger and hatred shown
to me by others who don’t know me , yet make
ill conceived judgements. When they have the chance
to talk to me they change their mind and it was
heartening to hear it said to me “I’d
vote for you because you listen and are prepared
to learn about others” That’s how it
should be. Racism stinks. Treat people for how they
behave and not what they are.
Take this example. I recently visited Holt St Housing
office and the sign is 3 times larger than it needs
to be because the sign is printed in English and
then two none English languages (I have been told
it is Urdu and Bengali but as I speak and read the
official language of the country I do not know for
certain). Now I ask you why is it in several languages?
Who does it benefit? And more importantly what damage
does it do? I believe it has no benefit to the wider
community and is in fact divisive. How does it benefit
the “whites” by reinforcing the idea
that minorities are being pandered too? How does
it benefit the “Asians” by saying effectively
“you are different, we have to treat you as
a special case. You have to remain separate and
different from the rest of the community”.
All the political correctness around race issues
is DIVISIVE and damaging. They divide communities
of “us” and “them” The council
is riddled with race issues. This nonsense needs
wiping away and we need to start treating people
as Oldhamers and not boxes in which to categorise
and subdue people.
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Policing
I do not believe there are
necessarily too few police locally as a force. Those
police we do have are not free to do the job they so
badly need to do. Also the issue is wider than just
Bobbies on the beat. The problem is that nationally
the government is continually giving “guidance”
to the courts to keep offenders away from getting proper
justice. The Bobbies are as sick as we are of dragging
the same criminals time after time along to the courts
and then “getting away with it”. The police
often claim that “people can’t just take
the law into their own hands” Lets remind the
police of what their job IS. The people collectively
agree to allow and support the police in upholding
the law equitably and fairly. The people are seeing
that this is not happening in their areas and are reconsidering
if they want to take back the power they have given
in trust to the police. Justice belongs to the people
not the "system" or the "police".
The police seriously need to address this. I think
this is a dangerous step but when we see thugs and
criminals continuously “getting away with it”
and “the police doing nothing about it”
then there will be a time when enough is enough, I
fear that time is close. As for police numbers, to
continuously campaign for more police officers is fine
but you have to be prepared to pay the price of policing.
Some councillors in Oldham have tried to make a big
issue about having secured more police for the Oldham
area yet that same group whine about the police authority
charging more for their services! You can't trumpet
something as a victory and then complain that it costs
money. Nothing comes for free. People often say they
are happy to pay more but then complain when their
taxes rise. However, on the issue of policing, I firmly
believe that people are more than happy to pay for
effective policing if they see actual results. I won't
be promising anything without pointing out the costs
associated and any side effects that may come with
it.
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Local
politics
Well, after attending full council meetings and
area committee meetings over the past couple of
years I can see that the idea of putting council
business out to the areas is something to be applauded.
I am a great believer in local democracy. How many
people can say who their councillor is and what
they do for the area? For 3 weeks every year you
are sent leaflet after leaflet telling you how terrible
the opponent is and for the remaining 49 you hear
nothing. Through the continual updating of this
web site you will be able to find out exactly what
I am doing for the area and what changes are happening
to the ward. At the full council meetings I see
barely 5 people turn up yet the area committees
are well attended. Unfortunately there is still
a great deal being done badly. I will not (unlike
ALL the other candidates) be bound by the views
of my party. The true benefits of an independent
councillor can be seen where that councillor can
have a mind of their own.
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Public
Transport
I do not own a car. This means that I have to walk
everywhere or use public transport. I regularly
walk to the town centre and back as the service
from the bus service is frankly abysmal at times.
Buses don’t turn up or turn up severely late
in 2 and even 3’s. When you complain it ends
up being a waste of time. Like most towns and cities,
Oldham is clogging up. Public transport for many
is not an option; it’s a vital service. Public
transport needs properly managing and funding.
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Political
correctness
I have no time at all for political correctness.
This ties up with the Race
issue above. There are far too many times that I
have heard “I don’t want to sound like
a racist but..” “They won’t do
anything about it because they’ll be called
racist if they do” So many times I have sat
through meetings where the points cannot be made
properly for fear of offending an individual or
group. “Political correctness” is a
fancy way of stopping people expressing their views.
If you shout "racist" at someone they
are immediately guilty. That person then has to
try to defend the accusation instead of the accuser
having to justify it. This is wrong. So called “positive
discrimination is exactly that, discrimination.
Giving preferential treatment to sections of society
whilst at the same time saying how we should treat
everyone “equally”. Take for example
the “opportunities for women” bus that
caters for Asian women only. Not only is it sexist
and discriminatory it brings unnecessary race issues
into play. Why not an “opportunities for Oldhamers’”
bus? I would do my best to do away with this divisive
nonsense. It does nothing to help people and only
increases division. Recently plastered all over
council offices and vehicles was a large “Z”
and the message “Zero tolerance of domestic
violence against women” Why not a poster saying,
“Zero tolerance of domestic violence”?
Or even “Zero tolerance of violence”?
Domestic violence is wrong. FULL STOP. The implication
being that domestic violence against women is somehow
worse or special compared to that against men. It
is conveniently forgotten that men are 16 times
more likely to be the victim of a violent assault
than women. Domestic violence should be seen as
violence against people living in a domestic situation
and any issue of the sexes be totally removed from
it. All the support services are there for “abused
women” but not a single outlet for abused
men.
I won't waste time couching all my words in pretty,
PC language. I really do think it’s important
to say what needs to be said. If it offends a lot
of people then it is clearly a policy, statement
or article that is at fault. If some language occasionally
offends a few people then I'm sorry but this is
as close to a democracy as we have and you can vote
for someone else next time. You simply cannot please
all of the people all of the time.
Top
Value
for money.
I guess I’m like most people in that occasionally
I spend my money unwisely and soon live to regret
it. However it seems that far too often the council
spends money with no concept of giving value
for money. It talks the talk with the "best
value policy" but can the council honestly
tell me that the £200+ MILLION is wisely spent
on delivering top quality services and decent roads
and housing? When spending YOUR money and lets not
forget that, I would constantly make sure that I
was getting value for money. All too often the council
gives out money hand over fist for pet projects
and politically correct events.
When elected I will
be able to check in detail where the money is spent
and at the next budget meeting I can suggest options
to save money.
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Recycling
The targets that Oldham council
have set and have achieved are pitiful. Recycling needs
to be taken seriously by the council. Throughout Europe
there are doorstop collections of glass/paper/organic
waste and metals. Why don’t we have that here?
Why can’t WE be a beacon borough for recycling?
Yes this will cost money. Money that can be gained
by removing the nonsense political correctness and
useless race monitoring jobs that the council currently
have. The current problem with recycling is that it
is wholly looking at the after-effects instead of prevention.
How many times have you had your local supermarket
hand you 4 and 5 bags of shopping when 2 or 3 would
have been fine? I have had one item placed in a bag!
Who then reuses their carrier bags? Carrier bag recycling
needs tackling seriously? Then you get the packaging
of the item and then wrapped up in cellophane and then
individually wrapped again inside the packaging. There
can be 4 and 5 layers of packaging. All wholly unnecessary.
The local Tesco at Huddersfield Rd until recently had
a carrier bag recycling box. This has been absent for
months and I was told “it was damaged and wasn’t
replaced”. Not good enough.
Often people complain how their streets are a mess
and the back alleys are overgrown and moan how “the
council don’t do anything”. I ask simply,
why don’t YOU do it? Why not as a community set
aside time every year to clean up your own areas, be
proud of your streets. With the council I will make
sure that the equipment, shovels, bags, brushes and
so on are provided and that the bagged up rubbish is
taken away. You supply the manpower, we would supply
the tools.
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Housing
and Anti-Social behaviour
I am a council tenant on Littlemoor. I live in a
block of flats in a one bedroom flat. I moved recently
from Holts Village from an almost identical flat.
For the last 6 years I have had to use the housing
“services” and repairs "services".
I’m sad to say that they have been at best,
poor and at worst, abysmal. The standard of repairs
leaves a lot to be desired and the times taken are
a joke. I will push for a system whereby YOU can
tell them when is best and they WILL (within reason)
attend at that time. As for the housing office staff
at the offices and civic centre I can say from personal
experience that they talked the talk with regards
to anti-social behaviour but did nothing to help.
I will NOT accept this for council tenants. Anti-social
behaviour is the cancer on modern society. It affects
people’s health and well being in many hidden
ways. People are not able to go out freely and are
subject to fowl abuse, insults and criminal damage.
All too often the council talk up how they are being
tough but it's all guff. From my time on Holts Village
Estate Management Board and as a tenant I know these
to be hollow words. I was forced to move out and
the agitator remains there and still terrorises
the other neighbours.
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