Green Party - Glyn Heath
Constituency - North Manor
Nice to see that you are still politically active and working hard with the Bury Action Group. Also thank you for your letter regarding the Bury Action group. With regard to the answers to your questions, I will answer them in context with the fact that the best the Green Party can currently achieve is one seat on the council after the May 5th elections.
Budget Cuts.
As a green party candidate, I appreciate the fact that the budgets provided by Central Government have been deliberately kept low in order to protect the interests of a small percentage of the population who are not paying a fair proportion of their income in taxation. As such I would be actively campaigning and reminding the “ConDem” councillors of their responsibilities to their constituents and for them to remind them to create a fairer taxation system to improve the funding provided for local services.
Of course other than propose an illegal budget, which is not particularly politically appropriate unless there was wide-spread support for such from the local community, I would have to work within the constraints of a council budget. However, my priorities would be to improve the services for younger people. Currently they are paying more than their fair share in terms of jobs opportunities and education and they need as much help as possible with help from the council in reducing concessionary fares, improved youth service initiatives and facilities for young people. I would also encourage a young person’s agenda for the Local Area Partnerships, which should be restored and provide the focus for initiatives at sub-borough level. The local area partnerships would also be encouraged to engage in local “green initiatives”, such as improved allotment provision, assistance with local production of food, credit unions, employment initiatives etc.
In answer to your question on the restoration of Park Rangers. I am interested in species diversity and have actively campaigned for environmental issues and protection of vulnerable sites when I was a Councillor in the 1990s. I would continue to do so with utmost rigour; and maintaining a Park Ranger service would be very high on my agenda.
With regard to the school crossings patrols, I would ensure that they were maintained or improved where there was a need.
I do believe that there are areas in the management of the Council’s activities where savings could be made. I believe that BMBC spent 12 million a year in landfill tax. Improved efficiency in waste management could reduce this. Furthermore top directors salaries need to be reduced as well; and if we compare Bury’s wages with Lancaster City Council’s then significant savings could be made. (Bury’s Chief Executive £160284 and Deputy £124623 & Lancaster’s Chief Executive £107069 and Deputy £77321.) I strongly suspect that the “cuts/redundancies” have had had a disparate affect on the lower wage earners than the managers throughout the whole of the Council and that a fairer and efficient evaluation of the roles and responsibilities of Council Employers could realise savings from higher wage earners. Councillors also on average cost £11000 per annum. This is significantly more than they did when I was a Councillor in the mid 1990’s, when John Costello and I both voted against such rises. I would campaign toward reducing Councillor’s wages to a level comparable with that period taking into account cost of living rises.
Transformation Strategy.
I would campaign for ensuring that Local Area Partnerships were more closely informed of the operational processes & the political process of the council. I would campaign to use these as a platform so as to ensure that information about strategic departmental changes was also disseminated through them to the local people. I would ensure that planning applications would also be actively made available to people that they would affect, by agenda items in the Local Area Partnerships, advert in the local press and by letters to people living in the vicinity as is currently done.
Having worked in outsourced contracts for the NHS I am fully aware of the low quality of services afforded by such, as well as the poor working conditions, pay freezes, minimal compliance with TUPE and other regulations etc, for their employers. I would vehemently oppose any move to such initiatives. I would actively campaign against the closure of libraries and the privatisation of Civic Suites.
Making an Impact as a Councillor.
If I became a councillor I would be the sole Green Party councillor and as such my influence would be severely limited. If I could affect the balance of power, then I would use the principles of fairness and the protection of our front-line services in any negotiating process. I would work towards the election of more Green Councillors as a main priority so that collectively we could reverse the process of de-democratisation of the local services at the earliest possibility.
With regard to proposing the setting of an illegal budget. If there were sufficient councillors prepared to vote for an illegal budget, then I would consider this to be the will of the majority of those constituents most likely to be affected by services cuts and would thus vote with them.
I hope this answers your questions adequately and best of luck with your campaigning.
As a green party candidate, I appreciate the fact that the budgets provided by Central Government have been deliberately kept low in order to protect the interests of a small percentage of the population who are not paying a fair proportion of their income in taxation. As such I would be actively campaigning and reminding the “ConDem” councillors of their responsibilities to their constituents and for them to remind them to create a fairer taxation system to improve the funding provided for local services.
Of course other than propose an illegal budget, which is not particularly politically appropriate unless there was wide-spread support for such from the local community, I would have to work within the constraints of a council budget. However, my priorities would be to improve the services for younger people. Currently they are paying more than their fair share in terms of jobs opportunities and education and they need as much help as possible with help from the council in reducing concessionary fares, improved youth service initiatives and facilities for young people. I would also encourage a young person’s agenda for the Local Area Partnerships, which should be restored and provide the focus for initiatives at sub-borough level. The local area partnerships would also be encouraged to engage in local “green initiatives”, such as improved allotment provision, assistance with local production of food, credit unions, employment initiatives etc.
In answer to your question on the restoration of Park Rangers. I am interested in species diversity and have actively campaigned for environmental issues and protection of vulnerable sites when I was a Councillor in the 1990s. I would continue to do so with utmost rigour; and maintaining a Park Ranger service would be very high on my agenda.
With regard to the school crossings patrols, I would ensure that they were maintained or improved where there was a need.
I do believe that there are areas in the management of the Council’s activities where savings could be made. I believe that BMBC spent 12 million a year in landfill tax. Improved efficiency in waste management could reduce this. Furthermore top directors salaries need to be reduced as well; and if we compare Bury’s wages with Lancaster City Council’s then significant savings could be made. (Bury’s Chief Executive £160284 and Deputy £124623 & Lancaster’s Chief Executive £107069 and Deputy £77321.) I strongly suspect that the “cuts/redundancies” have had had a disparate affect on the lower wage earners than the managers throughout the whole of the Council and that a fairer and efficient evaluation of the roles and responsibilities of Council Employers could realise savings from higher wage earners. Councillors also on average cost £11000 per annum. This is significantly more than they did when I was a Councillor in the mid 1990’s, when John Costello and I both voted against such rises. I would campaign toward reducing Councillor’s wages to a level comparable with that period taking into account cost of living rises.
Transformation Strategy.
I would campaign for ensuring that Local Area Partnerships were more closely informed of the operational processes & the political process of the council. I would campaign to use these as a platform so as to ensure that information about strategic departmental changes was also disseminated through them to the local people. I would ensure that planning applications would also be actively made available to people that they would affect, by agenda items in the Local Area Partnerships, advert in the local press and by letters to people living in the vicinity as is currently done.
Having worked in outsourced contracts for the NHS I am fully aware of the low quality of services afforded by such, as well as the poor working conditions, pay freezes, minimal compliance with TUPE and other regulations etc, for their employers. I would vehemently oppose any move to such initiatives. I would actively campaign against the closure of libraries and the privatisation of Civic Suites.
Making an Impact as a Councillor.
If I became a councillor I would be the sole Green Party councillor and as such my influence would be severely limited. If I could affect the balance of power, then I would use the principles of fairness and the protection of our front-line services in any negotiating process. I would work towards the election of more Green Councillors as a main priority so that collectively we could reverse the process of de-democratisation of the local services at the earliest possibility.
With regard to proposing the setting of an illegal budget. If there were sufficient councillors prepared to vote for an illegal budget, then I would consider this to be the will of the majority of those constituents most likely to be affected by services cuts and would thus vote with them.
I hope this answers your questions adequately and best of luck with your campaigning.
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