Carlisle Labour Party

Local Peer bankrolls Tory election campaign

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:33:00 GMT

Local Peer Lord Ballyedmond of Corby Castle near Carlisle emerged as the major contributor to Tory General election candidate John Stevenson's election campaign.

The peer formally Edward Haughey donated £28000 since 2006 to the Tory solictor's election war chest. More here

Carlisle 'super' surgery should be south of city says Harid

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:00 GMT

Labour councillor Abdul Harid has suggested that the propsed new 'super' GP surgery for Carlisle should be sited in the south side of the city. More here

Last rites for Renaissance as Labour pledges to pick up pieces

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:58:00 GMT

Michael Boaden has today seized on comments made by Council Leader Mike Mitchelson at a Council meeting last night as ‘a massive climbdown on Carlisle Renaissance.’

Michael Boaden said today

‘The Council leader indicated that Carlisle Renaissance will be taken back in house.
Along with colleagues I have been calling for this action to be taken for months if not years now, and whilst I am glad that the Council leadership seems to be finally listening to us, the people of Carlisle have a right to some answers.

This sorry and shameful mess has wasted millions of pounds of public money, added not one jot to Carlisle’s prospects for economic development and in the case of such follies as the City of Culture bid opened the City to ridicule.

That is an appalling legacy for this failed project and it is the Leader of the Council and his Tory colleagues who are responsible.

They have ignored calls from the people of the City to focus on a set of priorities based not on grandiose thinking but dealing with real problems and issues.

They have failed to recognise that the whole project needed to be placed under proper democratic control and not be dominated by those who prefer secret meetings and no accountability. And now those of us who truly have the interests of the City and its long term future at heart have to pick up the pieces.’

Labour condemns secrecy over family hostel site

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:47:00 GMT

Former mayor and Labour Councillor Heather Bradley attacked the City Council over its handling of the propsed new site for the citys family hostel. More here

Culture bid failure adds to Renaissance crisis

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:12:00 GMT

Carlisle Tory Leaders were left reeling today as the 'City of Culture' bid failure added yet more pressure to the failing Renaissance project.

Labour General Election candidate for Carlisle Michael Boaden has said that Carlisle Renaissance needs a hard look.

After the collapse of the City of Culture bid 2013, he says that the amount of money being invested in Carlisle Renaissance should be closely examined. Mr Boaden said:

"I really do wonder if now is the time to look hard as to whether we continue to invest so much money in Carlisle Renaissance.

The City of Culture bid has been a forlorn exercise. What they should have been concentrating on is boosting the cultural offer and looking at how we can get a theatre and arts centre.

This bid has been nothing other than a distraction. Most of what the city council has done in the last few years has been negative towards culture. They failed to acquire the Lonsdale when they had the opportunity. They axed the arts officer and axed the arts budget."

City Council 'anti democratic' over Community Centre cuts

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:09:00 GMT

Labour Group Leader Michael Boaden has attacked the Tory controlled Executive of Carlisle City Council for their ‘anti democratic’ move to continue making cuts to Community Centres, despite a City Council decision last month overturning the cuts programme.

Mr Boaden who is also the Labour General Election candidate said today:

‘This is just the latest in a long line of decisions and approaches to decisions that show no commitment to open and transparent democratic operation of the Council by the Tories.

They hive off decisions to unelected bodies, make more decisions in secret than ever before and now go against the democratic decision of the Council.

Last month the Council voted to approve a Labour motion to stop the programme of Community Centre cuts that would have seen every Community Centre across the City area affected by grant reductions.

Now the Executive have restored the cuts agenda for Community Centres with a flagrant disregard for the expressed wishes of Full Council. Once again the Community Centres, their users, staff and volunteers will be faced with anxiety and uncertainty about whether they can maintain services to people in the communities around Carlisle.

It is exactly the same arrogant mentality that led to us nearly having the Families Hostel replacement located in an area that everybody knew to be unsafe and ignored our pleas for action on cleaning up Botchergate and restoring the Lonsdale.

We will fight these cuts with exactly the same vigour as before and we are also determined that Carlisle City Council starts to clean up its act, becoming responsive to the wishes of the people and the principles of democratic decision making.’

Dithering Stevenson in another U turn

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:36:00 GMT

The latest change of heart by Tory candidate John Stevenson calls into question his judgement on the important issues facing Carlisle according to Michael Boaden, Labour's candidate for Carlisle at the next General Election.

Michael Boaden was commenting after an apparent u turn by Cllr Stevenson in relation to land disposal for a supermarket at Morton.

Mr Boaden said,

"The Labour Group of Councillors together with Eric Martlew MP were calling last year for an open, competitive process in relation to the land at Morton.

We thought this was in the best interests of the City and its Council tax payers. Also we were concerned that behind closed doors negotiations and cosy, secret deals were not an appropriate way to conduct such matters.

We proposed such an approach to Council in November but unfortunately it was opposed by Cllr Stevenson and his colleagues. This was a very poor judgement given the uncertainly of the University plans and the dangers of making a bad deal with Tesco.

I am glad that even this late in the day Cllr Stevenson has seen sense but the people of Carlisle will not be fooled by the change of heart.

He showed poor judgement on this matter and as with so many issues relating to the City he allowed political prejudice to cloud his choices as to what was in the best interests of Carlisle and its people."

Labour fury over Tory community centre cuts

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:46:00 GMT

Carlisle Labour Party leaders condemned the planned Tory cuts to comunity centres in Carlisle. The Conservative controlled city council are planning to cut £68,000 from the community centre budget over the next 3 years. More here.

Tories to oppose local news option for Carlisle

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:07:00 GMT

Michael Boaden, Labour’s candidate for Carlisle at the next General Election has today called on Tory candidate John Stevenson to clarify the Tory Party position on regional television news in the Carlisle area.

This followed confirmation last week that the Tories plan to block the Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNCs) proposal that would have led to improved, local news which is what the audience has consistently said they want.

The Government announced last year that they intended to establish a pilot in the Border/Tyne Tees region to trial IFNCs which are being created to establish a far more localised news service. Mr Boaden said:

‘People in our area have consistently said that they want more local news. They protested in large numbers when the Carlisle based news service on Border was axed and are not happy with either of the current programmes offered by the BBC or ITV, with a news agenda set in the North East and a very limited operation in our area to provide truly local news.

Given all this why then are the Tories opposing this pilot which will help to establish a basis for a better more local service than anything currently available to viewers in Carlisle?

In September John Stevenson was apparently in favour of this pilot. Now his party is against them. Why the u turn? Or is this the usual Tory trick of facing both ways at once.

As we have seen over a very long period this is simply not something that can be left to the market and the pilot offers the best way forward to ensuring that the people of Carlisle once again have proper local TV news.’

Tories under pressure after Okoji scandel

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:05:00 GMT

Michael Boaden has called for an inquiry into how the City Council came to employ a convicted fraudster in a sensitive post. Attah Okoji from Gateshead was employed by Conservative controlled Carlisle city council until last April as a job evaluation analyst. He had previous convictions under the Theft Act.

In a statement from Michael Boaden, Leader of Opposition Labour Group, Carlisle City Council, he said,

"The revelations about Carlisle City Council employing a convicted criminal to undertake work on Job Evaluation in the Authority raises very serious questions about the procedures the Council employs to check details on application forms, qualifications and references.

The Council must institute an immediate and urgent enquiry and report back to all Councillors as soon as possible. The investigation must cover the circumstances of this particular case, the lessons to be learned and the actions that will be taken to ensure no repeat of this kind of occurrence.

Given all the circumstances of the Council I have a profound concern that financial and other pressures led to someone being employed, without it would appear even a cursory examination of his fitness and qualifications to undertake an important role. That is completely unacceptable."

Mr Boaden is the Laboure Party candidate for the General Election.

University crisis - Boaden seeks clarification of Caldew Riverside

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:47:00 GMT

Councillor Michael Boaden, Leader of the Labour Group on Carlisle City Council has called on Council Leader, Mike Mitchelson to urgently clarify the position with regard to the Caldew Riverside site.

Reacting to the news that University of Cumbria have made it clear that they have no intention of proceeding with any plans for a Headquarters in that area, Cllr Boaden said:

‘Although disappointed about this setback to establishment of the University HQ in Carlisle, I am pleased that the Board have clarified their position and I wish them well in their efforts to address the serious current difficulties and establish a stronger, fit for purpose institution.

However the decision does inevitably lead to a series of questions which must be answered urgently by the Leader of the Council.

Firstly we need to know the position with monies spent and potentially committed to the remediation of the land. The Leader of the Council said earlier in the week that this work would continue.

Is this correct and sensible given that it is my understanding that the support from the North West Development Agency was conditional on development plans being proceeded with? Also in the light of the University decision will the Council now have to repay the money already received and spent? And if not what is the purpose of spending further considerable sums of public money on remediation of land which is not now to be developed in the foreseeable future?

Secondly what is the position with the discussions involving Tesco, who have an interest in land in the area? The City Council leadership passed responsibility for leading these discussions over to Carlisle Renaissance. This was a bad move with the potential to lead to a bad deal for the people of the City and these negotiations must be ended and the prospect of some kind of land swap involving the land allocated for a supermarket at Morton must be halted immediately. As the Labour Group has called for consistently for many months there must now be open competition for the disposal of land at Morton.

Finally given that securing the position of the University on Caldew Riverside was one of the limited priorities of Carlisle Renaissance, is it possible to ask them to immediately switch their focus to the ‘people’s priorities’ of sorting out Botchergate and getting on with helping to establish a Theatre for Carlisle.’

Mr Boaden is the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Carlisle.

Stagecoach decision a backward step - Boaden

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:22:00 GMT

Michael Boaden, Labour’s candidate for Carlisle at the next General Election has today stated that he will be writing to the Competition Commission regarding the decision of Stagecoach to stop running the Dalston to Cotehill bus service. Mr Boaden said

‘Stagecoach unilaterally pulled the plug on a vital and important service for residents in a number of villages around Carlisle. This was not only a backward step but clearly demonstrated the dangers of one operator having a monopoly on the provision of services in an area like Carlisle.

I am pleased that the County Council has been able to step in on this occasion but we all recognise that such intervention is not always possible.

The Competition Commission have been charged by the Office of Fair Trading with making a detailed study as to whether bus services in the UK are lacking in competition in a way that results ‘in a detrimental effect on customers such as higher prices, lower quality or less choice of goods and services.

I will be submitting this issue as evidence of what can happen to the quality of service offered to customers if one company has such a powerful position.

The example of the Dalston to Cotehill route is just the latest in a series of actions by Stagecoach, which clearly demonstrate that the priority is profit rather than public service.

They have often used their monopoly position to arbitrarily propose the axing and changing of routes and raise already high fares without proper notice. In short we have a situation in the City where the bus company fails to provide a full and proper public service and there is often little that can be done.

Furthermore I will lobby hard to ensure that any recommendations coming forward from the Commission are progressed by the Government.’

Boaden anger at Carlisle Renaissance failure

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:08:00 GMT

Labour's parliamentary candidate Michael Boaden has hit out at the scandalous waste of Renaissance money.

He says nothing has been achieved for the millions of public money spent. He was speaking as the Tories and Lib Dems rejected Labour's plans to use some of the money to clean up the city.

"Over five years Renaissance has cost £6.6m in public money. That's a shocking, scandalous waste. Not one job created, not one change made.

There is £300,000 in the Renaissance budget next year. Labour wanted to use £80,000 of to regenerate Botchergate and St Nicholas.

Also that £100,000 be spent cleaning up the city. That would pay for two enforcement officers to check on litter and dog fouling, and would augment the work of area maintenance teams. The city is getting dirtier and it will get worse unless we do something about it."

Stevenson pledges return of blood sports

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:58:00 GMT

The Tory general election candidate for Carlisle John Stevenson, has pledged to support the reintroduction of blood sports.

Carlisle MP Eric Martlew who has long campaigned for animal welfare was appalled by Mr Stevensons position.

"He would support legislation that would allow a pack of dogs to tear a wild animal apart. It means that as well as the return of fox hunting there would be the return of the barbaric practice of hare coursing

A very upset constituent sent me a copy of a letter she had received from Mr Stevenson in which he stated that if elected he would vote for the repeal of the Hunting Act which would bring back hunting with dogs."

Martlew welcomes 'super surgery' rethink

carlisleclp@btconnect.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:55:00 GMT

Carlisle MP Eric Martlew has welcomed the decision by NHS Cumbria to review the plans for a 'super surgery' at Hilltop Heights.

He has campaigned from the start that the location is unsuitable and poorly served by public transport, making it a bad choice for the elderly especially as well as mothers with young children.

"This super surgery will be built with public money and we have an opportunity not only to have great GP and medical facilities but also to upgrade a part of the city which desperately needs it. It's a win-win situation.

The Hilltop Heights site was always remote and inaccessible and it would cost a lot to get public transport to go there. The St Nicholas Gate site, on the other hand, is well supplied with buses; it's on the flat. The only worry now is whether the public money will be there to do it."