More Cars, But Decreasing Parking Spaces

In my childhood I attended Peel Street Junior school, it has recently been sold to developers, its transformation into apartments is looking amazing. I recently walked passed the old 1960s timber prefabricated classroom in the Melbourne Street car park, that was my first classroom after nursery school. The car park is used by local businesses and shoppers. So I was surprised to see a planning application pinned to a telegraph pole for eight houses with gardens. I have read that the Council enjoys rights over the car park, but it has decided in its wisdom to forgo those rights. Leeds City Council informed local councillors, but they raised no objections to losing valuable town center parking. Melbourne Street and Peel Street is busy already with parked cars. The vehicles that once used the college car park and Melbourne Street for parking, will now be forced to use the already well used Annie Street car park and the neighbouring Peel Street and Acroyd Street. One of Morleys best attractions is its ample and free parking. Since the car park has already been sold, perhaps its too late to save it from development?

I think its marvellous that we have more houses being built, both the Conservatives and the Labour Party have made big pledges in regard to house building before the last election. There have been various large scale housing developments through-out Leeds.

Disqualified from Standing for Election

In the UK over 5.5 million people work in central and local Government. Many of those workers are disqualified from standing for election. As a local authority worker for Leeds City Council, myself and all my 14,632 colleagues are disqualified from standing for election to our city council. Disqualifying almost 15,000 people from standing for election seems quite bizarre to me, not many people are interested in politics, the bigger the pool to choose from, the better. The turnout in my electoral ward in 2016, in Leeds was just under 31%, a sad reflection on how people feel about politics. In the English local elections of 2016, in some areas fewer than one in five eligible voters went to their local polling station to cast a vote. We have a broken system, that people see as a negative. But the Scottish system seems much better, the turnout in the 2012 Scottish local elections was 39.6%, and in 2017 local elections turnout was 46.9%

In Scotland the rules were changed in 2005 so that an employee of a local authority could stand for election to that authority, and would only have to resign their employment if they were elected. The Electoral Commission carried out a report for the government in 2015, the report recommended that England should adopt the same qualifying rules for elections as Scotland, and local authority workers should be allowed to stand, but they would have to resign their job with the local authority if elected. The report has not been acted upon yet.

“The Electoral Commission recommend that the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is changed to make a clear distinction between offices or employment which would prevent someone standing for election, and those which would prevent someone from holding office if elected“

<30.8% A Very Poor Democracy

In the local elections coming up in May, all our present contingent of councillors will all be up for election. As a local authority worker for Leeds City Council, myself and all my 14,632 colleagues are disqualified from standing for election. Disqualifying almost 15,000 people from standing for election seems quite bizarre to me, not many people are interested in politics, the bigger the pool to choose from, the better. The turnout in my electoral ward in 2016, Morley South was 30.8%, a sad reflection on how people feel about politics. In the English local elections of 2016, in some areas fewer than one in five eligible voters went to their local polling station to cast a vote, raising fears of a broken system.

The turnout in the 2012 Scottish local elections was 39.6%, and in 2017 local elections turnout was 46.9% Some people might already be aware of the differences between England and Scotland. Scotland have no tuition fees, no prescription charges, its own Parliament and the Scottish Parliament also has Proportional representation(PR). The Scottish government have also been praised for progress made on children’s health in 2017, they made better progress than England and Wales.

The Electoral Commission carried out a report for the government in 2015, the report recommended that England should adopt the same qualifying rules for elections as Scotland, and local authority workers should be allowed to stand, but they would have to resign their job with the local authority if elected. The report has not been acted upon yet. The Conservative gave the DUP £1 billion so that they can get bills through Parliament, but very little few bills are being processed.

I believe that Scotland have a better democracy than England, we to catch up.