Plymouth Labour demand action on Camels Head’s stench

Residents of Keyham and North Prospect packed a meeting at Wolseley Community Centre on Thursday to tell South West Water they have had enough of the smell from Camels Head sewage works.

Organised by Devonport Councillor Mark Coker and Labour Group Leader Cllr Tudor Evans the meeting gave residents the opportunity to speak directly to Richard Gillpin, Head of Waste Water at South West Water plc.

Leader of the Labour Group on Plymouth City Council, Cllr Tudor Evans said: “It was a tremendous turnout, residents were very angry, but they remained polite and pressed their case with passion and courtesy. I only hope South West Water will show the same respect and courtesy by sorting this out once and for all.”

The meeting heard that the City Council had already been in contact with the Environment Agency and would be meeting with senior representatives of South West Water.

Cllr Mark Coker said “If not resolved quickly, this could mean legal action by the Council. South West Water need to take this seriously. Last night there was talk of compensation.

Plymouth Labour challenges Tory incinerator posturing

Mark Coker, Labour’s candidate in Devonport who has been running the campaigning against the incinerator at the dockyard, has written to the Conservative Party candidate for Devonport ward and Oliver Colville MP, the Tory MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, to ask them to state clearly whether they support or oppose the incinerator. Labour has been running an active campaign against the incinerator being located in Devonport for the past year.

Mark Coker said: “Let me make this clear Labour is opposing the dockyard incinerator 100%. We think it is the wrong technology in the wrong location. The people in Devonport know that the Tories are forcing an unwanted incinerator on our community and I’m standing continuing my campaign against the incinerator up to the election and beyond. What voters in Devonport might not be clear on is where the Tory candidate and our Tory MP are in terms of whether they support the incinerator or not. Is Oliver Colville in favour or against the incinerator? It is time he made his position clear to voters in Plymouth.

“At the last council meeting Labour called on the Tories to consider other alternatives to incineration to deal with Plymouth’s waste. Every single Tory councillor voted against our proposal. The Tories want to burn rubbish in Devonport. Voters in Devonport know the Tories are proposing the incinerator and no amount of pre-election posturing will change that.”

Plymouth Labour fields full slate as Liberal Democrats retreat

Plymouth Labour Party has issued an open invitation to Liberal Democrat voters in Plymouth to join the party in response to the failure of the Lib Dems to field candidates in every ward across the city. Lib Dems are standing in less than half of the city’s wards whilst Labour is fielding candidates in every ward in the city for the 5 May elections.

Tudor Evans, Leader of the Labour Group, and a candidate in the Ham ward said: “In every ward in this city on polling day voters will be able to send a message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg by voting Labour. What is staggering is that having sold out so completely in voting through Tory cuts in coalition, the Liberal Democrats are only fielding eight candidates in the whole of Plymouth.

“Labour is fielding a full slate of candidates and I’m proud this is the most diverse and experienced group of candidates we have ever put up for election. We have over 100 years of Council experience between our candidates which is bolstered by a new generation of young people who are standing for the first time showing Labour appeals to every community in Plymouth.”

Frank Dobson launches Plymouth Labour’s local election campaign

Plymouth Labour asks voters to send the Prime Minister a message as local election campaign is launched.

Plymouth Labour has launched its 2011 local election campaign with a campaign call for voters in Plymouth to send the Tory-led Coalition government a message with their vote on 5 May.

Labour MP and former Secretary of State for Health, Frank Dobson, was the guest of honour at the launch.

Cllr Tudor Evans, Leader of the Labour Group on Plymouth City Council said: “Over the next six weeks Labour will be taking the battle to the street, highlighting every broken promise of this Tory council, every pothole in our roads they promised to fill in, every school whose budget has been cut and every person whose job is under threat because of their cuts. People are angry and I’m not surprised. We are asking people to focus that frustration and use their vote on 5 May to send a message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg.”

Since May last year Plymouth Labour’s membership has increased by a third. New member Chris Penberthy, who lives in the St Peters and the Waterfront ward said: “I wasn’t much interested in politics until I saw what was happening to my community and how little the Tories seemed to care about the plight of ordinary people. I’m a local person who wants to do something to improve my community – that’s why I’m voting Labour in May.”

Plymouth school children left stranded after bus services are stopped

Councillor Nicky Williams has hit out at the decision to remove more bus routes in Plymouth. Her comments follow the decision of Citybus to remove vital bus services used to get children to and from school.

Nicky said: “I have been contacted by parents in Ernesettle whose child has been allocated to attend Sir John Hunt Community College in Whitleigh, however thanks to the decision to remove the bus service, they will be unable to get to school. This is unacceptable.

“I first asked Cllr Wigens to undertake a vital review of the bus service provision and subsidy in October last year, despite his assurances this has still not taken place. Since then more and more bus services have been removed leaving people unable to travel to work, to school or even to the shops. In some areas of the City they have been left without a bus from Saturday through to Monday morning.

“Last week I challenged Cllr Wigens to tell me, what was the acceptable distance for a person to walk to access public transport? He couldn’t give me an answer. We are now in a position where pensioners have free bus passes but there are no buses left for them to catch.

Forest U-turn welcome but campaign is not over

Save Cann Woods website launches as government performs U-turn on sales.

The Plymouth-based campaign to stop the government selling Cann Woods has today cautiously welcomed the U-turn by David Cameron in halting the forest sales. The campaign’s new website www.savecannwoods.org went live today as over 200 people signed the online petition calling for Cann Woods to remain in public hands.

After coming under sustained attack from Ed Miliband at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions David Cameron announced that he was unhappy with the forest sell off policy and ordered that the consultation into selling the forestry estate be immediately halted.

Luke Pollard from Plymouth Labour, who is running the campaign, said: “We need to see all the details about the U-turn before we celebrate but it looks like the government has finally realised that this was a bad policy, poorly thought through, badly explained and was making his government deeply unpopular in the country. 84% of the public are against selling our forests nationwide and I have not met anyone but Plymouth’s Tory MPs who thought selling the forests was a good idea. We campaigned to save Cann Woods for future generations and we may have achieved this.

Ed Miliband backs Devon forest campaign

The campaign to Save Cann Woods from being sold by the government is in full swing. Since local media broke news of the campaign being launched last week, dozens of people have got in touch about wanting to save the woods, more have signed an online petition and the campaign has won the support of Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Opposition.

Coming on the same day as a debate in the House of Commons on the forest sales, Luke Pollard, from Plymouth Labour met Ed Miliband to secure his support for the campaign to Save Cann Woods.

In the debate that followed Plymouth’s MPs were split on whether to sell the woods. Plymouth Moor View Labour MP, Alison Seabeck, voted to save the woods whilst her Tory opposite for South West Devon, Gary Streeter, whose constituency covers Cann Woods, voted with the government in support of forest sales. Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Tory MP, Oliver Colvile, failed to vote.

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition said: “The trees of Cann Wood have been centuries in the making, but under Conservative-led plans for privatisation – nothing short of environmental vandalism — they could be seconds in the felling. We are custodians of these forests for future generations. That’s why we are campaigning hard with local families to save Cann Wood.”

Tories to sell Dartmoor and Devon forests

Labour has pledged to fight Conservative plans to sell Devon and Dartmoor woodland “all the way” as the government prepares to axe publicly owned woodland in the county.

Plans by the Conservative-led government to privatise the Forestry Commission’s entire forest reserve would mean local woodlands at Cann Wood in Plympton and across Dartmoor would be sold to the highest bidder putting the right of local people to enjoy them free of charge at risk.

Labour is warning that the Tory-led government wants to sell an area of public forests the size of Plymouth. Figures prepared by the House of Commons Library show that there is some 7,423 ha of forests across the county owned by the Forestry Commission – which is nearly the size of Plymouth (7,925ha). The Tories have form of selling public woodland. In their last 17 years in office they have sold 144,000 ha of woodland across the UK – the equivalent of 20 cities the size of Plymouth.

Cllr Tudor Evans, Leader of the Labour Group on Plymouth City Council said: “Having axed our warships in the dockyard and cut our schools and universities, the Tories now want to sell off our local woods. This shows that there is nothing they won’t sell off to the highest bidder.”

Lee Mill incinerator decision – was it fair?

Councillor Mark Coker has called in the decision made by the South West Devon Waste Partnership (SWDWP) on the basis that the committee broke its own rules in allowing representation to be made against the Virrador site in Lee Mill whilst no such representation was made against the site in Devonport.

Plymouth Councillors have consistently called for either scrutiny or a full council debate on this subject and have been rejected on each occasion.

Cllr Mark Coker said: “I find it unconceivable that a decision of this magnitude has been made and Plymouth City Councillors from the affected wards have been denied time and time again any opportunity to represent the views of the local communities. Yet a councillor from Yealmpton, whose ward encompasses the Virrador site is allowed on decision day to speak of his residents concerns whilst councillors in Plymouth wards were not afforded the same opportunity.”

Plymouth Council refuses to listen to concerns over IT security

Labour Councillor Nicky Williams has warned that thousands of people’s personal information including their names, addresses and bank details are at risk due to a lack of IT security at Plymouth City Council.

Nicky Williams said: “I was horrified to learn that the Council does not have any record of the information that they hold on people and do not even comply with the Data Protection Act. In a report to the Audit Committee last month it was highlighted that whilst the council has written policies about keeping data secure no action has been taken to implement it. This means that highly personal and confidential data is at risk. I know that this is a real issue, because I have had constituents contact me because they have received information meant for someone else and I have been a victim myself. I have regularly received information meant for another councillor and on one occasion a payment meant for me was paid into their bank account”.

“This situation is very worrying given the amount of highly sensitive information the council holds on people, this affects everyone who pays council tax, claims benefits or owns a business in the City. I would urge anyone who carries out transactions with the council to double check their information and ask if their data is being kept securely.”