Local Topics of Interest
What local people talk about. Some good, some bad. Notice how protest groups mushroomed in 2006. Something for the election leaflets, one way or another.
Wind Turbines
Our previously unspoilt countryside is being threatened by a rash of wind farm plans. They generate relatively small amounts of power but are very profitable and give the appearance of 'going green'. As a rough guide, the thirteen turbines of Royd Moor can produce about 0.165% of Drax's maximum power output. On a still day, there's not enough power for an electric toothbrush. Anyway, the Grid is approaching its limit, see the Wind Farm page.
Other Topics
BMBC Matters
I have nothing against the good people of Barnsley and I was well acquainted with them when I worked from Lundwood as a tv repairman and called at Barnsley houses. Always a friendly welcome and a cup of tea. However, Barnsley council is a completely different and political animal. It was said by a Barnsley councillor some years ago that their attitude to Penistone was because we did not vote in a particular way. This message has been repeated over the years by other political animals. It is not a clever tactic but self-defeating. People don't like bullies and often show their displeasure at the ballot box.
The Barnsley coat of arms motto reads 'Spectemur Agendo', which means 'Judge Us by Our Actions'. I now take up their invitation. Not that it would make any difference. Barnsley Council (BMBC) don't like Penistone much and don't do a lot for us. They absolutely love our local tax money and splash it around with glee on various dotty schemes. Rampant and relentless housing development generates heaps of it. Mind you, salaries of some top council members drain it away and they are the ones who are least accountable. Questions were raised about councillor expenses (Chronicle Feb. 2008) and it is clear from letters that it is a sensitive subject to some more than others.
There is a veneer of public participation. Local forums are scheduled in an unpredictable manner but when a really contentious issue comes up, they are re-scheduled to avoid the heat. It makes the notion of democracy look like all puff and no substance. If they were serious, it would have been something like: 'First Tuesday of every month in the Community Centre', etc. There is a lot of talk about openness on BMBC website but it is only to tick the right boxes. Serious decisions are made in private session, using the Local Government Act to exclude the public (Eg. supermarket plans).
Service Cuts - but Lots of Dosh
Looking back over the years in Penistone, we had a labour exchange ('jobcentre'), ambulance station, two fire engines and a fully-manned cop shop. That was when Penistone had about half the population it has now. Now the cop shop is manned by two police officers (but mostly inaccessible) and a good old people's home has closed to save BMBC money.
With all the new house building, services such as refuse collection are stretched and a few street lamps put up but Penistone area residents do not receive good value for money and our opinions, objections and desires are generally ignored. I would like to see real police visible on the streets (on foot) at unexpected intervals, with a fully-manned and accessible police station, a proper ambulance station and other new facilities.
A bit of road maintenance would be apprreciated and how about the return of the second fire engine. They could build a bigger fire station for when Tesco takes over Penistone. If Barnsley council can drip money away on a silly 'halo of light' and 'Tuscan' town centre, they could spend a bit more money our way. Give as well as take, is what I say.
Evils Visited upon Our Area
Our historic livestock market was closed to save a few grand and make room for a supermarket (a 'done deal' reported in the papers), then something like £120k of 'Heritage' money was found for a (needed) skateboard park. And why build it there? What was more 'Heritage', skateboard park or historic market? No, I didn't get it either. A local builder wondered why it cost more than about thirty grand. It smelt of inefficiency and back-handers.
Planning permission was granted for 141 new houses in the small village of Millhouse Green against the wishes of local people and our local council (is it ever refused?). I heard that there were in fact two lots of planning permission and, after some creative confusion, more houses planned than was originally understood. That sleepy village will be something like a small town but without the infrastructure to deal with it. Extra traffic will be added by Mottram bypass and Bridge End will become yet more of a bottleneck. Anyone entering Penistone from Huddersfield will experience more hassle in trying to join the main road. The national grid want to move power lines from the older to the newer Woodhead railway tunnel and this will prevent the possibility of re-opening the railway line but might assist the swathe of wind farms that are planned.
More houses are to arrive at Bridge End. Four more dwellings will arrive on a narrow ridge of land near to the viaduct, on a spot which was formerly a viewing point for the valley. A row of 'pointy' and very tall dwellings is planned opposite the British Legion, but they had to re-submit plans because of their imposing height. After re-submitting three times, they reduced the height by about a brick. They are playing some sort of attrition game with the planners. A block of affordable flats was advertised for Green Road but 'Saunderson Gardens' (which don't appear to have any gardens) in the same area are out of keeping with their more lowly surroundings. They look more like Kensington Gardens.
Four old people's homes in Barnsley area (including Penistone's Green Park House) were set to close to save money at a time when £3,000,000 of public money was given to Barnsley football club a couple of years back, with no mention in the 'where it all goes' Council Tax leaflet. Now they are to save £350,000 that should be spent on bringing Green Park House old folks' home up to standard. Sounds a lot but it works out at less than two Barnsley council executives (salary, pensions, etc.) at the current rate.
In 2005-2006, the chief Executive of Barnsley Council was paid £116,611.00 and his mate the Executive Director had £104,718.00, including extras (See Taxpayer's Alliance), with expenses on top. Mustn't forget the expenses. They must have similar responsibilities to the prime minister to be paid so much and it will have gone up since then.
The Showground was donated to the people of Penistone by a farmer but, somehow, BMBC acquired 'ownership' of it (stole it) after local government re-organisation in 1974, as they did our Town Hall. In the '90s BMBC drew up detailed street plans for a housing estate on the Showground. Now they have granted permission for a Tesco to be built right on the edge and 'Busy Bees' nursery wants another corner out of the recreational area, remote from where most of the young families live.
A lot of Penistone people want a new and better supermarket but they object to the proposed Tesco location. Mind you they also opposed Davmar's (same people as Dransfield's) earlier plans to flatten the vicarage and put a supermarket there. That was sold as 'focus on revitalising retail trade in Penistone'. As though planting a new supermarket in Penistone would give a boost to competing businesses. They even claimed 'highway improvements to increase ROAD SAFETY' (- their capital letters). So, if you were to put a supermarket near a busy junction, you would have fewer accidents. Anyway, it never made it.
Local Council Matters
Unlike Barnsley council, our local council generally do a good job. Much of their good work goes unnoticed and unappreciated. There are good people on our council who listen to local concerns. We might even forgive a former councillor for looking after his mates with the Great Yorkshire Pudding Fiddle on Yorkshire Day 2006 (discounted meals for members of a certain 'club'). But we should keep an eye on some of them and question motives if things go wrong ....
The Great Organ Blunder
Organ concerts are hugely popular and a great 'selling point' for our town. They bring in a lot of visitors (also called 'trade') and we need plenty of them. Unfortunately, a major fall-out developed in 2003 between the council and the Organ Trust. It started small and turned nasty and nobody would give ground. Even the routine maintenance access was obstructed.
An apology was demanded from an Organ Trust supporter about some allegedly insulting behaviour when the driver of a legally parked vehicle was asked to move it, in an allegedly domineering manner. It looked as though the 'age of deference' was well and truly buried. The Trust could not apologise for the individual concerned. Labour MP Michael Clapham offered asking the Bishop of York to arbitrate. That was rejected by the council and implied that they had a weak hand. The story reached newspapers and regional TV news, with much derision about what looked like a stupid and trivial show of obstinacy.
The Organ Trust became hassle-weary and talked of relocating the organ elsewhere at the end of their 2008 lease. Compensation was quietly granted for the organist's loss of earnings ('in camera' council meeting - 'in the public interest' - you know how it goes). Efforts to calm the matter down have since been made and the threat to remove the organ has reduced somewhat. I still don't know if it was enough. Let's hope that the best interests of our town will now be put first by all involved. It was a barmy episode that did no one any good.
The Community Radio Blunder
An odd situation. Council minutes from 18/9/06 resolved, without objections, that a letter of support be sent to PFM (now renamed 'Penistone Community Radio'). So far, so good:
52/06 Penistone FM - Letter Requesting Support. Moved by Cllr L Collett, seconded by Cllr Bradbury and RESOLVED that a letter of support be forwarded from the Town Council in support of Penistone FM's application for a full licence.
Yet someone behind the scenes had their own agenda to sabotage the success of trial broadcasts. It was a two-pronged attack. PFM posters were quickly ripped down while other posters were left in place. Then there was Penistone Show. The Show Committee has close connections with part of the local council (let's say they top up the same bucket) and tried to kybosh PFM's second Show visit (2006) by allocating them a dead zone while competing Dismal Dearne FM had prime spot. That was hardly supporting a local venture and raised questions about connections.
I suspect that there are two sides to our council - the well-intentioned public side of elected councillors and some influential but unaccountable people behind the scenes. I know that a certain amount of intimidation goes on to bully some council members from saying their piece. They are put there to say their piece, contentious or not.
They Aint Bad ReallyMottram Bypass
I admit to not taking much interest in this but many local people are concerned about increased traffic from the proposed Bypass. The large Thurlstone/Millhouse housing project will add to the traffic and the Tesco plan will bring in yet more. You should try to get out of the Huddersfield Road junction at peak times! Oh, and by the way, they are going to build there as well. With the announcement that the national grid want to move their trans-pennine power lines to the newer Woodhead railway tunnel, any hopes that the Yorkshire-Lancashire rail line will be re-instated appear to be dashed.
Some Mottram Bypass campaign groups:
http://www.stopmottrambypass.org and http://www.mjpatch.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
Boundary Commission
Boundaries will be re-drawn in a few years. Local MP, Michael Clapham says: "The Boundary Commission is planning to re-organise boundaries for the General Elections in 2010 and you will then be 'in Sheffield' for general and local elections". We are already paying big money towards a fancy charabanc in Sheffield called a 'Super-Tram', which I hear is a kind of bus on a railway line. We put trains on ours.
Quick Links
Planning Applications - the weekly list: http://applications.barnsley.gov.uk/service/development/weeklylist.asp.
Barnsley Council (BMBC) website: http://www.barnsley.gov.uk - for the Barnsley world, including a proposed Tuscan village called 'Barnsley'. Penistone Environment Group website has lots of useful information on local campaigns, etc.: http://www.penistoneenvironment.ik.com
