You will all be well aware that the Telford Housing Summit Report was completed and released in April 2010.
The fact that the housing summit report was released some 14 months after its released date is now being used as a reason to suggest its contents are either out of date or factually incorrect.
Whilst its late release could in fact be a legitimate reason, this does not excuse the fact that the great majority of Borough Councillors have not responded and no Parish Council has responded.
As you will note from appendix A, a reply from Telford and Wrekin Council Leader clearly suggests that any response from elected members throughout the borough, will in fact be made via the cabinet and / or through a future Full Council meeting.
If this is in fact the case, I feel it is vital that every elected member who is going to respond through this route is given the full information in order to offer a fully informed response.
This fully informed response can only be given by taking into consideration the responses offered by residents. To offer a response, without taking into account their replies would in fact be undemocratic and fundamentally wrong.
Whilst I was trying to gather all replies by mid May 2010, which would’ve allowed adequate time for all to respond, this recent development means I have no alternative but to submit the report early to ensure that residents concerns, ideas and replies have the slightest chance of being taken into consideration by our elected members.
Because of this development, the Housing Summit Response is not as complete as I would’ve liked and hoped for.
Therefore, the report is now being circulated to everyone who has responded in the first instance, the report response will then be circulated to all borough councillors so they have the opportunity to respond at full council with all information having been made available.
The last two steps will be to forward the report to the Council Leader, arrange a meeting to discuss its contents and future action and then I will contact our MP’s after the results of the 2010 General election are known.
I would like to offer my most sincere thanks to everyone who has supported me to date, submitted their replies and afforded me every courtesy when speaking with residents across the borough.
It is now approximately 3 weeks since the Housing Summit Report was delivered and the response to the report has been amazing.
All responses sent in by email have now been typed into one comprehensive report, some residents have used their personal experiences to highlight issues that require changing within the housing system.
Unfortunately, some residents have had to put forward their comments anonymously because they feel that their landlord could use their comments against them, I must say that it is a great honour for people to trust you in keeping their details confidential as well as trusting you to ensure they are kept informed about the reports progress.
We have had the pleasure of meeting many residents from across the borough who have also placed their trust in us to ensure that the points they raised are documented in a constructive manner.
The responses to the report are now typed up into a 35 page document with a great many of ideas forwarded.
The Housing Summit Report has been widely circulated with it being emailed to every Parish Council on the 9th April and every Borough Councillor on the 13th April.
I’m quite disappointed that out of 26 Parish Councils, only one has acknowledged receipt and only approximately 6 Borough Councillors out of 54 have acknowledged receipt and / or replied.
I am aware that the great many of Labour Councillors have already had considerable input into the Housing Summit which was reflected in the final report, but is it so hard for all these elected members, all of whom have access to a considerable amount of administration assistance, just cannot have the common courtesy to send a single email in response.
Parish Councils who have well paid Clerks do not even send an acknowledgement that they have received the report.
I know that in my email, I did ask for replies by mid May, but surely, out of common courtesy, they have not even offered an acknowledgement of receipt.
Why?
Maybe a Parish Clerk or Parish Councillor could offer an explanation.
Out of the PPC’s running in the general election, we have had the following response
David Wright – Labour wrote the report
Mark Pritchard – Conservative responded
Paul Kalinauckas – Labour responded
Denis Allen – UKIP responded
Alyson Daw – Lib Dem resonded
Malcolm Hurst – UKIP – has not replied to contact
Tom Biggins – Conservative – has not replied to contact
I can only suggest that Tom Biggins is ducking the issue which he has done for approximately 2 years and Malcolm Hurst just hasn’t bothered.
I would once again like to thank everyone who has responded and for the positive way everyone has conducted themselves.
Hopefully, I will receive more responses by mid May and one thing is for certain, I’ve come this far and it won’t stop me from taking the matter further, even if I have to travel to 10 Downing Street and deliver the report by hand myself.
“A Shropshire schoolgirl was so badly bullied when she started secondary school she dyed her ginger hair to try and fit in, her father claimed today.
Nicole Nagington, 12, started PhoenixSchool, in Telford, last September and dad Ian claims she was instantly singled out because of the colour of her hair and the fact that she wears a hearing aid .
Mr Nagington claimed the bullying became more intense in January and he came home from work one day to find his daughter had bleached her hair.
He has now pulled her out of school.”
The Deputy Heads response is very interesting
“But the school’s deputy headteacher Anne Keegan today insisted it had no problems with bullying and urged the family to send her back to school.”
The fact is, every school has a problem at sometime with bullying at varying levels from emotional bullying to physical bullying, it also has to be said, some students who carry out bullying are not always aware that they are actually bullying.
But the response from Deputy Head Teacher Anne Keegan is a typical response to the problem of bullying, Denial.
We have recently gained access to a Freedom of Information request sent out by Telford and Wrekin Council, which highlighted that schools in the borough had spent almost £1 million on supply staff in the year 2008 – 2009.
It just happens that the PheonixSchool spent
£119,519 on supply teachers during this period
In the typical school year this equates to almost £4980 per week being spent on supply teachers.
Maybe, Deputy Head Teacher Anne Keegan would like to explain why the school has spent so much money on supply staff, but more importantly, how this constant turn over of staff impacts on pupils.
With such a high turnover of staff, there is no way in this world that the school can create positive relationships with pupils and pupils have no one they trust when issues like bullying do arise.
I would strongly suggest that the Deputy head does not know half of what happens in the school because of the high levels of Temporary Staff. Temporary Staff tend to drift in and out of the school, they offer no continuity in teaching, they offer no positive relationships with pupils and often, as in this case, the school ends up with problems.
But don’t worry, the Deputy Head Teacher is in complete denial and yet again, the Governors remain quiet and Telford and Wrekin Council remain silent on yet another educational issue.
But they are quite happy to spend money on supply staff, ultimately papering over the cracks, but the fact is, its our children that pay for them being inept.
The xls of school expenditure on supply staff can be downloaded in the forum at
Telford Housing Report Update
