“This started with the Town Hall in Hebden Bridge where we can see what a good job the local community is doing in looking after and developing an important local amenity” says local ward Councillor and Leader of the Council, Janet Battye.

“I am delighted that we have been able to approve so many – this is real power to the people and a credit to the hard work of Council Officers, and local people – and especially Hebden Royd Town Council and Blackshaw Parish Council.

“The essential ingredient in this is that local people and the local community really want this and put in the effort to make it happen.

“Great Rock is an iconic symbol of Blackshaw Parish Council – it’s on their headed notepaper – and this is the first freehold transfer that Calderdale Council has made but it makes sense and I know that the Parish Council will look after and cherish it.

“For me, it’s a dream come true that the Picture House is coming back to the local community. Nearly a decade ago now, we were mortified when Pitt St Adult Education centre was sold from under us and I vowed that would not happen again. It hasn’t and this is the proof of that !

“We’re especially pleased to support local food growing – making the land available through the Town Council at Sandy Gate and in Mytholmroyd”

The Lib Dem led council has secured the future of the Picture House by transferring it to the community

Calderdale’s various apprenticeship and business development schemes has already funded 100 additional apprenticeships and Janet Battye (Lib Dem) is enthusiastic about increasing that number.

The Leader of Calderdale Council said “I want to make sure that every young person has an opportunity to do something useful every day. I’m hoping to hear from young people themselves as well as businesses and organisations across Calderdale who can help. We need to do what every good family does when they’re worried about their children – get together and sort it out!”

The Deputy Prime Minister visited one of our local success stories, Heights UK a world-leading supplier of graphic arts products to see the benefits of apprentice schemes first hand. He heard about its latest product as well as met the workforce including apprentices. The visit comes just weeks after Nick Clegg announced a £1bn youth jobs fund which should affect 500,000 unemployed youngsters over the next three years.

Nick Clegg said “It’s great to see a Liberal Democrat lead Council paving the way of economic recovery and employment of our young people”

The Cabinet’s proposals for Halifax Town Centre have provoked public comment to which I would like to respond.

In my view, the first priority for a Council has to be to make it easy for local people to contact the Council – both in person and by telephone/email etc etc. The Council has been setting up “Customer First” contact points in some places across the Borough – first in Todmorden, then Hebden Bridge and Brighouse. I’ve been keen to see these extended into the main centres of population, especially Halifax where there have been a number of Reception desks for different services within the Town Centre. Officers have researched this carefully over the last couple of years and we’ve come to the conclusion that the new Broad St development, opposite the bus station is the best place for this.

Then there’s the vexed question of “what to do about Northgate House” given its poor condition. We’ve been grappling with this since we took over running the Council in May 2010 (and I’ve been on the various working groups considering this for the best part of the 9 years that I’ve been on the Council). It became clear that the Council does not need a large office block and can find office space for those staff who need to be in or need the town centre in other places.

As we’ve also been working on the plans for Piece Hall, we also came to realise that it would be possible to have a new library and archives alongside this – between Square Chapel and the Industrial museum, close to Eureka and the Minster.

And as we’ve been working these plans up, we have been well aware of the importance of the Central Library and archives to many people which is why we’ve tried to talk with people throughout this process.

So, there are two major differences between the original proposals and those we have now. They are:

• The new proposals are clear about the location of the Central Library and Archive – close to the Piece Hall and the Square Chapel and adding to what will be a vibrant cultural quarter for the town
• The purpose-built library building will also incorporate the archive, which was not included in the previous proposals. People told the Council that they wished to ensure that Halifax kept its archive and we have listened to those comments.

We haven’t worked out the details of what will go into the proposed new Library and archive and we want to involve people in this. I hope that there will be a range of facilities, including meeting rooms, IT services – and books !

It will replace a building which would require extensive refurbishment to make it fit for purpose. It would also require the Library and archive to close for at least 18 months while this work was carried out. We already know from our experience with King Cross and Hebden Bridge Libraries that more people use new facilities and I am certain that this would be the case with the proposed new library. This is a marvellous opportunity to put the library at the heart of a vibrant cultural area. The Council is also on record as saying that the new Library and archive would open before the existing one closed.

Calderdale Council is committed to ensuring that Halifax has a first-class library and archive. While 600 libraries are due to close across the UK in the next two years, we want to invest in our central library as well as retaining our libraries across Calderdale. I’m particularly interested in what we can make of our “community” libraries for local people.

The Halifax Civic Trust has also raised concerns about the proposed development of the Northgate House site, claiming that this could be out of keeping with the rest of the town centre. It has also been our intention to make certain that any new building on the Northgate House site is in keeping with the Town Centre which has many beautiful buildings in it.

If we are to ensure that Halifax continues to thrive as a place where people want to shop and which competes with larger towns and cities in the area, then it is essential that we attract high profile and well-known retailers. High street retailers will only come to the town if we are able to make sites available which are large enough so that they can offer sufficient choice and range of products.

The Council has a responsibility to ensure that Calderdale remains an attractive and vibrant area which people want to live, work and visit and I firmly believe that the current proposals will lead to better services in Halifax town centre.

Councillor Janet Battye,

Leader,

Calderdale Council

Janet Battye the leader of Calderdale Council has been leading the way on investing in green growth. She has recently been appointed Deputy Chair of the Leeds City Region Green Economy Panel who are leading the bid by the Leeds City Region to host the Green Investment Bank. “We’ve got a wide range of expertise locally in this, both in green issues and the banking industry. This would be a real coup for us if we win this” Janet said.

That was the promise of West Yorkshire’s Chief Constable when he visited Calderdale last week. Both Calderdale and Todmorden Town Council pay towards the cost of Police CommunitySupport Officers in the Neighbourhood Police Teams.

We have protected this money in thebudget and, of course, the Police station has now reopened.“Local people tell us how important it is to them to know that there are local Police Officers and to see them around”

says Cllr Janet Battye,  Leader of Calderdale Council. “It really is bobbies on the beat and not in the car”

What Janet asked the Chief Constable

1. To keep Officers in the local team for longer – He says he wants them to stay for between two and five years.

2. To support Neighbourhood Watch groups and he agrees that this should be done.

3. To look at siting services together such a Police, Fire, and Council services – He gave a good example of where they’re doing it and I urged him to look at trying it out in Calderdale”.

When I became the Leader of Calderdale Council in May last year, I wanted to make sure that the Council was open and transparent to the public. An important way of doing this was to introduce public question time to Cabinet meetings. Since then at each Cabinet meeting we have had members of the public, Council staff and Councillors ask question about issues that are important to them at each meeting. We do our best to give answers in the meeting but follow this up with a written answer, published on the Council website. Those present at Cabinet meetings are also invited to comment on items on the agenda as they are discussed – and we have had a number of representations made to us which we’ve followed up (and we have deferred taking decisions for further work to be done). I’ve also introduced this to meetings of the new Health and Wealth Board.

This is entirely different to the way that the Conservatives ran Cabinet meetings when no one was allowed to speak unless invited to do so by the Leader. They might as well have been sitting in a glass cage – we could see and hear them but not speak to them.

So perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised when, at a recent Use of Resources Scrutiny Panel, Cllr McAllister, Deputy Leader of the Conservative group, suggested that public question time is a waste of time and should be stopped.

I don’t think that Cllr McAllister has attended a Cabinet meeting recently. If she had, she would have seen that it is Conservative Councillors (and a Conservative Council election candidate) who regularly ask questions. Perhaps she should speak to them and stop them using this facility, or ‘wasting time’ as she might put it.

As I said in the scrutiny meeting, I am strongly opposed to this proposal by the Conservatives – if the public care enough about what we’re talking about to come along to a Council meeting, it is absolutely right that they should be able to ask questions and contribute to the meeting. It is my belief that most Council meetings should be open to, and involve, the public.

As long as the Liberal Democrats have a say in running the Council, public question time will be allowed and encouraged. It’s a pity the Conservatives have taken a different line but, considering the decisions they took when running the council, I can see why they would want to limit public scrutiny of their actions.

Figures released by the Government, show that over 40,000 people first started apprenticeships last year in Yorkshire. This is a 42% increase from 2009-10.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, Vince Cable, said:

“The growth in apprenticeships to more than double the planned ambition, demonstrates our commitment to delivering the skills businesses need to grow and young people need to build productive careers.

“We’re determined to do more to boost growth, rebalance the economy, extend opportunity and break down barriers between academic and vocational learning.

“Our planned investment will deliver some 360,000 apprenticeships this year alone, and we’ll continue to work with the business community to make it easier for more employers of all sizes to take on an apprentice and reap the benefits they bring.”

Commenting further, Calderdale Council Leader Janet Battye said:

“This is really good national news. Locally in Calderdale we’ve already put some of our own resources into increasing the number of apprenticeships by 50 – and half of the youngsters who took the places up had been out of work education or training beforehand, and half the employers had not had an apprentice before. So I’m sure that we’ll follow this up locally so that we can do even more.

“Regionally the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership is finalizing its strategy and at the most recent meeting (yesterday), we said that we want some “quick wins” and identified apprenticeships as the highest priority. I’m going to press the case for this. We’ve got an impressive range of businesses and opportunities within the Region – from banking and financial services, advanced manufacturing and creative/digital businesses as well as tourism, hotels and catering. What fantastic opportunities we should be able to offer our young people”

Our Liberal Democrat council leader Jane Battye said the surplus meant the council was weathering the difficult economic situation well and in a good position to meet future challenges:

“The council has a duty to residents to ensure that it is careful in the way it spends their money,” she said.

“But let’s make no mistake, the council still faces big financial challenges in ensuring it continues to deliver the services people have told us are important to them.”

The money put aside will be used for the following purposes:

• About £1.7m of the surplus will be used “to support lower council tax levels” between now and 2013-14.
• Another £2.3m will either be used to fund one-off projects or help keep council tax low.
• The remaining £5m from the surplus is to be set aside to help meet any unexpected expenditure during 2011-12.

The budget for this year was based on a large public consultation exercise and cross-party Budget Review groups. Calderdale Liberal Democrats believe passionate that local people should have their say in how the Council drew up its budget. We are committed to prioritising front-line services and working closely with other organizations (public and community groups).