How did Yuasa Workers in Birmingham lose out?
posted on behalf of the Springfield Neighbourhood Association | 06.02.2006 23:50 | Workers' Movements | Birmingham
How did Yuasa workers lose out on the same employment, higher education and training opportunities as MG Rover workers?
1. In mid January 2005, Yuasa Batteries (formerly Lucas Batteries) officially announced that it would be closing its Birmingham factory at the end of the year with the loss of 350 jobs. Yuasa is one of the largest, longest established (82 years) and best paying employers in the area.
2. The factory is located in the Springfield Ward (an area of increasing deprivation) and Sparkbrook District (an area of high deprivation with an unemployment rate of 19% in some areas). The government has identified four neighbourhoods in the Springfield Ward which fall into the 10% most deprived in England and Wales. Three of these most deprived neighbourhoods are located between 0.75 and 1.25 km of the Yuasa factory. The primary cause of this deprivation are economic - unemployment, poor qualifications and low income (source: Springfield Ward Committee Minutes 5th October 2005).
3. On being notified of mass redundancies in Dec. 2004 / Jan. 2005, Job Centre Plus (JCP) and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) organised courses to assist Yuasa workers in CV writing, interview techniques and training in fork-lift driving, abrasive wheels (4 employees), welding and AutoCad (4 employees). The courses were trivial ('taster'), basic e.g. Information Technology, of very short duration, poorly organised, 'dumbed' down (Level 2 NVQ in Performing Manufacturing Operations) and unsuitable as they did not address key skills shortages in the West Midlands.
The higher education courses such as plumbing, gas, trade skills, etc., required workers to pay large sums of money e.g. £3,500. Some workers were made redundant in the middle of re-training and so were unable to complete what little was on offer.
4. Despite JCP receiving funding (Government Rapid Response Fund) to handle the redundancies, none of the workers was offered the higher education training that more than 2000 MG Rover workers subsequently received at prestigious institutions such as the £20m state-of-the-art Construction Centre in Bordesley Green. This is curious because the Centre was specifically built to address key skills shortages in the construction industry in the West Midlands (for its regeneration). As of November 2005, the Government Rapid Response Fund was unspent.
5. Former Rover workers who belong to the same Union as Yuasa workers (TGWU) received far more effective support e.g. wives and partners of Rover workers were given full and free access to training courses across the region; over four hundred employers were contacted in the West Midlands who subsequently pledged almost 2,500 jobs to Rover workers and almost 100 Employment Agencies offered help and vacancies. In contrast, only two employers of substance, Toyota and Honda, who are based outside Birmingham were invited to recruit Yuasa workers.
5. Since it was a large scale redundancy, workers were entitled to immediate access to government schemes and re-training programmes without having to wait the normal six months. However, since being made redundant in March 2005, some workers have remained unemployed and have not been able to access any government schemes or re-training programmes as they were promised by JCP.
6. Approximately half of the workforce was made redundant in March 2005 - a few were re-hired by Yuasa on short-term contracts on less favourable terms and conditions. When their contracts expire, they will no longer be classified as being part of a large scale redundancy and so will not be entitled to immediate entry onto government schemes or re-training programmes.
7. None of the local officials e.g. Roger Godsiff MP, nine local councillors and local council officials at the Sparkbrook District Office knew about the mass redundancies at Yuasa until the issue was first raised at the Sparkbrook District Committee Meeting in late September 2005 by Keep Springfield Clean Campaign and a petition was submitted at the Springfield Ward Committee Meeting in October 2005. For senior officials not to be aware of a mass redundancies in
their geographical area of responsibility is shocking considering the Yuasa factory is located near / next to venues where political functions regularly take place e.g. Springfield Ward Conference at Al-Furqan School, Formans Road; councillor surgeries and Ward Committee Meetings at Tyseley and District Community Centre, Formans Road. Moreover, news of the redundancies and closure was published and broadcast in local media outlets and even local Brummie historian Dr. Carl Chinn was aware.
8. However, Birmingham City Council (BCC), JCP and LSC knew as far back as Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 that there would be mass redundancies at Yuasa. BCC knew before the Union and Yuasa workers. It is curious that BCC did not cite the case of Yuasa when the MG Rover crisis broke out in May 2005 - the closure of MG Rover costing the West Midlands economy £500m. JCP and LSC are represented at the highest level on the Birmingham Strategic Partnership Board (BSP). Key objectives of the BSP are to achieve more effective joined up action in relation to regeneration and tackling deprivation, sharing relevant information and closing the gap in deprived areas. JCP and LSC also have representatives at a local level, namely the Sparkbrook District Strategic Partnership (DSP) which meets every six weeks. The key objective of the Sparkbrook DSP is to achieve more joined up action to tackle deprivation, poverty, unemployment; and increase prosperity,
literacy, etc. Yet the Sparkbrook DSP did not know about mass redundancies in the area that it covers and has yet to have Yuasa on its agenda.
9. Over the past twelve months, the BSP has been represented by two elected officials from Sparkbrook District namely Cllr. Talib Hussain and Cllr. Jerry Evans. Cllr. Evans holds six key positions: (i) Councillor for Springfield Ward, (ii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Committee, (iii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Advisory Board, (iv) Chair of the Sparkbrook District Committee, (v) Senior official of the Sparkbrook DSP and (vi) Board Member of BSP. Despite holding all these key positions, Cllr. Evans did not know about mass redundancies on his doorstep! Last year Cllr. Evans unilaterally suspended the
monthly Springfield Ward Advisory Board for five months without consulting other Board Members because he mistakenly believed there was no business to discuss! Yet Springfield Ward contains four
neighbourhoods that fall into the 10% most deprived in England and Wales and the cause of this deprivation are economic - unemployment.... In practical terms, this means mass redundancies by large and long established multi-million pound mass-manufacturing automotive factories...and Institutional Failings whereby such a significant event is not communicated by the relevant agencies to local officials; goes unnoticed by elected local councillors; and not adequately addressed by those given the resources to do so.
Kind Regards
Springfield Neighbourhood Association
2. The factory is located in the Springfield Ward (an area of increasing deprivation) and Sparkbrook District (an area of high deprivation with an unemployment rate of 19% in some areas). The government has identified four neighbourhoods in the Springfield Ward which fall into the 10% most deprived in England and Wales. Three of these most deprived neighbourhoods are located between 0.75 and 1.25 km of the Yuasa factory. The primary cause of this deprivation are economic - unemployment, poor qualifications and low income (source: Springfield Ward Committee Minutes 5th October 2005).
3. On being notified of mass redundancies in Dec. 2004 / Jan. 2005, Job Centre Plus (JCP) and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) organised courses to assist Yuasa workers in CV writing, interview techniques and training in fork-lift driving, abrasive wheels (4 employees), welding and AutoCad (4 employees). The courses were trivial ('taster'), basic e.g. Information Technology, of very short duration, poorly organised, 'dumbed' down (Level 2 NVQ in Performing Manufacturing Operations) and unsuitable as they did not address key skills shortages in the West Midlands.
The higher education courses such as plumbing, gas, trade skills, etc., required workers to pay large sums of money e.g. £3,500. Some workers were made redundant in the middle of re-training and so were unable to complete what little was on offer.
4. Despite JCP receiving funding (Government Rapid Response Fund) to handle the redundancies, none of the workers was offered the higher education training that more than 2000 MG Rover workers subsequently received at prestigious institutions such as the £20m state-of-the-art Construction Centre in Bordesley Green. This is curious because the Centre was specifically built to address key skills shortages in the construction industry in the West Midlands (for its regeneration). As of November 2005, the Government Rapid Response Fund was unspent.
5. Former Rover workers who belong to the same Union as Yuasa workers (TGWU) received far more effective support e.g. wives and partners of Rover workers were given full and free access to training courses across the region; over four hundred employers were contacted in the West Midlands who subsequently pledged almost 2,500 jobs to Rover workers and almost 100 Employment Agencies offered help and vacancies. In contrast, only two employers of substance, Toyota and Honda, who are based outside Birmingham were invited to recruit Yuasa workers.
5. Since it was a large scale redundancy, workers were entitled to immediate access to government schemes and re-training programmes without having to wait the normal six months. However, since being made redundant in March 2005, some workers have remained unemployed and have not been able to access any government schemes or re-training programmes as they were promised by JCP.
6. Approximately half of the workforce was made redundant in March 2005 - a few were re-hired by Yuasa on short-term contracts on less favourable terms and conditions. When their contracts expire, they will no longer be classified as being part of a large scale redundancy and so will not be entitled to immediate entry onto government schemes or re-training programmes.
7. None of the local officials e.g. Roger Godsiff MP, nine local councillors and local council officials at the Sparkbrook District Office knew about the mass redundancies at Yuasa until the issue was first raised at the Sparkbrook District Committee Meeting in late September 2005 by Keep Springfield Clean Campaign and a petition was submitted at the Springfield Ward Committee Meeting in October 2005. For senior officials not to be aware of a mass redundancies in
their geographical area of responsibility is shocking considering the Yuasa factory is located near / next to venues where political functions regularly take place e.g. Springfield Ward Conference at Al-Furqan School, Formans Road; councillor surgeries and Ward Committee Meetings at Tyseley and District Community Centre, Formans Road. Moreover, news of the redundancies and closure was published and broadcast in local media outlets and even local Brummie historian Dr. Carl Chinn was aware.
8. However, Birmingham City Council (BCC), JCP and LSC knew as far back as Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 that there would be mass redundancies at Yuasa. BCC knew before the Union and Yuasa workers. It is curious that BCC did not cite the case of Yuasa when the MG Rover crisis broke out in May 2005 - the closure of MG Rover costing the West Midlands economy £500m. JCP and LSC are represented at the highest level on the Birmingham Strategic Partnership Board (BSP). Key objectives of the BSP are to achieve more effective joined up action in relation to regeneration and tackling deprivation, sharing relevant information and closing the gap in deprived areas. JCP and LSC also have representatives at a local level, namely the Sparkbrook District Strategic Partnership (DSP) which meets every six weeks. The key objective of the Sparkbrook DSP is to achieve more joined up action to tackle deprivation, poverty, unemployment; and increase prosperity,
literacy, etc. Yet the Sparkbrook DSP did not know about mass redundancies in the area that it covers and has yet to have Yuasa on its agenda.
9. Over the past twelve months, the BSP has been represented by two elected officials from Sparkbrook District namely Cllr. Talib Hussain and Cllr. Jerry Evans. Cllr. Evans holds six key positions: (i) Councillor for Springfield Ward, (ii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Committee, (iii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Advisory Board, (iv) Chair of the Sparkbrook District Committee, (v) Senior official of the Sparkbrook DSP and (vi) Board Member of BSP. Despite holding all these key positions, Cllr. Evans did not know about mass redundancies on his doorstep! Last year Cllr. Evans unilaterally suspended the
monthly Springfield Ward Advisory Board for five months without consulting other Board Members because he mistakenly believed there was no business to discuss! Yet Springfield Ward contains four
neighbourhoods that fall into the 10% most deprived in England and Wales and the cause of this deprivation are economic - unemployment.... In practical terms, this means mass redundancies by large and long established multi-million pound mass-manufacturing automotive factories...and Institutional Failings whereby such a significant event is not communicated by the relevant agencies to local officials; goes unnoticed by elected local councillors; and not adequately addressed by those given the resources to do so.
Kind Regards
Springfield Neighbourhood Association
posted on behalf of the Springfield Neighbourhood Association
e-mail:
springfieldneighbourhoodassoc@yahoo.co.uk
Additions
How Yuasa workers lost out because of Lamentable Liberal Democrats
08.02.2006 15:34
Part 2:
How did Yuasa workers lose out on the same employment, higher education and training opportunities as MG Rover workers?
In response to a petition submitted by Yuasa workers highlighting failings by key State Institutions, Birmingham City Council (BCC), Job Centre Plus (JCP) and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) have provided brief reports confirming that they have known about mass redundancies at and intended closure of Yuasa Batteries since December 2004. When questioned why they did not notify the local MP, local councillors and the Sparkbrook District Office, they all cite the same excuse - commercial confidentiality prevented them from doing so notwithstanding that the Job Losses Protocol includes a framework to handle any large-scale redundancies and regular monitoring is carried out to provide an early warning of potential job losses. Early warning to who? Local officials perhaps? Local MP Roger Godsiff should have been notified by BCC, JCP or LSC or by his political eyes and ears, Cllr. Fazal and Cllr. Azim, so that Mr. Godsiff could have raised it as an issue as his parliamentary neighbours, Mr. Steve McCabe MP for Hall Green and Mr. John Hemming MP for Yardley regularly discuss MG Rover in Parliament.
We have to turn our attention to the role of local elected officials and question whether they should have known about mass redundancies by one of the largest, longest established (82 years) and best paying employers on their doorstep when it was widely reported in the local media. Yuasa workers could have informed local councillors but as explained at the last two District Meetings, rightly or wrongly Yuasa workers were under the impression that if they contacted the media or took strike action, the severance package that was on offer which incidentally was above the statutory minimum, would be at risk. With unemployment running at 19% in some areas of the District; discrimination in the employment market where even graduates are unemployed; and the long service that a disproportionate number of workers had, this was a risk that workers were simply not prepared to take.
Over the past twelve months, the Birmingham Strategic Partnership - a body which was set up to share relevant information and engage in joined up action to tackle the multi-faceted problems in inner city areas - has been represented by two Liberal Democrat councillors from Sparkbrook District namely Cllr. Talib Hussain and Cllr. Jerry Evans. In the course of our enquiries, we discovered that Cllr. Evans holds seven key positions:
(i) Councillor for Springfield Ward,
(ii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Committee,
(iii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Advisory Board (WAB),
(iv) Chair of the Sparkbrook District Committee,
(v) Vice-Chair and former Chair of the Sparkbrook District Strategic Partnership (DSP) and
(vi) Board Member of the Birmingham Strategic Partnership (BSP)
(vii) Vice-Chair of Birmingham City Council's Regeneration Committee (discovered by accident on 7th Feb 2006)
Despite holding all these key positions, Cllr. Evans did not know about mass redundancies on his doorstep. As former Chair of the District Committee, Cllr. Evans commended and signed off the first Sparkbrook District Community Plan in which he promised (page 1):
a) dramatic improvements to the quality of life for the District and its residents
b) no-one would suffer as a result of failing services
c) a thriving and prosperous district where poverty and deprivation no longer exist and opportunities are provided for all
On page 2 of the 2005 District Plan, Cllr. Evans lauded the District's democratic processes - the Ward Advisory Board as an arena for robust and serious debate. However, last year he unilaterally decided to stop holding regular Springfield Ward Advisory Board (WAB) meetings for five months, without consulting other Board Members, citing that there was no business to discuss. In reality, there was so much business to discuss that in March 2005 alone, the WAB met for three consecutive days. Even without the mass redundancies at Yuasa, the government has identified four neighbourhoods in the Springfield Ward that are in the 10% most deprived in England and Wales.
Coincidentally, three of these deprived neighbourhoods in Springfield are actually located between 0.75 and 1.25km of the Yuasa plant. The primary cause of this deprivation has been identified as: economic - unemployment, poor qualifications and low income.
At the end of April 2005 Cllr. Evans attended a meeting of the Birmingham Strategic Partnership where concerns were raised about the impact that the closure of MG Rover would have on deprived inner city Wards. Cllr. Evans is a councillor of one such Ward. Still he did not convene a WAB meeting.
Another Springfield councillor, Cllr. Mohammed Fazal of the Labour Party was so concerned about the lack of regular WAB meetings that he wrote to the District Director to complain but still nothing was done to convene the Springfield WAB.
Had regular WAB meetings taken place the mass redundancies at Yuasa could have been brought to the attention of local officials through the Prosperity Theme Group, received wider and sympathetic media coverage, particularly at a critical time during the middle of a national General Election campaign, and efforts could have been made to ensure Yuasa workers received exactly the same employment, higher education and training opportunities as MG Rover workers. Both MG Rover workers and Yuasa belong to the same Union (TGWU), both were from automotive companies that had been operating in Birmingham for almost a century, both were shedding jobs within weeks of each other and both could have been given access to the same Job Fairs, Employment Agencies, employers with relevant vacancies, Colleges, etc. Not a single Yuasa worker gained access to higher education training at the prestigious £20m City Construction Centre in Bordesley Green. Indeed, the job losses at Yuasa represent a mere 5% of the job losses at MG Rover so any additional funding that could have been requested from the government for Yuasa workers would have been a nominal but nonetheless critical amount for an area of high deprivation where the unemployment rate is high as 19% and where more than half of the population do not have any formal qualifications. It is also in line with government stated objectives to tackle the chronic deprivation in Britain's inner cities so the request would not have been regarded as unreasonable.
Therefore, it was critical to hold regular WAB meetings and to react in a timely manner. Another opportunity then presented itself for local councillors to make up for the fiasco and that was the T4 Tornado Report in which a formal request for £55m was submitted to central government to fund the re-generation of Sparkbrook District. However, the report failed to mention specifically the economic tornado that hit the Springfield Ward i.e. the Yuasa closure which will see manufacturing jobs in the Ward reduce by 50% leaving only 350 jobs i.e. Springfield faces a real danger of losing critical mass in manufacturing employment. Springfield's sister wards, Acocks Green and Sparkbrook have 4,000 and 5,600 manufacturing jobs respectively.
The questions we have are as follows:
a) Why did Cllr. Evans suspend the monthly WAB citing there was no business to discuss bearing in mind the level of chronic and multi-faceted problems in the area as documented in the 2001 Census, 2005 Sparkbrook District Plan and T4 Tornado report?
b) Did Cllr. Evans make a serious error of judgement in not holding regular WAB meetings, for which Yuasa workers, their families and residents of Springfield Ward and Sparkbrook District, are now having to pay the price?
c) Was it wise to invest so much power in a single individual when that power and position of trust was abused by acting in a unilateral and dictatorial manner?
d) What can be done to distribute that power so that the Ward and District can have self-regulating checks and balances?
e) What written assurances can be given to ensure that the WAB will not be suspended again in 2006 and beyond in order to restore the credibility and aims and objectives of the District Plan?
This is not a personal attack on individuals but the criticisms and issues raised here should be judged on three factors alone: professional competence, sound judgement and fitness for public office.
Springfield Neighbourhood Association
How did Yuasa workers lose out on the same employment, higher education and training opportunities as MG Rover workers?
In response to a petition submitted by Yuasa workers highlighting failings by key State Institutions, Birmingham City Council (BCC), Job Centre Plus (JCP) and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) have provided brief reports confirming that they have known about mass redundancies at and intended closure of Yuasa Batteries since December 2004. When questioned why they did not notify the local MP, local councillors and the Sparkbrook District Office, they all cite the same excuse - commercial confidentiality prevented them from doing so notwithstanding that the Job Losses Protocol includes a framework to handle any large-scale redundancies and regular monitoring is carried out to provide an early warning of potential job losses. Early warning to who? Local officials perhaps? Local MP Roger Godsiff should have been notified by BCC, JCP or LSC or by his political eyes and ears, Cllr. Fazal and Cllr. Azim, so that Mr. Godsiff could have raised it as an issue as his parliamentary neighbours, Mr. Steve McCabe MP for Hall Green and Mr. John Hemming MP for Yardley regularly discuss MG Rover in Parliament.
We have to turn our attention to the role of local elected officials and question whether they should have known about mass redundancies by one of the largest, longest established (82 years) and best paying employers on their doorstep when it was widely reported in the local media. Yuasa workers could have informed local councillors but as explained at the last two District Meetings, rightly or wrongly Yuasa workers were under the impression that if they contacted the media or took strike action, the severance package that was on offer which incidentally was above the statutory minimum, would be at risk. With unemployment running at 19% in some areas of the District; discrimination in the employment market where even graduates are unemployed; and the long service that a disproportionate number of workers had, this was a risk that workers were simply not prepared to take.
Over the past twelve months, the Birmingham Strategic Partnership - a body which was set up to share relevant information and engage in joined up action to tackle the multi-faceted problems in inner city areas - has been represented by two Liberal Democrat councillors from Sparkbrook District namely Cllr. Talib Hussain and Cllr. Jerry Evans. In the course of our enquiries, we discovered that Cllr. Evans holds seven key positions:
(i) Councillor for Springfield Ward,
(ii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Committee,
(iii) Chair of the Springfield Ward Advisory Board (WAB),
(iv) Chair of the Sparkbrook District Committee,
(v) Vice-Chair and former Chair of the Sparkbrook District Strategic Partnership (DSP) and
(vi) Board Member of the Birmingham Strategic Partnership (BSP)
(vii) Vice-Chair of Birmingham City Council's Regeneration Committee (discovered by accident on 7th Feb 2006)
Despite holding all these key positions, Cllr. Evans did not know about mass redundancies on his doorstep. As former Chair of the District Committee, Cllr. Evans commended and signed off the first Sparkbrook District Community Plan in which he promised (page 1):
a) dramatic improvements to the quality of life for the District and its residents
b) no-one would suffer as a result of failing services
c) a thriving and prosperous district where poverty and deprivation no longer exist and opportunities are provided for all
On page 2 of the 2005 District Plan, Cllr. Evans lauded the District's democratic processes - the Ward Advisory Board as an arena for robust and serious debate. However, last year he unilaterally decided to stop holding regular Springfield Ward Advisory Board (WAB) meetings for five months, without consulting other Board Members, citing that there was no business to discuss. In reality, there was so much business to discuss that in March 2005 alone, the WAB met for three consecutive days. Even without the mass redundancies at Yuasa, the government has identified four neighbourhoods in the Springfield Ward that are in the 10% most deprived in England and Wales.
Coincidentally, three of these deprived neighbourhoods in Springfield are actually located between 0.75 and 1.25km of the Yuasa plant. The primary cause of this deprivation has been identified as: economic - unemployment, poor qualifications and low income.
At the end of April 2005 Cllr. Evans attended a meeting of the Birmingham Strategic Partnership where concerns were raised about the impact that the closure of MG Rover would have on deprived inner city Wards. Cllr. Evans is a councillor of one such Ward. Still he did not convene a WAB meeting.
Another Springfield councillor, Cllr. Mohammed Fazal of the Labour Party was so concerned about the lack of regular WAB meetings that he wrote to the District Director to complain but still nothing was done to convene the Springfield WAB.
Had regular WAB meetings taken place the mass redundancies at Yuasa could have been brought to the attention of local officials through the Prosperity Theme Group, received wider and sympathetic media coverage, particularly at a critical time during the middle of a national General Election campaign, and efforts could have been made to ensure Yuasa workers received exactly the same employment, higher education and training opportunities as MG Rover workers. Both MG Rover workers and Yuasa belong to the same Union (TGWU), both were from automotive companies that had been operating in Birmingham for almost a century, both were shedding jobs within weeks of each other and both could have been given access to the same Job Fairs, Employment Agencies, employers with relevant vacancies, Colleges, etc. Not a single Yuasa worker gained access to higher education training at the prestigious £20m City Construction Centre in Bordesley Green. Indeed, the job losses at Yuasa represent a mere 5% of the job losses at MG Rover so any additional funding that could have been requested from the government for Yuasa workers would have been a nominal but nonetheless critical amount for an area of high deprivation where the unemployment rate is high as 19% and where more than half of the population do not have any formal qualifications. It is also in line with government stated objectives to tackle the chronic deprivation in Britain's inner cities so the request would not have been regarded as unreasonable.
Therefore, it was critical to hold regular WAB meetings and to react in a timely manner. Another opportunity then presented itself for local councillors to make up for the fiasco and that was the T4 Tornado Report in which a formal request for £55m was submitted to central government to fund the re-generation of Sparkbrook District. However, the report failed to mention specifically the economic tornado that hit the Springfield Ward i.e. the Yuasa closure which will see manufacturing jobs in the Ward reduce by 50% leaving only 350 jobs i.e. Springfield faces a real danger of losing critical mass in manufacturing employment. Springfield's sister wards, Acocks Green and Sparkbrook have 4,000 and 5,600 manufacturing jobs respectively.
The questions we have are as follows:
a) Why did Cllr. Evans suspend the monthly WAB citing there was no business to discuss bearing in mind the level of chronic and multi-faceted problems in the area as documented in the 2001 Census, 2005 Sparkbrook District Plan and T4 Tornado report?
b) Did Cllr. Evans make a serious error of judgement in not holding regular WAB meetings, for which Yuasa workers, their families and residents of Springfield Ward and Sparkbrook District, are now having to pay the price?
c) Was it wise to invest so much power in a single individual when that power and position of trust was abused by acting in a unilateral and dictatorial manner?
d) What can be done to distribute that power so that the Ward and District can have self-regulating checks and balances?
e) What written assurances can be given to ensure that the WAB will not be suspended again in 2006 and beyond in order to restore the credibility and aims and objectives of the District Plan?
This is not a personal attack on individuals but the criticisms and issues raised here should be judged on three factors alone: professional competence, sound judgement and fitness for public office.
Springfield Neighbourhood Association
posted on behalf of the Springfield Neighbourhood Association
e-mail:
springfieldneighbourhoodassoc@yahoo.co.uk