You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2009.
Hacked off Kington residents are demanding that all their town’s councillors stand down immediately and have formed an action group to kick them out, ‘Enough is Enough in Kington’.
The town’s mayor has already resigned but confidence in Kington Town Council is at an all-time low following years of in-fighting and scheming.
Residents set up an online petition to kick them out with some of the signatories commenting: “I think those councillors are on the council for there own gain … and I think they should all go,” and “it is time that Kington got rid of vermin. They must resign.”
The council is now under investigation from the Standards Board for England but will a petition and a public meeting kick them out of power? Don’t wait to find out, Kington, get out on the streets!
And don’t make the same mistake again by electing another bunch of councillors; they’re all as useless as each other. Hold open meetings where all the town’s people can make decisions—popular assemblies—don’t put your power in the hands of the few.
Never trust a councillor!
The petition is at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Kington/signatures.html
More than 5,000 people are now on waiting lists for social housing in the county—with only 15 homes becoming available each week!
This figure is set to rise as the recession digs in, with redundancies and short-time work inevitably leading to house repossessions and homelessness.
Councillors are admitting that we are in a ‘grim’ situation, admitting that they are not doing much to deal with the problem.
Of the target 250 houses to be built in Herefordshire each year, only 35% are to be ‘affordable accommodation’, but even these will be unaffordable to a lot of Herefordshire people. Renting is now becoming a popular option but would-be tenants run the risk of poor standards and high prices from private landlords. The council’s inability to provide a basic human need to their electorate shows the poor deal we are getting.
Squatting is making a reappearance across the country as more and more people are finding themselves homeless. The media often portray squatters as dirty, drug addicted ‘scroungers’, but the truth is that many are ordinary people that have taken the housing problem into their own hands.
In the 1950s, Britain had thousands of squatters and homeless families who reacted to the governments failings by living in disused military barracks. Similar situations arose in the 1980s with unemployment and the economic crisis hitting many working class people hard. Squatting is certainly an option, with an estimated one million empty properties across Britain—enough to house the homeless population five times over!
Unfortunately for many people living in rented accommodation, some landlords will take advantage of the vulnerable situation many tenants find themselves in. Getting yourself in a situation where you are being exploited or mistreated by a landlord can be a terrible experience. But by letting others know of your situation, you may find that they have experience of a similar situation and may be able to help. The key to overcoming problems like these is sticking together and not feeling intimidated or alone. Get friends or family together and put pressure on the landlord to make improvements or let them know what you are entitled to!
A situation like this has no single solution and if the council continue with their failure to act then change will be slow. Most importantly more houses need to be built now. Demand for social housing is going to increase dramatically over the next 12 months and we are already in an appalling situation. At their current rate, it will take the council more than six and half years to house everyone currently on their waiting lists for a new home; nothing short of a disgrace!
Know your rights
• Find out your rights as a tenant by visiting www.adviceguide.org.uk
• Get in touch with your stories of Herefordshire’s housing madness. Email us at kay.bulstreet [at] hotmail.co.uk
First came the news that the Edgar Street Grid development was being put on hold, with a car park temporarily replacing the soon-to-be-demolished cattle market.
Now a top associate with ESG Herefordshire has pulled out of talks saying the project should now be completely scrapped. Commercial agent Jon Turner has also advised his clients to end all talks with ESG Herefordshire and the council.
Are these the first signs that the ESG development is dying a slow death? We very much hope so!
Many similar projects up and down the country are now being shelved because of the recession. Why can’t Herefordshire Council have the same sense with the ESG development?
But the state of the economy is really irrelevant—the people of Hereford don’t want this project to go ahead, recession or no recession.
From the start the Edgar Street Grid was never about bringing real improvements to Hereford; plans for new houses, the restoration of the old canal and talk of a university have all essentially been sweeteners to keep the locals onside. The core of the project is really about retail; selling space to chain stores that will turn our city even more into a clone of every other in the country. If we want big name stores, we’ll go to Birmingham or Cardiff for a day out—some of us quite like the quaintness of our small city just as it is.
However, we’re not blind and we know there’s room for improvements here, but they’re not solved by filling our city with more profit-grabbing multinationals.
And how can Herefordshire Council justify spending millions on more shops that are destined to stay empty when over 5,000 people are on local housing waiting lists?! There is a severe lack of social housing in the county and instead of tackling the problem the council just keep dangling shiny pennies in our face: “look at the Debenhams, look at the Waitrose”. We’re not interested!
No more shops! No more chain stores sucking the life out of our town! No more profit-hungry developers! Death to the Edgar Street Grid!
Last November the Rugby Football League became the first national sporting governing body to sign up to an anti-homophobia campaign. It is hoped that this move, seen by gay rights campaign group Stonewall as ‘ground-breaking’, will be followed by other sporting bodies.
At last years Olympic games, of the 10,708 athletes that took part only 10 were openly gay. A study carried out by Bath University found that between 2% and 10% of people are homosexual. If this is the case, then why is it that there are so few openly gay sportsmen and women?
At present the only professional footballer to come out as gay is Justin Fashanu back in 1990. During his football career he received homophobic abuse from fellow players, fans and even his manager. He received very little support from the FA. Sadly the pressure of being openly gay in a macho sport became too much and he committed suicide in 1998.
Not all sportsmen have suffered the same treatment. Australian Rugby League star Ian Roberts came out in 1995. The reaction of the sporting world and the Australian media was one of support.
But the media is not always that supportive. The negative comments aimed towards female tennis as being a ‘gay sport’ is an example of this.
This is a difficult issue to tackle, as many sportsmen and women are understandably afraid to come out, fearing the consequences. If this is going to change it needs to come from society as a whole and we need to be more tolerant of differences, and as fans, to judge by ability not sexuality.
The lead taken by the RFL must be followed. Groups such as the Gay Football Supporters’ Network also have a part to play in making this positive change. The GFSN aim to “promote the support and participation of gay men and women in football”.
The RFL campaign begins this month and includes the setting up of a forum for gay players and staff. Posters and logos will be carrying a slogan, which we at Heckler HQ fully support, ‘some people are gay, get over it’!
