As the Co-operative announces that it no longer wants to host the Post Office in the old department store on London Road, local Green Councillors launch a campaign to stop it moving north onto Preston Road. I agree that it would be a pity for London Road to be without a Post Office. But this campaign should not disguise the fact that Green Councillors have presided over a long period of decline in the London Road which will take more than a Post Office to reverse.
I was involved in Another London Road, a campaign which started when Tesco expressed an interest in a major development at Preston Circus. This plan was wrong for the London Road (being a massive three-storey mall with huge car park) and I was pleased when Tesco pulled out. Throughout the campaign there was a lot of talk about offering real options for what the London Road needed instead. But a year or so down the line, we seem to be in exactly the same position.
There is talk of revamping the Open Market. But when? This has been on the drawing board for years. Plans for refurbishing New England House and attracting new small businesses - but no action. And aims to reduce traffic, but no no support for initiatives which might help, like a Park and Ride scheme for example.
The ward London Road is in (St Peter's and North Laine) has had Green Councillors for 13 years. What have they achieved in that time? It's fine being against things but you have to be for something also, and able to deliver on it.
Labour has a track record of delivering in Brighton and Hove. Attracting creative industries here and establishing the city as a digital media hub is one - leaving us much better positioned to weather the recession than other towns in the region. The New England Development has brought much-needed affordable housing to an area in dire need of regeneration. We support a Park and Ride scheme to free up our city centre streets. And we don't just talk - we have made it happen in the past and we can do so again.
Oh come off it Tracey, you know jolly well that it's easier to deliver when you're the administration! Greens may have been in SPNL ward for many years but check with the residents and they'll tell you how much their councillors have done despite Labour and then Tory administrations. As a respected ex-member of ALR it's disappointing that you should resort to this kind of silly party political wrangling just because you're now a candidate for the Labour party. I think it would be wiser and far more honourable if you just got on with campaigning in the ward you're representing and let your colleagues in SPNL do their work. This blog is supposedly about Hanover and Elm Grove - are you so pushed for issues to report on that you need to wonder off territory? Come on Tracey, where's the fair-minded reasonable person we used to know at ALR???
ReplyDeleteHi there. Any chance I might know who this is?
ReplyDeleteI guess not. What a pity, as it's clearly written by someone who knows me.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with expressing a view about Green Councillors' effectiveness? Shouldn't all elected representatives be scrutinised and judged on what they have achieved? Isn't that healthy in a democracy? What bothers me about this post is not that you disagree with what I've said, but that you seem to be suggesting that I shouldn't have expressed a view at all.
When I was involved in ALR, I don't think I shied away from giving opinions, whether they were political or not, and I'm certainly not intending to now. Feel free to disagree, but don't tell me I shouldn't speak out.
London Road is an important part of the city, not just for people living within that ward, and I feel that the lack of direction there has been harmful. It's one example of how the city has ground to a halt through the lack of vision and action of both Conservatives and Greens. A Labour Council would have done a lot more. That's my view, and I'm not afraid of putting my name to it.
Tracey Hill