Anthony's Blog Has Moved

Hello Anthony's Blog has moved from here and is now available at http://www.anthonymckeown.info/blog 

Vehicle Damage at Christmas

Whilst Christmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill to all, it appears some folk don't agree with that, and rather than enjoying the season they have being causing damage to people's vehicles.

If you know any details on the below please get in touch with the Gamesley Beat Team via 101 on the phone or you can always report crime information annomously via http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/ :

[Reference: BG1882 - Damage to Vehs Gamesley & Charlesworth]

Police patrolling the Gamesley Estate are appealing for witnesses to several incidents where damage was caused to vehicles.

All damage was carried out between Sunday & Monday 25 & 26 December, 2100hrs to 0900hrs. All had front side passenger windows damaged. As follows:

CR/65887/11 - Ford focus - theft from vehicle, Edale Crescent, Gamesley
CR/65876/11 - Ford Focus - Damage to vehicle, Castleton Cres, Gamesley
CR/65880/11 - Mini Cooper - Damage to vehicle, Cottage Lane, Gamesley, Glossop
CR/66052/11 - Citreon berlingo van - Damage to vehicle, Cottage Lane, Gamesley, Glossop
CR/65870/11 - Ford focus - Damage to - Edale Fold, Gamesley, Glossop
CR/66038/11 - Renault van - Damage to - Bamford Close, Gamesley Glossop
CR/65882/11 - Kia Rio - Dinting Vale, Glossop

If you have any information or witnessed any of the incidents please contact PC David COLLIER of Gamesley and Charlesworth Safer Neighbourhood Team on 101

Reminder - December Councillor's Surgery - Tommorow 9.00am till 10.00am

Gamesley Councillors Anthony Mckeown and Dave Wilcox along with Hadfield South Councillor's Bob Mckeown and Edward Sidall are inviting Gamesley residents to join them for a coffee and a festive mince pie this Friday morning at their monthly surgery on Gamesley.

As well as looking for the usual complaints, grumbles and concerns the Gamesley Councillor's are happy to see local's even if they have no concerns and they are also happy to see or hear from anyone who may be interested in becoming a snow angel.

For local’s who can’t attend the monthly surgery on Friday, there a whole range of other methods to get in touch and let us know your concerns from twitter to facebook, with full details been available on www.anthonymckeown.info

The surgery will run from 9.00am till 10.00pm and locals are welcome to call even if they don’t have a particular issue or concern to raise with the councillors, it takes place in the Gamesley Resident’s Association Office on Winster Mews on Gamesley

Buxton 'Empty Homes' Project

At last nights council executive meeting proposals were put forward and approved for the Buxton Housing Market Intervention Project which seeks to use just short of a £1 million received by the council by way of the Otter Holes S106 contribution to bring back into use empty properties in the Buxton area

The Great British Property Scandal series on channel 4 recently highlighted the problem of empty homes and with in excess of 600 empty homes across the High Peak and just short of a third of them in Buxton and over 4000 people on the waiting list this initiative is well timed and also country to the view of the channel 4 series it shows councils can tackle the problem if like High Peak does at this time, they have access to the funds to do the work.

Essentially the project will see the council enter in to a partnership with a registered social landlord to buy empty houses in Buxton, refurbish them and then once refurbished the property will renter the market in an affordable fashion i.e. either for rent, shared ownership or some other variation.

The project will seek to return into use a minimum of 35 properties, with the exact number pending definition of what types, locations and amount of works required

Our nominated partner will also look to work with the council and locals in developing a social enterprise model which will hopefully as the project progresses carry out the work on the properties

We are also following the announcement of the government's housing strategy using the project to bid into the £100m pot on bringing empty properties back into use, which if successful will mean we can extend the project across the High Peak

The 'partner' the council will be working with will be revealed shortly as soon as the tendering / procurement works allow.

The week ahead (12th to 18th December)

Although we're almost halfway through I forgot to post earlier what's on this week.

Monday saw a working on housing issues, where jointly with the HPCH board we started to consider what the councils response to some of the housing 'tenancy issues' should be, ie things like should the council offer fixed term tenancies etc. A useful if not wonderfully well attended session which the comments made will be considered before a workshop early next year with a slightly wider audience including more tenants and bodies such as citizens advice etc.

Tuesday saw a meeting of te council corporate select committee for a first look at some of the issues around the councils budget for next year, this was followed by a meeting of the executive that considered amongst others items the report on the Glossop Halls, along with a report on the Buxton Housing Market Intervension Project.

Wednesday sees a day in London for a one day event at the Local Government Association looking at issues around the impending changes to the council's housing revenue account and what this will mean for councils, tenants and all involved in council housing.

Thursday sees some more meeting around the community fund review, along with the Gamesley Christmas Market and a meeting of te Councils regeneration select committee looking at housing numbers in the local development framework and th Glossop design and place making strategy.

Friday sees this months councillors surgery followed by another community fund meeting, before my final weekend of the leadership academy at Warwick University.

The week ahead (5th to 11th December)

This coming week will most likely be subject to the weather - if the expectations of snow cone to pass.

Monday sees some catch up meetings in Buxton followed by a look round the CESP works with HPCH board.

Tuesday is looking at the QEII fields initiative, followed by Corporate Select which is looking at Glossop Halls and a confidential report on the transactional review.

Wednesday has elements of Tuesday but with a different audience.

Thursday sees a trip to Matlock for a meeting on Community Safety with a meeting of audit and regulatory in the evening.

On paper it's a quiet end to the week, but it's still early yet, and with the way the weather reports are looking it could all be subject to change.

Graduation Day

Pictures for now - details to follow shortly

Glossop Public Building's

In this week's Glossop Chronicle you will be able to read details of proposals that

are been put to the forthcoming corporate select committee meeting around how we go about ensuring a better future for the various halls and buildings in Glossop.

In terms of Victoria Hall, the proposals are based around using part of the existing space for both a hall that can be rented out to groups and a council chamber, with the rest of the space to include offices, other meeting rooms and community space.

For the Town Hall and Market Hall, the proposals are around improving the building to better ensure the future of the market and improve both the Market Hall itself (and hopefully in my view at least been able to remove the current false celling) and the Town Hall which from a councillors tour early this year urgently needs work doing (photo's taken during the tour are available here)

Lastly, is the Municipal Buildings the current home of the one stop shop and various offices, most of which would in the proposals be switched to Victoria Hall, enabling the building to be sold with the proceeds to be reused in Glossop.

Now whilst these proposals may not meet everyone's view of what should happen in the future to these buildings - they do offer options for the future of these important buildings and I'd welcome any views either for or against.

CESP - Private Residents Cost's - Latest / Bad News

Following on from the good news of my post on the 16th November about the cost for private residents to take part in the CESP Scheme, I’ve now been advised of some bad news.

Due to a change in the guidance from OFGEM, the details I was advised and in turn broadcast via the blog about the price of the external wall insulation / render been reduced has now been changed, and the external wall insulation  / render has returned to the original price of £1050 (including VAT).

Climate Energy who are managing this part of the project apologise for this change which has been made by OFGEM and is effectively beyond the control of the Council, High Peak Community Housing and Climate Energy.

Private residents should now over the course of the next few days (I’ve been advised by weekend) – receive there quotation details including the cost’s for their surveyed works, along with a letter from Climate Energy detailing the information included (a copy of which is available by clicking here), and a FAQ sheet.

In addition the deposit requirement which had gone up to half the price of the works at the reduced cost has now returned to £100 for the external wall insulation / render.

I’m quite disappointed to advise this news as the reduced price was been well received and I can only apologies on behalf the various organisations involved for taking away the earlier good news and would note that we are still working and exploring options to try and get a reduced price for the external wall insulation / render.

However at this moment in time with the works now in full flow, this is the best deal we can get on this element of the works, which even at £1050 is still considerable cheaper than the without grant cost of £4,395.

Climate Energy now have a member of staff based at the Casey Site Office (what was the dentist’s) on the shops at Winster Mews who can answer any questions, and if you have any queries or need any further information, please let me know.

Tesco - Buxton Application

Most proably reciving a welcome sigh of relief from the many local's in Buxton opposed to the proposal, the news today that Tesco's have withdrawn their planning application for the former Buxton Mineral Water site, may well just be a temporary division.

I say that because although the application has been withdrawn from consideration by the council's development control committee, it may well just be a temporary reprive while they alter their proposals to better meet the planning grounds for that site, and as such remove any of the issues that may lead to an officer recommendation to the development control committee to refuse the application.

But to a certain extent that's an issue for another day, when or if they put the application back in.