My call for a Council Tax Rebate for Leeds Ratepayers

I have emailed all Leeds City Councillors to see if any of them will second this motion for full council:

"This council calls on the Chief Executive to instruct his officers to prepare a report outlining the mechanism by which Leeds ratepayers could be given a council-tax rebate that is proportionate to the amount of disruption that the ongoing industrial action has caused to each household."

From this week's Morley paper:

Skips to help ease rubbish burden

SKIPS were placed around areas of Morley last weekend to help residents keep on top of their overflowing rubbish during the ongoing bin strike.

Coun Chris Beverley organised for the skips to be put in areas including the Glen Estate.

"I arranged this to allow anyone with excess rubbish that has not been collected by the council during the ongoing strike to drop it off in one of these skips," he said.

"The company I sourced sorts through all the contents of their skips to ensure that recyclables are removed and recycled thus allowing residents to also deposit recyclables that would otherwise go in their (no doubt full) green bins.

"I decided to take this action in an attempt to alleviate some of the problems that the recent strike has caused in this area."

Coun Beverley said he was also calling for a council tax rebate for residents.

"Emptying its residents’ bins regularly is one of the most basic functions of a local council," he said.

"As Leeds City Council has clearly failed in this regard, I am also calling for a council tax rebate for all residents adversely affected by the actions of the past few weeks.

"Saturday's activities appear to have been a resounding success, and I intend to repeat in in other locations around my ward should the strike persist."

The following letter was also printed in the same issue:

Thanks for the skips

AFTER speaking with a lot of tenants of the Glen Estate I, on behalf of the residents, would like to thank Coun Chris Beverley for providing funding for the much-needed skips located in the Carriers Arms car park on Saturday, October 24. Thanks also to Shaun and Diane.

This much-needed gesture was fully appreciated by people off the estate who yet again have ben failed by the Morley Borough Independent-backed Leeds City Council.

The failure by the council resulted in Coun Beverley taking the matter of the excess rubbish, particularly the six weeks over-flowing green bins, into his own hands.

Maybe other local councillors should take a leaf out of Coun Beverley's book, take note of his actions and get something done to resolve this environmental problem.

GERALD LENNON

Glen Road, MORLEY

Councillor joins Royal Marines for day

Taken from this week's Morley paper:

MORLEY councillor Chris Beverley has taken part in this year’s Royal Marines Commando Challenge in Bicton, Devon.

The event is an annual fundraiser that involves volunteers taking part in a timed cross-country run with various obstacles along the way including small tunnels and plenty of mud to crawl through, and numerous water features.

It is part of the endurance course which must be completed by Royal Marines recruits in training.

Coun Beverley said: “I was a Royal Marines cadet when I was younger and I once attended a training camp at the Royal Marines training centre at Lympstone, so it was fantastic to be back down there again for this event after all these years.

“This year’s event raised money for the Devonshire Air Ambulance Trust and the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, which are both excellent causes that I am delighted to have been able to support.

“It was a real pleasure, albeit a rather exhausting one, to take part in this event. The professionalism of our elite Royal Marines is recognised all over the world and I think it is great that they organise this hugely popular event every year to raise money for good causes and to give civilians a tiny taste of the kind of training that they have to go through.”

Anyone interested in taking part in next year’s Commando Challenge can find details at http://www.commandochallenge.co.uk/.

Fuel Poverty Campaign to be introduced following BNP Councillor's Intervention

The following letter appeared in the Morley Observer and Advertiser on 7/10/09:

Dear editor,

I am writing to inform your readers of a campaign to target fuel poverty that is due to commence shortly in this area. The campaign, to be undertaken by a number of partners including Leeds City Council and Groundwork, the environmental charity, will target those on low incomes to provide advice, help and support to reduce gas and electricity bills.

I held a very productive meeting with officers from Groundwork a number of months ago following a request that I made for their ‘Green Doctor’ project to be rolled out in Morley. This project has been carried out successfully in other areas and includes knocking on doors in an area and offering advice on how to reduce fuel bills.

This may include practical measures such as draught-proofing, or perhaps offering grants for insulation. I will be part-financing the project through funding that I can access through the council to the tune of £9000, with £1000 also being contributed via other councillors, and it is planned for the campaign to be run in conjunction with an initiative from Leeds City Council’s Fuelsavers scheme. Clearly the more organisations and councillors that can get on board with this, the better.

I want to see as many local people as possible benefiting from this campaign, hopefully before the cold winter weather is with us again. I am delighted with the progress that has been made in planning this pro ject so far and I look forward to seeing it rolled out in Morley.

For more information about the scheme I can be contacted on 01924 820 946 or by email at Christopher.beverley@leeds.gov.uk or by post at PO Box 116, Leeds, LS27 9WW.

Councillor Chris Beverley
British National Party
Morley South, Leeds City Council

Reply to a Labour Party Reject

An edited version of the following letter appeared in this week's Morley Observer and Advertiser:

Dear editor,

As we all know, when he’s not downloading indecent pornographic imagery on a council computer, Robert Finnigan likes to spend his time writing lie-filled letters to the local press about the British National Party.

These attacks do not bother me personally, and they facilitate a right to reply in the press that gives me the chance to set the record straight. Also, the more attacks that are aimed my way from failed former Labour Party career-politicians such as Robert Finnigan, the more your readers may come to the conclusion that if such reprehensible individuals are so strongly opposed to the British National Party, then clearly we must be doing something right.

Attacks on me are one thing, but by using this newspaper as a tool to attack, belittle, or attempt to ridicule any members of our local community who write a letter to the paper that he may disagree with, Finnigan really is once again abusing his position as a local councillor – and a very well paid one at that.

Finnigan grabs well over £30,000 a year of council tax payers money in ‘allowances’, and it is sickening to think that this individual believes he can treat those who pay his wages, those non-political members of the public who just happen not to be cronies of his party, with such contempt. Members of the public should be encouraged to get involved with their local residents groups and show an interest in their community. They do not deserve to be shouted down the moment they have an opinion that differs to those of one of their councillors.

In his recent letter, Finnigan once again told a number of blatant lies, including the claim that no consultation has been carried out regarding the establishment of a local lettings policy for the Glen Estate. As I myself spent a number of days personally carrying out consultation on this issue, and as a considerable number of local residents took part in this consultation, this is a lie that is very easy indeed to disprove.

The findings from the consultation and my recommendations were submitted to Aire Valley Homes for consideration and further work will certainly be needed before any such lettings policy can be introduced, but to suggest that the work carried out so far is a figment of my imagination takes the untruthfulness of Robert Finnigan to new depths.

For further information residents can contact me on 01924 820 946 or at Christopher.beverley@leeds.gov.uk

Councillor Chris Beverley
British National Party
Morley South, Leeds City Council

My Question for Full Council 16th September 2009

"With evidence pointing to an increase in the brutal practice of dog-fighting in the UK in recent years, can the leader of council tell us what the administration is doing to address this problem and whether it would welcome the re-introduction of dog licensing to help combat this problem?"

'Immigration is a problem' letter

An edited-down version of the following letter appeared in this week's Morley Observer and Advertiser:

Immigration is a problem

Dear editor,

There are different ways that I could respond to the long lie-filled rants printed in this newspaper about the British National Party.

On the one hand I could reply to every individual lie in order to set the record straight, yet some people may view such a response as acting to legitimise such untruths by repeating them and suggesting that they are to be taken seriously to the point that they are worthy of a response.

I could also use the opportunity to expose the true nature of the individuals telling these lies, but this is not an approach I particularly like to take in the letters page of this newspaper, as I know that a considerable number of your readers switch off when they see what they regard as councillors bickering with one another.

Since getting elected in 2006 I have tried very hard to work with other councillors wherever possible, despite many of them making this extremely difficult, and I do not want it to appear as though I am happy to sink to the depths regularly plumbed by those who will use any opportunity to lower political debate to the level of a slanging match.

With that in mind, I will not be drawn into legitimising the arguments of those who want to drag local politics through the mud.

I deal with countless cases of local people who are in need of council housing. I would say, in fact, that this is probably the most common type of casework that I spend my time engaged in.

The work I have done to put forward the case for a number of local lettings policies (e.g. to give local people priority and to reserve certain blocks of properties for residents of above a certain age) is well documented.

I have supported the building of new social housing and successfully acquired assurances that local people will be given priority for these.

In addition to this, I view the housing crisis in its national context. The population of these islands is increasing at a terrifying rate, and this is not being caused by our people having more children. The single biggest factor causing this drive towards overpopulation is mass immigration, and this puts huge pressure on a whole host of things from the NHS through to places in schools, and it obviously puts huge pressure on housing.

People who wish to see our countryside bulldozed to make way for millions of new homes to house the increasing number of people in need of housing in this country, whilst at the same time ensuring that ever more people come to live here, thereby keeping up demand, have plenty of political parties to vote for who believe in doing just that.

Those who do not want to see this happen and who wish to ensure that there is adequate social housing for our people whilst at the same time halting all mass immigration into these islands in order to alleviate the problems associated with overpopulation have the option of voting for the British National Party, as increasing numbers of people are indeed doing.

Councillor Chris Beverley
British National Party
Morley South, Leeds City Council