When the first thing you hear when you get back to England are the dour tones of Peter Callow, it certainly knocks any remaining holiday spirit out of you. And so my day began as I listened with disbelief to a riled council leader making excuses for signing Blackpool up to an explosion of Kensington developments.
I’d just like to digress at this point and say that in recognition of Counterbalance’s labelling of councillor Coombes as the Commissar, I’m taking (clean) suggestions for a moniker for Peter Callow. It’s only fair.
To accompany this I’ve got Fylde Community Radio’s latest, hot off the press, interview between presenter Steven Bate and Jon Bamborough, who provides a delightful exposé of the dealings of Cllr Ron Bell and a summary of yesterday’s meeting (click here to open the player in a new window).
Callow publicly threw the gauntlet down to Gordon Marsden MP who has – in fairness – opposed the Moss scheme all along (not that this really means anything, as Gordon has been seen to switch his point of view when whipped – and I don’t mean by his partner).
In an angry tirade on Radio Wave, the increasingly rattled leader of Blackpool Conservatives challenged the Labour incumbent to come up with the money to demolish the run down areas of the town in order to build homes there instead. A seemingly reasonable request; after all, it is the party Mr Marsden represents that imposed regional assemblies and stringent house building targets upon the Fylde Coast.
Conversely, it is also the party that supposedly wanted in the early Noughties to encourage an “urban renaissance”: brownfield development rather than greenfield with the intention of reversing the exodus of high quality people from central urban areas into low density suburban zones.
Gordon Marsden had tried to push this case and queried why Peter Callow couldn’t nominate brownfield sites instead, and this was rebuked by the Norbreck ward councillor who asked Marsden to tell him where they were.
So Peter Callow is drawn between two swords. On the one hand, he’s being told he has to find a site for large numbers of new homes, and on the other hand he’s got no money to implement this urban renaissance so he has to listen to private developers. Should we therefore offer some sympathy for him, as he – on the face of it – has little option but to sign on the dotted line?
I’m going to piggyback a bit off Counterbalance here as he’s provided an excellent summary of the goings on at last night’s Marton Moss showdown at Talbot Square.
First of all, Blackpool South councillors were excluded from attending this meeting due to being tainted with suggestions of brown envelope influences. This was to be expected, of course, given the passage of events leading up to this meeting.
Secondly, the chairman was the inexperienced Peter Collins for some reason. The room was engineered so as to give the illusion that there was no bias nor whipping.
At the outset, Labour’s Val Haynes did offer an apparently sturdy rebuttal of the planning application and in conjunction with Fred Jackson a motion to reject the planning application was proposed and seconded.
Nothing could prevent the Conservative vote domination, though, and it was inevitable that they would pass whatever their party line was. You can’t predecide planning decisions based on politics, but it happens, just as brown envelopes exchange hands. Councillor Roy Haskell founded the Conservative argument in favour of acceptance, and a bizarre one it was too.
He said that people didn’t like the dead trees in the area. And therefore Kensington should be allowed to build 600 houses. I can’t say I follow that one.
Haskell then rustled up a counter motion to that proposed by Cllr Jackson, which should have been rejected as the same outcome would have been achieved by simply voting against Jackson’s proposal.
Tim Cox rebelled a little against the Tory line and attempted to propose an amendment to the motion which would have given Blackpool a little more money. Nobody would second it (not even Labour) and so the amendment dissipated. The planning application was then bulldozed through and is now in the hands of the Government.
It’s a well documented political stitch up and nobody is surprised at the outcome. Peter Callow and his followers must hang their heads in shame. He seems unsure which side he wants to be on. On the one hand, he’s shopping Ron Bell to the press for seeking and accepting brown envelopes from Kensington, and on the other he’s determined to use the Conservative block vote to push their planning application through.
If they’re going to stage meetings like this, they may as well make Malcolm Hawe the council leader and Denley Barrow the chief executive and not bother with a council at all. It’s save a few quid, at least.
But seriously if Mr Callow wants to build a real legacy, he should instead seek to bring poor areas into a modern standard instead of selling the town short, taking the easy option just to get his council a bit of money to fritter away.
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Callow is a gutless feckless degenerate slimebag coward;he stands for nobody but his rotten scummy self.If this isnt an example to serve as to why you should NOT vote for either of these rancid vile rotten tweedledum/tweedledee parties, I dont know what is.Its a shame the elections arent being applied to Blackpool council.The Talbot “Gateway”, the tram depot,south shore railway truncation,St Johns square, Preston legal fees and so on.All of these were controversial decisions, all steeped in crassness and a truly massive lack of vision.
We still havent got a CONFERENCE centre, where is that big project to kickstart REGENERATION.
Callow’s equation: Managed Decline = Mismanaged Regeneration.
Surely any Blackpool tory supporter MUST concede that Callow and his fat hideous mound of scaly skinned freak of a wife have to go.They have brought shame upon Blackpool.These 2 knuckle dragging salivating geriatrics are a national debasement.We deserve better.
Callow = Fisher = SCUM
Bring on the INTEGRITY candidates and give us HOPE, give us VISION, give us PRIDE and above all give us BLACKPOOL back to its rightfull owners, the proper people who live, contribute and love the town.
Rant over.
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The Callows may not be perfect but I don’t want a Labour council getting back in especially with that smug, arrogant little twerp Blackburn at the helm. How can anyone with a name like that lead Blackpool? (Sorry couldn’t resist a swipe at davie@layton’s childish attack on Paul Maynard). But seriously I don’t want Blackburn as Council Leader, Roy Fisher Mark II. I wish Blackpool were more like Fylde where when people are disillusioned with a Conservative council they don’t make the grave error of turning to Liebour, they vote for independents and other parties.
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TB, both parties, labour and tory have fucked Blackpool, remember that cooked cunt Tom Percival?
If the people of blackpool vote in either a tory or labour administration next time,they are committing suicide, and imho deservedly so.Neither must be allowed in again.
Bring on the lib dems,integrity and people like Bill Lewtas.
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Surly things aren’t that bad Harold that the Lib-Dems are a option LOL.
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An alliance of lib dems,independents/integrity and stalwarts like Bill Lewtas would do nicely, with Robert Wynne at the helm.
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I agree there, like I said earlier Robert Wynne is an excellent councillor and Jon Bamborough sounded great on the radio broadcase I would happily welcome him and Mr Bate back on the Council, I would love to see Integrity and independents become more prominent.
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I can name some brown sites that could be redevolped.
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I agree that Brownfield sites should be developed. If I had my way I would level Foxhall in its rundown entirety and redevelop it also Central Drive. I just wish we could attract the major private developers to do the job.
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With the crap sucking Callows and fucktard Fishers of this world, no chance.Bring on Bob Wynne.
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No developers are going to develop land like this while the council is giving away land like the moss.
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Well said John,Callows conserve nothing, except them rotten selves.
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Like I say if I had my way I would slap a Compuslory Purchase Order on all of Foxhall from Rigby Road to Chapel St and level the area and let private developers do their magic. The Government has proven they don’t give a toss about Blackpool yet again with the college fiasco. They are clearly not willing to invest in Blackpool. I understand since Labour has wrecked the economy and the funds are short, but even the money was there they never invested in Blackpool just insulted us with old money repackaged.
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Labour is London centric,High speed rail and the olympics confirm that, I fucking hate labour: SCUM.
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But the Moss land will be very cheap. Agricultural land is incredibly cheap (not sure what the classification is) compared to land already with outline permission for residential use. And you don’t even have to knock anything down before you can start building. No private developer is ever going to choose brownfield over agricultural or greenbelt. Well not one that doesn’t want to go bankrupt as opposed to making massive profits and I can’t imagine many of those being around.
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http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/39No-whip39-in-Moss-vote.6185575.jp
ROTTEN LYING BASTARDS!
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Which is worst being bullied into following the party line or just not caring about the people you were elected to represent?
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If you allow yourself to be bullied, that means that you dont care enough about those who elected you in the first place.On that point alone,you are not fit for purpose.
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good point
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How about SLEDGEHAMMER Callow as is moniker, because is administration never seem to build anything just keeps knocking buildings down and plenty of talk about the future development of Blackpool which is a long way off from materialising.
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Didlo?
he likes to fuck the electorate.
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[...] Joe Robinson at the Gasjet has today revealed that the minutes of the infamous Marton Moss meeting a fortnight or so ago have been doctored before being sent to Government Office [...]
[...] pissing in the wind because he knows full well that his council colleagues have in recent weeks approved all the plans to build [...]