Mick Coats
Green Party
Spotland & Falinge Ward
Your chance to shake up Rochdale council.
Although there seems to be more pressing issues at present which our thoughts are with, the local elections are important for people in Rochdale.
In these elections every councillor is up for election. You will have three votes to choose your local councillors (but you can only vote once for each prospective councillor.) This is due to boundary changes. In terms of the next General Election we are bizarrely being moved to come under the Heywood and Middleton constituency.
I am standing for election in Spotland and Falinge as someone who is both local and Green and who has lived in Spotland for 30 years. Over that time I have been involved with trying to get better conditions for us and trying to get the council to stop ignoring our problems. The issue of speeding cars has been a long standing problem, particularly on Edenfield Road and Rooley Moor Road. However the council initially refused to recognise the problem. Eventually they have acknowledged that there is a problem but we still have no traffic calming measures in place. I know that this is a serious problem because I live here. Myself, Carl Faulkner and local residents have looked for action from the council going back over five years, but local politicians from the main parties seem only to emerge at election time.
Another issue that we have been concerned with is the future of the old Turner Brothers Asbestos factory. Even the leader of the council said at a recent council meeting that everyone knows the site is highly contaminated, but the council have never acknowledged it as contaminated. Why? Surely it is not because that would make it more difficult to build on? Other political parties are no better and do not seem to understand the serious issues around this site. Something needs to be done as the site deteriorates exposing more asbestos to the elements. There are new owners on site now, and the role of the council is to monitor their activities, but council officers are not answering questions put to them. Not good enough.
As the local elections give you three votes, I am asking that you give us at least one of your votes so that we can make residents of Spotland and Falinge heard and find solutions to our problems. I will push councillors to pursue policies that will benefit people and the environment in this ward. Too long has there been cosy relations between the local political parties most who only appear at election time or where there is a photo opportunity. If elected I promise to shake this up. It would be even more effective if you give two votes to the Green Party and one to Carl Faulkner, the independent, who would make an excellent councillor. Other parties may be more concerned with their political future but we are concerned with the current problems that face people living in Spotland and Falinge.
Green policies are concerned with making improvements to our environment but also to working lives. We believe local labour should be used for local projects and developments, not people brought in from outside. No houses should be built on the green belt, with so many old industrial sites where we could build affordable and social housing for sale or rent on these. Nationally, we also believe in a much higher minimum wage and a significant redistribution of wealth. After all the wealthy have more to spare than we do. More information of Green Party policies is on the internet. And above all we need to tackle climate change or there will be no future for our children and grandchildren.
Living in Spotland I have been a long standing supporter of the Dale, and I applaud the steps fans have taken to stop the attempted takeover by some dubious characters from the south of England. Up the Dale.
I also support the residents of the seven sisters in resisting the demolition of their homes. It makes no sense. RBH, who own the flats, are also acting in a high handed manner dismissing councillors who do not agree with them. So much for free speech.
Please give me one of your vote and lets make a change. Take the opportunity of this all out election to make this happen. We have a secretive council who do not listen to residents and dismiss or ignore our views. We can change this, we need to, we live here.
Vote for Mick Coats, local and green.
