From Richard Hull
Wednesday, 6 August 2008

Is anyone else totally confused about the differences between Calderdale MBC elections and Hebden Royd TC elections??

1. In another Topic (Hebden Royd Bye-election) there is debate about what various parties are doing / have done / will do at Calderdale level and Hebden Royd level, and the debate presumes that political parties will have the same policies and manifestos and ways of working at both Calderdale Council and Hebden Royd Town Council. But of course, they don't. We all know that, but no-one will ever discuss it explicitly.

2. I have been trying to find an on-line map of the West End ward for tomorrow's HBTC bye-election, because I want to support the excellent John Rhodes in his campaign. But I can't find an on-line may anywhere (and I'm fairly good at finding stuff on-line). But in the course of searching I finally fully realised that 'ward' means something totally different for HBTC and for Calderdale. So, for instance, the Calder ward of Calderdale MBC does not include many areas that are within the HBTC boundary; some of HBTC's 'wards' are actually within the Luddendenfoot CMBC Ward. So there are lots of folk who are represented by one party at HBTC, and by a totally different party at CMBC.

3. I fully understand that the confusion results from totally different boundaries for (a) Calderdale MBC and its Wards, and (b) the various Rural Town Councils and Parish Councils. I also understand that Calderdale is deemed to be a Metropolitan Borough (and therefore by definition 'Urban'), and yet it still retains many governance characteristics of Rural areas (Parishes in Urban areas do not have precept-raising powers so there are no elections for them, I thin???)

4. It seems to me that these confusions are helping to perpetuate the ridiculous situation at Calderdale MBC, whose Councillors seem to exist in a microcosm of their own, with their own little squabbles and 'deals'; where some folk seem to believe they have an almost hereditary right to 'represent' 'their' Ward; and where the politics seems to depend more on someone's membership of this or that Club or Church, as opposed to open and transparent political debate.

5. I dream of the day when the people of Hebden Royd, Wadsworth, Blackshaw Head and Erringden just declare UDI from Calderdale.

From Jason Elliott
Sunday, 10 August 2008

UDI for Hebden Royd, Wadsworth, Blackshaw Head and Erringden?

Yes please!