Updates

Not blogged for ages.

Pressure of work - staff shortages - but mainly because my burning issues have been in a bit of a flux. Anyway, things have settled down a bit so I'll try and update.

THE VILLAGE CENTRE

Finally got some response from Bolton Council re the spending of the £50k. Councillor John Byrne, the Executive Member who had signed off the spending proposals, had promised a review of the spending and a meeting was duly held between the Councillors and the Officers.

The upshot of this was that the block paving remained but signage and planters were to be included. Paula Connor, the Project Officer, subsequently attended a meeting of 'Love Little Lever' to make a presentation and immediately before this meeting had the conducted tour and was reminded of the Councils own projects within the Little Lever Action Plan, only two of which have definitely been concluded in the three and a half years since it started.

This same presentation was given to Public at the Area Forum meeting on 9th November.

I think that the Town Hall acknowledges that the consultation on this had been inadequate and it's just a pity that pressure hadn't been applied some six months before it actually was.

By this time the block paving had been started and should be completed within the next two or three weeks.

So -a battle lost in one sense, but we've still got the rest of the war to fight.

The Councillors and officers are looking towards the next amount of £50k from the District Improvement Fund due in 2011/1012. This time round, they have promised the proper consultation that didn't happen last time.

Personally I don't think there will be another £50k. Is it just me or do people not realise the scale of cutbacks that face the Public Sector after this current spending round?. I project that between 10 and 15% will be the order of things and District Improvement Funds of £100k per year across the four townships will be high up on the list of candidates. Same arguments apply to the Health Centre and the new Magistrates Court which has also been delayed.

Putting the £50k for this year behind us, there are still things that can and must be done before March of next year. The first three of these are and should be easy to achieve.

1) The repainting of the Walls
2) Moving the re-cycling bins
3) Getting serious about the ongoing litter and small scale anti-social behaviour. CCTV - Remember? -Fifty Thousand Pounds worth - Who's using it????

The Precinct buildings are still the main sticking point. I have said repeatedly that until the owners in person are identified - the people who 'own the money' (or not, as the case may be) - then there is no prospect of stopping the ongoing unacceptable dilapidation of the main feature of the Centre.

I have identified the Management Company for the Precinct as being Winex Services Ltd, which has been established for 14 years. These are the people the Council have been speaking to and who have said that they don't propose to spend any money, at least not this year.

The company's registered address is 8 RODBOROUGH ROAD LONDON NW11 8RY.

The directors are Ian Anthony Gilbert and Solomon Jakobowitz and a former director is Victor Winegarten.

The Councils 'contact' for the Precinct is Solomon at Winex Services and both Solomon and Victor are the people whom some of the Precinct tenants are in touch with.

The financial reports for Winex preclude this company from being the owner of the Precinct.

As I have said previously the 'Owners' of the Precinct, according to the Land Registry, are Miller Ltd - registered in Gibraltar. It may well be that Miller has the same directors as Winex. Anyway, by tomorrow, when I receive the Profile of this company from Companies House in Gibraltar, all will become a little clearer.

The main question is - do these guys have any money?. If they haven't and are up to their eyeballs with the mortagage company then fine - we know where we stand. If they have, then the Council must come to some arrangement with them to persuade them, or compel them, or enter into partnership with them to get something done to the place.

An interesting point:- Paula Connor has come up with a map from the Highways Department which shows that although the Precinct Square is private property is has been 'Adopted' by the Council as a Public Highway and so this removes the anomaly of the Council spending money on private land. Indeed, the subsided flags have been re-laid since my last Blog.

Just as an aside, the same map reminds us that all the properties from the Village Chippy up to and including the Co-op (R.I.P) orginally had little gardens or 'pallasadins' (spelled wrong) in front and the first three feet or so of the pavement remains private property.

Blog updates still to come. The Health Centre, Love Little Lever and my new burning issue - Elected Mayors

Paul