Talking Politics by Councillor Peter Evans

Being instrumental in bringing about improvements to the area you represent is the chief desire of most councillors I guess. Some challenges are more long term, however, like road safety improvements at Summit, Littleborough where traffic islands are yet to be installed to augment the work already done.

Last week I again focussed on the flooding problems in Littleborough. This was highlighted on ITV by Paul Rowen MP and me.

Originally, the cost of putting matters right was directed towards residents - a princely sum of around £10,000 per household. That was soon quashed when the technical reasons for the flooding were revealed after residents entrusted me to pursue the matter on their behalf.

Now, a couple of years on, the cost has been muted at £500,000 by the council but independent estimates come in at £2M plus! This got Paul Rowen MP involved.

If £2M was levied on the council it would mean £14 for every council taxpayer across the Borough. I consider that grossly unfair when the cause of the flooding can be shown to stem from the work of a builder. This is not a political issue - it is social justice in the raw! I am keenly aware that all parts of Rochdale MBC are deprived - this makes it all the more wrong to force innocent people pay the price for the mistakes of others. The final outcome still awaits us. It has been a frustrating battle so far.

Pennines Township is a delightful place where local councillors generally work in harmony for the greater good. I like that! For years we have attracted less support due to having a lower deprived status than have other areas - using government calculations. There have been few opportunities to change that. However, now that more powers (with associated money) are being devolved to Townships we should see improvements begin to appear with the introduction of the new budget now being prepared.

I have never been a fan of the current system of local government which separates councillors from many front line services and which are now operated by independent companies. I don't like the fact that household rubbish is not collected weekly, I think there are health issues there. The resources we have in the Borough makes reverting to weekly collections a difficult problem to correct but I think it is essential it is changed before warmer weather arrives.

A councillor can only be as good as the quality of information received from residents. The people in the Littleborough Lakeside Ward I represent are a warm and friendly bunch, most are not against speaking plainly and openly. That makes my task a whole lot easier and also very rewarding.