This one made me think

Families’ incinerator plant fears

A massive campaign has been launched to stop a recycling plant and incinerator being built on the site of a former factory.

Developer Sky Properties is drawing up proposals for the Green Lane Eco-Park in Monton, Eccles.

Plans to build 350 eco-homes at the site of the former Mitchell Shackleton engineering works were previously rejected by Salford council.

That decision was upheld by the Department for Communities and Local Government when Salford MP Hazel Blears was Secretary of State in 2007.

What ever your thoughts are, i would have liked to seen here and in other parts of the country eco homes, our chair is a the moment in talks with one supplier for Solar panels,any thing that can ease our dependency on fossil fuels must help, like many we must be worried over our resources. We are looking at the full details of the plant later today, i like many others have strong concerns over the siting and what causes it could have to  our health and with the possible rise in traffic levels within the area, the air quality must suffer, but if i had the choice i would have gone for something that we need for the future, homes and with the benefits of eco builds i for one would have been tempted to listen to the developer. Perhaps Mrs Blears if you had the chance of hind sight  do you think you may have got this decision wrong.Waht concerns me are we looking more at one more Bandwagon for the MP to jump on after the Maternity unit at Salford Royal?

 

New report debunks myths of ‘out of control’ housing benefit system

A leading housing research charity has published a report which debunks some of the myths that claim that the housing benefit system is out of control.

Much has been made in recent weeks of housing benefit rising to exceptional proportions but the evidence, contained in BSHF’s submission to the government’s Spending Review, shows a quite different picture.

Specifically the report shows that:

* Housing benefit has remained steady as a proportion of the overall benefits bill for around two decades;
* Nearly 70 percent of the rise in the housing benefit bill in the economic downturn can be attributed to the rise in working-age claimants.

BSHF argues that this is evidence of housing benefit behaving as you would expect – employment falls in a recession and more people need support.

The report’s authors do agree that housing benefit needs to be reformed in the long run. They suggest that the system should be simplified and the purpose of the benefit should be clarified.

But simply making cuts to housing benefit in a downturn risks increasing bills elsewhere, as local and national government have to deal with the consequences of increased homelessness and poor housing.

One report found, using conservative estimates, that homeless people were costing the state £26,000 each per year. Other poor housing outcomes are recognised as having long term impacts on the health and education of residents, which will be very expensive to counteract.

One of the report’s authors, Jim Vine, said: “No one doubts the need for reform of the housing benefit system but it is important to challenge these myths to avoid decisions being made in haste that we might come to regret.

“The recent increase in housing benefit expenditure is largely due to a significant growth in the number of claimants, which is likely to be due to the rise in unemployment.

“Therefore, the most effective way to reduce housing benefit expenditure in the short term will be to ensure that unemployment decreases and the number of claimants drops. Once this has happened a long term plan for a simpler and more sustainable housing benefit can be implemented.

“Short term cuts in housing benefit run the risk of creating significant social problems without even reducing overall expenditure.“

The belief that housing benefit is out of control seems to have taken hold at even the highest levels.

Just a few weeks ago the Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Freud, said: “We have here a system that now is really out of control, growing a bit like Japanese knotweed…”.

Source: 24dash.com

Question how many over seas students take up postions within our University structures.I am really getting concerned when our children cannot find places, one more question i think needs to be answered.

Pupils who do less well in their GCSEs face being squeezed out of further education opportunities as colleges snap up higher-performing students who have failed to get into university, the lecturers’ union warns today as GCSE results are published.

A domino effect stemming from the crisis in degree places could force out some of those who have traditionally turned to vocational qualifications at the age of 16, leading to a rise in the number of Neets – young people not in education, employment or training – according to the University and College Union (UCU).

More than a quarter of students who applied to university still have no place and vacancies are fading fast, figures revealed yesterday. Some 187,488 applicants were still searching in clearing, according to the university admissions service, Ucas.

Need help cleaning up any areas of land? have a good idea on how it can be used. then call us.

We will come down to any area to help bring it back to life. We are looking to regenerate small patches of land that have been left to rot by the Council, if you think we could put it back to use for the kids or community activities drop me a line on the Blog.If you have some time we need any volunteers willing to spend a few hours with us.

My thanks to the Young lady at Salford University

We were hoping to put out stalls over the coming year to talk to the students,but the cost seemed like it would kill us, the university came to our rescue and gave us a price i think we can afford. So i hope to be able to talk to anyone who can spare the time between lectures. The Chairman and the secretary of the group along with friends of the earth will be there. So if you wish to get some idea of what we are about call in for a chat.

well how this Government is killing small business

Yesterday i met with a number of local businessman in salford one case struck me above  the others. This gentleman owns a small factory producing windows he employs four men and supplies to anyone who calls in, we are not talking a major league player but for the last 20 years he as made his living but now the rules are changing and  he must pay out all most £20,000 to carry on his business,i don’t intend to go into more detail today only to say i have asked for a full breakdown of costs and the strains it will have on his business.he was talking yesterday of how after all these years he will have to lay of his men and buy from a major retailer and then put out his product at a small profit. One question how do we encourage growth and small businessmen when they have to compete on the same level as the Major players?Cameron asks for the private sector to take up the slack well Mr Cameron you and your government are cutting that idea of at birth just as easy as the banks did when they refused to lend.