Edward Carpenter
Conservative Party
Milnrow & Newhey Ward
Address
39 Laburnum Lane
Newhey
Rochdale
OL16 4LP
Milnrow and Newhey is a wonderful place to live; part in Rochdale and part in the Pennines.
I am standing for Council because I want to secure a brighter future for Milnrow & Newhey by tackling the challenges residents & businesses are facing. I want to address the levels of crime & anti-social behaviour in our community as well as improve the quality of local services, which includes better roads. Most importantly I want to build on the existing work I am doing to ensure our local community has access to good jobs, high skills & wages that enable a good quality of life.
I settled in Newhey after starting work for Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) four & half years ago. At RBH I have been working to improve the quality of services for tenants as well as seeking to help develop the local economy.
Prior to that I served 16 years in the Royal Navy; reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In that time I navigated a 5000 tonne frigate, trained the Sierra Leonean Navy, contributed to the military effort in Afghanistan & set up security operations in the Arabian Gulf.
Here are the top four priorities I am campaigning for:
- I want to protect the beautiful greenbelt by ensuring brownfield land is built on first.
- I want to tackle levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.
- I want to improve our roads & services.
- I want to grow the Ward & the Borough’s local economies for everyone & make sure the success is shared.
To find out how I aim to deliver my top four priorities for Milnrow & Newhey please read on:
Protect the beautiful greenbelt by ensuring brownfield land is built on first.
There are 250 acres of brownfield land in Rochdale in total with four sites in Milnrow and Newhey. Meanwhile 284 acre Kingsway Business Park still has a large number of its plots and units available.
These sites must be fully developed first, before building on beautiful natural green land. This is a principle that should stand across the Borough.
Tackle levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Feeling safe in our homes, neighbourhoods and on the tram is enormously important. Levels of crime and anti-social behaviour are far too high. Violent and sexual crime has over doubled in the last three years.
Even though Greater Manchester Police has a larger workforce per person than the national average, crime numbers remain high.
I want much stronger engagement with the Police and the Greater Manchester Mayor (who is responsible for them) to help the police to be as effective as they possibly can.
I want councillors and other community leaders to play a much larger role in publically denouncing crime; in the media and in the press saying “it’s not acceptable.”
I want to work with the community to raise awareness of what crime is taking place, its impact on victims and to see what the community can collectively do to prevent it from happening. We should not forget that we are both the victims and the source of the perpetrators.
Improve our roads & services.
There is a political consensus that the state of our roads is unacceptable.Our cars are getting battered; cyclists and pedestrian put at risk.It needs to be addressed as matter of urgency.
Whilst I have concerns for the long term sustainability of Rochdale Council’s finances, I am pleased to see that £12 million has been set aside to improve the roads over the next two years. I will work to ensure an appropriate amount of that is spent improving the roads that need it most in Milnrow and Newhey.
There are also many other important services that are struggling for resources.The Council has made £176 million of savings over the last eight years.This is while the number of children and older people in the Borough is rapidly rising. The need for services to keep up with demand is one of the biggest challenges that we must face.
As a councillor one of my top priorities will be to use my professional skills and experience to scrutinise Council business to ensure it delivers maximum value for every pound it spends (£204 million in 2018/19).
Despite this, existing models of service delivery still won’t be able to sustain future demand. So I want to use my fresh perspective to look for pioneering models to deliver services. For example we could consider adopting a Dutch community model of adult social care which has delivered improved outcomes as well as 40% savings. I’m also interested in exploring whether community grown co-operatives could be set up to provide high quality childcare and youth organisations.
Grow the Ward & the Borough’s local economies for everyone & make sure the success is shared.
This is my top priority. Milnrow and Newhey is a hard working ward and relative to the rest of the Borough doing pretty well. However services are paid for at a Borough level and so if the Borough’s not doing well, then none of us will get the better roads and services that we want.
In addition to tackling the economic hardship, we need to face the big challenges of the future such as: the ageing population and the introduction of artificial intelligence
Whilst we have had some success in some areas, I want to aim higher and go further.
We need people with the right skills and the right jobs.
On skills, Rochdale has the best sixth form college in the country for value added performance and Hopwood Hall is amongst the best further education colleges in Greater Manchester.
But skills without jobs still won’t work as young people need an incentive to get those skills in the first place.
This is where I want to turn to the Northern Powerhouse; a once in a generation opportunity. It is forward thinking, positive & ambitious and represents a real chance to rebalance inequality between north & south of England.
They’ve identified 4 core capabilities where the North has strong potential to grow:
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Energy
- Digital, &
- Health industries
Rochdale needs to be embracing these industries and aligning the community to support growth in those areas. Rochdale needs its new cotton and we should go out there and get it.
If you are a resident of Milnrow and Newhey and you agree with these objectives, then please vote for Edward Carpenter on 3rd of May!
