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Originally Posted by Graham Jones
Hi Bob,
Hi Graham & Bob,
As someone who when not in Church, works & resides in the 1st & 2nd most deprived boroughs in the country (Hackney & Tower hamlets respectively), I would like to make the following observations in response to the comments below:
I don't think HBC admisnister education, thats LCC. In reality though government dictat on curriculum along with independent schools, primarliy church, means LCC have very little control over educational standards.
Yes....LCC is the LEA for Hyndburn. And Yes,their role is simply to enforce & monitor central government guidelines and the common cirriculum within Lancashire. However, other than any role in managing at a local level HM Schools Inspectorate, I really don't see what useful job they have, other than play at bureaucrats. The best schools are quite simply those which have less interference from bureacrats - either independant, or as the statistics prove conclusively, where the Church (Anglican or Catholic) - is involved
I agree with Housing and would add this: we are about to pull down allegedly slum terraced housing and rather than build spacious green, larger houses to mix the tenure and household type we are going to build more shoeboxes. In which we are encouraging previous residents to move back in; the same poor people, or new poor people [in general], who can only for the most part afford shoe box housing. And we are building to almost the same density with, in most cases, lower quality build than the old terraced. You then have to question whether the small open spaces created in the new developments will also be quickly ravaged by nature and problematic individuals and lack of maintenance.
I have not yet seen any 'New Build' property in relation to the Elevate project, so I can only on speculation, agree and say that on past evidence the new properties going up will be of substancially lesser quality than what could have been done with the older terraced stock. Unfortunatly, the housing problem has been with us for years & at a local level, neither Labour or Conservative administrations have shown any imagination or possible solution to that problem. What appears to be hapening now is a tawdry repeat of the big city slum clearances of the 1950's & 60's. Everyone is aware of estates that replaced them and all the social and economic problems which arose.
I don't think we are breaking the spiral of decline [and knock on ill health etc..]. As market forces kick in and the economically mobile move outwards and upwards to fulfull their dreams, the new areas will be for those at the bottom of the ladder. We are in dannger of building the slums of tomorrow today in my view
Yet the property price rise in Hynburn was the 2nd largest in England, according to the Halifax a few months ago. Accepted,it started from a very low base level, but now that the average property price is £100,000 or thereabouts that is a simple reflection on supply and demand,on peoples incomes and their expectations on the long-term value of their property. So it can't be all that bad.
Low paid employment is much harder. Its a question of basic economics. If Hyndburn is lacking in educational attainment then we produce things at a greater cost and less efficiently. Less ability to enterprise, less new business's, less creative or cutting edge business's, less profit, less money, lower wages, more brain drain, higher costs because we are away from the Franco/German/Benelux economic heart/centre. If you made the new Techonolgy Park successful at Whitebirk then those people coining it in over there would then simply use their new wealth to live in the Ribble Valley and shop in Manchester, certainly not Hyndburn. We get a halo effect possibly. Hyndburn's only major employment market historically is to work harder for less. Two words; Express Gifts. Of course it would be great to break the mold but our neighbours in Burnley have the lowest IQ in the country supposedly and we're right next door. The answer lies somewhere between better education facilities, a quality university for East Lancs, attracting large scale inward investment with employers who build up a skilled workforce, and making people believe in Hyndburn as a cutting edge place, a place to live and work.
I really would not spend much time contrasting ourselves to the Franco/German Economic model. With the former currently going up in flames & the latter with 9% unemployment and both with a per capita GDP lower than the UK, there ain't much there to shout about. The simple fact, though, is that Hyndburn's economy - with above average numbers working in manufacturing - more closely resembles the failing French or Germany economies than the highly successful English South Eastern economy or even other micro economies within the North of England.
Twenty miles south-east of Accy is Hebden Bridge, which in recent polls and based upon various economic and social criteria was voted one of the best places to live in the world! Yet 30 years ago the place had much in common with Accy...a declining manufacturing base, rising unemployment,poor quality housing. Wht went right there and what went wrong here? Maybe it might be worth taking a charabanc of councillors over there one day to find out.
As long as kids believe smashing up bus stops and dossing all night is creative then there is little hope of creating wealth which is dependent not on a few people earning a lot but a lot of people earning more. And as long as people slag off destructive kids and wider youth, authenticating destructive behaviour as an acceptable sub-culture to those within it, instead of helping, then the longer Hyndburn stays at the poorer end of the scale.
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