Quote:
|
Originally Posted by claytonender
I agree totally with what you are saying Willow the Whisp, why are Hyndburn Council not doing anything to control these unscruplous private landlords?
|
The Government introduced powers of licensing under the 2004 Housing Act. The officers at HBC were against licensing of landlords. They were supported by the Conservatives. Reasons such as no money, can't do it, were put forward as main objectives, though I think it just wasn't a priority.
With this lack of willing I did decide to put the issue on the Councils Overview and Scrutiny timetable and organised myself, reports from another authority (Salford) to be sent to challange this entrenched HBC view with hard facts. Whilst everyone at O&S accepted the Salford report as good, no one did anything about it afterwards. The powers were not influenced.
Not to be defeated, I have now set up a Neighbourhood Management Board consisting of residents and councillors in Peel & Barnfield and pushed for ELEVATE monies. We have had 3 meetings now and the residents are 100% behind licensing. In my view if we had a Labour Council, implementation would have been swifter, less costly, less bureaucractic and more efficient, and covered other parts of the Borough.
ELEVATE have said they will fund P&B NM Board. We are pushing hard for a draconian system, similar to Salford's but tougher/tighter still. This will be the start of a rolling programme and I hope all of Peel will be covered.