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Larches Community Web Site: Archive. If you can't find a story or email that was recently on the web site, it will probably be here. If you still can't find it, please email us.
More updates from Cllr. Fitzgerald.
Another 'pat on the back' for Independent Councillor, Joe Fitzgerald. See below for details.
Yet again, we have had no correspondence from other party members, maybe they feel that we, as residents, are incapable of understanding political and local issues.
Cllr. Elaine Abbot, from what we read from Joe Fitzgerald's reports (and we have no reasons to doubt), seems once again, to want to run the spotlight - even though the majority of the estate feel her initial, and now infamous "Bronx" comments have damaged the estate. She seems incapable of taking responsibility for her own actions.
It is clear, however, that the residents, and in a couple of case's, people in responsibility, refuse to let our estates be condemned, and congratulations also must go to local newsagent - Mr. Arthur Sumner.
Please see below for Joe Fitzgerald's recent additions to the web site. PRESS RELEASE Contact: Cllr Joe Fitzgerald 464131( home) 07780965830 (mobile) NEW ERA FOR TROUBLED COUNCIL ESTATEAt a meeting last night (Tuesday ) on the Larches estate recently branded a “BRONX” Independent ward Councillor Joe Fitzgerald had organised a public meeting to allow the people of both Larches and Savick to make their stance and form their very own tenants and residents association which have proved successful in other areas of the town. At that packed meeting attended by Councillor Joe Fitzgerald, Local Businesses and the police the Local people elected their first ever Chairman for the area and where seeking to elect a secretary and Treaserer,but decided on a forum meeting made up of a small number of local residents,and home owners to be more active what happened within the area of Larches and Savick with the elected person at the threshold as Chairman. The elected person as chairman runs the Local Newsagent on Savick he is called Mr Arthur Sumner of Sumner News agency Birkdale drive Savick. Mr Arthur Sumner spoke of cleaning up the area of youth behaviour and to work closely with The ward Councillors on estate matters,he also spoke to involve the police more and that what really matters that the community pull together to solve the problems on the troubled estates. In attendance at the meting last night was the Inspector of police Ian Pilling based at Lea Police station who spoke at the meeting and said “ Lea police have been successful in obtaining two extra police officers for community beat duties and that they will continue to support the new forum that has come from the meeting this evening and that they had a successful meeting recently with Cllr Fitzgerald and Mr Sam Chapman Community safety officer Preston Borough Council at the town hall to address the youth problems in greater detail and work together to fight the situation head on” Councillor Fitzgerald said “ I am glad that endless of ward meeting with the local residents and that of the police at Lea have paid off,I congratulate Mr Sumner on his new role as Larches and Savick community chairman and look forward to working closely with him on the most important key issues on the estate,My thanks also go out to the local police inspector who has worked extremely hard to get extra community bobbies back on the estate to make the place a cleaner and safer place to live and as ward Councillor I look forward to working with the new community forum to address their key issues” Mr Sumner has indicated that he remains non political and will work which ever Councillor represents the area his main goal is to rid the bad publicity branded a BRONX on the Larches estate and to clean up both areas of Savick and Larches. MR SUMNER CAN BE CONTACTED ON: 01772 729811 INSPECTOR PILLING LEA POLICE 01772 203203 ENDS……….. Hi Just to inform you that my recent ward newsletter currently being distributed to every household on the Larches and Savick,I have put your web site address on and that I was supporting your issue. I hope that you do not mind and it may attract more visitors to view the site. I told you I would keep you informed and happy that I can be seen to support your cause for the Community. P.S I hope that you received a copy of the press release sent out in relation to the elected chairman which took place on the 6 March,once again Cllr Abbott took all the credit at the meeting and that in the Lancashire evening post,she never even made a comment that it was indeed myself who organised and did all the hard work. GOOD NEWS ! LARCHES AND SAVICK ARE TO RECEIVE TWO EXTRA POLICE COMMUNITY BOBBIES FOR BEAT WORK. AFTER I HAD A MEETING ON THE MARCH 1 WITH PRESTON BOROUGH COUNCIL COMMUNITY SAFETY OFFICERS AND THE LOCAL POLICE INSPECTOR TO DISCUSS WAYS OF IMPROVING THE ESTATE. * GOOD RESULT * You may want to make a comment on that issue when you next update your site. I will keep you posted on any new issues that arise. Councillor Joe Fitzgerald Independent - Larches ward
The Presbytery 64 Larches Lane Preston PR2 1PP
e-mail Simon@shawksworth.freeserve.co.uk
Dear Larches Community Website,
Many thanks for your letter with the accompanying leaflets which I will gladly make available to my parishioners. I read the article in the LEP with some bemusement! Having worked on the 'Raffles Estate' in Carlisle and central Blackpool, I can honestly say that the Larches (or certainly Larches Lane) is one of the quietest places I have lived. It is true that a group of youngsters do hang about the late shop causing a nuisance but I feel that the LEP seemed to tar the whole of the estate with the problem.
Incidences of vandalism to Our Lady & St. Bernard's Church and St. Bernard's Men's Club are fortunately not too much of a problem at the moment but I am grateful for your efforts to combat the anti-social behaviour and if I or my congregation can be of any assistance please let me know.
Yours sincerely,
Fr. Simon D. Hawksworth This web site was featured in a follow-up article in the Lancashire Evening Post on Saturday 13th January, see below. "Bronx" families harness hi-tech help over thugs. ..."Now one group of residents is taking a stand and has setup a special website to rally concerned people to tackle the problem. A spokesman said "We have decided that enough is enough, and its time to have a voice in the community. We need to take control of our community again.
"The only way we can do this is to get together and stop the yob culture taking over our streets.
"I would like to inform your readers about a new website which was prompted by the story.
Negative
"The website can be found at http://dreamwater.org/larches/ [recently moved to http://larches.20m.com] and can also be e-mailed on larches_c@hotmail.com.
"The website will not only be for the negative stories of Larches but also a chance for people to post fun events which are happening in the area, or clubs and schools to advertise free of charge." Lancashire Evening Post: Saturday 13th January 2001
Invitation.
Larches Community Web Site have invited the LEP to do a follow-up article on the Larches in six months time.
Councillor's not counseling?
Cllr. Joe Fitzgerald has emailed us again with more information about our community. Please see below.
We maintain an non-bias political view on our web site, but, it may seem that we only post issues from Cllr. Fitzgerald. This is not because we feel that Cllr. Fitzgerald's issues are the only one's worth publishing, it's because we ONLY get regular information and updates from Cllr. Fitzgerald.
All our local Cllr's are aware of the site, and have full details of how to contact us.
We would like you to draw your own conclusions from this.
See also: Email 12 Feb 2001
Email from Cllr Fitzgerald. 22 Feb 2001
Hi I have some update news as promised for you to deliver on your site that the residents of both Larches and Savick will be most interested in reading.
Firstly the issue on the disqualified Liberal Councillor this Councillor who was elected in 1998 to serve both Larches and Savick has failed to represent the urgent key issues on the estate and has not attended any Council committee since May 2000 to speak on behalf of the people who elected him, but yet he claimed over £2,403.39 since being elected in the basic allowance councillors receive each month.
Broken down that means he received of tax payer money
£873.96 from May 1998-May 1999 £873.96 from May 1999-May 2000 £655.47 from May 2000- date of disqualification( Feb 2001)
Total £ 2,403.39 for Doing absolutely nothing to represent the people of Larches.
Yet the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Bill Chadwick is putting leaflets out around Larches saying it would cost £3,500 for a by election.
The people of Larches should decide do they feel that they have been under represented and that it's wrong for their invisible Liberal Councillor to claim for being a councillor and doing nothing to speak or fight for issues which effect the ward.
On another subject I would also like to update you that Today (Thursday 22 February 2001) ALL COUNCILLORS MET AT FULL COUNCIL TO SET THE BUDGETS FOR 2001/2002.
I feel it very important that you are made aware that the Liberal Democrats ( Cllr Kath Derbyshire ) and Labour ( Cllr Elaine Abbot ) voted together with their group to increase the Council tax for the people of Larches by 3.3%.
I however took my view to heart and voted for a NIL increase on behalf of the people of Larches and Savick but the Liberal Democrats couldn't care less about the Larches People having to pay more Council tax for this coming year and voted for the big increase.
I would also like to announce that the Larches By-Election will take place on THURSDAY 29 MARCH 2001.
I would certainly hope that you would be able to put something on your web site what the Liberals have voted for in respect of the 3.3% council tax increase.
I also give my consent for you to display this E-mail when you update your site again.
I hope that I have been able to keep you updated on behalf of the Larches and Savick residents, More to follow when I have further information for you.
Until then I hope to hear from you via E-mail should you require further information.
Councillor Joe Fitzgerald Larches ward Preston Borough Council Just to update you on matters from the Council in relation to the Larches and Savick estate. You may want to update the WebPages.
A Liberal Councillor who was elected in 1998 has been disqualified from representing Larches due to him not attending any Council meetings or representing the Larches ward people his name is John Willacy the same party as Kath Derbyshire represents on the Council.
The post for someone to stand as a Councillor will be announced after it has gone to our policy and resources committee on 21 February then the vacancy for a councillor becomes available.
The reason that the Larches estate has been allowed to be run down was due to under representation of the current other two Liberal Councillors who are suppose to represent the community interests.
As I indicated in my last e-mail to you I am the only Councillor interested in what happens to the estate of Larches as an active Independent Councillor I have worked the ward since I was elected in 1999 and has gained alot of credibility from both the Larches and Savick people.
Just to also inform you I have advertised in all the Larches shops for people who live in the Larches and Savick to come forward to stand for Council (copy e -mailed to you separately) to give a better chance for people who either work or live in Larches to help me fight for key ward issues.
If you know of anyone interested please send their details to me once again please remember that I am on your side and together we can achieve alot for the Community of Larches.
I look forward from hearing from you if I have any more Council related topics I will keep you posted and updated.
Many thanks
Councillor Joe Fitzgerald Larches ward Preston Borough Council We feel that there may be more to come on this subject, and Cllr. Fitzgerald has promised to keep us posted. Also, Cllr FItzgerald has given us his own web site address - it can be found at http://freespace.virgin.net/larches.savick Police patrols. In the last few days, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of police patrols in the area. This is a welcome sight for our area, and was surely prompted by your response to recent events. Let us know your views on this.
The web site has been ‘open’ for just over a week now, and it has already received lots of interest with 300 ‘hits’ reached this weekend. This is great news, and we hope that with your support the numbers will continue to clime over the coming months. We update the site regularly, and have some new ideas that will be coming on line soon. The most recent edition is our LCW Poll, in which you can vote on current events. The poll will change weekly, and the response will be posted at the end of the week on our web site. You can get regular updates on the poll, by clicking ‘View Stats” at the bottom of the ‘Vote!’ box. In the meantime, we would like to thank you for a great start, and keep coming back – especially to read ‘Your Comments’. Larches Community Web Site.
This is not the Bronx!
Denise Atkinson, a local resident, made comments in the LEP:
..."Why is Councillor Abbot branding the estate as the Bronx? We are going to have to live with that for the rest of our lives.
..."Some people have bought their houses on the estate and the value will have gone down now.
"There is trouble sometimes but it's only in a few areas. The majority of the estate is lovely." Lancashire Evening Post: 16th January 2001
We couldn't agree more Denise!!
LCW write to the Lancashire Evening Post.
Thanks
for your follow-up articles on Larches (and Savick) that have appeared
since the story was raised by the LEP. Over
the weekend that the article was written, the Larches Community Web Site
left posters and leaflets at the shops, and we received great response
from people who use the Internet, including backup from the local church, Our
Lady & St. Bernard's. We
would be very grateful if you could mention our web site in future
articles. We have no funding, we don’t charge for local advertising, the
design and construction of the site is done free, and all administration
costs come out of the pockets of the volunteers involved. We
are very optimistic about the future of Larches and Savick. We know the
majority of people who live here are very happy, law-abiding citizens, and
I think it came as a shock to us all when we read the headlines. Finally,
and I’m sure we speak for the majority of Larches and Savick, we would
like to invite you back in six months time to see how things have gone
since your story broke. Hopefully, our community web site will have gone
from strength to strength, and will be visited daily by the local
‘Surfers’. Many
thanks Larches
Community Web Site.
Lancashire Evening Post : 15th January 2001 Savick seems not to have escaped the Lancashire Evening Post. "BOOTING OUT THE MOB" ..."Police have now stepped up patrols but families in the neighbouring Savick area say this has just driven the gang of 60 youths across Blackpool Road towards them [from Larches]."
..."The Late Shop on Larches estate - dubbed Preston's Bronx - has been forced to close early and staff have their own guards for protection."... Lancashire Evening Post: 15th January 2001
How do you feel now Larches has been "...dubbed Preston's Bronx....".
Is this true? Or should the media know better?
Email us at larches_c@hotmail.com
Lancashire Evening Post : 11th January 2001
"Larches: Preston's Bronx?" This was a disgraceful headline, and we need to take control of our community again. The only way we can do this is to get together and stop the 'yob culture' from taking over our streets. Your opinions and concerns can be voiced here on this new web site, but in order for it to work, it needs your input, otherwise it cannot be made. Tell us what's happening in your street. What concerns you about our area. This web site will be made available to everyone, and especially the Police, our local council and counsellor. The web site has already generated interest, and has started receiving emails from Larches residents.
Leaflet drop to businesses.
Over the weekend of the 13th and 14th January, Larches Community Web Site carried out a series of leaflet drops to the local shops in Elswick Road area. It is hoped all the businesses joint with us and display our poster, and have a facility for leaflets to be picked up from them.
If a shop isn't displaying one of our posters, please bring it to their attention, as early action is needed. If more posters or leaflets are needed, please email us and we will drop off some more.
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02/04/01 |