This is the latest in our series of ‘every other month’ street stalls in the run-up to the May Election where Janette Walker is standing as Lab candidate in the local election.

Thanks to everyone who came for turning out in the ice-cold morning!

There are now 80 days left to the local election on May 3rd! We will be campaigning every weekend, talking to people on the doorstep, at street stalls and on the phone. If you want to lend a hand, please use the contact us link above.

Did you see us out in Headingley on Sat? What do you think are the big local issues? Comment below.

Cllr Neil Walshaw and Mac at Street Stall in Headingley

Cllr Walshaw outside Costa Coffee speaking to residents

Rachel Reeves at Olive Tree fundraiser in Far Headingley

On Sunday 29th Jan we held our first fundraising event of the year at the Olive Tree restaurant in Far Headingley and together raised over £300.

More than 40 labour supporters and members joined us for a two-course meal (a few glasses of wine), a raffle and a speech on how Labour would grow the economy by Rachel Reeves MP, Leeds West MP and Shadow Chief Sec to the Treasury.

This will be a huge help for the local elections in May and will help us pay for leaflets, posters and flyers.

A big thank you to everyone who was able to come!

‘Bin police’ have applied £75 fines on five messy residents who failed to correctly store their household rubbish and present it for collection.

The penalties followed a six-week education and enforcement campaign by the council to targeting residents living in Hyde Park and Headingley.

Councillor Mark Dobson, executive member for environmental services, Leeds City Council, said: “Our environmental action teams put a lot of effort into making sure that local residents were well-informed about their responsibilities before the enforcement part of this campaign began.

“I went out door-knocking with them myself and got plenty of positive feedback from people living in the area, so it’s disappointing to see people failing to do something as simple as bringing their bin in after it’s emptied.

“We hope that they will learn from this and remember it’s up to them to ensure their neighbourhood is kept nice for everybody or we won’t hesitate to take action.”

The campaign was launched to address problems with littering, poor parking and other environmental issues. It began by focusing on the bins belonging to 3,400 households. Addresses were stencilled on them and letters posted through doors with reminders about how the local environment could be improved.

Safer Leeds is enlisting the help of taxi marshals in the city centre for the festive season to ensure order is kept in taxi ranks.

The marshals are part of a range of measures being put in place by Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police, who are working with Health and Business Against Crime in Leeds (BACIL) to ensure safety and reduce crime in the city centre.

The marshals will be located at three taxi ranks across the city — Leeds Railway Station, Call Lane/Corn Exchange and adjacent to the Oceana nightclub on Woodhouse Lane.

Each rank with have three marshals working from 10.30pm – 3.30am each Friday and Saturday night up to and including New Years Eve.

The marshals will ensure that members of the public queue up in an orderly fashion whilst waiting for a taxi.

The taxi marshals will be in close contact with West Yorkshire police to report any issues that need police attention. They will also be working alongside the recently introduced street marshals who are patrolling the areas outside nightclubs as well as Police Community Support Officers and police volunteer constables.

Cllr Peter Gruen, Chair of Safer Leeds and Leeds City Council’s executive board member for community safety said:

“We know from experience that taxi marshals make a real difference to safety in the city.

“We want people to come into Leeds at night and we want them to have a good time. Taxi marshals make it easier to do that, so I would like to thank our partners in the police, the NHS and Business Against Crime who have helped us fund the marshals this year.

“It’s important that people know they can enjoy the Christmas season and be safe at the same time, so just a reminder to people to always use a licensed cab and queue up where there are taxi marshals. “

Chief Inspector Vernon Francis, of City and Holbeck Division, who is responsible for policing the city centre, said:

“Leeds city centre continues to be a very safe place to enjoy a night out. The reassuring presence of the taxi marshals in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year will complement the work we and are partner agencies are doing to help people enjoy the season safely.”

Grace Lee, Business Crime Coordinator at Business Against Crime in Leeds said:

“The taxi marshal scheme is seen as a vital part of Leeds night time economy management; our members see a direct benefit from it in terms of dispersal and customer safety. BACIL support the scheme whole heartedly and hope for its every success on the run up to Christmas and the New Year”

Brenda Fullard, Head of Healthy Living and Health Inequalities for NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds says:

“We support this initiative because we know it will be effective in reducing injuries. It will also get people safely home faster and contribute to reducing the cost of alcohol related ambulance call outs and accident and emergency services. The cost of these services is about £5 million per year in Leeds. We hope that it will also improve the quality of life for people working in the city centre and for people enjoying their evening‘s leisure time.”

A big thank you to all the Labour activists who braved the cold to help out!

With over a million young people out of work, total unemployment reaching 2.6m and female unemployment at highest level for 23 years – an effective plan for jobs is urgently needed.

Sign up to support Labour’s plan for jobs and growth

Ed Balls with Cllr Neil Walshaw at street stall (Ed has job flyer in his hand)

Ed Balls with Weetwood campaigner Doreen Illingworth

On Sunday we delivered hundreds of new leaflets in Headingley about cuts to police services, action on illegal private hire, noise nuisance, feed-in-tariffs (and more!) – we still have thousands of leaflets to deliver, so if you’d like to give us a hand please get in touch with Neil.

Cllr Neil Walshaw and Paul Cheetham with new police cuts leaflet

We are out campaigning every weekend, if you’d like to join us (you don’t have to be a Labour party member, just a supporter) then please send Neil an email – neil.walshaw@leeds.gov.uk or call him on 0113 247 4046.

Here is the press release (well done Janette!):

On Friday 11th November a Leeds Health Care Manager celebrated success at the British Care Awards (Yorkshire and Humber) 2011. Janette Walker, a manager with the Brain Injuries Rehabilitation Trust based in Garforth near Leeds was the receipient of the Frontline Leader of the year award at the event, held at the National Railway Museum at York, described as the Social Care ‘Oscars’.

Janette was presented the award by Perrier Award winning comedian, writer and broadcaster Jenny Eclair and won against a very strong field of Health Care Managers working in either the charity or private sectors.  Judges said Janette Walker had raised community awareness for her service users by engaging with the broader community to prepare them for the time when they leave the unit in which she works.

In a series of unique initiatives Janette has engaged with local In Bloom groups, a local Growing Zone for people with disabilities as well as many local businesses and charity groups to secure both temporary work placements and access to activities for individuals rehabilitating from acquired brain injury.

Janette who will now go on to contest the title at National level in London during 2012 commented;

“I was thrilled to receive this award as, although it is the most prestigious award within the care industry, the actual nomination came from the many community groups and businesses in the Garforth and Kippas area who have so readily engaged with my work to improve the rehabiltiation of service users under the care of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust.  I owe the community who have been advocates for my work a huge debt of gratitude.”

http://www.care-awards.co.uk/news/The-Great-Yorkshire-and-Humberside-Care-Awards-Tonight

October meeting HEART centre

Liz provided us with some discounted cakes and we had a mini-raffle raising £10!

David took home a tasty bottle of Argentinian white.

Our next meeting is Thursday 8th December at 7:30pm at the HEART centre, we are on the top floor, to the left.

Labour party members are welcome to come along and join us, membership is now a lot cheaper than it used to be, if you’re under 27 you can sign up for £1! (you lucky people!) – Join the Labour Party

His main topic was health inequalities which as he said are rarely talked about by politicians and don’t change very much.

The SHA campaigns for an integrated healthcare system which reduces inequalities in health and is accountable to the communities it serves.

Martin pointed out that 90% of NHS money goes to hospitals and yet the major advances in life expectancy have related to plumbing,housing,employment and diet [a very interesting point]!

Under the new NHS bill public health reverts to being a local authority responsibility and the funding for this is unlikely to be enough.

We agreed that we would organise a Leeds Public Health Forum and that we agreed to try to get Andy Burnham to attend.

Socialist Health talk

Janette at Diwali cultural show

Leeds Hindu Mandir, the first Hindu temple to be built-in Leeds back in 1968 organised a special cultural show to celebrate Diwali at Leeds town hall on Sunday 30th October.

Janette went along with Headingley’s Labour councillor, Neil Walshaw and Kirkstall councillor John Illingworth  to find out more about Diwali, Hinduism and to enjoy a spectacular day out.