306/16 PLANNING AND LICENSING MATTERS

c) Any other planning matters – BT has advised of the removal of two red telephone boxes in Featherstone – there were no objections raised at the meeting.

Its a shame that Featherstone town cllrs do not see the potential that other towns have shown. B.T. will sell for a few pounds any phone box like this to any council. Many councils have taken this up as a piece of English history and have applied for a small grant to have phone boxes restored and installed at schools and even back on the streets. There must not be a lot left of the £3 million plus of Featherstone's regeneration money after paying for the Pontefract swimming pool.

"The Christmas decoration and grave wreath thief has almost been found. Someone called Steady is trying to sell the stolen stuff but is claiming it’s his skinny girlfriend usually in leggings who is robbing the graves. Featherstone is now looking for full names and address to pass to the victims who are queuing up for their 10 bobs worth".

Sadly the crime wave involving Steady and his girlfriend continues regardless of some victims having their 10 bob. Such is the habit this pair have to feed. If you were looking for a steak in Onestop yesterday or sausage and bacon today you would be right in thinking there was no stock. One guess who stole it?

Steady appears to have a death wish with his disregard to his victims. This picture was taken today by a victim catching Steady climbing over his 7ft brick garden wall in to his garden with an excuse Steady was looking for a short cut to Lidle. 7ft victim vs 8 stone smackhead!

Just keep shaking your head, it’s all you can do living in Labour Featherstone. Here is an unusual one. At 7.45pm on Friday night a road sweeper and trailer arrived at the corner of Fulton’s and Betfred. For the next hour the most unusual road repair began. Around both corners the tarmac was cut at about 2ft from the curb. A scrape was then made of the surface. Then tarmac was shovelled on to the un-compacted surface and then was finally rolled by using the wheels of the road sweeper and not a road roller. The finished job is an uneven surface lower than the original and has not been sealed at the joint with tar. The surface is all ready breaking up as it sticks to vehicle tyres. The big dint in the path caused by the JCB renovating the path is still there for all to fall in.
The road was better before?

Police were called to Station Lane on Friday around 9pm after reports of an assault. Apparently the victim is the person responsible for a number of break-ins recently. Ironic that recently the police turn up faster to help the criminal and not the victim.
The sooner the UK wakes up to the fact that we now have to defend ourselves perhaps some organisation can begin.

Over a year since residents and business began complaining about the thief and other events such as flashing at kids on Fearnly Street and the daily day and night harassment to neighbors including a growing pile of rubbish that WMDC have confirm will be dealt with in a “reasonable amount of time”, now defined as one year. At last this week an interesting result! The house and next door is a charity owned house. After the charity delivered a brand new cooker to the house, 20 minutes later the cooker was sold. This resulted in the tenants being evicted and the locks changed on Friday afternoon. This brought to light just how active the house was. From 1pm on Friday there were groups of smack heads walking about the Lane, lost. The funniest of all was the apparent prostitution that came to light. The new temporary location was behind Labour party member Bill Mulroes charity shop with cars driving around the backs and sexually activity seen by at least 2 people in the passage way.
About 6pm the female resident arrived back at the house and was arrested by police investigating previous events. Within an hour of being released this morning at 9am the female brought a hammer and attempted to smash her way in the front and back door. She was again

Excuse the short video as there is an irony. One of many places in Featherstone you would not wish to steel from is this one. To cut a story short these 3 white males with local accents aged early to mid twenties in a transit van sign written roofing on 3 sides were shown the error of their ways. This would have been left at that. However fate then came along. Take a note of the metal bucket taken out of the van which was eventually left with other items after error training by the van driving off at high speed spilling its load.
A couple of hours later a lovely 80 plus year old man arrived at a local shop nearby to buy a tin bucket. He had got wrapped up and obtained some cash because someone had been in his garden on Crossley Street nearby and stolen both his new tin buckets. The poor old guy was stressed because all he had was his coal fire and the bucket was part of his routine. His language was Featherstone sharp. By good luck staff who had seen the earlier incident and bucket asked the old guy to identify his bucket. What were the chances that he could identify one bucket. Yes it was his. It appears that Featherstone gardens have been robbed all morning. If you are a victim please add this to your report. The police are aware


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYSLYY6GC3U

Before the season starts properly Rovers fans might be interested to see which player was best in a number of categories. Have a look on Google at "Featherstone Rovers - The Players". Include the quotation marks. if you don't bother with Google try myroversblog.blogspot.com

Please excuse the word “I” about to be used as this far more about “us” as 2017 apparently will show in our graveyards. At the beginning of this year I was asked to assist with a council notice that had been attached to a gravestone. The correspondence that then followed was extensive and full of problems / issues. During this time it became apparent that many people were in the same situation and some had no money to pay for repairs. There are many internet discussions around but with such a delicate subject not many had the drive to ask questions.  I have underlined repairs as I will comment further in a moment.

In brief the circumstance is this. After a fatal accident a few years ago with a child being killed by a headstone a liability issue arose. The cost to make good by councils was so great that a get out had to be found to pass cost liability on. As most graves are a 99 year leased plot the get out was to blame the lease holder and create a test that would always create a fault. The test is to place a hand on a grave stone and apply 25 kg of force. Before you ask how this is measured. The answer is it that is not accompanied by much correspondence. After almost a year I have managed to witness a headstone test. The test is nothing to do with an amount of force. The test is to push over the headstone to prove it could be moved. The reason is to enforce the fitting of metal pins and straps. There are many other issues that you would probably now think about such as someone is actually going around grave yards and pushing over headstones that were perfectly fine and are now un-settled. It has now been almost a year since Featherstone’s Cemeteries were tested. 2017 looks like the year when our local graves have 50% plus of the headstones laid flat on the grass.

Solutions? There are not many unless you have a lot of money to fight, you are a solicitor willing to fight or for free if public opinion gets on board. There does appear to be a solution but when asked the reply was I cannot. The solution as I read is that graveyards are applicable to grants from councils and the lottery. Was my answer wrong?
Please pass this about in the hope someone who can help does!

Possibly this pair were in town again last week trying the confuse the checkout money scam.....