Karl Barnsley

My Thoughts on the Lancashire County Council Election Results

I pride myself on being a pragmatic, progressive politician. I look for creative and hopefully intelligent solutions to problems which my residents come to me with. I work hard to deal with those issues and I quite often get results, although I’m conscious never to make false promises. I’m not alone in this. My Labour colleagues across Lancashire do this too. Whether it being campaigning for traffic calming measures, building a pump track, keeping Waddow Hall open for Guiding Groups or organizing Community Cleanup Days. We work hard and we have a practical approach to our work. It’s absolutely devastating that so many of my Labour colleagues lost their seats at County Hall last week. Whatever the long term effects of the vote across Lancashire last week, I and my Labour colleagues in the Ribble Valley will still be working hard for you and I want you all to know this.

Lancashire County Council is now controlled by Reform UK. In Longridge with Bowland County Council Division Reforms’ Ian Duxbury was elected as County Councillor. I campaigned hard for our Labour candidate Kieren Spencer and I want to pay tribute to the strong campaign that Kieren ran. When I stood for County in 2021 I got 746 votes. For Kieren to get over 1000 votes is a major step forward for Labour and a positive thing to build upon. As the graphic below shows, the Labour Party remains the largest party in Local Government by a considerable margin. It’s because we work hard for our residents.

I genuinely wish Cllr Ian Duxbury well in his new office, because failure will be damaging for residents, not just politicians. I will be writing to Ian Duxbury soon to begin discussions with him on the challenges affecting Ribchester. I would encourage all to write to him with your concerns around Lancashire County Council issues.

I will write to Cllr Duxbury outlining what I believe his top priorities for Ribchester should be:

What support can the County Council provide to combat flooding in Ribchester? Will they provide support for upland flood management?
Will he engage and implement the measures we’ve talked about regarding anti-social behavior during the summer months and will he support the LCC youth outreach officers who work hard to offer diversionary activities to stop ASB?
What will the new LCC administration do to fix potholes, resurface Preston road and introduce the traffic calming measures we’re crying out for?

My offer goes out to work productively with Ian Duxbury to find pragmatic solutions to these issues and more. I’ll give him the opportunity to succeed along these lines but will also be prepared to hold him to account where he fails to live upto the promises his party made during the election or where he is in danger of letting down Ribchester residents

But I know that many people will be looking at last weeks election results with dismay and concern. The values of Reform UK are values I’ve rejected for all of my life both before and during my time in politics. I know many will feel the same. I want to re-assure you that I will continue to be fighting hard for residents in Ribchester as your Ribble Valley Borough Councillor, promoting my Labour and Co-operative values as I have always done. I hope this will be of some re-assurance to you.

Let’s not be coy, the County Council election was a defeat, against a party totally at odds with the values many of us hold dear. Values which I wear on my sleeve as a Labour party activist, equality, inclusivity, community and solidarity. I’ll be fighting populism and the far right every single day but I need you in the fight with me. To those who share those similar values now is the right time to take the plunge and join.

To quote Stella Creasy MP “don’t get angry, get organized”

Join The Labour Party

My Contribution to the Ribble Valley Borough Budget Council Meeting

This evening I gave the following speech in support of Cllr Michael Gravestons’ amendment to the budget at Full Council. The amendment didn’t pass and as a Labour Group we abstained on the substantive motion on the budget. The reason for this is outlined in the following speech.

Madam Mayor, this budget has a number of things to commend to it as it is possibly the biggest spend this Council has ever made. It tends to be a Labour thing to work towards big budgets. We tend to look towards finding greater income to enable us spend bigger and provide greater public services. That’s a basic fact of politics. And when my Labour colleagues and I were elected to this Council almost two years ago our promise of doing things differently heavily suggested that this was the approach we want this Council to take.

Admittedly, we did want this process to happen over a slightly greater time span rather than all at once. Feasibility is certainly of the things that causes concern to us, as we’ve made clear over the course of this committee cycle. However, I will accept the point that circumstances beyond the control of this Council have made this faster approach this year necessary.

I welcome money being spent. I welcome the commitment to £500k to be spent on affordable housing and welcome spending in other areas too. We need to make these investments and as a Labour and Co-Operative Councillor, investment in affordable housing is something which I’m absolutely in favour of. The detail though is where it will all matter. I believe that as well as the financial commitment there must be a plan for how this £500k will be spent to support affordable housing. Like my criticisms of the new market spend of also £500k at the last Policy and Finance Committee, which I stand by, it is vital that when making spending commitments, we have a clear plan of how that money will be spent. My concern remains that those plans are not yet clear when making these spending commitments. I look forward to seeing how these plans develop and indeed contributing to that development over the next committee cycle and as a progressive politician I will be demanding progress.

And on the subject of progress I’m keen that progress is made on finally setting the criteria for the Jubilee Fund although it seems that the budget working group is doubling its workload by setting up this new RV version of the SPF to be developed in parallel with the Jubilee fund this year. It will be a failure of this Council if we do not approve criteria for both funds this year. I have projects in mind for my ward which will benefit greatly from these funds including, as I mentioned earlier in this meeting the opportunities for flood resilience and upland flood management projects which I hope will be part of the criteria funding examples.

Madam Mayor, the greatest thing upon which we differ on this budget is the future of Ribblesdale pool.

I feel that, given the discussions we have had around the pool and its short, medium and long term future, the proposals currently in this budget lack the ambition to preserve the pool into the future. Let’s make no bones about it, This is make or break time for Ribblesdale pool and I fully support Councillor Graveston’s crucial amendment, which earmarks an additional £1m for vital works to make the pool sustainable, which will extend the life of the pool and will reduce the risk of the pool’s failure for the short term. It’s clear to me that we’ll need to invest further in future years to maintain this vital asset for the Borough. Without that sufficient funding, we’ll be lamenting the closure of the pool in ten years time and I don’t want to be the one to say then, that in this meeting tonight there was more we could have done.

A Tribute to Cllr Bill Holden

I was devastated to learn over the weekend of the death of our Labour colleague Councillor Bill Holden. Bill was elected last July as Borough Councillor for St Mary’s ward in Clitheroe and served faithfully as part of the Labour Group in the short time he was a Councillor.

First and foremost my thoughts are with his children Jess, Fran, Joe and Sam. Bill lost his wife Jan about 18 months ago.

Putting into words who Bill was and how he featured in my own life for many years is both very easy but also incredibly difficult. I have many years of knowing Bill to help me write these words but putting them in the right order and with the eloquence this task deserves is far harder. I had privilege of knowing Bill for a long time in different ways.

I first knew Bill when he coached the under 15’s team for Clitheroe Wolves. In Cllr Michael Graveston’s own tribute he recalls how Bill told him that of all the jobs he ever had, managing the under 15’s and 16’s was the toughest and most stressful he ever had. I was his goalkeeper…

As a fourteen year old kid with dreams of being the next Brad Friedel or Peter Schmeichel, which were wildly incompatible with reality, Bill was my football coach. One can only imagine the patience needed by him to coach a team with me in goal, yet he dedicated time and energy to help me develop with extra training. He still occasionally called me by an old nickname when we served together on the Council and in Labour Party meetings.

A few years after Clitheroe Wolves I’d occasionally see Bill around town, usually in the supermarket and we’d always have a good chat. I was absolutely delighted when, one day I saw his name on the list of new members to the local Labour party. Bill worked hard for the cause, delivering leaflets in the cold and rain, he approached those sorts of tasks with a hardy resilience and, as I came to appreciate, a quiet but noticeable humour that I can’t properly describe.

When Bill decided to stand for Council last year, I read his application and was delighted to learn more about what drove Bill and his contributions to Clitheroe life to that point. He was born in Hyndburn but lived for forty years in Clitheroe and raised his family. He wanted others to enjoy the same benefits that he and his family had from living in Clitheroe. To that end Bill served as the Chair of the Friends of Pendle School, was activities co-ordinator for the Clitheroe Chernobyl Group and of course manager for Clitheroe Wolves u15& 16 team. Bill was a Clitheroe man through and through and sought out ways to serve the community.

Bill loved football. He’d go and see any team, Blackburn Rovers, Accrington Stanley and perhaps quite curiously, Stockport County. It wasn’t a particular team that he followed but the game itself. I saw him at the East Lancs Derby in January and I think we’d challenged each other to another game of chess that day.

I’ll challenge anybody to a game of chess and Bill was a willing opponent, we’d play the occasional game against each other. I think he’d managed one win against me, and I won the rest. It was never about keeping score though.

Bill’s passing has come as a massive shock to us. There were brilliant ideas that Bill was floating to us in our group. We intend to pursue and campaign on those brilliant ideas and it’s cruel and infuriating that Bill’s contribution to our cause and this Council has been cut so short. It’s my belief though that Bill wouldn’t have thought of it like that.

There are three ways that I will remember Bill: as my coach, as my comrade, as my friend.

Ribchester Road Access Issues to A59

The issue of flooding on Ribchester Road heading towards the A59 has been a notable source of frustration over the past couple of days requiring Ribchester residents to take detours. My own thoughts are that the drainage problems on Ribchester road should be easily remedied but don’t seem to have been to this point…

I wrote to the Councillor for Clayton Le Dale and Salesbury Louise Edge today to prompt her to take action as it’s an issue based in her ward but affects Ribchester residents massively. There’s a kind of protocol that I can’t go and deal directly with things in other wards, therefore I have to lobby the Councillor for that ward.

At the same time Maya Ellis MP has been in contact with Lancashire County Council directly to seek a speedier resolution to this and other standing water issues across the Ribble Valley more broadly. I’ll be working in partnership with Maya and her office to find a quick resolution which delivers a positive outcome.

Photo courtesy of Guy Mason

Welcome to My Brand New Blog

This week I was at a Ribchester Parish Council meeting where I had a few things I wanted to report back but realised that there was too much dry stuff to give an entertaining report. I realised that I need a fresh outlet to report back activities at Ribble Valley Borough Council. Another brilliant idea hit me and I suddenly remembered that a few years ago I started a blog writing theatre reviews and various over opinionated thoughts on various matters related to Theatre, life and eventually politics. This blog might be that solution to being lifting a lid on the occasional mystery of Local Council meetings.

This new blog will, you may be relieved to read, be limited to my activities as a Borough Councillor and occasionally some of my campaigning activities for Ribble Valley Labour or even the broader party.

This will be a less sweary blog than previously, as I’ve promised my Group Whip that I wouldn’t swear. The Theatre blog occasionally got me into trouble with angry Producers. I do hope though to be no less insightful and the previous cutting barbs aimed at poor Theatre productions may occasionally be sent towards rubbish political decisions from other parties.

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