The Beat it Team - 6th -9th May

The Beat it Team is coming to Ashton between the 6th and 9th May.

If you know of any grot spots that need cleaning up please let me know and I will pass them on.

Pictures from last Saturday's clean up in Princess Road

We did yet another clean up in Princess Road last Saturday and it was good to be joined by two residents.

Meet the new politician - same as the old politician

Clearly Councillor Gary Wilkes has learnt some of the dark arts of politics from the time he spent in the Community Action Party. One of these arts is the smear tactic. It works like this - you publish some alleged facts about a political opponent, don't check them but put them on the internet anyway regardless if these fact are true or not.

Councillor Franzen tried this on last October when he implied on a website that I had gone to America on a freebie for Wigan Council.This was total nonsense but did not stop him putting it on the web site.

Councillor Gary Wilkes is now trying the same tactic as his ex-political master. In a recent posting on his blog he has stated that It's simple really. C.A.P stand for Community Action Party.. All talk and no Action, negative Politics and lots of lies along the way.
'Independent stands for INDEPENDENT, getting things done working hard for the Community and not telling Lies.'

He then goes on to say that Labour also claim credit for just about anything that is done in Bryn and Ashton and they also tell Lies on leaflets just ask their Agent. He has been Cautioned by the Police....for telling lies...on election material.
You may be reading it very soon....watch your letter box.

As I am that agent I (and/or others ) will be asking Councillor Wilkes to provide the following answers to these questions

1. When was I cautioned by the police - the times and dates
2. What was I cautioned for ?
3. Which police officer cautioned me?

I know the answers to these questions - I have never been cautioned by the police in regards to elections or anything else for that matter but I am sure that Councillor Wilkes will be able to provide the relevant answers at the appropriate time and to the appropriate persons.

As for the statement Iindependent stands for INDEPENDENT, getting things done working hard for the Community and not telling Lies this piece of sanctimonious holier than thou twaddle will be featuring strongly on our future leaflets once the truth of this matter has been established.

I will be not be writing any more on this subject nor will be I taking any comments on it until the truth of the matter has been sorted out.

Where have all the posters gone?

Residents of Ashton will have noticed large political posters for different parties around Ashton. But it seems to be the only place in the area that has so many political posters displayed. I have not seen any in Wigan and last weekend I went to see Liverpool beat Blackburn 3-1 and did not see one single poster for any political party in that part of the city.

Please contact me if you have seen posters (in large numbers or very noticeable) anywhere in England and tell me where - or can we assume that political posters have had their day and belong to another era of communication?

Election news -Part 2 CAP in Ashton

At this time of local elections it is worth looking at the history of the CAP in Ashton over the past two years.

In 2006 the then sitting Councillor who represented CAP in the election of 2004 defected to become an Independent BEFORE the election of 2006 but did not bother to tell the electorate of Ashton. So we had the situation of her appearing on the ballot paper in the name of CAP when she had actually left the party.

Last year after the elections the Community Action Party joined with the Liberal Democrats in the Council chamber to form something called the Democratic Alliance. Again no notice was given to the electorate of Ashton that they intended to do this. So in fact if you voted CAP last year you also got Liberal Democrat.

We wonder what surprise they will give us this year.

Election news - our opponents. Part one

Looking at our opponents in Ashton and Bryn we were confused as to the position of the Independents and CAP in both wards. CAP have put up a candidate in Bryn who is actively campaigning against Don Hodgkinson who left CAP last year. Clearly Cllr Hodgkinson must have incurred CAP leader Peter Franzen's deep displeasure for him to do this.

What is surprising is that the Independents did not put up a candidate against Paul Tushingham in Ashton.

Still this is nothing compared with what beleaguered Tory candidate Richard Clayton is putting up with in Orrell. It takes something to get your face in every national newspaper including the Times and on national TV.

Skitters Wood - another clean up

Last Saturday morning volunteers from the local Labour Party spent two hours cleaning up part of Skitters Wood in our on going environmental improvement campaign. Over a dozen bags of rubbish were removed by Wigan Council's cleansing department at the end of the clean up and a couple of local residents came to help us - which was pleasing.

If you know of any other area that needs cleaning please contact me with details.

Removal of messages - an explanation

I have removed two messages from this blog recently, because they were not messages as such. They were giving the address of another website unrelated to this blog.

Election notice

Anything from now until polling day that is published here and seeks to influence people to vote Labour is:

Promoted by Nigel Ash of 7 Averham Close Ashton in Makerfield WN4 9PR on behalf of the Labour Party Candidates care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA. Hosted (printed) by Blogger.com (Google Inc) of 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.

Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.

Our candidate - Ann Rampling

Ann with young supporter

Our candidate again is Ann Rampling who was narrowly defeated last year. Ann has been very busy in Ashton since last May with the various projects she is involved in including the Town Green garden, improving road safety on Bolton Road and organising litter picks around Ashton from Liverpool Road to Stubshaw Cross.She has also been on street surgeries with me in various areas of Ashton eg Vicarage Road

What I like about Ann is that she is willing to talk to anybody about issues regardless of who they are and their political beliefs. Following our recent survey about Ashton issues she has visited about 200 households to talk to residents about their concerns and trying to resolve them. She would make an excellent Councillor, representing residents of Ashton no matter where they live in the town.

Local Elections May 1st 2008 - voter apathy

I have neglected the blog recently because as from last Friday we are now in an election period and as agent for seven wards I have been making sure that all the papers and election materials are ready. An agent's worst nightmare is to be told that he has not handed in the correct papers on time and his party will not be represented in a particular ward.

The local Labour Party has been and will be working hard to get elected as no doubt have all the other parties involved in this election. It is a pity really that 60 to 70 percent of the electorate won't bother to vote on May 1st.

I would like to hear if you will or will not be voting and the reasons why.