Refusing help to poor is not 'levelling up': your Whitehaven News letters

Perhaps she did not know what she was voting against, or maybe was rather confused and rushed in her vote. I find it extremely hard to believe she was making a conscious decision to deprive the poor of extra resources.

She knows that her constituency contains two of the very poorest socio-economic wards in the country. Does her loyalty to the Tory mantra of keeping the peasants down over-ride her commitment to the welfare of all children in Copeland? This is not levelling up. Perhaps she has become so brainwashed that she thinks that it is.

Perhaps this was just one part of a much more sinister agenda. I say this because all the Tory MPs representing the west of Cumbria, Barrow, Workington, and Carlisle voted the same way. Should we all be extremely worried?

C J REAY

Beckermet

Green future

I WISH to reply to Chris Whiteside’s letter “Trust local decision on mine” (The Whitehaven News, October 14).

In response to the threat of global climate change the Paris Agreement bound the signatories to limit global temperature rise this century to below 2oC above pre-industrial levels and to make efforts to reduce to 1.5oC. In June 2019, the minister for Energy and Clean Growth signed legislation committing the UK to a legally binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. the UK became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming.

Climate change is arguably the most important issue facing the world today. Mr Whiteside should look beyond the deepest and longest lakes and the highest mountain and see a wider picture.

The steel industry’s worldwide contribution of 7% of CO2 emissions needs to be urgently reduced. The Woodhouse Mine would produce some 3.1 million tons of coking coal per year, mainly for export, adding some 10 million tons of CO2.

In August this year, Sweden took a decisive step toward fossil-free steelmaking with the start-up of HYBRIT, a unique plant to produce fossil-free steel. This technology enables the elimination of CO2 emissions from steelmaking and will revolutionise the entire steel industry. The process uses hydrogen from green sources as the reducing agent instead of carbon monoxide from coking coal. The first steel should come to market as early as 2026.

The plan to extract a total of three million tons of coal, not per year, from Druridge Bay in Northumberland, initially passed by politicians was rejected by Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick as not environmentally acceptable.

The plan to add a third runway at Heathrow, adding an extra 8 – 9 million tonnes of CO2 per year was also initially passed by politicians. It has been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately consider the government’s commitments to tackle the climate crisis.

Trusting politicians is not high on anyone’s agenda at the moment!

What about jobs? Is Mr Whiteside looking to the past rather than to the future?

The Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership annual report for 2020 says there is significant opportunity for green growth and energy generation in Cumbria. The nuclear sector is well represented but we’re keen to exploit Cumbria’s potential right across the low-carbon energy agenda, picking up on expertise across offshore wind, wave, tidal, biomass, hydrogen and carbon storage.

An environmentally damaging mine of doubtful legality is not the only way forward.

PETER ATKINSON

Egremont

Labour years

In the latest of Copeland Labour’s continued attacks on the Mayor I was staggered to see them raise accounting issues and using a report from 2017/18 that anyone following what the Mayor unearthed during the period after his election and the regular public audit meetings held no surprises for anyone.

The report refers to 2017/18, the year of the cyber-attack when we had no access to data for over eight months but more importantly at a time when we were in the process of sorting out the inherited mess left by the last Labour administration: let me remind them – a £13m black hole in the accounts, a £5million loan, a disastrous PFI, over 30 costly consultants and interims, no qualified accountants and no CFO over significant periods, £500k given out in loans and no records of who they were given to, over £1m in bad debt stretching back 20 years, and a myriad of other major issues that take time to just identify and significant time to fix.

The fact is now, in 2020, we have identified and fixed many of the issues and are in much better shape structurally with a fully qualified accounts team and a first class CFO, bringing the consistency and continuity the council has lacked. For a politically inept Labour group to try to make gain out of issues from account issues of three years ago that they caused undermines the staff who have worked tirelessly to sort what they know was their mess.

Finally it is worth pointing out that in the five years and five months of the mayor’s tenure, the majority Labour group have voted through every one of his policies with little or no challenge and never presented an alternative

DAVID MOORE

Deputy Mayor

Copeland Borough Council

'Non-denial denial'

After Mayor Starkie’s unusually rapid response to my letter describing CBC’s chaotic financial affairs under his leadership, I would like to clarify a few things.

For over five years he has been the elected mayor of Copeland currently earning around a £1,000 a week plus expenses, more money than any other local politician in Cumbria.

He is also able to pay £1,700 a week to someone reporting directly to him tasked with managing the small council’s finances. I would remind him that I am simply a retired council tax payer – it is over four years since I held elected or any other office and I belong to no political party, in fact I am actually a “real” independent, and I just don’t like incompetence and waste.

Let’s be clear, my criticism of his and his organisation’s performance provoked a “non denial denial” answering none of my points and questioning my motives. Mayor Starkie suggested for some reason that I sought “glory” elsewhere rather than in Copeland: in fact I was proud to represent Frizington, Cleator Moor and the Ennerdale Valley on the county council and – Stop Press! – those places are in Copeland. Perhaps that hoped-for county-level “glory” is why he joined the Tory Party, reportedly hoping for their nomination as “Mayor of Cumbria” after the coming reorganisation. Is that the reason for his outrage over my comments questioning his credibility?

The audit performance of his council is poor, the quotes of the independent auditor are accurate and I stand by my assertion that the errors, misreporting, incompetence and lack of leadership are not remotely “businesslike”. He says he was elected to “fix the mess and inherent weakness in the council has done so, is doing so and will continue to do so”. After over five years of photo ops, attack politics and unsubstantiated claims of success, the voters will eventually decide whether any of that is true.

However, rather than bore your readers with more letters on this subject, perhaps Mayor Starkie might allow me to buy him a drink? We could discuss more pressing issues like helping to provide more assistance for at least some of Copeland’s many children classed as living in poverty,. Nourishing meals for our most vulnerable children, over Christmas and future holidays is surely something we have to find a way of providing if his government won’t.

TIM KNOWLES

Frizington

Lest we forget

I AM the Poppy Appeal organiser for the Whitehaven area and due to the Covid-19 pandemic I am very much restricted in what I can do to support this year’s Poppy Appeal, age and health being the major factor.

Pubs, shops and other businesses will sadly be affected. School packs are being distributed by Bransty Royal British Legion committee members and I believe the major supermarkets are supporting us by having poppy boxes on the checkouts so hopefully everyone will have the opportunity to buy a poppy.

Regarding poppy wreaths, I have ordered wreaths going on last year’s requests so again hopefully that will be covered. What I would ask is that when the wreaths arrive if you could pick them up from Bransty Royal British Legion where possible so that I can keep social distancing and comply with other government restrictions.

What we don’t want to see is local cenotaphs being sparse of poppy wreaths. A wreath does not have to be laid on November 8 or 11 but at any time that is convenient to you so long as local and government guidelines are adhered to.

Please take two minutes of your time on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to remember all those who have paid us the ultimate sacrifice and those that have the scars of conflict whether mentally or physical. “When you go home tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today.”

IAN FISHER

Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal organiser, Whitehaven area