Leicester - The Real story

Today on Remembrance Day 11th November 2019, St. Matthews Estate is having almost every bush and small tree removed under a 'tidy-up blitz'. We are being subject to this 'blitz' over the next six weeks, and I dread to think how bad things will be by then.  St Matthews lies between 3 major roads and has a problem specifically identified in the LCC AQAP (Air Quality Action Plan) as having high levels of NO2 from this traffic.  This Mayor's initiative has been undertaken with no local consultation and has just been imposed on us by the same people who have been building illegal car parking (no existing planning permission for Kashmir Rd) on the estate. I wonder if there is some collusion between the contractors and the Mayors office. Spending £330,000 on 24 spaces seems to have been a way of funneling money to the Council Highways dept. (and it was only 1 of 3 car parks) Surely it cant cost over £10,000 per space to convert what was already a temporary car park in...

The first question I have is about planning permissions. Let me illustrate. This sign needed planning permission. This carpark didn't. Which one had the biggest effect on local people and their built environment? The same road had two other car parks built on it that also had no planning permission. Check planning applications for Manitoba Rd, St Matthews  here  . These car parks were paid for with money made available to the local tenants association to meet the most pressing demands of their constituency and to improve life on the estate. Remember over half of the population on the estate are children who have no say in the shaping of the environment they are to grow up in.  Let me remind you  Manitoba Rd in 2008 and 2016  It doesn't take a genius to work out which is the best for children, a few trees or a carpark! I will be asking Ms Jean Williams, the Chair of St Matthews Tenants Association how she can justify...

It is with great sadness that I hear the Contact Project is closing here on the St Matthews. Leicester City Council takes £6 million off of this estate annually in rent and Council Tax. The average spend on property maintenance is less the £50 per unit. 2500 x 50 = £1.25 million. Our tenants association have been useless, preferring to cut down trees and build polluting car parks instead. I presume the cost of the car parks, which by the way don't appear to have any planning permission, was astronomical. Obviously we should have spent the money on keeping the Contact Project going instead. On a personal note my son has and is using the Contact Project weekly and it has helped him greatly to develop as a young man. It really is time to see where the money goes. The figures the Council produces are aggregated for the whole of the city, a technique which hides the spending instead of shedding light on it. Hey LCC! we all have computers, and spreadsheets, and can handle looking...