PaulRogan

In Response to the above, Mr Carpenter got the following letter printed on 1st June 07.
It's the kids that matter
Long Ridge, Brighouse.
It is remarkable now many facts the esteemed English Democrat councillor for Rastrick, Paul Rogan, can get wrong or misrepresent in order to attempt to put himself in the right.
He implies ("The Tories deserted me!", Your say, May 30) that I have woken up after 12 months.
Well, for his information, I retired from the council after 24 years' service almost three years ago and am still very active in the party of which I have been a member for 31 years, indeed since I left the RAF. I only sleep between 11 at night and 7 in the morning.
He refers to my loss of the Rastrick seat as though it was in the recent past. It was in 1984, 23 years ago, and since then I have represented another seat for 20 years.
He may be correct in referring to the reason for the 1984 defeat, if I remember correctly by 12 votes, but it is necessary to put the matter into perspective.
At that time we had in the Brig-house and Rastrick area three grammar schools, which were single sex, and two secondary modern establishments. An obvious over provision of school places.
The result was that, in order to keep up their numbers, nearly 45 per cent of the 11-plus takers were put into the grammar schools, rather than the normal 25 percent.
This was followed by the need for some remedial education in those establishments. There were insufficient youngsters going into the secondary modern schools to allow for adequate staffing, with the result that some subjects were dropped from the curriculum.
This seemed to be an inefficient use of resources and, what was vastly more important, inadequate education provision for the young people of the area.
It was apparent that there were only enough pupils for three schools. Long negotiations with representatives of the schools concerned were getting nowhere. My solution: three comprehensive schools, Rastrick High, Brighouse High and Hipperholme and Lightcliffe High.
I think that anyone without blinkers will see that those three establishments have proved their worth. The education provided by these three schools has enabled many students to go on to higher education and to lead a full and interesting life. I congratulate all those schools and their staff on their achievements over the years.
If the establishment of those schools meant losing my seat in Rastrick in 1984 then I consider the cost to be very small. My concern has
always been and will always be the proper and efficient provision of education for our young people.
I do not really care about the title or pretensions of the school providing it. The curriculum is the same, be it called high school or grammar. The results are what matter, together with the future lives of the students as responsible members of the society.
On many occasions I had the opportunity to observe Coun Rogan's democratic attitude within the Conservative group and in coun- cil before he changed allegiance.
I, with many others, was not impressed with his total lack of understanding that, with a council that has a total of seven representative individuals or groups, there must be some sort of "rainbow" coalition.
Does Coun Rogan really think he would have won the Rastrick seat in 2006 if he had declared his change of party flag prior to the election?
Bill Carpenter, 01 June 2007

Can anyone enlighten me as to the relevance of the latest diatribe from ex-Councillor Carpenter? Was it in reply to Councillor Rogan’s recent letter or was it merely to remind us of how self-sacrificing he has been?
I note with some interest that in this letter and in his letter referring to the fooling of the voters by Councillors Rogan and Yates, ex-Councillor Bill Carpenter doesn’t mention any voting figures except where it suits him. And he re-iterates the unanswerable supposition as to whether voters have been fooled by elected members ‘crossing the floor’ after being elected. There is never any proof that this would have affected the voters had a candidate swapped allegiance before an election. But, if there is any real evidence, Councillor Wallace crossed the floor and was subsequently re-elected under a new flag thanks to the hard work he had done in the Illingworth ward. To say that the voters in Rastrick and Brighouse have been fooled is unfair and belies the obvious hard work done by the respective Councillors both in the past and currently.
Electors are fooled, however, by those elected members whose only activities appear to be reported in the pages of the Courier in what can not be considered favourable terms. As an example here, I refer to the spectacular lack of local activity (as opposed to personal activity), displayed by Councillor Bob Thompson (Lib-Dem – Elland) who would appear to be quite happy to receive his allowance but is reluctant to account for his work on the mandatory activity sheets which have remained blank since his election! The Council web-site confirms this and records other blank sheets for Councillor Pat Allen and Councillor Diane Park, both ‘representing’ Elland but seem reluctant to prove it.
Let’s take the act of ‘fooling the voters’ a step further. What about all those electors in Calderdale who were against the policies of the Labour party and accordingly voted Conservative only to find that the very individuals they were against are now in positions of authority thanks to the Conservative/Labour alliance. It is all very well to say that there is a need for ‘rainbow coalitions’ but I bet this power sharing was never even thought of during the time ex-Councillor Carpenter’s party had a majority! Consider the Lib-Dem voters also. Nearly 7000 of these voted in five wards in opposition Conservative and Labour policies, electing 5 Councillors. All these wasted because the voters were fooled into believing that their votes would give them some say in the running of Calderdale! This number alone is over 4 times the number of votes polled by Councillor Rogan in May 2006 (1603). Perhaps ex-Councillor Carpenter should ask the voters of Rastrick directly if they think they had been fooled or perhaps he should be asking the local Conservative branches as to why so many current and previous Conservative Councillors have opted to leave the Conservatives.
Not all have done so after ‘fooling the voters’; at least one has done so after being ‘fooled’ by their local branch. That person is myself, ex-Councillor Michael Clarke, the first Conservative to be elected in Elland for 30 years, who was rejected by his local branch not the other way round.
I have documentary evidence which substantiates this and I am more than happy to make it available to anyone who may be interested.
I would also like to remind ex-Councillor Carpenter that he often talked about his early days on the Council when there were but two Conservatives. A very marginal situation, similar to the current status of the English Democratic party (according to ex-Councillor Carpenter). How would he have recorded two seats in a favourable light?
Finally, to Nick Yates, may I remind him to mind his back. As an independent trust no-one until you are certain of their agenda.
Michael Clarke, English Democrat, Elland Ward Advocate