Ashton-in-Makerfield Community Forum
This message board welcomes open and friendly debate on matters relevant to Ashton and its history, and the publicising of local events, activities and facilities. Please read the board rules before posting.
Extracts from this forum and other material have been brought together to provide a local history from the contributions of members.
Hi matt
Wow! You are so clever you could be a Labour 
Councillor.
Town: peter.franzen@community-action.com
Hi Matt
In answer to your question what do we stand for:
DRAFT MANIFESTO
THE COMMUNITY ACTION PARTY - BRINGING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY INTO POLITICS.
The basis of the Community Action Party Manifesto is to develop and pursue a “Political Agenda” based on a consensus of informed public opinion, in an inclusive and honest manner.
The Community Action Party recognises that community engagement is as important to national issues as it is to local issues.
If elected to Parliament we will supplement the eighteen Community Action Party Councillors already elected to Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council.
We will represent the voice of local communities in Westminster instead of Members of Parliament representing the policies of New Labour locally.
With these points in mind the Community Action Party will campaign on the following issues.
1) A NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, FREE AT THE POINT OF DELIVERY
Under New Labour our health service is being privatised by stealth. This was never intended when it was originally conceived and founded.
It is our intention to reverse this trend, to eliminate bureaucracy from the health service and to return to traditional values.
We propose the abolition of prescription charges and the provision of a health service free of charge to all at the point of delivery and from the cradle to the grave.
2) EDUCATION, AVAILABLE, ACCESSIBLE AND FREE AT THE POINT OF DELIVERY.
Under New Labour the education of our young people is being eroded by government interference. Targets, league tables, government inspections and teachers reporting procedures are leading to a bureaucracy similar to that prevalent in our health service, police force, fire brigade and other public services.
Our schools must be given the chance to stand-alone and be accountable to parents, Governors and students. The Schools Inspectorate and other Government bureaucracies
should only be in place where they have a useful role to assist and advise and not to judge.
The allocation of places at local schools must take account of the wishes of local people and of parental and student choice.
Schools in areas of deprivation must be given additional support to enable all students to have access to the highest standards of education.
School facilities should be made available outside of normal school hours, giving young people and the community at large a place to meet, access to facilities and a sense of ownership.
School travel plans should be mandatory in all of our schools.
Education at every level should be available to all regardless of their means.
We are opposed to tuition fees being charged to students or their parents and call for the re-introduction of student grants linked to a commitment by students to work in this country for an agreed minimum period.
3) COMMUNITY SAFETY
Law and order must be established on the streets by better and more effective policing, manned police stations and police on the beat.
It is no longer credible for New Labour to claim that we have record numbers of police, when the public don’t see them and they are not available when required.
It is time for ZERO TOLERANCE of drug dealers, arsonists, thugs, thieves and racists.
The present low priority given to drug-associated crime and a 93% rise in car crime in the Greater Manchester Area is unacceptable.
Sentences must be made to fit the crime to reassure the public that justice will be done and seen to be done. Community Service must be appropriate and of benefit both to the offender and to the community and not just a punishment for the offender.
We are opposed to any reduction in the number of firefighters and to any cuts in the fire service.
4) OVERSEAS AID
Real aid must be given to developing countries, not just tokenism and loans linked to punitive trade deals that create massive long term debt.
We must cancel the existing long term debts of developing countries to enable them to escape from the continuous cycle of poverty.
Developing countries must be supplied with the technology to enable them to become self sufficient and equal trading partners.
5) THE ENVIRONMENT
We are opposed to the destruction of our heritage and the use of green field sites and playing fields for development.
We stand for the conservation and improvement of the natural and built environment and the protection of wildlife and its habitat.
We will work towards the review and resetting of environmental limits of pollution released into the atmosphere by industry.
We support the principle of bringing the point of sale closer to the point of consumption, a levy on waste producers such as the packaging industry and sale and return schemes to promote re-cycling.
Global Trade must be reorganised and prioritised to reduce transportation and to promote local self sufficiency.
TO BE CONTINUED
Town: peter.franzen@community-action.com
CONTINUED
6) TERRORISM
The existing laws are more than adequate to cope with the very small number of incidents that have occurred in this country in recent times.
We require effective policing and less interference by the pro war New Labour Government and their USA allies in the affairs of other nations.
Habeas Corpus has existed since the Magna Carta was granted by King John at Runnymede in 1215 establishing the rights of English barons and free citizens and is regarded as the basis of civil and political liberty in England
We are opposed to New Labour Government plans to remove more of our civil liberties and imprison people in their own homes without trial and without the right to Habeas Corpus.
We are opposed to the introduction of Identity Cards that would further infringe undermine our civil liberties.
7) IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM
These are bogus issues created by the media and the national parties to divert attention away from their own shortcomings.
We are opposed to all forms of racism and to the anti-asylum hysteria promoted by New Labour, the Tories and the BNP.
8) TRANSPORT
We are in favour of a fully integrated public transport infrastructure, publicly controlled and maintained, effectively managed, affordable and fully accountable to the public.
We want to promote the use of public transport such as rail, buses and trams and reduce the amount of road traffic congestion, pollution and fuel usage.
We want heavy freight to be taken off the roads and put onto the railways.
9) EUROPE
We acknowledge that our future is inextricably linked to Europe and welcome the multi-culturism and trading relationships that membership of the European Union promotes.
However we are opposed to quangos whether British or European, the European party political gravy train and the erosion of democracy both in this country and abroad.
10) IRAQ
We are opposed to the illegal invasion and war against the people of Iraq.
More than 100,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands more have been injured maimed or physically abused and tens of thousands have had their homes destroyed.
Almost one hundred British soldiers have lost their lives and hundreds more have been injured. Many have lost one or both legs.
Those Members of Parliament who supported the illegal invasion of Iraq based on a web of lies should be held to account.
Town: peter.franzen@community-action.com
