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Lowe-down on Batley
Councillor Gwen Lowe (front) and Kirklees Council officers have spent the last 6 months surveying Batley and arranging improvement works - replacing broken flagstones, broken street lights etc
A PIONEERING way of flagging up jobs needing attention has paid dividends in Batley.
Instead of reporting one problem at a time, Coun Gwen Lowe decided on a clean sweep.
A three-hour trawl of the town centre revealed 53 faults – and many have already been put right.
It has been a similar story in other parts of the town covered by the six-month survey.
This week, Coun Lowe (Lab, Batley West) met the 12-strong team which helped deliver the project – staff from various departments within Kirklees Council – to assess the results.
“It has gone really well,” said Coun Lowe. “Instead of reporting faults one at a time, I thought we should do a ‘visual audit’.
“It took us three hours to cover the town centre. But having more than one pair of eyes was so useful.”
Examples of problems included blocked and leaking drainpipes, planting areas neglected, broken paving, dangerous railings, an under-used cycle shed and litter.
Colin Spink, area streetscene manager for Batley and Spen Valley, collated the findings for this week’s review.
“I’m pleased to say that many of the jobs have already been done, some achieved by using community payback teams,” he said.
Coun Lowe thanked all those who had taken part in the project.
“It was a combined effort and some of the work is ongoing,” she said.
“But if we had not worked in this way, some jobs would still be waiting to be done.
“It was also good for networking between the different council departments.”
Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing and police officers were also involved.
As the team summarised what is still to be done, Coun Lowe said: “We will definitely be doing this again. And other parts of the Kirklees district might take it on board.
“It was great that everyone enjoyed it.”
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Weather for Batley
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: North east
