My Personal Message To You

Dear Resident,

Cllr Darrell Mawle - Working For You All Year Round

It now looks highly likely that the local Cannock Chase District elections will be held on the same day as the General Election (my guess...May 6th). What does this mean for you? Well, you will be able to vote for a new MP to represent you at Westminister and vote for a District councillor to represent your views at Cannock Chase Council. I'm afraid it will also mean that you will also be bombarded with political leaflets form various political parties (with regards to the Talkback leaflet, I will endeavour to cover local issues that matter to you).

Over the next two months you will come across new people who will be asking for your vote at the District Elections. It's called Democracy which I fully support but I would ask you to consider something before you place your vote. Do you know who the person is? Have they been active in the Rawnsley Community over the last few years? Do they know the area? Have they got experience in sorting out any council issues you may have?

A RECORD OF ACTION

With regards to my own record over the last 4 years, I feel that I have worked hard for the residents in Rawnsley, Hazelslade, Prospect Village and Cannock Wood. If you haven't met me or I haven't been able to help you, please ask your neighbours or friends in the Rawnsley Ward boundaries if I have been of help to them and if I have been a man of my word. I have tried to immerse myself in the area and help individuals as well as be an active member of any community groups, however small they are. I always respond to phone calls and emails and consider myself to be honest and polite with residents. I would be honoured to be able to represent you again on the District Council and would therefore ask you to vote for Darrell Mawle at the Local Elections.

Regards,

Councillor Darrell Mawle

Rawnsley Ward

My Five Reasons For Voting Liberal Democrat

1) Cutting taxes for people on low and middle incomes - There will be no income

Cllr Darrell Mawle - Working to Save Our Local Post Offices

tax on the first 10,000 you earn meaning 3.6 million working people and low

income pensioners will no longer have to pay any income tax at all, while millions

more will have an income tax cut of 700. Pensioners will get up to 100 extra.

The change will be paid for by introducing a mansion tax, closing loopholes that

benefit the wealthy and making sure airlines pay for the pollution they cause.

2) Local planning decisions - We will scrap Labours Planning Act and return

decision-making to local people, scrapping the Infrastructure Planning Commission

and giving people the right to appeal against decisions in favour of development.

We will create a new designation similar to SSSI status to protect green areas of

particular importance or value to the community. We will define gardens as

greenfield sites in planning law so that they cannot so easily be built over.

3) Keep local Post Offices and tax cuts to save rural shops and pubs - We will keep

Post Offices open in rural areas where theyre the lynchpin of community life,

ending the Labour and Conservative closure programme. And in villages where

theres only one shop or pub, well cut business rates to keep them open.

4) Make votes fair We will change politics forever and abolish safe seats by

introducing a fair, more proportional voting system for MPs, and for the House of

Lords. By giving voters the choice between people as well as parties, it means they

can stick with a party but punish a bad MP by voting for someone else.

5) Justice in your neighbourhood - We will give people a direct say in how petty

criminals and those who engage in anti-social behaviour are punished in their area.

This will be achieved by the creation of Neighbourhood Justice Panels, like the one

run by Liberal Democrats in Somerset where 95% of offenders have been turned

away from further crimes.

Twitter ye not! Local Councillor encourages discussion and comment

Twitter is a free blogging service which lets you make posts up to 140 characters long. Its popularity is growing with website traffic up by 874 per cent in 2008. Passing on information, having a friendly chat, sending out updates: doesn't that sound like what is at the heart of the relationship between councillors and their colleagues and constituents?

Councillor Darrell Mawle - Working for you all year round

Councillor Mawle hopes that the people in the Rawnsley Ward will find Twitter a useful medium to air local issues, encourage discussion and raise awareness of what is happening in the area. He wants to stress that he doesn't want to do away with good old fashioned face to face conversation but sees this service as another tool to engage with local people.

For Councillor Mawle's latest updates, go to:- www.twitter.com/councillormawle

LITTLEWORTH ROAD RESURFACING TO BE COMPLETED AT LAST

It's excellent news that the final part of Littleworth Road is going to be resurfaced after years of campaigning by local councillors and residents. They are even going to have it finished by the end of March. However, I am alittle cynical. With the County Council Elections in June…. are these roadworks coming forward by sheer coincidence (before Xmas we were no. 34 on the list) or are we being bribed in some way for our vote? I know what I think. It would seem that if you have a County Council issue, now would be the best time to get it sorted out.

LITTLEWORTH ROAD UPDATE

HEATH HAYES AND NORTON CANES COMMUNITY FORUM - 02 SEPT 2008

STATEMENT FOR MEETING

Littleworth Road Wimblebury

It is appreciated that the structural condition of Littleworth Road is of concern to residents but at the moment it is not possible to give a firm date for any future major maintenance works to the road or footways. The funding for the 2008/09 financial year has been allocated and the following sites will be or have already been treated:

Principle Roads: A460 Rugeley Road, Hednesford

A34 Stafford Road Cannock

Non Principle Roads: Lime Lane, Little Wyrley

Brownhills Road, Norton Canes

Laburnham Avenue, Cannock

St Pauls Road, Rugeley

Burnthill Lane, Rugeley

East Street, Bridgtown

Additionally the following footway schemes will also be undertaken:

Hunter Road Cannock

Rothbury Green, Heath Hayes

Pye Green Road, Hednesford

Heath Street, Hednesford.

It is proposed to again include Littleworth Road within the assessment process for schemes that will be carried out in the 2009/10 financial year. This process will commence around December 2008 and a final decision on which scheme will be included in the programme will be made in early 2009.

Traffic Management Issues.

With regard to Traffic Management concerns, as reported at the last Forum meeting it is intended to implement a 'signing and lining' improvement scheme at the junction of Littleworth Road and Cannock Wood Street. This works will be completed before the end of the calendar year.

There is also some concern regarding the speed of traffic using Littleworth Road and with this in mind a review of the accident data on the section of the road between the Trafalgar public house and Rawnsley Road has been undertaken. The data shows that there have been 4 recorded incidents in the lat 3 years.

These were: (i) an accident at the traffic lights (Jul 08) - it is thought that driver error was the cause of the accident.

(ii) One incident in 2007 - slight injuries - the cause of this is recorded as driver error (failing to judge distance)

(iii) Two incidents in 2006 - both slight injuries - cause: again driver error, failing to judge speed.

Considering that approximately 4500 vehicles per day use this road the accident data shows a low recorded level of incidents.

The 85% speed is recoded at 34.5 mph. This means that 85% of the vehicles using this road travel at 34.5 mph or less.

Considering the available information the road would not score highly for traffic calming measures.

However if the bid for maintenance funds is successful for the 2009/10 season then it would be possible to consider some measures which could be carried out as part of a maintenance project.

It is realised that this response will not address the residents concerns but it should be noted that the there is considerable pressure on the County Councils budgets and highway maintenance, whilst remaining a high priority for the County Council, does have to compete for funding with other important services such as social care and education.

Should any member of the meeting wish to discus any of the issues raised by this statement they are invited to contact the Divisional Highway Manger for the Cannock Division, Dave Botfield via Clarence on 0800 23 23 23 or email at Dave.botfield@staffordshire.gov.uk

Councillors Mawle & Ansell Commend Volunteers

Following long campaigning from your local Liberal Democrats, we finally have some car speed checking units in the ward boundaries. These will be moved around to six identified locations where speeding cars have become an issue. The units flash up your speed when you approach them and we urge you to look out for them as you drive around the area.

Councillor Darrell Mawle

Councillor Pat Ansell

Your local councillors are pleased to announce that there will be a Christmas Tree in Cannock Wood and Rawnsley again this year. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties, another tree which was due to be based in the ward this year has been postponed. We hope to bring you good news on this subject next year.

Prospect Village Residents Association have been very busy over the last few months as local members have been cleaning up a forgotten pathway which runs from behind the Village Hall to Ironstone Road. Eleven Volunteers have also been trained to run the Community Speedwatch in the village. Your local councillors applaud all those who are putting in valuable hours of their own time to make the area a better place to live and we promise to give them our total support.