Our Successes in Pendle

“Pendle is a priority for me... and for the Labour Party.  So let’s talk about our own area and what’s happening here.”  Gordon Prentice, Labour Parliamentary Candidate, 2010.

Since 1997 we have seen huge investment in education and in the NHS.  We have two brand new secondary schools, Pendle Vale and Marsden Heights, with the remaining four in line for major re-builds.  Every primary school can point to new facilities: computer suites; new classrooms.  Teaching support staff in Pendle has increased by over 300% - from 110 to 460.

Education matters to everyone.  There are new Sure Start centres and new Children’s Centres giving young people new opportunities and wider horizons.  They didn’t drop out of a clear blue sky.  It took a Labour Government to plan, finance and build them.  Labour’s Child Trust Fund, designed to encourage the savings habit at an early age, has over 6,700 Pendle children signed up.  The Government gets each one going with an initial £250 deposit.  At the age of 7 the children get a further £250 top-up.  Typically, the Conservatives are pledged to rein this back.  The Conservatives also want to cut eligibility for Child Tax Credits: over 7,500 Pendle families rely on them.  This is not very family-friendly.  When I look around Pendle I see a lot that has been done.  There is more to do.  A new health centre in Colne is top of my list.  The NHS has already bought the land at Craddock Road for this exciting new development.

Some of the housing around here is an absolute disgrace.  The crumbling, dilapidated homes are overwhelmingly in the private sector.  As the market collapsed, houses were left empty or abandoned.  The contagion spread.  The Labour Government stepped in, no-one else would, and has spent over £65 million in Pendle alone to turn things around.

I believe in an active State: giving people new opportunities; protecting the vulnerable; looking after the elderly; keeping us all safe and our neighbourhoods free from crime and antisocial behaviour.  These are Pendle’s priorities too.