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Councillor David O’Neill met with members of Eastwood Residents Association recently to discuss with them the necessity for a bus shelter to be sited at the Todmorden end of Victoria Terrace.

The residents approached Councillor O’Neill to see if he could help with the placement of a bus shelter after their initial request was turned down last year. After consultations with Metro in Leeds, Councillor O’Neill has now succeeded in getting the shelter approved under the Metro Rural Areas Committee and put at the head of their list for 2007.

Councillor O’Neill is now seeking approval from Calderdale MBC for a small piece of the Eastwood Refuse Station land to be transferred to the highways section to allow the shelter to be placed back from the road edge and giving residents the safer area for waiting for their bus to come. Mr John Peck the Chairman of Eastwood Residents Association thanked Councillor O’Neill for his help and hopes to see the bus shelter soon in place to give people waiting for the bus much more protection both from the elements and from the traffic on the very busy trunkroad.

[Matt Morten (No2ID), Christine Bampton-Smith, John Beacroft-Mitchell]

Anti-identity card group No2ID visited Hebden Bridge on Saturday to gather support for a petition calling on Calderdale MBC and parish councils to ensure that ID Cards are not required when people are accessing council services.

Dave Page, No2ID, said: “Manchester No2ID’s volunteers had a productive day running a stall on Bridgegate in Hebden Bridge gathering support against the expensive, intrusive, useless and unnecessary National Identity Register.

We found that locals and visitors alike were friendly, welcoming and receptive.
With the help of local councillors, we gathered around 100 signatures for the petition to Calderdale, as well as many more signatures for the national No2ID petition. Many local pubs took our leaflets so we can continue to inform people even after we’ve gone.
We would like to thank our hosts, local volunteers and the people of Hebden Bridge for making our day so rewarding and fun.”

No2ID volunteers were joined by Liberal Democrat Hebden Royd and Calderdale councillors John Beacroft-Mitchell, Christine Bampton-Smith and Nader Fekri, and independent Hebden Royd councillor Joanna Beacroft-Mitchell.

Cllr John Beacroft-Mitchell said: “The compulsory introduction of ID cards has the potential to be Labour’s Poll Tax.

Home Office forecasts envisage that 400,000 civil servants and as many as 48,000 accredited private sector companies will have access to your identity.

We are calling on Local Authorities and Calderdale in particular to resist the urge to require ID Cards for access to their services.

I for one will never carry an ID Card.”