They are truly beautiful but seeing poppies always makes me feel a bit solemn as well because we usually see and think of them in connection with Remembrance Sunday.
As the dust settles in Dinnington and the wider Rotherham Borough has anyone from the ruling Labour group realised why so many people voted UKIP here?
UKIP is a protest party, an angry party. You vote UKIP when you want to say that you are unhappy in no uncertain terms with the status quo.
Are Rotherham Labour genuinely surprised that people are so unhappy with them?
Was it the fact that they ignored child abuse in the town for years and put those councillors most responsible for this neglect into positions of greater power?
Was it the greenbelt issues where our local councillors did not one useful thing to oppose Rotherham Council building a thousand houses over our countryside? (In Dinnington’s case)
Was it the fact that when they pay themselves 1.1 million pounds a year and then try to save money by closing children’s centres?
The cuts to our library? The closure of the Council service centre?
The answer is probably yes to all of the above, Dinnington gets a raw deal in Rotherham and we are sick of it.
Labour supporters fought a massive negative campaign against UKIP, accusing them at times of being a Nazi or Facist party.
Which party spent a decade or more undermining our personal freedoms, taking away our right to free speech, introducing draconian legislation and starting two major wars? Labour.
Who allowed uncontrolled immigration and epic abuse of our benefit system? Yep, look in the mirror folks and you’ll see what an oppressive party really looks like.
BUT I didn’t vote UKIP.
In amongst all the excitement did anyone notice the independent candidate running, our tireless local stalwart Dave Smith? Dave took 579 votes and although this wasn’t the thousand and odd the other two got I think it a great achievement for a guy who stands up for Dinnington on his own with no party machine just a few friends and family helping him out. If you don’t like UKIP and want to see change next time consider voting for Dave because if you want someone who will tirelessly fight for Dinnington and not cow tow to a party line he’s your man.
Dave almost certainly took enough votes off Labour to ensure they didn’t escape by the skin of their teeth as Jo Burton and Gerald Smith did in neighbouring wards.
That’s why I didn’t vote UKIP, I voted for Dave.
Purple is UKIP, red is Labour, pink shows Labour seats which UKIP missed by a very small amount of votes.
Just to be clear this indicates the results from the last election only, it doesn’t show the balance of power in Rotherham which is still predominantly Labour.
Summary of wards with majority for each:
| Anston and Woodsetts 31 | Rotherham East 220 |
| Boston Castle 161 | Rotherham West 39 |
| Brinsworth and Catcliffe 1628 | Silverwood 539 |
| Dinnington 98 | Sitwell 675 (Tories 2nd) |
| Hellaby 675 | Swinton 59 |
| Holderness 3 | Valley 185 |
| Hoober 211 | Wales 278 |
| Keppel 400 | Wath 149 |
| Maltby 63 | Wickersley 203 |
| Rawmarsh 343 | Wingfield 391 |
| Rother Vale 347 |
In other news:
UKIP support increases massively in Rotherham Borough, they took 10 of the 21 seats on the night.
Dinnington Goes UKIP.
Jo “Baldrick” Burton Hangs on by 31 votes in Anston
Gerald “I want to build on your greenbelt” Smith hangs on by THREE VOTES!
Deputy Leader Akhtar is GONE!
Sir Kev’s relation gets ousted.
Local independent Dave Smith takes hundreds of votes from Labour in Dinnington.
Many other Labour Councillors only just won.
Labour supports brand UKIP a Nazi party, forgetting who started the last couple of wars are we, chaps?
Yes: 13
No: 315
Spoiled: 2
So a clear result for no building on the greenbelt but not the turnout we had hoped for unfortunately. Thank you very much to all those who voted and helped and supported the poll.
My apologies to all those who were turned away from their first polling station, I hope you stuck with it and went where they told you. Unfortunately no one told me there were specific stations for each street, let alone who should go where!
Removing some of Dinnington’s countryside from the green belt would allow 940 homes to be built on fields currently used for recreational walking and cycling by local people for decades. The Miner’s Welfare ground could also be lost to house building.
The remaining 600 houses would be built on brownfield sites.
We believe that 1500 homes is far too much and a far more sustainable figure would be less than half that number. This would also mean green belt would not be required.
The Referendum is a Parish Poll and all residents of Dinnington parish can vote. It will be held on May 9th at the following locations:
Dinnington Resource Centre
Dinnington St Joseph’s School
Monksbridge Community Centre
Voting is from 4pm to 9pm, please come along and have your say!
If at least 10 local residents ask for a poll the local authority is duty bound to call a date and give the people of Dinnington their say at the ballot box, Like all referendums, however the poll is not binding, merely an expression of opinion.
Please come and support us at the Lyric on Monday.
Parents and staff from the Children’s Centre were joined by local ward councillors, town councillors and two members of the actual cabinet from the Town Hall itself, Children’s Services supremo Paul Larkin and Deputy Leader Jahangir Akhtar.
Local activist Dave Smith was also present and was unsympathetic to the Council’s case for closing all the Children’s Centres in the Rother Valley South Area. Cllr Larkin threatened to close the meeting and take his ball in if any one tried to make a political point, Cllr Akhtar accused Mr Smith of showing no respect (A bit rich given Cllr Akhtar’s criminal conviction for assault, but never mind)
The lady chairing the meeting kind of lost her credibility when she admitted to a parent that they didn’t actually know how well attended each centre was.
She also told us that the service would improve despite any closures so a parent asked then why not close all the centres if the mystery alternative is better. Again no answer!
Firebrand independent Cllr Stuart Thornton was next, pointing out that the consultation was a bit of a fix given that Cllrs had already voted for the cuts by approving the budget. This was met by howls of protest from the cabinet members and Cllr Jacquie Falvey (who had stayed obediently quiet throughout the previous exchange)
Cllr Paul Larkin settled the issue by admitting that yes the money has already been cut from his budget, but that if the “consultation” decided the centres had to stay open he would cut it from somewhere else in the Children and Young Persons budget.
Sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul! (Paul Larkin, get it? Not sure who Peter is…)
The Cllrs from Dinnington Town Council also held their tongues, thanks for your help there ladies and gentlemen! Not.
Cllr Akhtar got really surreal when he suggested that the dissenting voices in the room were upsetting the children (who were happily playing football at the back as far as I could see)
At this point I had to leave to pick my daughter up so cannot report further on the proceedings.
I never got the chance to air my views, but I fear they would not have been important to the cynical self serving officials and Labour Councillors who frankly give not one jot for the children of Dinnington and Anston.
Even now it sends a shiver down my spine when I ride my bike up past the ruined Miners Welfare, you can feel the neglect and disappointment hanging in the air. I can only imagine how this makes the miners feel, those who remember its hey day.
Many people in Dinnington didn’t rely on the pit and life for them continued, but for a large part of our community what was taken is yet to be replaced.
Dave has some thoughts of his own, have a read….
LoveDinnington.com 