The unauthorised traveller encampment at Witherwin Avenue / Lumb Brook Road, Appleton has now moved on - two days before legal enforcement. This is, indeed, good news. You will see from the picture that they have bagged up most of their rubbish and I am sure WBC will collect it asap.

Warrington needs a Transit Site. £2m has been allocated but no site identified and agreed on. Both Travellers and residents need to know that illegal encampments can be moved on and that the human rights of Travellers can be provided for. A Transit site would enable them to have access to water, electricity and other services that they would pay for.

Warrington's programme of funding Council services increasingly out of the revenue obtained from property and commercial investments is audacious and necessary, but not reckless. Officers are skilled in risk management and buy-in professional advice as part of due diligence.

However, these risks should not be necessary. Councils should have been allowed to fund their services through local taxes. Instead government has given local authorities access to cheap loans to fund their speculative investment programmes.

The government's planning proposals in the recently published White Paper raise more problems than solutions. Planning spokesperson Ryan Bate says:

The government should listen to the many voices raising concerns as they consult on their overhaul of the planning system. The proposals try to lay the blame for the housing crisis squarely at the feet of the planning system, but over a million homes have been granted planning permission over the last decade and never built. If we had a well-resourced planning system focusing on sustainable development, quality place-making and genuine public participation, then Warrington would get the right homes in the right places with the right jobs and the right infrastructure. That includes genuinely affordable homes and social housing too.

The government is proposing changes to the method of calculating the number of houses which local authorities must plan for. Liberal Democrat Councillor Ryan Bate says:

It is right that the government will now insist on using the latest data, rather than numbers based on 2014. A rough and ready calculation suggests that Warrington would need to plan for around 14,250 houses, or 712 per year. This is a significant reduction compared to Warrington's current plans and would make a massive difference to protecting our green spaces and ensuring we can deliver the right infrastructure.

Appleton Councillors Sharon Harris and Judith Wheeler are keeping up the pressure on Warrington Borough Council to do something about the appalling facilities at Broomfields Leisure Centre - the only Livewire leisure facility south of the ship canal. Cllr Harris says:

I took the Council's Cabinet Member for Leisure and Community on a tour of the building last Summer and he was clearly shocked by what he saw. The flooring is worn through, cubicle doors and benches are broken, the air conditioning is inadequate and the gym is so small people using it have been cheek by jowl. Good leisure facilities are provided at the hubs in other parts of Warrington but Broomfields has just been left to fall into disrepair. I used to bring my children here 25 years ago and little has changed. The staff do a wonderful job in spite of the conditions.

Stockton Heath Councillor Peter Walker is pressing Warrington Borough Council hard about the need for more electric charging points to be installed in the town's car parks, saying:

Electric cars are the future for private transport, and if the Council wants Warrington to be a 'green' town they must start planning for this right away. In my own ward, which has a lot of terraced houses with no private parking, it is very difficult for residents to have electric cars because of the difficulty of recharging the batteries. We have asked the Council to take the opportunity of the promised redesign and resurfacing of the Forge car park to install charging points in Stockton Heath.