LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Everyone is falling for the globalists’ lies

However, before too many Labour supporters attack the government please remember that admittedly to a lesser extent it’s what you do in Rotherham.

As the only councillor living in a ward whose deprivation scores place it in England’s most deprived ten per cent and one of the very few to live in a highly deprived neighbourhood, I hope your readers appreciate I feel a duty to point out the structural inequalities that keep our neighbourhoods back.

Taking two neighbouring wards to mine, you have Sitwell, the least deprived ward, and Rotherham East, the most deprived.

I recently asked questions in committee and to be fair the cabinet member with responsibility for neighbourhoods gave reasonable answers, recognised many of the problems, but the fact remains that one ward does far better than the other.

On devolved capital budgets, community leadership funds and in terms of neighbourhood officer times both get the same despite the far deeper problems you get in communities like Eastwood.

I’ve raised this matter in your pages before but the formula for devolved ward housing hub budgets favours the least deprived parts of the borough over the most.

This manifests itself in the 1,853 council homes in wards across Rotherham having less than average deprivation compared to the whole of England, getting just short of £30k of funding to help make their estates cleaner and safer, while the 2,136 council homes across Eastwood, East Dene and Herringthorpe get just under £17k.

There is also a budget being offered from money paid by developers from what’s called the community infrastructure levy (CIL). Again because of how it is structured communities in Sitwell Ward will receive a far higher income from this fund than the Eastwoods of this world.

Indications are that communities in the level 1 charging area for CIL, Broom, Moorgate, Whiston, Wickersley, all areas that it is fair to say have far stronger community structures than much of Rotherham, will get £9.68 per square metre from developers to improve their neighbourhoods while highly deprived neighbourhoods from here in Thrybergh to the Tinsley viaduct will get just £2.64.

It will be interesting when figures are published for this exactly who gets what.

Many people tend to demonise communities like Eastwood, East Dene or East Herringthorpe, but perhaps a start in tackling their challenges will be to alter the funding formula for devolved budgets so they have parity with the communities along East Bawtry Road?

Cllr Michael Bennett-Sylvester