State of the Area Address 2005
State of the Area Address 2005
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On 22nd November councillors and guests gathered after the full council meeting to hear the annual State of the Area Address from Council Leader Cllr Roy Oldham.
Text Only Version
Mayor Jacqueline Lane
I'd like to welcome everyone tonight to the 2005 State of the Area Address, and it's now a privilege to call upon the executive leader Councillor Roy Oldham to actually present the State of the Area Address. Thank you.
Cllr Roy Oldham
I'd like to welcome everyone here this evening and I hope what I'm about to say will be of interest and perhaps some surprise to you.
It's unfortunate this evening we do not have a full compliment of the council, elected members of the council that is, they have chosen not to be with us, that's out of our control. And it's quite a sorry situation when the principle opposition members choose not to sit and listen and indeed take the opportunity to make their own statements.
It's a particular year of importance underpinning this area's self assessments and development, as it's going to set out the foundations for future years. If there is a simple objective that describes where we're going, it is that of enriching this borough in order to give the community pride in their living environment. We're about that, we're about nothing else. We're here to make sure that each citizen, each member of this community feels where they live is important and is wholesome and is acceptable.
You can measure progress in many ways in that sense. You can compare ourselves with others and check boxes, you can count numerically. But the only way you will honestly make a statement and the relevant measurements is by recording the views of people. And the principle way that's done besides Mori polls and all the other activities this council takes part in, is in the local elections. And with 46 Labour councillors out of the 57, I think that in itself does demonstrate the solid support that the controlling group is given, and its sense of carrying out the duties and the hopes for the people.
The proof enough exists within our theme which continues in safer, clean streets. And proof enough exists to demonstrate the integrity of the council's financial operations. We fixed 4 primary elements and they still rank very high in the community's terms and I believe they will in the year 2006, 2007, 2008 and so on. Therefore the 4 pillars which we constructed the safer, cleaner streets on are important elements of that activity.
Crime and antisocial be behaviour reductions, you've heard in the chamber the debate that went on. But the truth is, crime and antisocial behaviour is being addressed, seriously addressed by both the regular police force and by this council in many facets which will be explained later.
We are providing a wholesome environment and we are improving our education attainments, and we are maximising jobs and the gain of commercial enterprises. So those 4 pillars really are the thing which we stand upon, and you may just condense that into a single word and it's important this word because it's about what everybody thinks about you in the end either inside or outside the borough and it embodies the council and it's people. And that is the word reputation. And in concise terms the word reputation means reliable, trustworthy, dependable, and to have the distinction of respect. And I just think we've gained that and earned that over the number of years behind us that we've been running this authority and it goes not just along the political dimension, it goes along the administration dimension and the officers, because that partnership, if it isn't working together and it is a house divided then you see across the country when things don't work out properly. Here, it's a properly constituted partnership and respect for each other which endeavors and endures goes into that reputation.
The excellent council that we've had prescribed to us, and is prescribed not by ourselves but prescribed by an independent group of people, the Audit Commission is important and we should stop if we can even in political terms running down any part or essence of that. It's not true that all of our young people are out of control and unable to perform in job terms, it's just not true. It's not true that ethnic people are a difficulty for us in general terms, it's not true that the elderly impose a burden on us, it's just not true because that is what makes up a community. Our ethnic people, our youth, our children, ourselves and our elderly. They are the integrated and complete community and you can find in any part of any world problems, they're are always going to be some difficult people who don't want to walk with you, who want to be troublesome and we try to help them. Always remember that the majority of people are law abiding fair people and just want to get on with their lives with their relatives and neighbours and friends in the most easy and proper way possible.
If I could give one word of advice to the senior opposition of this council it is 'look for some good in this borough rather than looking all the time for the worst parts of it because that's not what opposition's about. Opposition is about bringing to this council, to the forum which we work in their ideas, their qualities, their standards and putting then forward. Without having to all the time turn into this 90 degree sourness that seems to prevail them.
We look at the awards, for example. If we're not doing well with reputation look at our awards. We know we got Excellent and we got 5 Beacon Status Awards, we're getting another one now Getting Closer to Communities, top awards for ICT services for schools, 3 Green Flag awards for our parks, North West in Bloom gold medal, Clean Sweep award, Sustainable Environmental Initiative for Glass Recycling, National Warden Achievement, Patroller Cadets, Community Safety Awards, Best Education Project for the Portland Basin Visitors Centre, Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Pension Scheme Award of the Year. If you can find another authority that can match that you bring that name to me and I'll bow my head to them. I don't think you're going to find anybody who can match up to those sorts of indicators or our reputation.
We've done an opinion survey by Mori and 84% of people surveyed are satisfied with Tameside as a place to live and 70% say that the council provides quality services. 33 key services talked with them and given in their understanding to be good, bad and indifferent only 3 of the services were below 60% and none below 50%. No one could continue to say in rubbishing terms, that the area we live in, work in and hopefully all of us appreciate is doing anything but the best for the community. Those good scores, don't get carried away that this is the end of the road, we've got far greater objectives, more stairs to climb. We're on a landing with a set of steps in front of us every time, and when we achieve that set of steps we must be prepared to walk again upwards. If you don't you become mediocre, you will slowly but surely descend below those who are fighting valiantly around us to get into a position we're in.
District Assemblies, they are working in a main degree very well and sometimes one feels disappointed that the public doesn't attend them in the sort of numbers that we would like them to do, and there is a difficulty in the fact that some of the people attend them every time and those people like to come to make their point of view over and over again. I would make an appeal this evening that if more of the public come along to these very important assemblies and put their point of view then we would learn more about what they thought of the council, of the borough, and what we could do to improve that.
We've got the local strategic partnership comprising of business, voluntary organisations, health, the police, and a number of age ranges all put together by the council. And the overriding partnership of that helps maintain the important priorities of the community, Crime and Disorder Partnership, Community Safety Panel, Town Centre Crime Group, Older Peoples Partnership, Anchor Trust in Council Partnership, Community Cohesion, and Quality Partnerships and Children and Young Peoples Partnership. And these are the tools of the grass roots, this is where democracy and the average man and woman can engage themselves in making our lives and their lives so much better and establish and cooperate government's systems. And never before have elected members been able to participate before like they can now. I hear people talking about long times ago about committee structures and the like. I spent a lot of my life in councils and I've been here a long time at councils in that system, and I know you can only be on two or three committees, you never set the agenda, and you participated against what officers dictated and you went away and you might have felt satisfied or dissatisfied but you did not run the show or even participate in running the show. I believe the system we've got now is totally different and does do that. The executive cabinet and the other service panels, the actual scrutiny groups which are critical to this, are better than they used to be in the past and no matter what this council does it is under observation not just by the Audit Commission or Internal Audit but by those 4 and very important scrutiny groups which of course the chair are one of them, is one of the controlling members and deputy chair is one of the controlling members. So we have given a democratic look at this that they can make their views known to us if we are straying from what we've set down in policy terms as a council.
We must read our reputation against the corporate plan for 2005-8, which generally lays down the vision, and the priorities and the partnerships and the key measuring indicators. We were the first and we've gained £3 million from the PSA in the Public Service Agreement and it's so easy to roll off the tongue these letters. We were the first council to gain the second generation Local Public Service Agreement.
We've made major improvements in our education attainments and we've made so many partnerships such as Older People's and we set out in our export strategy and we put in place the Children's and Young People's Service.
We aim always to maximise the general well being of our communities that make up the borough, and the corporate plan that we set is a template for that. Of course the objectives, the visions and the targets that are laid down, they have to be underpinned by something and that's energy, dedication by councillors and not just the controlling group but all councillors and our staff. But they have to draw the line under the provision of financial resources and they come from european grants, government grants, council tax etc. And if they're in short supply, we may have all the dreams and aspirations that we want to have, but they will only be brought into real terms if the finances are in good order and are available to do it.
In that, we are conscious of the people we serve and we need to meet the priorities in that, and so we look at how we can best delivery services to the highest quality, make the borough look as well as it can look and hold the charges against council tax to the lowest level. Because we are completely aware that ordinary people in their ordinary lives need money to run their own internal services, the domestic services.
So, we have looked at the last 4 years and held the council tax down to less that 14% in that selective 4 years, and we intend next year to have a relatively small rise in council tax, I guarantee that. That would be an acceptable figure which will enable people to pay against the normal costing's they have to endure. We shall be trying to do that again in the following year and the following year after that. That is always aided by the fact that our balances and reserves are in splendid condition and we're looking at more than £20 million which is held to help forward budgets and to provide the need to pay for our way without borrowing which is always expensive. So if we can use our own money which we hold in reserve it'd make it that much cheaper. Then of course there is the although it be small these days, interest that is gained from holding large sums of money like that.
We need to always understand that value for money and self assessment in that, efficiency statements is important and so we've been lucky in such that we've managed to secure in Tameside the north west efficiency procurement facility, and inside that should be dealing with the best way of purchasing goods and services ourselves. And if you look at the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, again we are way, way out in front of other government pension funds. We are now 97% funded, we are well over £8 billion or real investment, cash and bonds etc. And if you look at some of the other councils, especially the London ones, they are in desperate trouble and I'm hoping that I can get our message through to government to leave us alone in Tameside, if you want to meddle with pensions, do so elsewhere.
We will retain the final salaries provision we don't want to increase the time scale for people to work for us, we just ant to get it sorted out properly and internally. As we've done quite a number of facilities to help people in the pension world and our reputation in that stands a very high result, and I'm hoping that we've done that job that should be done. Over 19 years of holding this pension fund we've gone from just under £2 billion to well over £8 billion. And that's a significant increase, and if the government managed to achieve that in real terms is delivered in an emotional sense so much the better for everyone's pension. Fortunately pensions get paid for out of tax, ours get paid out of investment.
In looking at the detailed examination of priorities and I can run through these papers at nauseam looking at Enforcement Intensification, Sustainable Design and Construction Guide which has been achieved, Sporting and Facility Strategy, Tameside Purchasing Strategy that I mentioned, e-Tameside Strategy, Children and Young People Strategy. All these processes gain stature for us and increase our reputation. They're all underlined by independent people and the context of report files are placed to measure those best value indicators, and they demonstrate whether we are moving in a direction of travel and I think that that direction of travel is an improving one, and we've hit many targets and where we haven't hit targets we're not going to hide them, we're going to identify them and bring attention to them and ensure that those targets are met.
We will see what happens with the new facility for excellence which is now moving to star rating with four stars being the maximum it can actually get. That will be being given to councils in the next few weeks, and we will see whether or not we maintain our equivalent excellent councils status against the four star one.
We do know that our indicators have improved since 2003-4, and we know that some have not but as I say we will attend to that and I can assure you that we do not intend to hide things.
The Audit and Inspection Debtor which is worth just mentioning concludes that the corporate arrangement are of the highest standards and provides excellent best practice examples to other authorities, and that's nice to hear. In looking in more detail in the four pillars I've mentioned education, crime and disorder, environment and economic development. I think we might just want to look at education and Lifelong Learning. Attainment indication is of all time high, despite what we heard in the chamber this evening. We have set targets to take this situation over and beyond national rates of improvement and beyond national averages. Results are startling, and I pay tribute to the senior officer for what we've achieved in this field. In key stage 2 the top ten of the most improved councils nationally in Tameside. In front of all our neighbours of all our subjects we are 2% above the national average. In key stage 3 we've improved to 71% up by 6%, over 50% of our young people have achieved 5+ GCSE's grades A to C to a rise of 8% over the year. Truancy in the secondary school is halved and that has come about despite what you heard in the chamber today, by the patroller service giving specific attention to young people being found on the streets.
Technological facilities are continuing to improve and every classroom we have now has broadband, interactive white boards, and 70% of primary schools video conferencing nearly 8%. It just goes on and on this paper I've got in front of me and I really would like to think that some people may even in a political world hold our hands up that we in Tameside have got a good thing going in education and Lifelong Learning. The quality of teachers and teaching has never been higher and there are no schools in Tameside and no schools under special measures.
Our looked after children against the authorities we run the project, and we effectively run £80 million of that for ten Greater Manchester councils from there spending over each year. We're one of the few councils to exceed the national target of 90% for young offenders in education, employment and training. And I'd like to thank both Ian Smith and Ged Cooney the Cabinet Deputy for their work on that section of our world.
Services for Children and Young people are coordinated following 12 months of exceptionally hard work and detailed preparation. We are 12 months in advance of the government's timetable as a result. A feat of great magnitude and this is down to dedicated service led by Councillor Phillip Wilkinson who I pay tribute to because few people would have got their head down on this one in the way that Phillip has done and the results and gains provide the priorities sought by the community and he and his work announces our reputation.
Crime and disorder, our principle requirement is for safe streets of course it is. No citizen wants to feel in jeopardy or in fear. A requirement that is being addressed by a serious partnership particularly with the police and community themselves, because they must play their own part in this. Some 70 uniformed patrollers are active working from combined local posts with the police and their 15 cadets and they have aroused the cadets national interest visits from the home office it's the only thing of it's kind in Europe. And the introduction of citizen diaries is proving a very effective method of receiving information about hotspots for those people who for too long have suffered at the hands of a few alcoholic related people, and I'm hoping that the Advertiser who have been partners in this will continue to do the job they've done in such as strong way in fighting this antisocial behaviour situation. And I thank the Cabinet Deputy Margaret Oldham for her efforts in this particular element of the council's operation in particular for the enforcement actions that they have brought and will continue to bring. There is a need for everybody to behave responsibly and it isn't just young people who are causing problems, it's all age ranges who causes difficulty. Whether it be the guy in his 70s or 80s who walks his dog on the playing field and doesn't understand that when the dog leaves it's mess behind it, it has a potentially lethal facility for some young man or girl to hurt themselves on or get infected with some nasty virus. Or whether it be the guy who parks his car indiscriminately and prevents the refuse wagon from getting the wheelie bins. Or whether it be somebody who damages somebody else's vehicle and drive away without leaving the message. So there are lots of people who are making the moral code and they should always think that they themselves may be the benefactor if they don't fall in line with being sensible.
I read through it earlier and I don't have to run through it quite so much now, about the falling in crime and the overall crime rate is down by about 11% in Tameside against most of the elements of that, and the patrollers have dealt with 1500 random vehicles 2500 tickets to untaxed vehicles, and they've been responsible for bringing 200 prosecutions by giving notice to the police something is happening somewhere.
CCTV has brought 60 more to justice, we've secured 57 ASBO's and there's 41 more pending and there's 80 Acceptable Behaviour Contracts have been signed by young people. All those have moved us right up the league table in our peer group, seven places we've moved up the National League Table and so we are doing well on that and we've got to keep doing better. And better means your reputation will be increased.
And in environmental terms the visibility and the quality of Tameside is inescapably available to all eyes. The efforts in the end can be lost to those who act in an antisocial manner aren't checked but I've been quite pleased this year that the flowers that we've put down in baskets or in the soil and the other attractions we've put down to make the area significantly better have been left alone generally, and that's quite rewarding to see that. We got the Clean Borough Award and the gold medal for In Bloom, I therefore intend to increase the money for In Bloom next year substantially so that we can compete with the city regions that we've moved into now.
We've bought a Gum Busting machine which will help get rid of this foul material off the pavements of Tameside and we have to get another one to keep pace with it because I really think spitting in the streets really should be and used to be a crime because it's a dirty habit it's unnecessary and people can take their residue away with them, they don't need to spit it on the floor or stick it under some table in a public house.
Our street lighting is improving£900,000 each year of investment and we've got a new project which we think is going to come into being but we need to look at this in great detail where by all our lights will be changed and we will have considerable gain in spending because of that.
If you just take the roads and the accidents on them, there's been a 60% reduction in those who have been killed or seriously injured and a lot of that is due to I think CCTV and the Watchman system which isn't been used to put people into court and take money from them. It's a warning system where by people who are normal, when they see that flash up do slow down.
We have clamped down on fly tipping and due to the enforcement unit hundreds of requests have been dealt with and we've taken out quite a number of prosecutions.
Heritage, well the borough is full of Heritage and full of history, it's great borough it didn't start in the 19th century with the industrial world, it started, like every part of this country back in the distant past. We can look at ourselves in the year 5000 BC or 200 AD or 2000 AD and we can find evidence of people that lived here of significant importance and Councillor Frank Robinson is busy making sure that our churches which are keystones for heritage and other buildings, and statues, and street art is coming into being and it will be an area that will be lifting itself up from the normal street world to one of some prestige. Margaret and I go on holiday each year to Europe, and we go to quite a lot of the far cities and there they've got street art, beautiful works which people respect and you feel that you want to be in that sort of environment and I believe that we can get the same here in the next few years. I shall be making sure that Councillor Robinson gets extra funding to that.
And thanks to Councillor Sweeton we're moving into a new era for the world of leisure, sport, and recreation and I think that's a critical thing to supply, to bring young people into it into discipline terms in some sport or another and off the streets. The more we can do that and we can then fight that tired excuse we hear sometimes when we're on the doorstep of people to say there's nothing for our kids to do. We must fight that by producing all the facilities that defeats that argument, and those that don't want to use them will be identifiable and exposed. And again that environmental world will set down our reputation.
Moving onto Economic Development, again one looks around and notices something of a different area than the boroughs around us with the exception of the city of Manchester which is booming and thank goodness it is because it's the central pivot for the other areas of Greater Manchester and it's doing a great job, and there are more cranes in the sky than I've seen ever. But we are also trying to mirror that in economic terms and we are bringing in more and more jobs, relocation we've had 60 of those in Ashton, Droylsden, Stalybridge and our aim, the important one, is to lift the remuneration and wages of people. We want people to have money to spend, commerce gains from that, people gain from that. They're more satisfied with their life if they've got the right money in their pocket and disposable income.
Every level you will see new developments, whether it be schools, libraries, commercial business, leisure. And I could list them and I'll run through this list. Ashton Moss, Crown Point at Denton, Droylsden Marina Project, Ashton St Petersfield, Tameside High Schools £100 million over 5 years to redevelop them and a possibility of another £100 million in another 5 years. You've got Hyde Town Hall which we're going to attend to Councillor Sullivan, and Stalybridge Civic Hall, Market Hall, Dukinfield Town Hall, Denton Town Hall. All have received substantial input into improving them and making them worthy of the citizens of Tameside, and we're about to open Stalybridge Market Hall which is a joy to see.
We've got all weather pitches everywhere, Hyde Park's being refurbished, we're doing work in every element and facet of the borough. Playing fields and parks will be refurbished and we've got 12 major play areas borough wide on the go. There are just a few of the physical developments taking place that will make safe and clean objectives a reality.
The Sustainable Design and Construction Guide which will allow everybody to know where they've got to go in future terms instead of having people wonder in and do things, which is so important in raising the reputation of the borough and I pay thanks to the Cabinet Deputy Alan Whitehead for that.
In the 4 priorities that are set by the people of Tameside we've met them all and it doesn't matter if it's any one of those elements, a crime, of education, of environment, or in terms of bringing in more jobs and prosperity. Those Cabinet Deputies includes Councillor Cath Piddington in the environmental world, those things don't happen easily and we have a hands on set of councillors now, and although I appreciate the brilliant officers we've got and the great job they do you cannot do that without having the elected member properly engaged. This is not going to be 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970 this is 2005 and each elected member has a responsibility now, each and every one of them. They don't have to be on the cabinet like I just mentioned it can be in a scrutiny role, it's so important to keep us on track in can be in any walk of life, a District Assembly or anywhere else. All these play their part in the raffia which knits itself together to make Tameside the splendid place it is.
In capital spending, I'll just give you a few numbers here. We're talking about spending £62 million and that's a lot of money to spend. We spend £266 million in revenue expenditure so we're playing at a big game here. We're going to increase special growth and I've mentioned to you that some of the parts of that will be involved in In Bloom and so on. And we always pay great understanding to our recycling world.
I'd like to think what you're hearing is something you can be proud of and something you can be interested in because if you can't then we've lost the game. If you, as elected members and senior members of the administration, if you can't be involved in this kind of partnership then we've lost the game and I don't think that's so, I think that most of the people I contact or come in contact with really do believe that it's a strong idea to work in this manner to benefit the people we serve.
We've quite a lot of things on stock which will be taking place and the budget speech which will be the next one to this, I'll be talking about where we go in the next 2 to 3 years in development terms and in the spending pattern.
It would be wrong of me to miss out the fact that there is a government white paper on education, I think I ought to spend a couple of minutes on that. I've looked at it and read it in detail and tonight again in the council chamber we heard some statements from the Conservative opposition about it. They think that we support that paper as the controlling Labour group of this council then the Conservatives have got it completely wrong, we do not support it. We've examined it and we know it's got good parts in it which we do support. It's got bad parts in it which we want to change and it's got other parts in it that we will not accept, so it's the good the bad and the ugly for us and we're not going to comply with government easily. Not when we've built on the things I've said about Lifelong Learning this evening, we're not easily going to have that snatched from us. To get an Excellent or a 4 star CPA rating you have to have one of the killer units agreed. You have to get 3 stars in education, you don't do that you don't get Excellent but we've got it. Why then are we having education changed then in Tameside? Why?
If there is a problem in the north east or in London, I don't know if there is, let the government attend to that but where you've got a council like this who is achieving and improving facilities for young people and gains educational awards, leave us alone. We don't need change at this moment in time, we've a fantastic partnership within schools we have an agreement that there'll be no poaching in secondary schools and it's all smooth and right and I have to say to government please get your tanks off our lawn, we don't need you to do our education. We've done it well and it's going to be done the best this way. Be specific, sort out the bad ones and those who do the job just get on with it.
We've a family of schools, teachers, head teachers, governing bodies and council and officers and that's so important and we've lost that sometimes in the past. I remember our colleges taking offers and they lost great tracks of land we've lost buildings, we've lost even Union Street library in Hyde which was built by public subscription and we've had to fight back sniveling fight back from the colleges which is a nonsense and we're not going to lose any more of our land which has been bought by the tax payers of Tameside easily nor are we going to lose our direction in education. So Ian Smith is busy creating the Tameside white paper and that will be sent to government and they'll be told 'hands off' this is what we'll be doing.
On top of that we're going to, well we've done it. The library system has been modernised with more books and ICT, we've got the new Local Studies and Archives in Ashton and we built that well and it's working in a proper manner now, it's got state of the art facilities to keep our records and our artifacts dry and wholesome and so it's something important. We would have lost those records.
We're going to hit 20% in recycling. Well we're hopefully going to do it, everybody is pulling the stops out blue, green and brown bins are on the tracks for everybody who wants to be involved and I believe that we will do it. I was quite amazed to hear not long ago in the plastics world, all the plastic that's used in this country now wrapping film and shopping bags etc, which can be easily constructed into another medium. I am told that only 7% of that facility is recycled. 93% is tipped and of the 7% that we recycle 70% goes to China for their use. So we have very little of our own internal material being recycled to do things, and some of the creations that our company has partnership with can do quite fantastic things like make park seats that are near indestructible, we can make walkways with them, fencing all that sort of thing, which completes the loop. But unfortunately there's a lot of stuff going to China and a lot more going into landfill or other places. So we've got to relieve that because it's a senseless situation that's going on.
We're going to continue with bringing in more safety measures by bringing in CCTV and alley gating and giving some additional funding to the patrollers. Sorry about that, opposition but I'm giving more money because they have a job to do, to maintain this low level of antisocial behaviour control. And we intend to bring other people services via new partnership into very sharp focus because they are going to be in more and more numbers, I know that, I'm going to be one of them. I'm classifying myself yet as one of them some of you might think I am but I'm not quite moving into that situation yet. But more and more of us are going to become quite old and still alive thank goodness and that's going to put a lot of strain upon resources and upon services because older people will need more help and so we've got to match that. And it was quite, again I'll briefly move from this paper to say that the problem with pensions is that people are living too long, that's what the actuaries will tell you, and therefore they're taking more out of the fund. They quoted some figures, I'll do my best to remember them they might not be quite accurate but they said that when this queen came to the throne in the 1950s she sent out something like 150 telegrams congratulating people who are 100. When her mother died, that's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother a couple of years ago she sent out 5000. And when this queen is as old as her mother we're talking about 15,000 or more centenary people who will be receiving telegrams. And when Prince Charles is as old you can see that this graph is climbing at a rate and it may be that many of you people sat in the audience tonight that will be receiving telegrams from some royal personage to congratulate you on your 100th birthday! Angela? You could still be supporting Oldham!
Ok we're moving towards the end now I can feel people shuffling around. Anyway, I don't know if you saw the Manchester Evening News a few weeks ago and it was talking about property and it said 'Tameside is the jewel in the property crown' and it saw Manchester's prices rising steadily for Ashton. 27% increase in a year, and Tameside is a quality name in the property world. You can build houses for fun now and they're snapped up immediately, if you own your own home you have got a rising valuation. You wont enjoy the excess reward but your children will when you snuff it so just think what you're leaving to them. You're leaving them something important to be partly up the ladder and it's good to read those sorts of things isn't it?
We've launched this Strategy for Health Improvements for Social Services and Health and we know that health and physical activity needs to be targeted not against, if you'll excuse me, you old people but against the young ones. When you're talking about life expectancy being even greater you're going to have to go with the little things about this big making sure they eat the right things and they do the right things and they have the right health care. Then they're going to look back on our age of being one of short lives. I really believe that the way that technology and research and development is going and you see what's happened in our lifetime in the next 10-20 years many of the diseases which plagued man will be eradicated. Many of them will be swept away, and you're going to have to prepare people to accept these longer lives and they've got to have hobbies and they've got to know what they want to do with this longer life. Not just sat in a chair somewhere doing nothing, they've got to have aims and aspirations and they've got to be capable of using that benefit that we will have given them by all we have done here.
Now in pensions I've mentioned that and rev's and bev's and scrutiny and we've got some good people. We've got Erika and we've got Councillor Kitchen who are all working to ensure that these things happen. And we've got excellent heads and leaders on the scrutiny panels. And going back to what Erika does for us she collects the council tax as one part of her duty, we stand at the very highest level in tax collection terms and that goes back to what I said earlier, the reality has to be the ruler and the more money that we get in, the more money we have to spend, the more good we can do with it.
Finally, I know that you would want me to thank all the members of this council, all of them, and the council offices and the services they have rendered. And I extend to you the officers and the councillors my thanks for the benefit of being able to lead and talk to all of you and where I can, to help any of you irrespective of party politics.
I thank Andrew, David, and James, our members of parliament who I have a great rapport with and thanks to that we're able to get lots of messages back to the place that matters. And with James in particular and Andrew being young people, their future is one we should watch in particular to see what rising stars they are.
I do thank my cabinet colleagues and my ADC wherever he is. But it would be remiss of me to leave out in thanks terms the real situation that makes us what we are. That is our community. We have an extraordinary community. It is bound together in the various towns we have, and I believe that's it's strength. Not like many other councils, where you call it one big name. Tameside is just an administrative name, Hyde and Ashton, Stalybridge, Denton, Dukinfield, Audenshaw, Mossley, Longdendale. All are different in their natures but bind together to make Tameside. I thank you for listening.