The main focus of the regeneration of Pontefract envisaged in the local development framework is the old Prince of Wales colliery site, the north, and east of the town. The town's future is conceived, mainly on the basis of its position on the road network, as being in new housing, commercial offices, light industry, warehousing, wholesale and distribution.

In addition to the plans for a mix of new housing and offices in the special policy area opposite the racecourse, more land has been earmarked for new housing on the other side of the railway, between Knottingley Road and Ferrybridge Road, and east of Cobblers Lane. All that is greenfield, and the Monkhill triangle site (HS N1F) is Green Belt.

Elsewhere, the car park to the east of Jubilee Way, and the car park by Baghill station have been proposed as possible suitable sites for re-development + new housing, as have the area between Horsefair and Northgate down from the bus station, the Stringers garage site, and the part of the site of Pontefract General Infirmary south of Friarwood Lane.(cont)

It is time to organise a broad movement of active resistance to the Con-Dem government's budget intentions. They plan the most savage spending cuts since the 1930s, which will wreck the lives of millions by devastating our jobs, pay, pensions, NHS, education, transport, postal and other services.

The government claims the cuts are unavoidable because the welfare state has been too generous. This is nonsense. Ordinary people are being forced to pay for the bankers' profligacy.

The £11bn welfare cuts, rise in VAT to 20%, and 25% reductions across government departments target the most vulnerable - disabled people, single parents, those on housing benefit, black and other ethnic minority communities, students, migrant workers, LGBT people and pensioners.

Women are expected to bear 75% of the burden. The poorest will be hit six times harder than the richest. Internal Treasury documents estimate 1.3 million job losses in public and private sectors.(cont)

Looking at the scale of the back of an envelope public sector job cuts package the ConDems are putting forward, and their similarly half-baked ideologically driven proposals for a graduate tax, parents in more comfortable districts than ours, even if they're not contemplating leaving the country themselves yet, must be wondering if the best advice they can give their children is to get out of Britain and get an education and a life somewhere else in the world.

Add in historical disadvantages - a recent Work Foundation report found Wakefield district has one of the lowest percentages of people (18 per cent) with university degrees in the land - and realistically things are not going to get better round here anytime soon even if the overall picture improves slightly. Whilst it is possible capitalism may evince a sudden renewed interest in places like Pontefract, we would be unwise to hold our breath waiting for it to do so.

Some of us are still going to be here, however, and what with the public sector being deliberately dismantled, and the private sector unable to take its place, the intellectual and practical task of imagining and making a better world is up to us.(cont)

A new Green report proposes a tax-based alternative to spending cuts - and calls for massive investment in job-creation

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP tells the coalition government there is "no good reason for any cuts in public expenditure during the life of this parliament."

On Monday 21 June Britain's first Green MP is issuing a new report - Cuts: the callous con trick (1) - in which she makes the case that cuts are unnecessary "because the economy could instead be rebalanced using additional tax revenues."(cont)

We are raising several points of concern in connection with planning application 09/02411/FUL, and the proposal for a waste crushing and storage plant at Moor House Farm (Grid Ref' SE451164).

1. Firstly, the site is in a recognised 'green belt' area, so there should be significant reasons for allowing the proposal to succeed. Being 'green belt' means generally limiting activities to agriculture, forestry or other limited and significant trades.

2. As a waste recycling project, it would initially seem to have some merit, yet the land to be used is not urban or derelict, and the project would constitute a major expansion of what is presently a 'cottage industry' (providing road surfacing and infill material to neighbouring or local farms).(cont)

The important thing is that Caroline Lucas won in Brighton Pavilion, and we now have our first MP at Westminster. Of all the parties, only we are in a fundamentally stronger position. The Conservatives missed an open goal, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats lost seats, and UKIP and the BNP again ended up with nothing.

It was a difficult night for most Green candidates, with a lot of people voting Labour and LibDem in the hope of keeping the Tories out, but more people voted Green across Britain than in 2005, and the vote for our candidate in Wakefield compares well with those for Green candidates across Yorkshire.

Concentration of our limited resources on the General Election meant we, like most local Green parties, had few remaining for the local elections, but more people voted Green in Pontefract and Wakefield West than in the last round in 2008.(cont)