Local county councillor Clive Grunshaw has been selected by Labour Party members to fight the new seat of Lancaster and Fleetwood at the next General Election. But despite some impressive credentials, his selection may irk some local residents with long memories after his involvement in plans to end some local services such as Greaves Nursery and Bowerham Long Stay Children’s Unit.
Clive worked as a dockworker in Fleetwood before attending Lancaster University as a mature student, where he gained two degrees. He’s worked as a Personal Assistant to Joan Humble MP and a lay tutor for a trade union. Currently, he represents Fleetwood residents on Wyre Borough Council, where he’s Leader of the Labour Group, and Lancashire County Council. He has also been involved in efforts to reclaim derelict land as green spaces and is chair of the Biodiversity Group, credentials which Labour is sure to hope will sway Lancaster’s growing Green vote in his favour at the next General Election.
In the run-up to Clive’s selection, the local Labour Party says it conducted an extensive “Have Your Say” consultation campaign, asking voters which issues mattered to them. Anti-social behaviour, transport and the environment emerged as the biggest concerns locally.
However, we should perhaps take Clive’s claims about the results of consultation with a pinch of salt. Back in 2005, when Greaves Nursery faced closure, he claimed the result of a consultation with local people about the plans was overwhelmingly in favour of closure. Then ancashire County Council has now admitted that the majority of people who responded actually favoured keeping the nursery open.
Lancaster’s Green Party discovered a report to the Council’s Education Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee showed that 219 out of 227 parents and other residents responding were opposed to the closure.
Grunshaw has also been involved in other closure plans of services in the Lancaster area, which Lancaster MP Ben Wallace severely criticised last year, accusing the county council as seeming “to put itself before services.”
Clive said of his selection: “I am delighted and privileged to have been chosen to contest the constituency where I have lived all my life. I am keen to start campaigning to remind people of the good things this Labour government has achieved. I’m confident we can improve people’s lives further by getting to grips with anti-social behaviour, the environment, improvements to the highways and inward investment.”