Tough Lib Dem Action on Banks

Thanks to the Lib Dems in Government, banks will be forced to pay their fair share in these tough economic times.

The Lib Dems have ensured that the Government will once again raise at least £2.5bn from its bank levy. This levy, which the Lib Dems demanded, raises more money each year from the banks than the last Labour Government ever managed. During their 13 years in Government, Labour let the banks run wild
and left the taxpayer to foot the bill. Now the Lib Dems are taking real action to clean up Labour’s economic mess and make sure the banks pay their way.

Lib Dems in government are also opposing Tory plans to drop the 50% tax rate on high earners. Thanks to this stand half of banker’s bonuses is paid as tax. Quite right too considering the damage their selfish and short sighted behaviour has caused to economies across the world.

Thousands of pounds for investment in communities – [Cllr Katherine Bird]

The Coalition Government has published proposals to end the requirement for councils to offer a discount of between 10-50% on council tax if the home is not someone’s main residence.

In Test Valley it is estimated that last year, the council missed out on £55,000 because of discounts on second homes. These reforms will give councils thousands of pounds back to support services and investment in communities.

Additionally, the proposals go further to tackle the problem of long-term empty homes, which are a waste of housing. The reforms will give local authorities more freedom to tackle the problems of empty homes in their area.

Liberal Democrat Communities Minister, Andrew Stunell has announced that councils will be allowed councils to charge an Empty Homes Premium on council tax, of up to 50%, on any home left empty for two years or longer.

Commenting, Katherine Bird said:

“We have a real housing problem in our area, with young people unable to get on the property ladder because there aren’t enough houses available. Yet we have up to 285 second homes standing empty while their owners may live miles away.”

“Ending the mandatory discount will bring thousands of pounds back to our councils, something Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for. Councils will be able to use this money to support services and drive investment in our communities rather than helping those who can afford multiple homes.”

“Together with the reforms to tax long-term empty homes, these plans will help bring back scores of homes into use over the coming years, easing pressure on our housing stock.”

Roman Way Forum (again)

Last Saturday’s meeting was another success. Residents have heard how anti-social behaviour in the area has reduced in the last year. PC Simon Merritt and PCSO Becca Williams answered questions from the public and dealt with a number of issues raised. They stressed the need for residents to continue to report all incidents so that they can be followed up.

The meeting then discussed speeding and other traffic problems. Town councillor Kevin Hughes will follow up the problems raised with the highways authorities. Residents also asked questions about traffic management in the area and agreed to add this to the agenda of the next meeting. A number of other matters were raised regarding overgrown trees, uneven footpaths and dog bins which will be followed up by town councillors.

Future meetings of the Forum have been guaranteed thanks to support from the Alamein Community Association. The Association will fund and publicise all future meetings. The Association is also funding the planning application to erect the new community notice board on Roman Way. Forum chair Cllr Barbara Carpenter had been invited to become a trustee of the Association to represent Roman Way residents.

For those new to the Forum it is a community meeting chaired by town councillor Barbara Carpenter. Meetings are held bi-monthly in Smannell Road Church centre. I originally organised the meetings with the police in response to requests from local residents. We continue to support and attend all meetings of the Forum. From July 2011 the Forum will be fully funded by the Alamein Community Association. Similar initiatives are planned for other parts of Alamein.
The July meeting took place on 30th July. The next meeting will be on Saturday 17th September at 3:00pm.

Roman Way Forum

The next Roman Way Forum will be on Saturday 30th July from 3:00 – 5:00pm in the Church centre Smannell Road.

The meeting will be attended by an Alamein Town Councillor, representatives of Alamein Community Association and local police.If you have any concerns about vandalism, bad behaviour, housing matters or local roads and footpaths, please come along and make your voice heard. I will be chairing the meeting. I look forward to seeing you.

Crew Week comes to King Arthurs Way

The next CREW (Community Respect and Environment Week) will take place in and around King Arthur’s Way and Anton Lakes Local Nature Reserve from Monday 1 August to Friday 5 August. Test Valley Borough Council, Hampshire Police, Testway Housing and a range of other agencies will be working in partnership with the community to reduce anti-social behaviour and crime and to improve and enhance the local environment.
Crew week is suppoerted by Alamein Community Association. There will be a wide variety of activities taking place to help make the neighbourhood sparkle and to encourage community cohesion. On Thursday 4 August there will be a CREW Family Fun Day at King Arthur’s Hall. The Fun Day will start at 11am.

A ful list of activities is attached below.

CREW Timetable

Government minister overules local Tories

I see that government inspectors and the Tory local government
minster have given the go-ahead for more housing at Picket Piece (Andover Advertiser July 8). In doing so the have overruled Test Valley Borough Council’s Planning department and councillors.

Once again Test Valley’s planning policies have beeninvestigated by a government inspector and found to be flawed. The decision to
grant planning permission for over 500 new houses at Picket Piece throws into doubt the council’s policy to allocate almost all new housing in Northern Test Valley to just two major development areas at East Anton and Picket Twenty. This plan is a key part of the Core Strategy rejected as unsound two years ago by another government inspector.

The policy was approved by the ruling Conservative group despite strong opposition from local residents and councillors who argued then
that the large concentration of housing in two locations was unsustainable and undeliverable. What were needed, we said, were smaller more manageable developments at a number of sites including Picket Piece – exactly what the government inspector and minister is now saying.

As a result Andover now has three major development areas supplying many more houses than it will need in the foreseeable future and the whole east side of the town blighted by development indefinitely

Most worrying is the reluctance of Cllr Hatley to admit they got it wrong. Instead he argues that councillors should be free to make the
wrong decisions without any right of appeal or supervisory control. How long before the inspectors are back to rule on another planning application which falls foul of the flawed local plan?

Test Valley Borough Council elections

Elections take place on 5th May for Test Valley Borough Council.

All 48 seats are up for re-election and Test Valley Liberal Democrats have candidates for nearly all the seats including every seat in the Andover area.

Our candidates in the area are

Alamein: Len Gates, Kevin Hughes, Robin Hughes

Anna: Ben Harrington-Elsmore

Charlton: Mike McGarry

Harewood: Richard Rowles

Harroway: Ryan Hughes, Josie Msonthi, Andrew Whiteley

Millway: Barbara Carpenter, Ross Fifield, Margaret Henstock

St Mary’s: Katherine Bird, Nigel Long, Vince McGarry

Winton: Dave Campbell, Sid Dajani, Peter Wilson

We believe the top priority of councillors is to look after the best interests of residents. We are not in coalition with the ruling Conservatives and offer a real alternative to the current administration. Test Valley Borough Council must not become an expensive bureaucracy out of touch with the people it serves. If elected we will cut unnecessary costs, transfer savings to front line services and devolve decision making back to local people. We have already identified four key areas where we can implement this programme by

  • Reversing the unacceptable councillors’ pay rise and cutting the costs of councillors and council meetings by restructuring committees and reducing overheads.
  • Cutting operational costs by sharing services with other district councils and by devolving responsibility to town and parish councils. We will also scrap the unfair Andover levy – a poll tax on the people of Andover.
  • Using the savings made above to improve the environment by introducing weekly summer month household waste collections and regular doorstep glass recycling collections.
  • Bringing planning back under local control by giving residents a real say in local development and by opposing any more unnecessary large scale developments in the area.

We look forward to increasing the number of seats we currently hold on the council and putting the above programme into practice.

Smannell Broadband (again)

Tory council candidates desperate for votes have started misleading voters about their commitment to local residents and the community.

 In an inaccurate leaflet distributed recently they seek to claim credit for a three year project to bring broadband to Little London and Smannell. The project team led by local resident Margaret Henstock and I worked with council officers from Test Valley and Hampshire County Councils. At no time did the other two borough councillors have any input into the project or indeed show any interest in it. The broadband team were not consulted about the Tory leaflet or advised of its content.

  Over the last three years Margaret, I and the team negotiated with broadband suppliers and lobbied directly at county hall for funding for the project. This was a community based project with full support of parishioners and the parish council. It was also non political. To seek to make political capital out of it now just shows how desperate they are for votes. The project is nearing completion but contracts are not yet signed their irresponsible self publicity could well threaten completion. Margaret has emailed the Tories “To have hi-jacked this project and used it for publicity purposes is despicable.” They have not replied.

 We are, of course, used to Tory duplicity and spin. Last year they claimed credit for a new community notice board in Roman Way despite having no input into or interest in the residents group behind it.  They also failed to support the local campaign to stop the diversion of Smannell Road through Augusta Park. Not one of them bothered to attend the public enquiry and support residents and the parish council in opposing the plan. The Tory county councillor, in fact, voted for the scheme and others privately admitted they were in favour of the diversion.

Smannell Broadband update

For the past three years I have been working with local residents and council officers to bring quality broadband to Smannell and Little London. This project is now close to completion. I attach below the update on prgress recently released by the chair of the broadband group to the parish magazine.

“I am pleased to be able to tell you that we are on the last lap of the project to get better broadband to our parish. Hampshire County Council has appointed a supplier to carry out the work and they will soon go ahead in the next couple of months to set up the connections

This exciting new system will use the fibre optic link that already exists to Smannell School. Another new cable to the green telephone boxes in Little London will then be laid via a trench across Woodhouse Farm. Individual households can then be connected to the system using their existing BT phone line, but with a much increased capacity. This will use the same technology as BT Infinity which can deliver speeds of up to 40Mbps. Other areas in the parish will be connected by superfast wireless broadband. As for all broadband service providers speeds to individual properties may vary, depending upon distance, but we are confident that all residents will be able to enjoy a greatly improved broadband service.

The costs to residents who wish to have this service will be published soon, but should be about £25 per month, with a one off installation fee of about £50 There is also a high quality business package available.

I’m sure that you have many questions to ask, but I will to let you know more very soon once the practicalities have been planned in detail.

So 2011 will definitely be “The Year of Smannell Broadband”!

Margaret Henstock

Smannell Broadband Group

Getting things done

I am pleased to report I have had updates on a number of the issues I have raised recently on this website and in local Focus newsletters.

Andover North police have reported that they have seized a nuisance motor bike which will not be released unless the rider can produce a driving licence, insurance and seizure and storage fees. Another male was arrested for a driving offence.

Test Valley BC have installed extra dog and litter bins on the open space adjacent to Smannell Road, Augusta Park and they will be reviewing the number and location of bins throughout Augusta Park and Roman Way. Smannell Parish Council will be working with the borough on this and will contribute to the costs.

A new road sign will be installed on Swallowfields shortly but unfortunately there’s is insufficient funding at present to install a children’s play area on the estate.

The footpath from Smannell Road to Tiberius Road/Caesar Close, alongside the Church Centre, will be swept and kept clean of rubbish but no news yet on dealing with overgrown trees and trees roots in the area.