No charges for street parties

Test Valley’ Borough Council’s cabinet is being recommended to accept Lib Dem proposals to drop charges for street parties to celebrate the royal wedding.

The council originally intended to charge a £25 administration fee for granting permission to residents to close roads for street parties for the wedding on April 29th but Lib Dem borough councillors objected to this. St Mary’s councillor Mike McGarry tabled a motion to last month’s council meeting calling for the charges to be dropped. “The extra bank holiday gives residents an opportunity to forget about the economic crisis and join in a national celebration. The council can and should be encouraging this. What better way than to pay the administration costs rather than expect residents to do so” he said.

The proposals, which I seconded, were referred to cabinet member, Martin Hatley, for further consideration. Cllr Hatley has now agreed to our plan and is recommending dropping the charges to the full cabinet meeting on March 16th. “I am optimistic we will be able to waive this fee completely for both the Royal Wedding and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations next year.”

I welcome the change of heart. The original idea to charge was contrary to the spirit of the celebrations and an example of bureaucratic penny pinching. Many other authorities, including neighbouring Wiltshire, have already announced they will be waiving charges. I hope Test Valley’s cabinet now follow their lead.

The original motion to TVBC full council on 25th February was referred to cabinet without debate. The full text is as follows

“Council notes that there will be an additional Bank Holiday this year to celebrate the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29th in Westminster Abbey.
Council also notes the substantial local interest in holding street parties and similar events on that day. However during these times of austerity the celebrations for this event will be difficult to afford for many people.
Council therefore resolves to waive the normal £25 charge for any applications for road closures for the purpose of street parties in celebration of the Royal Wedding.”

Application forms for permission to hold street parties can be obtained from Test Valley’s offices in Andover or Romsey.

Victory for the forest campaign

Last week the government announced an humiliating u-turn on its plans to sell off  Britain’s forests. This followed over 500,000 people signing an online petition against  the proposals and over 100,000 people contacting their MPs to register opposition to the plans.

I and the rest of the Lib Dem councillors on Test Valley Borough Council all backed the petition and we were planning to raise the matter at this Friday’s council meeting calling on the council and our local MPs to support the opposition to the plan.

Our motion is still on the table for discussion but given the government’s admission of defeat I will be suggesting the motion is not debated. We’ve won the battle – no need to kick the defeated enemy when they’ve surrendered.

For full details of the government’s climb down see http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2011/02/17/victory-government-to-scrap-plans-to-sell-our-forests/

Letter to the Times

Yesterday I was more than willing to sign a letter submitted to the Times by Cllr Richard Kemp and many other Lib Dem council leaders and group leaders.  

I reproduce it in full below because unfortunately you need to subscribe to read it on the TImes website. You can also read it and comments about it on the following websites.

Our Letter to the Times | But what does Richard Kemp think?
Lib Dem council leaders attack Pickles over speed and scale of cuts
Ian Eiloart: That Lib Dem letter in full
I won’t add anything else I believe  Cllr Kemp’s letter sums it up.

 The letter:

Sir,

Local government is playing its part in tackling the country’s deficit and advancing the Coalition’s key aims of Localism and the Big Society. But local – and central – government are being badly let down by the Communities & Local Government Secretary of State who appears unwilling to lead the change that’s so desperately needed.

Local government has made efficiency savings of 3% each year for the past eight years – in stark contrast to the run-away spending of central government admittedly under the previous administration. We’ve also been planning for further saving – much further – since the true state of the economy became apparent six months ago.

What has been delivered is a difficult cuts package across all government departments but clearly the most severe is to local government. These cuts will have an undoubted impact on all frontline council services – including care services to the vulnerable.

Rather than assist the country’s recovery by making savings to the public sector in a way that can protect local economies and the frontline the cuts are structured in such a way that they will do the opposite. The local government settlement will take a major hit in this coming financial year and further – smaller – cuts in subsequent years. This front-loading means councils do not have the lead-in time necessary to re-engineer services on a lower cost base and ease staff cuts without forced, expensive redundancies. Inexplicably, local government is also being denied the opportunity to spread the cost of reorganisation and downsizing over several years – at no cost to central government – which just makes even bigger in-year cuts inevitable.

The Secretary of State’s role should have been to facilitate necessary savings while at the same time promoting the advance of Localism and the Big Society. Unfortunately since the general election Eric Pickles has felt it better to shake a stick at councillors than work with us. 

Local and central government should be united in a shared purpose. Instead of constantly chastising and denigrating local authorities through the media, the government should be deploying all its efforts and those of its officials to helping councils minimise the impact on vulnerable communities and frontline services. 

We would be delighted to discuss with the Secretary of State positive ways forward in which we could take on the difficult challenges shared by all levels of government and would prefer to do this than continue with the gunboat diplomacy which is the current order of the day.

Regards,

Save our Forests

Test Valley’s Liberal Democrats are backing the campaign against government plans to sell of national forests. The proposals, subject of a new government consultation, will allow the Environment secretary to lease or sell of vast tracts of publicly owned forestry land. An on-line petition against the plan has already attracted over 300,000 signatures. 

Local Lib Dem leaders have all signed the petition and we are urging our supporters to follow suit. The group also plan to raise the matter at the next borough council meeting with a motion in support of the campaign.

The proposals are driven by ideology rather than sound financial sense. They are not part of the coalition agreement and are opposed by the vast majority of the public. We will be looking to local conservatives to join us in persuading the government to drop this ill thought out plan

The full test of the motion is as follows

Council notes the government consultation on proposals to sell or lease off forestry commission lands.
Council believes such proposals to be short sighted, and contrary to the long term interest of this country and future of these woodlands
Council resolves to give its full support to the current campaigns against these proposals by calling on the government to withdraw these plans and urges our local MPs to do the same.

Full details of the campaign and petitions can be found at

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests andhttp://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/campaigning/save-ancient-forests/Pages/fc-disposals-act-now.aspx?WT.mc_id=fc

Lib Dems win again

Recent newspaper comments have tried to portray the Liberal Democrats as a spent force in local politics. This has been encouraged by Tories desperate to shore up their own posiiton by claiming to be in coalition with us at all levels. The reality is of course that Lib Dem support is holding firm or growing while support for Hampshire’s Tories is fading away.

 In the latest by-election Winchester Lib Dems held the Olivers Battery & Badgers Farm seat on the city council.  For details see http://www.winchester.gov.uk/Download.asp?path=/Documents/Elections/2011/By-election%20results.pdf 

 In the last five by-elections Lib Dems have held on to two seats, gained one and narrowly lost the other two (in what were considered “safe” Tory areas). Hampshire residents are increasingly realising we are a real and viable alternative to the Tories across the county. There is no coalition locally its a two horse race and the conservative one is loosing.

County budget cuts

The debate over cuts to the county council budget continue with the ruling Tory group saying these are the inevitable result of the “current” economic situation and various left wing groups arguing that the response must be strike action. The Tories have of course run the county council for years and knew full well the economic situation. No-one except possible the far left of the Labour party can deny cuts are necessary what is debatable is the depth and speed of the cuts which appear to be decided on ideological grounds rather than sound economic sense.

 Hampshire Liberal Democrats are in favour of fair and approriate cuts but not unecessary, ideologically driven, cuts to front line services. This week they issued the following statement –

“Hampshire Conservatives are imposing sweeping cuts across services used by the most vulnerable members of our community – older people, younger people, those with disabilities and those on lower incomes.  It’s not necessary.  The scale of the cuts is near double that needed to cope with the loss of income from government grant.  Hampshire’s Conservatives are driven by an ideology that fails to value people, services, or the needs of our county.”

“Taken together with cuts announced over the last two months, Hampshire will see more congestion on our roads, more vulnerable elderly priced out of care, more road accidents, more people with no access to buses, reduced access to the library service, more anti-social behaviour and fewer families getting support for young children.” 

“This is not a liberal vision of Hampshire.  The Liberal Democrat opposition will continue to support fair savings and efficiencies, but oppose cuts in frontline services deeper than needed to reduce overall funding.”

Working for local householders

Plans to charge householders for pre-planning application advice have been put on hold by Test Valley Borough Council thanks to Romsey councillor Mark Cooper.

The Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee was asked to approve the proposal by Head of Planning,Paul Jackson, at its first meeting of 2011. Most the pre-application fee levels suggested to Councillors were mainly on a sliding scale* dependent on the size of the application.  However, pre-application advice for householders was recommended to a flat rate of £40 by Mr Jackson.  Councillor Cooper said that a flat rate would be perceived as inherently unfair. “It is reminiscent of the old, hated poll tax”, he said.

“An applicant asking advice about a garden shed would be charged exactly the same as a householder planning a complex £75,000 extension. In any event, householders as local Council taxpayers, as distinct from local developers out to make a profit, should be entitled to receive sound planning advice”.

“The householder wins because he or she is able to make a realistic and achievable application; the Council wins because the planning application is is in better shape to be dealt with by the planning officers. Furthermore, the cost of administering a householder charge would be significant but the income derived would be very small. Larger, commercial applicants should certainly pay for pre-application advice, but not local householders planning home improvements or a small extension”, he said

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed with Cllr Cooper’s view and voted to recommend to the Council’s Cabinet that the householder pre-application fee proposal be scrapped. Fee proposals for larger, non-householder applications are not affected. As a member of the Overview and Scrutinty Committee I fully supported Cllt Cooper’s proposal and I hope the borough cabinet will do the same.

road improvements at enham arch

After many years of complaints work is finally starting on improvements to the Enham Arch roundabout. Works will be carried out by contractors appointed by Taylor Wimpey as part of the legal agreement agreed when permission was granted for the Augusta Park developments.

Work will be concentrated on the large Tesco roundabout throughout January and move onto Newbury Road, (south of the railway bridge) in February. The work to the roundabout will reduce the central island to form additional lanes and will be combined with traffic signals on all apporaches to the roundabout to control the traffic flow. This I am advised will solve the congestion problems in the area. We will have to wait and see.

The works to Newbury Road include widening and restricting traffic movements at the existing signals and are subject to a formal Traffic Order.  Also planned are changes to the Enham Arch estate (Homebase) to make the car park one way with access off Newbury Road and exit via a new road link to the Wickes development on the roundabout.

Also planned are changes to access to Tesco’s which will see two way traffic into the site from River Way and lights controlling traffic at the Churchill Way entrance.

In summary – avoid the Enham Arch roundabout and surrounding area until the end of February when hopefully we will have a road system which can cope with the traffic in the area.

Call for Ethical Sanctions & Boycott on Israel

Lib Dem Friends of Palestine, a voice for human rights in Palestine, has joined the growing call to the British public and companies to boycott Israeli goods on sale in Britain.

LDFP are deeply concerned at the continuing failure of the UK and US governments to persuade Israel to implement the complete settlement freeze without which good faith peace negotiations are impossible.

LDFP call on the coalition government and the EU to implement economic sanctions against Israel.

Chair of LDFP, John McHugo said, “Our boycott is an ethical one, and will cease when Israel accepts and implements its obligations to the Palestinians and to Syria under international law by renouncing all claims to occupied land and offering peace. In May I visited Bethlehem and Hebron and was shocked at Israel’s wicked land grab. What I saw was indefensible and the only possible response is disgust. The time has come for denial to end, and for people to stand up and be counted just as they did against the evil of Apartheid in South Africa. That is why we also call for a cultural boycott of Israeli performers and artists, unless such performers and artists have stated clearly and publicly that they oppose Israel’s immoral breaches of international law and have called for an end to the occupation

“Throughout its existence, Israel’s armed forces have carried out war crimes with impunity, often with the open encouragement of its political leaders. Israel has encouraged a culture of denial about this in the international community. This must no longer be appeased. The present situation is a great injustice which has put the safety of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan at risk. It is against the self-interest of the international community for it to continue. Collusion in maintaining the status quo must end.”

For practical ways to start boycotting Israeli goods, go to http://www.bigcampaign.org/

For more details on the LDFP visit http://www.ldfp.eu/

 

Half-truths and misrepresentations

I have been contacted by local residents querying stories in an Intouch  leaflet delivered by the local conservatives dated November 2010.

The banner headline proudly announces that “Test Valley will deliver a council tax freeze”. In the interests of accuracy I asked the Head of Finance at Test Valley Borough Council whether this was true. His response was as follows “Council Tax levels have to be set by Full Council, so no decision has been made yet.  The Council Tax Resolution for 2011/12 will be presented to all Members at the Council meeting on 25th February, 2011 when the decision will be made.”

While we all hope to keep council tax frozen irresponsible statements like this add nothing to reasoned debate on the subject.

The second story reports that local Tories are providing money for a new community noticeboard for Roman Way. Some funding has been provided by the local county councillor out of a devolved budget (i.e. your tax money) the rest is coming from contributions made by local residents, councillors, the community association and Testway Housing. To claim the conservatives are paying for it is a misrepresentation of a community led project. To do so without consulting any of the other stakeholders is political oppurtunism. It is also premature as the notice board has still to be delivered and cannot be erected until I have obtained planning permission.

In touch? I don’t think so!