Congratulations to John Howell, the new Conservative MP for Henley-on-Thames and South Oxfordshire. I’m delighted that John won the by-election so handsomely and that local residents in Henley have rejected the filthy, negative campaign tactics of the Liberal Democrats. Well done to John and all the campaign team who have worked so hard over the last month!
Archive for June, 2008
Very disappointing news from Westminster this evening, where the Labour Government have survived a backbench rebellion to pass controversial proposals to hand planning decisions for large infrastructure projects to an unelected quango. This is extremely worrying for local residents who will be denied any say on major projects which will affect their local neighbourhood.
It is perfectly reasonable to try to streamline a planning process which can take years in the most extreme cases, but the decision to remove these decisions entirely from the democratic process is absolutely appalling.
So how would the new powers in the Planning Bill affect local residents in Salford? It seems likely that local residents in Irlam and Eccles would lose their say on the major proposals for the Port Salford freight terminal at Barton. Any future proposals to expand the motorway network through Salford would also be taken out of the democratic structure - indeed had this new system been in place in the past, it is possible that the M62 relief road proposals would have been rammed through despite the objections of the local community.
This morning I was at Eccles College for a visit arranged by the Children’s Services scrutiny team. We are looking at the transition from Children’s Services to Adult Services and it was great to see the excellent work that the Entry Level staff do with the students.
I studied at Eccles College from 1999 until 2001 and it is always a pleasure to go back, and especially good to catch up with some familiar faces from when I was a student!
I got back from sunny South Oxfordshire (and it was actually sunny) yesterday afternoon and went straight out to play tennis in the middle of a midge swarm. We did win though.
I spent a day in Goring and a day in Henley town itself and the mood amongst activists was very good - fingers crossed for a good result on Thursday. It’s also a beautiful part of the world and I would thoroughly recommend a visit outside of election time!
I’m in Henley-upon-Thames this weekend, where our local by-election candidate John Howell is facing a typically dirty Liberal Democrat by-election campaign. Compared with Crewe & Nantwich the campaign attracted much less interest in the national media so it will be interesting to get out and about in the constituency and see how things are on the ground.
I might try to post an update or two from my phone but if not then it’ll be business as usual for the start of next week!
On Wednesday at Council we debated the Salford Local Area Agreement - a list of targets for Salford agreed between the City Council, partners and Government Office North West. We didn’t actually get to approve the document as a Full Council because it had already been submitted to the Government - a poor show really by the ruling Labour Cabinet who should know full well when the deadlines are!
The Advertiser have picked up on the document and have highlighted one piece of information within it - the number of obese children of reception age in Salford. They say:
MORE than one in 10 four year olds in Salford are overweight, according to a new report published this week.
Figures in the Salford Local Area Agreement show that more than 11 per cent of children in reception classes at the city’s primary schools were obese in the financial year 2007/08. The report - which also reveals that one in five children are obese by the time they hit 11 - was published ahead of a full council meeting at Swinton Civic Centre yesterday (Wednesday).
The authority has unveiled targets aimed at reducing the number of children who are overweight.
All well and good - but the last sentence isn’t actually true! The Labour Council has indeed approved a target for the number of obese children at the start of their reception year. You can read the document for yourself here. Unfortunately that target does not aim for a reduction in the number of 4-year-olds who are overweight.
According to the document, the current rate of obesity in Salford’s reception children is 11.74%. The Council’s agreed targets for 2009, 2010 and 2011 are 11.79%, 11.82% and 11.83% respectively.
So if there is a small increase in the number of obese 4-year-olds in Salford over the next 3 years then the Council will be deemed to have achieved the approved target! That’s almost as shocking as the obesity figures themselves…
The other day I received an e-mail from Manchester Confidential entitled “Exclusive: Sir Howard Bernstein wants your questions on Congestion Charging“. The article in question can be found here.
I’m intrigued and also very concerned by this. Sir Howard is one of only a handful of Local Government officers to have a media profile of his own, but at the end of the day he is still an officer - albeit a very senior one - and he will find it almost impossible to take questions from allcomers about what is probably the number one political hot potato in Greater Manchester without himself stepping into the political sphere.
This makes for a very uncomfortable precedent. It is the politicians who make the decisions and they ought to be the ones up on the platform defending and explaining those decisions.
I had an excellent weekend in Chester and I’m very grateful to my friends and colleagues in Cheshire and the Wirral CF for organising an excellent dinner on Saturday night. Despite being one of the most in-demand politicians around just at the moment, Edward Timpson MP had agreed to be the guest speaker and gave an excellent speech.
This week there is a Council meeting on Wednesday where we are discussing whether to agree with the new AGMA Constitution. AGMA is the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and exists to partially fill the void left by the abolition of the old Greater Manchester County Council many years ago.
I’m sceptical of the benefits of the new constitution - which will effectively concentrate power in fewer hands (and appointed hands at that) - but we’re having a presentation and full morning’s discussion on the issues so I will be listening attentively before making up my mind.
If (as I fear) the proposed arrangements remove power up from Councils rather than down from regional quangos, and take the decision-making process a further step away from the electorate, then I will find the new constitution impossible to support.
I’m interested to hear what debate has taken place in other Greater Manchester boroughs on this issue - please do leave your comments!
I’m off to Chester for the weekend - back Sunday afternoon.
Have a good weekend!
Just Fancy That!
June 9th - Salford Conservatives launch campaign and petition to Save Salford’s Post Offices
June 23rd - Salford Labour launch copycat campaign
The simple fact, of course, is that it is the Labour Party in Government which is proposing the closure of Post Offices in Patricroft, Adephi and Langworthy. The record also shows that all three Salford Labour Members of Parliament voted for the Government proposals to close 2500 Post Offices including the three in Salford. Labour cannot be trusted with our local Post Offices and I am sure that local residents will treat their sham campaign with the derision that it deserves.