Tim Passmore, Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner is seeking the views of the people of Suffolk over a series of proposals that could change the face of policing in the county.
At the end of last month the Chief Constables of Suffolk and Norfolk jointly presented proposals to the two Police and Crime Commissioners on the ongoing collaboration programme to help bridge the funding gap. The proposals included a joint Contact and Control room to be located in Norfolk and a combined Shared Services Partnership which aims to bring a number of support functions together in one location in Suffolk.
The proposals were discussed at length at the Collaboration meeting (on February 27th) but Suffolk’s PCC Tim Passmore felt that more detail was needed to be certain of the robustness of the plan and has asked the Chief Constable to present more refined proposals at the next Collaboration Panel meeting on April 30.
Meanwhile he is seeking the views of the public on the principle of the proposals which are to move the Police Contact and Control room to Wymondham in Norfolk and combine services such as HR, Estates, Procurement, Finance, ICT and Transport Service in Suffolk.
Tim Passmore said, “It is really important that I, as the elected representative of the people of Suffolk, fight to protect front line policing in the county and I believe that the control room is a very integral element of front line policing.
“No decision has been made yet, but I can assure you that I will carefully consider the Chief Constable’s proposals and will make my decision based on what is best for the people of Suffolk.
“I would encourage everyone to have their say.”
Please take part in the electronic survey, go to the website http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ or write to Tim at Martlesham Police Headquarters.”
There are various public meetings. The nearest one to Hadleigh will be held at: East Bergholt High School, Heath Road, East Bergholt, CO7 6RJ on Wednesday 9 April 2014
The meeting starts at 6.30pm. No need to book, just turn up.
Year: 2014
Einstein on Genius and Stupidity
The original quotation is “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former” which has been translated as “the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits”.
Either way the concept holds and I sometimes wonder whether stupidity has gone too far.
Bus Pass Elvis Party
The Daily Mail reports today that in a by election for a seat on Nottingham City Council the Liberal Democrats were beaten into fifth place. Labour came first, the Conservatives came second, UKIP were third and fourth was David Bishop from Bus-Pass Elvis Party. It was no consolation to the Liberal Democrats that they lost to the Bus-Pass Elvis Party by only 11 votes.
Part of the Elvis Party manifesto was for a 30 per cent discount in brothels for pensioners.
The Bus-Pass Elvis Party is also known as Elvis Loves Pets, Church of the Militant Elvis and Elvis and the Yeti Himalayan Preservation Party.
It was founded in 2001 by Mr Bishop to ‘overthrow the Corporate Capitalist State which turned Elvis, a man of immense talent, into a fat media joke’.
Mr Bishop has previously stood against disgraced Tory MP Neil Hamilton, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and UKIP’s Robert Kilroy Silk. The retired painter and decorator stood in the Eastleigh parliamentary by-election last year, triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne. In Eastleigh Mr Bishop came 11th, behind the Beer, Baccy and Crumpet party and the Monster Raving Loony party.
Read more: http://grumpyoldelvis.co.uk/about/ and http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2575536/Lib-Dems-shook-beaten-election-Bus-Pass-Elvis-Party-wants-brothels-OAPs-30-discount.html#ixzz2vIZPaVmj
Small Country Independence
Bill Bonner on the 21st February wrote:
“Small states do a better job of controlling their government, their military forces and their debt. Not because they are smarter or more peaceful. But simply because there is less distance between the governed and their governors. Citizens can see what their leaders are up to. If they don’t approve, the politicians can be beaten in the next election, or in the street.
Independence for Scotland? Yes, it’s probably a good idea.”
http://moneyweek.com/bill-bonner-nations-of-the-world-divide/
But later Merryn Somerset-Webb, who lives in Edinburgh, took issue with the suggestion that small governments are, ceteris paribus, better than big ones: “If Scotland votes for independence it will be as a socialist nation, not a wealthy capitalist one. The result will be profound misery. I really don’t think it is something to wish for. It’s already a disaster in the making. What small countries actually do these days if they aren’t tax havens full of educated people (Switzerland) is indulge in one variety or the other of nepotism/theft/corruption/public sector crowding out, and then collapses.”
Bill Bonner then concedes the issue with “She’s probably right about that. Big country or small one, the ruling elite always wants as much mis-government as the country can afford – and often more!
25/2/2014
Benton Street Squeeze
There is 
a new reporting link for overweight vehicles using Benton Street in an illegal manner.
Regrettably the link indicates that responsibility for monitoring and enforcing (!) the illegal usage of the street has been transferred from Trading Standards to the Highways Network Management section at the Economy, Skills and Environment Department of Suffolk County Council. The new link is
https://www.csduk.com/CSD/SCC/product.aspx?ProductID=PHGV01
Budgets
Suffolk County Council have approved their budget for 2014/2015. Whilst there are considerable savings being made, some reserves are being run down and the overall effect is a zero increase in the Council Tax. The vote was 45 to 20 with one abstention. The Conservatives had some support from the Liberal-Democrats and whole hearted support from UKIP. The Labour Party voted against claiming that the reserves should be run down further – forgetting the reason why reserves are needed. They are for planned future capital spending and for emergencies. We can no longer claim that they are for rainy days since in the current fiscal climate all days are rainy days.
Surprisingly, the approval was not unanimous, which suggests that there are still representatives of the public who think that all problems can be solved by throwing money at them.
Many years ago when studying the Theory & Practice of Foreign Exchange I learned that Money has three functions. It is unit of account, a medium of exchange and a store of value. Listening to my Labour colleagues at County I realised that money has a fourth function – it is there to be spent. Let’s all be afraid for the future because this is the thinking that got us into trouble in the first place!
Earlier this week the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) got his budget approved by Suffolk’s Police and Crime Panel. Again a zero increase. The PCC explained to the Panel his rationale for recommending that there be no increase in the precept, helping financially stretched citizens in the county, and receiving the government’s 1% freeze grant. There would be an underspend in the Constabulary budget this year in the region of £800k, an amount which equated to around 2% of the precept. Funding grants had been received very recently for implementing automatic number plate recognition and enterprise resource projects collaboratively with Norfolk. There were some specific areas within the Constabulary where efficiency savings could be made, and which the Chief Constable is looking to address. The PCC was not willing to put up the precept for citizens when there were still significant efficiency savings that could be realised.
At District level we are once again going for the zero increase option.
Meanwhile, my Town Council is balancing its budgets by outing up its precept. Which is a fancy way of saying that we shall be paying more for our very local services.
Rogers Farm, Newton
Next Wednesday I am a substitute on Babergh’s Planning Committee to consider an application for a change of use from agricultural land to a twenty six hectare solar farm. From the farmer’s point of view it must make sense to convert a quality field (winter wheat) into a solar farm. The field slopes away from the farm house and the visual intrusion is quite reasonable – especially when you consider the income from a field which is forecast to provide approximately 15 Megawatts peak (MWp) of electricity, sufficient to provide the power needs of 3,390 average U.K. households, which is equal to 8% of all households within Babergh. The local population are not happy. The installation will be seen from quite a wide area (as indicated from the photograph from Edwardstone Village Hall). The Box River Valley is a significant tourist area. The nearest piece of the Edwardstone Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest is only 150 metres away and a small part of the site is within the Box River Valley Special Landscape Area. North Norfolk District Council recently rejected a similar application for a wind turbine. The application went to appeal. The Planning Inspector overturned the decision and North Norfolk referred to the matter to the High Court arguing that the decision flew in the face of the will of the local community. Now a High Court Judge has ruled against the Inspector on the grounds that he did not have sufficient special regard to the desirability of preserving the setting of the listed buildings. The life of the solar farm is expected to be about twenty five years. Experts believe that they will be obsolete long before then and in the meantime it will take ten years for the new screening trees to become effective. Overall I think that this will be an interesting debate and as always my mind is open to the arguments of the developers and the residents. What was I doing on Wednesday? I was viewing the site from various angles – a character building two hours of walking about in the cold and the wellingtons.
My Brother the Playwright
Every year the Southend Playwriting Festival puts on fresh plays for public performance. They were established in 2010 to bring new ‘voices’ to the theatre by presenting the work of new and aspiring playwrights as rehearsed readings by professional actors. Such works and performances it was hoped would bring forth fresh material and would provide exciting and entertaining evenings for their audiences, and in turn inspire others to write and submit their own plays in future years. This year they received over 400 plays from writers in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Finland, and Canada. I’m pleased to bask in the glory of my brother (Colin Riley) whose play Remember, Remember, 1605 was performed in Southend and in Chelmsford.
Although only fifteen minutes long, it involved six speaking parts and as you might expect it was thought provoking and excellent focussing on the anti-Catholic sentiments of the day.
I look forward to next year.
Onward and Yeoward
Yesterday’s EADT (contained details of a letter of support from six Conservative Members of Parliament based in East Anglia promoting Tim Yeo’s cause and concluding with “We greatly value the contribution that you make as a dedicated community campaigner and experienced Parliamentarian and hope that the members of The South Suffolk Conservative Association will make the right decision”.
The article can be found on http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/ south_suffolk_yeo_gets_backing_from_the_county_s_mps_1_3167446).
The full letter is attached see: Suffolk MPs letter Dec 2013 (1)
Tim has also set up a web site (www.timyeo2015.net). Among the endorsements are one from Ian Dowling MBE, (former Association Chairman and President). Ian wrote “Tim has served his Constituents in South Suffolk with diligence and skill for 30 years. Over this time he has demonstrated considerable Political expertise and leadership, attributes which have been recognised by several Conservative Party leaders with appointments to several senior Ministerial and similar posts over those years. All this continues, and Tim’s energy to deliver not only on behalf of his Constituents but also as a senior Parliamentarian respected by his colleagues, is undiminished. I have no hesitation in supporting his application to be the candidate in South Suffolk in 2015.”
High praise indeed!
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