I was in London and passing through Liverpool Street station and feeling in need of comfort food I stopped by the Pasty Shop and chose a steak and stilton Cornish pasty. It was only as I was walking away that I noticed that in addition to the usual varieties available (lamb with mint, etc.) they also had a pasty filled with fish, chips and mushy peas – all the necessary vital foods for life. Certainly something to put on the list for next time.
In the meantime my favourite council is embarking upon a series of consultations. One of which focuses on the support we give to families with their Council tax and rents. We will be abolishing the discount for second homes (if you can afford a second home you can afford the council tax!) and also we (the taxpayer) will not be paying for houses which have an above average assessment. (Large families would be accommodated by other pockets in the benefits system).
A survey by the Taxpayers Alliance has discovered that super-sized families are being housed by councils across the country in huge mansions that many mortgage payers could only dream of. The biggest council house provided was a 10-bedroom abode in Southwark, while East Riding Council placed a family into a nine-bedroom home in Bridlington. Robert Oxley of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “This is why the Government must press ahead with its proposed cap on housing benefits”.
Patience Wheatcroft in Monday’s Evening Standard makes the interesting point that most business people would say that what they want most is for government to provide a stable, low-tax environment, and educated and properly skilled workforce, and then get out of the way. Which I can go along with, provided we have adequate safeguards for people and their environment – otherwise we might just as well start breeding smaller children so as to facilitate chimney sweeping and provide employment.
Political – Local
Babergh Core Strategy
This week saw Babergh District Council consider its Core Strategy. In many ways it is an admirable document setting out how the District might develop over the next twenty years. However, deep within its detail are what could be considered serious threats to the Hadleigh’s well being. Kathryn Grandon moved an amendment to the approving resolution pointing out that the commercial area allocated on the map is in the wrong place. The commercial area should not have to share street space with residential areas. Residential streets should not be sharing space with diesel lorries accessing their places of business twenty four hours a day. An illustrative map indicated the possibility of an industrial corridor to the east of Hadleigh. This will become an eastern barrier to further development since no one will want to be separated from the town by a commercial area. The commercial area should not be alongside the residential area. Instead it should be on a site having easy access onto the A1071 (the town by-pass) Once again we have a community being led by the Council but not in a way which will enhance its future prospects. The amendment went down by more than thirty votes to six. One of the Liberal Councillors for Hadleigh voted against the amendment citing the need for a decision to be made. The Core Strategy has now been approved and has been published to the Towns and Parishes for further consultation. Then it goes to the Planning Inspectorate for comments and approval. Meanwhile people similarly minded to Kathryn and myself are looking at how one influences the Planning Inspectorate – as Babergh does not appear to be listening.
Watching the Gimbals
There’s a continuous theme in the film Apollo 13 where Mission Control 
is telling the crew to watch their gimbals. The gimbal being a device which indicates balance. There are many parallels in our other lives. Where was the balance in the Spanish banks? Deposits control your ability to lend and your asset and liability policies control what you can do with the money. Which is why the Spanish banking crisis is interesting as the asset policies obviously did not specify a prudent limit on financing speculative building. This week I attended a Revenues and Benefits Committee meeting. This committee comprises representatives from the three partners (Babergh, Mid Suffolk and Ipswich Borough Councils) and the Management of the Revs and Bens Joint Venture. The management report advised of that annual costs were ahead of budget and that technical and integration issues were being worked through. So three cheers all round. However a disturbing picture emerges when you look at the “customer related ” performance trends. The accuracy of benefit processing over the year (for Babergh) was 96.2% in April 2011 and 87.5% in April 2012 which indicates that in 2011 the reject rate was one in twenty six and in 2012 it was one in eight! The worst month for accuracy was February when only 78.3% of the benefit processing was accurate. Similarly the time taken to process new claims deteriorated from 19 days to 34 days. Why is it that the drive for efficiency afflicts the disadvantaged and vulnerable – that’s why they are on benefits? Meanwhile it has been suggested that I talk to the Head of the Shared Revenues Partnership and I look forward to the next meeting of the Committee in July. What about the gimbals? Well when you concentrate on the wrong things you’re liable to be found on the wrong side of a mis-match when Nemesis catches up with Hubris.
The Last Gunfight
I have just read The Last Gunfight by Jeff Guinn. The book details the circumstances leading up to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. There are various strands which lead up to the gunfight. The ambitions of the Earp family to find their fortunes. The similar aims of other lawmen, ranchers and cowboys. The play of politics in the election of officials (sheriffs had responsibility for collecting taxes for which they kept a percentage), philosophical views of governance (too much or not enough government) and the desire of the Tombstone businessmen to have a nice town whilst still parting rowdy cowboys from their money. The gunfight produced the immediate deaths of Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury. The Earps came out of the inquest with their actions being excusable and justifiable by law. The gunfight and the inquest did not stop the animosity between the Earps, Clantons and the cowboys. The book infers that the Earps finally lost patience with their enemies, tracked them down and executed them. In most cases this was permissible as there were outstanding warrants against their enemies. The book has a number of interesting vignettes but my favourite quote is from the historian John E. Ferling “events by themselves are unimportant; it is the perception of events that is crucial”. The shoot out was an arrest gone wrong and the result of complicated social, economic and political issues which left eight men dangerously mistrustful of each other. A very good read and a healthy antidote to the glamourisation of the Wild West.
What No Bunting!
We have no street bunting in Hadleigh for the Queen’s Jubilee.
According to the Suffolk Free Press Town Clerk has said that “the authority has been informed the bunting was not allowed in the (High) street which is a conservation area, for fear of the damage it would cause to historic buildings. Under health & safety regulations, and due to the listed buildings we can’t put the bunting up”.
But yesterday the E.A.D.T. reported that the Town Clerk had confirmed that the reports were simply untrue. Instead “It would be physically impossible to attach it (the bunting) at a high enough level for vehicles including big lorries that regularly use the road to avoid it. Meanwhile the Town has commissioned the local Brownie and Guide groups to design and make bunting which will be zig-zagged across the street this week end when it is closed to traffic. If this is logistically impossible it will be draped from the buildings instead”.
Apparently Long Melford which is equally historic has bunting. There is no across the street bunting in Hadleigh but plenty on our buildings.
The newspaper advertising boards say it all:
On the Buses
For som
e time, Simon Wills, Shelley Pingo, Kathryn Grandon and I have been agitating for Suffolk County Council to restore the subsidy which was previously given to the later evening bus services from Ipswich to Hadleigh. Simon provided the legal research and a lot of lobbying muscle, Shelley collected over 3,750 signatures and Kathryn & I provided our political skills and connections in getting the idea in front of the right people. The funding was withdrawn last year and the bus operator stopped operating the service. Since that time Hadleigh has faced an evening curfew and has been marooned on Sundays and Bank Holidays. On these days we could be a desert island as far as public transport collectively is concerned. This has had social, educative, community and economic consequences for Hadleigh. Our residents have no local train options, entertainment options or higher education options. To take the train, visit the cinema, attend college and many other things residents have to visit Ipswich. And if that involves a journey after 6 p.m., they are stuck. Such opportunities are open to those who have access to a car. Suffolk County Council allowed us to speak to the Council on Thursday. I was delegated to do the deliver my speech of a lifetime. Thankfully the Council had listened to our earlier presentations and have agreed to a trial six month restoration of the later evening, Sunday and Bank Holiday bus services. This will aid economic recovery , enhance sustainable growth and plug the social gaps.
Because whether you are in catering, retail, hospitality, leisure, medical or manufacturing work patterns require you to be able to get home after six fifteen in the evening! We need the bus service – otherwise we are cut off from economic development, educational opportunity and enhanced leisure activity. Thankfully from August onwards we shall be back on the road after 6.15 in the evenings.
Well done, Suffolk County Council.
Spanish Practices
Early in 2010 Babergh District Council decided that it was time that we had a formal Treasury Policy. We had avoided placing surplus funds with the Icelandic banks and it was right that the Council formalised its deposit placing policy. A consultant’s report was commissioned and presented to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Stewardship). Strangely it suggested that placing deposits with Spanish banks would meet the Council’s requirements for prudency. There was a fair amount of argument and full Council finally decided that if the Consultant said so, it must be OK! No suggestion that there were other persons on the council who were equally in tune with economic trends and who thought that the Spanish economy was over ripe. Within three weeks of the Council’s decision the Spanish economy was downgraded and any deposit placing with any branch or subsidiary of Santander was prohibited.
Where Babergh leads other Councils follow. The digital version of MJ (presumably an updated name for the Municipal Journal) reports that “Several local authorities are considering whether to deposit money with the British arm of Spain’s biggest bank Santander, amid fears about the weakness of the Spanish economy”.
The full article can be found on http://www.themj.co.uk/MemberPages/Subscribe/article.aspx?id=188729
It’s hard to be humble!
Standards
Last week the Joint Standards Committee of Babergh and Mid Suffolk issued an Advice Note “‘Blogging’ & Social Network Sites”. Nearly five hundred words of what should be obvious. Of course we all have to observe the Seven Principles of Public Life; selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
However, some of the advice seems to encourage an atmosphere where personalities and policies do not matter and thus honest debate is silenced. For example:
- make political points, but be careful not to be too specific or personal if referring to individuals
- general comments about another political party or genuine political expression are less likely to be disrespectful than comments directed towards or about an individual
Where is t
he respect for the people when their representative is hypocritical, misleading or less than competent. Local politics like many organisations can be maelstrom of ideas being advanced and like it or not it can be a zero sum game. If there is only a limited amount of money to be distributed why should monies go to the Dance East Boys in Babergh programme in preference to Home-Start Babergh? The Boys in Babergh programme speaks for itself. Home-Start Babergh is an independent charity that operates as part of Home-Start UK. They recruit, train and provide volunteers that work with families in times of need.
More importantly their support is given through home visits by volunteers and through support group meetings, where children can play together, supervised by a play leader, whilst parents meet with each other and with Home-Start staff. In many cases, their support is complementary to that of the professional agencies. Their volunteers are there for the family as a friend and confidant during a time of stress or difficulty. See: http://www.home-startbabergh.co.uk/.
Similarly why should the Dance East Boys in Babergh programme take precedence over the Kernos Centre. It provides counselling and support services to people with emotional and psychological difficulties from a wide variety of causes.
One of the main aims of counselling is to guide people from feeling victims of circumstance to feeling they have some control over our lives. See: http://www.kernos.org/
So, returning to the advice from the Joint Standards Committee: I hear what they say but it will not stop me from speaking out in a forthright and robust manner when I deem it appropriate.
Small Successes
Today’s meeting of Babergh District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny (Stewardship) Committee was a quite sparky meeting with much debate focussing on the Finance, Risk And Performance Management – Quarter 3 Monitoring Report (35 pages of facts and figures). The general complaint was that although we are told when targets are not being met – we are not told what is being done to correct the position. Cynics would say that the mushroom principle applies. The view being that it is not the Councillors’ role to understand what is going on but merely to note (and if appropriate approve) the reports. But deep in the data is the wonderful news that Babergh Matters (The Council’s publication for residents –sometimes up to 24 pages of photos and pufferie) has not been published this financial year generating a saving of £41,000. It’s possible that the £41,000 could be carried forward into 2012/13. But a saving is a saving and I have campaigned against the publication since I was first elected in May 2007. Consequently my day was cheered up immeasurably.
O Tempera O Mores
This afternoon Alice (described on the invitation as my consort) & I went to St. Mary’s, Hadleigh for a service of celebration to mark the Queen’s accession to the throne some sixty years ago.
And very nice it was. The ushers weren’t sure whether we qualified for the second row from the front but in the end decided that we were. (The lady with the list not being “on seat” at the required time ”.
It was a well thought out service with something to appeal to everyone. Traditionalists got an articulation of the Privy Council’s accession declaration and the modernists got “You are My Sunshine” by a group of schoolchildren. We sang two verses of the National Anthem. Usually we only sing the first verse. The thought occurred to me that even with two verses Her Maj was being short changed and that we were being prevented from wishing a dissing on the Scots and other foreigners whose knavish tricks required confounding. But only two verses are shown on the web site http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/Symbols/NationalAnthem.aspx
Further research (http://ingeb.org/songs/godsaveo.htm) shows that there were six verses and two of the more interesting and sadly now ignored ones are as follows:
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!
Lord grant that Marshal Wade*
May by thy mighty aid Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King!
*Wade was involved in the suppression of the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745.
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