Readers of my blog, will be aware that as a County Councillor I have a Locality Budget of ₤12,000 a year to disburse as I see fit on worthy projects and activities in my area. So far just under ₤36,000 has been disbursed ranging from helping Scouts and Guides to attend their world jamboree in Japan to funding Hadleigh’s Loyalty Cards. So my interest was tweaked when I was asked to see what I could do for Hadleigh’s Year of the Sheep (since Hadleigh was a wool/woolen town). I was happy to allocate ₤1,500 to assist in the costs involved in establishing, promoting and underwriting the activities of the Year of the Sheep, which aimed to put Hadleigh on the map as a busy, historic and vibrant wool town. The programme of activities and events aimed to~
attract visitors
promote business
engage the community.
This was a community engagement opportunity to get Hadleigh people to celebrate the town and its heritage, enable local charities and town groups to raise funds/awareness for their work and help businesses develop and attract different customers. The year concluded at the end of September and by all accounts was judged as a very successful community event.
There are a number of legacies from the year, but one I particularly like is the provision of new equipment for one of the public playgrounds in Hadleigh. (My budget also funded some the new equipment). But I just love the sheep which will serve as reminder for a good number of years that Hadleigh was and can be leader in economic adjustment and development.
Political – Local
Hadleigh Library Unfettered
A good example of unleashed creativity is the Suffolk Library Service and Hadleigh Library in particular. Ever since the library service was hived off and mutualised they have got used to the idea that they can influence their own future and turn their operation from a cash starved Cinderella service into a highly valued and widely used community asset. Now being able to focus on their customers and stakeholders, the Hadleigh Library has consulted the community on their needs and wants. The outcome is friendlier hours and a broader spectrum of activities.
The staff and Friends of Hadleigh Library are to be congratulated on their initiative and it’s great to see a community service being proactive in identifying needs and responding to those needs. Here I must declare my interests. From 2007 to 2015 I held my monthly constituent surgeries in the Library. I have also allocated funds from my County Councillor’s Locality Budget to fund contributions to:
- upgrading the Seminar Room,
- sponsoring book tokens for the 2014 Summer Reading Challenge and
- helping to purchase a sofa – thus enhancing a less formal area for parent/child interaction.
It’s incredibly satisfying to see what happens when people are free from the “dead hand of government” and more power to their elbow!
No Sh*t Sherlock
The week end press reports that following the destruction of parking meters in Cardigan (Wales) high street sales increased.
Marcus Jones, the Government High Streets Minister has suggested that small town centres could become “parking meter-free zones” in an effort to save shops from closure. The Government is growing increasingly concerned that punitive parking costs and fines are deterring shoppers from using their local high streets.
Small stores are going out of business as people increasingly shop online and use supermarkets to avoid parking charges.
At last the penny has dropped, people prefer the free parking at supermarkets to paying for parking at Council car park sites. Hadleigh High Street is a good example where parking at Morrison’s is simple and free whereas when one uses the Co-op and the Council car park you have to get a free ticket to show your latest permitted time of departure.
And yet, even as late as last year, a senior Babergh District Conservative Councillor told me that parking charges would have to go up in 2016/17 because of budget gaps. These are the people for whom there can never be enough evidence to overturn an entrenched view.
Where is the application of the Primum non nocere principle which means “first, do no harm?” In practical Local Government governance this means that it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, than to risk causing more harm than good.
Ministers have warned, “The law clearly states that parking fines should not be used as a way of generating revenue.” The Department for Communities and Local Government has advised that any local authority found to be using parking fines as a way to make money could face reduced levels of government funding.
(Of course parking fines and parking charges are two different things, so I do not rule out Babergh bringing in short term car parking charges in the belief that this time it will all be different!)
More details can be found on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/society/11747831/Free-parking-in-town-centres-to-save-the-high-street.html
Cock Up, Conspiracy or just Business as Usual?
Ea
rlier this month the enquiry into the status of Cox’s Park in Hadleigh was adjourned on its first day after additional evidence was submitted by Babergh District Council. Babergh wishes to build housing on the parkland and since 2013 residents have been trying to have the park designated as a town green.
The inspector quite rightly adjourned the enquiry for four weeks to allow the residents to inspect the 60 pages of new evidence presented by Babergh and this evening (Thursday 25th) there is a meeting of Hadleigh Town Council to review the situation. The meeting is open to the public.
This is all very well, but what were Babergh thinking of dumping over 60 pages of evidence on the enquiry on its first day. Did they think they could disrupt the decision process by denying the residents the chance to review the evidence? Did they think that such a manoeuvre would work in their favour?
No explanation has been made as to why this stratagem was adopted by Babergh. The quotation from Babergh’s Strategic Director (People) merely refers to their awareness “of the strength of local feeling for East House and the surrounding land.” This of course begs the question why did they use this tactic. Was it deliberate? Was it happenstance? Or is it an example of what they usually do – blunder onwards? Is this Tesco all over again – blindly going forward when the evidence indicates that the well being of the town and the wishes of the people demand otherwise?
Smartphone Parking Payment Systems
The Daily Mail reports that although Brighton Council has arranged lessons in local libraries to teach residents how to use the new smart phone parking payment system it does nothing to help out-of-town visitors.
Hence at least one visitor chooses to go elsewhere since if people need lessons in how to use a parking meter there is probably something wrong with the whole procedure.
Hadleigh has various car parking facilities, one of which (off Bridge Street by Corks Lane) is available for public use but not posted as such. Another car park has a two tier system whereby even short stay users can stay free of charge in the long term parking provided an appropriate ticket is obtained and displayed. As least one senior councillor has purchased a long term ticket for a short term stay as he found the system confusing.
If Hadleigh had a simpler system would more people visit the town and would those who do visit have a happier experience.
The photo is taken from https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/brighton-weather-and-parking-charges/ which contains some interesting views on Brighton’s parking issues.
Hadleigh Town Council
My very 
good friend Richard Whiting has been elected Mayor of Hadleigh for the next year. He is a very experienced Councillor and will bring an appropriate level of gravitas to the job. One of his tasks will be to represent the town at social functions. Judging by the experience of his predecessors he will be invited to over fifty such occasions and will thus become an expert on canapés and outside caterers!
Richard ran on a Lib-Dem ticket and I suspect that he will be the last Lib-Dem Mayor for a considerable time.
Hadleigh Town Council meets monthly and one of my functions is to give a report on my activities and matters affecting the town. As I am no longer a District Councillor I expect my reports to be shorter than heretofore and my report for May is attached. Please see HTC Report 150517
Paint Recycling
Some time ago I enquired of my Facebook friends if anyone knew of a paint recycling facility whereby partly filled (or partly emptied) paint tins were recycled back into the community either directly to a charity or through a third party who would accept and distribute the paint according to availability and needs.
So it was with some joy that I discovered that paint received at the Witchford, March, Milton, St Neots, Thriplow and Wisbech (all in Cambridgeshire) Recycling Centres is collected for use by local charities, community groups, housing associations and individuals in social need.
This is so much more socially responsible that in Suffolk where only water based paint that has been dried out using dry sand/ soil/ cat litter will be accepted on site in the landfill bin. This drying method is only recommended for paint tins no more than quarter full. No oil based paint can be accepted on Suffolk’s sites.
For larger quantities of paint or paint that cannot be accepted on Suffolk sites, residents should contact their local borough/ district council who will collect these for a charge.
As for me, I’ll take advantage of my journeys up North to use the Cambridgeshire recycling facilities for my unused paint.
East Ipswich Waste Transfer Station
On Thursday I attended a meeting of Suffolk County Council’s Development Committee where the main item on the agenda was consideration and approval (or otherwise) of the proposed Waste Transfer Station in East Ipswich. An existing landfill site a few miles up the road is scheduled to be full (and therefore closed) in 2021. The Waste Transfer Station will be one of three within the County that will receive waste from the kerbside collections and Household Waste Recycling Centres and transfer the waste onto larger lorries for onward transportation to a Materials Recycling Facility, In-vessel Composting facility or the Great Blakenham Energy from Waste facility. There were a number of objection letters from local residents, adjacent businesses, and the developer of Ransomes Europark. Concerns raised included the potential for increased traffic congestion on the highway and compatibility with other businesses. The Officers advised that the proposed development complied with national and local planning policies. It was considered to be appropriately located and would not give rise to unacceptable impacts upon commercial and residential amenity. The development would not detract from the special characteristics of the Suffolk Coasts and Heaths Area of Outstanding Beauty, and would protect and enhance habitats for biodiversity including Protected and Priority species.
So there we are Ipswich will get a new Waste Transfer Station. I visited the site earlier in the month and saw little to complain about. Among the objectors was Ransomes still produce a variety of grass cutting equipment. From professional high quality turf machines to more industrial gang mowers for use on wider areas such as public parks etc. Their complaint was that the Waste Transfer Station could cause an increase of vermin on their site (more than 100 yards away). Upon questioning they indicated that they categorised seagulls as vermin! The chutzpah prize goes to the neighbouring Nacton parish council who thought that a location to the west of Ipswich would be preferable (definitely contestants for the NIMBY Council of the year).
Treasury Management and Pies in the Sky
On Monday I attended a meeting of the Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Councils’ Joint Audit and Standards Committee where the main item on the agenda was the Joint Treasury Management Strategy for 2015/2016. Having established the criteria for choosing counter parties at the last meeting I thought that this strategy paper would be a gentle formality. But as always when you think it’s all under control the land mines and elephant traps start appearing. Page 3 of the strategy paper advises that included in the future borrowing requirements is £25 million relating to delivery plan projects. Any use of this borrowing will be subject to a business case and will achieve a return on that investment and produce additional income to help towards the council’s medium term funding gap.
So much for fine words but further on page 33 indicates that borrowing costs as a percentage of General Fund (income) will rise to 32.74% in 2016/2017 and to 35.07% in 2017/18. When asked why we looked as though we were committing over a third of our income to debt servicing costs – we were told that projects has not yet been identified and that the inclusion of the costs were merely being prudential. Except that we were being asked to approve this situation and as any fule noes such a level of debt servicing can only mean a reduction in services or a culling of staff or both. We declined to approved the strategy without serious amendment and reservations.
I went to bed asking myself what sort of project would it be that would have a long initial period of no income. And then I woke with the answer – a very nice new headquarters could quite easily soak up £25 million with the borrowing being repaid from the proceeds of sale of the existing and consequently redundant buildings.
Not that the District has a happy history of business cases coming to fruition in the manner first proposed and we certainly do not have a good reputation for managing our real estate portfolio.
What’s my next step – let’s see if I can get an unequivocal statement that none of the £25 million is intended for a new headquarters.
Old Models – Poor Directions
Yesterday’s E.A.D.T., published the following letter:
New council H.Q. in Hadleigh will achieve the most savings
It’s all very well for the Leader of Babergh District Council to say that it is unlikely for Babergh’s and Mid Suffolk’s headquarters to be based in Hadleigh (EADT 25th October) – but this is precisely the direction indicated by the consultant’s report. Locating the main activities in Hadleigh and disposing of surplus sites and space will achieve a 50% reduction in costs. Relocating activities to the County’s building in Ipswich will achieve savings between 11% and 13%. Putting a new hub in the Ipswich fringe will only yield a 32% saving. The hub and spokes business and governance model is seductively simple but only suitable for banks, building societies and estate agents. It is recipe for senior management to distance themselves from the reality of the everyday lives in the areas they are supposed to be managing and directing. This is not a desirable way forward. Instead, both councils should focus on how value for money can be delivered to the residents because if monies are not spent wisely council taxes will rise.
Yours faithfully,
Brian Riley
District Councillor – Hadleigh North
County Councillor – Hadleigh
So far reaction has been favourable
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