NEWPORT TRAFFIC MEETING

Wednesday night I chaired a Newport Town Management Committee-organised public meeting on traffic. Yes, I rarely get an easy life !

Despite all the outrage about the proposed school changes, Newport residents still have enough anger in them about traffic issues to turn out in good numbers. We had about 100 people at the meeting.

Although Newport TMC had wanted to try and focus on longer term options for traffic management in Newport for at least part of the meeting, quite understandably residents wanted to continue discussing the Council's unpopular decision to reverse the traffic direction in Trafalgar Road to a westerly direction and the devastating effect that has had on a number of residential roads around Newport. Out of 100 people at the meeting ONE person expressed support for that change and even the councillor for Brighstone supported a reversal.

The Cabinet member for Transport came along to the meeting and maybe, just maybe, he will at last have got the message from the people, that I and other have been trying to get across to him for the last 3 months. If he doesn't, I can't help feeling that it is deliberate.

WHAT THE SCHOOLS MINISTER ACTUALLY SAID TODAY

Cut out the Sir Humphrey's - watch and LISTEN to the BBC South report "Close threat school gets £1m" at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southtoday/

and hear what the Schools Minister, Jim Knight MP, actually says.

Not what the Tory truth-twisters at County Hall interpret him as saying.

Additionally his answer to a questions from the Island's MP:

"No Ministers or officials from the Department of Children, Schools and Families have had any discussions with the Isle of Wight council about intervention should existing primary schools not be closed under current reorganisation proposals."

That's one lie demolished that was doing the rounds last week.

A VERY PECULIAR IMBALANCE

Today we learnt that a Conservative MP who misused public money to support his son's further education will probably be suspended from Westminster for 2 weeks.

Here on the Isle of Wight a councillor (not Labour) who was found guilty by the Standards Board of not declaring a prejudicial interest against a candidate who he was considering for a public appointment was suspended for TWO MONTHS by the local Standards Committee.

Seems very unbalanced to me.

A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD

Well I spent yesterday listening to the SOS demo from my sick bed, having been up to St Mary's during the night before with severe nosebleeds. Nothing to do with a visit to Carisbrooke Village Management Committee I can assure you ! More a case of my seemingly beginning to fall apart !!!!

The demo certainly seems to have been very successful and almost as large as the GKN Westlands 600 job losses one back in Feb 2002. The trick now is to keep the momentum going right through to 19 March. Perhaps a march through Newport and demo in early March ?

On Friday a couple of us were wondering who on the IW Council will oppose the barmy proposals in their entirity. We probably still need at least 6 more Tories to show some backbone, provided the 3 LibDems councillors don't change their mind again. Remember - they voted for this ludicrous consultation in November along with Pugh's Tory leadership. Hopefully the views of their local Chairman will be reflected by these councillors.

PUSHED OVER THE EDGE

Full Council tonight. An inward looking agenda dramatised and enlivened by the early departure of 4 Tory councillors to the opposition seats over the schools debacle.

After the Council Leader won his vote of confidence before the Council meeting over his school proposals by 27 votes to 6, Cllrs Joyce, McRobert, Churchman and Bishop all declared they were leaving the Tory Group at the commencement of Full Council. We all had to budge up a bit in the opposition side of the Council Chamber.. The other two were, I guess, Ward and Peacey-Wilcox.

Only a matter of time before more of the Tories with vulnerable primary schools in their wards smell the coffee........

This Leader started with 35 Tories in his group. He is now down to 29 in just 4 months. By Easter he may not have a majority.

THE COUNCIL'S OWN PRIMARY PUPIL FORECAST

As I alluded to on the IW Radio phone-in last week, there is Council data around that indicates that the need for primary pupil school places will increase over the next decade.

The chart shows a 25-30% increase in primary places by 2017.






Also see - http://eduwight.iow.gov.uk/the_lea/amp/images/SCH_POP_FORC_2007.pdf
for all the data.

LEAVE SCHOOLS ALONE AND MAKE DO WITH A LITTLE LESS MONEY

The Save Our Schools campaign has gathered pace phenomonally over the last few days. Councillors from all parties and none are making it clear they will oppose the proposed changes at Full Council in March - with any luck all of this will be abandoned well before then........

I note on the SOS website that Conservative Cllr Ian Ward from Sandown is attempting to organise a leadership challenge to the boy wonder Pugh. Hopefully he will be successful, and will bring down his right-hand man, Wells, too.

As I was being bombarded with emails yesterday evening I have tried to direct campaigners to put pressure on those Tory councillors with a primary school in their ward that is set for closure under all the options and have yet to make their position clear. There's no point in targeting those of us who agree with the campaign !

The Council leadership claims that it will have £2m further to spend on education if it closes all these schools. In my view this is just about the most political choice you can make. Do you resolve that £2m is a price worth paying to retain schools in our communities, or do you determine that the cost of something is more important than the value it gives ? In my view the choice is very easy.

Finally the reduction in government capital grants from April does not force closures on the Council. There is no government agenda to do that. What the Council are CHOOSING to do is reduce the number of schools it has to maintain in future years.

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS

The last few days has been very interesting on the schools issue. Yesterday I did the IW Radio phone-in. I was booked to talk about Pan, Newport and Labour matters, but of course it ended up being almost exclusively about schools. Best thing about it was learning that two Conservative councillors are joining Labour, Cllr Joyce, the Non-Aligned group, and it now appears the Liberals, in opposing these barmy reorganisation proposals from the Council leadership. Neither have schools in their ward that are closing.

That makes it 11 out of 48 councillors publicly opposed so far. So just 14 more needed to throw all of this out. If the Independents and 'odds and sods' join the opposition that would give us another 7. With at least that many Tory backbenchers representing wards with a closing primary school, it is clearly possible that the proposals will be rejected.

IW Labour will be doing what it can to concentrate the minds of Tory councillors over the next few weeks, and I will play my part.

PLUNDERING RESERVES

At Thursday's Scrutiny Committee we had more details on the depletion of the Council's Reserves. Last December I reported that the Tories had plundered them so far this year to the tune of £8m. On Thursday we learnt that by the end of March they will actually have been reduced by £15m to pay for things like the Undercliff enquiry and what I called 'propping up services'.

On top of this it looks like the Tories plan to reduce them by a further £10m over the next 3 years to balance their Budget books - despite another generous grant settlement from Government.

So in the space of this Council, by May 2009 Reserves will have reduced from nearly £40m to less than £20m. No wonder they want empty land and properties that they can then sell off.

Scrutiny otherwise was OK. No public present, but a good session on the coming year's Budget, and approval of an excellent report on Waste Management and Recycling.

The Tories committee members were a little more contributory this time after my criticisms in December, with only half their membership making no contribution this time !

MP NEEDS TO GET FACTS RIGHT

I see the MP is claiming that it "appears" Government civil servants put pressure on elected members of the Council to reorganise the Island's school system, without any evidence for that claim. Clearly he is so beleagued these days - or is that bepughed ? - that he needs to find some way of justifying why his Tory '"allies" on the Council are so entirely juxtaposed to his views on our school system.

If only he had asked the Council's own Director of Childrens Services first, who told my Labour colleague that,

"I can assure that that I do not feel pressurised and have not conveyed that to the political leadership. This is very much about local decision making within a national framework."

2005 TORY MANIFESTO PROMISE SHATTERED

The Tory promise to the Island electorate back in May 2005 said in their so-called 'Timetable for Action' they would,

"Maintain local village schools as vital centres of the community"

Consequently they swept the board in 35 of the 48 Council wards. Swept the board on what is clearly yet another LIE to Islanders.

Of the 24 schools that are guaranteed to close under each of the 3 proposed reorganisations, I can offer the following list of the local councillors:

Gurnard Primary - Hobart; Love Lane - Brown; Holy Cross - Webster; Greenmount - Taylor; Bembridge - Pigot/McRobert; St Helens and Brading - Joyce; Gatten & Lake - Williams; Chale - Arnold; St Margarets' CE - Scoccia; St Wilfreds RC - Fitzgerald-Bond; Godshill and Wroxall - Wood; Weston - Cameron; Yarmouth - Burt; Arreton and Chillerton & Rookley - Oulton; Carisbrooke CE - Whittaker; Summerfields - Cousins; Nodehill - Cunningham

St Johns CE - Humby; St Thomas' RC - Foster; St Mary's RC - Bowker; Hunnyhill - Price.

All but the last four were elected as Tory councillors. I have asked my local councillor in that list why she is breaking her pledge. I suggest everyone does the same.

ISLAND LABOUR'S POSITION ON EDUCATION PROPOSALS

The IW Council Labour Group has consistently voted against the proposals for structural changes, insisting that the Council should concentrate it’s time and money on raising standards in our schools, not changing the structures. We are very unhappy that the Council should even be considering the closure of primary schools when the primary school sector is doing well and when these schools are the heartbeat of local communities.

We are rather astonished that the Liberal Democrats are coming out against these proposals when their Councillors voted for them at the November Full Council and when the school closures would have happened under the last Lib Dem Council had they not been thrown out for proposing them. There is absolutely no evidence that changing the structures here will in any way improve standards – all that will happen is that the education of Island children will be pointlessly and severely disrupted for years to come.

Island Labour will be campaigning against these changes, campaigning in favour of raising standards and voting against these destructive, and frankly barmy, proposals and we urge Liberal Democrat Councillors and Conservative Councillors to find a backbone at last and join us in opposing them.

Cllrs Deborah Gardiner & Geoff Lumley

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES ?

Well I finally accessed the education consultation webpages this morning and I am astounded.

Not content with the uncertainty they have caused over the last nearly 3 years in our schools, the Tories have now decided that no matter what reorganisation option people prefer they are going to close at least 27 of our 67 schools with a totally unnecessary reorganisation. Further, 23 schools are GUARANTEED to close, whichever option for change is selected.

Is this perhaps a case of history repeating itself as farce, after the Liberal suicide over school reorganisation back in 2004/05 ? I bet there are numerous unhappy Tory councillors today..........will be interesting to see how many are left in their group by the end of this process.

Of course the IW LibDems supported this latest consultation on the 3 options at the Full Council back in November, and presumably are happy that at least 31 schools will close if their two-tier preference was chosen.

Labour supports the option that does not lead to school closures, and always has done. The option of NO CHANGE to our existing school system; just change to the standards delivered therein. But its not part of the consultation.......

NO SURPRISE THERE THEN......

.......just tried to access the Education Consultation details on the Council's website as everyone - ordinary councillors, staff, governors, the media - was told it would be available after 6pm. As I anticipated none of the Links work.

As I repeatedly say about this Council - you wouldn't make it up.........

9pm - STILL NO WEBSITE ACCESS TO THESE DOCUMENTS. HOW MUCH DO WE PAY WESTMINSTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS EXPERTISE ?

TORIES APPOINT PAN DEVELOPER

At tonight's Cabinet in East Cowes, the new developer for Pan was unanimously agreed to be Miller Homes. No financial details will be released until contracts have been finalised. The decision was made on the recommendation of a panel of IW Council, Spectrum Housing Group & PNP officers, who had evaluated the three bids against agreed criteria.

I was not involved in the decision in anyway, did not want to be, and do not know any of the financial details.

More about Miller Homes can be seen at:- no, sorry, their website is not very good at all.

EARY BID FOR QUOTE OF THE YEAR !

From my favourite CP columnist this week,

"(Nick) Clegg may not believe in God, but does God believe in the LibDems? On the Island at least, it would be a truly magnificent feat of faith if He did."