PROFIT BEFORE PEOPLE

Predictably Southern Vectis will go ahead with their Pan bus plans from Sunday, despite a 400 signature petition - of which 115 came from the 125 houses on the Furrlongs route - and my personal pleas this afternoon.

As these are commercial services they can more or less do what they like under the bus-deregulation introduced by the Tory Government over a decade ago. About time the current government looked at this, in my view ........

The new route 8 is initially for a 5 month trial. If it isn't as successful as they think it will be, it may be withdrawn. Perhaps a boycott would help !

They will attend a public meeting with me in early May, if Pan judges the service to be intolerbale in practice. The community needs to be ready to make complaints to them from Sunday. This is not over yet.

COUNCIL WATCHDOG MOVES UP A GEAR ?

Had an informal meeting of the Scrutiny Committee today - ahead of my becoming Chair on April Fools Day !!!!

I was asked to chair the meeting and overall I think my agenda went down pretty well. I outlined my vision of a proactive and energetic committee, holding the Cabinet to account on issues that matter to Islanders - of which I detailed nine for the next year.

In that vein we agreed that our first new enquiry will be into the current financial circumstances and the proposed privatisation of Wightcare - the home care service. We set up a panel to do this over the next few weeks, lead by myself with Cllrs Gardiner and Mosdell also involved. The Cabinet member had previously agreed to assist and to defer any final decision.

Future public meetings of the Committee will be opened up to public questions about issues on the agenda. I will also be seeking an 'accountability slot' at Full Council.

Much to do in this new role.......

BUS PETITION PROGRESS

The Pan bus petition closed last night with almost 400 signatures in just 4 days (25% of Pan estate residents), of which 115 came from the 125 homes on Furrlongs. Pretty conclusive opposition then....

I will be submitting it to Southern Vectis on Friday and am making provisional arrangments for a public meeting with Southern Vectis so that local concerns can be voiced in a more impolite manner than I adopt. I have little doubt though that the first bus will turn into Furrlongs at 9am on Sunday morning, but we will keep the pressure on.

Its a pity that in all of this I have felt one particular Council service has been acting more as an agent of the bus company than as a service for the community. I will take that feeling further when I have a moment.......Not really what I expect of a Council claiming to listen to Islanders. Must remember to tell others with more clout than me that !

COUNCIL STRIKE

I visited the County Hall picket lines yesterday morning at 7.15am to demonstrate my support for the industrial action. I then went to the Rally later that morning and was delighted to find around 400 union members there. All in all the action seemed to be pretty solid across the Island and shows that solidarity is the only way to beat intransigence and unreasonableness. And there may need to be plenty of that solidarity in the coming months.

Most ridiculous comment of the year so far from the double-barrelled Tory baronet that leads the intransigent Local Government Association, "The vast majority of Council services across England have not been affected by this strike action." Yeah - and pigs DO fly Mr Bruce-Lockhart.

PAN BUS THREAT PETITION STARTS WITH A BANG

My petition against 50+ double-decker buses running daily through Pan estate from next Sunday got off with a bang on Saturday morning.

A party colleague and I collected over 150 signatures from local people in 2 hours outside Pan Stores, and at one point were visited by the Island's MP.

The response from my constituents was terrific on a damp, chilly morning, with only three people not wanting to sign-up. The petition is now available in Pan Stores until Tuesday evening and I hope to get at least 500 signatures by then.

Once I have that I can go to Southern Vectis and the Council leadership later next week with evidence that the Pan community does not want this many double-decker buses running through their residential estate. Hopefully they will both then see sense and keep this bus route on Staplers Road where it belongs.

SOME TIME AT LAST !

Been away from my blog the last few days, attending more meetings than is healthy, both as a councillor and at work !

Wednesday was my Care, Health & Housing Policy Commission, which was mildly interesting on public health issues and then some interminable presentation by some local health manager who wants the Commission to be nice to them......

Last night was the last Scrutiny Committee before I get my hands on it ! This one was quite good at times, with some interesting questioning of the Chair & Vice Chair of the Development Control Committee about planning application processes, before that was shut down - possibly for daring to ask challenging questions. No press in attendance again for the third meeting in succession. Desperately needs a shake up - which it will get in April.

Today - after first noting I had a fair bit of coverage in the County Press - spent the morning in County Hall at informal meetings on things like Council assets and scrutiny. This afternoon spent my time with a Cabinet member, the PNP managers and various bigwig Council officers - the Pan Development Steering Group - firstly touring Pan estate and the development site, followed by a progress meeting in the Isobel Centre. Made my usual pleas for a by-pass and better communication with local residents.

I will be outside Pan Stores tomorrow collecting petition signatures against Southern Vectis and the Council's plans to route up to 52 double-decker buses per day up and down Furrlongs from April 2nd. Of course I was not consulted or even told about this by the Council, probably because they know people don't want it. Ce'st las vie - when you are the councillor for Pan. Will they never learn ? ..............The well-oiled campaign machine wheels into action.....

CABINET REPORT - PAN ON THE AGENDA

As usual went to the Cabinet tonight, and as usual no other opposition group had a member in attendance, though - as usual - there were about eight non-Cabinet Tories there, and - as usual - only one member of the public.

Main issues for me were:

1. Applications for the new 50p bus fares concession from 19s and under who are in education, but not in mainstream, 'full time education' will be looked at favourably by the Council. I know people who this will benefit. I applauded the older and disabled people scheme for free travel and reminded the Cabinet that the core funding was nearly £1m from the Labour government;

2. A policy paper on the Pan development was agreed. The Council will seek to appoint a private-sector Joint Venture Partner where it will share the capital return over 10 years, but not bear the (necessary) infrastructure risks. It will seek to provide 240 (30%) affordable houses, working with all the Island Housing Associations, lead by Medina HA. Finally all houses should be built to the best energy-efficient standard. I got a commitment from the Transport member to examine closely the option of providing a Pan by-pass, which would reduce the number of houses on the development from 800 to just under 700. I also got a commitment from the Housing member for 'flexibility', in reponse to my plea for a 40% level of afforable housing.

The Cabinet also dealt with - seconding OTs to the Hospital Trust for joint working with their OTs; the parking order for 2006; and the setting up of an Island Investment Company with the South East Economic Development Agency to facilitate regeneration.

M.P. SUPPORTS MY CALL FOR PAN BY-PASS

Our local MP has today joined my repeated calls since September for a Pan by-pass when the new housing development starts. Such a by-pass would run from upper Staplers Raod to Shide, around the edge of the new development.

I have been calling for this relief road on the Pan Development Steering Group for some months since my election, but until recently it has fallen on deaf ears. The previous LibDem Council also ignored those calls from my predecessor Tony Coburn and local residents of Pan.

However, the Council's Transport Cabinet member also indicated his support to me this week and with the MP's support this should now be deliverable. I know Pan residents certainly hope so....

COUNCIL WORKERS PENSION STRIKE

Unison members working for the Council will be joining one million local government workers nationwide in a strike on 28 March in defence of their existing pension scheme.

I make no bones about it - they have the total support of the Labour councillors, and I have told government as much. In my view it is disgraceful to change the pension conditions of staff mid-emplyment, especially when so many are low-paid. The average pension in the scheme is around £3k per annum. Not exactly a fat cat pension. And lower wages than the private sector in return for a reasonable retirement age on a final salary pension has always been the accepted balance.

The government settled with teachers, health workers and civil servants last year over the same issue, protecting the pension conditions of existing staff. Local government staff are just as much vital public servants as they are, especially teaching assistants who work alongside teachers, and adult services staff working with civil service Pensions staff.

This dispute has been pushed onto the government by the Tory grandees that run the Local Government Association, which does not want a settlement, to protect existing pensioner Council tax payers at the expense of future pensioners.

I will join the County Hall picket lines on 28 March for part of the day and urge others to do so too.

INDEPENDENTS SEE SENSE

I was pleased to hear from Cllr Heather Humby today, who has agreed to join the Scrutiny Committee for the Independent group. Just leaves a LibDem to get on board now and we can really get this ship out of harbour

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

I went along to something called the Tom Woolgar Trust tonight, which I was persuaded to join a few weeks ago. No one seems to remember who Mr Woolgar was, but when he died in 1928 he left a Trust fund to provide heating costs relief for the 'poor and needy' older population of Newport Borough. A sort of do it yourself Winter Fuel Payment. Ever since then four Newport Borough, then Medina Borough, and now IWC councillors meet every first quarter of the year to dispense grants to applicants from the fund. So I was following a long line of illustrious Newport Labour councillors - John McKeown, Jack Powell, Jack Kinchington, Bert Chalmers - whose names I noted in the Minute Book for the 1960s and 1970s.

There does not seem to be as many applicants these days, probably because of the Labour Government's excellent Winter Fuel payments, but of the 19 applicants 16 were from Pan. The Trust members were pleased to award £75 to each of them and we all left feeling we had done our historical duty. And my name will now be in that Minute Book !

ONLY LABOUR TO ENGAGE IN SCRUTINY

Although I missed my first Full Council last night - due to a longstanding personal commitment - I was elected as the new Chair of the Scutiny Committee from 1st April (should I worry about that date?). Although there seems to have been some sort of opposition boycott of the meeting, with only 5 in attendance (including Deborah) out of 12, my nomination as Chair only attracted votes against from the LibDems present. No surprise there then.

An attempt to resurrect (at my prior initiative) a disproportional, all-opposition Scrutiny Committee was lost with the LibDems and Independents voting against in the face of some heavy criticism from the administration leaders. They were apparently called a 'disgrace' and I have to agree. There is no reason at all to still be holding out over meeting-times. They are not going to win that argument and meanwhile they betray those Islanders who do not vote Conservative - over 50%.

Consequently the size of the existing committee was increased to 10 to allow the Tories to grant me one of their 5 places for the duration of this Council. Indeed they will actually be granting two places to Labour, to allow Deborah to join me on the committee, leaving them with 3 plus the three co-optees. Its not ideal and I would much prefer to see the LibDems and Independents take their one place entitlement to secure real opposition control.

Until then Deborah and I, on behalf of Island Labour, are providing the only real alternative to the Tories.

55,000 FOR THE FESTIVAL ?

Solent TV tonight is reporting that 55,000 tickets have been sold for the Rock Festival in June. That is 20,000 more than last year. And they haven't even got a licence yet.........

I support the Festival and usually attend, but 55,000 ? I suspect the IW Council will face a lot of flak about this. Appears a 'done deal' must exist BEFORE the licence is even granted. Poor sods in Fairlee ward.

PLANNING VICTORY

Went along to the Development Control Committee tonight to oppose a residential application in School Lane, Barton, on behalf of six local residents. All concerned about overcrowding and parking problems. Much to my delight the Committee listened to my submission - and that of a local resident - and refused the application, despite it being recommended for planning permission by the planning officers. The vote was 10 to 1 in favour of refusal. Tremendous !

THE CONTINUING SAGA OF SCRUTINY

After the abortive attempt last month to get the Scrutiny Committee resurrected as a disproportional, all-opposition-controlled body, with me as Chair, and the lack of any known, positive initiative on this issue since then from the LibDem and Independent groups, Deborah and I have decided we have had enough of messing around and will accept a Conservative offer of one of their places on the existing committee for the duration of this Council.

Additionally we have agreed that Deborah will nominate me to Wednesday's Full Council as Chair of the existing committee and the Conservatives will support. We would have preferred to have some acquiescence with this from the other groups, but that is clearly not going to happen.

However, there will first be another attempt to convert the Scrutiny Committee to disproportional lines - in line with last month plans - and we hope that the other groups will support this and then engage fully with the new Committee. If not, I will still hope that they will take their existing places on the currently proportional committee.

AND THE COVERT PRIVATISATIONS.....

Not content with the rushed privatisation of Education Management last December, we learnt from the media today that 'Wightcare' is to be privatised without any veneer of recourse to democratic process. I heard about this last Friday from my contacts and have waited, naively, for some sort of proper decision-making process. But no ! Nothing !

So scores of low-paid, mainly female staff will be pushed out into the even lower-paying private sector - no doubt with zero-hours contracts to come in the future. And of course the service to vulnerable service-users will not be the same. A little bit of research will point to the failures of such privatisations - both for customers and transferred staff.

The irony of who the Cabinet Member for this area of service is has not been lost on me. Someone who always used to be deeply committed to keeping care workers in the public-sector as only they looked after vulnerable people properly.

As a member of the Policy Commission for 'Care', Health Scrutiny and Housing, I am particularly peeved that I have to learn about this from the media. Comments will be made....

AND SO THE JOB LOSSES BEGIN......

Found out through my grapevine that there are to be 18 compulsory redundancies in the Adult Services Directorate. Not big chiefs, but people generally in relatively lowly jobs. They include the Welfare Rights team - which has saved the Council vast amounts of money over the last 7 or 8 years by ensuring service users get their full social security benefit entitlement - and Team Clerks, who do the admin. for trained social workers.

So now we know where the 'efficiencies' are coming from. How dishonest the Council's budget was, as we always suspected. Much of this is not about backroom jobs, but jobs that save the Council money or support professionals in the field. Just like staff employed to support Cabinet members....

The expected cull has begun. And only last week in the media the Tories were still denying significant job losses as a result of their budget. Well 18 may not be significant to the Tories, but it is significant to those people, their families and their friends - and the Welfare Rights service will be a loss to the Council's revenues.

"COME FRIENDLY BOMBS AND RAIN ON" COUNTY HALL

In my 17 years living on the Island, mainly in Newport, the most abominably hideous building until recently has always been the County Hall complex. Now of course it is surpassed by the Multiplex complex that unfortunately is in my ward. Talk about dumping on Pan by previous Councils ! I always feel sorry for residents of Ash Road who used to look over the town and to the west, but now look at an enormous 'Staples' sign. That's how Liberals treat you if you stop voting for them.......as Pan people did many 15 years ago.

So it was with immense pleasure that I discovered a Tory policy last October, through the pages of the CP, that I wholeheartedly support - the sale and development of the County Hall site. I have never understood why we need a Council building in the middle of our main town that houses so many functions that don't deal with the public face to face. So I have no problem with relocating County Hall outside of Newport, provided that there is still something like the Customer Service Centre within the town and that the public can attend Council meetings in somewhere like Newport Guildhall. Apart from anything else it will take traffic out of central Newport.

The Tory plans to achieve this site sale and relocation are moving apace, and I am a party to at least some of the plan. As a party to these plans I am anxious that staff and the Island public are kept well-informed about what is going on on a regular basis, and I am assured this will be done by others who are more central to the plans and whose word I accept. I am also enthusiatic about potential plans to see more flexible working arrangements than the traditional attend at your desk for 40 hours per week. Such working has the potential to vastly improve the working lives of many people - provided, of course, that they still have jobs after the efficiency savings work though.

What will replace County Hall is naturally of some import. The last thing we want is another architectural abomination - we need something that enhances Newport and makes it an attractive town to visit.

LABOUR'S CONSIDERED RESPONSE TO COUNCIL BUDGET

Press Release:

After having a week to consider it in more detail, the IW Council Labour Group are still none the wiser over the detail of the Conservative Council's tax budget delivered to Full Council last week.

The Labour Group recognises that many of the re-direction of priorities are very welcome and things that Labour in power would try to do itself, in particular:

* The £2m net extra spending for adult social services;
* The £500k for addressing homelessness and the funding of an Empty Properties Officer;
* The £50k for cross-Solent patient travel;
* The £22k for additional CCTV monitoring resources;
* The £169k to match fund 40 Police Community Support Officers - a Labour Government community policy;
* The £140k for new library books;
* The 50p travel charge for under 19s.

These are the sort of things that lead to the Labour Group deciding last week not to oppose the Tory budget with its own alternative, but instead to abstain whilst holding a watching brief on how this budget is delivered.

However, there were some other good announcements made last week which are purely down to Labour Government funding:

* The claimed £5 million for schools merely matches what the Labour Government expects and demands the Council to pass on to our schools, though the 'Direct Schools Grant' element of the Government's revenue support settlement;

* Much of the free bus travel for pensioners is funded by an extra grant from the Labour Government.

Labour is amused that the Conservatives feel they need to claim the credit for these Government requirements.

Nonetheless, it is how the Budget will be funded that is causing Labour Councillors most concern, especially as they are no further forward in getting more detailed information, despite their efforts to do so.

The Conservatives last week claimed they would fund much of their spending on new priorities through £6.6 million of 'efficiency savings', claiming there is 'waste, duplication and bureaucracy' throughout parts of the Council. Labour would not doubt that there will be elements of this, but considers it is stretching credibility to claim there is £6.6m worth. Especially when £2.4 million of this is apparently located in the Adult Services Directorate; a department where much vital public service is undertaken.

Labour is also concerned that savings of £557k are to me made in what is called enigmatically 'Other Education', and a further £1.7 million in 'central and corporate services'.

Labour's greatest fear is that these 'efficiency savings' will ultimately mean significant job losses, though this is not admitted by the Conservatives. As the largest employer on the Island, Labour believes the Council has a responsibility not to throw its staff into unemployment, with the consequent effect on their families and the Island economy. Labour believes that Island jobs are just as important as populist policies.

The two Labour councillors, Deborah Gardiner & Geoff Lumley, are committed to their early pledge of last week - to watch the unfolding of this budget like hawks, and take appropriate steps if their fears prove true.