Choice Cuts

The main event was full council this Wednesday; it was quite a long meeting at five and a half hours (with only a ten minute break) but you had to fully concentrate throughout that time and so it seemed to fly by.

Much to the surprise of the Conservatives, we wanted to debate their Change Programme proposals as soon as possible, rather than their suggested item 15! It was a full and frank exchange of views. I am not being partisan on this issue, as there were some valid points within the document, a number of issues struck me:

·         We described this document as being the most important to come before Council in a decade – the Tories thought it deserved to be the last but one item for discussion;

·         The grammar and spelling used in this significant document was appalling. I know that my writings on here can be full of mistakes, but this isn’t a document which sets out the wholesale breakup of service delivery at the council;

·         Local councils came about to provide public services to the local people. I believe this. I’ve worked in it. I’ve studied it academically. We can work better, we can work together, but unlike the others we don’t think that local councils are inherently bad.

·         A backbench Conservative councillor confided to one of our side that they had never seen the change programme before they received the meeting papers in the post. Sounds inclusive?!?

·         The documents stated aim was to make our council fit for purpose. My favourite comment from Royston’s own party was “why aren’t we fit for purpose now?”.

·         The choice is quite simple – if you want locally employed people, delivering locally provided services, with any efficiencies going back to you, then the choice next May is clear. Do not vote for the party who is suggesting the wholesale privatisation of our services.

Additionally, just a quick question, can anyone tell me how you make a profit from providing social services? If you fancy having a read of the ten page document which dismantles our council: http://www.southampton.gov.uk/modernGov/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=6999

A few choice points of information from the council meeting:

The Conservatives have promised that green waste collections will restart from tomorrow. At last. Perhaps a bit late for those constituents whose green bags have now rotted through. What also came out from the Cabinet member for Environment and Transport was that they have plans to start charging for the green bag service, although they aren’t sure when this will be.

The Leader of the Council stating that things do go well “when we don’t upset the bin men”.  He also stated that the financial challenge that we face in Southampton was a global issue – “fact”.

The council depot will be opening up for waste disposal and recycling for us on 1^st December. We won’t have to traipse across the city, bags in tow... and as more people use the facility, they will hopefully stop by a number of the local shops on the Millbrook Road.

You may or may not be aware that there are proposals to change the boundaries of the parliamentary constituencies for the next election. This is important as it’s likely that you, like me, would like a local MP to represent your views – some of the new areas proposed put together areas of Southampton with some parts of Hampshire that have no real connection. If it were me, I would want a Southampton MP representing as much of our city as was possible. The current plans allow for 4 MPs to have some stake in our city:

·         The people of Swaythling are in with Eastleigh (including Chandlers Ford and North Baddesley)

·         Bitterne is placed in with areas of common interested such as Burseldon, Hamble, Netley and parts of Fareham!

At least the Conservative councillor for Bitterne defied his party and voted for our proposals that all party’s should support two MPs exclusively dealing with Southampton issues. The Tories obviously don’t think that Bitterne or Swaythling are in our city!

On the subject of Educational Maintenance Allowance, the Deputy Leader of the Council said that its removal was acceptable as “s smaller more targeted fund would be administered by the local colleges”. My concern was that a number of young people may not even apply to go to college as they can no longer afford the costs of travel for example. It’s not as if they can get a job either at the moment as figures  suggest massive rises in youth unemployment in Southampton and across the country.

At General Committee of the Southampton Labour Party on Thursday, I was ecstatic to find that a report I had written was chosen to be the first chapter of our manifesto for next year’s election. So very proud. Also managed to sort out a piece of casework for a constituent within 45 minutes. Sadly the Conservative Councillor who had been contacted some days previous still hadn’t gotten back to the voter...

And lastly, yesterday we in Millbrook chose the candidate for next year’s election. I won’t spoil the announcement yet, but we will be coming to a doorstep near you in the coming weeks to offer you a choice.  The opposition talk of what we might do; I want to talk about what we will do and what they have done.

There’s a lot going on at the moment...

For those of you who can’t get by on a Sunday morning without my weekly update, here is the past week in my political life.

The week started with some casework on a housing matter, with a house visit to a constituent. I do wish that we had a small supply of housing which local Councillors could hand out to those people who contact us with issues. It can seems so unfair as those well behaved and hard working families can be short changed at the expense of others. When it boils down to it, we need to be increasing our quality housing stock. This will indeed be an upcoming challenge in financially difficult times. The proposed solution I worked with officers on wasn’t the best, but at least I hope that this young family will soon be moving out of their tower block.

Another challenging piece of casework this week was an elderly lady who had an outstanding debt with the council. On going back to the start of the issue, I found that this debt had started back in 1989! On reflection and discussion with the legal department at the Council, I suggested that this debt wasn’t actually the elderly lady’s but rather her sons. As such, she should not be worrying herself to make monthly payments out of her meagre pension. We need to make sure that we look after our senior citizens, as they looked after us.

Thursday evening was taken up with Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel at the Civic Centre. The issues we discussed included the setting up of the new arrangements post Primary Care Trust; the impact of the recent ruling on the Heart Unit at the General; feedback on the recent inspections by the care Quality Commission into care in Hampshire; and the failure of the care commissioners in Southampton to effectively provide quality neurological rehabilitation – in my opinion this was not a failure of the staff, but of the commissioners. If an issue has been identified in care provision I would expect the change to take place in weeks if not days; sadly on this issue it is more like months and years. Very concerning.

On Saturday morning Team Millbrook were out and about door knocking in Regents Park. There are about 6,000 properties in Millbrook, but we are making personal calls every weekend to talk to you and hand deliver our leaflets as well.

One of our more recent comments on the doorstep has been the smell which can permeate the air. As you know it was particularly bad this summer and into our mild autumn. You will be pleased to know that both of your Labour Councillors for Millbrook will be visiting the Millbrook Wastewater and Treatment Works on the 7^th December 2011 to make strong representation on the impact it has on our community. As I understand it, Southern Water will be making considerable investment in the plant over the coming months, but I will be making sure that this is not at the detriment of the businesses and residents of Millbrook.

Yesterday afternoon, I also found out about the latest local Conservatives wheeze – using the politics of fear to campaign in the local elections. They want to save local Sure Start schemes. What a good idea that everyone can support. Couple of issues though:

·         They are the party in control of the council, so they are the only ones who can close them down (as the Tories have done in the rest of Hampshire);

·         They claim these cuts are inevitable, as Labour will slash jobs at the Council (we weren’t the ones who sacked 400, saying it would protect others and then went on to announce another 217 cut);

·         If they are campaigning to save Sure Start now, does this mean they believe they will lose next the election in May already? A change in party or central government diktat being the only way the centres could close if they aren’t the ones doing it...

·         When David Cameron came to Hampshire last, he made three pledges on education: maintain the Building Schools for the Future Fund (scrapped), keep the Educational Maintenance Allowance (stopped) and save all Sure Start schemes. They only have one pledge left...

There may have been failings during the last Labour Government, but one of the successes was the creation of Sure Start. Cuts in funding from central government to local authorities in England has led to fears that up to 250 Sure Start centres will close in 2011.^[11] Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Conservative Michael Gove has admitted that funding for Sure Start has not been protected,^[12] . A number of local councils have announced cuts to their Sure Start budgets and ministers have said they want to refocus the scheme to help the most disadvantaged families.^[14]

11. ^ ^{a b} Closure threat to '250 children's centres' BBC News, 28 January 2011

12. ^ 250 Sure Start centres 'could close within a year' The Telegraph, 28 January 2011

14. ^ ^{a b} Parent threatens action over Sure Start closure plan BBC News, 24 March 2011

So, they campaign to save something they control. Very sad to see something as precious as Sure Start being used as a political football.

And lastly this morning I am going to the Civic Centre for the Remembrance Sunday service. Both myself and Councillor Furnell will be there representing Millbrook, at this most important and solemn occasion. A time of personal reflection, as both of my parents served as did my grandparents. We will remember.

After the service, it is then onto meet a number of the candidates who are working to secure the Millbrook nomination for Labour candidate next year. The panel includes a number of interesting characters: a trainee reporter, a former parliamentary candidate, former senior member of Southampton City Council, and a number of local activists. There’s a lot going on at the moment...

Free Furniture

If you are a charity or not for profit organisation in Southampton and need cupboards and cabinets etc for your group please contact Loretta Emery, Recycling Officer, Southampton City Council on Loretta.emery@Southampton.gov.uk

The University of Southampton also has office furniture to give away to local community groups and charities. All the furniture must be cleared quickly as space is needed. Please contact Mike Pack at the University of Southampton mariap@soton.ac.uk for more information.

Highlights and lowlights

This week’s update in the life of a new father and recently elected councillor. Highlight of the week so far would be one of my tweets being re-tweeted to over 7,000 people - I was merely wondering why a number of Government Ministers find it necessary to file private letters in dustbins? Perhaps it is part of a secret keep Britain tidy campaign that the rest of us aren’t aware of? The lowlight of the week would’ve come this morning out door knocking in Millbrook – “You’re knocking my door on a Sunday..!” – I must admit I was at a loss to work out when i should be knocking that particular door. At least with the continued commitment to weekend activities, fewer and fewer constituents are commenting that they never see us. Indeed we now have a considerable number of friendly faces who are always happy to have a good chinwag with us!

Just a quick comment on the recent M5 motorway accident – thoughts go out to the families, friends and all involved in responding to the events. I certainly hope that Philip Hammond, Transport Secretary drops his plans for increasing the motorway speed limits. There needs to be a proper debate on motorway safety, but more importantly the standards of driving in our country and our city. I only hope that we can increase the number of safety cameras and debate how to maintain safe standards of driving.

Rambling on, a few weeks ago a van had broken down on the Romsey Road, near the junction of Green Lane on a Friday night. Cars were struggling to drive around the broken down obstacle – but the Van driver did have his hazard lights on. As cars whizzed along, horns blaring, nobody stopped to ask if the driver and passenger needed any help. Turns out that it was a disabled driver whose car electrics had shorted out. I offered my help, but what concerned me the most was the middle aged man behind me who launched a foul mouthed tirade because I had the audacity to get out of my car to help a stranded motorist. What a very sad state of affairs, when you can’t even get out of your car to help a fellow human being without being verbally attacked.

Last Monday, for those not following my Twitter updates @asaspacey, I attended a briefing on the tidal flooding risk to the city. The main points to take from it was that there is no need to panic now, but that we will need to put in place defences so that in twenty, forty and a hundred years time our city will be able to cope with rising sea levels. Interesting points from the meeting:

·         The council keeps its weather and tidal flooding response documents separate!

·         From the west of the city, Millbrook, Redbridge, all four Labour Councillors were in attendance. Only one from Freemantle arrived.

·         My favourite Tory quote from the evening: “Isn’t this all a bit pointless, as the sea levels aren’t necessarily rising. More chance of an ice age, isn’t there?”

Perhaps at the next full council, I will table a question on what the council’s response to the coming ice age will be!?!?!?!

On Thursday I attended a Labour Group Officers meeting as was able to catch up with developments, both political (manifesto & budget plans) and the personal (Councillor Bogle gave birth to a baby girl). It was good to have a chat to Councillors Stevens and Rayment, and talk about plans for the future. The group is feeling quite positive about the future and I am excited about the release of our manifesto in the near future. I am fed up of being attacked by Conservatives, when it is they who should be defending their decisions. On a more humorous note, that means that since May 2010, Labour Party Baby’s 2, Other Party’s 0.

And so this morning team Millbrook were out door knocking again. As you know, we are out every weekend, working hard for you. So after publishing this week’s blog, it’s off to go and change a nappy. Perhaps this will be a new lowlight of the week? I doubt it; spending time with my new daughter and family – a real highlight!

p.s. Well done to the local policing teams Operation Fawkes over the past few nights. Certainly fewer incidents of ASB in my road.