100 not out!

Welcome to my 100th blog! Where does the time go? It absolutely flies past. The plan was to have something already polished and pre-prepared to wow you all with. But for those of you who know me and my life at the moment, you'll understand that there isn't always enough time in the day. This morning, although feeling a bit dicky, I've fielded pfamily phonecalls, had the chief whip knock on my door and wanted to spoend time with the little 'un. This is before getting washed and dressed before going out leafleting with Georgie and Dave.

In a very quick summary:

Monday - very good meeting with Ian Hall and representatives of the Hackney Carriage Drivers. I'll be having regular meetings with these guys and listening to what they have to say. If they don't know whats going on in our city, then no one does! Also had updates on our flooding strategy, and the role of ecology within the Council.

Tuesday - Met with officers and Councillor Mintoff (Swaythling) to make a decision on the setting up of a village green. In the afternoon I held the first cabinet member chaired meeting between the council, Eastleigh and our partners in the bus companies. A real opportunity taken to make a real difference to our bus services...and change is coming...

Inside the Leader's Office

Wednesday was taken up with a very interesting and productive meeting with Councillor Mel Kendal (Conservative Deputy leader of Hampshire County Council). Last year when I met the Chief Executive for the first time I asked him what our council was doing to improve our financial situation; namely outside of cuts and increased charges, what were they doing to bring in new money? Well, the municipalisation of energy may be the way forward. We want to be able to increase recycling, and generate power at Marchwood - power which can be used to heat homes through combined heat and power and raise money through selling electricity back to the grid. This is how we can do things differently - this is how you will see change.

Meetings at Southampton University. Now that is a good looking building..!

Thursday saw me meet with the Sustainable Travel City Board and chair the meeting. This is one of our multi-agency committees that will scrutinise the spending of our government grants. Its great to have the PCT, Southampton University and partners from the third sector attending.

Friday saw me delve deeper into an unfortunate situation regarding the loss of a job at the Council. We were elected to minimise job losses. This post was axed back in February. The person affected has been handed their papers and will cease employment in October. I can only hope that the individual grasps some of the job offers that they will continue to be offer right until their last day at the Council. It's not nice, but in order to save the remaining £25 million, we will have to make choices that people will think are wrong. People will say its only a couple of grand. I know what its like to be handed redundancy papers; what that means to tell my family; the impact it has on your life. I will make sure that this person is treated with the respect that they deserve.

Friday night supporting my brother at Hampshire Disabled Cricket Teams Quiz.

We came second!

And so this morning, its off out to leaflet like much of our party across the city. Bouyed by the great results of last night; Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Aidan Burley - "...multi-cultural crap..." - the Olympics brings our country together so that we can celebrate in what makes us great. We'll celebrate those who have been able to ride horses, row boats and those who have been persecuted. We'll celebrate because they're all British.

So in signing off my 100th blog, I just want to say that I am proud to have been elected for the best ward in the city. Proud to have been elected to serve in our Council's Cabinet. Proud to be bringing about different solutions to problems not of our causing. Our city will prevail, and prevail inspite of a Tory-led Government, not because of it.