Weathers looking a bit better.

On Monday ward members from Freemantle, Shirley and Millbrook came together to discuss a joined up approach to problems which affected our wards. It combined looking at the physical problems which blight our communities alongside some of the political issues as well. Coming together like this to tackle common issues was really good and together we can move forward the agenda in a proactive rather than reactive way. My thanks to the Freemantle Dave's and Councillors Furnell, Kaur and Shields. 

Looking forward to the introduction of new radios for our Civil Enforcement teams, something which is long overdue as is the introduction of body worn video to aid in the recording of crimes and to mitigate the 200+ incidents of attacks on our enforcement staff each and every year. We must all make sure that our frontline teams have the tools to do get the job done.

 

Strange, the things you find at work!

Investigating the state of white lines across our city - I don't know what your thoughts are but I know in some areas you often have to navigate our roads by guess work. The Millbrook Road into the city centre being a prime example; if there wasn’t patchwork from previous roadworks, you wouldn’t really have a boundary between fast moving lanes. I am investigating where the liability for this work lies, but ultimately I want to see a push on getting our road markings up to speed.

 

At Cabinet on Tuesday, we agreed the following:

 

Smart ticketing has moved closer, which is where customers buy tickets for journeys interchangeable between bus/and or ferry companies in the Solent region. In short, one ticket covers your trip. Cabinet agreed to put the scheme out to tender. Funding is coming from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund at the Department for Transport.

 

We’ve taken delivery of £2.47m funding from the Department for Transport to go alongside £1.72m SCC capital cash to fix and maintain bridges across the city. The scheme is dubbed Bridges to Prosperity. We’ve also received £472k from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to prevent flooding in the low-lying St Denys district.  

 

Allocated £134k of children’s services capital funding and Section 106 cash to drain three sports pitches next to Oasis Academy Lordshill. A fourth pitch will also have drainage works if a £50k bid to Sport England succeeds.

 

We also allocated £429k to be spent on improving car parks on the city’s council estates. And a conservation area management plan for the Carlton Crescent district has been approved, giving the area greater protection from unsympathetic planning applications.



Out on the trail with Dave and Georgie

Wednesday saw me attend the Waste Transformation Strategic Board or as I like to call it, the meeting where stuff gets decided about the bins and that. The main message to promote is that we are on track to start glass recycling from October. And going beyond that I have asked for a formal timeline chart and matching communications plan. We have some good news stories coming up over the winter / spring months: new localised glass recycling points, collections from flats, collections from houses, launch of our new mobile app, launch of the recycling reward scheme (at a 20th of the cost of the Tories’ scheme) as well as a fleet of new vehicles. Oh and before I forget we are revamping our communications around those people who seemed to have missed the fact we've gone to a paid garden waste service, albeit 8,400 people didn't (current take up numbers).

On going discussions with residents and the Cabinet on the implementation of both the evening charges and the charge for administering the parking permits. I am looking at what flexibility there is within the budget envelope to allow as low an impact as we can get for our evening charges. I do appreciate that it will have some impact on residents and businesses. This is the financial reality of government cuts. In terms of the parking permit costs, I remain resolute that 8p per day is an acceptable charge and that considering it costs £260,000 to run the scheme, only recovering half of the charge (£130,000) is more than fair.

 

Councillors Noon, Letts and Bogle campaigning in Woolston.
There were Ice Cream Vans and a Beach!

On Sunday I trekked over to the other side of the city...to help the campaign in Woolston. Things remain positive in the area building on a sound legacy and good constituent work. However, it is strange to see former Tory voters now saying that they'll be switching to UKIP. It could be an interesting night for the voters of Woolston and Weston!

Other issues in the mix include bus stops, the docklands consultative forum and waste water treatment sites.

Personal Touch

 

Apologies for the delay in getting last weeks round up to you. This week I have mostly been:

 

Analysing the changes proposed by First Bus - formally the biggest users of our public subsidy. I can reaffirm that for our evening routes, only three roads will see a loss of service. These are Somerset Avenue (Harefield) and Butts & Botley Road (Weston). For a saving of £392,000 for the public purse, I would suggest that this is a considerable result. To confirm, this also means that there will be an evening bus running from the General Hospital into Portswood. There are some changes to the Sunday schedules, but the positive news is that I would estimate 85% of the network would be unchanged. Commitments made on a use it or lose it basis, include the Bitterne Hoppa, the combined S1 & S2 (which services Freemantle, Millbrook, Shirley and Coxford) and the new W1 service from the new Wheelers Bus Company. The W1 service will run between Romsey and Southampton with a diversion along Highfield Lane and Westwood Road before carrying on down the avenue.

 

We held our first informal Cabinet session as the new Cabinet. I get a new feeling in this Cabinet and I look forward to working with a very experienced group of individuals who can deliver for this city in a new style, whilst nodding to the direction Richard set.

 

Briefed on the plans for the redevelopment of the Cedar School, right on the very edge of our city. Many of the children who attend have complex Special Educational Needs that result in the need for a different approach to their education. Whilst Bitterne Park School have been devastated by the loss of central government money, the Cedar School has been given funding. There is a public consultation taking place on Wednesday 22nd May (SO16 0XN).

 

At Full Council on Wednesday, I was proud to introduce a 20 mph pilot scheme for Millbrook and Maybush. This is something which the Tories had talked up as something which they were going to implement, but curious as there were no plans for this shown to me by officers when I became Cabinet Member a year ago. Cue lots of thrashing around from the Tory front bench, but to be honest I think they have to hold their hands up on this one and say that with everything else going on, they didn’t manage to bring this in. Anything less is a little bit naughty. You should've received a letter in the post from the Council asking you opinion on it - I know I got mine on Saturday morning! There will be a public consultation event will take place from 4pm on Thursday 30th May, at the MP3 Centre on Evenlode Road. Hope to see you there.

 

Another item for debate at Council was the introduction of the administration charge for parking permits. I do feel that a charge of 8p a day is a fair reflection for the implementation of a parking scheme. £30 per year compared to £40 in Wiltshire or £50 in Bournemouth or £100 in Bath seems like a common sense approach. However, the opposition seized on this issue decrying aberration and horror; albeit without working out how to balance the £130,000 gap left by not bringing in this scheme. It is strange to see them criticising the local council for "placing more burden on local taxpayers" whilst sitting silently by as their government heaps misery on millions across our country. We as a group of Councillors had the opportunity to change to motion, to make it more palatable to us, but we decided to hold our hands up and admit that we brought it in and we did so to re-coup money as other councils of all colours have done up and down England.

 

One of the high points of the Council meeting was introducing another report following a successful bid by officers from the Environment and Transport Portfolio. It was another multi-million pound success, this time to deal with the backlog of maintenance of our major bridges - It’s a bit bureaucratic but every time we win some substantial amounts of cash, we need to get Council to agree to accept it. These are opportunities for grandstanding over opponents and pointing out the differences in bids etc, but I have found that the best way to present these reports is to be magnanimous and praise the hard working officers who obtain this money for us.

 

Thursday saw the Chairman's briefing of Transport for South Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, or TfSH as we call it. The agenda saw discussions of the business plan for the upcoming two year period, smart ticketing and setting up of the Local Transport Board; which will be shortly dealing out some considerable finance to the region. With changes to elected representations, myself and Councillor Fazacerly from Portsmouth remain, whilst we welcome Councillor Woodward from Fareham and an unconfirmed independent from the Island. The good news is that I should be named as TfSH chair at the next meeting, and prudently as vice-chair for the LTB. Fingers crossed for more positive announcements in the future.

 

The highlight of Friday afternoon saw me having a conversation with the two senior managers in Children's Services over the state of their Performance Framework. Not wanting to tread on any other Cabinet Members toes, but this was a request made by Richard last month. Suffice to say that I wasn't surprised at the state of information within the department, given my experience as a performance professional within a number of public sector surroundings. Its not the worst by a long stretch, but there is certainly room for improvement. I have offered some advice as how to improve reports to our Corporate parenting meetings and I have offered my services to the team as a volunteer with considerable performance framework development skills. See, Councillors can be useful.

 

Late afternoon, I went to Regents park to talk to residents about a planning application to extend car servicing hours on an industrial estate just behind some homes. I'm all for supporting business in Southampton and attracting investment and jobs to the city, but it must be at a cost which the local population can afford. Having the sound cars revving and pneumatic drills going from seven in the morning until seven at night, seven days a week just isn't on really. So there I was in my shirt and tie, hand delivering letters to all 57 properties in the road before my meeting with residents. That is the personal touch.

 

Before I forget, last week someone wrote in to ask about the quality of road markings. I agree, in places they don't seem to be up to scratch. Therefore I have asked balfour beatty what is going on and am looking to see what we can do to improve the situation. Watch this space!

We move forward, together.

The past two weeks have been a difficult time for me as a politician. And by politician I mean someone active in politics. When Richard Williams stepped down as both Leader and Councillor, this city lost a visionary. He was our political compass. He was my friend.

I only came into politics a little under three years ago. With two years to go until the next election, I am also two years into my term as a Councillor of Millbrook. Richard sought to develop me, and to give me an opportunity to deliver for our city. He was a fair man who had a collaborative way of leading.

I will miss him.

Now our Labour Group of Councillors will move forward, together. Our new Leader, Councillor Simon Letts has confirmed that he plans for me to continue as Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport. And Councillor Stephen Barnes-Andrews will serve as his Deputy Leader. A new leadership team to deliver for our city.

Over the past two weeks, work has still continued and key meetings have included:

Attending a meeting hosted by Oxbow over the development of a Sulphur Plant in the Docks. I then hosted a public meeting on the same subject on the following Wednesday. The position is a difficult one, but as usual I won't shy away from those difficult decisions. The problem arises because of three key issues:

a. Officers looked at the criteria for taking the decision without wide consultation. It met that criteria. Even with the public outcry over the Biomass proposals, they only thought to consult the three Freemantle Councillors at the time.

b. Those Freemantle Councillors did not respond to the original consultation.

c. No officer or opposition member though to tell the new administration about these plans.

So now we find ourselves with a Sulphur Plant with planning permission in our docks. The permission was already granted. Oxbow have now essentially come back with a more environmentally friendly proposal - but as I said in the public meeting, having a Sulphur Plant in an area which suffers from poor air quality is not exactly a great idea. The choice which the planning panel has is whether to block improvements to a plan which already has approval.

My hope is that our plans for a new Consultative Forum for any future developments within the docks can take shape. We have moved on considerably as a city from the times where everyone living in Millbrook and Freemantle would excuse any impacts from the docks because they worked or had family which worked in the docks. I accept that our city's fortunes are linked to that of the Docks, but we cannot have progress at any cost. We must, move forward together (sensing a theme yet?).

Other items of interest:

• Trying to get access to our walls for our local Tourist Guide Association;

• Received an exciting update on a new App for smartphones, ipads and alike. My aim to get an exceptionally low cost, high quality, beautifully looking bit of software that we can role out. The previous attempts weren't up to the challenge and so this new App, designed by officers from IT, waste and communications (rather than in silos) is much more exciting.  

 

With Dave, at the Recent Maybush Tenants and Residents AGM 

• Set the strategic direction for performance management of our waste services for the next 7 years. Good to see that my professional background can have some relevance in my role as a Councillor!

• Another briefing on the Eastern Cycle Corridor. My view is simple in that if we are serious about getting more people onto bikes, then we must push the boundaries more than we have in the past.

• Caught up with Officers on our 20mph pilot scheme; with thanks to Redbridge Councillor Pope for his inputs. looking forward to Full Council on Wednesday to formally announce details.

• Met with the Head of PR for National Express, the Chief Operating Officer of Southampton Football Club and selected a new Leader!

Before I sign off, I just want to reiterate that if anyone has any questions for me, that I'm always happy to have a chat by phone or meet with you at the Civic Centre or at a convenient place of your choice. Alternatively, if you're brave enough, you can always post questions on my blog! Then the whole world can see your questions and my answers.

Must dash, off to door knock in the best ward in the city!