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.