Posts from — October 2006

Had a good meeting this morning about an area between Fisherwick and Elford which has been quarried since the 1960s but has been dormant for the last 15 or so years.

Over recent years its turned into a beautiful, almost, nature reserve with the old quarry holes turning into stunningly attractive lakes. A new company bought the site, last year I think, and part of the original planning application from the 60s requires that the site be returned to its original state.

That means filling in the lakes with something called fly-ash and generally, it seems to me, ruining what is a really great wildlife haven. Anyway, there has been rather tense communications going on between the County regulators, a growing and very capable group of residents with a very large petition and the new owners. I’ve been a bit on the sidelines of this with so much other stuff going on so I decided to invite all parties to County Buildings to catch up with where we are and basically explain to me what the key stumbling blocks are.

We met in the, rather grand, Oak Room as it does tend to focus the mind for visitors and as I said earlier it was a good meeting. Had about an hour and a half and we’ve reached agreement that all sides will aim for the outcomes proposed by English Nature.

That’s actually a much bigger ‘give’ from the company’s point of view than anyone else. It means keeping much of the habitat exactly as it is. My only slight concern is making sure, on the ground, that it happens as there is still serious quarrying and work going on in other areas of the site.

I’m going to push for a specialist consultant to be on hand during the time that the restoration work begins. Hopefully the company will pay for that (I think we are starting to push the bounds a bit with that) although if they refuse point blank I’ll find some money from my own funding scheme to help.  

Had a really surprising outcome to a meeting with Birmingham City Council today…..Shortly after my election to County in 2005 I met a group of local people from Elford village, near Tamworth. Its a pleasant and leafy part of the world with few serious problems (apart from speeding traffic which is proving tough to police) and a great community atmosphere. Their Christmas Market is something to behold!

Anyway, they first contacted me about a project to restore an ancient walled garden. The problem was, however, that Birmingham City Council, who were bequeathed much of Elford including the Gardens, just wouldn’t talk to them seriously. They’d been trying for over a year previously.

I managed to throw my ‘two penneth’ in to the pot and luckily Birmingham started to talk seriously. Many meetings later and twelve months down the line Birmingham agreed in principle today to the restoration scheme.

The group is led by a police inspector and a semi-retired building engineer who both live in the village. Part of the scheme is quite controversial because it involves using inmates from Swinfen young offenders’ prison to do some of the hard work in an effort to rehabilitate them. There has been real problems in the village with that aspect although the resultant public meeting saw a 4 to 1 vote in favour.

Looking at the situation and the size of the project ahead, normally I would say it will never actually happen. Seeing the projects this group have done in the village before and their attitude, I bet it does!

Feels good that I’ve been able to help along what appeared to be a stalled situation a year ago.  

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Was due to spend most of the day in meetings to be told how the controlling Labour Party are going to spend the billion pound plus budget for 2007/08.

Stomached it for about an hour and decided that as it was a foregone conclusion and, in my opinion, a disaster, I’d go and do some constituency work instead. I don’t know whether it is a blind spot or what it is, but the County could save millions of pounds each year if they only took seriously reducing the 35,000 strong size of the organisation and used technology, like other Authorities are now doing, to maintain front line services but cut out bureaucracy.

I’m really frustrated that our Opposition Group at County know how to stem this ever growing financial black hole in Staffordshire but we don’t have the power to do it. We’ve already this year got Labour’s plans for a new £49million HQ shelved (that project was just mad and so satisfying to get it stopped, particularly when an independent enquiry on it proved us absolutely right) and we’re now fighting hard to stop this Stafford Arts Space plan they have…..£20million to build it.

The publicity we’ve had on this issue is huge. Its been a really successful campaign and I know privately, and in several cases publicly, that many of the Labour backbenchers would love to see the back of it. I think they are quite shocked at the amount of publicity we have created and the public support we have had in opposing it. 

The decision on whether to continue with the Arts Centre plans will be influenced (or should be!) by a Scrutiny Committee meeting on the afternoon of 31st Nov. At the last meeting like that, three Labour Members agreed it was a waste of money. It’ll be interesting to see if they stick with that view or follow the Party whip……..the latter I fear although I remain convinced that Terry Dix, the County Leader, doesn’t really want this thing either.

He, however, is giving up the leadership of the County Labour Party so it remains to be seen how the jockeying for position on that front pans out.  

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Wow, what a great bunch of people; sixteen at the meeting I mentioned in my previous entry. Recognised quite a few of them and although I’d heard of the Community First Responder scheme I’d no idea how utterly professional it all is. Fully uniformed and trained to pretty well the same standard as an ambulance technician, but all volunteers, doing it for the good of the community.

Their problem seems to stem from this forced merger between the West Midlands Ambulance Service and Staffordshire Ambulance Service. This is the one where we thought public pressure had delayed the merger but the Government are doing it despite what they promised. Just that they’re doing it quietly!!

Out of the blue, the West Midlands Ambulance Service have ordered the 22 CFR groups across Staffordshire to stop administering 7 really important drugs and also banned the use of something called a ResQpod. All on safety grounds, despite the fact that the same kit is being used by CFR groups in other Counties across the UK and all over the US with no problems.

The group are really upset (genuinely) because they’ve actually saved lives using these now-banned drugs. They feel they’ll be called out to emergencies without the drugs or equipment to do the job. I’m told the Rescue Pod device hugely increases the chance of surviving a heart attack by increasing the blood flow and oxygen to the vital organs. Why ban it if not on cost?

Michael Fabricant, Lichfield’s MP, was also there. We agreed that the drugs and Rescue Pod ban in Staffordshire was probably down to the fact that West Midlands Ambulance Service don’t have Community First Responders because they’re in such a mess they can’t afford to train them.

Of course, part of the merger criteria is that the West Midlands improve their performance to the level of Staffordshire. Actually, what they seem to be doing is to reduce Staffordshire’s performance to meet their lower level. The CFRs were really effective and so the emergency response times in Staffordshire were much better.

Anyway, Michael is going to ask some Parliamentary questions, I’ll arrange for questions to be put to the Labour Cabinet Member responsible for Health at the County Council and we’ll both start to work on raising this issue publicly.

Ok, I’ve woken up a bit since my earlier entry so let’s see if I can get through some of these e-mails now. I’ve got meetings from 8.30am on Monday and I really don’t fancy getting up at 6 to do them all then!

Sitting here trying to decide where on Earth to start today!

Wondering whether the e-Gov conference I attended Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was really worth it looking at my desk now. Can’t believe I spent hours on Tuesday clearing my e-mails to find today I’ve got another 173 now I’m back.

Saw the piles of post when I got home last night………couldn’t face it then and can’t face it now. Its Saturday and I’m tired………I think I’ll get an early start with it Monday instead.

Anyway, at 12 o’clock today I’m meeting a group of Community First Responders from Whittington village. CFRs are volunteers who are trained by the Ambulance Service and act a bit like the part time lifeboat crews. They do it on a rota basis and because they cover the area they live in they can get to emergencies much quicker than the normal ambulance.

They are furious over the Authorities deciding to reduce the level of medical help they are allowed to administer. Don’t know much more than that but hopefully will later. Better Google for some more info on how it all works and then get going.