Posts from — December 2006

Very few of the million or so people in Staffordshire know what goes on at the County Council or local councils.

Do you want to know more or doesn’t it matter?

I’m trying to persuade the County to spend a very small amount of money on webcasting some of the more important meetings.

Click here to see what a webcast from Kent County Council looks like (fast fwd through the first 60 seconds as it’s their version of titles).

Would it allow people to understand better how their money is spent and how ‘the system’ works?

Please either post a public comment below or let me know privately by clicking here.

It’s not that long since the height of the problems with a mixture of HGVs thundering through Shenstone village and a really ill-thought-out traffic calming scheme comprising of road cushions installed by the County Highways Department.

In 2006 though, after a ludicrous number of lobbying meetings and having waded knee, and sometimes neck, deep in Highways bureaucracy we finally got rid of the part of the traffic calming causing the problems with HGV noise and disturbance. As a side thought, unbelievably, a similar situation is about to be created in another part of Lichfield with the development of an industrial estate near Streethay. I know it’s national policy, which is quite mad, and I feel very sorry for local residents there!

Back to Shenstone; the other major step forwards was the relocation of Willi Betz, the ‘just in time’ automotive delivery company for Toyota, who were based in Lynne Lane. That in itself was a complex story. I first contacted them in Holland 18 months ago and actually, despite what many people thought, when the top people there learned of the problem they were genuinely concerned.

One of the really frustrating things from my point of view was the fact that for much of the time up until when Willi Betz moved out in September it looked to local people as though little was happening! Certainly I received some criticism at the last two public meetings on the subject. In reality, despite the lack of any practical legislation which could help, the 7 meetings with the company and 2 with a neighbouring Planning Authority achieved what we wanted against the odds. A very significant amount of work ‘behind the scenes’ has been undertaken on this! That said, the Save Our Shenstone group that was set up by local people were a huge help to me. As well as being able to talk through issues and ideas it was a lot easier talking to a representative group of eight than fronting, at times, aggressive public meetings of 140. So, where are we now? Well, the main source of massive lorries has gone but I’m concerned about a similar business moving in to take their place. I’m told by the owners of the freight area that there are no plans for that. Some reassurance, but who knows what may happen when the dust has settled?

I’ve arranged for Highways to undertake a traffic count along the route to the industrial estate so there’s at least an accurate baseline figure for the number of heavy vehicles using it post Willi Betz. Any sign of another big user of HGVs moving in and I’ll ask County Highways to use that information to support a TRO, or Traffic Regulation Order, to potentially severely limit the hours of use and in turn put off any user.

One thing though, the owners of the industrial estate are not entirely to blame. All they want to do is earn a living which they are quite entitled to do. It’s national planning legislation which is really to blame. As the people in Streethay will sadly find, planning law doesn’t use the common sense approach that people or village environments and massive Euro lorries don’t mix. Lichfield DC, as the local Planning Authority, is very limited in what can be done in this situation to block development which includes the use of large numbers of HGVs and County Highways, I believe, are not good at using the limited powers they have to help.

Bearing in mind what I said about the industrial estate owners, there needs to be a benefit for them to move and, with that in mind, I’m pleased to say the first of what will be several meetings has now taken place to see if there is a viable but more appropriate use for the land where the freight terminal is. That first meeting was productive in that there was goodwill on all sides. Next step is to involve some of the remaining HGV users to see if there is a way for them to look at similar options.

All sounds very positive doesn’t it? But don’t get carried away! This will not be a quick fix. There are many many hurdles in the way and significant goodwill from all involved has to be secured and maintained. We are making progress though. Looking back, Shenstone is in a better situation now with regards to HGVs than it was a year ago.

The next few months will be crucial. I’ll update on progress or otherwise as often as possible.

I blogged recently about the Life Education mobile that visits schools and teaches youngsters up to 12 years old of the dangers of things like smoking, excessive alcohol and drugs.

Last time I went to see it at Longwood School in Mile Oak. Just before Christmas I visited it in use again at Millfield School in Fazeley. My views haven’t changed……in fact, it was so impressive again I’m determined to try and help the entire programme onto a more sustainable footing.

As with many things in the public domain they are short of money and work rather hand to mouth relying on support from the Rotary Club and donations. Because funding is so uncertain they can’t plan ahead to any great degree. On the Friday before Christmas I had a meeting with John Kingslake, who is a massive supporter of the Life Ed programme, and a couple of his colleagues from Rotary.

They are truly dedicated and very determined but, quite frankly, now I’m on the inside of the County Council, it’s easy to forget how similar it is to wading through treacle when you are on the outside. They’ve been going round in circles for some considerable time and I quite understand their frustration (by the way, it can often be the same when you’re on the inside too).

What frustrates me is that, actually, despite what some think about the County in general, the people there involved with Life Ed are equally committed and determined but they too seem to be struggling to make things happen. The place is just so big. There really are Chinese walls there! I spent a considerable time phoning people within the County to try and find the right person or department to help with this. I just can’t imagine how utterly frustrating it must be trying to do it ‘cold’ from the outside.

That said, when you do find the right department, person or people they are incredibly helpful. I really believe things are moving on now and I’m hopeful of progress on Life Education in the near future. I’ve now got three different meetings lined up with key areas within the County and I’m hopeful one or two bits may fall into place. We shall see and I expect to blog some further news on this in a few weeks time.

I mentioned a while ago that I was looking forward to announcing the latest figure for the Garrick theatre in Lichfield. Well that time came this evening at the quarterly full Council meeting, and yes, I did rather enjoy it.

The financial results since the new team took over eight months ago are rather startling. Last year the Garrick cost tax payers £550,000……. which is crazy……. this year it’s on track to cost over £200,000 less. Not a bad result in just a few months. In reality, over the first twelve months, I was hoping we could stem the ever increasing losses. To have such a cataclysmic change in fortunes was welcome and a relief (and great timing!!).

The praise which was directed at me at the meeting was a bit embarrassing, firstly because it was mainly by the Labour Opposition and secondly, because actually it was a team effort. They made it sound as if it was all down to me….. it wasn’t. I played my political role and everyone else played their’s.

Adrian Jackson, the Artistic Director, has worked virtual miracles with the Garrick set up and programming and Lichfield’s Chief Exec has been her normal methodical self in making sure the specific problems (and there were many!) have been identified one by one.

My role has been to calm the ‘Politics’ for enough time for the place to start a turnaround. That said, when I was asked to take on the Garrick in addition to my other departments within Lichfield DC, I lost track of the number of ‘colleagues’ who said I was mad and told me it was unfixable.

If I’m honest that was my first reaction too. But when I really sat down and looked at the issues, and, as I said before, when I met Adrian for the first time having had a recommendation that he was the guy to help, all in all I was certain this was fixable. Adrian and I are very much on the same wavelength……. we both understand how to run a business and, of course, he also understands the Arts. So not a bad combination. Some of what was wrong was primary school stuff! That said, much of it was complicated and my experience in running my own pretty successful business between leaving school and getting involved with politics three years ago, has been invaluable. The Garrick has certainly called for some ‘gut feeling’ decision making on my part at times.

Anyway we are where we are. Things are looking up and there’s plenty more in the tank at the Garrick. What do I mean by that? Well Lichfield’s got elections coming up in May and these better results aren’t a one off for the Garrick.

I’m sure that come the end of the financial year there’ll be some even better news!!

I’m developing policy for Staffordshire County Conservative Group and I’m in need of some input about environmental stuff.

There’ve been an amazing number of visitors to this site over the last 8 weeks and they even seem to be spending some time on it, which is great. I’ve had a lot of contacts via the ‘contact’ page but very few using the ‘comments’ button.

I need your views to feed into the policy development for our County’s future. Tell me what you think:

Should we provide power via wind turbines in Staffordshire?

What do you think of road charging and tolls?

Should all new housing development meet the very top ‘green’ standards despite the high cost?

When it comes to County services…..cost or environment, which comes first?

What would Staffordshire as the ‘greenest’ county in the UK look like? What would it mean?

So come on……let’s have your views. Either leave a comment below or if you don’t want your views made public, click here.