Posts from — February 2007

The welcome I received at Coton Green Football Club in Fazeley the other evening was tremendous. I’d been invited along by the management committee to watch a presentation on how the club is growing and also listen to some problems they have with crime and vandalism.

Despite the problems, club members and players are enjoying the impressive new changing areas and meeting room facilities that were built at a cost of nearly £350,000 in 2005.

The club have 11 teams in total including three under 8s to 10s, five junior 11a sides and three adult teams totalling 167 players. So it’s a big operation now.

I was also impressed with the ethos around standards of behaviour and they’ve got some big ideas for the future. One of the key areas they want to expand is links with the community around them. That’s just what I like to hear and I will be helping them out with some funding from my County Members’ funding scheme in an effort to improve security for the club.

On another positive note I understand from police that the perpetrator(s) of the criminal damage and vandalism are now under lock and key…..I hope they stay that way for some time!

It was a lovely gesture by the club to present me with an engraved plaque to commemorate my visit as well.

Both Coton Green FC and Bellgrave Bullets FC in Mile Oak are keen to expand their clubs and I’m keen to see if any cooperation or collaboration can be looked at. The geographical locations of the two clubs mean they serve two distinct communities which works very well. When it come to the expansion of both clubs however I think they are likely to need to work in partnership to make things happen.

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Seven months ago players at the village cricket club in Wall were devastated by an act of total and unmitigated stupidity when their pavilion was burned to the ground in the middle of the night. No idea why or by who.

Wall’s a small club and at the time it looked as if it might have been the end of the road. But things are beginning to look up. There’s a little bit of money in the pot and some more agreed through grant funding. The club has also been given, free of charge, a large modular portacabin to use as a pavilion.

There are some problems though. Negotiations have been ongoing for some time about a new lease for the land the club uses. That needs to happen fast before a lot of time and effort goes into providing new equipment and facilities which could be wasted if the new lease isn’t forthcoming. Then there’s the planning permission, money to properly fit out the new structure and the logistical problem, if everything else goes to plan, of getting the four heavy modules of the new building into position with no access big enough from the road.

But despite all the problems when I visited the club today the mood was buoyant with club members of all ages working hard to clear the burned out remains of the old pavilion. Jason Dyche, one of the players, is the guy who originally contacted me for some help and hopefully, now things are moving, I can do my bit. So, over the next few days I’ll be talking with the landowner, doing some work around the planning permission and asking County Highways if they can come up with a way of finding access to the site for large lorries.

The season begins in ten weeks time so the clock starts now!

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I wrote eight weeks ago that I’d agreed the refurbishment of the cafe on the ground floor of the Garrick Theatre. It’s the latest change to be made since I took over political responsibility for the venue along with a new management team last April.

Well, the new Green Room cafe/bar opened last week and I’m delighted to say is doing a roaring trade. I’ve also just had the latest figures for the last quarter’s ticket sales and general trade and thankfully it’s all still on track for a staggering improvement on twelve months ago.

The pantomime from Christmas 2005, prior to the new team taking over, didn’t have any ’sell out’ performances but the pantomime just finished saw 44 out of the 52 shows sold out. Add that to the success of the Friday night jazz and the indications from the new Green Room so far and April’s end of year financial performance predicted in January should be about spot on.

I’m confident the Garrick will be back well within budget by this time next year and my ultimate goal is to make the venue cost neutral for Lichfield taxpayers. Anyway, things are going well and I’m delighted.

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The County’s plans for care home closures have been hugely controversial. It’s also caused big difficulties for our Conservative Group at County. Why?

Because there is massive public opinion against any care home closures and yet the status quo is unaffordable with our increasingly elderly population. And then there’s the appalling financial circumstances at the County Council. So we’ve had Politics to deal with and we’ve had to tread a fine line in making sure we are being responsible in opposition.

This whole issue has been going on for months now but the detailed plans on what care provision lies the other side of Labour’s closures have not been made clear and, in any case, have been changed gradually and, more recently, dramatically. At meetings I attended last week I was shocked that even senior care managers weren’t clear, or confident, about the future.

Discussions on where we stand as a Political Group continued early last Monday morning when we had our preparation meeting ready for Thursday’s vote on care provision at full County Council. Even our own political group meeting was tough. Care for the elderly is a hugely emotive subject, as you can see from the demonstrators outside County Buildings. But, it is vital for us to make sure people understand it is many years of poor political leadership by Labour at the County Council which lies behind all the previous and current problems. Our stance on care provision is actually quite straight forward; we believe in the principle of giving vulnerable people more choice to stay in their own houses whilst ensuring that tens of millions of pounds of public money each year is spent more efficiently.

It’s the way Labour are trying to deliver the changes which is entirely the problem. Originally, changes in the way care provision is provided were going to be phased in over six years but because of the County’s dire financial problems the Labour administration have tried to cram it all into less than two. It’s our view that it can’t be done by 2008 without causing terrible worry, and worse, to frail and elderly people already in public sector care homes.

So, our Political Group meeting was heated and difficult. We did, however, agree a position which would hopefully support the overall principle of change, illustrate Labour’s monumental mismanagement of tens of billions of pounds of public money in Staffordshire over the last decade and, most importantly, try to force a stay of execution to care home closures in order to take stock, consult better and make much clearer what provision will look like for respite help and day care amongst other things.

Thursday morning came and all Members arriving at County Buildings were greeted by chanting crowds, police escorts and some abuse regardless of Party or position. Full County Council is always tense because the tradition and history of County Buildings and the County Chamber is so atmospheric. Last Thursday, because of the key vote, was even more electric.

I’d spent over an hour, prior to setting out from home, making notes for three areas on the day’s agenda where I planned to speak. By the time I settled in my normal place on the plush blue leather benches in the County Chamber I was completely convinced (as usual) I wouldn’t remember a word of what I’d decided to say.

There was a strange excitement mixed with anticipation all set against the chanting of several hundred people outside. All the normal tradition and preamble of full County Council seemed to be a mere anticipation of what was to come. Important (and expensive) decisions are regularly made in the County Chamber but not normally with an overflowing and noisy public gallery, media tables completely full and television cameras filming crowds of noisy protesters outside. It was just different to normal.

So, to cut to the chase….. we finally got to the item called MTFS which stands for Medium Term Financial Strategy. Sounds very boring but actually it is the item which required debate on this year’s County budget, council tax setting and, of course, deciding on the future of care homes in Staffordshire.

There were, I think, 31 speakers during the debate on MTFS, mainly around care homes. Philip Atkins, the Leader of the Conservative Group spoke first for our side. I must say he was superb. He spoke eloquently and yet passionately. The combined faces on the Labour benches were a picture. I’ve never seen them look so worried or even bemused. Phil’s speech secured the first round of applause from the public gallery followed by rebuffs to them from the County Chairman to keep quiet.

After a couple of Labour speakers I was number four on. Speaking in the County Chamber is a real privilege and, as always, I ended up not following the notes I made earlier that morning. Something just switches on and all the things I thought I’d forget came out in reasonable order which left a satisfying but slightly relieved feeling when my speech finished. The second round of applause and shouts from the public which my efforts earned led to a further warning from the Chairman that he would have the public gallery cleared.

Most of the debate in the Chamber was excellent. Labour’s Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health performed valiantly despite the barracking from the public gallery, the onslaught from our side and the fact I believe her position on this has been made impossible by the bigger and disastrous financial picture Labour have inflicted upon themselves and Staffordshire tax payers over the years. Easy statement to make about the controlling Labour Administration but I’ve been at County 20 months now and I’m shocked at how bad it is!

Even though a lot of Labour backbenchers had chosen to defy their whip and stay away, Conservatives were still just in the minority. That said, it was apparent by earlier speeches from the Labour benches that all was not well on their side. More and more messages were being passed along the Labour benches in an attempt to to whip their Members into towing the Party line. Just before it came to the vote, Labour Members huddled feverishly and an amendment and personal undertaking by Labour’s Deputy Leader was forthcoming.

The undertaking was that those in a public sector care home would not be forced to leave and the amendment was to remove the absolute deadline of 2008 to close all the homes. My side would have liked a little more clarity in the amendment and with that in mind we tried to push it a little further. But Labour have the majority and did enough to bring their rebels back on side, just. We lost the vote by one and the amendment went through.

So now the axe hovering over care homes in 2008 has been lifted and a clear undertaking from Labour’s probable Leader-in-waiting achieved what was needed. More consultation will take place and enough pressure has now been applied to ensure the disastrous and unmanageable haste of recent times will be redressed.

It’s been a good week. Democracy has won through and a lot of people although still apprehensive will hopefully understand we will continue to hold Labour to account and make sure they stick to the amendment and their word. It was very satisfying personally to know that our actions made a real difference for real people.

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The District of Lichfield is heading for a massive catastrophe with a possible 21,000 more houses being forced upon us!

Now listen carefully. This is a long post by me but it is about a subject which will affect everyone who lives in Lichfield District, which includes much of the rural areas close to Tamworth. This isn’t one of those things you can say ‘it will never happen’. Six month ago I would have said that but things are heading in the wrong direction.

Six months ago when John Prescott decided to use his scatter gun or one size fits all approach to more housing, few people really believed his position of wanting a further monumental increase in house building across most of the country would be taken seriously. Think on; it has been!

Now, the whole business of strategic housing for the country and therefore Staffordshire over the next fifteen years or so is very high level and complicated. So much so that it bypasses almost all the population! As of today a report is going to the Cabinet of Labour controlled Staffordshire County Council containing recommendations which are crucial and appalling for Lichfield District!

So how does it all work? Central Government (was Mr Prescott but he got the push and it’s now Ruth Kelly) are responsible for deciding how many new houses our country needs going forwards. They look at population movement, immigration, economic regeneration and many other issues. They then propose (this government’s propositions tend to end up as ‘you will do this’) to the West Midlands Regional Assembly (that’s the unelected extra tier of regional government that was slipped in under the radar without any consultation by John Prescott a few years ago) the number of houses they want to see built in the West Midlands region.

Next in line are the region’s County Councils, Birmingham City and Stoke City as strategic planning authorities. In Staffordshire, the County Council consults with all the local councils like Lichfield, Tamworth, Cannock and others (8 in all) before making a recommendation to the West Midlands Regional Assembly on how the number of houses should be distributed throughout the local council areas. The WMRA look at all the submissions from the strategic authorities and then make a decision (despite being an unelected body) on what recommendation will go forward to Central Government on behalf of the whole region. So that is the process. One last thing on this bit. Because it is Staffordshire County Council who are providing almost all the officials to compile the WMRA submission to Central Government, I believe that our strategic authority (Staffordshire CC) will have very very significant influence on what goes forwards to Central Government.

Now to the numbers. As it stands, there are three ‘options’ for the West Midlands region. The first is 381,000 new houses, the second is 491,200 and the third (the extra one which has been added) is 575,000.

Remember, the Government’s been found out on the way its consultations are carried out this week. After challenge in the High Court, the Government were told by the judge that their consultation on another national issue was totally inadequate. The response by Government…..’despite that, our policy remains unchanged’. So that sets the scene.

Everyone in the know says that the first option (381k) is simply a token entry. Most thought that option two (491k) was favourite; now, however, the unofficial noises coming from Central Government sources are that the 575,000 is what is needed and that will be their position.

I think we need to ignore option one because, quite frankly, it’s not going to be acceptable to Central Government. Option two is still possible but, as I say, the smart money has moved firmly to option three….the big one meaning 575k. Back to who does what. Based on that option Staffordshire County would be asked to accommodate 77,900 extra houses. You can find the detailed report here.

The County Council have decided that Lichfield District can cope with 16,000 new houses. A far greater increase in numbers than any other local council in Staffordshire under what is the likely total number for the region. But wait, it gets worse. The County also propose that Tamworth Borough can accomodate 5,000 extra houses despite the fact that Tamworth BC has pretty well run out of land. And the County know that!

So where will those 5000 extra houses that Tamworth BC cannot possibly find room for go? Under the planning rules almost all of them will be required by law to come to Lichfield District. Where will they go in Lichfield District? Well there isn’t anything like enough development land so next stop is building thousands of new houses on land which is currently Green Belt.

The 16,000 houses option would be horrendous, but in reality, 21,000 new houses in Lichfield District would be staggering. Currently there are around 32,000 houses in the entire District. I trust you will also be concerned if you live in Lichfield District or simply don’t want the country’s Green Belt to be destroyed by development. Where we live may be changed beyond recognition with a possible 70% increase to the number of houses!

What do you think?

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