Posts from — December 2007

Well, it’s been a busy few weeks with Christmas events. The first one I attended in my public role was in the last week of November and my last one is tomorrow. It’s been lovely and a great way to set up the Christmas break.

So, on that note, it’s time for me to wish you a very merry Christmas and successful New Year. Please click here for your Christmas card from me.

All the very best.

I had to smile when I looked at the opening page of the intranet provided for County Members. It’s a one stop shop offering everything from information on meetings to a wonderful Mapping System which gives detailed information on almost every aspect of every part of Staffordshire.

Anyway, the opening screen shows one of the current day’s press releases which the media department at County are pushing. And that’s what made me smile. A few months ago I made a private proposal in the County Chamber that public buildings in Staffordshire should fly the Union Flag 365 days of the year. I’m pleased that it got cross Party support.

Who should be ‘launching the new policy’? John Taylor, Leader of the County. Oh well, I got it started anyway!

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It’s clear to me that I don’t understand car insurance like I thought I did…. or, at least, the ‘no claims bonus’ bit of it.

I wonder if you’ve fallen into the same trap? I’ve just changed insurance companies and had, what I thought, was a simple ‘maximum’ no claims bonus to take with me. What I didn’t realise was that one insurance company’s ‘maximum’ is different to another. Perhaps I should have known, but I didn’t.

Quite frankly, it sounds like a con to me. I went to my last insurance company (the one I’ve just left) with ‘maximum’ no claims, not having claimed for ten years. The new company I’m with quoted me on the basis of maximum no claims bonus, or in their language and mine, 9 years plus.

I’ve just had my proof of no claims bonus from my previous company to forward to the new one and find I have only got 6 years to carry forward. Why? Because, despite the fact I brought 7 years no claims bonus to my last insurance company, two years ago, their ‘maximum’ no claims bonus is only 6 years. So I lost several years through no fault of my own.

Complicated, yes! So beware…. when you change to a new car insurance company, make sure their maximum no claims bonus available is the same or greater than your current one. I’m told some insurance companies have a maximum of just 4 years. So you may go to them with 7 years, stay a further 2 years claim free, then leave for another one who offers 9 but actually only have 4 to use because that was the maximum available from the previous one.

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It’s not that often in politics that things are black and white or wrong and right.

The recent news that the Government for England and Wales (not something I feel comfortable writing!) is phasing in the new police pay award but the devolved Scottish administration is paying it, as recommended, unphased from the start is plain wrong.

The job of policing all of the UK is one that I, and most I hope, value greatly. Apart from the fact it is plain unfair on English and Welsh police forces, particularly as the Scottish settlement is the one in line with the independent assessor’s pay recommendation, I want police moral to be stable in the current climate.

The terrorism threat (which in my view is often over used) is real and the very thought of police striking, if they were allowed to, suggests to me the strength of feeling. And, actually, why employ an independent pay assessment panel and then ignore its findings…. worse still when you could end up with a different (and better) award north of the border.

With the myriad of disasters recently, the Government appear to me to be well in that zone of not seeing the woood for the trees and not knowing which fights to pick and which not to! I wonder what the next thing may be…. fuel prices possibly?

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I’ve written many times over the last few months about the anti social behaviour issues in and around a cut through joining two areas of Fazeley together in my County patch.

Despite best endeavours it’s been a difficult problem to make progress on. From my own point of view I’ve always been most concerned about what people around the alleyway have had to put up with… abuse, vandalism, stuff I’m not even going to mention and general bad behaviour by groups of young people who use it as a place to hang around.

I did a consultation to get general views on what local people thought and that made the process even tougher. I was taken aback by the number of people who felt it should remain open. Even some of the locals who were suffering from the anti social behaviour were a bit averse to ‘letting the yobs win’.

I firmly believe in tackling issues head on and so in an attempt to address the cause of the problems, ie a hardcore group of young people who seem hell bent on causing grief, I asked the police to step up patrols to police the specific area more robustly.

This, I’m pleased to say, they have been doing but despite that the last few weeks have seen a fewer number, certainly, but none the less, significant incidents which really have to be stopped. So, with some mixed feelings, but with a firm belief that local people should be able to live their daily lives in peace, Homezone will be closing the alleyway early in the New Year.

I do have concerns as to whether the problems will simply move on elsewhere. That said, I’m pleased with the significantly increased efforts of the Youth Service and other agencies to engage with the more difficult young people in the area following additional funding and resources I wrote about securing a few weeks ago.

Next week also sees the new alcohol restrictions come into force so all in all I’m hopeful that progress will continue to be made at tackling the underlying problems which mean grief for so many caused by so few.

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