Posts from — January 2008

My mother lives in the middle of the Dales National Park in North Yorkshire. A beautiful part of the world but boy, when it’s cold it is really cold.

We’ve just arrived for a two day visit to her in West Witton with the temperature down at minus two, the snow falling at quite a rate and me wondering how we’ll get back if there’s no let up. It’s a long time since I’ve seen weather like this and it’s got a different feel to when it snows at home in southern Staffordshire.

The odd occassions we have snow there, no matter how fast it comes down, we all know it’ll have turned to a slushy mess the next morning. Looking outside towards the village as I type this post I don’t think this snow will be gone by morning!!

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It’s all too easy to say it was bad record keeping or a mistake. With the privilege an MP enjoys comes the consequence of needing to be beyond reproach. No ifs, no buts as they say on the benefit fraud advert, you get it that wrong, you go.

Whilst some Tories are rushing around making excuses for Mr Conway’s position and saying what a great MP he is, David Cameron did take action by removing the Whip. The fact that some others were offering their support to Mr Conway embarrasses me and makes me question how ‘connected’ with real life those MPs really are.

I’m tired of his ‘colleagues’ being asked if he should resign the Seat and simply saying “it is up to Mr Conway”. Those who say that risk further alienating normal people in this country and, yet again, devaluing our democratic system. Whatever the details of Mr Conway’s debacle, the perception for the people that matter, the electorate, is that if this happened in almost any other walk of life…. he would be sacked.

Now, my view is that the ballot box is the only thing to forcibly remove anyone in elected office in this country. An MP should, however, have the guts and awareness to know when it’s time to avoid bringing our democratic system further into disrepute. If he hasn’t got the foresight to see what this looks like to others, his colleagues should stop sitting on the fence by treating this issue as though it were a gentlemens’ club. They must tell him he should go…. now!

I’m utterly fed up with some in public life ot being accountable or thinking they are above scrutiny. It’s time for all parliamentarians to join the 21st century and open to the same (or more) scrutiny others who use public money have!

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As the fallout from the Government’s financial settlement to Lichfield District Council becomes clearer, the more it is apparent it’s unsustainable.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the stark contrast between Labour run Staffordshire County’s very generous (increase of more than twice the rate of inflation…. about 23%) three year settlement and Lichfield DC’s which, over the three years, increases by just under half the inflation figure, a little over 3%.

The scenario appears to be the same across the country to varying degrees. All local district and borough councils have been hammered hard but some, like Lichfield DC, fair even worse because of being low council tax charging councils. Just for the record, Lichfield District Council’s part of the council tax bill (only about 9% of the total charge with most of the rest going to County) is well below the national average.

For example, Cannock Chase District Council, which borders Lichfield, charge a staggering 50% more than LDC for the same band of property. On a Band D, Cannock’s charge is about £170 whilst Lichfield DC’s is only £118. That’s about a million pounds more in council tax received each year for Cannock than for Lichfield. Each 1% of council tax increase in Lichfield equals about £40,000 in the pot. If you do the maths that million quid of Cannock’s would equate to a whopping 25% extra on council tax in Lichfield District.

At a meeting this week even Tony Brookes, the Labour Group Leader at LDC, had to concede that Lichfield District Council is a ‘victim of its own success’ because of charging such a low council tax. Normally I’d make the most of that comment but, to be fair, Tony also realises the seriousness of the situation the Government settlement puts LDC in.

I’m sorry to say that the Government are turning the screws on local districts and boroughs to the point of extinction. Whilst regional government is fast arriving by the back door, very quietly under the radar with few noticing, the death by a thousand cuts of very local councils is starting. Over time, low charging councils like Lichfield DC which are already efficient and low cost to council tax payers will be starved of money until services are simply undeliverable.

Other districts and boroughs that are higher charging with more ‘fat on the bone’ to insulate them better from low Government settlements will last longer but still wither on the vine eventually. Government are looking more and more likely to get their way by getting rid of local councils in favour of single tier Unitary Counties and their beloved Regional Government and QUANGOs.

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I can’t help being patriotic and I can’t help feeling British. It’s just in me and I couldn’t get rid of that feeling if I wanted to… which I don’t.

So I’m pretty cheesed off with the Government’s latest bright idea to kill off yet another British tradition which has been around for a couple of thousand years. I understand Gordon Brown decided to stop having Britannia on the back of our coins of the Realm whilst he was still at the Treasury last year.

If I was cynical I’d say it was perhaps to soften us up ready for the Euro circle of stars to grace our coinage but actually I think it’s just change for change sake. There seems to be a feeling in certain circles that tradition is out and ‘Modern Britain‘ has to be in. Now, I’ve no problem at all with an image of Modern Britain, but then again, I’ve absolutely no problem either with British tradition.

I’m not an expert on Britannia but my sense is that she stands for quite a lot of what I feel our nation is all about…. liberty, fairness, strength of purpose, strength for what’s right and a recognition of our historic sea-fairing past. I’m sorry but I just can’t stop the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention when Rule Britannia is sung in all its glory.

I don’t want to lose Britannia from our heritage, or our coins…. it’s change for change sake!

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Until last June, most people saw heavy rain as an inconveniece or ‘good for the gardens’.

That changed across the UK with the floods last year that displaced so many families, caused inconvenience to so many more and cost millions to the public purse. That change is no different in Staffordshire, as I’ve been reminded over the past couple of days.

It was Sunday evening, whilst I was catching up on e-mails because of back to back meetings from early the following day, that I started to receive mails from worried residents in the Elford area. Unusually, for a weekend evening, I also heard my office phone ringing a number of times.

With the rain coming down in torrents and the TV news full of flood warnings, it was clear from the e-mails that a rumour had circulated that evening around the village that the new pump, installed last year by the Environment Agency (EA) to combat local flooding, had not been commissioned and would not function if needed. Elford was one of the areas in my patch which suffered badly last time.

It was a surprise about the pump and I had visions of a repeat of last year! My understanding from regular EA updates was that the pump would work, albeit not automatically… it could be activated by an EA officer ‘flicking the switch’. That said it was still overdue for full automatic commissioning so it needed sorting out.

I did call a local out of hours number I have and was assured that the Tame was not going to do what it did last time. Some reassurance, but conscious that the weather, and rivers, seem to do unexpected things nowadays! Anyway, I sent some ‘hopeful’ reassurance to those who had contacted me and also sent an urgent e-mail to the EA about the pump’s status.

By 8.30 Monday morning I was satisfied, having talked to the EA, that the pump would work when needed as thought. I did, however, reinforce the need to get it fully commissioned as soon as possible. I suggested it really should be done by Wednesday at the latest. They said they’d do their best.

Which brings me to today. I had meetings in Stafford from first thing this morning but by late morning I’d, thank goodness, had a message saying the pump commissioning team were en-route to Elford.

I decided to cut my meetings short and travel to Elford to talk to the commissioning team and villagers myself. It was the first time I’d seen the pump actually working. And wow! The amount of Green Brook water it shifted was astonishing! The engineers were delighted at how the pump was performing and confident it would handle almost anything that the Tame or Green Brook would potentially throw at it.

So, relief all round and I’m pleased that the, now famous, Elford village grapevine seems to have done the job of spreading the good news. I’ve got a meeting on Friday to discuss further flood mitigation work I’d like to see done in Elford. In the meantime I want to understand from the EA and others the latest on flood mitigation work in Fazeley which also flooded badly last year.

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