DevonWall Defeated

After a long and sometimes hard campaign, Tory plans to create a seat that combined Cornwall and Devon into one area has been defeated. This was a controversial plan on both sides of the Tamar and you could almost hear the sighs of relief after the announcement.

The big question that this situation throws up for me is, who is standing up for what the people of their area wants and who is playing party politics with historic boundaries. Well that became clear at the vote when all 3 Cornish Lib Dem MP's voted against the creation of a DevonWall seat and all 3 of Cornwall's Tory MPs voted for DevonWall.

It could not have been clearer what the people of Cornwall wanted THEIR representatives to do (keep Devon and Cornwall as two separate areas) and yet the Tories chose to do what best suited there own parties interests! In elections to come people will have the chance to show who much they care about their elected representatives acting on their behalf. I hope they remember DevonWall when they are in the voting booth...

Poor tax introduced in Cornwall

Today i attending a Extraordinary Council meeting at which, Conservative run Cornwall Council introduced what the bureaucrats have called "Localised Council Tax".

What 'Localised council tax' is being called by some Cornwall Councillors is 'the poor tax'. What this is going to do is force all working age recipients of council tax benefit to pay an additional 25% contribution towards their council tax. This average at about £265 a year on the 26,000 poorest families of working age
Trees have been cut down to print 213 copies of a 302 page report with regards the Localised Council Tax, but at no stage I have seen in the report any suggestions about were the council could find 4.5 million to help the people that are already struggling. Last year, they wanted a Stadium for Cornwall and officers found 10 million....today, they struggle to make any suggestions...

 

So you might think that this had to happen, but that is not right... There were to options on the table today, one from the Conservatives to tax low earners at a time when they can least afford it. That other from the Liberal Democrats looked to retain the current system and to pay for this by cutting the spending on consultants and agency staff.
Cornwall Council currently spends more than £1 million a month on contsultants and agency staff. Some of this is absolutely essential - it is spending on social workers and call centre workers and the council could not function without them. But that total (according to the figures given to me by the council) is around £5 million out of the total of £13 million. So the council would still be able to save the money without threatening lifeline or essential services.

The Vote today shows just how heartless the Tories who run the council will be to protect their own, while attacking hard working families how need support to make ends meet.

Snow stops play

We are somewhat lucky that it rarely snows badly in the Bude area itself, however the areas on the way out of Bude do get very icy and sometimes snow will settle too. I can't quite get my head around way our country grinds to a holt in cold weather. I would expect it of Jamaica or Tonga, but the UK is not really hot any time of the year.

I understand that we don't get snow all the time like places like Canada and that's one reason we don't cope very well, but we do get it roughly once a year. Surely our great nation can cope with a logistics problem like this once a year?



Just for your information the picture above his been doing the rounds... Those eagle eyed among you will have noticed that the cars in the "Canada" side are driving on the wrong side for it to be Canada. After some research I can tell you that this picture in fact shows Japan.. Now I bet your glad you read the whole post! :-)

Your views on the police

Yesterday I attended my first Devon and Cornwall Police & Crime Panel. It was very interesting but before I give you my views, I would like to hear your experience with the police. Good or bad.

Sheriff's of Nottingham

Please share this outline of what happened yesterday, when the people who are meant to be running Cornwall Council, got together to decide how much tax you should be charged next year.

Below is a press release about it followed by a few choice words from me!

-------- press realease -------

Cornwall Tories: Divided, Disruptive and Endangering Services say Lib Dems

Cornwall’s Liberal Democrats have slammed a divided and disruptive cabinet which is endangering essential services in Cornwall. The move comes after a full council meeting during which members of the administration were regularly arguing with each other.

“The Conservative led cabinet couldn’t agree among themselves about council tax benefit and they couldn’t agree about the budget,” said Cllr Jeremy Rowe, Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Cornwall Council. “Cornish residents will rightly be asking what on earth is going on.”

“On the budget itself, it is clear that Cllr Ferguson, despite being the cabinet member responsible for the budget, does not agree with it. It appears that she will be proposing a wholesale change.”

“We are forced to ask how Cllr Ferguson can remain in the cabinet when she disagrees so completely with major aspects of Cornwall Council policy, including those within her own portfolio. Given that it is the Leader himself who is now writing and promoting the budget it may be that he could save some money by sacking Cllr Ferguson and using her special responsibility allowance to avoid some of the cuts.”

During today’s debate on council tax benefit, Fiona Ferguson, the cabinet member for finance, proposed an amendment that would draw money from the higher education bursary. This move was promptly rejected by Neil Burden, the cabinet member for schools, who apparently hadn’t even been consulted by his colleague.

Commenting on the proposal to strip funds from the higher education bursary, Cllr Geoff Brown, Lib Dem spokesman on Education,said:

“This is sheer madness. The bursary scheme was introduced to assist those young people from the poorest areas of Cornwall to access quality courses and thereby enhance their education and potential for a more prosperous and successful adult life. This is an investment in the future of Cornwall and brings to the scheme many millions of pounds of European funding. To plunder this scheme is like robbing Peter to pay Paul with the added negative matter of losing Cornwall a huge EU investment and I am delighted that Council saw fit to roundly reject it."

The lack of consultation extended far wider than simply among cabinet members. The Leader was forced to admit that he had talked to no organisations representing people affected by his proposal to slash council tax benefit, nor to any individuals likely to be affected. Cllr Fiona Ferguson complained that she “knew nothing about these people”.

Cllr Alex Folkes, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem group, who proposed the amendment that would have protected council tax benefit said:

“Before Christmas I invited both Cllr Ferguson and Cllr Currie to come to Launceston to meet with people likely to be affected by their council tax benefit cut. Cllr Ferguson refused to come and Cllr Currie didn’t have the courtesy even to reply. I think that says a lot about the Conservative attitude to the least well off families in Cornwall.”

“The Liberal Democrat amendment would use the new income from cutting second home and empty home council tax loopholes to ensure there is no need for council tax benefit cuts. This amendment was narrowly defeated but we will be sticking to our position of protecting the poorest families in Cornwall and not trying to take money that they just don’t have.”

----------------- End of press release --------------

I will say to you what I said to them at full council on Tuesday: 

Having lived in Brazil, I have seen what happens when money is taken from people who don't have enough to get by, they become desperate and have nothing to loose. This causes is an increase in crime rates and violence among other things. I will not let that happen to my country, my electors, or to Cornwall! 

Food glorious food

I am curious...with regards to Food. whta are your thoughts on the following questions: 

1) are we becoming more intolerant to different foods as a society? e.g can't have lactose, gluten, sea food ect
2) have we always been intolerant to these foods but its only now we are finding it out?
3) are we eating so much junk food that we are becoming intolerant?

Are our bodies telling us enough is enough?

More houses being built?

I am attending the first Full Cornwall Council meeting of the year today in Truro. The items that will be discussed are: localised Council tax support, local plan and how many houses we should build in the future and others.... It is going to be interesting to see how people feel about the number of houses that should be built. I would like to see a discussion regarding a link between quality job generation and new houses. I makes a lot of sense to me that local people need houses (and with the 50 shades of gray baby boom that is happening at the moment that might become more pressing an issue) but they also need good jobs to be able to pay for them. The last thing our area needs is more houses to be turned into second homes!