Don't let time run out, vote Dolphin

As you may know, today it election day. There is not much more to say than please take this opportunity to go out and vote. Sorry I can't write more, but i'm out on the doorstep getting the vote out

Vote Dolphin!

postal voters

If you are a postal voter and would like your voice to count in our local elections there is still time to post your forms. If you are worried that your voted wont get to the council be Thursday 2nd (polling day) it is perfectly fine for you to take your completed postal vote form to a polling station.

Ever vote is important so please take two minutes to cast your vote.

Keeping up the fight

I love fighting for our area and will not allow the bureaucrats in Truro to forget about our issues. We are far away, but that is why I have to shout the loudest!

Local people tell me that they want good services from the council, they don’t want their council tax to rocket every year and they want to be listened to.  I agree and that is why I will continue to fight for a fair deal.

you are here->

Cornwall can’t afford to go on like this!

The Conservatives at Cornwall Council have left a shameful legacy.

They have threatened our services, but spend £1 million a month on consultants! 

They even hired taxis to ferry tea and coffee around council offices! Instead of cutting waste they have cut front line services.

Since running the council they have...

• Tried to close Bude Sea Pool
• Threatened our libraries 
• Let play areas fall into ruin
• Closed public toilets
• Failed to collect our rubbish
• Neglected our roads

We can't go on like this!

Two horse race

Often elections are neck and neck between two candidates who are so far ahead of everyone else that voting for anyone in the pack behind would be a waste.
Well in my election on may the 2nd it literally is a two horse race. Voters in the Grenville and Stratton ward have a choice between a Conservative or myself.
Please do NOT let someone else choose for you. Go and Vote!

Looking back

Every now and again I like to look back at some of the thing I have achieved as a Councillor (it keeps me sane). I thought it might be nice to show you the range of things I get up to. I wont talk about any personal casework I get (and I get lots) because when people ask for my help I like to keep it private.

Here are just some of the things I have achieved recently:

• Together with local residents, won back weekend health clinics in Stratton
• Supported much needed local community groups
• Worked with you to improve road safety
• As a school governor, helped to ensure local education is delivered to the highest standards
• Consistently voted for services to stay in our local area

what always strikes me is the wide range of things a Councillor can do, if they work hard and try their best. Well the job doesn't stop so I better get on.. 

All the best

Standing up for you

Representing our area is a great honour to me and I do not take it for granted.
I feel it is very important to listen to local people’s views and to work all year around, not just at election times.

We are living in tough times with money being a concern for both local people and the council. It is more important than ever, at a time like this, that our area continues to have a local champion to stand up for it.
Working with the community has achieved many good things in a relatively short space of time and I would like to continue doing more for you!
I want to ensure we get better local services, and  put a stop to the council wasting your money on expensive consultants.
Most of all I want a fair deal for our area.

Bullers update

Contrary to their listing in the recently published agenda, The Bullers Arms planning application pa12/08423 and pa12/08429 will NOT now be considered at the 25th February 2013 East Area Planning Committee meeting to be held at 2:00pm in Camelford.

This to allow the Council to properly consider these applications in the light of a late submission of information that would be material to the determination process.
The applications will instead be presented at the next available meeting of the East Area Planning Committee

Hope this information gets passed around so people don't turn up to the wrong meeting!

Do you think Cornish and Gypsy is the same?

I'm pretty sure most people would think not, but Cornwall Council seem to. Much to the disgust of many residents, in a form for housing benefit and council tax benefit there is a tick box section for ethnicity in which Cornwall Council has give you the option of ticking the Gyspy / Traveller / Cornish box...

I am not Cornish Born and bred, but I do care greatly about Cornwall. I'm appalled about this and will be supporting Cllr Alex Folkes in his bid to get this changed as soon as possible (see Alex's blog about the same subject)

This adds to the list of missteps and mistakes that Cornwall Council have made. Which leads to the question are the Conservative 'leaders' of Cornwall council incompetent or do they just not care.

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.

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! 

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!

alternative service delivery

More and more, the Council is working with "partners" to deliver our services. Some of those partners are for example: Cormac Solutions (limited company, 100% owned by Cornwall Council)...

After attending one of my Audit Committee meetings, a risk was raised with regards to the fact that the Council need to have tight control over how the companies are run in order to meet our standards and regulations. This raises an issue, in that if you tighten controls over arms length companies too much, you might end up making the company "a department of the council". 

What do I mean by this, well I will tell you. if the council, for example is too rigid on its regulations on tendering, the companies will only be able to purchase services from other companies "approved" by the council. That means that the council might risk not getting value for money from a tender because the council is unable to get proper competitive bids. That is why sometimes, we see some very expensive contract being awarded, because not all companies out there can apply, only the ones that has previously been "approved" by the council. 

With the Conservatives who run the council taking it more and more down the this route we are getting more and more into a sticky situation.

Don't get me wrong, I do approve of regulations, but we need to be careful we are not too rigid or too controlling with our partners. We must get the balance just right, otherwise we might as well do it all "in house".

If Thatcher showed use nothing its that privatisation done badly (without competition) is a terrible. You only have to look at water and the trains to see this, but it seems the Conservatives in Cornwall have not learnt there lesson!

Checking up on developers

Yesterday at the Audit Committee meeting, I know it sounds boring, but its important you read on, (Click to see the agenda Item) we discussed section 106 agreements. These are a way in which the council can get some payback given to the community for allowing planning applications.

I want to draw your attention to a problem that I believe need fixing quickly and you can help get money back for our community.

My understanding is that in Sep 2012 the external auditor picked up that there was a risk that developers were not paying the council their agreed section 106 payments. That the council did not have a good control on what had been approved vs what has been built vs what was due for payment. 

This was a manually looked after process and some section 106 agreements might have fallen through the gaps. This is unacceptable.

I am glad that Cornwall Council are now taking the necessary steps to fix that situation, but I do not want any former applications in my patch to be missed.

I urge people in the Bude, Stratton and Grenville areas to contact me if they suspect any planning application in the past five year that this may have happened with. If you remember a section 106 agreement on a planning application but think it might not have happened come forward so I can check that we have collected the money (please not older then 5 years).

Watch full council live

I'm off to Truro again today to stand up for our part of Cornwall and try to bring some common sense to the Full council meeting. We will be discussing the Governance review - how the council is run. Cornwall local Plan - how many houses we should build in the future and the Strategic Partnership for Support Service - should we part privatise some of our services. 

The Leadership Crisis

I came across a very funny Youtube video the other day and I thought I would share it with you all.. It is very much for those of you who closely follow the inside workings at County Hall (so not many, but those of you who do will love it). My guess is that it is written by someone very close to the front line in Cornish Politics cause although it is funny it is very close to the bone with a lot of the points it makes! Enjoy...
Click to view "Leadership Crisis" by BunkerCC

Independence day part one

I am often out on the doorstep speaking to people about their issues and campaigning for my community. At election time I am knocking on doors asking for your support and occasionally people mention "Independent" candidates. I thought it might be interesting to lift the lid on "Independents". First you might notice that I use Inverted commas when referring to this elusive bread of politician, why is this? Well there are many reasons which I will go into over time, but the first is that the "independents" at Cornwall Council are a group! let me say that again, there is an independent group at Cornwall Council. If it wasn't so misleading to the public it would be funny. The best bit is that 29 out of 31 "independents" are part of this group which has a leader and deputy. The other two are known as stand alone independents, which is what I thought they were all meant to be.

It's time people know the truth about this lorded and "honourable" breed so there is more to come on this subject

Councillor vote for pay rise

Yesterday Cornwall Councillors voted to give themselves a pay rise of 25%. This is a shocking situation where Councillors are force to vote on there own income, but that is what the law says must happen. What I found most interesting about this vote though is how the different groups voted (on what was a free vote). This is possibly the only poll you will ever see Labour top in Cornwall..

How each group voted on the question of increasing their own money:

Labour 100% in favour
Mebyon Kernow 75% in favour
"Independants" 73% in favour
Conservatives 50% in favour
Liberal Democrat 50% in favour

So as you can see the Lib Dems and the Tories where split down the middle. The Independants, MK and Labour were heavily in favour of raising their own wages.

For the record, I did not vote for this increase.

Why I voted for Jim Curry

After they kicked their own leader out the Conservatives and Independents went into a frenzy to see who would replace him!

It was quite worrying and disorganised with lots of back biting (even after the vote to get rid of Cllr Robertson) as there were many people being put forward and it took them hours to come up with the final choices from each group (Ind and Con - I am going to have to blog about the INDEPENDENT GROUP soon).

In the end it came down to Jim Curry (con) and Neil Burden (ind) from the administration parties.
They both came before the Liberal Democrats asking for our support, but for me the vote came down to one thing! Who would pledge to stop the undemocratic and unpopular privatization plans that were being pushed through. The answer came back that only Jim Curry out of the two candidate was against this plan and so on that basis only he got my vote.

Jim Curry won the election by 3 votes and I will be working hard to hold him to account not only on privatisation but across the board.

Lib Dems acted with decorum

While the chaos and backstabbing was happening within the Conservatives and Independent groups regarding getting rid of Alec Robertson and replacing him, I am proud to say that the Lib Dems acted with extreme decorum.

Our leader Cllr Jeremy Rowe gave an very honest and subdued account of why the (then) leader of the council found himself in the position he was in. In a situation like we faced on Tuesday, Conservatives and Independents ripping themselves apart, it would have been easy for the Lib Dems to be vitriolic and join in with the attacks. I am glad to say that this did not happen and that we acted the professional manner the public would have asked for.