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...

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! 

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).

We must stop DevonWall

Conservative plans are still in place to have a new parliamentary seat combining Cornwall and Devon (Bude will be part are this plan). I am working hard with my Lib Dem colleges to stop this, not because I don't like Devon (Devon is lovely), but because Devon and Cornwall are separate places with separate issues. They must be respected and have there own representation.

This is a case of the Tories playing politics with boundaries that have existed from time immemorial and they must be stopped. I will be talking to Dan Rogerson our local MP about this issue and I suggest you do the same.

you can email Dan on contact@danrogerson.org to let him know how you feel about Cornwall and Devon being kept separate!

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 Dem Bloggs

As a Liberal Democrat I feel its really important to keep the electorate involved in what I'm doing. I really enjoy keeping local people up to date with some of the things I am doing as their Cornwall Councillor. It is only possible to post about a small fraction of what I am doing, I would not want to spend to much time blogging and not enough time working for my community :-)

If you would like to see what the Leader and Deputy leader of the Cornish Lib Dems are up to look here:

Cllr Jeremy Rowe Blogg - Leader of the Lib Dems
Cllr Alex Folkes Blogg - Deputy leader of the Lib Dems

SERCO are leaving our area short

I have been working alongside other local Lib Dem councillors,Nigel Pearce and David Parsons, to fight to get back proper out-of-hours medical cover for our area. 

SERCOs decision earlier in the year to move the emergency doctor away from Stratton to Launceston left a lot of people facing real problems. Constituents who were having problems with the service, including

slow response times, misdiagnoses and long distance travelling late at night to see a GP, contacted us. I was concerned that the areas I represent were receiving an even worse service than the rest of Cornwall and we have been fighting their cases alongside trying to undo this terrible decision.

More than 200 people attended a public meeting and SERCO’s bosses were pressed to reconsider their decision, so that patients needn’t go all the way to Launceston or Bodmin to get out-of-hours care.

After a few meetings with SERCO, we agreed a 3hrs clinic Saturday and Sunday, but this is only a step forward. We want to make sure that we get the best possible local services. Nigel, David and myself are working with MP Dan Rogerson to monitor the service to ensure that we are getting an adequate cover out-of-hours for the area.

Minimum wage rise

Yesterday saw the coalition goverment raise of the minimum wage for people age twenty one and over from £6.08 to £6.19 an hour. I have to wonder if this would have happened without the Liberal Democrats in power?

Lets look at some of the facts:
The first national system of wage regulation was brought in by the Liberal Goverment in  1909.
The national minimum wage system we have now was brought in by the Labour goverment in 1999; it was supported by the Liberal Democarats and opposed by the Conservatives.

Click to read "the history of the uk's minimum wage" on Total Politics

Many Conservatives still oppose the minumim wage, they just don't shout about it very often! In 2009 a Conservative MP backed by a number of his colleges tried to introduce legislation that would water it down
click to read "minimum wage tory bill"

So the answer to my opening question is that we (the mortals) will never know, but my feeling is no, the Lib Dems were vital in this happening.

Appeal for information

Detectives are continuing to make inquiries into the armed robbery which took place at the Shell garage at Fraddon, next to Kingsley Village at around 10.30pm, Monday 17 September.

Click to read BBC news story 

If you have any information regarding this indecent please let the police know as soon as possible

Click here to view the Devon and Cornwall police appeal

Gun Crime must be cracked down on as quickly as possible. It is a virus that I have seen grown in Brazil and it must not be allowed to get any form of foothold in our country!

Question about problems facing the police

Q) What do you think the major problems facing the police force in the 2 counties are? 

Question about community involvement

Q) Over the years, apart from either political or paid work, what has been your involvement in the community? 

A) I am a School Governor, member of the Bude Canal Marshes and Valley, Former honorary vice-president of Bude Cricket Club, I am part of a local natural Beekeeper group (I have Bees) and help with beach cleaning days organised by Surfers Against Sewage.

As the Police and Crime Commissioner, I will involve as many people and groups in making decisions, setting priorities, budgets and targets as possible. I will provide the important link between Police and Community.

Question about urban and rural areas

Q) Do you perceive any differences in policing needs & priorities between urban and rural areas? 

Fight unwanted privatisation

Conservative led councillors at Cornwall Council are trying to privatise services via the back door.

Last week a majority of Cornwall councillors, including myself, voted against the privatisation of council services. Even though they lost the vote, the Conservative and Independent cabinet (who run the council) have chosen to ignore this democratic view and have proceed with privatisation plans anyway.

Reforming the police service?

Let me be clear, I do not feel the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner is to sweep in and tear the police service apart. Overall we have a very good police service and if elected I would look to build on its strengths and minimize its weaknesses.

Why am I standing for this role

I feel it is important that you understand why I am standing for this role. Below are just a few of the reasons I  am fighting to be Devon and Cornwall's Police and Crime Commissioner.

Cyber Crime

As reported today by the BBC, the government has highlighted to businesses the importants of guarding themselves against cyber crime BBC - Business warned over Cyber Crime.

Freedom

We all want to be able to live a free life, but some of us take our freedom for granted. Having lived abroad, in a city with two million people and were the crime rate is really high, I do not.

Protecting your civil liberties

Without civil liberties where are we as a society? Rights and freedoms are fundamental to building a free, fair and open society and protecting civil liberties lies at the heart of this.

Cutting re-offending

Justice is not just about punishment (though it has its part to play) but it is also about rehabilitation and reintegration.

Supporting communities policy one

Here is a one of the many Lib Dem policies that I will endevour to deliver if I become the Cornwall and Devon Police and Crime Commissioner: