MattDeanSouthampton

Election 2010

2010-04-30T18:44:00.003+01:00

Cameron on the stump- a picture I took in the Romsey & Southampton North constituency

Well we are in the last week of the 2010 general election campaign and I have to say, I have been surprised

Surprised at the effect and interest of the three Leaders debates.

Surprised at the national 'Cleggestacy' bounce- because I really don't seem to have personally detected it at all in Southampton, despite Clegg visiting the city and

Surprised at Labour's low key, almost defeatist campaign locally that has been almost exclusively negative and reflects very badly on them.

So what gives? There is certainly a lot of good will for the Conservatives in Southampton at the moment- more than I can ever remember in nearly 20 years of being a resident in this city. Is it enough to win? Well in terms of the local elections, my feeling now is yes, almost certainly.

And in terms of the two parliamentary seats of Southampton Itchen and Southampton Test? I honestly think that there is everything to play for- it will be a sprint to the line in what I know a year ago Labour were arrogant enough to brand 2 safe Labour seats. The next 7 days will be fascinating.

No Prez-ence !!!

2010-04-19T12:52:00.003+01:00

Hot news from the campaign trail from the ward I happen to represent; Shirley in no less an august journal than The Sun! To quote directly

"BOOMING Labour heavyweight John Prescott cuts a lonely figure on the campaign trail yesterday - talking to a near-deserted street watched only by a man in a mobility scooter. Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/election2010/2936431/Labours-John-Prescott-campaigns-in-Shirley-Southampton.html#ixzz0lXwFIhrL

Prezza, 71, was trying to fire up support in Shirley, Southampton, for local MP Alan Whitehead, who joined him standing on a stone bench. Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/election2010/2936431/Labours-John-Prescott-campaigns-in-Shirley-Southampton.html#ixzz0lXwNldI1

Very funny!

Tragedy in Shirley

2010-04-08T19:57:00.003+01:00

Shirley Towers, picture taken today.

I was shocked and saddened when I heard yesterday morning of the death of brave firefighters James Shears and Alan Bannon while they had been tackling a fire in Shirley Towers. This council owned tower block is in the heart of the ward which I represent. The deaths of these two brave men is a terrible tragedy and while they may be the first serving firefighters who have perished on active service in Southampton since the war, the incident is a poignant reminder of how the emergency services daily put themselves in harms way to keep us safe. From a local councillor perspective, I would like to say how grateful residents have told me they are and I am personally for all the emergency services did. I offer my sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of James Shears & Alan Bannon.

Osbourne wins the debate...on points

2010-03-29T21:08:00.003+01:00

three of a kind...?

This evening I watched the first of the election's televised debates which focused on the potential Chancellors from the three main parties and I was...quite impressed by all of the candidates(am I exhibiting Lib-Dem tendencies?!!!)

I've met Osbourne and unsurprisingly he is much better than his press so I wasn't surprised that their were no car crash moments from him; in fact he scored a few hits on Labour, attacking their failed regulatory system and saying Labour won't rule out their so called 'death tax' (which Darling, rattled, appeared to do).

Cable was good but maybe didn't perform to his reputation although his points that Labour's efficiency savings were bogus and that the Lib Dems are not beholden to either the unions or the super rich went down well with the audience.

Darling played to his strengths as a dependable, unflappable bank manager attacking the Tories in the 'more in sorrow than anger' style he has cultivated-that was quite effective.

So who won?- well actually because Osbourne had the luck of the last word and despite him occassionally tripping up over his words or repeating the odd one, I think he won it on points and at the very least, enhanced his reputation.

A lot of people at CCHQ will be pleased- and maybe even a little surprised.

Whats up with Ed Balls?

2010-03-27T20:02:00.004Z

Strange things were afoot at the Local Government Chronicle awards held on the Wednesday at the Grosvenor House Hotel.

I spotted Ed Balls (in a suit rather than black tie), glass of champagne in hand early in the evening and assumed he was one of the guest speakers. However just minutes later when I was leaving the bar he rushed into the front reception area, bag carrier in tow looking extremely agitated and a few minutes later he was pacing up and down looking for a taxi. Looking like he was about to have a heart attack, I watched transfixed as he duly flagged one down and left before the dinner proper started. I wonder why? It was budget day and it had gone relatively smoothly if not well for Labour so it was unlikely that the whips were summoning him back to the Commons.

He probably was having to calm Gordon down about something back at the bunker or maybe it was that New Statesman article saying Mr Balls could be heading for a Portillo moment...

City Cycle lanes

2010-03-27T18:33:00.004Z

Cameron cycling at the top of

The Avenue in Southampton (yes really!)

One of my big frustrations is how cycle unfriendly Southampton is in the City (despite there being great areas to cycle) - and the recent huge public realm works that were carried out in Shirley High Street and at the Portswood Broadway by my Lib-Dem predecessors were in my view, a missed opportunity as they didn't include the provision of cycle lanes. I resolved that if I was ever elected and had the opportunity, I would try to do something about this.

Well, the Council has made a serious start first with the Bike Guide and now with the planned works in Thornhill.

Southampton City Council is dramatically expanding its cycle network in the Thornhill area. We are determined to provide residents in this are with the facilities they deserve and I am delighted with the work being undertaken. The Council, with TPY, are providing cycle routes which will provide key links across the area. At the centre of this work will be the route across Hinkler Green from the Hinkler Public House to Ellwood Avenue. From here there will be extensions to Bursledon Road and East to Heywood Green. A further section will be the installation from Linacre Road up to Warburton Road (alongside of Lydgate Road). The existing cycle route from Thornhill Park Road to Byron Road through the park will also be extended alongside Farringford Road between Pepys Avenue and Burke drive. These will add 1300metres to the existing city’s cycle network. Signs will be designed with route information providing an opportunity for leisure walking and cycling – these routes will link homes to the green open spaces, play areas and shops.
This is just one part of the city which is benefiting from the council’s goal of improving Southampton’s cycling experience.

Heavens knows we need to- and Connect 2 is next...

Earth Hour cometh...

2010-03-27T18:18:00.004Z

Cometh the hour, cometh the man and so at 8.30pm this evening Earth Hour takes place and people will have an opportunity to show they care about climate change and the threat of peak oil.
In terms of Southampton, I would urge the city to take part in this great initiative. Everyone needs to be thinking of reducing their energy consumption and I will always back anything that gives people the inspiration to act.

Winners of the award for best Council & Community invovement!

2010-03-27T17:38:00.005Z

Every one a winner!

On Wednesday I went to the Local Government Chronicle awards in London with representatives from the Council's Waste Management Team, Solent University and Southampton Central Baptist Church. Probably the most important and prestigious awards for those involved in local government, the awards were held in Park Lane. We knew from the organisers that we had been shortlisted to the last 6 entrants and as the only entrant from the Hampshire area, we thought we had done pretty well to get that far.

We had entered an award for Council's with the best example of Community Involvement which after the award for best Council is probably the one award to win after 'Best Overall Council' and...we won!

Devised by the Head of Waste, Andy Trayer after I challenged him at a Scrutiny meeting to really address the issue of rubbish being left by students, especially in the Polygon at the end of term time, the scheme was ingeniously simple in theory but as ever, it required a lot of hard work and determination to make it happen.

For those interesd, the detail of how we cleaned up the Polygon and recycled its rubbish can be read HERE.

Welcome back...

2010-03-27T17:13:00.006Z

Gordon Comstock, the fictional hero of George Orwell's 'Keep The Aspidistra Flying' would have sympathised with me; I haven't updated my blog for ages; a result of being busy moving, working at the Council on the Environment portfolio, campaigning for the forthcoming elections and yes, like Gordon, perhaps even writer's block.

Anyway with a few, hopefully good stories to tell and the election shortly to get into full swing, I have resolved to be a little more active in the blogosphere.

Thanks for all you who visit these pages.

Matt

Sorry Gordon- wish you were here!

2010-01-08T22:45:00.005Z

fight the good fight...

The Daily Echo reports that the Prime Minister has had to cancel a trip to Southampton yesterday (Thursday) as a result of the snow. I have to say, inclement weather not withstanding, Southampton appeared to manage without him OK...

The interesting thing is that on Wednesday John Denham MP appears to have been out of the country when the Snow Storm Plotters Hoon & Hewitt went public and this appears to be his defence of why he didn't rally to the flag of Gordon sooner*. One thing that I certainly concede is that Denham is fulsome of his praise for Brown, far more so that some of his Cabinet colleagues so the new message is presumably clear- Denham is a Brownite now and is content to stand at the next election on Brown's record. I have to say I am rather surprised.

(* NB although quite why John Denham, the Secretary of State with responsibility for Housing and Local government should be abroad meeting the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh I'm not quite sure...)

Serious national salt shortage beckons...

2010-01-08T21:50:00.003Z

The American baseball player Earl Wilson once reportedly said, "Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough." but it appears that this government seems to be developing that into something of a policy- at least as far as the snow is concerned...

To late, the government has realised that we are on the cusp of a national crisis and after a day of dithering, have finally started to take charge as The Times reports HERE

A combination of good luck and good management meant that Southampton City Council happened to be one of the best prepared local authorities in the country with over 10 days salt stock (triple some authorities), with a fleet of highway gritting machines (albeit some rather elderly)and a workforce to get the salt out onto our roads (unlike some councils, our parks & open spaces teams, refuse collectors, road gangs are all expected to 'muck in'). As a result of our prudence and this Labour government's indolence, we are now being penalised as we have been told we are not a 'priority authority' (I wonder where is?) despite snow being forecast here over the weekend.
At Southampton, we currently (8pm) have 70t of pure rock salt in the depot. This is enough for 3 days salting of the A routes (local authority speak for key roads to hospitals, city centres, major retailers, employers etc, not to be confused with a roads). Our final delivery of 30t direct from salt union turned up this morning. Earlier today confusion reigned as initially local authorities were informed that all future deliveries will be managed through the government’s ‘Salt Cell’. Later today it emerged the Salt Cell’s recommendations to the Salt Union (one of two UK deep salt mine suppliers) were not binding so ultimately everyone and no one was in charge today prior to Adonis's evening statement by which time the government the realised it could no longer continue to fudge the issue.
Every council will have different levels of salt stocks (my guess in anything from no virtually salt to 6 days on a-routes). Certainly the Salt Cell is aware of our salt position and we have to be seen to use our stocks wisely so Southampton will have enough for 5 days of A route salting but we have to allow for the possibility of needing to grit B routes at least once in this period. This assumption doesn’t factor in the possibility that any rain will require an additional salting of the road network. Like most authorities, at the moment we are responding to ad hoc requests for salting and gritting with priority being given to hospitals, emergency services, buses, precincts etc. It is Officer's strong highway operational advice that we do not prioritise salt reserves to filling grit bins which in itself may cause a little public unrest this weekend (if we did, we would use the equivalent salt in the bins to one A route run). Instead, the council will respond to requests for refilling, by stating we will prioritise all requests for salt, but we have to keep the city main routes clear. We are asking that all salt requests should go through the council's Actionline service so they can be recorded and prioritised and have mobile resources available that will respond to requests based on our assessment of risk.
The grim reality is that there is now a national shortage of salt and if the weather is as forecast over the weekend that could develop into a severe national shortage due to poor government planning.
The key message to residents then that extreme care needs exercised during the next few days by those going out on car & by foot and people should only to travel if it is absolutely imperative to do so...
And the second message is as a result of bureaucratic incompetence both prior and during the current cold snap, this government has left the country ill prepared.

Silence is golden?

2010-01-06T21:43:00.004Z

Cometh the hour, dither the man

Hoon & Hewitt have put the knife in and perhaps predictably, as the BBC reports 'Ministers are lining up behind Brown' in response. Anything less would be notable as Ministers are of course on the payroll vote and the LabourList site has now started producing responses from loyal backbenchers.

But there is one interesting exception, the Rt Hon John Denham MP .

Always happy to call himself a Blairite, Denham has been less happy of late, talking about "Southern Discomfort" and as my friend Iain Dale reported a while ago, their has been speculation about his loyalty before.

If he has any guts, for the good of his career and the good of his party, he ought to do it.
Urbane, almost good-looking, refreshingly normal (at least in Labour terms), he would appeal to moderate voters who had supported Blair in a way that only Brown could dream of. With a reasonable Ministerial career behind him, he (almost uniquely) also has a fairly clean pair of hands having been one of the few ministers who resigned as he could not vote with the government on plans to go to war with Iraq. Further, in months Labour faces likely defeat in a general election and in his late fifties, Denham's ministerial career will end with it. He may even be defeated in the seat of Southampton Itchen which he has represented since 1992 as he faces a strong challenge from my friend, the Deputy Leader of the Council Royston Smith. why not challenge and be damned- for what does he have to lose?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, one might think. An inately cautious politician, I am sure Denham has been agonising all day and yet despite all the attractions of welding the knife, I think he will bottle it.

As one former Cabinet Minister reported to James Landale about those Cabinet Ministers who still hadn't come out in support of Brown, "they don't have the guts to support him, they don't have the guts to defend him".

Life in the Snow

2010-01-06T21:09:00.004Z

In keeping with much of the UK, the weather paid havoc in Southampton yesterday and for much of today. In my position as the Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport, I have been something of an eye-witness as well as being the Administration's press spokesman and political lead.

Given that, I thought it might be interesting to record for posterity what the Highways Team have been up at Southampton City Council and reflect on the implications of the weather generally.
The city's 5 gritting vehicles were out last night, starting at about 10pm salting the roads, again in the early hours (about 3am), and again late morning. The Operational Manager was at Town Depot shortly after 0600hrs, and by 0700hrs every available flatbed lorry was loaded with grit and despatched with teams of men to high priority pedestrian areas across the City. Open Spaces vehicles were similarly loaded and their teams despatched. In truth, this operation genuinly runs with military precision and the efforts of those involved are never found to be wanting. The work ethic of some of the guys I've encountered is amazing and we are talking hard physical work here. In total, the council spread around 80 tons of grit on roads and footways today.
The operational approach is always to deal with known priorities first and then respond to as many reactive calls as we possible can. In this way we exercise control over the situation and work more efficiently. This winter has been unusual in that Southampton, and elsewhere on the South Coast, saw ‘sheet ice’ conditions for the first time in 15 years. In truth, every footway in the City was dangerous, particularly for the elderly and infirm. In this situation the public have some responsibility for their own safety because it is simply not possible to meet every demand made on the service.
As I write, Southampton City Council has enough rock salt to grit the main A routes in the city this week, should the weather conditions remain extreme. Other roads may well be icy and slippery so the council is urging extreme caution and advising people to only make essential journeys during this time which the majority of the public accept although it would be fair to say that there is a vaciferious minority of less that 5% who consider the situation is outragious. While Southampton City Council is in a better position then many neighbouring authorities, supplies of rock salt at the council’s town depot have been gradually reducing as further deliveries have been delayed and reduced so the council is now prioritising its stocks to the major routes.
The council will be receiving deliveries, albeit reduced, today, Thursday and Friday, from the Salt Union, which faces huge demand for salt from authorities across the country. Operationally, the council tries to keep enough stocks of salt to enable us to cope with more than a week of the worst weather conditions. Salt is normally received from our suppliers within two days but at the moment, the massive national demand has meant that the council’s deliveries have been reduced. As a result, the decision has been made to introduce a reduced salting programme to conserve supplies whilst ensuring that the main roads in the city are kept open for essential vehicles.
The key message then to residents unpalatable as it may be;

Make only essential journeys during this time.

Congratulations to Dr Beer...

2010-01-04T23:39:00.007Z

Another Beer...

Congratulations to Dr John Beer who was awarded a gong in the New Year's honours list for his services to local government. John was the longest serving Executive Director notching up 13 years in that role -the average for the challenging post of Director of Adult Social Services is just 3 or 4 years. Before his retirement last summer, John worked for 5 different council administrations and was instrumental in setting up the 'Safe City Partnership' which attemps to draw the council closer to the police and other agencies.

Although I suspect (not least because of his occasional 'In my View' articles in The Daily Echo) that he was an instinctive left winger, John was the consummate professional to his fingertips, improving the performance of his directorate considerably and is a personally charming man as well as being something of an intellectual.

His OBE is richly deserved. Congratulations.

Who pays for this nonsense...

2009-10-17T20:30:00.006+01:00

A satirical take on events...

Saturday saw a thinly attended march (forty people tops) by an organisation called ‘United against Fascism’ in Southampton that apparently is propped up by the Southampton Trades Union Congress while an even more sparsely attended counter protest (a maximum of maybe 20 people) was staged by the even more off the wall ‘English Defence League’ whoever they might be. Apparently the catalyst for this stirring up of apathy is the decision of the BBC to invite swivel eyed nutter Nick Griffin to be a guest on this week's Question Time..
Doubtless as these demonstrations continue up and down the country their organisers will cry it is their democratic right to practise free speech and so it is.
That said, the forgotten issue of free speech is that someone has to pick up the tab of policing such pointless events and in the case of Saturday’s march it will be the hard pressed taxpayer.
As none of the marchers were in anything like the political mainstream, I wonder if it would be unreasonable for both the protesters and the counter- protesters to contribute towards the cost of their protection? After all organisers of shows and football matches have to pick up the tab for part of the cost of policing such public events.
Despite Labour’s disastrous asylum and immigration policies that have led to a loss of control of our borders, people trafficking and human misery on an almost unimaginable scale for those involved, race relations remain generally good in this city. Assorted zealots shouting at each other from opposite sides of the street (in every sense) hardly adds to the debate while residents have to pick up the cost of the participant’s self-indulgent protests.

Full employment

2009-10-05T20:44:00.005+01:00

Bad times

As this 1909 poster shows, the Conservatives have long campaigned for full employment and it is no surprise that it should be part of the theme for this year's Conservative Party conference- people are feeling pretty bruised out there, unemployment is rising, huge numbers of people languish seemingly unwanted and uncared for by Labour on incapacity benefit and the social consequences are horrific but we have been there before...

In the early 1980s, as unemployment rose above two million and headed inexorably for three million, the growing army of the unemployed workless was the most toxic political issue of the day and was used by Labour to point to the alleged heartlessness of the Tory government led by Margaret Thatcher. Sounds just like today really and strangely enough the Labour stratergy is the same too as the political narrative appears once more to be about blaming the Tories. Funnily enough, I doubt it will work. The line that Labour is pedaling that it is uniquely the only party offering the training and development for individuals who find themselves unemployed is a fiction that is as implausible as Bron's surreal 'Tory Cuts vs Labour investment' proposition a few months ago.
Another fiction is the myth that that the Conservatives in the mid-1980s simply did nothing to help the unemployed yet it is used by Labour ministers routinely and blindingly accepted in some sections of the media.

Actually Sir David Young, who was then brought into the Cabinet with a peerage as employment secretary revolutionised the UK's training and skills agenda. Lady Thatcher later said that his schemes for getting the unemployed back to work made a major contribution to her 1987 election victory and tellingly that that the Action for Jobs programme was "the single most effective economic programme we launched in my time in government".

Later, the much derided Youth Training Scheme, established in the depths of a recession, was dealing with 400,000 school-leavers at a time, offering training and work experience with business and (after a fashion and huge initial obstruction) unions working together. I know more than one businessman here in Southampton that cut his teeth on the YTS scheme who went on to be incredibly successful.

David Cameron, then, is on familiar Tory territory in opening his party's conference in Manchester with a focus on how to tackle an unemployment crisis every bit as bad as that of two decades ago but which today's Labour government seems singularly ill-equipped to tackle. It does not even have an employment department any more, but rather a Work and Pensions ministry no longer dedicated to job creation.

If Cameron can win the voters confidence on this issue, he will go quite some way in looking like a Prime Minister in waiting, surely the key goal of this conference week?

Spurned by the yellow peril!

2009-10-05T19:25:00.001+01:00

Compulsive radio listening HERE!

A balanced portfolio...

2009-10-05T15:33:00.001+01:00

a one club golfer as Ted Heath used to say...

I have always had a lot of time for Greg Clark MP. He is a passionate environmentalist but pragmatic too and has a reputation for being a hardworking MP.

For my money, his analysis of the situation the Conservative Party finds itself in as reported on the Conservative Home website today is spot on too;

“Most of you here will be familiar with the brilliant Conservative Home website. Its front page features a series of shields, each of which represents an important area of public policy. In the early days of the site, Tim Montgomerie commissioned a piece of artwork [above], designed to illustrate the fact that we had, as a party, abandoned many of these areas to the Left. [As you can see] the artist shows this in the form of shields missing from a wall, keys missing from a typewriter, and a window that only lets in a crack of light. In the last four years this picture has been transformed. There are no no-go areas for the Conservative Party. On social justice, the environment, international development and public services we have something important to say. By addressing the concerns of the whole nation, we’ve become the most trusted party on issues like health and education: a fact that doesn’t dilute, but rather
enhances, our message on issues like crime and immigration.”

I think with the benefit of hindsight, future historians and political academics will marvel at why Hague & Howard fought general elections around 'core issues' to get the 'core vote' out. The trouble is, there are not enough 'core voters' for the Conservative Party to win; it is a truism that elections are fought and won on a range of issues, a fact Margaret Thatcher understood well and many of her most fervent admirers did not!!!

The fact is in politics, like investments, you need a balanced portfolio.

If it seems to be to good to be true, then it usually is!

2009-10-05T15:03:00.000+01:00

local stars

An unpleasant reality though it is, Con artists are coming up with ever-more clever ways to scam people out of their hard earned cash and every year local authority trading standards officers are coming up against new scams. Getting through to residents about the steps they need to take to avoid becoming a victim of scammers can be difficult but we have decided to try and reach vulnerable groups and particularly the elderly by rather unorthodox measures, namely – by dancing, singing and acting our way to success!

The council’s trading standards officers have teamed up with a local theatrical group, to stage two free musicals on Wednesday to make residents aware of the tactics and tricks used by con artists. As Clive Robinson, Trading Standards team leader, says it is essential that we get our messages out into the community, especially to our more vulnerable residents. In the past we have found this to be an effective, if somewhat unusual way of doing it.
Scammers will use any tactic they can to get hold of your money so we need to be ready to do everything we can to warn residents of their tricks.
The musical, entitled “To Good To Be True”, by Solomon Theatre Group, will focus on a group of retired friends who have been targeted by con artists. It will feature some of the top scams to hit Southampton, including rogue share sellers and aggressive door stop sellers.
Trading standards officers will introduce the plays, sing along to the music and will then be on hand at the end of the shows to answer questions and offer handy advice. These con artists prey on the most vulnerable members of society and I commend our trading standards team for thinking out side of the box to get their message out. The title of the musical is apt. If it seems to good to be true, then it usually is.
The first performance of “To Good To Be True” will take place at Methodist Church in Burgess Road, Southampton on Wed 7th October from 10am. The second will take place at the Holy Family Church Hall, Redbridge Hill from 2.15pm.

Re-cycling on the go!

2009-09-23T15:21:00.000+01:00

bin there, done that...

Yesterday I launched a new project between Coca-Cola Great Britain and Southampton City Council as part of a strategic recycling initiative by the company which will mean the installation of fifty new recycling bins in Southampton city centre.
The ‘Recycle Zone’ partnership will make it easier for residents to recycle bottles and cans when they are out and about.There are 15 stainless steel bins for recycling and 35 black ones that are dual – one side for recycling and the other for general litter.
Coca-Cola has chosen Southampton City Council as the first local authority to host a city-centre Recycle Zone. This builds on the work the company has been leading across the country over the past year in partnership with Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to launch Recycle Zones in shopping centres, theme parks, transport hubs and universities.
There are currently 21 other live Recycle Zones which to date have collected some 20 tonnes of material for recycling, with a further 59 Zones planned by the end of 2011.
Southampton City centre will have 15 double stainless steel bins, liveried with the phrase ‘Keep it Going. Recycle’ with a further 35 dual recycling and litter bins located in parks and other central locations in the city.
All the new recycling bins are stylish in design and will be branded with Southampton City Council and Coca-Cola logos alongside information designed to inspire people to recycle more often.
Southampton City Council’s waste management team have also been provided with a branded collection vehicle to help with the specific collection and maintenance of the bins.
The launch of the Recycle Zone will be supported by a bespoke advertising campaign across the city, with outdoor, print and digital media all being used to encourage Southampton’s residents and visitors to make use of the facilities.
In addition, a new national ‘Keep it Going. Recycle’ campaign shows how recycling drinks bottles and cans can make a major difference to the environment by cutting the carbon footprint of a packaged drink by over a half. The campaign continues the work Coca-Cola undertook last year in partnership with the Carbon Trust which showed that packaging accounts for the largest proportion of a drink’s carbon footprint, underlining the importance for the business of using more recycled material in bottles and cans and of helping to increase consumer recycling levels.
The launch of the new Recycle Zone and ad campaign are just a couple of the steps in Coca-Cola’s journey to help consumers do more to reduce their impact on the environment. Despite the difficult economic conditions, research indicates that consumers are still concerned about ‘green’ issues, with recycling being the most commonly practised ‘green’ lifestyle behaviour.
As a result Southampton City Council and Coca-Cola are working to make it as easy as possible for people to recycle more often within the city. By boosting consumer recycling levels, Coca-Cola will at the same time be increasing the supply of local recyclate and be able to increase the amount of recycled content in its bottles and cans.

This is a fantastic value for money initiative, which will hopefully get more people recycling in the city. We know that in Southampton we need to do all we can to get people to recycle and, particularly, to make it easy for people to recycle and by working with Coca-Cola we can go some way towards achieving this.
I even had support from Robbie Robinson, Chair of Pensioners Forum who said: “This is a great idea, because you can recycle your plastic bottles and drink cans instead of them ending up in the general litter bin. It will help keep the parks and city clean, green and tidy." Praise indeed!

Fighting Fly Tipping!

2009-09-19T18:09:00.000+01:00

Convicted criminals clean up flytipping mess in Millbrook in Southampton

as part of the 'community payback' scheme.

On Thursday, Southampton City Council unveiled the latest weapon in the fight against fly tippers – Smart Water.
Smart Water is a colourless liquid which contains a unique chemical code which is registered to a particular user. It is applied to items and materials and is most commonly used as a way to protect people’s belongings from theft. Smart Water greatly increases the chances of recovering items if they are stolen as well as delivering a 100 per cent conviction rate when used as evidence in court. The technology has been adopted by a number of organisations across the UK to tackle crime such as burglary and shoplifting, and now Southampton City Council is the first local authority in the country to harness the technology to catch fly tippers.
In joint operations with the city council and the police, suspected fly tippers have been stopped and the contents of their vehicles searched and sprayed. Should these items end up being unlawfully dumped they are easily identifiable and the culprits can be traced. Used overtly in this way, Smart Water can be an effective tool in getting the message across about the likelihood of being caught if items on a property or vehicle are later found to be illegally dumped. It is particularly useful when dealing with the problem of rubbish and bulky items left in gardens, which too often end up being dumped on the street, in alleyways or on open land.
Council officers have also been out in the community talking to residents and explaining how Smart Water works and how items that are marked with the liquid can be traced back to where they came from. Waste must be disposed of legally and safely then those responsible could face prosecution.
Smart Water can also be used covertly to gain evidence and convict persistent fly tippers. Materials can be discreetly sprayed and the information recorded. Should these items end up being fly tipped they can be traced back to where they came from.
Personally, I'm pleased Southampton is leading the way with the use of innovative means of snaring illegal fly tippers. People who dump their waste illegally are not only blighting the environment and putting residents at risk, but they also face the risk of prosecution and a heavy fine. And now we have an even better chance of identifying the culprits. It is not fair that the law abiding majority should have to pay to clear up after a selfish minority. The city council provides many free and legal ways for disposing of waste. Mindlessly dumping rubbish on the side of the road or in our green spaces is lazy and selfish and costs the council a small fortune to clear up.

Alan Clark- A caricature of himself.

2009-09-19T16:52:00.000+01:00

Clarke the dandy- pictured in 1984.

The political conference season is the time that most publishers choose to publish political biographies and memoirs but the gruel is desperately thin this year- one of the worst I can remember. Ion Trewin's "Alan Clark- the biography" is one bright spot however and all the broadsheets have carried reviews of Trewin's latest work in recent days. Ion's book is very sympathetic to Clark, glossing over his obsessions (with Nazi's, women, even girls, his deeply unpleasant treatment of Jane and all the rest) while playing up his (usually) brilliant writing, his wit and his political career but it is nonetheless a good read of a man who was both cruel and flawed while being personable and talented, even likable. Some of the more sensationalist bits can be read HERE.

Clarke's diaries are the stuff of legend of course, brilliant writing combines mixing tales of power and intrigue at Westminster as (if not quite) a Thatcher insider then certainly a bit part player with Clarke's own leching and sexual successes as well as hypochondria.

It seems everyone has a memory of him.

I only met the great (but flawed) man once- at a Times literary debate between Alan Clark and John Charmley on one side who (revisiting the central thesis of John Charmely's 'Grand Alliance) were arguing that Churchill actually didn't need to work so hard and at considerable cost to GB to bring the United States into the war as it was inevitable anyway. Chaired by the then editor of The Times, Peter Stothard, this motion was opposed by a very elderly but articulate Robert Blake (The Conservative Party from Peel to Thatcher) and young Turk Andrew Roberts (who had just authored 'Eminent Churchillians'). I remember being fairly amused when Clark spoke in the debate as 'a very real historian' as he was certainly in the company of three far superior ones, and his only substantial work was Clark's first book, The Donkeys (1961), a revisionist history of the British Expeditionary Force's campaigns at the beginning of the Great War that was somewhat one-sided in its treatment of British generals of the First World War that in any event had been written 30 years before the debate that evening! Afterwards there was a drinks reception in the foyer of the general synod hall of the Church of England and Clark seemed genuinely delighted that both me and my mate had bought copies of the first volumes of his diaries to sign. When he asked what I did and I told him that I had just graduated in history, he wrote in my book, "To Matthew Dean, an amateur historian from a professional one. Alan Clark". I have to admit I did laugh- but only afterwards! At that moment a Lotus 7 pulled up outside driven by a very elegant Asian looking lady and, acting in almost a characterture of himself, Alan Clark said, 'I must go' and dashed after the lady outside!

Southampton Boat show set to smash records!

2009-09-13T18:04:00.000+01:00

Above- Independence of the Seas pictured as she leaves the show and below,

view from Town Quay.

On Saturday, I had the privilege of attending the Southampton Boat Show which is the largest outdoor boat show in the UK. The weather was glorious (unlike the last couple of years) and I am delighted to say (given the importance of the show to the economy) that the crowds were out in force- so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if, in terms of visitor numbers, this isn't the biggest Southampton Boat Show ever. From my own portfolio point of view, I am glad to say that the traffic was manageable (although I walked there, cue round of applause!) and I took a little quiet satisfaction as I mingled in the crowds in knowing that the Council has safeguarded the future of the show in Southampton until 2020.

Although the Boatshow organisers haven't said so, I am pretty sure that this will also be the largest show in terms of the number of exhibitors and it might even be in terms of gross value of orders taken at the show by exhibitors which would be remarkable in the current climate. That certainly seems possible if people follow the example of Eddie Jordan who bought one of the flagship £12million, 47 meter Sunseeker yachts.

It was good to see local businesses represented too- such as Dalmeny Leisure with their Banana Wharf and Dockgate 4 Bars, Wise Catering and Romsey's Hunton Powerboats to name three examples known to me personally.

Fingers crossed that the weather holds up and the exhibitors go on to have a fantastic week!

Off to APHA.

2009-09-07T14:09:00.000+01:00

I'm off to Newcastle upon Tyne for a few days for the annual Association of Port Health Authorities conference in my capacity as a Board Member.

Given the size of our port operation, Southampton is a significant player.

Port Health is one activity that recieves very little public interest (in fact Officers from other authorities complain that they struggle to get even elected Councillors interested) which is a little disconcerting as the work they do in keeping UK plc safe and well is of growing importance in this global age. Stopping unsafe imports of both finished food products but also food ingrediants is the obvious side of their work but stopping the spead of communicable diseases, looking after the Health & Safety interests of both crews and passengers, stopping the illegal import of dangerous or non compliant goods, assisting in the prevention of smuggling and people trafficking are all hugely important areas of work.
The interesting thing is that Labour started moves a few years ago to take responsibility away from local councils in the area of port health and centralise it in a new government quango (sorry, agency!) but drew away when it realised that, generally speaking, how effective councils were in this area and how much more expensive it would be if central government was to do it. Ordinarily, I guess that, on previous experience, that wouldn't have bothered them overly but a significant recharge is made to the importers themselves and not many of them would have stood for a huge hike in the prices!
Anyway, I am looking forward to the speakers and also the Newcastle nightlife- a few of the port health officers are into real ale and I am sure we will find some decent pubs plus I never have had (although I am assured it still exists) cask Newcastle Brown ale!

The future's bright...

2009-08-27T19:49:00.000+01:00

A lamp post in conservation area of Bugle Street...

which will be refurbished rather than replaced.

Let there be light!

Once in a while a Cabinet member gets to make a really significant decision that can bind the Authority for many years, can change lives and yes, even carries an element of risk if it goes wrong.

I made such a decision last week when I awarded Southampton's streetlighting PFI contract.

Work to replace and maintain 250,000 streetlights across Hampshire, West Sussex and Southampton in a £225 million 25 year private finance initiative (PFI) is set to be carried out by Tay Valley Lighting (TVL).

Hampshire County Council, West Sussex County Council and Southampton City Council joined forces in one of the biggest streetlighting PFI projects in the country. The contract is expected to be concluded later this year.
Southampton’s 25 per cent stake in the project will see the replacement or updating of thousands of street lights, illuminated signs and bollards with the latest energy efficient equipment during the first five years of the project. The focus for the following 20 years will be on maintaining and operating the new lights to a high standard, with Southampton's monitoring team keeping a check on project delivery and operations.
The massive PFI project will potentially provide a boost for jobs once it has started and has many other benefits including:
•investment in the most up to date, energy efficient equipment which conforms to the latest standards
•more efficient use of energy – with a potential reduction in current levels
•improved visibility and reduced light pollution at night
•safer streets and reduced crime
•fewer burning hours
•dimming lights by 25% to reduce carbon emissions with the ability to dim further
•security, efficiency and savings based on the length and scale of the contracts
All lighting stock over 15 years old will be replaced on a like for like basis with white fluorescent light in residential areas, giving greater clarity and representation of colour and features. This will enable key pressures on streetlighting such as better energy use, reducing the environmental impact, improving public safety and cutting carbon emissions, to be met.
A publicly available briefing paper can be read HERE.

The scorched earth policy continued...

2009-08-27T17:50:00.000+01:00

Turned out nice again...

Minnosotta Bridge 2007- the result of poor infrastructure investment...

In his recent article ‘In My View’ (Echo 25 August) Alan Whitehead MP writes ‘Some significant and positive developments have just been announced regarding affordable homes in Southampton’ before listing some national (not local) policies that this Labour government has announced.
What Professor Whitehead does not mention is that housing growth money in Southampton, along with the wider South Hampshire area is to have its capital money to fund essential infrastructure like roads and vital flood defences to combat climate change by cut by a shocking 48%.
In correspondence, Labour ministers indicate that this cut is required to fund the so called Housing Pledge announced by Gordon Brown that is intended to supposedly deliver 20,000 houses over the next two years and that for Labour, this is a higher priority than infrastructure funding in the current economic circumstances.
Sadly, history tells us that to view housing in isolation from infrastructure, roads, jobs, public services and all the rest is the negation of proper town planning and can lead to social problems of the very worst sort.
Further more, Mr Whitehead omits to mention that these cuts are deeper than anywhere else in the UK. They are however just another example of why, despite having 2 Labour MPs, this Labour government offers an appalling deal to Southampton residents at the expense of the Scotland, the North East and North West of England as they attempt to prop up their crumbling political support.

NB Not for readers of a nervous dispisition granted, but the Institution of Civil Engineers would seem to agree!

Free buses in sunny (?) Southampton this weekend! Woa!

2009-08-26T13:47:00.000+01:00

Portland Terrace chaos!

Here is a copy of the press release I issued as part of my attempts to beat congestion this weekend;

Free bus travel as nine cruise liners sail into Southampton

Southampton will host the arrival of nine of the world’s most impressive cruise liners over the August bank holiday weekend.

And to make it easier to get around the city, the council is working with the city’s bus companies to lay on free bus travel for the weekend.

During Saturday and Sunday there will be nearly one million tons of ship in Southampton’s docks with about 47,500 passengers coming and going. Five cruise liners are docking on Saturday, with a further four on Sunday.

The extra visitors in the city should provide a boost for businesses and tourist attractions across the city, potentially generating millions for the local economy.

However, with more than 12,000 extra vehicles expected on the roads the council is doing all it can to help people to get around the city by funding free bus travel. The council is teaming up with Blue Star and First bus companies, to provide free bus travel until 6pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The journeys will be free as long as they start and finish within the city’s boundaries.

Councillor Matt Dean, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “I am delighted to announce that free bus travel will be provided for everyone this weekend. It is Southampton City Council’s responsibility to make sure we keep the city moving, and if we can do that by getting people to use public transport than terrific.”

“This will be a wonderful opportunity to get on the bus to access all our great city has to offer during a weekend when we are expecting the roads to be particularly busy.”

“I would encourage as many people as possible to come and see the ships coming in, which will be a fantastic sight.

“There will also be lots to do and see in the city during the weekend so make sure you don’t miss out.”

The Echo's take on things can be read HERE.

Recycling 'on the go'

2009-08-24T17:27:00.000+01:00

At the recycling unit with fellow Councillors Roy Smith & Jeremy Moulton plus Mrs Bottle...

Last week, I was delighted to host the launch of a trial of a new automated recycling unit outside the Tesco Metro store in Ocean village part of a trial of just 10 stores.The units will be able to recycle PET plastic drinks bottles, aluminium and steel cans which are the most common waste on the high street.

At £25,000, the cost of the automated units is not cheap (for Tescos who are funding the capital cost of the equipment in full ) but the kit is impressive; it is able identify different materials and then segregate and compact them ready for recycling. Having the privilege of opening up the machine and seeing the end result of the shedding process was particularly impressive- the shredded material was tiny.

By having the recycling units situated at street level outside convenience stores, the hope is that we can reach more people by making facilities more accessible to pedestrians when they're 'on-the-go', leading to increased levels of recycling and cleaner streets.

Selling the art for Southampton's new Heritage Centre and Sea City Museum

2009-08-24T14:56:00.000+01:00

Above- the West Wing.

"After the Race", its time for a sale...

The squeeze on local government is on- we all know that and shockingly simply because Southampton is a small unitary authority on the South Coast, it gets an appalling deal from the Labour government in terms of its revenue support grant. The result of government grant settlements that are below inflation year after year are inevitably efficiency savings, service cuts or higher taxes. Not surprisingly, politicians shy away from these unpalatable truths, especially at election time.

Inevitably (and in some ways) quite unfairly, it is the arts and heritage that bear the brunt of such cost pressures- perhaps as they are often neither considered front line services nor statutory services. Indeed, when asked, the arts are neither political priorities for many elected members or indeed for many members of the general public. However, in the real world, that does not mean that politicians don't have obligations to the arts (despite the views of the Institute of Economic Affairs' John Blundell).

Southampton City Council's Conservative Administration has appointed Wilkinson Eyre to begin designing the city’s newest heritage attraction, the 'Sea City' Museum. These ambitious plans, to turn the old magistrates courts and police head quarters, at Southampton’s City Councils’ Civic Centre, west wing would cost an estimated £15 million.
The new heritage centre will provide access to and interpretation of Southampton City Councils internationally important maritime heritage collections and will also restore the west wing of the Grade II* listed Civic Centre building. The project will include an exhibition which will help tell the story of the crew members of the Titanic, a story that has largely gone untold outside of Southampton, and around 4,000 items related to and recovered from the Titanic ship will be displayed there. The council expects that this phase of the project will be completed by 2012.
Wilkinson Eyre will lead the design team for the project, which includes locally based consulting engineer Gifford, Davis Langdon, who will act as quantity surveyors and architectural and design company while Urban Salon who will develop educational, original and fun ways to communicate the historical stories within the museum.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a first round pass and there is a potential to secure a further £4.5 million for the first phase of the work, which the council can apply for once it has completed detailed plans. However, even if successful, the council will still need to find a further £10 million to fund the first phase of the project. Southampton City Council is currently exploring all possible opportunities for raising the money and this is where the problems start.

How to pay for the new attraction? Higher Council taxes are out, not least on the grounds of affordability. There is no sign that central government support for the the local authority will be any more generous, despite the inequitable position the council finds itself in. The council's capital programme is over programmed and while deliverable, is over borrowed. The existing art gallery is running at a huge loss, borne by the authority and in any way, does not charge for admission. The alternative then is to sell some of the non-core parts of the collection and re-invest in art.

This would have some useful benefits. In no particular order,

It would enable the art collection to be better displayed (at the moment the gallery displays 250 out of some 3000 works),
It would increase the number of visitors overall as well as providing a more populist slant to the current arts offering.
It would safeguard the West Wing of the civic centre, a grade 2* building that includes the important magistrates court which itself needs huge capital monies to restore (as water is pouring into the structure)
It would lever in huge third party funding from the Lottery and other interested bodies.
the scheme should be considered in the round for plans to develop Guildhall square and the new 'cultural quarter', a project which the council is committed to investing circa £15m.

Yet, as reported in The Independent today some people are vehemently against. It seems you should never sell a painting, no matter how much at the periphery of your core collection may be and however worthy the use that such funds might be put to are.

I would contend that outside of the arts world, this is an absurd proposition.

Defending London Road!

2009-08-24T14:18:00.000+01:00

the finished article...

The letter below is perhaps a little acerbic but some Residents (a tiny majority) are so incredibly negative, sometimes even the Politicians bite!

Southampton City Council
c/o The Cabinet Member Office
Civic Centre
Southampton
SO14 7LY

Dear Letters Editor,

Mr Evan’s of Bassett may attack me (Echo Letters 20 August) for congratulating local traders who are struggling with one of the deepest recessions since the war and the team who designed and built the new carriageway, signage, lighting and pavements in London Road but I stand by my comments- even minor elected politicians like me need to back businesses first, second and last in these hard economic times. It is worth noting that the London Road scheme recently came second in the national Institute for Highways & Transportation annual awards.

Its interesting that I am being accused of spin as the normal criticism is that I am too outspoken. To misquote an old phrase, ‘you can please some people some of the time but you can’t please Mr Evans any of the time!’

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Dean
Portfolio holder for Environment & Transport

Hang in there Alan!

2009-06-15T23:37:00.000+01:00

Bob Ainsworth the MP for Coventry East was appointed Secretary of State for Defence and this could have major repercussions for Alan Whitehead MP in terms of his future preferment- for Bob is the first Cabinet Minister for over 40 years to have a moustache, that designer appendage sported by Alan himself!

"A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away”- Arthur Miller (I think!)

2009-05-04T16:08:00.000+01:00

“An orange on the table, your dress on the rug, and you in my bed, sweet present of the present, cool of night, warmth of my life.”
Jacques Prevert (French poet, 1900-1977)

Readers of this blog may have been hoping for some insightful political commentary or even (and rather more likely) some vacuous prose about politics or more generally Southampton affairs- unfortunately instead I have just spent the last half an our cleaning my desk after the bottle of orange juice I forgot to remove on Thursday fermented, exploded and then dried to a cement like consistency all over my desk!

And I thought the 'Orange Book ' was about Liberalism- post accident, the (now) orange book on my desk is a copy of 'Reach for the Ground' by Jeffrey Bernard!

A year ago...

2009-05-02T17:17:00.000+01:00

the sweet taste of success...at last!

(the Conservatives last had majority control of the City in 1983!)

One year ago last Thursday the Conservatives took majority control of the City Council in Southampton as they gained 8 seats.

The results- certainly for the Lib-Dems and Labour were totally unexpected- the Lib-Dems lost every seat they contested, Labour managed to win two seats and the Conservatives won the remaining 15.
It has been an eventful and important year since for the City but as supporters of the short lived Lib-Lab coalition ponder on what may have been and the Conservatives allow themselves just a short moment to reflect on their election success, I wonder if the left and centre parties realise how lucky they are not to have had elections last Thursday (this year is a 'rest year' as Southampton currently elects in thirds with three members per ward, all serving a four year term).
I would guess on current opinion polling date (the Tories are circa 18 points ahead), that we would win every seat.
That would mean that the new political composition of the council would alter by the Conservatives having an additional 12 seats!
It will be interesting to see how the European elections go next month- personally I don't think it now impossible the Labour Party will poll below 20%.

£300k extra for new pothole repairs- but it is still a drop in the ocean!

2009-04-30T16:14:00.000+01:00

The fabled 'Rhinopatch' machine

Good, great and bad news!

I have pressed the council to find more money centrally to help support the Highways Service reactive repairs programme (in English, that really means the gangs who repair potholes) and the GREAT news is the Conservative Administration has been able to find the extra cash. As anyone who drives or cycles in Southampton knows, the state of our roads is appalling after decades of underinvestment.

The GOOD news (and this is almost impossible to quantify), the money will fill anything up to 4000- 4500 pot holes which is by anybodies recognising, a significant amount. Since becoming the portfolio holder for Environment & Transport, I have worked hard to try and raise the productivity of the service. Morale was low, absenteeism high, the quality of repairs variable and productivity at times unacceptable. Our first step was to introduce a private sector partner, in the form of Colas, to work with us and crucially actually embed their staff into the management of the Council's organisation. They had access to all sorts of capital equipment and road treatments that a relatively small unitary authority could not afford (such as the Rhinopatch machine, pictured above). We commissioned gangs from Colas to work alongside our own crews to benchmark our own productivity- and help raise it. Our record keeping was shambolic. We have bought an off the shelf computerised system to ensure that jobs are not 'lost' rather than relying on paper based methods. We recruited dedicated Highways inspectors who would examine defects, arrange for the repairs to be carried out and then check the quality of the work post-completion. We sorted out our procurement so we were not over paying on materials. And with a near doubling of productivity, we have committed to spend an additional £700k p.a. each and every year for the next four years. So no one can say, despite the chronic underfunding that the Conservative-run Southampton City Council faces from central government, that we are not doing our bit.

The BAD news is, it is not enough. Some of our roads shouldn't be maintained by the city at all (such as the A35 and A3024). Despite being designated by the Highways Agency as roads of 'national strategic or economic importance', the HA refuses to fund their repair. Even more serious is that since about September last year, the government has been procrastinating on releasing a whole new round of PFI credits. From a Southampton perspective, it is vital that we get a slice of that government money to repair our appalling road network in Southampton. Central government should wake up to its responsibilities and fund local authorities properly to do this essential work.

Happy returns for the Duke of Boots

2009-04-30T14:45:00.001+01:00

Tory Historian speculates that today might be the birthday of the great Iron Duke -I wouldn't know.

Pleasingly, part of his legacy is that two of Southampton's best pubs are named in his honour- the Duke of Wellington in Bugle Street and the Wellington Arms in Park Road. His birthday or not, it is always a pleasant experience to visit either hostelry as the beer in both in terms of choice and condition, is always excellent, the clientele convivial.

A good day for the Gurkhas- and parliamentary democracy.

2009-04-30T13:20:00.000+01:00

Pic courtesy Peter Brookes, The Times 30th April 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon/

The shock defeat of the government yesterday by just 21 votes over the issue of allowing Gurka former solders, their families and dependants to settle in the UK is great news; not just for for the Gurkas themselves of course (and surely they are the most deserving of groups?) but also a great day for parliamentary democracy. Parliament works best when backbenchers find their voice, especially over issues such as this and this is the first time a government has lost an opposition day debate since James Callaghan had a bloody nose in January 1978.

The Gurkhas have quite some connection with with Southern Hampshire as the King's Royal Rifle Corp, which later became the Royal Green Jackets, fought with the Gurkhas in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and Winchester is home to the Gurkha museum. while just down the road, in Ampfield is the Sir Harold Hillier Garden and Arboretum where the Gurkha memorial garden which commemorates the Gurkha soldiers who have given their lives in the service of the Crown (not even their country) is situated.

How did our local MPs vote? As usual, a depressing story. In thrall of the whips, Denham and Whitehead voted with the government to keep the Gurkhas out, while shockingly Lib-Dem MP Sandra Gidley missed the vote as did even more amazingly did Winchester MP Mark Oaten. Perhaps Gidley and Oaten didn't feel it a matter of significant importance to warrant their attendance? If so, a damning indictment of their political priorities.

It will be interesting to see if this is the beginning of the political end-game for Brown now. Personally, I doubt he will be able to recover not least due to today's almost certain humiliation over his proposals regarding MP's expenses. And as Labour MPs peer into the political abyss after Labour's meltdown of the forthcoming European elections, they will surely strike?

P.S. There are some fairly good Gurkha restaurants locally for people that like mainly dry, Nepalese curries;the first two are both run or owned by Gurkha veterans.

The Gurkha Kitchen in Canute Road is probably the best of the bunch, situated in an old 'beer house' off Ocean Village and pleasingly decorated with a varied menu and good service .

The Gurkha Chef, is just down from the Railway station in Winchester and while a little faded, is always busy but you are at the mercy of which staff are on duty as the service can be a bit variable.

A third, untried (by me) is the Gurkha Kitchen in Parchment Street in Winch.

Chris, I don't know about dragons but a leopard never changes its spots!

2009-04-19T15:36:00.000+01:00

Echo letter.

Dear Letters Editor,

'Let's celebrate St George and Englishness' says Chris Huhne.

Good idea but could this really be the same man who wrote 'The Arguments for the Euro' and as one of our most federalist MEPs, led the campaign locally to scrap the pound and erode British sovereignty?

If I was a cynic, I would be tempted to suggest Mr Huhne's new found patriotism may have something to do with him having to submit himself to a general election within the next 11 months in a highly marginal seat rather than a change in his political views!

You would have to ask St George about dragons, but I suspect that Lib-Dem MPs, like leopards, never change their spots!

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Dean

What's worth reading at the moment?

2009-04-18T20:52:00.000+01:00

I had a (relatively) pleasant afternoon walking around Southampton's IKEA (no recession there- as busy as anything), pondering which bookcases to buy and purchasing the obligitory Swedish meatballs.

Purchases at the nearby Border's bookshop were as follows;

Austerity Britain by David Kynaston

Nixon and Kissinger; Partners in Power by Robert Dallek

The Storm;the World Economic Crisis & What It Means by Vince Cable

and the optimistically titled

The Rotton State of Britain by Eamon Butler

I am not sure that Dr Butler of the Adam Smith Institute will agree with doyen of the Liberal -Democrats, Mr Cable's anaysis but I expect they will be a good read. My only frustation is that with running my own business and being a portfolio holder at the Council, I never seem to get time to do any serious recretional reading any more!

Still, worse things happen at sea as they say!

Seen and not 'herd' !

2009-04-18T19:45:00.000+01:00

moo...ved in- Aberdean Angus Cattle

As SKY report, a small heard of cows are set to become the guardians of part of the Monks Brook site - at least for the time being.

Longtime readers of this blog will recall Monks Brook is a site in the ownership of two local Authorities, Southampton City Council at one end and Hampshire County Council at the other. The Southampton end was proposed for a Gypsy and Travellers transit site by the last Lib-Dem administration and this was supported by the Labour despite a huge campaign by locals and the Conservatives as the site is unsuitable for a plethora of reasons despite being granted planning approval.

The new Conservative Council are strongly committed to saving this important area of green open space. In the short term, while BTC conclude their discussions with Hampshire County Council to determine if they may or may not use the site recreationally for sports pitches, the County Council seem to have taken pragmatic measures to deal with an ongoing problem.

Good for them!

Farewell Sir Clement

2009-04-18T18:48:00.000+01:00

Cranberry Terrace today,

one-time site of the Berkley Hotel in Southampton.

I was sorry to hear of the death of Sir Clement Freud, dog food advertiser, wit, cookery expert, one-time Liberal MP and as Keith Hamilton reports, director of the Berkley Hotel in Cranberry Terrace (now, in a microcosm of what Southampton has become, a mix of private flats and social housing...).

As well as running great gastronomic feasts there, Sir Clement also ran one cookery demonstration at the Southampton Guildhall that attracted over 500 people as well as making a number of TV programmes from the old Northam TV studios.

He was a regular of the long-running BBC comedy radio programme 'Just a Minute' the Panel game in which the contestants are challenged to speak on a named subject for one minute without hesitation, deviation or repetition.

As the Daily Telegraph note, Freud was a brilliant joke teller. Some of them can be seen and heard HERE.

my favorite was on 'Just a Minute' he told a joke about how he had been asked to address a public meeting. One particularly bad tempered old Socialist barked out from the back of the room, 'Why are you so fat?'
'Because every time I sleep with your wife she gives me a biscuit.' Clement Freud replied.

Classic!

Highfield Resident's Association

2009-04-17T14:12:00.000+01:00

Highfield House Hotel, venue of the Highfield Resident's Association Meeting

Speech delivered to the 33rd AGM of Highfield Resident's Association (well, near enough- I expanded on the bullet points and told a few more jokes!). It was a interesting night!

Thank-you Mr. Chairman for your kind invitation this evening.

To misquote a famous phrase, I see you are working on the premise

Last and least rather than last and not least

as you have heard the distinguished speakers who have addressed you before me tonight.

A few months ago, I had lunch with the author, broadcaster, entertainer and one-time Conservative MP Gyles Brandreth.

He said to me, “you know Matthew, as a politician you meet only two types of people; people with problems and people who are right”.

Well Mr Chairman, as the Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport, I have spent quite some time engaging with Highfield Resident’s Association and if I may say so, you happen to be quite unusual as you don’t shy away from sharing your problems and, an inconvenience for a minor elected politician, you also happen to almost always be RIGHT!

So 9 months as your Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport and one year into the new Conservative administration, perhaps this 33rd AGM of Highfield resident's Association is a good time for me to reflect on what the Council has achieved that is pertinent to your area and muse a little over what the Council needs to focus on in the immediate future.

So what have we done?

- Conservation Officer Team Leader

- Conservation Officer

- Local list

- Started to update character appraisals for Conservation Areas

- Oakmount Triangle Conservation Area

- Article 4 dedication of Portswood Gardens tightening up Development control requirements for this area

- Family housing policy
o SPD
o Core strategy

- Parking
o –TROs, esp Brookvale Road

- Little Common- a serious clear up

- Saved the Number 7 bus!

- Appointed a permanent Head of Planning & Sustainability in Paul Nichols and it is great to see him in the audience here this evening

and I think shows you the level of commitment Officers have to both this area and the city.

I mentioned to Paul after a meeting this afternoon that I was speaking this evening and asked him if he knew any good Town Planning jokes- after all greater love hath no man than he who lays down his jokes for his colleagues.

Paul replied that planning jokes, like Development Control Enforcement Officers are sometimes a little short on the ground when you need them!

So what’s next Mr Chairman?

Big ticket items.

Firstly, to continue to lobby government RE HMOs and the use classes order so we have some proper planning rules that actually bite.

Secondly, lobby her majesty’s opposition to the same end. Without subjecting you to my political prejudices Chairman and despite the Minister of State’s assurances when we met him, I still believe there is a real chance that any new housing and planning bill could fail through lack of parliamentary time and we need to be alive of the consequences of a possible change of government following a general election.

Thirdly, to make it as easy as possible to facilitate the University and other institutions to build more Halls of Residence through the planning process and indeed, lobby them to do so.

Fourthly, to continue to pursue enforcement action where appropriate in areas like the unauthorised developments in Crofton Close

And finally,

To campaign for a fair government grant to fund local government for cities like Southampton. All of what we have spoken about this evening costs money Chairman and this council is not resourced appropriately.

Mr. Chairman, Lord Mancroft the businessman, politician and former heroin addict once said that a speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start it but to end it requires considerable skill.

Not in this case Mr. Mayor- who am I to keep you and your colleagues from that very tempting array of wine and nibbles over there?

It remains only for me, on behalf of the City Council to thank Highfield Residents Association for all you do for your area and the wider community.

It was 20 years ago!

2009-04-10T14:37:00.000+01:00

one out, all out...

As my friend Iain Dale reports in the Daily Telegraph, twenty years ago the Dock Labour scheme was abolished. The scheme had become, as Norman Fowler said in parliament, "a total anachronism"

The Dock Labour Scheme was based on Bevin’s wartime registration scheme for dockworkers. Then in 1972, as a result of an infamous deal between Lord Aldington on behalf of Ted Heath's government of the day and the union baron Jack Jones, dockers were effectively given 'jobs for life' as registered dockers laid off by any of the 150 firms bound by the scheme have to be taken on by another or be paid £25,000.

The NDLS became responsible for the registration, allocation, payment, training and medical care of all dockworkers in ports like Southampton. The Southampton branch of the Transport and General Workers Union became masters of all they surveyed. The Unions had effective control over recruitment and dismissals. Restrictive practises were rife. As in the print industry at that time, 'ghosting' was popular'- the practise of allocating and paying dockers to do a job which couldn't’t be done by dockers and ensuring they never appeared to do the job. The trouble is they had real pay packets and the shippers, importers and exporters had to pay. The docks were losing trade to foreign ports and non- unionised facilities in places like Felixstow. Other practices such as welting and bobbing were endemic. All these practices involved establishing an inflated gang size and letting half of them "bob off" home for the day. Disappointment money, embarrassment money; all sorts of money for fictional hardships, you name it, it was all there. If you weren't related to a docker, the chances of you getting a job in the industry were minimal and if you happened to be female, it was also virtually a no no as the old Trade Union order asserted itself. It was, in every sense, 'job for the boys'.

Major strikes over wages and working arrangements threatened to bring the port to a standstiill on a regular basis. Management was effectively hand tied as it was a criminal offence for docks such as Southampton not to be part of the scheme and a criminal offence to employ non registered dockers. Essential investment into the docks such as the move to containerisation was effectively vetoed by the Unions as they existed solely to protect the interests of a narrow section of employees at the expense of all else. Even if a dock worker committed a criminal offence, it was effectively impossible to sack or discipline him without union approval. The former director of Britain’s National Association of Port Employers, Nicholas Finney OBE tells the story of how in 1982 a Southampton dockworker was dismissed for a serious criminal offence involving theft over quite a long period of time. He served the prison sentence, was returned to the labour pool and within six months on full back pay, was put back to employment in the same area from which he had come.

In short, the dock Labour scheme had to go.

When the then Secretary of State, Norman Fowler announced the Dock Labour (Abolition) Bill including generous redundancy terms of £35,000 to every docker in April, it genuinely appeared to catch the T&GWU on the hop. Wildcat strikes by militants were inevitable but a Saturday session of the High Court then ruled an all out national strike illegal.

Locally, Sir James Hill the Member of Parliament for Southampton Test welcomed the Bill in the teeth of opposition from Labour politicians. The act received Royal Assent on 6 July. By then, strike action was dying out as the court action and the return to work by many dockers, not least as they didn't wish to lose their £35,000 redundancy, coupled with the ability of shippers to find other ports meant that the unions knew that the game was up.

Within months, new jobs were created, shipping costs fell as productivity increased and morale improved. The port of Southampton was able to develop its site and in time, was privatised and a what was a drain on the public purse became a contributor to the exchequer.

And all in the teeth of Labour opposition.

'Manners maketh man'

2009-04-08T13:32:00.000+01:00

Politness personified?- William of Wykeham

'Manners maketh man' so said William of Wykeham (1324-1404), bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College and New College, Oxford.

One of the few things I think I am fairly good at is thanking people who work for me, both in my pubs and at the Council and after all politeness costs nothing and a little courtesy can generate a lot of good will.

How amazing then to see this footage at the BBC.

It reminds me of the story that Alastair Campbell tells in his diary when the then Prime Minister

Tony Blair arrived at an election event during a downpour. The organiser, a lady called Jess Tyrell was holding an umbrella: "TB just took it out of her hands and walked on, leaving her to get wet' records Campbell. As Peter Oborne observes, such behaviour from Tony Blair was by no means unusual.

Needlessly unpleasant.

They can't be serious...can they?

2009-03-29T18:55:00.000+01:00

any port in a storm...

"They can't be serious, can they?", exclaimed one senior Southampton Council Officer when they saw the Governments proposals to massively increase port landing fees. As Gareth Lewis reported in Friday's Daily Echo, the huge tax rise may spell disaster for the Port of Southampton.

Southampton is particularly vulnerable is it has built its business model on the quick turnaround of larger container ships and on cruise liners which would both be liable to pay the 70% increase.

As well as the danger to jobs (over 12,000 people are employed in the ports and allied trades in and around Southampton,) the environmental consequences could be serious too as boats decant in France and then use smaller vessels to land ashore in the UK.

The cost to UK PLC will be significant as imports become more expensive and exports less competitive.

As usual, whenever this government goes anything controversial, the city's two MPs go to ground - Alan Whitehead hasn't commented publicly while John Denham uses the excuse he can't as he is a Minister.

Rest assured that as the Cabinet Member for Transport, I will be fighting the proposals vigorously, joining with industry to lobby government to withdraw these crazy plans.

I just can't believe the industy is facing a fresh attack, especially after the port rates fiasco...

Hopes dashed?

2009-03-28T17:00:00.000Z

Mr Wright & one time friend, Liz Dawn...

On the 17th March Iain Wright MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government visited the Council at the Civic Centre. This was the culmination of a long standing campaign by Highfield Resident's Association for government to consider how very high numbers of larger 'Houses of Multiple Occupation' can change the character of older urban areas and review what can be done about it.

The first thing to note about Mr Wright is his relative youth (b.1972, he is the same age as me!) and like his immediate parliamentary predecessor, he certainly seems a smooth operator with the gift of the gab. That said, while the Minister could not have been more charming, I really don’t think he could have realistically have been less supportive of Southampton at all. On would have thought that given his loyalties to the area he represents, he could have been a bit more understanding of Southampton's plight. Southampton is extremely unusual in that the council estimates 58% of its housing stock in the central area of the city are classed as HMOs and 9 % of the stock across the city, compared to just 2% nationally.

The fundamental issue was, as I see it, that he didn’t really acknowledge the difficulties that having very high densities of HMOs in established older urban areas creates. Until one considers that central problem, one cannot identify relevant solutions. Indeed he said at one point that he wanted to see a larger private sector housing element in most cities (and if he did that nationally, presumably by making the buy to let market more attractive to landlords) the consequences for areas like Highfield could be incredibly profound.

On the matter of the relaxation of permitted development rights within the planning process, I also saw no recognition of the issues that have been created by the opening of that particular Pandora’s Box. I just don’t think it is a priority for political priority for him at the moment.

My biggest disappointment was on the issue of the use classes order. Until larger HMOs can be bought into and tested by the planning process, there will be nothing other than a largely unplanned piecemeal approach to development. His reluctance to make any commitment in this area, talking about ‘unintended consequences’ and all the rest was profoundly disappointing. I spoke to our Head of Planning & Sustainability at the Council after the meeting and in terms of a pre-legislative consultation; there certainly has been nothing forthcoming from government in recent months.

I felt his focus on community engagement (a laudable activity in itself) showed this lack of understanding of the problem. My view is that the University could not reasonably do more to engage with the local area and no one (as far as I am aware) has ever alleged that this is a problem in recent times. It is not that we are unable to live side by side but the social consequences of depopulation of families, older and working people that need to be considered.

My only comfort is that he did at least appear to commit to think about the problem and indicated that legislative time would be found if that was an appropriate solution at the end of the meeting, having earlier indicated he was pretty cool on the idea.

On a personal level, thanks to everyone from HRA for inviting me and letting me address the meeting; our wider concerns could not have been put more articulately by the HRA committee members as well as the University who answered the Ministers point's with brevity and courtesy.

Under the Boadwalk...

2009-03-07T14:50:00.001Z

the site of the new 'boadwork' cycleway

Monday the 16th March sees the Planning & Rights of Way Panel consider an application for the City Council to create a million pound scheme to create a cycleway along the Itchen between Northam Bridge and Horseshoe bridge in St Denys.

I am pleased (and relieved) that the clear Officer recommendation is to approve the application- in fact, I expect it to sail through. For information, the report can be read under item 5 HERE.

The project is in fact quite unusual as although the City Council is in fact the client, the project is being managed by Sustrans which is a charity dedicated to sustainable transport and particularly cycling. I signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Sustrans on the 20th November last year on behalf of the council.

To enable the project, a grant of some £450k from the lottery fund is forthcoming as a result of the scheme winning part of the great £50million lottery giveaway. The level of interest locally was considerable and I was glad to be able to support the campaign.

For once, Network Rail were also very supportive corporately. They had to do a considerable amount of piling to stop their railway falling into the Itchen in 2007 and being aware of the project, carried out the works allowing space for the boardwork; in fact without that piling, the project wouldn't have been viable.

If all goes well, construction work should start in April with a completion date of October this year. Exciting times.

The PM & Cabinet comes to Southampton

2009-02-25T16:10:00.000Z

quayside...

Brown addresses Southampton (I am seated with my back to the photographer,

1st on the left, next to the Chief Constable)

Above; Smith points to me (out of camera happily!)Milliband, Whitehead, Blears & Simon Woodward of Utlicom unveiling

the 'Carbon Calculator' at the CHP plant during the visit I hosted.

As was widely trailed in the press that morning, Monday the 23rd was the day the Cabinet left the metropolis to visit Southampton.
As the Cabinet member responsible for Environment & Transport, the first official confirmation I had about the visit was from a stream of complaints from commuters who were stopped from exiting or entering Southampton Central railway station as some of the Cabinet arrived by train.

After doing some press at the City College (that is doing an excellent job training and supporting new apprentices), local MP John Denham and Gordon Brown joined the Cabinet for a (very short) meeting at the Cruise liner Terminal. There then followed a invitation only Q&A session with about 200 local worthies. Denham introduced Brown who stood up and spoke without notes for 20 minutes or so. Each table was chaired by a Minister (usually a Cabinet Minister) with an Official note taker to record the proceedings. My minister was Home Secretary Jacqui Smith although interestingly, the MP for the mega marginal seat of Crawley Laura Moffatt was also there. I had the misfortune to sit next to Ms Moffatt who throughout Mr Brown's speech 'oohed' and 'ahhhed' with a regular peppering of 'well saids', 'yes, yes' and 'quite rights' thrown in for good measure. Quite who she thought her audience was, I can't imagine. Smith was businesslike and well briefed and looked the part, although from a Hampshire point of view, pointedly refused to offer to guarantee that the ring fenced funding for all the PCSOs across the county would continue.

Gordon Brown got around about half the tables in the room and when he got to ours, I noticed how white and tired looking he was. In addition, his eye looked quite sore. After a deafening silence from my table, I asked the PM if he would be prepared to look again at the revaluation of business rates- a subject that is worrying many businesses in the country- big and small and was an issue that is causing real nervousness in the business community. Brown didn't appear to know about it, mumbled a few words about it being linked with inflation, smiled and moved on. Interestingly, the first question that was then asked when Brown stepped back up to the podium and invited questions from the audience was on this very subject! This time (conscious that he wasn't answering me but hundreds of people no doubt!), he deferred to Hazel Blears, inviting her to reply. Encouragingly, she said she would have another look at it!

Brown spoke at length but there was little new in what he had to say- other than the odd reference to the new government initiative 'Real Help Now'.

For the next part of the day, Ministers were dispatched across the city on various photo opportunities. As the Cabinet member for Environment, I hosted a visit to the groundbreaking Geothermal & CHP scheme that is run as a joint venture between Utilicom and the City Council. As we toured the site under the watchful eye of local Labour MP Alan Whitehead, my two guests Ed Miliband and Hazel Blears could not have been more different.

Milliband came across as urbane, serious, well briefed minister who was very smooth, Ms Blears excitable and touchy feely but with little interest in the subject which is amazing given her Cabinet responsibilities. I would go further and say Hazel might not be too keen on bloggers but as far as I was concerned, the unattraction was fairly mutual! Our party was given a short (but excellent) presentation by the Chief Exec of Utilicom, Simon Woodward and I noticed Milliband was listening intently.

A real concern about the viability of big CHP schemes is DECC's proposal to open up private networks to third party access- the net result being that the banks would just not finance district energy schemes with multiple users (e.g. residential projects) due to the risk of customer erosion.

A second issue is the implementation of the CRC (Carbon reduction Commitment) in 2010 which will apply to gas in communal housing but not individual gas boilers so many (often social) landlords are considering removing communal schemes. Miliband promised to look at both of these issues, and to his credit, I think he meant it. Meanwhile, Hazel smiled benignly...

A quick look around a residential development that utilised the scheme followed, then in a flash they were boarding the three o'clock train and were gone.

So what did I think?

Well, the battle lines are being drawn for the next general election and the line in the sand Labour is choosing to defend is clearly Southampton. To put 220 people in a room drawn from the local community and then have them worked on by the PM and the best 20 people in the Labour party (presumably in the expectation that some messages will then be disseminated into the community) is smart politics. Ditto for getting the Ministers to do co-ordinated photoshoots and press opportunities across the city.

It is a tribute to Royston Smith & Jeremy Moulton that Labour should regard them as such a threat- I doubt they would have done two years ago.

Fame at last!

2008-09-03T01:51:00.000+01:00

picture courtesy of the blowing my own trumpet department...

Burning the midnight oil as my girlfriend dozes softly on the sofa (snoring irritatingly but intermittently!) and I alternate between reading myself into my new job and surfing the net, I see that Iain Dale has put me in his Top 100 'Right of Centre political blogs' ! I have to say I feel guilty about this given my lack of posts lately but I appreciate the recognition- cheers Iain!

I knew Iain before he himself became famous (or should that be infamous?!!!) as one of Britain's most read political bloggers. I first met Iain when he was the founding proprietor of Politicos, the political bookshop he opened in Artillery Row. A cross between genial nightclub host, gossip columnist and consummate salesman, things have certainly never been the same there since the dead hand of Metheun took over...

While running the shop, he then went onto found the Politicos Publishing Imprint to publish both new political books and updated issues of old favorites. Being a true gent, he kindly agreed to address one of the cream teas I ran at the Elizabeth House Hotel which were great fun *.

I went on to ran a couple of literary dinners with authors Dale had published, memorably Lord Tim Renton where he spoke about his book 'Chief Whip' and Sir Rex Hunt who recalled his 'Falkland Days'.

With Dale's leading edge work on 18 Doughty Street (an idea ahead of its time) and his latest venture, the politically dedicated, editorially independent 'Total Politics' magazine, Iain has made a remarkable contribution to political debate and ideas over the last 15 years or so.

(* Sadly, the final one was held just a couple weeks ago with guest speaker Julian Lewis MP)

A Classic cartoon!

2008-09-03T00:26:00.001+01:00

Gerald Scarfe, Mac, Vicky-all classics of the genre but some of the contemporary artists are as good as any from history.
I laughed out loud when I saw Peter Brook's cartoon in The Times today. Brilliant!

In the cabinet!

2008-09-03T00:02:00.000+01:00

oh happy days...!

Well its been a long time since I've blogged and its been down mostly pressure of time and (oddly), actually something of writers block as I haven't had much interesting to say that frankly hasn't been said more eloquently or been better informed elsewhere.

Still big news- following my friend's Gavin Dick's resignation, the Leader of the Council has appointed me as the (absurdly titled but hopefully still important job) of Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport. I will be blogging over the next few weeks over aspects of the role but I have to say I'm impressed so far by the commitment of the Officers I've been working with and also the political generosity of both my political allies and opponents in not only offering their congratulations but also their assistance and support.

It is a job I've aspired to as a councillor, one that is not going to be without its challenges but one that should also be great fun and a huge challenge!

My main and immediate problem is that trying to play myself into the new role while holding down running my own business is resulting in no small measure of sleep deprivation!!!

I'm off to bed!

A rush of air!

2008-06-26T17:31:00.000+01:00

thats clear then...

Today the Prime Minister announced a huge increase in the amount of electricity to be generated by wind turbines. I have to say Gordon was uncharacteristically up front.

He said that visible changes to landscapes, towns and cities are "inevitable" but added (perhaps a sop to local communities) that wind turbines would be sited in the "right" locations.

Mr Brown promised this change would come about as part of a 'New social organisation' and "will not emerge from 'business as usual' but "will require real leadership from government - being prepared to make hard decisions on planning or on tax for example, rather tacking and changing according to the polls." It would seem then that Mr Brown acknowledges that wind farms are rarely popular when they are proposed in most communities for they scar and despoil the landscape and are amazingly noisy.

How best to push such developments through then? The answer appears to be in what Mr Brown says "will involve new forms of economic activity and social organisation."

I think what he means by this is the abandonment of the current planning procedures with the formation of a new unelected quango to push through major developments via the new Planning Bill that was passed earlier this week. My key concern is over the is over the proposed 'infrastructure planning commission', which would decide development consents for major developments (such as wind farms) within an overall government policy. Like so much with this government, while the aim may be laudable, (for example to bring down the average time for decisions to within a year, rather than the several years under current planning inquiries) the means (in this case removing local democracy) are not.
The new quango would tear up a long-established framework and would be both unaccountable and undemocratic, reducing the scope for local protests and doubtless lead to planning by legal challenge rather than by elected representatives.
An amendment requiring final decisions to be taken by the Secretary of State, with the commission acting in an advisory capacity, has been backed by more than 60 Labour MPs, as well as opposition parties.

As Christopher Booker says in his article today, the case for wind power on such a huge scale is unproven at best but to my mind, the removal of local democracy to facilitate the turbine building is worse.

Brown berated as Al finds his voice...

2008-05-27T20:53:00.000+01:00

does inflation trouble you...only after mealtimes!

In The Daily Mail today, normally timid Southampton MP Alan Whitehead is quoted comparing Mr Brown to US President William Taft, who was in the White House from 1909 to 1913 and is remembered mainly for his corpulent frame. ‘Taft could never have been President in today’s politics because he was fat,’ said Mr Whitehead. 'Gordon is not fat but he has the same problem. He just doesn’t have the “phwoarr” factor.’

I would argue that if William Taft is remembered for anything, it is that he remains the only U.S. President to finish third in a bid for reelection to a second consecutive term...

Books & bookmen!

2008-05-13T11:49:00.000+01:00

The papers have been full of stories based around three new political books, namely those by Cherie Blair, Lord Levy and John Prescott, focusing largely on the political pain the publications are causing Gordon Brown .

When one adds Alastair Campbell's 'The Blair Years- extracts from the Alastair Campbell Diaries' a fairly consistent picture seems to emerge;

Harold Wilson's observation that the Labour "Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing" could easily apply not only to Tony Blair's views of his own administration but also those of many around him.
Most of those closest to Blair had a strong personal dislike for each other and interestingly this is a central theme of all three memoirs and Campbell's diaries.
The rivalry and problems managing Gordon Brown took up an inordinate amount of time and energy of Blair and some of his top team.
That said, all the players worked incredibly hard and did have some notable successes in moving their own agendas forward. For example, for quite some years, Campbell's management of the media and selling of 'the message' in a 24 hour rolling news age was remarkable.

My friend, the writer, blogger and one-time publisher Iain Dale attacks the fact that all three memoirs are vacuous, skimming over important events such as Prescott's affair with Tracey Temple but I would ask what does he expect? All too often, memoirs are really just an attempt at self-justification but are they any really the worse for that? Would Prescott really want to dwell on an affair that nearly wrecked his marriage and hastened the demise of his political career? Of course not. What such books can do is give an insight into the subjects themselves and fill in the background to events and dramas, albeit with the benefit of hindsight.

In 2001, I chatted to Cecil Parkinson about his autobiography 'Right at the Centre' which I think was published in about 1993. He told me that although he had many happy memories contained within the book, he had not enjoyed writing it. Although it had sold modestly well, it was certainly only the press serialisation (I think by the Sunday times) that made the work financially worthwhile. If memory served me right, I think he said they paid about £300k, a substantial sum of money, even then. Iain says,"Publishers need to stop paying huge advances for books like this, which will never wash their faces commercially and are entirely reliant on newspaper serialisations" but I don't agree. If it wasn't for the press, the books would never get written.

A relatively new phenomenon for the political autobiography is the advent of the 'ghostwriter' especially below prime-ministerial level. Apparently Ned Temko of The Observer wrote Mr Levey's tome while Hunter Davies penned Mr Prescott's work. Sadly I do not think this is neccassarily a desirable trait; surely part of the art of a good biography is being able to tell it how it is from one owns perspective? I can guess that Jordon may struggle to write her own tome (actually she probably does, thinking about it) but these were senior figues in public life- surely they are up to it?

or maybe not!

On patrol with Gordon Brown

2008-05-12T16:10:00.000+01:00

cheer down...

I heard a classic, apperently true story on Sunday.

Apparently Gordon Brown has been doing a bit of campaigning in Plymouth (keeps him out of the way in Crewe I guess!!!) and with his media handlers arranging for him to visit an old peoples home.

Introduced to Maisie Wright ,aged 94, the leader said, "Hello, I'm Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister" .

"That's nice" replied Maisie, "Wilf over there thinks he is Jesus Christ..."

History does not record what happened next!

Update- I see Guido has got the same story- mine source was a Conservative Councillor in Alan Clarke's old seat of Plymouth Sutton.

We lost wards we didn't expect to lose and didn't lose ones we expected to!

2008-05-05T17:54:00.000+01:00

When June Bridle lost her seat in Sholing, it was down to Councillor Jackie Rayment to face the music in the guildhall. On the BBC's Politics Show (about 48 mins in) and in The Daily Echo, she said,

"We lost wards we didn't expect to lose and didn't lose ones we expected to."

Interesting! Bearing in mind labour lost 15 of the 17 seats they contested, I wonder which of the two seats, Bevois or Woolston, they expected to lose?

The King is dead, long live the Queen!

2008-05-05T16:18:00.000+01:00

the odd couple...

0r, out with the old, in with the new...

I see that following Vinson's defeat, the Lib-Dems have adopted Councillor Jill Baston as their new leader. I wish her good luck- in my opinion she is going to need it. If the results in Southampton were bad for Labour, they were truly dreadful for the Lib-Dems. They lost their leader, all their sitting councillors and won no seats out of 17. Their overall share of the vote fell from 24% to 19%. In Bevois the Greens came third, beating the Lib-Dems into fourth place as my friend Chris Rowland points out.

Extraordinarily, all the evidence is that Councillor Baston has learnt nothing from the Lib-Dems' crushing defeat.

In The Echo, Baston is quoted as saying, "A lot of their (Tory) literature seriously misrepresented us. They said things about our future plans which were not true - for instance plans for a fortnightly bin collection. They are aware that changes in waste collection are unpopular and put it out in a deliberate attempt to mislead and they misrepresented the car parking issue."

Bizarre!!!! They put the fortnightly bin collection in their budget and it is on the official local Lib-Dem website HERE .

They are also moaning about us campaigning about parking charges. It seems the Lib-Dems and Labour are trying to now say they don't want to charge for residents parking permits- actually they did, it is current council policy (but won't be for long now we are in control!) and the Cabinet report could not be clearer.

On the 17th March, the Lib-Lab cabinet unanimously adopted a paper A19 'Adoption of a Strategic Level Parking Policy for the City'. This was largely based on a policy paper from a consultant called Halcrow that was circulated to all members of the Environment and Transport Scrutiny Panel in December 2007. Williams & Baston both got copies.

Appendix 2 , Para 2.12 reads
"Finally, there is a clear recognition that the provision and availability of parking facilities has a value, and that users should expect to contribute towards their provision, maintenance and management" (the bold is the report’s emphasis, not mine!).
Para 3.2
"The provision and management of parking facilities creates a significant level of cost to the Council and users should thus pay for there use in recognition of the benefits they provide. Charges should be set at levels that reflect the value of the facility and that act as an incentive to consider the use of other modes of travel- this provides the basis on which the council charges for the use of …parking permits".

The killer is section 4(b)(ii)
· All types of permit should attract a fee, albeit on a sliding scale.
· The objective should be to make Residents’ Parking Schemes self-funding

Below is the link to the official record of the decision.

http://intranet.southampton.gov.uk/applications/denis/sqlMeetingPapersDecisionNotice.asp?PKID=2597

If I were her, I would reflect that it was policy mistakes by her party that largely lost them seats.

another interesting point. As The Guardian notes today, "in southern seats, where the Conservatives are stronger, such as Southampton Itchen, the Liberal Democrats have been squeezed as voters have rallied to the Conservatives".

In Southampton, I believe an additional factor came into play. Lib-Dem voters switched to the Conservatives to keep the Lib-Lab pact out. As a vocal supporter and member of the pact, Councillor Baston was, in part, architect of her party's destruction.

If I were her, I would now embark on a complete review of the the Lib-Dems policies. Why pick a fight with the whole of Swaythling (over the gypsy site), Portswood (over alternate weekly bin collection) and Bedford Place (over traffic regulations for gods sake!) to name just three examples.

Finally, if I were her, I would re-orientate my party politically. As William Rees-Mogg writes today in The Times today, "these local elections show anti-Tory tactical voting is dead and buried". You would never know it reading Lib-Dem literature in Southampton. As Wednesday showed, working closely with Labour is electoral death. The Conservatives are not the unpopular party in Southampton as the elections proved- Labour are the bad boys now.

How did the Tories do it?

2008-05-02T14:53:00.000+01:00

Nick Robinson called it 'the first wow result' while The Daily Echo called it a 'Sensational victory'.

Of the 17 seats up for election, the Conservatives won 15- a remarkable achievement. We also defeated the two heads of the 'political beast' formed to run the council in the form of Labour leader June Bridle (who lost by nearly 700) and lib-dem leader Adrian Vinson (who lost by about 130). In my own ward of Shirley, Conservative Terry Matthews was returned with just under a 800 majority.

So how did we do it and was it a surprise?

Nick Robinson has had a stab at how we did it HERE.

Mr Robinson is on the right lines- we did run on some popular policies such as offering pensioners a 10% rebate on their council tax, offering the public a say before approving or rejecting a 'supercasino' in the city and stopping the gypsy and transit site being built in Swaythling.

We also proposed a 100% council tax rebate for serving 'Special Constables' as a recruitment tool, the strengthening of supplementary planning guidance to protect family housing and a huge project of promoting school sport in conjunction with Solent University. What is fascinating is that Labour and particularly the Lib-Dems didn't really offer any policies to the electorate at all. They refuted charges made by the Conservatives that they planned to introduce charges for permit holders (despite having voted for it in cabinet) and that they had no plans to scrap the weekly refuse collection despite saying on the Lib-Dems website that they want to do so but at no point did they really attempt to outline their vision for the city. I debated with the Lib-Dem councillor Liz Mizon at one hustings and despite speaking for 6 minutes or so, she didn't articulate one single policy- it was all 'we must all work together to make Southampton a nicer place to live' sort of stuff.

Another local issue was the pact between the Lib-Dems and Labour, the so called two-headed beast that was running the city after the short lived coalition ejected the Tories from office in Febuary. People hated it, especially Lib-Dems who dislike Labour and could remember Cllr Bridle's former administration. After all, why vote Lib-Dem if you are just helping to secure a Labour led administration? The feeling on the doorstep was often that the pact was a stitch up, that people had not been consulted. The pact also had an unforeseen advantage that it freed up leading Conservatives to campaign who would have otherwise been running the city and conversely tied up Lib-Dems and Labour Councillors at the Civic Centre when they should have been out pressing the flesh. There is much truth in the adage 'elections are not won at the town hall'. Clearly what the Tory opponents should have done is humiliated them by voting down their budget, forcing them to limp on impotent until May and use it as a campaigning tool- but then hindsight is a wonderful thing!

The national scene did not help them either. Northern Rock, the credit crunch generally, the 10p income tax abolition, food and fuel inflation and even the war(s) came up as reasons not to vote Labour.

The final factor was unquestionably the issue of the premier himself. Time and again residents said how they couldn't empathise with the dour Scot, the ditherer who ran away from calling an election. I don't know if Mr Brown's reputation is recoverable but I am beginning to suspect not...

Some people just don't get it!

2008-04-28T00:40:00.000+01:00

alright my son?

Over the weekend I bumped into one of the handful of Independent candidates who is standing in the Southampton City council elections. Unlike some areas - such as parts of Winchester being about closest locally, Southampton has had no tradition of electing independents in recent times. That didn't stop the candidate being convinced and I mean convinced that they were going to win. I didn't have the heart to tell them I thought they would probably come fourth- or worse!

I will spare their modesty in not naming them, after all there is much truth in the adage that you should always be nice to people on the way up, you may need them on the way down!

Brown Wednesday

2008-04-23T22:49:00.000+01:00

"Do you have any idea what a pathetic figure you cut today?"
David Cameron to Gordon Brown

Rarely these days do I blog about national politics- there are many more eloquent, better informed bloggers than I offering commentary on British politics. However, Brown's latest u turn is extraordinary and must surely have implications for next weeks local elections. When canvassing over the weekend, electors on the doorstep rarely talked to me about the abolition of the 10p tax rate. However today all that changed with Brown's u-turn today- this evening almost everyone with almost any political views at all seemed to mention it.

His climbdown today and his assertion that he hadn't been pushed around by his MPs when he clearly had will do nothing to reduce his reputation for dithering and drift. Over the weekend, fresh from the relative success of his US visit, Brown experinced something of a bounce. Can't imagine that is going to continue...

We are also now amazingly close to the local elections next Thursday. Postal votes have now been issued in the city. The question is, is time running out for Labour in Southampton?

Election Talk

2008-04-13T14:33:00.000+01:00

The above image is reproduced from Conservative Home who themselves were commenting on a poll for The Sunday Times.

It seems things are getting worse for Labour and the Lib-Dems are just treading water. However I would not write off Labour's chances in Southampton. They have outperformed their party nationally in Southampton consistently over the last 10 years and despite the 2004 elections being good for the Tories nationally,which was when these seats were last contested, as the results show, Labour piled up its majorities in parts of the city.

The Conservatives need to hold every seat they have got and win 6 more to be in office for a year (as they will hold the Mayor's casting vote) and 7 seats for the coming two years (when they will not). That is a big ask- personally I don't think we will do it.

That said, times are a changing. The Lib-Lab pact is far from universally popular, the Tories have some good, vote winning policies such as the pensioner discount and recruitment of more Special Constables while pegging council tax at inflation. Labour and the Lib-Dems seem determined to go out of their way to upset people with schemes like the weekly alternate bin collection and plans to introduce parking charges for residents.

It is all to play for and of course now with the Lib-lab pact, the only alternative if you want a change of administration is to vote Conservative!

The vultures are circling...

2008-03-29T19:06:00.000Z

the beast rears its ugly heads...

As Matt Smith memorably wrote, a 'two-headed beast' is running the city now we have a Lib-Lab pact in Southampton.

Yet all is not well, my spies tell me. Opinion is divided on wheather the current Labour and indeed the Council's leader will keep her seat in the forthcoming local elections. Regardless of if she holds her seat or not, I am told she will face a leadership challenge in May.

A combination of the dispossed and the never possessed will, I am told, combine to force her out from within her own group.

Apparently there is an unholy alliance made up of those Labour members who opposed the coalition in the first place, those who oppose Cllr Bridle for long-forgotten political reasons, often dating back to when she last ran the council and those who are ambitious and feel that they are unlikely to secure a seat in cabinet while it remains in her gift. The last group are perhaps the most dangerous for they have their noses rubbed in it every time they attend a scrutiny meeting and see the likes of Lib-Dems like Cllr David Beckett enjoying the fruits of office. Apparently there is real anger that she did not have the foresight to resist Lib-Dem demands that not only should they proportionally have a certain number of seats but also that they should decide what those position in the cabinet those seats should occupy.

As Robert Harris once said, the only leaders Labour loves is dead ones...

Planning issues...

2008-03-29T18:49:00.000Z

An artists impression of the new proposed Sainsbury's on the site of the Portswood Bus Depot

-an application of much interest

One of the most enjoyable and interesting jobs I've had since being elected has been to sit on the Planning & Rights of Way Panel of Southampton City Council. I have to say the quality of the panel members varies enormously- some like me clearly read the papers prior to the meetings and go and visit the sites- others, from the questions they ask, I am not so sure...

The other interesting thing is panel members priorities and the weight they give specific issues in making their deliberations. for example Cllr Sue Blatchford is a very experienced, hard-working and articulate panel member- but seems obsessed with the green and sustainability issues of applications, the siting of refuse areas and doesn't seem nearly so concerned with the impact new developments will have on existing communities. For myself, I seem to bang a very lonely drum for the importance of good quality urban design and the need for new developments to fit into the context of there surroundings...

Anyway all that is by the by. I write an occassional newsletter on planning issues for the interest of Residents Associations- reproduced below is my latest copy.

Southampton Planning Update Spring 2008
Personal Reflections on Planning & Development Issues
from Councillors Matthew Dean & Jeremy Moulton

DCLG to launch pilot reviewing planning controls of HMOs in Southampton
After much lobbying by the previous Council’s administration, Residents Associations and officers, the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) has agreed to run a consultative workshop discussing issues arising from the prevalence of large numbers of HMOs in certain parts of the city. On April 2nd, Council Officers, representatives from the private housing sector, a Residents Association will meet members from the DCLG to discuss planning law and how it might usefully be reformed to protect and enhance local communities.

Oakmount Conservation Area
On Monday 17th March the Oakmount Triangle character appraisal and neighbourhood design statement was approved by Cabinet.
http://intranet.southampton.gov.uk/applications/denis/ShowDocument.asp?PKID=7483
This marked the conclusion of a long drawn out process that had taken over twelve months from conception to conclusion and was only achieved by the persistence of residents in driving the issue forward. The new design statement will greatly protect the area from unsuitable developments, being a statutory document that must be considered when all new planning applications are considered in the locality.

New Conservation Team
The job specification has been produced for a new Conservation Team Leader and was signed off by the Council’s Head of Planning & Sustainability on the 25th March. This means that the department will start the recruitment process in April. As a significant strengthening of the Council’s capacity in this area, one of the first jobs of the new Conservation Team Leader will be to appoint a new Conservation Officer. Jeremy Moulton commented, “For many years the council has been far too reactive, only responding to new planning applications as they are submitted by developers. Matt Dean & I want to see the creation of more conservation areas in appropriate areas of our city and for the conservation team to review which structures are listed in Southampton; too many old or interesting buildings seem to have slipped through the net”.

Now the Lab-Lab pact wants to consider charging you for parking outside your own home!
At the first Lib-Lab cabinet meeting since taking control in February, the administration announced plans to consider charging residents for parking outside their houses. Jill Baston, Cabinet member for planning and transportation, was reported as saying in The Echo: "We will be looking at ways of making residents' parking self-funding. Many other cities charge for all residents' parking permits so this is one option we will be considering."
Local Conservatives have announced their strong opposition to the scheme.

Local Development Framework Core Strategy Submission Document withdrawn once again…
The Local Development Framework core strategy
http://intranet.southampton.gov.uk/applications/denis/ShowDocument.asp?PKID=7520
was withdrawn for consideration by full council on the 19th March following further concerns being raised by central government. Southampton was the first Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH) authority to submit its draft LDF and was felt to be ahead of the game but has had to substantially rewrite the drafts of its LDF on two occasions at the bequest of central government. At the last stage of the process when Southampton’s LDF was considered by the Government Office for the South East of England (GOSE) in September, they seemed happy with the general thrust of the document but felt it was generally too long and detailed and that the spatial vision and strategic objectives needed to be set out more clearly. However, the position seems to have changed markedly since then. The indications are that the LDF if submitted by Southampton in its current form would now be rejected due to a fairly serious moving of the goalposts- and that is before the Planning Inspectorate has had a look at it!
http://www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk/pins/appeals/local_dev/dpd/public_lealfet_dpd_final_pe.pdf
It seems the key points of issue are that Officers have not produced a detailed ‘infrastructure plan’ outlining where and how Southampton’s infrastructure supporting developments would be realised and interestingly a concern about house numbers. There is a suspicion that government is keeping its powder dry as the new Planning Bill works it way through parliament. Certainly the feeling at the council is that it is a bit late in the day to start asking for such things given the hoops the LDF has already had to jump through. It seems the way forward will be a fairly high level meeting between Council Officers and Senior Civil Servants to resolve the issues. Certainly if the situation continues to drag, the implications for Southampton could be quite serious- no LDF means no real new planning framework for developers to work to. Although the current core strategy was adopted in 2006, most of the data stretched back to 2000. No core strategy also means no new core strategy documents which is potentially serious in Southampton where the council has aspirations to use ‘Section 106’ monies more flexibly and to develop policies such as the protection of family housing via the issuing of supplementary planning guidance.

We will update you of progress or otherwise next issue…

If you fancy a change in Southampton, the Conservatives are the only game in town...

2008-03-29T18:05:00.000Z

"I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat"

remark attributed to Harold Wilson

Rain truely stopped play for me today in terms of campaigning for the local elections. Despite getting up early this morning and sorting out all my business related stuff (never easy if you have been working 'till 2am!), I have achieved remarkably little today apart for preparing for tommorow...

One thing the rain did allow me to do however is reflect on the political scene in Southampton. The new Lib-Lab pact are confident that they will remain in control after May's local elections as the Tories have an electoral mountain to climb. To form outright control the Conservatives will need to win between extra 6 and 7 seats in addition to holding all of those they currently represent.

The reason I say between 6 and 7 is that 6 is the number we will need to form an administration in the first year (as we shall have the casting vote of the conservative Mayor after May in the event of a tie) and 7 the year after when the Mayor will probably be Lib-Dem.

Obviously we will look to increase our representation where we currently hold some but not all seats so targets include Swaythling and Sholing (where the Labour leader of the Council is up for election). The smart money seems to be on us holding Millbrook from a Lib-Dem threat (their candidate has just resigned, reportedly in disgust at the Lib-Lab pact) and Bassett. Labour meanwhile must have Coxford on their sights, given they took one of the 3 seats off the Lib-Dems last year. That leaves the Conservatives the largest party but 4 seats short of an overall majority and next year is a 'rest' year as each ward in Southampton has 3 Councillors, one elected per year, each for a four year term with one year fallow...

Hopeless? A reason for pessimism if you are a Conservative? Not at all! The polls have never looked so good from a Conservative perspective since I've been involved. It must terrify Labour that the Tories have not only been consistently ahead for nearly two years, but have also now been scoring 40 per cent or more for the past six months, a feat unmatched by the party since the halcyon days of Thatcherism two decades ago. Although low turnouts can skew results (and Labour has a formidable campaigning organisation via the trade unions and its two taxpayer funded MPs), they are not invulnerable to them.

The Lib-Lab administration is making some big mistakes too- charging people to park outside there house is not exactly a vote winner!

The other issue one has to consider after May is that of defections. Who says the Lib-Lab pact is going to continue to find universal support from its membership after May? Who says that indeed the pact itself will survive?

These are interesting times. One thing is for sure though- if anyone fancies a change to the way the way the council conducts itself in Southampton, the Conservatives are the only game in town.

Hypocrites and accusers

2008-03-29T16:40:00.000Z

Today the Daily Echo have published a letter from Alan Whitehead MP; here is his letter in full and my reply to him;

Dear Sir,

LAST week the Echo ran a story about a national Conservative campaign to accuse all Labour MPs who had objected to Post Office closures in their constituency of hypocrisy, since they had voted against a Conservative motion in the House of Commons calling for a temporary halt to closures.

The accusation against me was based on the fact that I had responded to the consultation sent out by the Post Office proposing to close four post offices in my constituency.

I looked at the criteria they set out for the service levels after the proposed closure and concluded that in one instance people would not in reality have a Post Office within a mile of their homes, and in two other instances even if they did, it would be very difficult to use such alternatives because of obstacles such as dual carriageway roads between them and the proposed alternatives.

advertisementFurthermore, the post office had closed a branch (Aldermoor) when a franchisee left, and had not even consulted about its permanent closure. Whilst I believe the post office Network needs to be economically viable nationally, I didn't think the proposed closures fitted into the post office's own criteria, and this was why I objected.

What emerged during this debate though, was that Conservatives were not prepared to commit themselves to any funding to keep post offices open, agreed with the idea that the national Post Office Network needed to be economically viable, and worse still would not even commit themselves to continue the Governments £1.7 billion of support for the network that is currently being paid. In other words, if Conservatives were in Government, far more post offices would be under threat than is presently the case.

In the light of this, the hypocrites here seem to be the accusers, rather than the accused!

Alan Whitehead, MP Southampton, Test.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Letters Editor,

If Alan Whitehead objects to being called a hypocrite (Echo Letters 29 March), he may wish to consider being more a little more consistent.

Alan Whitehead is a man who lectures on the dangers of child obesity, yet as the register of members interests shows, accepts corporate hospitality from McDonalds. He is opposed to nuclear power, yet supports a government that are pledged to support the building of a new generation of nuclear reactors. Alan Whitehead is a man who sits on the board of a power company and then complains in parliament about fuel prices. And lest it be forgotten, Alan Whitehead is a man who sits on the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee yet recently had to be stopped distributing political campaigning literature about speed limits to schoolchildren.

Perhaps it is not surprising then that some people think it is a little hypercritical that Mr Whitehead campaigned to save Post Offices locally but chose not to vote to save them in parliament under pressure from Labour Party Whips?

What Southampton needs are strong local MPs who will fight for our interests in parliament, not new Labour careerists on the make.

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Dean.

A marriage of convenience...

2008-02-21T12:12:00.000Z

Ash, ash, all is ash...

Wednesday was Southampton City Council's full budget meeting. Despite the ruling Tory publishing their budget three months early and running a huge consultation process which resulted in many changes and we felt a collegiate approach to decision making without having to compromise our principles, the Lib-Dems were having none of it. Interestingly I don't think it was the Tories promise of lower council tax that did us in or even the cuts and efficiency savings to pay for them. In the final analysis it was two innovative policies that they were (seemingly) opposed to in principle; the first was the Conservatives proposal to offer pensioners a 10% discount off their council tax and the second was to offer a 100% discount to Special Constables as an aid to recruitment.

In retrospect, to me the main surprise is that the Conservatives were allowed to form an administration at all. most of the Lib-Dem players in the council are very left-wing and naturally feel very much closer to Labour than the Conservatives. The other reality is the political composition of the council. Although Labour and the Conservatives both have the same number of seats, the Lib-Dems would have calculated back in May that by abstaining that they would put Labour in as in the event of a tie, the Labour Mayor has the casting vote. It was probably in this knowledge that the Leader of the lib-Dem group made his infamous speech claiming not to support any one party and to deal with each issue on an issue by issue basis. However, he underestimated the strength of dissent within his group, a minority (until now) of whom are vehemently opposed to Labour in the city. Cllr Goss felt so strongly that she left her group, sitting as an independent and voting to keep Labour out in May. However, now there is a formal pact (with the Lib-Dems enjoying the fruits of office in the form of four cabinet members).

It will be fascinating to see how they carve up the spoils of office and indeed if they allow the Conservatives as the principle opposition party to play its proper part in scrutiny...

Digby attacks Brown but Mr Cameron needs to develop his thinking too...

2008-02-11T16:00:00.000Z

I had that Lord Digby in the back of my cab once,

left by the bleedin' windaw 'e did ...

I've always had a soft spot for the bombastic (Lord) Digby Jones, one time Director General of the CBI and currently working as one Gordon Brown's GOATS (non-political members of the "government of all the talents"), - unlike the hangers on, he has spent his time actually doing something useful in terms of leaving the usual politics aside and is banging the drum for British industry overseas. Apart from banging the drum for British industry, Jones tells an amusing story when he first entered the government; the trade minister recounts how, the morning after his promotion to the government, he was due to give an early-morning interview at the BBC. When he opened his front door at 5am, there was no sign of the car he had been promised. He called the BBC producer, who replied: "What do you mean? I've just spoken to the driver who's two minutes away from the studio, and apparently you're in the back." When the car returned, Lord Jones was confronted with the imposter: out stumbled a man wearing a filthy T-shirt, a baseball cap and carrying a can of beer. So, Lord Jones explained, when he attends grand state occasions, he quickly reminds himself: "Somewhere in London, probably sleeping under the arches near King's Cross, is a guy who thinks he's Digby Jones."

As a near independant, Jones has chosen to speak out on the vexed issue of 'non-doms', that is British citizens with interests abroad can register for "non domiciled" status, meaning they do not pay tax on earnings made outside the United Kingdom. In an effort to raise money to plug holes in public finances, the Treasury plans to make them pay up to £1 billion every year. Under plans due to take effect in April, anyone who has claimed non-dom status for seven of the past 10 years will have to pay an annual fee of £30,000. All sorts of estimates are flying around however with some commentators estimating that as the mega-rich rearrange their tax affairs or even leave the UK, that the tax take could be neutral or even fall!

One might conclude that all this has the hallmarks of a new Labour cock-up- and so it does...accept the Tories need to do some thinking too! George Osborne has unveiled a remarkably similar proposal (in fact he announced his before Darling) threatning to tax 'non-doms' £25k. Now thatcherite Michael Fallon, a senior Tory member of the Trasury Select Committee has gone public with his concerns.

Raising taxes is never popular (especially in Conservative circles) but Mr Osborne needs to be sure his figues add up- and then articulate his policies robustly. At the moment there seems to be something of a deafening silence...

Yay or nay!

2008-01-22T16:42:00.000Z

Horses in Oxford St- on the way to the pet shop presumably...
pic Copyright Southampton City Council.

One of the things that never seems to surprise me as a local Councillor is the diverse range of decisions over such a range of issues a unitary authority like Southampton is expected to make. One issue that an outsider (or come to that the overwhelming number of local residents) would not expect the authority to have to deal with given how build up our city is, is the issue of animals (mainly horses) grazing illegally on public land. Yesterday however, that was just the problem the Conservative cabinet was faced with.

As ever, the issues are far from simple; a number of residents have complained, at least one woman has been injured by a horse, there are issues of disease and disposal of waste as well as the welfare of the animals themselves. Some residents allege that they have even been threatened with violence when they have complained. On the other side of the coin, some families have grazed animals informally on sites for years. In the case of the settled travelling community in Sholing (for example), for generations on land they believe to have grazing rights. Other residents support their right to do so and accuse those who want a clampdown of NIMBYISM (and worse).

The Council have now drawn up a policy to remove animals that are reported to have bitten, pushed or kicked members of the public. The idea is to go for a softly, softly approach rather than alienate any particular group, and review the policy in 6 months or so.

I have to say I found someone proporting to be one of Labour's official candidates comments a little amusing; he suggests,

" When I am in the council, we will clear up all of these animals. Sell them as dog food, if necessary to recoup costs".

One wonders if his Labour colleagues in Sholing with a little more experience of the issues share his views, not to mention the animal rights lobby...

Even more peculiar is that someone would want to impersonate him!!! Still they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

Helen Grant selected to succeed Ann Widdecome

2008-01-22T14:46:00.000Z

Helen Grant- no chair provided...

Congratulations to Helen Grant who after a long (almost torturous) selection process was selected for the safe Tory seat of Maidstone & the Weald (projected Tory majority of 12000) on Sunday. As her CV demonstrates, Helen is a remarkable individual and will become a worthy successor to the redoubtable Miss Widdecome who I understand is retiring to concentrate on her journalistic (is there such a word?) and broadcasting career. Helen lives just round the corner from what was my parents family house in Purley- although i imagine she will pretty soon be moving to Kent!

Commiserations to my friend Conor Burns who came a remarkably close second from a very strong field indeed. In itself, it was quite some achievement to get in the last 10 candidates as all of them would have made competent and credible MPs. One can’t help feeling what a bloody sport politics is though- the winner takes it all in this game.

The Strange Death of Dr David Kelly.

2008-01-10T14:51:00.000Z

The late Dr David Kelly

Shortlisted for the 'Chanel Four Political Book of the Year' award (in a very thin year indeed for quality British political writings), I have just finished reading 'The Strange Death of David Kelly' which is a fairly exhaustive enquiry into the late scientists death by the Lib-Dem Lewes MP Mr. Norman Baker. Inevitably, given the subject matter, it is not enjoyable reading, (indeed at times it is most uncomfortable) but one certainly gets the impression that Baker has meticulously researched his subject.

The main issues raised by the book can be read at the Daily Mail website (it was the Mail who published an initial article by Baker that led him to receiving much correspondence, spurring him on into his fuller investigation) or the book itself can be bought on-line.

Baker makes no bones that he believes Kelly was murdered, probably, he writes, by a Iraqi group, a claim that to me lacks credibility. He then tentatively alleges that there was some sort of British Establishment cover-up, mainly orchestrated by Thames Valley Police (although presumably in co-operation with many other agencies). This I find profoundly unlikely- for would a lowly police officer or a scene of the crime officer really be able to keep stum about these events or indeed break the law in the first place? Would senior police officers want to collude in a career threatening cover-up with the coroner that would then have to later mislead the Hutton enquiry? In these dishonorable days would not someone have wanted to sell their story to the press? No, for me a the theory of a cover up is not a runner.

I think also that Norman Baker himself discovered the reason for Dr Kelly's tragic suicide. At the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, one committee member read part of a transcript of an interview Kelly had given to a Newsnight journalist. Kelly did not know at that stage that the conversation had been recorded. He denied saying the words and, in doing so, misled a parliamentary committee, a serious offence and one that would have troubled Kelly greatly as he was both a man of great integrity and had been warned by the MoD Director of Personnel.
Baker writes that, “Kelly, having thought the worst was over, suddenly realised that his careful attempt to pick his way through the minefield had blown up in his face.” Baker adds, “This is certainly a plausible explanation for suicide, if that is what it was. Indeed it is the most plausible.”

In his forensic style Baker rips into the subsequent Hutton Inquiry and of course he is right; it was an outrage that it was not a formal statutory enquiry but an 'informal one' which was not required to follow normal court procedures. Witnesses could not be compelled to attend or be cross-examined, they could not subsequently be charged with perjury, inadequacies in the evidence were not followed up and the terms of reference were too narrow while not providing an exhaustive investigation into Dr Kelly's death, focusing more on the actions of the BBC.

Similarly the behaviour of the police, particularly at the outset of the search for Dr Kelly and then at the crime scene was lamentable. Should a policeman really be left alone with a body for half an hour and why did the officer not make extensive notes of the situation? Of course not-but incompetence does not necessary imply a cover-up.

There is one part of Baker's book with which I heartily agree; in May 2003 he was being considered for a knighthood in recognition of all the work he had done to help eliminate the biological weapons from both Russia & Iraq.

That honour should now be awarded posthumously.

Census info in Southampton

2008-01-04T15:42:00.000Z

In order to keep the debate going from my last post, I have produced a table of various stats collected for the 2001 cencus, split by the parliamentary seats of Southampton Itchen & Test.

Any thoughts or views?

Can the Conservatives win (or Labour manage to lose) Southampton Itchen & Southampton Test?

2007-12-27T12:14:00.000Z

swing when your winning...

The two seats that cover the bulk of Southampton geographically have just selected their prospective Conservative parliamentary candidates.

For most of the post-war period, Southampton was considered something of a political bellwether in that the party that formed the government tended to win the parliamentary seats in the city. That changed largely as a result of the last boundary review which made both seats considerably better prospects for Labour- much of the suburb of Woolston came into the seat of Southampton Itchen from the Eastleigh constituency, St Lukes (or Bevois as it is now styled) moved out of Itchen into Southampton Test while the Test constituency lost the leafy (historically ultra-Tory) suburb of Bassett to what is now known as the Romsey & Southampton North constituency.

There are some further boundary changes in train but they should not radically effect the results in either Itchen or Test; currently Labour's Alan Whitehead in Test has a notional majority of 7018 (17%) based on the boundaries next time while John Denham has a majority of 8484 (21%). On that basis, the Tories have something of an electoral mountain to climb. Southampton Test is Tory target seat 175 and Southampton Itchen is number 198 on the basis of the pure maths alone, taking into account the new boundaries. Both Denham & Whitehead have been selected by Labour to contest the seats again and they enjoy all the campaigning benefits of being the incumbents, not least the £10k communications allowance they awarded themselves last year!).

Over the last two general elections, the Labour vote has held up remarkably well in comparison with the national position. I think this was due in large part to Labour's ability to out campaign the Tories, their then dominance in local government in the city, the failure of the local Conservative Party to pick well known local candidates to contest the seats and a strong Lib-Dem challenge squeezing the Tory vote.

Another factor is the undoubtedly significantly personal vote both Denham & Whitehead enjoy for not having just been around for a long time (Denham & Whitehead were both comparatively high profile Councillors before their election as MPs) and both were undoubtedly boosted by their position on the war (Denham having a very good resignation, Whitehead also being implacably opposed).

However all is not doom and gloom for the Tories; far from it. Partly as a result of some disastrous policy decisions (and encouragingly for the Tories they still don't seem to recognise this) Labour lost majority control of the Council some years ago. The weakening of their local government base has undoubtedly also weakened their campaigning base as a time when the Conservatives are newly resurgent.

Despite Denham enjoying something of an Indian summer as a newly appointed Secretary of State, both the Labour candidates are beginning to look decidedly well worn; Denhams performance on the politics show a couple of weeks ago was pretty dire, despite trying to appear hip over issues of the day, he actually came across as a bit naff, not to mention ill-informed. Whitehead will never hold government office again and after the burgergate scandal and his efforts to really concentrate on one policy area in the form of the enviroment at the exclusion of all others, he hardly comes across as a rounded individual, let alone a balenced one. Then there is Denham's weird (and it is weird) attempt to justify the underfunding of Southampton City Council. Councils are resource hungry beasts of course and I have yet to meet a councillor who does not believe at least some areas of his or her authority need additional resource but Labour's record in Southampton is so lamentable as a result of the skewed funding formula that you would think that he would want to keep his head down. Far from it- he has embarked on a letter writing campaign to the press on a battle he can never win for surely residents always want more money for their area even if it is at the expense of another!

There are signs that the local Conservatives have learnt from past mistakes too; this time they have picked two tough, articulate, plausible, indeed likable local candidates to contest the seats. Unlike recent challengers, Denham & Whitehead now face opponents who are well known locally and candidates who have the platform of being local councillors (as they both were) to raise their profile and show what they can do in government (albeit at a micro level).

Another piece to the puzzle is the Lib-Dems; they polled remarkably well in both Southampton seats at the last general election but there are signs that their star is waning in the City. at the last election they got properly thumped- having made some disastrous policy decisions of their own- which again for some reason they are still campaigning on! They have also lost the telegenic Mr Kennedy (it will be interesting to see how Mr Clegg performs) and the big issue of the war is in abeyance. The war is interesting in that because they were high profile opponents of it, it did not damage them electorally. However, next time round, I would imagine the issues the country vote on nationally will by and large be the issues that Southampton votes on too and that could be very dangerous for Labour in the city if they are starting from what could perhaps be an artificially high base...

A narrow victory...

2007-12-18T14:48:00.000Z

Well I have to admit that Huhne did very much better that I expected in the Lib-Dem leadership contest. Clegg's eventual victory was by the narrowest of margins considering he started the contest as the run-away favorite.

Part of the reason for Clegg's disappointing result must be his lacklustre campaign as he toured the country 'stirring up apathy' to use Willie Whitelaw's phrase. However, Huhne, for once, did cut it. Long-term Huhne watchers may not be surprised that his campaign team fought a bit grubby at times (the 'Calamity Clegg' clip is compulsive viewing for political anoraks) or personal, accusing Clegg of 'flip-flopping' over policy but he articulated policy differences too (Trident, housing, education for instance). During the course of the election, Huhne defined himself as the greener, more left-leaning candidate.

So what now for the Huney-monster? He gave a generous and graceous speech conceding the leadership so presumably he will get his reward of shadowing the chancellor from the Lib-Dem benches. Of course a feiecely ambitious Huhne will be sorry that he came so near and yet so farfrom grabbing the crown. One person who certainly will be relieved is Maria Hutchings. Leaders of national political parties rarely lose there seats and Ms Hutchings as the Conservative Party candidate for Eastleigh must be eyeing Huhne's notional 502 majority.

Clegg too gave a good speech upon his election but he has a mountain to climb. Squeezed by the Tories who unashamedly have parked their tanks on his lawn, he will be compared at every PMQs to the surprisingly deft performances of his predecessor. The need to develop distinct and populist policies for the Lib-Dems especially now the Iraq war is hopefully in abeyance has never been greater. Personally, I doubt they are up to it- but then the Lib-Dems always seem to have a capacity to surprise!

The gaffer returns!

2007-12-03T17:29:00.000Z

2 a week John, 2 a week

Another day, another pretty lame performance from the hapless John Denham who I see on the BBC has now taken to styling himself as the 'Secretary of State for Innovation'. On Sunday's BBC1 'The Politics Show' not only did he refuse to debate the merits and demerits of nuclear power ("there is a government review and I'm not going to speak out of turn about that") but he was factually incorrect too ("China is building two coal fired stations a year"- in fact they are building about 104 per anumn).

Most patronisingly of all on Labour funding scandals, he said he would like a consensus from all the major political parties on how money is raised and spent and that this would 'help the public understand.'

Actually what people want is for Labour functionaries and politicians to keep within the law and review the undemocratic block funding influence on labour of the unions.

People understand perfectly clearly what is going on.

Why are we so badly governed?

2007-11-25T16:06:00.000Z

Gateway to good governance?

"Why are we so badly governed?" asked Sir Christopher Foster in 2005. Unlike most, it seems that he is doing something about it, being the Chairman of the cross-party and until now secret "Better Government Initiative".

It seems that the first of the BGI's reports are to be released imminently and apparently they don't spare any blushes for

"The verdict of the Better Government Initiative, contained in a series of reports to be released over the next few weeks, is damning.
Government departments have “serious deficiencies”; the combined output of Parliament and the executive contain “too many disappointments and failures”; and “emphasis on ‘management’ has led to more bureaucracy at the expense of substance” in the Foreign Office. " as The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see if Sir Christoper's reports are accepted by the government machine or rubbished and Foster himself smeared and spinned against over the next few weeks...

Speaker Meetings!

2007-11-15T22:08:00.000Z

The Wellington Room at the Carlton Club was one up from the Park Hotel...

For information, the next two speaker meetings of the Conservative History Group are as follows;

Monday 19 November, 6.30pm JONATHAN AITKEN speaks on "Confessions of a speech-maker and speechwriter to be held at the (Carol?) Thatcher Room in Portcullis House

and then on Tuesday 4 December, 6.30pm ALISTAIR COOKE speaks on "The history of the Carlton Club"at the Boothroyd Room in Portcullis House.

Should both be interesting events- if you like that sort of thing!

Dean wades in to the Deanery debate.

2007-11-15T18:40:00.000Z

Above; an artists impression of the new development (copyright- Highwood Group) and below; How the Daily Echo reported the row.

Quite an interesting row has erupted over a development site in the heart of St Marys on a piece of land owned by Southampton City College and has been written up in this-evenings Echo (in the usual sensationalist way!)

A planning application was considered by the Planning & Rights of Way Panel last week (on which I sit) at the Deanery site in Chapel. I had a number of concerns, not least with the Officers written report which I thought was somewhat biased in favour of the development and did not consider what I thought were at least other, partially relevant matters. It is interesting to note that some authorities, officers do not give a reccomendation to refuse or grant a planning application- that is not the case in Southampton.

The report read to me as if the local plan foresaw this application as part of regeneration of the wider area, whereas actually the site had only very recently become available to the developer. The reality was the site in modern times had always been college land. Despite Officer protestations to the contrary, nobody ever thought that it would be available for development for housing or indeed any other use-other than possibly sporting given the location of the college gym on part of the site. Recently the Panel Report on the South East Region drew attention to the shortage of employment and education land, especially in the urban areas. I viewed the proposal as really a departure from the local plan, or at least its spirit, as this land had long been seen as education and college land (certainly not housing!).

The fact that the development by Chandlers Ford based Highwood Group comprised of 142 flats and 39 houses, just 20% family housing and not the 30% in the recently adopted core strategy was not mentioned in the report.

In my view, the site was taken out of context by the report in that is the surrounding derelict land in chapel which has been considered for redevelopment- quite rightly so but this area was not part of it. The application contributed nothing to employment or education uses. Interstingly in the report, what did Officers mean by partial redevelopment? i should have pressed them on this. One could certainly argue that the site should stand by itself or not at all.

There was also the significant issue that the site was one that has been identified as liable to flooding under certain conditions. On this matter alone, planning approval would lead to the decision being called in by the Secretary of State.

However the biggest concern to me was that the education department of the city council has not been consulted! Given the council is becoming the strategic authority for college education this seemed to me to be an extraordinary omission as they would have surely objected. There was nothing about the needs of the college sector for the future in the report with the city centre location being an ideal location for the work of the college. Even if surplus to college requirements, the city is looking for possible sites for the building of a new primary school and is currently conducting a primary school review.

At the meeting itself the Headmaster of Taunton's College Jonathan Prest spoke describing the development as a 'missed opportunity' adding, ' I wonder whether for the educational planning of the city it is not worth holding onto an area of land that large'. He has articulated these views further in tonight's paper.

Personally, I think he rather has a point.

The irony is that unknown to the Panel members at the time (including me), the City College no-longer wanted to sell the land because they had secured the redevelopment and modernisation of their remaining college buildings through an alternative funding source.

As Lindsey Noble, Principle of the City College says, "it is up to the council to make sure its planning policy restricted the 'disposal of too much educational land".

Victims of an old-fashioned stich-up!

2007-11-15T18:01:00.001Z

stiched!

During breaking for coffee at a meeting with a senior Southampton City Council Officer recently, she commented that she was surprised how good a press the new Conservative administration was receiving in comparison with previous administrations. Oops! Today the press bit back with a front page spread on the Southern Daily Echo continued on page two and rounded off with a highly critical editorial.

The background is that the Conservatives, mindful of the fact they have no overall control (Labour & the Lib-Dems can easily combine to outvote the Tories or even remove them from office) and that the council is facing the most difficult revenue support grant settlement in its history, decided to published its draft budget months early for consultation. The rationale behind this is that it will lead to hopefully a more transparent and better informed budget making process. It also shows the other politicalgroups what the council is up against and not least demonstrates our political priorities.

One feeling Conservatives feel particularly concerned about locally is the plight of the elderly. It is those on modest fixed incomes that have been hit hardest by council tax increases since Labour came to power in 1997 and of course those on pension form a disproportionate number of this group. One way of alleviating this hardship is to introduce what we called the 10% discount for households where all the occupants were over 65 and paying the full level of council tax. From the reaction of The Echo you would think we were advocating a policy similar in social policy terms to the sacrificing the firstborn!

They certainly didn't hold back. Their central beef is 'Almost half of Southampton's pensioners will miss out on a promised ten per cent discount on their council tax'. They go on to accuse the Conservatives of ‘conning pensioners for votes’ -strong meat indeed, especially as it doesn’t happen to be true!
I would have thought that for the article to be fair they would have also felt obligated to point out that the reason most of those pensioners who are not eligible to get the discount is that they are having their council tax paid for by benefit anyway! You can hardly give someone a discount if they are not paying it anyway. While everyone is entitled to their view on the Tory budget and indeed its political priorities, I feel that the use of emotive language and misinformation is hardly productive.

It is interesting to speculate on the source of the story. My pet theory is that Matt Tipper, the local UNITE regional industrial organiser got onto them and fed them a few lines as he is bitterly opposed to the Conservatives and all there works. a hunk of old Socialist heavy metal, Tipper was a leading light in the decision to spend his members money on urging the public to 'Vote Labour' in a full page advert in the said Echo last May. readers may be interested to note however that despite being written to to ask for their views, Unite still haven't responded to our request for consultation on our budget proposals, despite us writing to them weeks ago- except in the press that is !

turn again Denham...

2007-11-14T17:43:00.000Z

think about it...

It is a shame that John Denham's decision to rejoin the Labour government has meant that he feels forced to defend it at every opportunity, whatever the cost to Southampton's residents. Some would say it is strange that he rejoined the government at all given that he resigned due to his opposition to the war in Iraq, a war Gordon Brown's government are committed to continuing.Be that as it may, his absurd attempts to defend the inadequate revenue support grant given to Southampton by central government are deeply irresponsible as the authority is clearly underfunded. The hard-pressed council taxpayer locally cannot be expected to contribute any more as Labour continues to divert funds from the South to councils in the North East & North West. This view is accepted by all three political parties on Southampton city council, including Labour who voted for my council motion asking for adequate funding as recently as September. On this issue Mr Denham is at odds with even his local partySadly this is not the first example of Mr Denham defending the indefensible. As the respected BBC journalist Nick Robinson has pointed out, as a backbencher and indeed Chairman of the influential Home Affairs select committee, Mr Denham pronounced that ' any new legislation should not propose longer than 28 days detention' without trial. Now legislation proposed in the Queen's speech proposes exactly that and Mr Denham has been given a job miraculously he is in now favour!

An MP who supports underfunding of his local council and an undermining of Southampton citizen's civil liberties, how long will it be until the charge is made that John Denham is simply a new Labour careerist rather than fighting for our interests in government?

Core Cities

2007-11-13T19:31:00.000Z

This is work in progree; I haven't finished writing it yet!!!!

Report on the Core Cities Summit 7th and 8th November 2007.

Who are the ‘Core Cities Group’?
Established circa 10 years ago, the Core Cities Group is a network of England's major regional cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. They form the economic and urban cores of wider surrounding territories, the city regions. In 2006 Adrian Vinson asked if Southampton could join and was politely rebuffed; currently all the members are significantly larger than Southampton. Given the make up of the core city members, the group has been seen in some quarters as something of a left-wing pressure group, however as the Conservatives had made gains in local government, the cross-party status of the organisation has increasingly been emphasised by its members.

Key themes of the summit

The keynote address was given by

The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP, Secretary of State for Communities & Local government.
Most of her speech centered upon the snappily titled ‘Review of Sub-national economic development and regeneration’ and concentrated on devolving powers to local authorities and regions to ‘respond to local challenges and improve economic outcomes. She made the point that responsibilities should be allocated in line with economic outcomes (i.e. growth & regeneration) based on a bottom up approach and that neighbourhood renewal funding should be more closely focused on the most deprieved areas with incentives (presumably financhial but she did not elaborate) for improved performance. The concept of ‘Partnership Working’ with organisations like PUSH was considered by her department key and she indicated that while her department had no plans for local government reorganisation, they would be forthcoming if partnership working was not taking place at every level. Formal multi-area agreements were to be encouraged to allow groups of councils to work together. As well as expecting authorities to work together at a sub-regional level, she also sees an extended role for Regional Development Agencies with their key role again being to facilitate economic growth. She stressed that greater authority and devolution for councils would be a message that her department would fight for across Whitehall and described the local government settlement as ‘tight but fair’(!) I thought the speech was pretty flat in terms of delivery but as the key messages generally supportive of councils it went down fairly well in the hall.
One of her team
John Healey MP, Minister of State for Communities & local Government then spoke. He reinforced her points and gave an excellent speech that reflected the fact he had led the review from the Treasury when a minister there and it seems has now been bought into the DCLG by Gordon Brown to implement it. Personally on the basis of his performance, I would make him the Secretary of State and sack Blears! He was positively outspoken on the need to devolve power. He also devoted a significant part of his speech to local government funding and said that;
He expected to see

Increased revenue from charges and
Expanded trading activities by local government
Increased borrowing by councils against capital assets, especially to fund major infrastructure projects.
Use of supplementary business rates to raise funds

Budget revealed!

2007-10-22T14:11:00.000+01:00

Tudor House; now under restoration.

After months of work, the new Conservative administration published its new budget for consultation last Friday. It is a serious attempt to re-orientate the Council in line with the administration's VALUES and to focus on providing both a better level of core services and protecting the hard pressed council taxpayer from further demands from the public purse. The key changes are as follows;

1. Reaffirming commitment to keep Council Tax within inflation (hooray!!!),

2. A 10% discount in Council Tax for pensioner households (where all occupants are over 65),

3. Scrapping Council Tax for local people who become Special Police Constables in Southampton,

4. An extra £1.7m a year into social services for vulnerable adults and children,

5. Another £3/4m a year into road repairs (part of a three year increase of £2.3m,

6. Over £5m of efficiency savings identified (£1m identified for each month the Conservatives have been in office),

7. An overall increase in money for Southampton schools. Earlier this year an extra £5m was given to secondary schools for improvements,

8. Bringing in free nationwide bus travel for senior citizens in April,

9. £300,000 extra for parks in the suburbs,

10. Investment into the city's heritage - money to refurbish Tudor House and to build a heritage centre at the civic centre.

The nightmare of course is the chronic underfunding of the Council by central government; since 1997 Southampton has suffered enormously as labour has transferred vast resources from the city to fund its northern heartlands, the subject of my maiden speech to the full council. Given that, I think we have come up with some imaginative and thoughtful proposals- it will be interesting to see if the public agree.

Poles at the Polls!

2007-10-22T13:47:00.000+01:00

Polish presidential candidate Lech Kaczynski (L) of the Law and Justice Party (they don't mince their words out there do they!) and his opponent Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform party shake hands.

(Pic c. Xinhua/AFP)

Yesterday saw amazing scenes at Southampton Polish Club on Portswood Road as some of the city's 8000- 11000 Poles attempted to cast their vote in the Polish general election. I walked past the club in blissful ignorance at about 8.30pm and saw quite a commotion going on. Business was brisk at the polling station that had been set up by the polish government. Apparently about 1300 people voted in person, many more casting their vote by post (hope they got back in time!). There has been quite a lot of campaigning going on in Southampton prior to the poll- leaflets were being distributed outside St Edmund's Church and a Polish government minister (of the outgoing administration as it turned out!) was pounding the streets in Southampton last week.

One wonders what the level of turnout would be if the Foreign Office was to set up a similar polling station in the height of the season in Ibiza for British nationals...

Watching the Mooney Suzuki at The Joiners

2007-10-17T16:38:00.000+01:00

cheer up lads- you got the record deal...

After the Planning public meeting (see blog entry below), Cllr Jeremy Moulton, his mate Andy and my friend (and bass and madolin player extrodinaire in The Family) Aidan went down to The Joiners Arms in St Mary's Street to watch The Mooney Suzukis on the last night of their UK tour.

I hadn't heard the band but Andy had seen them live before and rated them so for a tenner a throw, we thought it was worth a punt!

The garage rock band played an entertaining set of rock tunes for over an hour and a half and the almost sell-out crowd loved them. They certainly are not the most original band in the world taking musical and stage cues from The Who, Suede and The Zutons. They even copied lyrics from an old Gerry and the Pacemakers hit but they hit the spot on a wet Tuesday night, giving it their all.

Quote of the night came from Aidan "I'm not into all this American accent stuff they are putting on"- he was a bit crestfallen when I told him they were from New York!

Highlight of the show was at the end of the night when the lead singer played his guitar while climbing up and hanging it up from the ceiling which drove the audience crazy- the management of The Joiners didn't look too happy at this point tho!

The UK tour seems to have been something of a success for them- they told the crowd that as a result of the gigs, they had just signed a new record deal.

Scating (sic!) on thin ice...

2007-10-17T15:28:00.000+01:00

'Old and new- anything will do'- a design guide for postwar Southampton?

I went to an interesting public meeting organised by one of my political oppenents, Liberal Democrat Councillor Liz Mizon at the Highfield House Hotel in Portswood last night. The key guest was a Council officer called Andy Scate who heads up the 'Planning & Sustainability' department of the City Council.

Like many cities where land is at a premium, there have been many applications approved in Southampton over the last twenty years that have changed the character of the area (flats!, flats!, flats!!!) beyond all recognition and in my view should have been opposed and then rejected on sound planning grounds. Highfield and Bassett have been particular victims of this (as have Freemantle & Shirley where I represent) and doubtless Cllr Mizon was attempting to some extent to tap into this dissatisfaction. I must say that she chaired the meeting very effectively and it was well attended (with plenty of members of the Highfield Resident's Association were there) but the real star of the night was the Council Officer Andy Scate who heads up the department.

After giving a short presentation, he fielded questions for the duration of the two hour meeting with both good humour and humility. Unlike many Officers he was also not too defensive of his Department and acknowledged there were issues in a number of areas.

I got a round of applause (the only one of any speaker!) when I made the point that Council Officer's often didn't seem to give design considerations sufficient weight in their reports to the Planning Panel and also that as an authority we were not active enough in the creation of conservation areas or attempting to get structures listed. They were points he conceded so it will be interesting to see if we can make any progress in this area...

if anyone's coming across as domineering in this interview, it's you!

2007-10-09T17:38:00.000+01:00

Brian Walden: "You come over as being someone who one of your backbenchers said is slightly off her trolley, authoritarian, domineering, refusing to listen to anybody else – why? Why cannot you publicly project what you have just told me is your private character?"
Margaret Thatcher: "Brian, if anyone’s coming over as domineering in this interview, it’s you. It’s you."

I see that The Telegraph's 'Spy column has a short story on Brian Walden's endorsement of David Cameron HERE. Actually they are about 9 months behind the times because Walden went public with his support last JUNE.

I am too young to remember Walden as an MP but certainly remember his as a TV presenter, most notably on Weekend World, a slot he hosted from 1977 to 1986. I have to say that I always thought Walden was a tough, tenacious, forensic but courteous interviewer, in a different league to the Dimbleby brothers, let alone any of the cleaner cut, current crop. The exchanges between him and at different times, Heseltine, Kinnock, Lawson and most notably Thatcher made compelling viewing.

With just a set piece interview, there was no need for gimmicks then on TV; how times change!

A former resident returns...

2007-10-09T17:01:00.000+01:00

Stephen Hammond MP and Southampton's Conservative Cabinet

(gatecrashing blogger in purple jumper top left!)

One result of Brown's election wobble was that the Conservative Party in Southampton started to give serious consideration to how it would fight (what felt like then) an imement general election. The last week was as William Rees Mogg described it a 'full dress rehersal' as campaign plans began to take shape.

Stephen Hammond (a former Sotonian himself) came down to Southampton to give us the benefit of his expertise and also help us campaign on the appalling Revenue Support Grant Southampton receives in comparison with similar authorities and also how the government's 'free pensioner bus pass' would lead the authority to be out of pocket by a minimum of £1.5m a year. his input on this matter was particularly useful as he is the conservative's shadow spokesman on transport issues. Hammond is something of a serious campaigner himself having stood for Wimbledon as well as standing for the Council there. He has agreed to help us both in campaigning terms as well as giving advice on lobbying and parliamentary matters as well as campaigning assistance; I am sure his advice will be invaluable.

Gordon Bottles it!

2007-10-08T18:43:00.000+01:00

Things are looking up; I won £10 from Cllr Phil Williams and another £10 off Conor Burns as Brown bottled out. The papers today were uniformally awful to Brown and his performance at his press conference (bought forward to today!) was worse.
So is this Brown's ERM moment? Perhaps not but there is no doubt that his government has suffered a severe reverse. As George Pascoe- Watson writes in today's Sun that Brown is 'Wounded not Dead' but the Conservatives have established a platform to build on if they are to form the next government.

Eastleigh selects

2007-10-05T16:32:00.001+01:00

Maria watched by then education spokesman Tim Collins- who went on to lose his seat...

pic c View images

Last week Eastleigh Conservative Association selected Maria Hutchings as their parliamentary candidate to fight Lib-Dem incumbent Chris Huhne's wafer thin 568 majority.

Best known for her outspoken 'handbagging' of Tony Blair regarding educational provision for her autistic son, I have no doubt she will be a feisty campaigner. For those interested in a bit of background, the BBC ran an interview with her HERE.

Given the decline of the Lib-Dems in the polls since the general election and a resurgent (relatively), Tory Party, one could be forgiven in thinking it was a one way bet that Ms Hutchings was going to win. Not a bit of it. Huhne has achieved a national platform with his audacious bid for the Lib-Dem leadership last year and the Lib-Dems really are masters of all they survey at both Eastleigh Borough and County level within the constituency boundaries. The Tories have not helped themselves in selecting so late- in seats like Eastleigh candidates really need to play it long if possible. That said she is in with a chance and she has started on the right track by announcing her decision to immediately move to the area and start working right away.

Good luck to her- she will need it.

Pick up the 'phone Councillor...

2007-10-05T15:08:00.000+01:00

his Daughter and well known WAG, Mel Slade knows how to use a phone even if he doesn't...

incidently this picture was taken as Mel collected her A level results from Sholing College

pic copyright Solent.

The humdrum of political life!

Normally on the first Friday of the month I go for a drive round Southampton looking at sites that I will be considering at the Planning & Rights of Way panel the following Tuesday. Today I find myself with a bit of time on my hands as I know almost all the sites under consideration and those I don't, I'll go and look at tommorow.

The net result is I've got an unexpected hour on my hands so I'm blogging and whingeing about the Chairman of the Planning Panel, Lib-Dem John Slade. I wrote to him last Monday (and I only wrote because he doesn't read his emails...) about the way the meetings are structured and also how the committee decides items of business following representations from the public and other Councillors- as yet no reply.

Readers may be interested to know Cllr Slade was one of the members who voted himself a special allowance of £5,324 for Chairing the panel which meets for a day a month...

He did it!

2007-10-04T16:08:00.000+01:00

are the dog days behind him?

It has been a good week for the Tories and something of a triumph for Cameron in that his speech went well and his conference really did herald something of the much vaunted 'Conservative fightback'. If either had gone badly, he would have become politically damaged goods, probably irretrievably and the Conservatives would have entered a general election both split and dispirited. instead activists have a spring in their step and there is a real feeling that should Brown call an election, it is well worth the fight for they may be starting in second place but anything is possible.
Locally the Conservative Association is in quite good shape. I am confident we can have a first 72 hour leaflet printed and delivered across the constituency, most of the wards have a reasonable organization and we even have a small amount of money to campaign with! I wouldn't imagine Alan Whitehead is quaking in his boots but he knows this will be his most testing outing electorally since 19997.

Benn to bite back?

2007-10-04T15:22:00.000+01:00

Benn down with the kids at the Glastonbury Festival in 07

Politics always has the capacity to surprise. Today I was amazed to read that the left-wing firebrand Tony Benn, a sprightly 82 years of age, want to become an MP again. Further, he wants to stand in what was the mega-safe seat of Kensington. The Boundary Commissioners have done the Tories no favours as the seat retains poor areas of Notting Hill in the north but loses some of the super rich Chelsea.

The incumbent former-foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind had a notional majority of just over 5000 in 2005 based on the new boundaries so it is not even impossible Benn could win if he was selected! It certainly would be quite a fight!

New ideas...old slogans!

2007-10-03T15:52:00.001+01:00

Its been a good week for the Conservatives; the much vaunted 'fightback' has begun and Cameron has probably done enough (just) to scare Brown off a general election for now (so my £10 is safe hopefully!)

That said, I thought the slogan needed a bit of work as it has been roadtested at a major political conference once before and was found wanting!

The era of spin is over? You've got to be joking!

2007-10-02T15:02:00.000+01:00

Remember that speech Mr Brown gave at the (appropriately named) Imagination Gallery when he was pitching to be PM after the local elections? Or afterwards when he visited Southampton? Or indeed his first big speech as PM to parliament on constitutional issues?

Sometimes he said it explicitly. Sometimes it was implied. But always the message was clear; over big issues and especially big foreign policy issues the Commons was to be told first. As PM he wanted to be more accountable to parliament. Sobriety rather than spin was to be the order of the day.

Well it hasn't taken long for the wheels to come off the truck. Today on his first visit to Iraq as PM, Brown has committed to cut the number of UK troops in Basra by 1000 'by Christmas'. Naturally he didn't announce this in the commons or indeed ask a press officer from the MoD to release it. No, it was another sparkling photo opportunity in Iraq, timed to coincide with the Tory defence debate at Blackpool and further stoking election speculation.

The era of spin is over they said.

Not on current form it isn't!

UPDATE
Nick Robinson has a scoop on Brown HERE.
Hope Robinson isn't right on the last bit; I've got a £10 bet with Conor Burns he won't call an election before the Spring!

What is it about Blackpool?

2007-10-01T18:53:00.000+01:00

Funny how Blackpool always seems to be the most challenging conference venue...

Wish you were here...

2007-10-01T18:37:00.001+01:00

Partnership working? Its all in the name!

2007-10-01T18:07:00.000+01:00

One of Labour's more depressing enterprises has been the emasculation of local democracy (although readers of Simon Jenkin's excellent Thatcher and Sons will know they are only the latest in something of a long line). the typical Labour response to increasing local participation has been the sidelining of elected politicians and the creation of new, unelected and unaccountable quangos. One such body is the 'Southampton Partnership'. Containing some good people, it has done some good work but in the end it is a prisoner of its own structure and organisation. Their latest proposal is to spend its SEEDA (another unelected, unaccountable QUANGO) grant on a scale model of Southampton and some posh new signs on the entry points to the city with such naff strap lines as 'The Regional Shopping Centre'. They rejected proposals for a full size model Spitfire (which was designed and built in the city) and an art mural at the Solent University.
According to the Curator, they didn't even tell the Council what they are planning to do or ask if they could display their model in the art gallery. So much for partnership working!!!

Mission impossible?

2007-10-01T17:27:00.000+01:00

Cameron & Coulson

Two year's ago this week David Cameron gave the speech of his life. It was a speech that catapulted him from outsider to leader of the Conservative Party and led to a revival of the Party's fortunes in the opinion polls.

On Wednesday of this week Cameron is going to have to replicate his performance of two years ago if he is to have any chance of defeating Labour in the next general election. Can he do it? The answer is yes- probably. The 'probably' depends on not just the content and delivery of speech but also the background 'mood music'. The party (and especially the parliamentary party) needs to be in the mood to be led and the all important media offensive that is coupling what Cameron has called the 'fightback' will stretch every sinew of the new media guru (and former News of the World editor) Andy Coulson.

Is it as today's Sun says 'Mission Impossible'?

Probably not- but a tall order nonetheless.

Long time, no see.

2007-09-20T21:01:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the long absence. It was due really only to the perennial IT problems at the council, the same at home and not having or perhaps not making time to update my blog. Anyway I shall make a conscious effort to update it more regularly over the next few months and thanks to those of you who kept looking!

2007-08-05T18:12:00.000+01:00

chin up...

Most Prime Minister's Press Secretaries have a go at publishing their memoirs in some shape or form so it is no surprise that Alistair Campbell has embarked upon a literary career with The Blair Years; a highly distilled (from two and a half million words to 350k) contemporary diary of Campbell's time in Downing Street. We are told that a fuller, more complete account will follow and that is for the best for the diaries are a sanitised read.

How do they compare to his predecessors works?

Well Bernard Ingham's Kill the Messenger is something of a classic of the genre in that it is intimate and gives a feel for life in the Downing Street bunker, working for Margret Thatcher in a way Campbell never quite manages.

Christopher Meyer may not have written in detail about his time as Major's Press Secretary but his book DC Confidential was pretty controversial upon its release due in part to Meyer still being active in public life (he was chairman of the PCC). It is his damning critique of Blair's performance in the run-up to the war, arguing that the Prime Minister and his team were "seduced" by the proximity and glamour of US power and reluctant to negotiate conditions with George Bush for Britain's support for the war that really made the headlines.

Wilson's Press Secretary Joe Haines had two goes at putting the record straight. - The Politics of Power, published in 1977 - caused a sensation with its revelations about the 'lavender list' of Wilson's resignations honours. Even stronger meat was to be found in 'Glimmers of Twilight' which was published in 2003. Second time around, Haines claims that Wilson's doctor offered to murder Marcia Falkender, (then head of Wilson's political office) after she attempted to blackmail Wilson over an affair they had twenty years earlier. It is interesting that the BBC, in an out of court settlement with Falkender, paid her £75,000 after these claims were repeated in The Lavender List in 2006 but that Haines himself has not, as yet, been sued.

A less racey but charming book is Donald Maitland's 'Diverse Times, Sundry Places' which although is a general memoir has quite a lot of detail on his time as Sir Edward Heath's Press Secretary between 1970-74. I met Maitland some years ago when Bradford on Avon were trying to develop the old, heavily contaminated Avon Rubber site in the town. He was a most effective Chairman and came across as really a gentleman of the old school; I don't think he would have been impressed with either the language or indeed the methods employed by Mr Campbell in the same job some 30 years later.

Not quite White...

2007-08-05T17:33:00.000+01:00

this bloody blender...

Last week I happened to be passing through Highclere near Newbury on a bit of business when I stumbled on Marco Pierre White's gastropub, the Yew Tree Inn.

Remembering its proprietor was the youngest ever restaurateur to ever be awarded the accolade of three Michelin stars at 33 years of age as well as the original enfant terrible of the kitchen, as famous for his tantrums as his fantastic, groundbreaking food, I wandered inside for a drink.

The decor and menu, not to say wine list was fantastic but I thought I would have a pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord ale. After coughing up the #2.90, I was slightly amused to find the beer was rancid, undrinkable! Swapping it for a sparkling mineral water, I resisted the temptation to pour the offending article over the great man himself who was bawling down a mobile in a Range Rover parked outside the pub...

It will all come out in the wash...

2007-07-21T19:15:00.000+01:00

Its not only Mr Denham who has been caught telling a few fibs, now I see that his near neighbour Chis Huhne is at it!