Return from holiday – Just in time for Jubilee Celebrations!

Been quiet for a week after being away on holiday. But this weekend is full of fun and celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

I do hope many Blenheim Residents will be able to come along.

Bandstand Concerts (Priory Park) – all four days:

• Saturday 2^nd June – Tilbury Brass Academy – 3pm to 5pm
• Sunday 3^rd June – Southend Band – 3pm to 5pm
• Monday 4^th June – Tequila Swing – 3pm to 5pm
• Tuesday 5^th June – Becontree Brass Band – 3pm to 5pm

“Jubileigh” events (See what they’ve done there!! 🙂 )

Beacon Lighting:

Two beacons are being lit across the town – our one is in Leigh Library Gardens. Festivities start from 6pm on Monday 4th June with a BBQ and Beer Tent, together with live music from Castle Point Lions, Funky Voice Choir and Crafting for Foes.

Leigh Community Jubilee Fair:

Sunday 3rd June at St. Clement’s Church from 10:30am to 4pm with games, BBQ, tea & cakes, bouncy castle and a variety of other stalls.

Southend Jubilee Cricket Festival

This is at Garon Park from 3rd – 5th June.  Essex Unicorns playing Sussex Sharks and Kent Spitfires on 3rd and 5th respectively.

Medals

Diamond Jubilee Medals have been presented to infant, junior and special school children, to commemorate this (almost!) unique occasion – I challenge anyone to remember the last one!

 

Regular in-ward surgery: Jubilee or no Jubilee – I will be out and about on Saturday morning supporting residents keeping the ward safe, followed by 10:30-12noon the opportunity to come along and discuss issues/concerns you have that I can help with at West Area Housing Office, Mendip Road (next to St Cedd’s Church).

A great opportunity to give more back to the town I love

The Leader of the Council, Nigel Holdcroft has asked me to join his team (the cabinet). I am delighted to have been appointed to take on such a prominent role within the Council and taking responsibility for Children and Learning.

I am pleased to be taking over from Mark Flewitt, my colleague in St Laurence ward, at a time when, whilst our budgets may be shrinking , as a council the standards of education are improving across our town as are the services we provide to those most in need.

It will be a difficult financial next few years ahead, but also exciting with the likely development of a new primary school within the town.

As someone born and bred in Southend, I’m really happen that I can play my part in the administration of our town, especially in the educational provision of our future generations. I hope my appointment confirms to our youngsters that hard work and determination can pay off.

With secondary, primary and special schools, nurseries and a Sure Start centre, my appointment to the cabinet in this capacity can only be good news for the residents of Blenheim Park.

It was only announced today: http://www.southend.gov.uk/news/article/740/leader_announces_his_cabinet_for_201213 so I look forward to spending the next few days finding out about all what I’ve let myself in for!

I remain, as I always have, first and foremost committed to the residents of Blenheim.

How many councillors does Blenheim Park have??

Today was the Annual Council, normally a very stately affair where the new mayor gets “made”. Today though, the last item on the agenda was a little more fun than normal.

“Election of Leader of the Council”. As the Conservatives do not hold a majority of the seats we could not vote en masse to make Nigel Holdcroft (Conservative Group Leader) the Leader of the Council, without support from the opposition.

Ron Woodley (member of the Independent Party) decided to stand against Nigel. The votes cast were:

Holdcroft – 25

Woodley – 16

Abstentions – 9.

 

Hold on a minute…….. the people of the town spoke last week, about who they wanted to be their councillor. 51 councillors are in the chamber (well not quite, 1 Lib Dem couldn’t even be bothered to attend, having booked a holiday…) and they have a job to do. Deciding on who the Leader of the Council is going to be for at least the next two years (formally 4 years) is quite an important one. So important in fact that we didn’t vote how we normally do by saying “agreed” or show of hands, but we had a named vote.

But how did Graham Longley – Lib Dem Leader and BLENHEIM PARK COUNCILLOR vote?

How did Duncan Russell vote – Lib Dem BLENHEIM PARK COUNCILLOR?

Town Clerk: “Cllr Longley”

Graham Longely: “Abstain”

Town Clerk: “Cllr Russell”

Duncan Russell: “Abstain”.

What is going on? We elect our politicians to make decisions. Sometimes these decisions are tough. But this should come as no surprise to us all really as the Lib Dems have done this abstaining malarkey before over trivial things like £500 million budgets!!

So the answer today was Blenheim Park had one councillor who bothered to vote. So fortunately all 7,000+ electors of Blenheim were not disenfranchised today.

Perhaps we all need to put a few quid together to electrify the fences in the ward?

 

PS Credit where credit is due – One Lib Dem made a decision. Top Marks for Ric Morgan, don’t do it too often Ric or they might ask for your party membership card back!

Southend’s Conservatives

I think people of all political persuasions will acknowledge that I fight cleanly. I don’t think I’ve ever named a political opponent let alone slated one in a leaflet!

But reading the Southend Echo yesterday made me think that it is time for me to make an exception and put a few facts out there about Southend’s Conservatives and, in particular, the Independent Group (basically a party) in Southend.

Now let me start off by saying I respect the right of anyone to vote for whatever candidate they want, be it Labour, Liberal or even BNP or other extreme parties. It is the responsibility of the main stream political parties to ensure that the extreme votes are a small percentage of the total ballots cast.

However, Southend’s Independents are duping people and they know it. They are, to all intents and purposes, a party. They have a Leader (who calls himself a spokesman), who gets paid an allowance of £7,560 (2011/12 municipal year), in addition to his basic allowance (that all councillors are entitled to). They go to each other’s wards to help each other out, to try and get elected. They have private meetings to discuss what their group’s view is – although they often cannot agree.

Do I have a problem with the above? No, not at all. There is nothing wrong with the leader of a party getting remunerated, recognising the extra work he has to do. Is there a problem with like-minded people getting together to support each other? No. Is there a problem of getting together in private to thrash out ideas and then forming a general view? Not at all. But what I do have a problem with is when people do one thing and say another.

Christine Hills said in Tuesday’s (8th May) Southend Echo that “The difference with the main political parties is they have funds for elections.” You often hear the Leader of their group saying “Oh yes, but you have a party machine behind you”. If only they knew. In Blenheim Park there was me, Julie and her agent. We had a couple of helpers who live in the ward who wanted to see Julie get elected. How is that different to what the Independent’s have?

Christine had to pay for her own leaflets?! Oh no. Standing for election costs money. It is a fact of life. Perhaps she thinks members of the three main political parties should fund her election? All campaigning material for Southend West Conservative candidates was paid for by LOCAL party members – those who live in the wards the candidates were standing for.

A lot of the campaign material was paid for by the candidates personally. None of it came from taxpayers’ money. The same cannot be said for the Independents – their leader often says that he spends his allowance on election material – well perhaps Christine needs to go and ask for her share of £7,560 of Southend Council Tax payers’ money?

Southend Conservatives have listened. We take what the electorate says very seriously. I for one will go back out onto the street and listen to my employers – the residents of Blenheim.

But Southend Conservatives, in a bad year for the Conservatives nationally, won more seats than any other political party in Southend. (Tory 6, Ind 5, Lab 3, Lib 3). There is one reason and one reason only that Southend Council’s largest group is Conservative….. Because that is what the electorate WANT. Those who put us down all the time and say party politics is dead should remember what the electorate have said in this and previous elections.

Stand up and be proud to be a Conservative! Explain your views and beliefs. And those who support us don’t be shy – there really are more of us than you are lead to believe!

Time to shut up now – I’ve done a ramble and a half!

Back to Blenheim Park issues in the next post! 🙂

Election Results

The election results are in. I’ve had a few hours kip, and unfortunately Julie Cushion came second in Blenheim Park.

Thank you to all 624 people who voted for Julie and the Conservatives in Blenheim. Rest assured that it is business as normal and the service I have given to residents of Blenheim over the past year will continue and the good work undertaken by Blenheim Conservatives will continue.

In the past couple of weeks we have enforced verge parking where residents have wanted it – with signs and the spy car  (yes note I said RESIDENTS wanted it) and had two new bins installed along Prittle Brook.

On a Southend-wide basis it wasn’t the best night for the Conservatives, however we will continue to work for what we believe to be best for the town.

Next surgery – tomorrow 10:30am!

Lack of messages

Sorry for the recent lack of updates here… However a lack of posting on here is directly related to how busy I’ve been in and around the ward trying to get Julie Cushion – your candidate for next Thursday’s local elections – introduced to as many residents as possible.

But, the ward always comes first and working hard we have managed to sort out extra bins along Prittle Brook, to support the good work of the Prittle Brook Community Team. We have arranged for the muddy verge (that was once reportedly grassy back in 1964) in Suffolk Avenue protected. The latest campaign, to support one of my passions: small and local businesses to follow……..

Trees – Actions speak louder than words

A few weeks ago I complained about the felling of trees.

I am pleased to report that six trees have been saved from being removed from St Thomas More High School School.

I was notified that an application (11/01647/TPO) had been made to the council to allow for them to be removed. I objected straight away and asked for further investigation. Six perfectly good and well formed trees would have been lost.

Fortunately the school, who should be commended for looking at other solutions, listed to my concerns and the concerns that the council raised and have reviewed their request and are now just going to have a crown reduction of 20%, preserving six trees for our enjoyment.

Thank you Tommy More for listening! I hope others do the same.

Council of the Year Award goes to Southend Council!

At a ceremony last night Southend Borough Council was confirmed as the Council of the Year in the LGC Annual awards.

This is one of the most prestigious awards it is possible for a local council to get.

This, on top of the fact that two years ago the council was shortlisted for Most Improved Council and then last year shortlisted for the Council of the Year award means that something must be being done alright on Southend Council!

Times are tough, money is tight, but your council is working as hard and efficiently as it can to produce the best results.

Biggest praise goes to all of those members of staff who we don’t even know, working hard every day to produce the best council in the land – and now it is official!

Trees

Trees… This isn’t the most interesting topic for everyone I know, although some of us do get very passionate about trees sometimes.

What I am proposing isn’t revolutionary – it can’t be because the council is doing it already!

Sometimes they are just in the ‘wrong’ place. Yes they were there before whatever replaces them, quite often before some of us were born, but it just isn’t possible to do everything we want to around them. They have to go.

The council accepted this a long time ago, but with a little bit of help from our more passionate friends the policy of 2-4-1 was adopted, with the council planting over two trees for everyone it fells. Quite right too. In addition before any tree is felled by the council in Blenheim Park I receive notification and am given the reasons why.

I think this is the right policy to have and it means that we aren’t too restricted with what we can do to improve our town by trees, but that we do not lose the beauty and benefits trees bring to our otherwise very heavily built up area.

What is disappointing is several private developers who put application to the council to build desperately needed flats/houses, that involve the removal of several trees. When the council is involved, even at arm’s length and indirectly it ensures that its 2-4-1 policy is adhered to. Unfortunately, and even after asking until blue in the face, it doesn’t appear that the council can even insist upon a 1-4-1 replacement by developers. I think this is wrong. I hope that in time we will be able to bring a policy into force that enables us to be able to do so. Perhaps the Localism bill will help!

If developers do not want to replant the trees themselves or are unable to provide the land within their development for the new trees, then I am sure (like we do for public art and education) we could charge them a reasonable replacement fee and the council’s parks department could do it on their behalf?

What does Blenheim Park (its residents not the park itself!) think?

The budget

Last night’s Full Council meeting was a busy one, with over 30 items on the agenda, number 10 of which, quite rightly, took up half of the time, it was a budget of over £130m (or £500m if we are talking about all the money that comes in and goes back out)

Full details of the budget can be seen here: http://www.southend.gov.uk/news/article/664/council_sets_201213_budget

The opposition councillors were, as usual, very quick to criticise, but not quite so quick to come up with alternatives.

The leader of the Lib Dems (Graham Longley) listed well over £1,000,000 in savings/reductions/cuts call them what you will, that he didn’t like. Nigel Holdcroft (Leader of the Council) has given MONTHS worth of notice, asking for any ideas and amendments to be made and then they would be considered. Did we have any of those? No, just we don’t like this, that and the other cuts. Well *I* don’t like some of the cutbacks we are having to make. However unlike the Liberals and Independents I do understand the need to have a balanced budget.

The best suggestion Graham Longley could come up with was to put up charges for ALL who were using day centres to keep charges down for the more affluent users of the day care centres (those that can’t afford to pay are paid for by the Council). Blimey and I’m the one that’s usually accused of being the “redneck tory!”

The Independent Party seem to have a bug bear about borrowing. Yes the council borrows money, but as Nigel pointed out in the debate this amounts to about 2% of the total council’s spending. This is money we have to pay back and the Independents are claiming that yours and my children’s future are mortgaged to the hilt. I disagree. The council is making prudent borrowings to fund INVESTMENT for our future and our children’s future. Sow the seeds now and reap the rewards later!