Policing Priorities in Banister Park and Bevois Valley

Cllr Michael Ball and I attended the first Bevois Valley and Banister Park Neighbourhood Panel Meeting this evening at Bevois Town Primary School.

It was a good opportunity to meet with the beat police, local people and partnership agencies to discuss policing priorities. It was also interesting to hear the good work that the police are doing in the Banister Park and Bevois Valley area.

The police are rolling out similar meetings across Southampton and it is a good way for local people to help set priorities in their communities and ensure faster response times from the police. This evening was the second such meeting that I have been to. Earlier in the month Cllr Vincenzo Capozzoli and I met with the St Denys Neighbourhood Team.

Civil Service Sports Ground Acquisition

The Council is moving to compulsorily purchase the Civil Service Sports Ground in Freemantle. The decision was taken by the Conservative Cabinet on Monday and marks a concrete step towards bringing the former sports field into public ownership. It has been a long standing ambition of mine to return the land to community use. I am hopeful that within the next year it will be owned by the City Council and open to use by local people and schools in the area.

State Of The Art New Sports Facilities At Test Playing Fields

The layout for the new sports facility at Test Playing Fields (click to enlarge)

The Conservative Council is pushing ahead with plans to build state of the art new sports facilities at Test Playing Fields (off Lower Brownhill Road). This will be delivered in partnership with Southampton Solent University and the Football Foundation.

The new community facilities will include a synthetic turf pitch, a Multi User Games Area and associated changing rooms and parking. Holy Family Roman Catholic Primary will benefit from free time tabled use of the Multi User Games Area.

I was pleased to agree the Solent University lease on Monday. The City Council already has a superb sports partnership with Solent, where their students run extra hours of sport for children on the west of the city. The next step is this fantastic new facility which will benefit the local community and nearby schools.

Council Depot Moving to Dock Gate 20

The Council today took the decision to purchase land in the docks near Dock Gate 20. The Council intends to use the site for a new town depot, providing a recycling centre and base for Council bin lorries.

The existing Chapel based facility is in an appalling state and needs considerable investment. Test Lane was one site being considered as part of the study and residents were advised by the Council in the interests of openness. However, it has now been ruled out as land at Dock Gate 20 was considered to be more suitable and better value for money. The land has been acquired from the private owners and development will likely take place by 2011.

Due to commercial confidentiality the Council was unable to discuss Dock Gate 20 before now. Now the deal has gone through I am delighted that Council can now reveal that Dock Gate 20 rather than Test Lane is the preferred site.

The decision is a victory for local Councillor Paul Holmes who has been campaigning hard on behalf of the Old Redbridge community.

Norwich North Goes Blue

Norwich North's New Conservative Member of Parliament

Congratulations to Chloe Smith! She fought a terrific campaign and I’m glad that Norwich North now has a Conservative MP. This result again confirms that the electorate is sick of Gordon Brown and this Labour Government’s disastrous handling of the economy.

If the swing at yesterday’s Norwich North By Election result was replicated at the General Election it would see Southampton turn blue, with both Labour MPs, John Denham (Southampton Itchen) and Alan Whitehead (Southampton Test) losing their seats to the Conservatives.

Southampton Test Projected Result
Conservatives – 32.25%
Labour – 16.01%
Conservative majority of 6786

Southampton Itchen Projected Result
Conservatives – 33.75%
Labour – 21.56%
Conservative majority of 4844

Ropewalk Big Lunch

I had a great time at the Ropewalk Garden Big Lunch today. Well done to Newtown residents who organised the Community Picnic at the Ropewalk Community Garden in Derby Road.

Give Our Colleges Their Money Back

The Government has behaved in the most shameful and inept manner towards our local colleges. It was announced a couple of weeks ago that all the colleges in the city and in Hampshire would lose out on the millions of pounds promised to them for rebuilds.

Today a Parliamentary Select Committee report was published revealing in detail the staggering level of incompetence by both the Learning and Skills Council and the Government department whose job it is to oversee the quango. Responsibility for the fiasco must be laid squarely at the door of local MP John Denham who was the Secretary of State at the time.

Not only have the colleges been denied the money promised them, they have spent huge sums of money in preparation for the rebuilds. This is money that has been spend on planning permission, architects fees, survey work etc. It is money that could could have been spent on improving the education of young people locally. Between them Itchen College and Taunton's College have spent over £1.5m. Multiply this across the country and the figure is more than £200m!

On Wednesday I put forward a motion to Southampton City Council. This called on the Government to return the sunk money that the colleges have spent. This achieved all party support. Today the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee is echoing this call. I hope that the Government will listen and pay back the money. Under the circumstances that is the least they can do.

Southampton Welcomes Home Local Heroes

Thousands of local people, young and old, turned out on Tuesday to welcome home the troops of the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment.

The support from local people was fantastic. Over 500 school children, including children from St Marks in Freemantle joined in, enthusiastically waving flags. A 40ft Union Jack blew in the wind over the parade, suspended from a crane.

It was a proud day for those soldiers receiving their service medals. It was also very emotional given the recent escalation of casualties in Afghanistan as the fighting there intensifies.

The important thing is that Southampton showed unequivocally that we are behind our men and women serving in the forces at a time of war and that we value enormously the personal sacrifices that they are making for freedom.

Little Common Litter Pick

Jeremy helping out with Portswood Candidate Matthew Claisse (left) and Portswood Councillor Vincenzo Capozzoli (right)

Well done to everyone who helped out with the Little Common litter pick last Friday. The event was organised by the Common Sense group from Highfield and was a big success. Between us we managed to pick up several bin bags full of rubbish.

A lot of work has gone into improving Little Common, which is the part of the Common next between Highfield Rd and the Avenue. The City Council with help from local people have cleared a lot of the trees and undergrowth between the underpass and Highfield Lane, restoring the historic carriageway.

St Mary's Parking Changes

Changes to residents’ parking arrangements came into effect in St Mary’s at the start of July. The residents parking scheme for the area will now operate Monday – Saturday, 8am – 6pm. Before the hours of operation were 8am – 10pm, seven days a week. Also the time limit for short-stay parking will be relaxed from one hour to two hours for people without permits.

The changes follow a lengthy consultation with local people. Conservative Councillors have been pushing the Council for some time to do more to tackle problems with parking in the area and we are keen to get feedback from residents on the changes.

Cash Boost for Freemantle Schools

Local Schools such as St Marks, Freemantle, Foundry Lane and Banister will gain a share of new funding set aside for Primary Schools by the new Conservative Council. £5.8m has been allocated to provide extra facilities for expanding local schools and to improve standards. The decision to allocate the extra funds was taken today following an extensive review of primary school provision in the Freemantle and Central areas of the city.

Letter to the Daily Echo: Get Behind the New Lord's Hill Academy

Dear Sir

Unlike Labour’s Don Thomas I see the rebuild of the Lord’s Hill Academy as a positive thing for the local community.

The decision to rebuild the school at 5 Acre Field was taken after a lengthy consultation several years ago and received support from all three political parties and the majority of parents. Parents told the city council that they wanted a third, neutral site, so that it was seen that neither Millbrook School nor Oaklands School was taking over the other.

The Conservatives have secured £17m for a rebuild of the Academy. This is money that Labour and the Lib Dems would have turned down.

At 5 Acre Field the school will be located next to a number of sports clubs, including a rugby club, football club and cricket club.

This will benefit the clubs as they will be able to attract new members, and will be good for the school as it will have more opportunities to promote sport amongst local children. The Academy is already working well in partnership with Solent University delivering after schools sports activities.

The Conservatives have allocated money to improve 5 Acre Field, including money to drain the pitches. The safety of children is paramount and so money has been set aside to provide to provide crossings or to improve the nearby underpasses. In total over a million pounds will be spent improving the area around the new school.

The Lord’s Hill Academy has been open less than a year. It has a great future and the new facilities will be a boost to the local community. The pupil numbers entering the Academy for the first time are healthy. The head teacher Ian Golding is doing a superb job.

I would urge Don Thomas to put aside his political prejudices and get behind the new school.

Yours faithfully

Cllr Jeremy Moulton

Labour Betrays Our City's Colleges

Labour's decision to pull the plug on funds to rebuild Taunton’s and Itchen College is disgrace.

Colleges in Southampton and the rest of Hampshire were promised funds for ambitious rebuilds which would give them the facilities they need to equip young people for the 21st century.

At the end of June the Government announced a shortlist of 13 further education projects that would proceed. Southampton has been left waiting for months to hear if its planned projects would be given the go ahead and we have now finally learned that the city is excluded from the list, with the majority of funds going to the Labour heartlands in the North of England.

Southampton's colleges join the list of over a hundred colleges around the country that have been betrayed by Labour and not given the funds they were promised. The 13 colleges that remain on the list are still not guaranteed to go ahead and if they do they may find that their funding is considerably reduced.

More than a million pounds has been spent locally in Southampton in preparation for the rebuilds. Taunton’s College has received planning consent from the city council and building work was ready to start. On the east of the city Itchen College was due to move to the Eastpoint Centre in Thornhill. This was part of a much more ambitious, wider project which would aid the regeneration of the area, supporting the redevelopment of the Eastpoint Centre and Sholing Technology College being rebuilt on the vacated Itchen College site with Building Schools for the Future funds. The city council is now working hard to ensure that these other important projects are not jeopardised by the Government withdrawing the college money.

This is another blow for Southampton from a government that is not interested supporting the city. This comes on top of the decision earlier this year to scrap a planned grant of £4.6m to refurbish the city centre’s Guildhall Square and extra taxes that are being piled upon businesses in the Port.

Despite all the rhetoric from Gordon Brown saying that he is investing in public services, all we see locally is broken promise after broken promise and money being taken away from the city.