Labour Budget Will Hit Freemantle Ward Hard

As a local councillor representing the Freemantle Ward I was extremely disappointed and angered to read the budget plans of the new Labour Administration. Many of the cuts and hikes in charges will disproportionately hit those that I am elected to represent.

Labour came into office full of promises and as predicted, one by one they are breaking them. They immediately u-turned on their pledge to keep Oaklands Pool open. They promised to invest more in SureStart and they are cutting £1m a year from this service. They promised to spend more on libraries, yet they are slashing opening hours, bringing local libraries to the verge of closure. Shirley Library is having its hours cut by 15 hours a week. Pensioners are having their council tax raised by 12%, despite a last minute pre election promise by Cllr Richard Williams not to do this. Even the weekly bin collection was due to be axed and it was only spared because of a grant from the Government.

A 35% reduction in street cleaning in local roads will mean lots of more litter. Local residents associations are fighting an ongoing battle to keep the area clean, with regular litter picks and this will come as a real slap in the face to many people. I am very worried about the cuts to the upkeep of local parks. We already have problems with drinking in Lake Park and cans and glass left behind as well as the ongoing problem of dog fouling. We have more and more young families in Freemantle and keeping the local parks clean, tidy and safe is essential.

Parking is one of the biggest problems faced by residents in Freemantle Ward. I have fought for a long time to stop new charges coming in for first permits in residents’ parking zones. Labour tried to bring in charges last time they were in power and now they are back they are quick to charge residents to park. Worse still this doesn’t even guarantee residents a space in their road. Residents’ Parking enforcement stops at 6pm so many residents will end up paying for permits and much of the time they will be worthless. Labour plans to introduce on street parking charges in the evenings in the city centre will mean more workers parking their cars in local roads after 6pm, making it even harder for residents to park. Also charging people to park when they are shopping in Shirley will hit local businesses hard, damaging trade and costing jobs, at a time when everyone is struggling.

Labour have not thought through their proposals. They were elected with no plan and no vision for the city and now residents are suffering the consequences.

Conservatives Save The Weekly Bin Collections

Local Conservatives have saved the weekly bin collections in Southampton, despite Labour's best efforts to axe the service! 

Labour announced earlier this month that the weekly bin collections would go if a bid submitted to government by the previous Conservative Council was unsuccessful and have put a dozen bin men on notice of redundancy. This was despite their last minute pre-election pledge not to cut the bins. 

Conservatives have been lobbying the government over recent months to provide extra funds for the city which will not only protect the weekly bins but also provide the money for a new, FREE doorstep collection of glass. We have heard today that the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles MP, has agreed the funds and saved Southampton's bin service from planned Labour cuts. 

Labour To Axe Weekly Bin Collections

Many residents will remember our pre-election warning about the weekly bin collection being scrapped by Labour.

Labour put out leaflets just days before the May elections, promising to keep the bins weekly. Labour knew the full financial situation of the Council when making this and their other promises.

Labour yesterday broke their bins promise by revealing their plans to end the weekly bin collection. This is a cynical and calculated betrayal of local people who believed in Labour and their promises. 

Despite being in power for less than 7 months, Labour's legacy in Southampton is already one of lies and broken promises. 

On behalf of the residents who value their weekly bin collection and do not want a permanent stinking mess on their doorstep we are now calling on Labour to reverse this crazy decision and stick to their pre-election pledge.

20 Is Plenty In Freemantle

I am calling on the City Council to look at introducing a citywide strategy to reduce speed limits in Southampton.

This comes of the back of new guidelines recently published by the government to make this easier to implement without the need for expensive traffic calming measures in those roads where traffic speeds tend to be slower anyway.

Residents in many residential streets would like to see speeds officially reduced from 30mph to 20mph and this would both reassure local people and reduce accidents.

Weekly Bin Collections Must Stay

Local Conservatives are committed to keeping the weekly bin collections and want to see more recycling in the city. In our manifesto we pledged to keep residual waste bin collections weekly and before the May elections we submitted a multi million pound bid to the government for extra money to fund a new FREE kerbside glass collection service.

By contrast, Labour have refused to rule out axing the weekly bin collections. As recently as September, Labour said publicly that the service might be cut despite their last minute pre election pledge. 

I am lobbying the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles, to provide the kerbside glass money to Southampton City Council.

Labour Need To Honest About City Council Finances

My Letter in today's Daily Echo regarding Southampton City Council's finances:

Dear Sir

 

Labour Councillor, Simon Letts complains that previous Conservative Council mismanaged the council's finances (Echo Letters 22nd October). In fact the previous Administration delivered a £6.9M revenue under spend in the last municipal year, presented a balanced capital budget and had in place a robust plan for dealing with the financial challenges faced by the council in the years ahead. 

On the 11th July at the Full Council meeting, Councillor Letts acknowledged the under spend publicly and extra funds this provided his new Administration. I did say to him then that if he tried to misrepresent the Conservatives' management of the finances that I would remind him of this and what he said in the council meeting and so I am doing so with this letter.

 

It is very true to say that Southampton City Council faces difficult times financially. The worrying truth is however that Labour came into office with no serious plan to tackle the situation. They immediately set about rewarding themselves with extra paid councillor roles, started spending money on unnecessary pet projects and abandoned the partnership arrangement with the Isle of Wight which would have allowed Southampton to protect services through sharing them with the Island. They have refused to contemplate selling any of the thousands of works of art that the City Council owns, to plug the financial gap, yet are quite willing to axe services like Oaklands swimming pool. Worse still they have spent the last six months arguing and fighting amongst themselves rather than knuckling down and getting to grips with the finances. The result is utter chaos in the Civic Centre and a budget delayed at the eleventh hour. Labour urgently need to get a grip and they need to start being honest with the residents of Southampton.

 

Yours faithfully

 

Cllr Jeremy Moulton, Deputy Leader of Southampton Conservative Group

Labour Need To Be Clear Over the Future Of Oaklands

What a complete mess Labour are in over the issue of Oaklands Pool. Broken promises, deceit and incompetence are fast becoming hallmarks of the new council Administration.

One of Labour's first actions on taking control of the council was to announce the closure of Oaklands, despite their election pledge just a few weeks before, promising to protect it. 

Since then we have had total confusion over the future of the site. On one hand we had Labour saying the long term maintenance costs of the pool were too expensive, then we had a statement several months later from council Leader Richard Williams saying he might commit to repair costs. We had Labour on one hand saying that they would not pay the ongoing running costs, then them spending even more money this year keeping it closed, because of the ongoing costs of wages, building costs and lost income from visitors. We have had Labour on one hand saying that they would welcome a private company or charity taking on the pool but on the other hand had them saying that they planned to demolish the whole site within 2 years to make way for a new Sainsbury's. Now Sainsbury's have announced that they won't be proceeding with plans for a new store anyway.

Labour's policy is in total chaos. The pool should have stayed open and the pipe work repairs that were being carried out by the previous Administration should never have been stopped. If Labour won't allow Oaklands to remain a council pool and if they are serious about finding an alternative operator they need to be proactive and clearly spell out whether or not they will commit the council to ongoing repairs and how long any deal with a swimming pool operator will last. Labour also need to be clear about the future of the former Oaklands School building. Months ago the Conservatives called for the building to be used for community use and for other options like business use or nursery provision to be considered, but Labour voted our proposals down.

Southampton Labour are in Chaos

The new Labour Council Administration in Southampton is in total chaos. Labour were due this week to publish their budget for the coming year but at the eleventh hour have delayed the announcement by a month.
Just days after agreeing £2.8M of pay rises for council staff, Labour have admitted that they have no idea how they are going to pay for it and balance the books next year.

Since May Labour have failed to get to grips with the difficult finances of the city council. They have wasted months taking time off for holidays, arguing with themselves and focusing on minutiae. Now they have run out of time and their lack of a credible plan for the city is being exposed.

The first action taken by Labour was to reward themselves on their election victory with extra paid councillor jobs and chairmanships, spending money the city couldn’t afford. They then axed the developing partnership arrangement with the Isle of Wight, an arrangement which would have allowed the city and the island to merge more functions, protecting services at a time when there is considerably less money than before.
At the last full council meeting Labour again refused to consider selling off a small proportion of the council’s huge art collection to provide funds to invest in and protect services.

Labour’s lack of a plan, its sordid pay deal with the union bosses that funded their election campaign, its tearing up of council partnership arrangements, its refusal to consider options like art sales, all mean one thing; Labour are heading for a financial crisis which will see services axed, hundreds of jobs cut and fees and charges for local residents and businesses go through the roof.
There will be more broken promises. Labour as always will seek to blame someone else; the government or the last Conservative council Administration. However they have no one else but to blame but themselves.

Local Police Meeting

The next Police and Community Together (PACT) meeting for the Shirley, Freemantle and Regents Park area is on the 10th October at 18.30 at Shirley Parish Hall, Colebrook Avenue, Shirley.

I will be going along and there will be city council officer there to answer questions on parking, traffic and highways matters.

Park Hotel Building To Stay

The Park Hotel Today

For some years the Park Hotel in Shirley Road has been empty and boarded up, with local residents uncertain about the future of the building. Owners, Orchard Homes have been unable to reopen it as a pub and possible options for the site have included pulling it down and building a block of modern flats or a convenience store with flats above. Neither option is popular with local residents, nor is leaving the building empty, as it has become a bit of an eyesore. There was also a fire recently and there are concerns that it may happen again.

Residents and Councillors have met with directors from Orchard Homes on two occasions to see if an agreement could be reached about how the site might be redeveloped. The most popular choice was to see the building retained and converted to residential use and last week Orchard Homes presented some architects plans to the Freemantle Triangle Residents Association. The plans would see the outer walls and roof of the building retained and a second floor added to the single story part of the building fronting onto Shirley Road. 

As a local councillor I often find myself opposing inappropriate planning applications. It is a rare but welcome thing to have a developer making the effort not just to engage with the local community but also to come up with a design that is sympathetic to the neighbourhood and its heritage. 

My grandfather used to drink in the Park Hotel in the 1950s and 60s. It was managed for a while by my former colleague on the Council, Matthew Dean and I have spent many an evening there over the years. including helping clean it out when Matt first moved in. I think it would be a dreadful shame to see it bulldozed and I am very encouraged by the plans put forward by Orchard Homes. 

I found this old advert for the Park Hotel in a Southampton football programme from August 1963. It shows the old organ and the bar. I hope that the building can be saved and I will be supporting Orchard Homes' planning application when it is submitted. 

The Park Hotel 50 years ago (click to enlarge)

           

UPDATE: Orchard Homes have now submitted their planning application which can be seen here.

Labour Announce 240 Council Job Cuts

Another broken Labour promise by Southampton's new Council Administration as a hit list of 240 jobs is revealed, ahead of the draft city budget announcement next month.

Labour went into the local elections in May saying there would be no council job cuts as a result of their new staff redeployment model based on one adopted in Sunderland. They renamed this approach the Solent model and described it as their plan B for the council. The scheme would have seen the staff redeployment period extended to 12 months. Immediately after the election this was watered down to 8 months and today the final scheme will be agreed by the Labour Cabinet - just 4 months. At the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Management panel meeting on Thursday Labour admitted that they hadn't researched the policy properly and upon taking control of the council they realised that it was totally unaffordable. They also admitted that the policy was only intended to last one year to get them through the election period and was then due to be scrapped anyway.

However the biggest bombshell was revealed at Full Council on Wednesday and then clarified at the Overview and Scrutiny panel meeting the day after. Labour has been working on a secret hit list of staff who will be axed - all council staff on fixed, short term temporary contracts. The list of staff includes over a dozen bin men, library staff, sure start and nursery workers. These staff will receive no redeployment. Labour say that the union bosses have been working hand in glove with them on the issue.  Not only is this a betrayal of City Council staff who Labour have misled it is very disrespectful and totally unprofessional for Labour to once again reveal job cuts in public before speaking with those involved. After leaking their summer mini budget to the media, Labour were rightly chastised for having Oaklands Swimming Pool staff first hear about their jobs on the radio. Now Labour have done it again, announcing 240 job cuts in the public meeting of the Full Council, before having the decency to speak with those affected, some of whom have been with the council for up to 7 years.

Labour are proving time again that they cannot be trusted in Southampton and that they were prepared to say anything before the elections in order to win power, but had no intention of keeping their promises once they got in. Will the the local union bosses do anything about it? No of course they won't because they are Labour Party people who represent their own interests and that of the Labour Party - jobs and services are not their priority and once again this is being shown to be true.

Tougher Licencing Rules Needed Locally

Residents living in and off of Shirley Road are getting increasingly concerned about the amount of street drinking, the amount of bottles and cans dumped in the street and the numbers of licenced premises (shops and off licences) springing up in the area. I am getting more and more complaints and in recent years I believe that the situation has gotten out of hand. Action is need to curb the number of new licenced premises - enough is enough. 

I have written the Southampton District Police Commander and to the Chairman of the City Council's licencing panel calling for tougher licencing rules to be introduced. A few years ago the Council brought in a new licencing policy (called a Cumulative Impact Policy) in parts of the town centre, Bedford Place and Bevois Valley. This policy shifts the emphasis onto applicants for new alcohol licences, requiring them to demonstrate that they will not add to existing problems in the area. 

I am pleased to say that I have had encouraging feedback from the council's licencing department and the chairman of the licencing panel has agreed to work with the police to see if a tougher policy can be introduced locally. I will keep residents updated with any progress.

New Play Park Needed for Lake Park

The Children's play area in Lake Park is in need of improvements, with play equipment in need of updating and the area surrounding it often waterlogged.

I have received a number of complaints from parents that use the park and I am pushing the council for an urgent upgrade. The City Council has funds available for improving play parks in the area. These funds have been paid over to the council by developers over recent years as part of planning requirements that new developments help support improvements in the area. So the council has the funds and in my view it needs to make Lake Park a priority.

Labour's Pay Deal and Cuts to the Voluntary Sector

There are few easy decisions for local councils these days as they are facing a future with considerably less money than in the past. Local authorities have to prioritise and councillors must make judgements about where best to spend money and where to save it. 

However it does strike me as very wrong for Labour in Southampton to be announcing an extra £1.1M to fund pay increases for council staff earning over £35,000 and £65,000 pa, yet on the same day in Cabinet voting through cuts of £750,000 to grants to the voluntary sector. We heard from the voluntary sector that the impact of cuts is hitting small charities who in some instances are themselves having to reduce hours and pay for their employees who earn considerably less than this.

Every decision has its consequences and this is one such example and it does not seem right. 

Official Opening of Albany Road Play Park

I was very pleased today to be at the official opening of the new play park in Albany Road in Freemantle.  The new park looks fantastic and is already proving popular with local children. Funds for the play equipment came from developer contributions and the final scheme came in under budget. I am now pushing for improvements to the play facilities in Lakelands Park.

Labour/Union Pay Deal Will Cost Jobs and Services

A deal between the union bosses and the new Labour Administration was always going to come fairly quickly once the elections were over. The industrial action was political from the start, with the senior union negotiators all Labour Party people. However the recently announced deal doesn't mark the end of this sordid story. The cost of the deal is £2.8M a year, and this comes on top of the very large budget gap that the council faces in order to balance the books. The previous Conservative administration made terms and condition changes to keep more people in work and to protect the services that residents rely on.

The price of the Labour/Union deal will be lost jobs and services. However we won't know exactly who and what will be axed until November when next year's draft council budget is published.

Labour and the union bosses are keeping that information under wraps until after the council staff are balloted on the pay deal. It is very underhand to present this as good news to staff and ask them to vote on it and then a month later reveal to them exactly what it costs to pay for it in lost jobs and services.

We have already seen the start of Labour's cuts hitting the front line. The pay agreement alone is the equivalent of 10 Oaklands Pool closures.

It’s a deal that favours better paid staff and it is likely that it will be lower paid staff that bear the brunt of the job cuts.

Under the Conservative Council those earning less than £17,500pa (40% of staff) received a pay rise. The Conservatives were offering to protect those on £22,000pa and under from pay cuts and restore previous pay cuts, backdating them until last summer. It is ironic that the vast majority of bin men would have been better off under that arrangement, by about £600 compared with Labour/Union deal. Labour and unions were happy to use bin men for their own means during the strike but have secured them a worse deal.

This new deal will also be cold comfort to those staff which the union leaders managed to convince were due thousands and thousands of pounds if they took the council to court.

The tragic outcome of this long political campaign will be felt not only by staff themselves when Labour announce their extra job losses but by the residents of the city who will see more of their services axed.

My Written Submission to Helius

I have just made my written submission to Helius. The deadline for responses to Helius about their proposed power station is the 3rd August. All resident comments have to be in before or on 3rd August and need to be sumbitted to enquiries@southamptonbiomasspower.com.

Below is the submission sent by myself and Cllr Parnell:

Dear Sir

We are writing as local councillors for the Freemantle Ward to put on record to you our formal objection to your revised plans for a Power Station proposed for the Western Docks. We have also made representations to the City Council at the Planning and Rights of Way meeting held on 24^th July.

Consultation
We believe that your pre application consultation has been inadequate and flawed from start to finish. Your initial announcement was first made to the media rather than to the City Council and its elected representatives, appearing in the Southern Daily Echo on 6^th March 2012.

You failed to act upon the recommendations of the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel, which in their meeting on 17^th July made several requests. They asked that you extend the area in which you hold consultation meetings to Shirley and Old Redbridge, You failed to do this. You also failed to produce proper information on fire safety should your scheme be built. This is again despite being asked to do this at the Planning and Rights of Way meeting and despite there actually being a huge fire at the time of the meeting at a scrap metal storage site literally next to where you propose building a wood burning power station. The fire was so significant it was visible for miles and nearby neighbourhoods were thick with smoke. The blaze took Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service a day to put out. In light of this and also in light of the fact that there was a fire at a biomass power station recently in Tilbury, to then not provide full information on fire safety is totally unacceptable. This is a significant public concern which you have chosen not to address.

Your consultation has centred on trying to encourage residents to choose between one of three designs. This is clearly an attempt to present your scheme as a fait accompli rather than directing the public debate on to the issue of whether power station on this site is welcome or not. We have attended all of the public meetings held in Southampton and we have had this complaint made to us by residents repeatedly. Indeed Paul Brighton of Helius, at the planning meeting on 24^th July, tried to make the point that one design appeared to date to be the most favoured of the three. This is a serious distortion of the true state of public opinion.

Finally we feel that the photographs of the proposed development that you have supplied do not properly reflect how the development might look if built. You have moved the buildings and site location slightly compared with your previous scheme that you consulted on in 2011. However you have not changed the locations from where you have taken photographs. This is most starkly illustrated by the photograph showing the bottom of Foundry Lane. In last year’s consultation this looked down on the huge boiler house and caused enormous upset amongst local people. You have moved the boiler house now to near the end of Regents Park Road but continue to use a photograph of the bottom of Foundry Lane rather than providing a similar view from the bottom of Regents Park Road. We feel that this is a deliberate attempt not show how large the site would look from this location.

We therefore feel that your consultation has not been open or honest and it appears to us that you have tried to pay lip service to public consultation rather than really try to engage with local people and stakeholders.

Location
The proposed site is directly opposite a residential area. Roads in Freemantle are a mere 250m from the site. Due to the site’s close proximity to housing the proposed power plant will undoubtedly have a serious detrimental impact on the lives of local residents. Anecdotally we have been advised that your plans are already beginning to blight the area with residents struggling to sell their properties or finding that their properties are being significantly devalued.

Cllr Moulton is a governor of the local school, Freemantle Academy. Hence we know first hand from many parents in the area how they are worried about the impact of the power station on their community. The worry is that families will not want to bring up children in an area over shadowed by an enormous power station and will start to move away or not move into the area. This will have a profound knock on effect on the school.

The draft Hampshire Minerals and Waste Plan specifically says that the site you have chosen for your proposed scheme is not suitable for very large developments, namely category 4 and 6 developments. Your scheme therefore directly breaches one of the council’s core planning policy documents. We would like to endorse the objection made by the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel which objected to your scheme at its meeting on 24^th July citing this as a key reason for objecting.

 

Size
The proposed scale of the plant is far too large and out of context with its surrounding structures. Indeed it will be the biggest building on the city skyline, dwarfing the terraced housing opposite. Its sheer size and mass is out of character with the area. It will dominate the view of those coming into the city by road or rail from the west, the residential areas across Southampton water bordering the New Forest and the 1.4m cruise ship passengers travelling up and down Southampton water. The new police building in Southern Road, that opened last year, was meant to be a landmark gateway building. However all people will see when approaching from the west will be the power station.

Some residents have suggested to us that if the power station was much smaller, perhaps more on the scale of the District Energy Scheme in the city centre then proposals for the site would be more acceptable. However, other concerns would need to be addressed. Observations have been made that perhaps the only reason you opted for such a large scale site of 100MW capacity was not because you planned to operate at this capacity, but felt that a more favourable result would entail if you bypassed the local planning process in order to submit to the Planning Inspectorate. Hence it is important that local views are not disenfranchised to effect an unfair advantage to the applicant.

We would like to endorse the objections cited by the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel which objected to your scheme at its meeting on 24^th July citing the size and scale of the proposed development as unacceptable.

Economic Impact
Neighbouring the development is the premier shopping development of West Quay with the new £150m luxury shopping development of Watermark Westquay due to open in 2013. On the waterfront is the proposed £450m development of Royal Pier by Morgan Sindell. The economic revival of Southampton will be placed in jeopardy, as developers will struggle to find tenants to occupy these premier sites with a huge eyesore dominating the surrounding skyline. Southampton is one of the most deprived urban areas in the South East and is fundamental that inward investment is secured to enable job creation in the area. There are thousands of new jobs now in jeopardy.

Design
The proposed designs of the scheme are dreadful. They are functional and lack any architectural merit. They are completely out of keeping with the Victorian terraced houses and docker cottages bordering the site or the nearby attractive 1934 Solent flour mill that greets workers and visitors entering Dock Gate 10 to the port along West Bay Road.

Pollution
A major concern of residents is the adverse impact on air quality. The area already has very low air quality with all the nearby industry and traffic. The power station will further reduce the air quality. The aim should be to improve air quality. The suggestion that it might be within particular standards, if true, does not change the fact that the air quality will be worse and this will have a heath impact on local residents. One only has to walk around the area to see the build up of soot on cars and window ledges. The city centre location is densely packed being home to thousands of people and with the local Freemantle primary school being close by. One can imagine people with asthma and other health problems will be adversely affected. To the North East of the area is Southampton Common, a site of Special Scientific Interest with a fragile habitat with the largest population of the internationally rare great crested newt. You have made reference to the possible need for mitigation measures on the Common in your Technical Document. However I cannot find any details of what these are. Would you please provide further details regarding this?

Noise

The power station will operate 24 hours a day and local residents will be subject to continuous noise pollution. It is not necessarily the operating noise of the facility itself but the conveyors carrying the fuel source onto the site and loading into the burners. There is already considerable noise pollution and over many years we have had complaints from neighbours who are affected by it.

Traffic
If a power station is to be built in the docks, then all the materials should be shipped through the docks and not brought by road. When one considers that a single lorry movement equates to 30 tonnes of load then when the proposal is for 800,000 tonne capacity, then the road impact could be enormous. The Millbrook roundabout and Millbrook Road West are already very congested. The link road into the city is recognised as one of the key roads in the country yet it remains the responsibility of the Council to maintain something that it can ill-afford. The new City Depot has recently been built off Dock Gate 4 this has added further traffic pressure to the area. This route is the main entry point into the city for tens of thousands of daily shoppers to West Quay and IKEA, commuters and visiting football fans. Your plans include no measures to mitigate the impact of traffic on the community. There are no suggestions to have a separate docks road off the M271. Measures like this would help should you bring materials by lorry.

Fuel Source
We have considerable doubts that wood bio mass on this scale is sustainable. The amount of fuel proposed is enormous in comparison to the UK output of wood. Indeed from research we understand that there is no spare capacity to meet the plant’s proposed requirements. Inevitably the vast quantity of wood will be sourced from abroad. Hence the so called green credentials of this technology are dubious to say the least. The impact on carbon emissions of transporting it from around the world will be considerable. A more locally sustainable, smaller, power station using waste wood and local coppicing would surely be more environmentally friendly. What guarantees can you provide that all your wood will come from an accredited source, indefinitely? What steps have you taken to secure viable quantities of fuel?

Heat and CO2
No firm provision has been made to recycle the heat produced from the burning of the fuel. Nor has thought been given to the release of the CO2. Hence these by-products of the combustion are being wasted. Combined heat and power plants are now common place in large glass house nurseries around the UK such as Thanet in Kent and Isle of Wight, where the green credentials of burning fuel are well known and documented with heat used to warm the glasshouses and CO2 provided to the plants.

Community Benefit
Once the construction phase has ceased, which no doubt be undertaken by specialist workers from outside the city there will only be 40 jobs created by operating the plant. Given the specialist nature of your operation it is unlikely that most of the people employed will actually live in Southampton. Hence there will be limited economic benefit to the city outside of the income earned by ABP for leasing the site and cheap power source provided. For such a major multi-million pound development, you have not offered any planning monies to benefit the local community, facilities or infrastructure improvements to the key arterial M271/Millbrook Road route into the city. This is incredibly surprising and demonstrates a complete disregard for your corporate social responsibility.

Whilst this is by no means an exhaustive list of arguments to oppose this application, we do consider that the concerns we have raised are real and warrant that this application be rejected.

Yours faithfully

Jeremy Moulton
Brian Parnell
Councillors for Freemantle Ward

Millbrook Road East Planning Application

A planning application has been submitted for 6 houses and 8 flats at the corner of Cracknore Road and Millbrook Road East (84-88 Millbrook Road East -12/00862/FUL).

A few local residents have been in touch with me asking about this application and were all concerned that the Council had not advertised it effectively locally.


I have asked that the consultation deadline for residents' comments be extended to 10th August and the Council has agreed to this.

I have also agreed with the Council that the application will be decided by councillors at the public Planning and Rights of Way meeting in the future, rather than by council officers.

Click HERE for details of the application and type 12/00862/FUL in the application reference.


If you have comments on the application please send them in to the Council. If I can be of any help please get in touch.

Plans for the Civil Service Sports Ground

How the field might be laid out for community and school use

The emerging plans for the former Civil Service Sports Ground are very exciting indeed. The field will be opened up to schools and the community next year and I am hopeful that we can achieve this by the spring or the summer at the latest. The sooner we can get the site tidied up and into use the better. I think the field will very soon become the heart of the local community in Freemantle.

The City Council has £550,000 allocated to bring the field back into use. The money was set to be spent over 2 years. Year one was to get the site back into use and year 2 funding was earmarked for possible match funding for future bids for grants (such as from Sport England or the Lottery) to go for a much more impressive scheme along the lines of St James Park.Over the last few months the Council has been working on possible plans and associated costings as well as carrying out site surveys.

Initial costings show that the funding set aside for year 1 funding would be sufficient to put about 60% of the site back into use - leaving some land at the Charlton Road end still closed off. To put the whole site back into use would require the full budget.

M general feeling is that it would be best to bring all the site back into use and utilise the full budget in one go. A second phase would have to be subject to future funding.

All the options that the Council is working on include a new entrance off of Malmesbury Road, plus some appropriate fencing and place for a play park as well as various marked up sports pitches.

I do hope to that the scheme can be completed by the Spring of next year although it is very possible that the date will move back if complications occur. Surveys have been carried out and there are various protected animals on the site and there is also Japanese Knotweed which needs dealing with.

There is a friends of St Marks School and local community meeting on Tuesday 17th July at 7pm – 8pm at St Marks school. 

The school holds these meetings regularly but this will be special one to show the designs that the Council has been working on and will an opportunity for local residents to come along and and give their views.

Hopefully I will see quite a few people there but if you want to email me your thoughts or give me a call, please do.

We Need The Financial Backing Of The Council to Stop Helius

It is very clear to me from the public meetings that I have attended over the last month that Helius are fully committed to pushing ahead with their plans for an unwanted, giant power station next to homes in Freemantle and Millbrook. City Councillors have been vocal in their opposition to this scheme but sadly we do not have the power locally to stop it, as Southampton City Council will not be the decision maker.

Councillors have backed the idea of a referendum on the issue, to be held on November 15^th. I am quite sure that this public vote will voice an overwhelming ‘No’ to Helius’ scheme. Residents have already gathered a 3,500 name petition and after the vote Helius will be in no doubt about what people think.

The referendum is due to be held at the same time as election day for the new Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and so it was hoped that the costs for the vote would be tiny. Rather alarmingly we are now being told that it could cost the taxpayer £45,000 and I have expressed my concerns that this is lot of money. That said if it helps stop this dreadful monstrosity wrecking the local community that I was elected to represent then it has my full support.

In the end though, if Helius do push ahead with a formal application for their power station, the decision will be taken based on matters of planning law and public policy. I am certain that Helius will have expensive experts arguing their case and will be pumping money into ensuring that they get their scheme approved. Local residents have done an amazing job in taking the fight to Helius, harnessing local opposition and making some really powerful arguments about why this power station is ‘too big, too close and not green.’ However as Councillors, if we want to stop Helius, we need to ensure that we give residents more than just warm words of encouragement and back them properly and put the skills and resources of the City Council, a half a billion pound a year organisation, full square behind them.

At the last Full Council meeting I proposed that the Council set aside provisions in its budget to hire a top planning barrister to argue the case of local people and to ensure the residents have the resources to take on Helius on a level playing field. This is precisely what councils around the country do when they are serious about winning in situation like this. I was very disappointed that I didn’t secure these funds at the meeting. It was a real missed opportunity, especially as Paul Brighton, Helius Energy’s Planning Director, was sat in the public gallery listening to the Council debate. It would have ensured that residents were supported with the funds they need and it would have sent a very strong message to Helius that they have a huge fight on their hands in Southampton. I am going to keep pushing for the support of the Council Administration on this issue. Speaking to other Councillors after the meeting I was reassured that they understood how important this issue is and how this decision will be critical in deciding whether or not we can stop Helius’ scheme.

Our Local MP Should Stand Up For Oaklands Pool

Southampton Test's Labour MP is strangely quiet over the issue of the closure of Oaklands swimming pool. He is very quick to criticise the government who he says are not spending enough money on sport. He says in this month's local Compass magazine "It seems perverse to me to pull-the-rug-from sports funding at just the point when people might be more receptive to the idea of getting involved in local sports clubs or teams at school." I think its perverse that he can make a comment like this but remain totally silent about the decision of the Labour Council to shut Oaklands, which is heavily used by local swimming clubs and schools.

The decision to close Oaklands is wrong. It is a betrayal of local residents by Labour Councillors, who in opposition campaigned to keep the pool open. The handling of the announcement, leaking it to the press before telling staff, was totally disrespectful and unprofessional. If Alan Whitehead is really concerned about sport he should do the right thing and stand up for the pool and the community he is elected to represent.

Residents March Against Helius Power Station

There was a great turn out this evening for the No Southamption Biomass demonstration against the Helius Power Station proposed for the Western Docks.

Residents met at Lakelands Park and marched down Testwood Road to the Terriorial Army Centre in Millbrook Road, where Helius were holding their final consultation meeting.

It was a big success with lots of media present. Hopefully tonight Helius will be clear that residents remain deeply opposed to this power station on their doorsteps and will continue the fight to stop them.

Police and Community Together Meeting (PACT)

Last night I attended the Police and Community Together Meeting (PACT) at Freemantle Community Centre. I thought it would be helpful to post my notes from the meeting for those who weren't able to make it.

Crime Rates:
Overall crime is down locally compared with this time last year.
Burglary is significantly down.
The only crime which has gone up is theft from motor vehicles.
The 3 priorities that the Safer Neighbourhood Teams have been working on since the last PACT meeting were: tackling anti social behaviour, combating street drinking and dealing with speeding traffic. There was a detailed update on each.

Anti Social Behaviour:
A report was given on how many ASBOs had been issued.
Begging along Shirley High Street and in the Precinct is an issue the police are dealing with.

Street Drinking:
Operation Marker – The police have been marking alcohol from local shops so that when they are dumped in the street they can trace it back to the shop it was sold in. They are then checking how those premises are being run, ensuring that they are not selling to minors or acting irresponsibly. They are working the council and the licensing officers.
Operation Awareness – The police have been distributing leaflets outside licenced premises explain that street drinking is not allowed in an effort to educate people.

Speeding on Local Roads:
The Police are very keen to recruit more people to take part in Community Speedwatch. They are struggling to get volunteers at the moment.

Other Police Matters:
There was a reminder to contact the Police for non emergency matters now via 101. The local police email is shirley.snt@hampshire.pnn.police.uk

Operation Fortress – an update was given on this 2 year project to tackle serious organised crime and particularly drugs in Southampton.
Dog Fouling – The police have been working with the city council on the ‘Watch You Step’ campaign. One Fixed Penalty Notice has been issued. They have been targeting hotspots and around local schools. The council reports a 60% reduction in dog fouling.

Issued raised by residents included:
Lorries breaching the 7.5t limit on Anglesea Road.
Concern about anti social behaviour when the Hendy Ford site in Shirley Road is redeveloped.
Parking problems around St James Park.

5 Years of Labour Deceit Over Oaklands Pool

Labour 'supposedly' fighting to keep Oaklands in Winter 2009

The deceit of the Southampton Labour Party and their contempt for local residents knows no bounds. For 5 years Labour have been 'fighting for the future of Oaklands Pool', or so they say.


Back in 2007 when in opposition on the council, Labour proposed closing the pool but following the backlash from local residents and swimming clubs, did everything they could to back peddle. Consistently since then they have told residents that they were on their side and that they would protect the pool. In Winter 2009 local MP Alan Whitehead, launched a campaign in his taxpayer funded leaflet to keep the pool. Now just weeks into a new Labour Council administration they announce that they will be shutting the facility. How low can you get!? It seems Labour have been deceiving residents all along. What is even more galling is that they can find extra money to create additional jobs and chairmanships for Labour Councillors at the expense of the taxpayer but at the same time they cut the local swimming pool. 

Labour to Axe Oakands Swimming Pool

Southampton Conservatives warned that a Labour Council would take an axe to libraries, SureStart and leisure centres.

Labour councillors have today announced plans later this month to permanently close Oaklands Pool.

Labour tried to close the pool in 2007 and now within less than 2 months of taking over running of the Council they have wasted no time in axing Oaklands, cutting 20 jobs in the process.

During the 5 years the Conservatives ran the council we made sure that valued services like Oaklands were protected and our election manifesto pledged to keep open all our leisure centres. We will do everything we can to stop this dreadful betrayal by Labour of the local community.

Conservatives will be moving a motion at the Council meeting on 11th July, calling for the pool to be kept open and for the council to invest in properly maintaining it.

Local Advice Surgery

LOCAL ADVICE SURGERY

Your local Conservative Action Team is holding an advice surgery for local people.

FREEMANTLE COMMUNITY CENTRE, RANDOLPH STREET

SATURDAY 7^th JULY 2012, 10am - 12pm

Please come along if you need our help.  There is no need to make an appointment. If you can’t make it, please get in touch and we will arrange a home visit at a convenient time for you.

CLLR JEREMY MOULTON	CLLR BRIAN PARNELL	STEVEN GALTON
FREEMANTLE WARD 023 8044 3454 councillor.j.moulton@ southampton.gov.uk jeremymoulton.blogspot.com	FREEMANTLE WARD 023 8079 0094 councillor.b.parnell@ southampton.gov.uk	MILLBROOK WARD 023 80 481732 07956 596839 steve@stevengalton.co.uk stevengalton.co.uk

Our work locally...

During May and June we have helped residents with a range of issues. We have represented residents over planning issues relating to the new Banister School, dealt with parking issues in Grove Rd, Queenstown Rd and Randolph St, housing issues in Paynes Road and Millbrook Road East, litter in Park Rd, and fly tipping in Shirley Rd. We have been progressing plans to transform the Civil Service Sports Ground for community and school use, helped out with the Freemantle Triangle litter pick, represented residents’ views about possible parking changes in Foundry Lane and Hardy Close, kept people up to date with planning issues in Clifton Rd and have been at the Helius powerstation consultation events to make sure that residents’ are heard.

...And much more! Please get in touch if there are issues in your road that we can help with.

New Banister School Agreed By City Planners

Today the Council's Planning and Rights of Way Panel considered the planning application for the new Banister School.

The new school will be open in September next year and will cater from a growing number of primary age pupils in area. The existing school is now very old and is long past its sell by date. It has for some time been the aspiration of many, including myself, to rebuild the school and extra government money secured last year by the City Council makes this possible. The new school is very good value for money and will be the quickest school build done in recent history in Southampton: just over 18 months from the decision to the school being open.

A large number of local residents were at the meeting and several spoke. It was good that everyone at the meeting was in favour of the new school although some valid local concerns were rightly raised.
A lot of work has gone on in recent weeks to try and get the best possible scheme, taking account of the views of neighbours.

As a result of local residents petitioning the City Council, several trees will be saved which were previously going to be lost. 3 lime trees will be protected. Also the planners asked that further consideration be given to saving the horse chestnut tree by Archers Road and if it is possible then the tree will also be kept.

The school has resolved to do everything possible to tackle concerns about congestion, with a 'Park and Stride' scheme planned, whereby parents who must drive drop their children away from Archers Road and walk them to school.

Maximum car parking has been secured on the site and the City Council agreed to make efforts to find temporary parking nearby during the construction phase so that teachers don't park in residential streets.

Also agreed today at the planning meeting was the application for the new Wordsworth School and a remodelled Moorlands School. Funding and sign off for the 3 schools was agreed at the end of last year by Conservative Councillors. It is great to see the schemes progressing.

Ignorance is no excuse for broken promises

Former Labour Cabinet Member, Councillor Keith Morrell, uses the same excuse that Southampton Labour Councillors are all starting to repeat since the election; namely that the have now "seen the council books."

You would imagine from this comment that "the books" are some hidden tome, locked away in a cupboard in the Civic Centre and that when the new Council Administration was elected in May they were then presented with a key so that they could unlock this secret information.

In fact the opposite is true. You have full access to all the financial information as a Councillor and indeed a responsibility to be aware of the state of the Council's finances. All Councillors are briefed by city officers, all the figures are presented in detail on the City Council website and it was only in February that every Councillor voted on budget proposals for the Council. Labour produced their own budget this year so you would have thought that they must known what they were doing.

When Labour made all their promises in the run up to the election they knew they had no intention of keeping them. Now they are in power they plead ignorance as their excuse.

Southampton to Share in New Government Funding for Schools

I was delighted to read yesterday that two Southampton Schools will benefit from the new Priority School Building Programme. Bitterne Park and Cedar School will benefit from the new £2b fund which is aimed at targeting improvements and repairs to those schools most in need of building works. 

I submitted a bid for these schools to the new scheme last year whilst in my role as Cabinet Member for Childrens' Services and was able to raise the issue of Southampton Schools with the Secretary of State for Education when he visited Southampton in March.

To see the full list of schools benefiting from the scheme click HERE and for Michael Gove's ministerial statement click HERE.

The extra funds come on the back of a separate award of £3.9 to the City Council in April, to fund new places that are needed in our primary schools.

The new money will all be put to good use very quickly with school rebuilds and repairs being completed within a couple of years.

"The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum"

Southampton City Council faces huge challenges in the years ahead. It must save £30M to balance the books next year alone. This is a big task, if at the same time Council Tax is to be kept down for residents who are already struggling with the rising cost of living, and services that are important to local people are to be protected.

The outgoing Conservative Administration understood this and for the past 5 years we have met these challenges head on. In our last 2 years we had to find £45M of savings and we did this whilst freezing council tax and protecting services to residents; like the weekly bin collections, Sure Start centres, libraries, leisure centres, supported bus routes, and at the same we were able to put more money into repairs to the roads and pavements and into looking after at risk children and vulnerable adults. We also kept council job cuts to the minimum and went all out to attract employment and business to the city.

We achieved all of this because we had a clear sense of direction, were prepared to make difficult decisions but be pragmatic where necessary. Most importantly we were honest and we never made a promise that we did not keep.

Labour by contrast, desperate for power, have promised the earth, but have no strategy to deal with the problems ahead. It is sadly inevitable that we now face several years of Labour tax hikes, service cuts and job cuts and that we will see them break one promise after another, letting down voters, users of council services, council staff and even their union backers.

Labour’s very first decision in office was to create, at taxpayers’ expense, extra jobs for their councillors, new committees and chairmanships. At any time this would be unsavoury and nepotistic but in the current financial climate it shows spectacularly bad judgement. It only adds to the financial difficulties of the City Council, meaning that more service cuts, job cuts and tax rises must be endured. But it highlights something even more worrying – that Labour still don’t get it and that they are still in denial about the state of the council’s finances.

Labour need to very quickly wake up, show some political maturity and urgently get in place some sort of plan. They need to start being honest with themselves and more importantly with the residents of Southampton. For the city’s sake I hope that this happens soon.

My fear is that it won’t and that as one constituent of mine put it in an email to me on the day after the elections, “the lunatics are now in charge of the asylum.”