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.