Goodbye Tony, Hello Gordon

"We're dooomed!"

I had mixed feelings when Tony Blair announced that he would be leaving number 10 Downing Street. Whilst I am delighted that Blair is finally going I feel that his replacement will be far worse.

Gordon Brown has set up a new website where you can learn all about him. There is a great deal of debate online about how Brown will change things and what new policies or policy reversals he will announce of the next 7 weeks.

Here is what Brown says on his new website:

The Britain I believe in is a Britain of fairness and opportunity for all. Every British citizen with every chance to make the most of themselves; every community fair to every citizen - if you work hard, youre better off. If you save, youre rewarded. If you play by the rules, we will stand by you.

All that sounds great and it is certainly the exact opposite of what we have experienced over the past 10 years! Somehow I am very sceptical.

Southampton Schools: More Of The Same Or Something Better?

Millbrook School and Oaklands School



Woolston School and Grove Park School

On Thursday night I went along to one of the presentation meetings for the bidders for the two new schools due to open in the city following last year's secondary school review.

It was decided last year that 4 schools would close (Oaklands, Millbrook, Grove Park and Woolston).

It was also decided that 2 new schools would open - one on the east of the city on the Grove Park site and one on the west (either on the Oaklands site or a new site called 5 acre field).

All these decisions were taken by the Lib Dems last year when they were running the council. I had some serious reservations about the decisions but we are now where we are.

By law the council has to invite independent organisations to bid for the running of the schools. This includes faith groups, charitable and not for profit groups, private companies etc. The council could have put in its own bid however if it did the decision about who would run the schools would be made independently of the council. By not submitting the bid the council now makes the decision. Personally if it were my choice I would have done exactly the same as I want to see as much choice as possible and want to see some real change in our local schools. I suspect the motivations of the Lib Dems were not quite the same. I would imagine they would have been concerned that if they submitted a council bid that lost this would have serious implications for the remaining Southampton schools as they would conclude that they also would be better off being run independently of the council. Click HERE to to read more about the process.

We heard presentations by the bidders. Here is some information about them and my thoughts.
Click on the titles to read more information about each on the council's website.

United Learning Trust

This group is bidding for an Academy on both the east and the west of the city. It runs 9 other academies in the country and 10 independent schools.

Their unique selling point they say is their track record and their experience of delivering education.

Oasis Community Learning

Oasis is a voluntary sector organisation set up to deliver the government's academies programme. They have 5 academies in the pipeline. Oasis are bidding to run an academy on the east and the west of the city.

Their unique selling point was their passion and having listened to the presentation by Steve Chalke of Oasis I have no doubt that they are full of energy and ideas.

Southampton Education Trust

This is a group of public sector organisations, local businesses (including VT) and voluntary groups headed up by Southampton Solent University. This would would be a trust and it would pick the governors of the new school(s). The school in the west would specialise in arts and science (with a focus on health).

Their unique selling point was that they are local.

How they came across

The two academies produced by far the most dynamic and interesting presentations. ULT seem to have huge experience and they run two well known local independent schools (Embley Park and The Atherley). Oasis had boundless energy and enthusiasm. Southampton Education Trust came across a bit woolly and their presentation was quite tedious. They really struck me as offering more of the same whereas the two academies had something new and exciting. I feel that if we are going to radically improve exam results in Southampton (which are well below Hampshire and the national level) we need new ideas.


Trusts vs Academies

There is one very important difference between the two and it's a difference which should have a huge bearing on the person who makes the eventual decision as to which bidder to select.

An academy brings with it the immediate guarantee of government funding for the building of a new school (£20m-£30m). A trust doesn't. A trust can bid for government money from its Building Schools for the Future (BSF) pot which is available in 2010. However there is no guarantee that a bid will be successful. Government is keen on academies and that's where it is putting the money. So if the council opts for 2 academies it gets £40m - £60m for education in the city. That's pretty much a no brainer for me. Also I would like Regents Park Community College and St Marks Junior schools to be bidding for BSF money for new schools on the St Marks site. The more schools bidding in Southampton the less likely they are to all be successful.


Who makes the decision?

The decision will be taken on 2nd July and the decision maker will be the political party that takes control of the council on Wednesday. So there is a lot at stake on Wednesday!

Well Done Brian

Here are the results of yesterday's city council elections in Freemantle Ward:

Mitchell, Harry - Labour Party 815
Parnell, Brian, Edgar - Conservative Party - 1369 Elected
Pickering, Darren, Carl - Green Party - 395
Williams, Juliet - Liberal Democrats - 407

Rejected Ballot Papers - 13

Electorate: 10621
Turnout: 28.2%

I am delighted that Freemantle residents have re-elected Brian as their councillor for another 4 years. Brian fought a very clean campaign and worked extremely hard.

It is disappointing that despite efforts by the council (at considerable public expense - including the chartering of a light aircraft and election buses) turn out fell again. I suspect that this is largely as a result of Labour voters chosing to stay at home in protest.

Conservatives Top The Poll In Southampton

Southampton Conservatives were celebrating last night after an excellent set of election results in yesterday's council elections.

Conservatives held all our seats and gained one seat in Millbrook (Linda Norris) and one seat in Swaythling (Jane Odgers).

A brief summary is as follows:

Conservatives +2 (18) 19,022 votes
Labour +2 (18) 15,656 votes
Lib Dem -4 (12) 11,879 votes

Conservatives won 9 out of the 17 seats contested and came second place in 6 seats.

A full list of Southampton City Council Election Results can be found HERE.

I was particularly pleased that Conservative Group Leader Alec Samuels was re-elected with a large majority. Alec is tremendously experienced and does a huge amount of work in the city.

I was also delighted that Sholing Councillor Gavin Dick was re-elected convincingly. Gavin has worked very hard over the past 4 years on behalf of Sholing residents and has been particularly supportive of local schools.

Newly elected Conservative Councillors are: Matt Dean (Shirley), Andy Wells (Millbrook), Linda Norris (Millbrook) and Jane Odgers (Swaythling).

What Use Is Free Bus Travel if There Aren't Any Buses!

That's the question pensioners are asking following the government's bungled introduction of free bus travel.

The government's legislation requires that councils provide free bus travel within the authority.

A pot of money has been provided to councils to pay for this. Inevitably the sum of money is not enough.

The effect of this that councils are not paying the bus operators the full cost of carrying pensioners. Southampton pays them 50p for every pound of travel.

This means that bus operators are losing money on some routes. This may happen even if there is a net increase in the numbers of passengers using the route.

Bus companies are therefore challenging the legislation and withdrawing uneconomic routes.

The X27 from Southampton to Portsmouth (pictured above) is one such route. It ends of 1st June 2007.

The peverse impact of government legislation is that they have introduced free travel on buses for pensioners and the impact of this is the routes they want to use are being cancelled.

What use is free travel if there isn't a bus!? Many pensioners I have spoken to would rather pay and still have a bus. Next year revised legislation will means that free travel is introduced countrywide and a larger pot of money will be made avaialable. This may mean a higher fee for the operator and more routes becoming economical and therefore staying open or reopenning.

Southampton city council have until now supported the X27 route in >conjunction with Portsmouth City council however this will end in June as Portsmouth have advised that they can't meet the extra costs acked >for by the operator, Solent Blueline. Southampton are looking at alternative provision perhaps via Southampton Airport.

This is another example of how Labour's top down centrist approach fails. Bad legislation has had the opposite impact of what was intended.

Surely it would have been much better to provide more funds to local government and let them decide how the money is best spent locally. The money might still have gone into subsidies for public transport but might have been much more effectively targeted.

David Cameron's Visit to Southampton

Yesterday afternoon Conservative Party Leader David Cameron visited Southampton help boost the campaign for the city council elections.

Mr Cameron, who arrived on his bicycle, was greeted enthusiastically by a crowd local party members.

He met city council election candidates in Southampton Test, Matt Dean (Shirley), Linda Norris (Millbrook) and Neil Fitzgerald (Coxford) and spoke about what the Conservative Party would do to help tackle the problems of crime, anti social behaviour and family breakdown in Southampton.

Later Mr Cameron visited Embley Park school near Romsey to meet Hampshire Conservatives. Here he explained how the next General Election would be won by the party that gave people positive hope for the future.

Mr Cameron explained that there was a clear choice between the Conservatives who believe in rolling forward the frontiers of society and Labour who believe in top down state control. He spoke again about how the Conservatives will support families in order to fix our broken society. He explained that people expect that the economy will grow but appear resigned to the fact that society will continue to breakdown further. Conservatives would tackle this problem head on. Improving school discipline and backing headteachers is a key part of this, Mr Cameron explained.

Meeting The Opposition

I was out canvassing last night for next Thursday's local elections, when I saw coming towards me a smartly dressed young lady with a clip board.

I looked at her suspiciously wondering what she was up to. She looked at me in much the same fashion.

We both asked the other, "what are you up to."

I said I am canvassing for the Conservative Party. She said 'I am knocking on doors for Southern Electric.' I said 'oh I thought you were the opposition (the Labour Party).' She said 'me too, I thought you were British Gas!'

I had to smile. The good news is she is voting Conservative.

Have You Received Your Postal Vote?

I have just been down to the post box to vote by post. Postal votes were mailed out to people last week first class and should have arrived on Saturday.

I have had a number of calls from people asking about their postal vote. Some sy they haven't received theirs yet and one lady says that hers had no ballot paper.

If you have any queries about your postal vote, then olease get in touch with the Council's Electoral Registion Services.

Address: Electoral Registration, Southampton City Council, Civic Centre, Southampton, Postcode: SO14 7LY
Telephone: 023 8083 2245
Email: elections@southampton.gov.uk
Fax: 023 8033 0696

Doorstep Green

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours today at the opening of Doorstep Green in Sholing.

The event was opened by John Denham MP who spoke very briefly and was introduced by the city's town crier.

Local people have done a fantastic job improving the park. New benches have been installed and a brick path laid.

I attended the event with local Conservative Councillor Gavin Dick and Shirley Conservative candidate Matthew Dean.

It was a very successful event with over hundred people present. I particularly enjoyed the burger from the burger stand, winning a prize on a game of hoopla and bumping into Labour councillor Sue Blatchford in her Margaret Thatcher style outfit. I was a little disappointed that Sue turned down my offer of a go on the bouncy castle.

John Denham made one slight faux pas. It was announced that he was doing all he could to safeguard the pensions of local people. This raised more than a few eyebrows from those present as John is a keen supporter of Gordon Brown who is responsible for pinching tens of billions of pounds from private pension funds over the past 10 years.

Transit Site Planning Application

A planning application has been submitted for the proposed Gyspy Transit site at Monks Brook.

The application reference is: 07/00484/FUL.

Click HERE to look at all the paperwork.

The deadline for comments is 8th May 2007.

The Conservatives on the City Council are opposed to this site, taking the view that Kanes Hill, an existing site, could and should be adapted for the purpose of a transit camp.

Southampton Conservatives Field Youngest Candidate

Conservative Candidate: Vincenzo Capozzoli

Southampton Conservatives are taking advantage of new election laws that now allow candidates to stand for election from the age of 18. At previous elections the minimum age was 21.

Conservative Vincenzo Capozzoli, standing in Portswood, is aged only 20 and is the youngest candidate in Hampshire to be contesting a local government seat.

Vince, a third-year history and politics student and at Southampton University, said he has fallen in love with the city which he wants to make his home.

"The youth voice hasn't had much expression around here and I want it to be heard," he said.

He said he particularly wanted to smooth out some recent tensions between students and residents.

Millbrook Lib Dems Have Lost the Plot!

Millbrook's Lib Dems have just put out a leaflet for the local elections campaigning to stop "Tory Cuts" to the fire service and to "Save" the local Post Office in Regents Park.

A few facts about both...


Redbridge Fire Station

They say that Tories are axing a fire engine from Redbridge Fire Station.

Here is what is hapenning.

A large fire engine from Redbridge is being redeployed to St Marys Fire Station. In its place a smaller 2 man fire engine will operate out of Redbrige.

The fire service say that 90% of fires in the area covered by Redbridge are very small - cars and burning rubbish and a smaller vehicle is better suited to dealing with such fires and they argued that it was a better use of resources to have a smaller vehicle in Redbridge. Also a smaller a vehicle can access areas more easily.

The Fire Authority has representation by all 3 political parties. No party objected to the set up described above. A consultation meeting was held at Bellemoor school. No Millbrool Lib Dems turned up. The Lib Dem representative on the Fire Authority, Peter Galton, did not object or comment.

The fact that the Lib Dems are trying to stir up fear on this issue shows how desparate they are and that they have nothing else to say.


Regents Park Post Office

This post office is not closing. Other post offices around the country and indeed in Southampton have closed or are under threat of closure. This one isn't though. If in doubt ask a member of staff in the post office! Again more Lib Dem drivel. They have nothing meaningful or accurate to say about the area. A sure sign of a party that has lost the plot!

Letter to Daily Echo

Dear Sir

I write in response to CONCERNED TAX PAYER who has asked how Conservatives would fund a 10% reduction in council tax for pensioner households in Southampton. The letter asked for specific areas where expenditure would be reduced to pay for this tax cut.

The cost would be £1.2m pa.

This would be paid for by: reduction in councillor allowances (£10k), discontinuing Neighbourhood Partnerships (£307k), discontinuing grants to UNISON (£100k), discontinue grants to SARC (£218k), reduction in budget for printing (212k), additional revenue raised through sponsorship (£100k), additional revenue raised through loaning out some of Southampton’s £130m art collection (£155k), smaller art grants (£70k), discontinue funding for Southampton Sustainability Forum (£23k), reduction in overseas trips for councillors and officers (£20k).

The Conservatives in Southampton believe we can deliver betters services and lower tax but focusing taxpayers’ hard earned money on the services that matter to people: collecting the rubbish, schools, social services, reducing crime etc.

Yours faithfully


Councillor Jeremy Moulton
Conservative Finance Spokesman – Southampton City Council.

New College Update

I recently posted on Linden Homes plans to redevelop the New College site on the Avenue. Click HERE for earlier post.

I wrote to Linden with a number of objections. I have reproduced their reply below.

I am still very unhappy with the plans which are not in keeping with the area.


Councillor J Moulton
C/o Members Room
Civic Centre
Southampton
SO15 7LY

22 March 2007


Dear Councillor Moulton

Proposed Redevelopment of the New College Site, The Avenue

Thank you for your email. Apologies for the delay in responding to you, however I hope this letter answers most of your questions.
In respect of the matters that you highlighted in your recent email, I will respond in the order that you raised them:

1. Traffic congestion. As with all planning applications of this magnitude, we are to produce plans
and a traffic assessment which satisfies the local highway authority. We have been in liaison with
the highways officers at the city council, to date no concerns have been raised. Importantly, the
local road network is sufficient to cope. Linden is also keen to stress that the residential
redevelopment of this site would achieve a decrease in the level of traffic generated with vehicle
movements occurring at the opposite times of the day to that of the previous educational use.

2. Parking. You will be aware that there is presently a strict ceiling to the amount of parking that
can be provided within new developments, which is a government initiative to reduce reliance on cars and promote the use of public transport. Importantly, I can confirm that the level of parking proposed for the scheme accords with current local planning guidance. However, Linden does recognise that the current local plan policy is under review and, if necessary, is able to increase the current level of parking provision on site. It is further worthy to note the site’s sustainable location close to good public transport points. Linden will do what they can to reduce disruption to surrounding roads.

3. Design. The design for the proposed scheme has evolved as a result of the site’s constraints,
namely the existing trees and the matter of the two conservation areas alongside the listed
buildings in Rockstone Place. Linden has, therefore, looked to design the proposed new dwellings
in a contemporary and sympathetic manner, working to ensure that the overall development will both protect and enhance the Avenue and Carlton Road Conservation Areas. It is also important to stress that over the last few months council officers have been involved with the progression of the scheme’s design and such discussions will continue between both parties over the coming weeks.

4. Combined Heat and Power. Linden has assessed the usage of the CHP plant and has found
that the size of the site and its former development renders the inclusion of this element unviable. However, all the properties would be constructed to meet, at the minimum, the EcoHomes Very Good rating. Importantly, Linden is also determined to ensure that this development creates new benchmarks in terms of sustainable design when compared to other developments in the City.

I hope these help to answer your questions, however please do give me a call on the project’s dedicated information line - 0800 298 7040, if you would like to discuss the points raised further.

Yours sincerely



For and on behalf of Linden Homes Southern

Residents Parking

This week the Council is planning to send out two surveys about possible residents parking schemes in Freemantle Ward: Silverdale Road and Cawte Road.

These surveys were due to be out by the end of March however there have been delays, in part due to concern about getting the wording right.

I am very sorry about the delay. Have been putting a great of pressure on the council to get these matters sorted as they are well overdue.

The State of Southampton's Roads

Southampton's roads are in a dreadful state. Last week councillors of all political parties were given a presentation on just how bad they are and possible solutions for the future.

There is an estimated £50m backlog in road repairs and each year, despite additional investment, the roads are deteriorating. The situation is getting worse, not better.

The state of the roads and pavements is a key concern to local people and rightly so. What is needed from the politicians is honesty.

The council is not in a position to reverse years of neglect using local taxation alone. Significant extra money is going to be needed from external sources.

The council has recently submitted a bid to government for £300m of PFI money to tackle our roads. It is expected that the bid will be unsuccessful. We all know the money tends to go to Labour's heartlands in the north and our local Labour MPs have no influence with government and consistently fail to lobby on behalf of the city.

Labour locally are promising in their election literature to repair a mile of road a week. This sounds impressive and I don't know how they have calculated the figure. What I do know is that in their city council budget proposals in February they proposed to spend the least of the 3 parties on repairs to the roads and last year they voted to cut the pot hole repair gangs.

Conservatives by contrast have pledged extra money. We would also spend the money more sensibly. Rather than wasting it on gold plating areas like Portswood Broadway, moronic schemes like the one in London Road and pointless pavement widening exercises we would address the roads that most need fixing.

The council needs to consider bringing in private sector expertise and experience to help us use our budgets more effectively. We also need to keep looking out for additional sources of funds from government and be quick to apply for such money.

Labour are forcing an extra £16,200 homes on Southampton over the next 20 years but they are not supplying the funding needed to support these extra homes (roads and other services).

A change of government is the best hope for Southampton, or at the very least we need MPs who will speak out for the city.

Arnie Comes to Blackpool

California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger is to speak at Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool in October.

The BBC is carrying this story. Click HERE. He will be doing an address on climate change.

I huge fan of Schwarzenegger and his politics. I will definitely be getting my conference application in early this year!

Election Campaign Underway

Freemantle's Choice: Brian Parnell

The election campaign for Southampton City council elections on 3rd of May is now well underway.

Click HERE for a list of all Southampton City Council election Candidates

This will be an important election for the city as it will hopefully break the political deadlock that has existed since last May when all 3 parties stood on 16 Councillors each.

Here is a list of candidates for Freemantle Ward:

Councillor Brian Parnell - Conservative

Harry Mitchell - Labour

Darren Pickering - Green

Juliet Williams - Lib Dem

Brian Parnell is a well known figure in Freemantle, having served as a ward councillor for 16 years. Brian was first elected in 1979 and also served as a ward councillor for Shirley for 4 years.

Brian is chairman of the Freemantle Community Centre user group and is the Conservative's Children's Services Spokesman. He also serves on the city's adoption panel.

Since being re-elected to the council for Freemantle in 2002, Brian has worked tremendously hard and got a lot done. Some of his key achievements:

- Fought successfully to secure over £1m of investment into the Freemantle Community Centre which will be modernised and used in part for adults with learning disabilities.

- Worked with Shirley Pool and other parties and backed a lottery bid to improve the whole area around the community centre.

- Campaigned to save the Freemantle Civil Service Ground from development by its owners Bovis Homes.

- Secured council funds so that the land can be purchased for use by the local community and St Marks and Regents Park schools.

- Secured council commitment to bid for about £25m of Government money for a new school on the St Marks site.

- Campaigned against the loss of family housing in the ward and inappropriate developments.

- Fought for local residents who want parking schemes introduced in their roads.

- Stopped Labour cuts of £333,000 to vital children's social services which would have seen the loss of family centres in the city.

- Campaigned to keep council tax down and to introduce a 10% reduction in council tax for pensioner households.

- Campaigned for free pensioner travel across all of Hampshire.

In addition Brian has dealt with hundreds of indvidual problems for local residents on a whole range of matters, such as parking, housing issues, crime, planning etc.

In 2002 Brian also served as the Mayor of the City. In addition to representing Southampton with dignity he raised lots of money for his mayoral charity Rose Road.

I very much hope that Brian will be re-elected to continue the good work he does for the area.

Conservatives Call For Referendum on Super Casino

Whether or not Southampton has one of the new large casinos is a huge decision for the city. The Conservatives think that local residents should have a say on this crucial matter rather than having it imposed on them.

There are arguments for and against. We need to attract investment into the city and regenerate the waterfront. However is a casino the answer and what about the impact a large casino might have on the vulnerable in the city. There are genuine concerns.

Conservative Councillors, if running the city after the May elections, would have a public vote on the subject and would back what local people decide.

Tackling Crime in Southampton

Crime is a huge problem in Southampton and one of biggest concerns of local people. In addition so called "anti social behaviour" increasingly is a blight on the lives of local people.

The problem has got much worse under Labour and their policies are failing the city.

Labour's Asbos are worn as a batch of pride by young thugs and Dispersal Orders simply move the problem of anti social behaviour from one road or neighbourhood to the next.

Labour have talked tough on crime but they have failed utterly to deliver.
The police are drowning in bureaucracy and paperwork and are not allowed to get on and do their jobs effectively. They are straight jacketed by centrally imposed targets which get in the way of delivering local priorities.

We need more police on the streets. Today only 1 in 59 policemen are actually on the beat. This is a shocking statistic. Locally Southampton's Conservative Councillors want to do all we can to support the police. We have proposed scraping council tax for people that become special constables. In other areas this has helped encourage more people to sign up as specials. If we could recruit an extra 50 or 100 specials in Southampton it would make a big difference. It would also show that we value and respect local people who come forward to help make their communities safer.

We need much greater accountability for the police. Nationally Conservative Party has advocated bringing the police under direct local democratic control. This is something Southampton's Conservatives are very keen on and we believe that we could really improve things if we had the police focusing on local priorities rather than central government targets.

Last year local Conservative councillors fought very hard for the council to take seriously the problem of attacks in the city centre parks. We had to fight tooth and nail to get money for extra lighting but after a long campaign we had some success.

Improving street lighting around the city would make a difference to city safety or certainly perceptions of safety. Thousands of the councils streetlights need replacing and the council is aiming to secure £22m of government PFI money to replace old streetlights. Southampton's

Conservatives backed this and also managed to persuade the council to ensure that its PFI bid included plans for new street lights to have a plug on top of them to allow WiFi CCTV cameras to be installed. This would mean in thousands of locations around the city CCTV could be put in place quickly and cheaply should there be a local need.

We of course need stronger sentencing and there needs to be a real deterrent to would be criminals. However we need to do much more than simply send people to prison for longer.

We should be supporting families in the city, especially those families that have difficulties such as drink or drug problems. We were very pleased that through our positive involvement in this year's budget setting meeting for the city that we were able to keep open all family centres in the city. These centres, in Bitterne, St Marys and Lordshill support families which have serious problems such as domestic violence and drink and drugs and ensure the safety and well being of children in the city. Labour planned to axe £333,000 from the budget for this service. We felt that this would have had a terrible impact in the city and were pleased that we prevented it.

Southampton has been made a Respect Agenda city by the Government. A small amount of additional government money has been made available to the council and this is to be spent on a "super nanny" who will help to improve parenting skills in the city. There is a real irony in that we are receiving this money from the Labour government whilst at the same time local Labour councillors are trying to close down one of the very centres in which this new person will based!

Conservatives believe that we need to provide good leisure facilities for young people and ensure that there are things for them to do. That is one reason why we fought against Labour plans to try and close Oaklands Swimming Pool.

The Council needs to be tough on anti social behaviour. It seems as though it is happy to fine people perceived as an easy target for minor misdemeanours but is reluctant to peruse people who might not pay up.
Where council has leverage such as when dealing with council tenants it should make it clear that unless decent standards of behaviour are adhered to, tenants will be evicted.