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.”

Massive Expansion of Nursery Provision Planned for Southampton

The trade unions in Southampton are deliberately misleading and trying to frighten local residents ahead of the local elections on 3rd May. Unions have flooded the city with bill boards suggesting that nurseries are under threat. These bill boards have only been put up in Southampton, Birmingham and London and are part of the union campaign to unseat the current Conservative Council locally and buy an election victory for the Labour Party.


In Southampton nursery provision is NOT under threat and is in fact due to expand dramatically in the coming years to meet the demand resulting from the rising local birth rate and to provide extra support for 2 year olds from disadvantaged families.


Local Conservatives are pledging to create an extra 1,800 nursery places for 2 year olds by 2014 and have pledged to protect all 14 local Sure Start Centres.


We continue to work actively to sustain existing, good quality childcare and assist nurseries to expand, where appropriate to meet this demand, including the nurseries directly managed by the Council.


In the Conservative February Council budget we made revenue provision for expanding places for 2 year olds for 2012/13 and the city received a capital grant from the Department of Education of £3.9M recently which may be used to support the provision of additional places.


The unions should be ashamed of themselves for these despicable tactics. The Conservatives are massively expanding nursery provision in the city and so for the unions to suggest that nurseries are under threat is totally false. They are needlessly worrying local families for their own political ends. Their strikes last year disrupted our bin collections and caused misery for local residents and now they are playing politics with vital services to young children and families.

Conservative Action All Year Round

Our Work This Year Alone...


April 2012
Freemantle Spring Clean underway. Attending local residents' association meetings promoting our new No Cold Calling Zones. Meeting with the police to discuss the problem of street drinking.


March 2012
Secretary of State for Education officially opens Freemantle Academy's new Junior School building. Funding secured for improvements to the Civil Service Sports Ground. Residents updated on Helius' latest Biomass plans. New planning rules for Houses in Multiple Occupation come into force.


February 2012
Civil Service Sports Ground saved from development. Council Tax frozen once again. New Play Park for Albany Road announced. Conservative action with a campaign to tackle Dog Mess on our streets.


January 2012
Banister School rebuild given the green light. Residents updated about Southern Water upgrade to Waste Water Treatment works in the docks.

Street Drinking Crackdown

Your local Councillors have met with the police to highlight the growing problem of street drinking along Shirley Road and Shirley High Street and the roads that branch off them.


Some time ago we passed a city wide ban on street drinking. We feel that this needs to be enforced in Shirley. 


We are very pleased that the police agreed to do more to tackle the problem and we are ensuring that signs go up to make it clear that it is not allowed.


If you have a problem with street drinking where you live please let us know so that we can address it.


- Cllrs Jeremy Moulton, Michael Ball and Brian Parnell

Universities Minister Backs Our Local Scholarship Scheme

David Willetts MP (right) with Cllrs Royston Smith, David Fuller, Matthew Claisse 

and Portswood Candidate Linda Norris

We were very pleased to welcome Universities Minister, David Willetts, to Southampton at the weekend to officially give his seal of approval to our ambitious new University Scholarship Scheme.

The new scheme is targeted at young people on low incomes progressing to higher education and is partnership between Southampton City Council, Southampton Solent University and the University of Southampton.

The scheme offers practical help in the form of fee waivers and bursaries. Eligible young people will be Southampton residents, have a household income of below £20,000, and attending Foundation degrees either Southampton Solent University or the University of Southampton. 

Both Universities will offer fee waivers in line with newly negotiated admissions policies costing each institution around £100,000. The Council funding will provide £45,000 p.a to each of the universities for bursaries for initially a total of 45 young people to support learning materials, travel and subsistence.

It was superb to receiving the backing of Mr Willetts who was full of praise for the initiative!

New HMO Planning Rules

Over the last few days I have had quite a few queries from local residents who are keen to understand the specifics of the new HMO (House In Multiple Occupation) planning rules that were introduced on 23rd March this year. 


Questions about these new planning rules also came up at the Highfield Residents Association AGM last week. 


The City Council have produced a very helpful section on their website with all the details. Click HERE for this. Also HERE is an article I wrote back in January setting out our thinking behind the changes.

Operation Spring Clean

Southampton Conservatives have launched Operation Spring Clean, a major exercise to clean up the city ahead of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Torch coming to Southampton. The city wide clean up will also deal with the after affects of the Labour sponsored bin strikes last year.

The clean is now well under way and includes the following:

• A major clean up of the city’s main gateways, arterial routes and link roads including jet washing of street furniture, directional signage and utility boxes and the removal of litter and graffiti.
• The cleaning of gum and grime from areas of pavement and precinct along the QE2 mile.
• The removal of litter and debris from ‘hard to reach’ areas such as busy traffic junctions, islands and central reservations, with most of this work programmed from sunrise on Sunday mornings to minimise traffic disruption.

Full details can be found HERE on the City Council's website.

The following roads in Freemantle have just recently been swept and we are getting good feedback from residents:

Albany Road, Dyer Road, Firgrove Road, Grove Road, Nelson Road, Nightingale Road, Trafalgar Road, Wolseley Road.

As your councillors, Michael Ball, Brian Parnell and I are also busy reporting problems in the area, such as over flowing bins outside some rented properties (like this one pictured to the right), buildings waste and materials that have been left in driveways and fly tipping on the pavement. 

Please get in touch if we can help or visit the fixmystreet website.

Fire In The Western Docks

Pictures of the docks fire taken at lunch time today

A fire at a scrap metal site in the docks has been blazing all day with smoke and fumes covering much of nearby area. The smell from the fire has been terrible and you could taste the fumes in the air earlier today. Thankfully late this afternoon the wind changed direction and blew some of the fumes away from houses but it is still impacting massively on local residents. Click HERE for the Southern Daily Echo report on the fire.


Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) have been battling the blaze and hopefully will have it under control very soon. The City Council has published a statement from HFRS on its website. 


The site of the fire is right by the proposed site for the Helius wood burning biomass power station. It is ironic that the fire started on the same day that Southampton City Council's Planning and Rights of Way Panel was considering the Statement of Community Consultation from Helius for the their proposed biomass power station.


Following the biomass fire at Tilbury recently, fire safety is a key concern of local people and of those campaigning against this proposed development. The fire in the docks today will only serve to underline these very real concerns.