Standing to be the Southampton Test MP

Last night I was selected as the Conservative candidate for Southampton Test at next year's General Election. Really honoured to be chosen and will work hard to become a good constituency MP.

Conservatives Oppose Labour Plans to Charge for Green Waste Collections

Local Conservatives are fighting Labour plans to charge up to £55 a year for green waste collections in Southampton, a service which was previously free.

Council officers have warned the Labour Administration that their charges will hit recycling rates in the city; with an estimated 3,000 tonnes of previously recycled garden waste now either going to landfill or incineration. It is thought that 25,000 household which previously used the free garden sack service will not now sign up to the new charges, reducing Southampton recycling rates by 3%.

Labour’s plans come just months after an announcement by the government that the city will receiving funding to introduce a new doorstep glass collection. Labour’s changes to green waste collections will however will more than wipe out the extra recycling this will produce. So despite winning millions of pounds from the government to improve recycling Labour will ensure that recycling in the city goes backwards.

The extra charges come on top of Labour’s increase in council tax, their extra council tax charges for pensioners and their introduction of new residents parking charges. Many residents now face bills of more than £200 a year extra.

The changes will mean residents who want to continue to have their garden waste collected by the council will have to endure a 3rd wheelie bin outside their house as the old green sacks are withdrawn.

Labour’s plans also are a slap in the face for city refuse collections who Labour along with Labour activists in the trade unions encouraged to strike last year. The much reduced service will now mean many workers will lose their jobs.

The Prime Minister Commits to In - Out EU Referendum

Campaigning for a EU Referendum at last year's Conservative Party Conference

Today's speech by the Prime Minister was truly historic and marks a watershed in Britain's relationship with Europe. The British people will be given a say on whether they wish to remain in the EU. I was not alive when Britain last voted on Europe and only those who are at least 55 today had a say when the country was last given a vote in 1975.

The vast majority of the public are thoroughly unhappy with our present relationship with Europe. A Conservative Government would renegotiate a new relationship with EU and put it to the people to decide whether we remain in or leave.

This is a chance to fundamentally change not just our relationship with Europe but hopefully Europe itself, a chance to regain control of our borders and to restore law making powers to this country and most importantly a chance for the British people to decide. 

I am very proud of the Prime Minister today and courage he has shown. The dividing line with Labour is clear. Labour will refuse the people a say. It is therefore imperative that the Conservatives win in 2015.

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. 

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

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.

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.

Labour Plans to Scrap the Weekly Bin Collections

Cllr Michael Ball, the Conservative Candidate for Freemantle promises to protect the weekly bin collections & to work to raise recycling

The front page of today's Southern Daily Echo features plans by Southampton's Labour group to scrap weekly bin collections if they win the local elections in May.

I have long campaigned to keep the weekly collections in Southampton and as a Freemantle Ward councillor I know they are essential to many of the residents I represent. Bi Weekly collections have been implemented in some parts of the country but in cities like Southampton and areas like Freemantle it simply wouldn't work. Many of my constituents live in terraced housing with very small front gardens. Often the wheelie bins are stored just outside the front door and the prospect of having the bins left there stinking for 2 weeks does not bear thinking about.

After seeing the effects of the Labour backed bin strikes last summer, the last thing we want next is cuts to our bin collection services. It also seems like a kick in the teeth from Labour; first encouraging the bin strikes and now proposing that 1 in 10 bin men be axed.

Locally the Conservatives are committed to the weekly collections and we have submitted a bid to government to look at new ways to improve the waste collection service. If successful this bid will mean we will have the funds to introduce a new door step collection of glass.

Conservative Party Political Broadcast Lists Areas Where The Government Has Delivered on the Tory Manifesto

Southampton Conservatives Launch 2012 Manifesto

Southampton’s Conservative Councillors today launched our Manifesto for the local elections in May 2012. We have published the document on our website, (CLICK HERE) and you can also download the document as a pdf. We hope that this will be of interest to you and we would welcome any comments or thoughts that you have. You can feedback to us on this email or via the website.

This election will be crucial for Southampton and residents will have a clear choice about what sort of council they want and what sort of political leadership they want for the city.

Despite the enormous challenge of having to find £75m of savings between 2010 and 2014, Southampton Conservatives are committed to doing everything possible to protect front line services, to keep costs down for local residents and to continue to move the city forward and bring in business and jobs.

We are ensuring that important front line services are maintained, keeping OPEN all our Sure Start centres, libraries and leisure centres and protecting the weekly bin collections and budgets for looking after vulnerable residents and repairing the roads and pavements.

We will freeze Council Tax for a second year running and avoid hiking up charges for council services like parking charges and adult social care charges.

We are continuing to invest in the city’s public realm and infrastructure and despite the gloomy financial outlook nationally we are attracting businesses and jobs to the city.

We are cutting out waste in the council and reducing back office costs. We have cut the numbers of directors at the council in half and have reduced the numbers of senior managers by a quarter. At the same time we are protecting jobs at the front line so they can deliver important services to the public.

The Conservatives have been in office in Southampton since 2008 (with a period of minority administration in 2007) and we have stuck to ALL the promises we made to Southampton residents. We have done what we said we would do, we have been honest with residents and we have dealt with the significant challenges the city faces in a responsible and robust way. We have not made promises we could not keep and we do not intend to do so now. However with key elections in May it is important that we set out our new commitments to the city as we ask residents to vote for us again, to run the city until the next set of local elections in 2014. This document is a manifesto for 2012 – 2014 and it is Our Contract with Southampton.

New Southampton Conservatives Website

Conservative Budget Will focus on Protecting Council Services

Today the council released its draft budget for 2012/13. The council's financial situation is extremely challenging and next year £15M must be saved to balance the books.

Conservative Councillors are focused on ensuring that front line services are protected. This means keeping all our Sure Start Centres, leisure centres, libraries and other community facilities open. It means protecting the road and pavement repairs budget and protecting the vital bus routes that the council supports. And it means ensuring more support for the most vulnerable children in the city. I am very pleased that in my area of responsibility, Childrens' Services and Learning, there are no service reductions planned.

It is important that in these difficult times we keep costs down for local people. We have committed to freezing the council tax again and are keeping the 10% discount for pensioner households. We are ensuring that other charges like parking charges are frozen.

An important priority for Conservatives on the council is keeping front line council staff in work, delivering the services that residents pay their taxes for. We recently changed staff terms and conditions and this saw some pay cuts for higher paid staff. This was done to protect jobs and services and we are sticking to our commitment to protect 400 council jobs. Next year's budget will keep compulsory redundancies as low as possible, likely to be less than 50.

This is all in stark contrast to Labour in Southampton, who have said that their plans involve big increases in council tax, of at least 4.5%, the axing of 1,500 council jobs and the serious damage this would mean to front line council services.

A Budget To Fuel Growth

Yesterday the Chancellor, George Osborne, set out his 2nd budget with plans to reform the economy, to create jobs and support families.

This Budget will put fuel back in the tank of Britain's economy.


Help for families:

- An immediate cut in fuel duty by 1 pence per litre and a delay of April's inflation rise in duty to next January. This means fuel duty is 6 pence lower than it would be under Labour. We are paying for this by putting up taxes on the oil companies while the oil price is high to create a Fair Fuel Stabiliser.
- An increase in the personal allowance from £6,500 to £8,100 over the next two years. This will mean £326 extra for working people and it will lift over a million low paid people out of tax altogether.
- £250 million to help 10,000 first time buyers get on the housing ladder.
- A freeze in Air Passenger Duty this year.
- Money for councils so virtually every council in England will freeze council tax next month.
- A new scheme to allow Gift Aid to be claimed on the contents of charities' collecting tins and street buckets, and support for largest donations with radical reforms to Inheritance Tax - if you leave 10 per cent or more of your estate to charity, then the Government will take 10 per cent off your inheritance tax bill.
- As well as helping in the short term we need to reform our economy to create growth and jobs in the future. The hard truth is that Britain has lost ground in the world economy.

Under Labour manufacturing halved, and growth depended on unsustainable public spending, debt and financial services. We need a new model of growth based on investment, manufacturing and exports - a Britain that makes things again. This Budget started that process, with measures that include:

- An additional 1p cut in corporation tax. In April this year corporation tax will fall from 28% to 26%. It will continue to fall by 1% in each of the following three years reaching 23%. Britain will be competitive again.
- Doubling Entrepreneurs Relief to £10m and sweeping changes to the generosity, simplicity and reach of the Enterprise Investment Scheme, with an increase in the income tax relief available from 20% to 30%.
- An extension of the small business rate relief holiday for another year.
- An additional £100m for new science facilities and more generous tax credits for small business research and development.
- 21 new Enterprise Zones with business rate cuts and new broadband to promote growth across the country.
- A review of the revenue raised by the temporary 50p rate of income tax
- 50,000 additional apprenticeships and 100,000 work placements for young people.
- £3bn for a Green Investment Bank, which will generate an additional £15 billion in private sector investment in green projects and low carbon energy.

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Visit to Central Sure Start

On Monday I accompanied Maria Miller MP, Shadow Minister for Familes and the MP for Basingstoke to the Central Sure Start in Clovelly Road. We met with staff and parents to discuss their experience of the service and Conservative plans to help families.

David Cameron has made it clear that he wants Britain to become the most family friendly country in Europe and improving Sure Start is central to that vision. If the Conservatives form the next government we plan to recruit an extra 4,200 health visitors nationwide and have greater emphasis on health outcomes.

Maria commented during the visit that she was impressed by how closely Southampton City Council and the city's Primary Care Trust worked.

The Conservatives Will Overhaul Labour's Failed Planning System

Today I met with Shadow Housing Minister, Grant Shapps to discuss the new Conservative Green Paper on planning.

Our broken planning system is in desperate need of an overhaul and local communities need to be put in the driving seat.

I am particularly pleased by two key changes an incoming Conservative Government would make.

Stopping Retrospective Planning Applications

Firstly, we would extend permitted development rights so that simple changes to residential properties would not need planning permission. We would at the same time seriously restrict retrospective planning applications, allowing them only where genuine mistakes are made. This would have two effects. It would mean that simple, non controversial planning matters would not have to go through the rigmarole of the planning process, thereby freeing up money and resources which could be better spent on enforcement. It would mean that rogue developers would no longer be able to bypass local planning authorities, developing properties and then only applying for planning permission when challenged or when threatened with enforcement action. I come across this sort of abuse on a regular basis in my role as a councillor and it is of huge concern to local people.

Reforming the Planning Appeals Process

Secondly, we would reform the planning appeals process, which currently undermines democratic decision making by local council planning panels and which allows developers to run rings around planning officers. We would limit the grounds for planning appeals to where correct procedures were not followed and where decisions contravene local planning rules.

For far too long rogue developers have 'played the system' using a bureaucratic and centrist planning system to run roughshod over local people and to get around local planning decisions.

Give Us A Vote!

On Wednesday I was delighted to support a motion to the City Council, calling for a public refurendum on whether fluoride should be added to the local water.

The council debate was about fluoride but not about the merit of fluoride or the concerns of those who oppose it. It was instead about Democracy.

It is clear that an overwhelming majority of residents in Southampton do not wish to have fluoride added to their water.The NHS’ initial consultation attracted 10,000 responses, with 72 per cent against. In a separate and later phone poll of 2,000 residents, 38 per cent opposed fluoridation compared to 32 per cent in favour. Whichever way you cut it, to date, local people have made it clear that they don’t want fluoride.

In a democratic, free country we should respect the views of majority. Labour’s unelected quango, the South Central NHS are however pushing ahead with their plans.

I feel that on such an important issue you shouldn’t ride roughshod over residents’ views. On Wednesaday I called for a referendum to determine finally and without doubt the views of local people. I would expect the NHS and the Government to respect the outcome of that referendum.

I was delighted that the motion was carried, albeit without the support of Labour or the Lib Dems.

On Wednesday we voted on the motion and made our views as a council known. However it is important to note that the Conservative Party nationally support local people having their say and a referendum. David Cameron and Andrew Lansley MP have both put this view on the public record when speaking recently in Hampshire.

5 More Years of Gordon Brown or Change with the Conservatives

Conservative Plans to Support Older People