Ban the Bomb or Ban the Beard!?

I have just read Rev Ian Johnson's From the Heart Column in the Echo. I normally don't read his extraordinarily regular columns, letters, articles etc. in the Echo, which tend be on any subject other than that of religion or even the Church of England. However on this occasion I made an exception as he was writing about an event that he and I both attended last Sunday (a commemoration of the lives lost as a result of the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan at the end of WW2).

Rev Johnson's article was about his involvement with CND in his younger years and the campaign to ban the bomb. He also argued strongly that Britain should give up its nuclear deterrent when Trident becomes obsolete.

The two atomic bombs are estimated to have killed up to 300,000 Japanese (including those who died immediately from the bomb blasts and those that died, often years later from the radiation). This was a dreadful and tragic loss of human life from a dreadful war.

It should however be noted that the argument for the use of the atomic bombs was that it would secure an immediate and unconditional surrender from a fanatical enemy who was willing to fight to the last, and that by ending the war early it in fact would save many more lives.

By the time of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese had been fighting a losing war for over a year. The American invasion of the small Island of Okinawa lasted two and a half months. In that battle 100,000 Japanese soldiers, 170,000 Japanese civilians and 12,500 American servicemen were killed.

Had the Allies had to invade the main Islands of Japan, the war may well have continued for much longer, with huge loss of life on all sides. A conventional campaign against the mainland would have meant the conventional bombing of civilian Japanese targets and likely hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths.

Shortly after WW2, the USSR obtained the Atom Bomb. Stalin himself was known to view atomic weapons as simply larger and more powerful bombs to use on the battlefield. Stalin of course killed approximately 30 million of his own people. In those early years of the Cold War, it is very clear that NATO's nuclear determent kept the USSR from using its own nuclear arsenal.

Today the Cold War is over and we face the prospect of an extremist government in Iran obtaining a nuclear bomb. This is a Government that openly states that it wants to wipe another country of the face of the map.

To give up our nuclear deterrent in a dangerous world would be very foolish. All Governments of both main political parties have supported maintaining Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. I see no reason why they should abandon that policy today.

Planning And Rights of Way Meeting - 15th August

There is a meeting of the Planning and Rights of Way panel on Tuesday 15th August.

I have listed below the applications in Freemantle Ward that will be considered in the meeting.
The meeting is in Conference Room 3 in the Civic Centre. You can just turn up if you are interested. If you want to speak about an application being considered by the panel you let the person on the door know and they take down your details.


10am - 11am

78 Northlands Road - 06/00944/FUL. Click here to view the papers online.

This is the Tudorwood application. Linden homes are planning to tear down the old house on the site and build a block of new flats. This is a resubmission as the application was previously turned down. Linden Homes have since had a ecological survey done to look at what local wildlife is in the area. There was some concern about disturbing bats in the woods and that might be in the rafters of the house.

11am - 12pm

31 Greville Road - 06/00924/FUL. Click here to view the papers online.

Update: 15/08/06 - Both the above applications were approved by the Planning Panel today.

Labour Councillor Slams Government Policy at CND Rally

It was billed as a commemorative event to mark the loss of life resulting from the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan at the end of WW2.

However it rapidly descended into a declaration of outright political warfare by Labour Councillor Denis Harryman on his party in government.
Cllr Harryman was the guest speaker at a CND rally at Riverside Park last night. Also in attendance in his official capacity was Cllr John Slade, the Mayor of Southampton.

The event which was organised by CND and had been advertised on the Stop the War Coalition website, was more a political rally than a commemorative event. There was no religious aspect to the evening as one might expect; no prayers. Instead there was a very political speech by Cllr Harryman in which he was deeply critical of his own party in Government.

Cllr Harryman devoted only 1 minute of his 16 minute speech to the subject of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament he claimed that secret decisions had already been taken to replace Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent. He called for the Southampton Labour party to bring forward motions to the next Labour Conference condemning this.

Cllr Harryman went on to criticise the Government on a range of foreign policy and domestic issues, including housing policy and tuition fees (which incidentally both Southampton's Labour MPs supported).

I was quite astonished that he held such strong views and that he was so opposed to Government policy and that as a senior Labour Councillor he felt that he could remain part of the Labour Party. I was also amazed by some of the comments that he made. Here are some which I found particularly bizarre:

Cllr Harryman claimed that the CND movement was responsible for averting nuclear war during the Cold War! I mean come on really! As if during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev was on the phone to CND sorting the problem out!

He suggested that if Britain abandoned its nuclear weapons, then this would inspire Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions! This is incredibly naive!

Clearly Cllr Harryman is deeply at odds with Government policy and Labour Party policy. I wonder how he can seriously ever again stand for elected office on a Labour Party ticket.


Was it right for the Mayor to be there?

Of course Cllr Slade can attend anything he likes as a private citizen. However is it right for him to attend a deeply political event such as this, in his official capacity, wearing the chain of office, accompanied by Council staff and arriving in the mayoral car? I personally do not think this is right. After all it’s our taxes that are being used.

Labour's B&B Tax Sucks

Conservatives have launched a campaign to save the great British holiday from John Prescott and Gordon Brown's latest money grabbing ruse - a new stealth tax on British holidays.

Labour are looking into a new levy on hostels and bed and breakfasts in England and Wales. This would be on top of the existing business rates and VAT on hotel bills and could potentially add a further 100 pounds to a typical British family holiday.

Freemantle's Conservative Councillors have been calling for the bed tax idea to be scrapped when it was brought to our attention in April by local B&B owners. I am delighted that the party nationally is now formally opposing this mad idea. In Freemantle we have lots of local B&Bs and it would be a disaster for the local economy if the Government introduced it.

The prospect of holiday accommodation costs increasing was dramatically raised when in response to a request from the Chancellor and Deputy Premier John Prescott, former Labour councillor Sir Michael Lyons drew up interim proposals for new local taxes, which would come on top of existing business rates and VAT charged on hotel bills.

Based on similar taxes in other countries, the new levy could potentially add 100 pounds a week to the cost of a family holiday or visit to Britain's tourist destinations. Less well-off families would be the hardest hit.

Mr Swire, the Conservative Shadow Secretary for Culture, Media & Sport, commented: "The brilliant summer weather has shown what a great place Britain is to spend a short break or a holiday. But the great British holiday is under threat from a 'bed & breakfast stealth tax' - Gordon Brown's latest money-making ploy. There's nothing wrong with choosing to travel abroad, but no-one will benefit from making British holidays a rip-off."And Mr Pickles, Shadow Minister for Local Government, declared: "Gordon Brown and John Prescott have already hiked up council tax bills. Now they want to hike the price of a British break. John Prescott travels the world on foreign jollies at taxpayers' expense, from Sydney casinos, to Maldives scuba-diving, to Wild West ranches. Obsessed with the trappings of power, he doesn't give two cents for the struggling British seaside resort."

The Government's current review into local government finance in England will report by the end of 2006. In his interim report in December, Sir Michael Lyons suggested that a hotel tax might be introduced, noting "the most frequent proposal was for a local tax on hotel and similar accommodation", and stating that "I am interested in exploring this issue further". Meanwhile Tourism Minister Shaun Woodward has refused to rule out the new tax, and has stated: "We have to balance the books."

To find out more and sign the e-petition against the tax click here.

Click here to send Gordon Brown a postcard telling him what you think.

Woolston Riverside - a Sink Estate of the Future?

This week Southampton City Council approved the planning application submitted by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) for the comprehensive regeneration and development of the Woolston Riverside site.


It includes some 1,510 new homes.

The Daily Echo reported this the other night in a very favourable light I thought. However I wonder whether people will look back and regret the decision taken.

Rather than building family houses, all 1,510 homes will be flats, packed in as much as possible. People are already moving out of the City because of the shortage of family housing. Our school roll numbers are dropping and increasing people with children are, not only sending their children to schools outside the City, they are moving out of Southampton. This has led to the current situation where the Council is planning to close schools on the east and west of the City.

Parking Problems in Cawte Road

I am continuning to press for a residents parking scheme for Cawte Road although frustrating progress is glacially slow.

To make matters worse a planning application has been submitted for 24 new flats at 2-10 Cawte Road. The design consists of two blocks of 24 flats (40 bedrooms in total) with only 17 car parking spaces. Whilst this is more than recent developments along Shirely Road and Richmond Road, this is going to further add to parking problems.

I have objected to the application on the grounds of inadequate parking and excessive density. All the paperwork for the application can be found here. The planning reference is 06/00977/FUL.

I have had a number of letters of objection sent to me and also complaints from church goers attending Freemantle Church, complaining of parking problems.

A Lesson in Crime Prevention

I have just read an interesting article in City View. It said that Satellite Navigation devices were stolen from more than 300 cars been January and May.

Well my car was broken into on my drive two weeks ago (the day before I went on holiday!). I had foolishly left my docking cradle attached to the window. So they wrenched it off and took it. The SatNav wasnt in the car but I was still left with a bill for the window. Theres a lesson there I think...

The article advises:

- Mark your SatNav with your postcode and house number.
- Make a note of the make, model and serial number.
- Take your SatNav with you.
- Wipe away suction pad marks on the windscreen (thieves will notice these).
- Don’t leave your SatNav in the glove box (thieves will check here first).

The article says that if people want more advice, they should call crime prevention officer John Bailey on 023 8059 9860.

Aitken Dinner Goes Down a Storm

Former Conservative Minister, Johnathan Aitken was the guest speaker at the Conservative Supper Club last Wednesday. Speaking at one of Southampton's oldest pubs, the Duke of Wellington in Bugle Street, Johnathan spoke about his new book "Heroes and Contemporaries".

There was a lively question and answer session afterwards, with subjects ranging from prison reform to the problems in Lebanon.

It was when the topic of conversation turned to religion that the most incredible thunderstorm erupted. Despite the flashing lightning and driving rain in the background it proved to a fantastic evening.

A long absence and 500 missing emails

I have just got back from holiday and recovered from my jet lag. I am back on the blogging scene again.

So apologies for the lack of posts! Also apologies to anyone who may have emailed me during the past couple of weeks. It seems that while I was away the Council tried to forward on my emails to my private email address so I could keep an eye on my work whilst away (sad I know).

Unfortunately due to a technical error I didnt get the emails forwarded on and the Council appear to have lost them from their computers. So I am afraid I have lost a lot of correspondence. If you emailed me between 12th and 27th July and you need me to reply, please can you re-email me?

Dangerous Parking in Mayfair Gardens

I attended a residents meeting of Mayfair Gardens residents (Banister Park) last Monday.

The residents have a problem with vehicles parking along the stretch of M Mayfair Gardens along the junction of Court Road.

New parking arrangements were introduced in Banister Park a couple of years ago. At this time it was decided to leave the stretch of road in question as unrestricted.

The section of road is extremely narrow and if vehicles do park there, it can prevent access. This is a very serious concern as emergency vehicles and also council bin lorries do need access into the road.

I understand on one occasion, due to a parked car blocking access, an ambulance was forced to park a long way away from a house to which it had been called in Mayfair Gardens and that the ambulance crew had to push a trolley and from the their vehicle some distance to the house.

Obviously in the event of a fire and a fire engine being unable to get past parked vehicles, lives could be lost.

At the time the new parking scheme was introduced it was my understanding that the parking situation would be monitored and reviewed. These things are an imperfect science and it is not expected that the first solution will always be the right one.

I have asked that the Council urgently addresses the problem, in consultation with residents.

Why aren't election voting papers delivered in the post?

I have received a number of complaints about the delivery of voting cards before election day.

Each year I seem to find more and more people who do not seem to have received their cards.

As I go around in the weeks leading up to election day I discover many cards dumped at the bottoms of blocks of flats and in some cases in the floating about on the road.
I wonder if the process of hand delivering the voting cards is really acceptable today.

Years ago you probably relied on respectable volunteers to hand deliver the cards. Those days are gone though.

Would it not be far better to envelope the cards and post them out to voters? The advantage would be people would be guaranteed (or at least far more likely) to get their voting card paper.

There is the issue of cost but I don’t believe it would be that much more (especially when we were recently considering compulsory postal ballots - and postal votes are delivered in the post).

Blogger Bill Finally Tracked Down!

I have finally managed to get hold of former Labour Councillor Bill Kearn's blog address. Thanks to Matt Dean for sending it to me. Click here to read Bill's thoughts and views. I have added a link on the right hand side of the page.

Redbridge Primary School let down by Lib/Lab incompetence

The Council has gone back on its promise to rebuild Redbrige Primary school. They don't have the money.

There were 2 big capital overspends in Redbridge recently:

1) The building of Brownhill House in Lower Brownhill Road went over budget by hundreds of thousands of pounds. This started under Labour and was completed under the Lib Dems.

2) Also expenditure on Mansel Park was a couple of hundred thousand over what was planned.

Had the Lib Dems controlled expenditure they would have had money for Redbridge Primary school. At the time I heard the argument that we should be happy with the wonderful new facilities and should not moan about the extra cost incurred. However there is a limited pot of money and if it is wasted, other worthy projects like rebuilding Redbridge Primary suffer the consequences.

Southampton Political Blogging Takes Off

Political web blogs are all the craze now in Southampton. In the last couple of weeks two new sites have been set up!

MattDeanSouthampton - A blog from Matthew Dean, Southampton resident, publican and Officer of Southampton Test Conservative Association.

Dick's Blog - Diary of a Conservative Councillor in Southampton, representing Sholing Ward.

I feel that we may be on the brink of an explosion of poltical blogging in the City. Who knows...

Meanwhile Award Winning Sandra Gidley MP hasn't updated her Blog since 31st January 2006. This one hasn't been updated since 2005! - Gidley Watch.

Planning Meeting on 20th June

There is a Planning and Rights of Way pannel meeting on 20th June. 4 out of the 6 applications being looked at are in Freemantle Ward.

You can get all the details of each application and all the diagrams by clicking here.

The applications are:

06/00586/FUL
65 Howard Road Southampton SO15 5BE
Redevelopment of the site to comprise 7 x one-bedroom flats in a three-storey block.

06/00017/FUL
151 Hill Lane Southampton SO15 5AF
Redevelopment of the site by the erection of 3 no. three-bed and 1 no. four-bed townhouses.

06/00635/FUL
42 Landguard Road Southampton SO15 5DP
Conversion of house into 6 flats (2 x 2-bedroom, and 4 x 1


06/00723/FUL
143-145 Paynes Road Southampton SO15 3BW
Redevelopment of the site by the erection of a four storey building of 14 ...

Pensioners and Free Bus Passes

I went to the Southampton Pensioners' Forum debate this afternoon. This was the second time I have gone and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were representatives from Labour (Dennis Harryman) and Lib Dems (Jill Baston).

They didn't really ask me many questions and I got off quite lightly. Jill Baston took most of the flak. There was one embarassing moment when I had to admit that I didn't really know who the Older Person's Champion on the Council was or what he/she did or should do. Fortunately most people seemed a bit unclear on the matter.

The main topic of conversation was free bus travel.

Free buses came in in April following funding of £1.5m from central Government to pay for it. (Conservatives had been calling for it for some time).

Pensioners in Southampton can now travel for free within Southampton's boundaries. Unfortunately they can't travel out of Southampton and back again for free.

The Lib Dems blame the Government for botching the free bus pass scheme. Labour blame the Lib Dem Council. The Lib Dems say that the scheme can't be extended until 2008 and requires a change in the law. They are going to review the matter this year.

The truth is they are both right and they are both wrong! The Labour did botch the scheme and that's why they are introducing new legislation for a new scheme in 2008. However the Lib Dems could extend the scheme if it wanted and if they were prepared to shell out and estimated additional £500k -£700k.

Despite campaigning for free travel outside Southampton's boundaries, Labour have not said how they would fund the scheme. Labour and the Lib Dems passed a joint Council budget for the year back in Febraury and there was no money for this. A pretty empty Labour election promise you might say!

My own view is lets look at it, understand how much it might cost and weigh up the scheme against all the other demands on the Council purse. After all in February the Lib / Lab budget agreed cuts of £150k to the home care budget for elderly people needing social services help! Social care for the elderly must surely be a higher priority?

I think Councillors need to be a lot more honest and open with residents and taxpayers.

Alan Whitehead's McFreebie

Breaking news about MP Alan Whitehead's free trip to the World Cup this weekend on Matt Dean's blog.

Park Hotel to the Rescue!

The Council has been struggling to find and agree a suitable place for a glass recycling bank in Freemantle.

Finally after months of searching, the Park Hotel in Shirley Road (90 Shirley Road on the junction of Sir Georges Road) has come to the rescue, offering to use its land as a site for the new glass bottle bank.

Click here to find the bottle bank on multimap.

Lib Dems do a U-turn on schools review

The plans to close Grove Park school have been temporarily shelved following a U-Turn by Lib Dem Education chief, Anne Milton.

Cllr Milton has admitted that the proposal to close Grove Park school was a pannicked response to opposition to her earlier proposal to close Woolston school.

The Council is going consult again and get views on the future of the most controversial schools, namely Regents Park/Bellemoor, Millbrook School/Oaklands School and Woolston/Grove Park.

A decision on the future of these schools will not be made until December.

The Conservatives have condemned the review of secondary education in the City as a total shambles.

Save Grove Park

The announcement by Southampton City Council that they want to shut Grove Park Business and Enterprise College (formerly Weston Park Boys School) has come has a huge shock.

An excellent website has been set up help campaign to save Grove Park. It has a message board and some excellent arguments about why the school should be kept open.