Forthcoming Road Works

Below is a list of forthcoming road works in Freemantle Ward:

Hill Lane - Junction with Darwin Road
Nature of work: Gas main & water main works
Traffic Control: Temporary traffic signals
Start Date: 10th September
Duration: 4 days
Organisation: Southern Gas / Southern Water


Howard Road - Shirley Road to Stafford Road
Nature of work: Kerb & footway works
Traffic Control: Partial closure & temporary traffic signals
Start Date: 24th September
Duration: Four weeks
Organisation: Southampton City Council


Shirley Road - At Howard Rd Junction
Nature of Work: Gas Main Works
Traffic Control: Temporary signals Tied in with above
Start Date: 24th September
Duration: One week
Organisation: Southern Gas


Archers Road - Between Carlton Rd and The Avenue
Nature of Work: Highway alterations
Traffic Control: Partial Road Closure
Start Date: 8th October
Duration: Six weeks
Organisation: John Reilly Civil Eng


Howard Road - Shirley Road to Stafford Road
Nature of Work: Carriageway resurfacing
Traffic Control: Road closure
Start Date: 22nd October
Duration: One week
Organistion: Southampton City Council


Shirley Road - Junction Landguard Rd
Nature of Work: Gas main works
Traffic Control: Temporary traffic signals
Start Date: 29th October
Duration: Two weeks
Organisation: Southern Gas


The Avenue - Northbound from Northlands Road
Nature of Work: Carriageway resurfacing
Start Date: Feb/March 2008
Duration: 3 to 4 weeks
Organisation: Southampton City Council

Forthcoming Social Events

Below is a list of forthcoming social events for 2007.

Click HERE for full details.

Southampton Social Events

Monday 27th August

Freemantle Cream Tea, Elizabeth House Hotel,

3pm

£5 p.p

Thursday 20th September

Supper Club, Bowlers, Golf Course Road,

7.30pm

£15 p.p

Sunday 14th October

Clay Pigeon Shoot

details from Linda Norris 8076 8885

£30 p.p

Friday 23rd November

Supper Club, Bowlers, Golf Course Road,

7.30pm

£15 p.p

The Case for a Referendum

SUMMER CREAM TEA
ON MONDAY 27 AUGUST 2007 at 3pm
at Elizabeth House Hotel, The Avenue, Southampton

The guest speaker at this year's Freemantle Conservative Ward Summer Cream Tea is South East Euro MP, Dan Hannan.

A Daily Telegraph columnist (Click HERE to visit his blog) and Conservative MEP for South East England, will talk about the revived Euro-constitution and Labour’s attempt to renege on its promise of a national referendum.

Daniel was the first person in Britain to call for a referendum on the EU Constitution, back in 2001, and is President of the Referendum Group, a pan-European alliance campaigning against closer integration.

He is a co-author, together with a number of Conservative MPs from the 2005 intake, of Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party, which was serialised in the Daily Telegraph.

Government Must give Southampton its Fair Share

Below is the text from a letter sent last month to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alastair Darling MP asking that Southampton receives its fair share of government funding.

In the 2007-08 budget round, the government gave Southampton City Council £90.1m in grants - just 54.7 percent of the money it needs to serve the people of Southampton - equal to £403.20 per head. The rest has had to be made up from council tax.

Every year Southampton faces a severe financial squeeze as the government puts more obligations on us than it pays for in its grants. This means our council tax is pushed up and we are forced to identify millions of pounds in savings in every budget. In comparison, northern authorities receive considerably higher settlements than southern authorities such as Southampton.

This year we are planning for a zero percent increase in government grant. We may in fact get less. If inflation goes up again inline with the current trends our wage bill could increase by £2m. The grants will not. As Chancellor you cannot continue to put this pressure on local authorities, while expecting us to deliver safer communities, better transport networks and higher standards of education.

In essence it is a stealth tax. Increased public spending driven by the government is being engineered through council tax increases. As well as highlighting the unfair pressure upon the tax payer I call for you to look again at how local government grants are calculated.

As well as cutting our funding year on year, the government is also not taking into consideration our rapidly increasing population. Between 2003/04 and 2007/08 we estimate between 10,000 and 12,000 migrant workers have moved to the city. However, Southampton’s official population, which the government uses to calculate our grants, has only increased by 6,000 residents in the same period. That is up to 6,000 people who we are providing services for without adequate funding.

I estimate that just these two issues - inflation and inaccurate population calculations - are costing the city council, and ultimately the tax payer around £5m a year. This would be equivalent to a seven percent increase in the council tax bill. With this sobering fact in mind, I urge you to give Southampton its fair share.

Cllr Jeremy Moulton

Parking Restrictions in Darwin Road

The Council has drawn up plans for a Traffic Regulation Order for Darwin Road. This proposes yellow lines around the junctions of Darwin Road and Greville Road and Darwin Road and Thornbury Avenue.

This is to stop cars parking on the corners of the road and blocking visability. There was an accident at the junction with Thornbury Avenue recently and these plans are response to the concerns raised by residents.

Unless there are strong objections to the proposals this will be implemented in the near future.

Residents Parking

The results of the recent residents parking surveys in Silverdale and Cawte Road were as follows:

Silverdale

74.4% of residents favoured a residents parking scheme for the whole road, operating 8am - 6pm, Monday to Saturday, with 2 permits available.

Cawte

79.2% of residents favoured a residents parking scheme operating 8am - 6pm, Monday to Saturday. 2/3rds of residents also favoured additional restrictions in the evenings.

Freemantle's councillors will therefore be pushing the council to implement these schemes as soon as possible. There will be a further chance for residents to object once the plans are formally drawn up and put out for consultation.

Well Done Banister Infant School!

Congratulations to Banister Infant School on the results of the recent Ofsted report.

The Inspector has rated the school as "good" and remarked “I think your school is good. All your staff, but especially your headteacher, deputy headteacher and governors work well to make things as good as they are.”

Congratulations again.

Residents Parking

Surveys of residents' views on parking schemes in Silverdale Road and Cawte Road were carried out a couple of months ago.

I am told by council officers that the reults have been analysed and that there is overwhelming support for introducing schemes in these two roads.

I will post an update on this when I have all the facts and figures and after I have been briefed on the matter.

We Must Have A Refurendum on New EU Treaty

I was delighted that David Cameron made it clear that the Conservatives unequivocally support a refurendum on any new proposed treaty on the EU.

Gordon Brown looks like he is going back on an earlier government committment on EU constitution and appears to be arguing that new repackaged constitution won't warrant a public vote.

Not only should the government stick to its committment to giving the people their say they should make it clear there is no way Britain will even comtemplate giving further powers to Brussels. Until the EU can sign off its annual accounts and demonstrate where our money is going I can't see how the subject can even be on the agenda! Any commercial business that consistently failed to sign off its accounts would be shut down. Why should Brussels be any different?

Planning Meeting 19th June

As well as deciding the new name for the road in Banister Park, the Planning Panel will consider a number of planning applications when it meets on 19th June. Click HERE for the report.

There is one Freemantle application. This is 14-20 Shirley Road (REF 07/00458/FUL). I posted on this particular site back in January. The application is for 12 one bedroom flats and 1 two bedroom flat. No parking is to be provided.

It was at this meeting that the application for the Gypsy Transit site at Monks Brook was to be heard. The Monks Brook application will now be heard on 20th June at 6:30pm at a special meeting in the Council Chamber. This is so that as many people as possible can attend and speak at the meeting.

Lindhoe Gardens

Banister Park is set to get a new road.

Next Tuesday the council will agree the name for a new close off Archers Road.

Approval was recently given for a development of 79 flats by Crest Nicholson at 1A Archers Road, a former nurses home at the junction with the Avenue.

The close is to take its name from Robert Lindhoe, the man who founded the Southampton Branch of the anti slavery society and is to mark the 200th anniversary of abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

Click HERE for a write up on the city council's website on Southampton's involvement in the abolition of the slave trade.

How The Government Costs Business Money

The Facilities department at my work sent round an email today about the smoking ban. We have a smoking shed at work which is unsuprisingly used by smokers. Non smokers like me don't go in there as we don't smoke! However it counts as an enclosed space and under legislation people won't be allowed to smoke in it as of 1st July. Because of this my company is building a new smoking shed with a different design for people to smoke in. This will no doubt cost a reasonable sum of money. What a complete nonsense! Who exactly is supposed to gain from this?

New Look Blog

I have finally given in and moved onto the new version of Blogger. I was slightly concerned that I might lose much of the site in the process. Luckily most of it came over (most importantly all the posts). I lost all the links but I have put these back on now. I can't seem to get the picture in the title section to stretch across the whole page.

New Cabinet Appointed

Newly elected Council Leader, Alec Samuels has announced his Cabinet. The cabinet will be made up of members of the conservative party.

Leader: Cllr Alec Samuels
Economic Development and Regeneration: Cllr Royston Smith
Resources: Cllr Jeremy Moulton
Workforce planning: Cllr Terry Matthews
Children’s Services and learning: Cllr Peter Baillie
Adult Care and health: Cllr Ivan White
Environment & Transport: Cllr Gavin Dick
Housing & Neighbourhoods: Cllr Phil Williams
Leisure and Culture: Cllr John Hannides

Southampton Goes Blue!

Southampton Conservative Councillors have formed their administration since 1984

Southampton Councillors met formally for the first time yesterday after the local council elections on 3rd May.

At the meeting of Full Council, the Conservatives took political control of Southampton City Council, forming their first administration in 23 years.

Southampton has been in a state of political "no over all control" since 1999 and since then Labour and then the Lib Dems have run minority administrations. Yesterday Conservatives formed a minority administration with 18 councillors. This means that whilst the Conservatives will have more influence than at any point since 1984 and will control all the Executive functions of the Council, the other political parties will be able to gang up and defeat the Conservatives over major policy issues.

Click HERE for the Daily Echo report.

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.