The long awaited public enquiry to the dualling of the A11 between Fiveways and Thetford  is to go ahead on Tuesday 24th November at Elveden Village Hall  at 10 am.
I have supported calls from Objectors Proposal 1 which would mean that the A11 would move away from Barton Mills and  the Fiveways Roundabout.  I believe if this proposal is accepted then the A11 could be a road fit for purpose for the forseeable future.
The fact that the Highways Agency have back up plans for Traffic Lights at the Roundabout means they anticipate further congestion there.   Local Residents will the have to suffer elevated levels of noise, congestion and pollution to the area for years to come.’
The public enquiry website is www.persona.uk.com/a11fiveways

Last Night, The Conservatives held onto the Eriswell and Rows  Council seat previously held by now banned local Tory Councillor Terry Waters.  This was despite  a catastrophic drop of over 24% of their vote  share.  Ukip also saw their vote share half in the ward.   Lib Dem John Smith  polled just a touch under 40% but failed to take the seat by just 54 votes froma  standing start.   The new Councillor is Cllr Waters son, James. 

The by election appears to have been timed so that though the Standards Board adjudication was issued the day before poll its findings would not find its way into the local press before polling day. The findings of the Standards Board can be downloaded here

The result
Forest Heath DC, Eriswell & the Rows
Thursday 22 October 2009 12:00

Con 400 (45.8; -24.4)
LD John Smith 346 (39.6; +39.6)
UKIP 128 (14.6; -15.2)
Majority 54
Turnout 29.2%

Con hold
Percentage change is since May 2007.

At the Planning Committee of Forest Heath on the 14th October,  the draft Conservation area report for Freckenham was put out to consultation.

 The proposals can be found here,  not surprisingly buried deep inside the Forest Heath website:-  http://www3.forest-heath.gov.uk/minutes/pln/pln2009oct14/reports/pln09604%20Freckenham.pdf

 So if you want to make any comments or have objections please send them to Forest heath as soon as possible.

The District Auditor signed off Forest Heath’s accounts last night but  not before making sure that there was a major amendment to the balance sheet.

That the £15 million that The Conservtive administartion had valued the centre at - that is what it cost them to build it.  This should be valued at £11 million.

 In effect the Auditor was saying that if the planning, and design process had been right then it should have cost at least £4 millionless to build and should have been significantly less than that as a completed building should have value added not value deducted.

Now a great leisure centre we do have  in Newmarket but what other great facilities could we have had that have been poured into this money pit had the building been built the correct way in the first place.  Could Brandon have had a new pool or Mildenhall a new Leisure Centre to replce the current one?

I have been as shocked as anyone by the revelations that MPS have been claiming for anything and everything.   A complet root and branch reform of the system must take place but also the mindset must change so that people elected to office justify to themselves the money they claim or spend.

As a local councillor I hope that I have always tried to justify any spending as it is other people’s cash.   It doesn’t mean that I am against spending money on services but that every penny must be justified.

Forest Heath Conservatives pushed through an inflation busting rise of 3.6% last night at special Council. An earlier Liberal Democrat amendment to hold Council tax at the rate set last year was defeated.
Lib Dem leader Cllr Ian Radford, proposed the 0% increase which would have left front-line services unaffected. The Lib Dem measure involved cutting down the numbers of issues of Forest Heath news and trimming the huge war chest put aside for any possible leagal proceedings over the Council’s future.

Cllr Radford (Lib Dem) said ‘For the second year running the Conservatives have broken their promise to keep Council tax rises below inflation. At a time when hard pressed families are struggling to cope financially, Councils must protect front line services whilst look at ways of relieving the financial pressures on local families. Tonight the Liberal Democrats proposed that but the Tories rejected it.’

On Tuesday night at Special Council, the Tories pushed through a blank cheque for any legal challenge to the Local Government review currently being undertaken by the Boundary Committee. 

In a year when budgets are tight, services are under stress ,  a contingency of £100, 000 has been put into the budget, the equivalent of £6 for every band D property in Forest Heath!  The Independents, as usual backed the Tories and the matter was pushed through with only the 4 Lib Dems voting against this waste of council taxpayers money.

Forest Heath Damning Internal Audit Report

Last night January 22nd, FHDC Performance and Audit Committee met to discuss the Internal Audit report into its Review of Contracts.

The report ‘assessed the overall internal controls framework to be ineffective both in design and operating effectiveness’ and highlighted control weaknesses ‘considered to be a higher risk than would be generally accepted’. The sample tested 25% of the entire contract register of the Council and 70% of that sample failed to be proven to be in line with the correct processes and procedures documented in the Constitution.

The draft report had been issued on 16th October but was not presented to the PAC until last night, well after the Council’s latest external assessment took place. Officers had been requested three times to provide evidence relating to the contracts but even al last nights meeting that evidence was unavailable.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Ian Radford said ‘ It is a very sorry state of affairs, no one is accusing anyone of corruption or saying that there has been a loss to the council tax payer but there is just no evidence to prove there hasn’t been. This report follows hard on the heels of other internal audit reports discussed in private which had discovered worrying failings.The lead group has been very loud in its appointments of Member Champions but when I asked if the Member Champion for Procurement had seen or commented on the report, the officer concerned did not even know who that member champion was.’

I hear frequently how the decision to scrap Middle Schools in Suffolk was all-party.  The voting record indicates otherwise. 

The vote was 42-28.  41 Tories voted to scrap Middle Schools, 3 Tories voted to keep them and only 1 out of 11Tories in  West Suffolk did so.  The link below is the official record of the vote.

schoolorganisationreview.pdf

My old friend Martin Land has just engineered another Liberal Democrat gain from the Tories, this time in the Hardwick Division just to the west of Cambridge.

Fiona Whelan, the new County Councillor will make an excellent addition to the Lib Dem team on the County.   In East Anglia that makes it 4 gains out of 7 contests in the last five months.  All 7 contests were Tory seats to start with.  I hear the Tories are running courses on how to beat the Lib Dems in Suffolk.  I hope there is a course on how to run your council well without wasting taxpayers hard earned cash and listen to local people and the concerns they have.

Planning permission was granted for the new Sainsbury’s in Mildenhall.   It was the biggest decision that Mildenhall has had to face in many a year.

 I expressed my concerns about flooding downstream - over the bulding on a  flood plain of a car park on the Jubilee Fields.  

I  am still not convinced that the traffic won’t cause huge snarl ups but Suffolk Highways think it wont be a problem.   The new bus station has been built in exactly the place that better traffic regulation could have taken place.

As has been known to be said in Ireland.  ‘If it’s directions to Dublin you want, I wouldn’t start from here!’

Shame on you Tories!  Red Lodge needs a primary school within its village.   Leaving local residents in doubt with council double speak on whether or not it is to get a new school is not on! 

Tory Leader of Suffolk County Council said in a Tory election leaflet ‘I will do my best to find a solution that ensures the best possible education for the children of Red Lodge.’   So no ‘You will get a new school’  just a promise of some consultation in the Autumn.  Just how long do local parents have to wait?   I remember the Tories promising the people of Studlands Park in Newmarket a school thirty years ago,  sadly they never got one. 

I just would rather they show us the plans for the school, if there really are any.

Lib Dems claim a victory for Common sense on Council Office Refurbishment Project

Lib Dem group leader Ian Radford responding to the Conservative group’s decision to accept the Liberal Democrat’s campaign to put the Council Office project on hold said:

Last July we opposed this project without costing that the Council should have an expensive office refurbishment. As recently as February we put a motion to full council calling on the project to be put on hold until the outcome of Local Government review became known. This motion was rejected by the Conservatives on the council.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Ian Radford continued ‘It is interesting that Councillor Jaggard now wants to do what Cameron accuses Brown of and that is to steal our policies. It is also interesting that he wants to rewrite history.

The Conservatives are now claiming that this project was supported by the whole council, it is not the case and has never been the case. The Liberal Democrats had rather that hard pressed local council taxpayers money was spent on local services not plush new council offices.

Ends

Notes
1. Council minutes from the July 2007
The minutes from the council meeting last July state ‘This item prompted considerable discussion by Members and Councillor I P Radford spoke at length and expressed the view that further detailed information needed to be provided before a decision could be reached. Vote for 23 vote against 1

2. The council minutes of 5th March 2008 clearly show
Councillor I P Radford spoke at length on this matter and voiced concern on the following matters:
. The lack of Liberal Democrat representation on the Office Refurbishment Board;
. The termination of contract with AW Business Solutions Ltd as projectmanagement lead, following appointment by Council on 31 July 2007;
. The need to establish clear detailed costings of works;
. The outcome surrounding the pending recommendations of the Boundary Committee.
Councillor Radford proposed an amendment that the project be suspended until full clear costings of necessary repairs were made available pending the publication of the Boundary Committee results. Councillor T J Huggan spoke in support of the amendment and seconded the motion.

On being put to the vote and with 2 Councillors voting for the motion, 19 against.
3. A press release from the Conservative Group on Forest Heath District Council
Monday, 19 May 2008
EMBARGO For immediate release
BEGINS
The Conservative Group will argue at the Council meeting on June 4th that plans to refurbish the Forest Heath District Council office should be suspended until the Local Government Review has delivered its recommendations to the Secretary of State in early 2009.
Leader, Cllr Geoffrey Jaggard said: “The refurbishment was supported by the whole Council last July. We are now in a very different situation and it is unclear how the buildings will be used in future. I therefore believe the right thing to do is put the office refurbishment project on hold.”

“We hope that, whatever the decision about local government in Suffolk, a local presence will be preserved in Forest Heath.”
ENDS

Few things surprise me about what the Tories are up to in Suffolk anymore.  Then something comes along  and does.

Not content with appointing a new Cheif exec at £70,000 more than advertised at £220,000 with benefits and a nice severance package,  the Tory controlled council was found to have acted ‘potentially unlawfully’.   So there, that has surprised me,  I wait to here the self justification from our Tory County councillors who pushed through this appointment.

When I am stressed out after a hard day, I quite often will take my two boys out for a walk particularly the playground where the innocence of life soon makes the stress seep away.

Other people cope in different ways by writing ranting emails  or having a stiff drink or relaxing with friends.  I always think ranting emails are a bad idea because it is so instantaneous and to send it to political opponents is just not the done thing.  I hope that I never take that route.

The residents of Red Lodge seem to have  had to wait an interminable time for any amenities to be  provided for them as the village expands.   The continual building and the dust and fumes that it creates   for the existing residents without any extra amenity must be a real drag.

Everything seems to happen at a snail’s pace.  One of the Conservative Councillors for the ward never show’s up for meetings.  I think the residents of Red Lodge could do with better representation!

The Lib Dem group on Forest Heath tried to put a stop on the £3.2 million refurbishment of the council offices.   The Tory group voted it through even though nobody knows whether there will be  a council to have offices in this time next year.

 A delay would have meant that we didn’t waste council taxpayers money on a building that was defunct.

Since then that vote it has transpired that we didn’t have all the facts before us.  As a result Lib Dem Cllr Ian Radford has tabled the following questions:

1        From what date in February has the Office Refurbishment Project been without a project manager?

2        Why did Appendix B to Report COU8/351 dated 5^th March 2008 show the existence of a project manager when this was not the case? 

3.How long do you anticipate it will take to get a project manager in place and at what estimated cost?

4        When is the earliest date by which the project board now expect to be able to bring to council a fully costed specification of the project bearing in mind that Report COU8/351 presented to Council on 5^th March 2008 identified the 16^th July 2008 as the target date? 

5        What is the expected cost in terms of bringing that specification to Council, both in terms of money spent and in terms of officer time?

6        How much has been spent so far on the project, outside consultants and officer time, including communication costs?

7        If the project could fails a Value for Money assessment when fully costed and specified because of the Boundary Committee’s deliberations, will any costs incurred have to be treated as a revenue cost and therefore have a direct effect on council tax payers?

8        Why was the Project Board meeting scheduled for 26^th February deemed ‘not required’ when it appears a major change in the management of the project was happening?

9        Why was any or all of this information  not made available to full council on 5^th March 2008, particularly as this information would have been valuable when considering the amendment proposed that the refurbishment project be put on hold for 6 months until a better understanding of the future use of the building is established, and that full costings of the essential repair works be obtained?

It will be interesting to see the answers we get to these questions.

When I came onto this working group at Council, I thought that this would be something that I could really contribute to.  The regeneration of Mildenhall, a market town of which I have much affection for.  I thought I would be involved in drawing up a plan that would raise up and regenerate Mildenhall and make it takes its place as one of the best small market towns in Suffolk.

I was to be disappointed though, I had one written report for this months meeting.  Passenger footfall at Mildenhall bus station!  No grand plan, indeed no plan at all.  I hope for that it gets better than this for Mildenhall’s sake.

Conservative controlled Forest Heath has committed itself to a makeover of its council offices.  Last night my colleague Ian Radford proposed that we should a) Get costings for the works that have to be done and b) In light of the current uncertainty as to whether Forest Heath will even be here in two years we should pause before spending taxpayers money on a major refit before we know that outcome of that review. 

I  fully agree with Ian on this, we were not proposing that other projects that benefit the community should be paused, just the office refurbishment.  Major works may be carried out  only for the burden to fall on the taxpayer to make the building fit for its possible new purpose.  Until we have a clearer picture of the Boundary committees proposals we should show  some prudence.  Their draft recommendations are only 4 months away after all.

Forest Heath does not have a great reputation for its handling of large capital projects, caution should be the watchword in this one.

Ian’s proposal attracted only Lib Dem support though Cllrs Allen (Ind) and Cllr Waters (Con) abstained.

On the referendum question,  personally my position is clear.  When we are elected as representatives we often have difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions to make at whatever level of Government.  That is the essence of representative democracy in this country.  We should be honest enough to say what our position is, too often a call for a referendum is a figleaf to avoid arguing for a positon which may seem  unpopular in which one truly believes in. 

It was a mistake to call for a referendum on the draft constitution, we are forever bemoaning the lack of standing that parliament at Westminster has, no wonder when the politicians of the day are forever passing decisions that the people thought they had already passed to elected representatives back to the people.

The Lisbon treaty, which is a revising treaty is even less of matter for parliament to opt out of making a final decision about.  In future, would we pass all international treaties that the Government signs up to  back to a referendum?  I think not.

The problem for my Lib Dems colleagues is this, you may lose a couple of hundred votes for having promised a referendum on the must larger and now defunct Constitution but surely being permanently lowered by several percentage points in the polls as a result of the party being percieved as split by the electorate which surely endanger their seats much more.  There is nothing that has cost us more support over the last 100 years as the fact that on many important issues of the day we had our Westminster MPs going through opposing division lobbies on a regular basis.  My colleagues at Westminster would do well to remember that.

Tomorrow evening we have a report recommending giving a special responsibilty allowance to the deputy leader of the Council.   

This is obviously an important job because I have asked my Lib Dem colleagues who this is, they have as much idea as me - that is no idea.   I’ll let you  know how the vote goes and who it is by tomorrow night when they might identify themselves by collecting their special responsibilty allowance of £2,954 per annum!!

My Liberal Democrat colleague Andrew Appleby has been trying to get to the bottom (forgive the pun) of why Forest Heath are having such problems trying to get spare parts for brand new loos in the Guineas Centre in Newmarket.

The response Andrew has been given is less than satisfactory,  one consideration of any contract by a council is the sourcing of spare or relacement parts.  Conservative controlled Forest Heath seems as bad at small projects as it is at large projects such as the Leisure Centre.     

After spending quite a while deliberating over a decision of whether or not to grant planning permission on a dwelling in 1/2 an acre of land in a rural village,  we then moved on whether to grant permission to 295 new homes in Red Lodge. 

I was concerned at the number of spaces for parking.  It is not that I am a great car lover , its because if you move to Red Lodge then the car is going to be your main mode of transport.  I have seen from what has already been built that there is much parking on verges and pavements.  The proposals seemed to be about 60-70 spaces short in my view,  the plans were passed anyway.

At the end of a long planning meeting.  We were told that we were going to be briefed on 2 issues.  The man from the press was duly ejected by the officers as apparently it was no longer a meeting.

We were then given a report on how Conservative controlled Forest Heath has allowed a 10 metre eyesore mast to go up on Exning Road by the Leisure Centre because they forgot to determine the application in time.  The mast is sighted I believe on Conservative Controlled Suffolk County Council land. 

However apart from huff and puff all we can do is put pressure on  O2 to remove their mast apparently (great guidance I must say).   I certainly hope we can do more than that.   Pressure must be put on the landowners - I believe the county to make sure the mast is removed and procedures must be tightened this doesn’t happen again. 

This evening I had to sit through full council whilst the Conservatives argued amongst themselves over the response that Forest Heath should draw up to the Government’s request for the Boundary Committee to look into local Government in Suffolk.

The three way split in their ranks ranging from - a) Only Tories should be allowed to have any input to b) a desire to get the best for the residents of the district (which got the Lib Dem support) were both defeated by c) The usual let the the officers decide and we’ll agree with what they say majority.

I have now been on this council three months and not once outside planning in Newmarket have I seen the independents vote against an officer recommendation.  I promise to report back when they do. 

My view has always been that, I am put on the Council by the electors to challenge and ask questions of what the Council is doing and represent the people not the Council.  It seems that this is an old-fashioned view of what a councillor should be about.

So now we know, after all the unintelligiable budget meetings for each committee.  Not being able to compare like with like year on year, the Tories are putting the Council tax up by 3.6% for Forest Heath.  

I must congratulate the residents who elected me in November as every forecast and paper that came from Conservative controlled Forest Heath before then indicated a 4.99% increase.    There’s nothing like an election defeat to focus the mind on how you are spending local people’s money I suppose.

Another update on the Leisure Centre and another meeting in secret for Conservative controlled Forest Heath.

As the only Liberal Democrat on the Committee, the vote to take the report in secret was a pretty decisive 11-1.  The Independents supporting the secrecy.

 Nobody will be surprised to hear that the costs have risen once again and that the rise is a minimum of seven figures.  I heard a rumour that the British Olympic Committee are using the cost rises at Newmarket Leisure Centre as a role model for their construction costs at Stratford.  Apparently, the Conservatives aren’t at fault, Forest Heath isn’t at fault for this overspend and much delayed project. I suppose they won’t claim the credit when the centre opens either then!

 However, They do have a date for opening of August 2008, so hoorah for that.

Conservative controlled Forest Heath sure knows how to design and build buildings fit for purpose.

At a recent meeting, we were presented with options for redesigning the new bus station to accommodate the Tourist Information Centre - various proposals were put, none of which entirely satisfactory leading to loss of space in a building that wasn’t designed for that sort of use.  This leads me to the question why wasn’t this thought of before building this type of facility with taxpayers money?   

Another thing that came up was there is no heating in the bus station.  So drive to Mildenhall or catch the bus and freeze inside or out while you wait for the bus back are just two options for travel back.   I am sure that will be a tricky one for those with access to car transport.