birkdale focus

Bonkers, loons and co education

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:52:36 PDT

Lord Bonkers was drawing our attention to The Telegraph story that Tory members were defecting to UKIP because of the so-called 'loons' smear.

Now given Farage's reception in Scotland and given my distaste for banding around derogatory remarks usually aimed at people with mental ill health I got to thinking about loons

It is, as I pointed out to his lordship, a perfectly good Scots word defined as: loun [lun]
n. A youth, boy, fellow, rascal.
dim. lounie, lounock(ie)

You can hear it here in a poem, Co Education by John C Milne, written in the 'doric' the characteristic speech of the NE of Scotland. The poems is read by my mother and recorded 20 years ago. She had known John Milne before WW2 in Aberdeen. She died several weeks after recording this and a number of other poems in her native speech.

rate payers multi million losses down to poor governance under Sefton Lab new info

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:24:44 PDT

Bootle Labour Councillor

Dowd's legacy of extravagant waste

'the lack of prudence beggars belief'-Liverpool Post

No apology, unrepentant and unreconstructed Mark Dowd sits on the Labour front bench at Sefton glowering his defiance. His colleagues protect him and rubbish every report issued that details his outrageous behavior describing them as 'tawdry and rubbish'. How much more is there to come out? When will the Labour party act .

To date we know about what the Daily Post calls:

...............'the monstrous black elephant that is Merseytravel's monolithic HQ at Mann Island' which it describes as having 'entered the realms of the extravagantly bizarre' and goes on

'This particular exercise of corporate vanity is gobbling up our money to the tune of £4m a year'

The full story of how they entered into that mega loss making deal, when they had a perfectly serviceable HQ already, needs to be told. It reveals what happens when decisions are made behind close doors with no opportunity for the proper checks and balances

Now we learn that he was responsible for pouring millions into a loss making exercise like a drunken gambler unable to break his addiction. But it was our money they were pouring down the drain.

We already knew that Dowd refused to put in place the usual opportunities for scrutiny. All issues raised by the Post, and much more besides, were unknown to most elected members

It is symbolic that he had a credit card from Merseytravel that he used for personal expenditure

They wasted Millions on buying steel rail for a tram that was never built-even though their own government indicated as much

At the last minute, and without briefing or reports they scrapped the policy of running and intergrated (rail and stock) railway despite having spent mega sums lobbying the government to be allowed to do so! (co incidentally the NUR were against the idea)

And as the Post revealed last year the Auditor was concerned that they entered into contracts without all the proper procurement procedures being undertaken

When brave individuals like Andrew Makinson challenged Dowd they got the fully Bootle Bully Boy treatment, by which I mean that (at Merseytravel's expense) top legal firm Hill Dickinson was hired.

When we raised this at Sefton Council, Dowd is a Sefton Councillor, we were treated to rants that dismissed and rubbished all the reports no matter how detailed the reports or qualified the authors. And they kept nominating Dowd to Merseytravel as a Sefton rep and used constitutional maneuvers to prevent us challenging the nomination -even though there was more than enough evidence to question the appointment. Take a look at Dowd expences

Liam Robertson, the man who finally ousted Dowd as Chair, has done a good job. Now he must rise above the tribal party loyalty that has protected Dowd for so long and establish a full independent inquiry. Nothing must be buried or covered up. The police must be be informed and given all the evidence.

Not since the days of Militant have we seen outrageous, high handed behavior like this. Like Militant he got his way because there were no proper challenge to his actions, many of them were unknown to members. The audit and the 151 procedures failed-and if this was due to the way Dowd and Scales ran the organisation-that must be fully established

The Daily Post report begins:

MORE than £6.5m of taxpayers money was wasted by transport authority Merseytravel on the purchase of a smartcard company that never made any money.

An internal audit has found that Merseytravel’s acquisition of Livesmart delivered “little tangible benefit” to the organisation or the taxpayer.

The Post has seen parts of the audit, which is being kept under wraps by Merseytravel.

The review, which was overseen by St Helens council, said “significant failings in corporate governance” by Merseytravel led to the huge loss.

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:48:39 PDT

MPTA Members Allowances 200607

MPTA Members Allowances 200708

MPTA Members Allowances 200809

MPTA Members Allowances 200910

MPTA Members Allowances 201011

MPTA Members Allowances 201112

50 years a Southport Councillor Ronnie Fearn's presentation photos

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:59:35 PDT

IBB,(Group Leader) Ronnie and Joyce Fearn

I posted recently about Ronnie reaching 50 years service as a Liberal/LD councillor

Last night we held a celebration at Auberge Brasserie in Southport

The picture shows Ronnie and Joyce having received a cut glass rose bowl in recognition of his service.

Ronnie joined the Southport County Borough Council at a time when there were 23 Liberals out of 45 members. He went on to serve as Leader of the Group, MP and is now in the House of Lords. By any measure he is the most successful Southport politician of his generation. He is well known as a champion of the town and and as youth worker. His regular appearances in the annual All Souls Pantomime will live long in the memory and those who saw his Tina Turner impersonation wish now that they had taken a video camera.

Congratulation to Ronnie and all his team

SEFTON COUNCILLORS’ EXPENSES FOR 2012/13

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:47:57 PDT

Earlier this week I wrote about Bootle Labour’s problems with ‘transparency and accountability’. This has prompted my Birkdale colleague Councillor Simon Shaw to send through full details of his expenses claims from Sefton Council for publication in the interests of transparency.

Simon is one of just a handful of Sefton councillors who make any expenses claims at all. Since 2007 councillors have to bear the cost of travel to committee meetings etc themselves. However cost of travel outside the Borough can be claimed for and Simon is involved with two activities which qualify:

He has been a member of the Local Government Association’s Human Resources Board and the Local Government Pensions Committee since 2005, which meet in London.

He has been a member of the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel since 2012.

An analysis of expenses for 1. is to be found here: Expenses 2012/13

In summary, for last year, Simon has claimed:

£658.15 in total, for 8 trips to London
an average of £82.27 per trip, which includes rail fares, tube fares and also hotel & subsistence on one trip (this compares with the Standard Open Return from Southport to London Euston which costs £299.00)
£54.60 for mileage for 4 round journeys to Police & Crime Panel meetings in Huyton (168 miles @ 32.5p per mile)

Just checked 10 Select Com Chairs Lab.

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 15 May 2013 03:35:56 PDT

Last night at the Council meeting the appointment of committees and their chairs was on the agenda. It is pretty dry stuff-and yet beneath it there are important principles which if not observed undermine democracy .

These committees are the checks and balances on the Executive. This is how, in a mature democracy, the policy and actions of those in charge are challenged, scrutinised and reviewed. This is the mechanism that put a break on corruption and holds people to account. Failures in corporate governance often leads to bad decision making, wasting public funds and make corruption much more likely. Those who hold power need to checked up on, or as Lord Acton said 'all power corrupts'

Last night Labour's strategy of closely down avenues for challenging their actions continued. The took all the chairs of the Scrutiny and Review committees including the Audit and Governance Committee. They have reduced the meetings of Area Committees and render pretty well useless the arrangement for the central area of the borough. Questions in Full Council are not answered and the meetings of the cabinet are over in a few minutes-I think the record is 4 mins 10seconds.

When confronted with his actions Labour were struck dumb. Only the Leader spoke and he went off on a rant about the Government and how wicked it was. He failed totally to answer the question about why he was destroying the checks and balances on the executive. To hear Cllr Dowd speak you would believe that the government doesn't have a system of select committees or that if they did they were all creatures of the whips-like his Scrutiny Chairs. Well, just for the record here is a list of the Opposition led Select Committee chairs:

Scottish Affairs: Mr Ian Davidson LAB and Co-Op

Transport: Mrs Louise Ellman LAB
Business, Innovation and Skills Mr Adrian Bailey LAB Co-Op
Communities and Local Government Mr Clive Betts LAB
Environmental Audit Joan Walley LAB
Home Affairs Keith Vaz LAB
Political and Constitutional Reform Mr Graham Allen LAB
Public Accounts Margaret Hodge LAB
Science and Technology Andrew Miller LAB
Work and Pensions Miss Anne Begg LAB

Oh, and if you want to see how they deal with folk who have the audacity to ask questions look at the answers given under item 6 of the Council Meeting on 28/02/13

Southport and the negative impact of Labour rule. BBC Politics Show

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:18:50 PDT

Why have Labour chosen to balance their budget by adopting charges that hit Southport far more than the rest of the borough?

Rising £500,000 extra from parking charges when 85% of all parking fees are raised in Southport

The green wheelie bin tax hits Southport

And they want to close our Libraries-leaving one in Southport and keeping three open in Bootle. (one Bootle Library only had 35 000 items issued in one year compared to 115 000 in the Birkdale Library-but it is Birkdale they have proposed to close)

This has given some folk the impression that they are willing to raise the money in Southport and spend it in Bootle

Bootle Labour seem congenitally incapable of giving up their old ways

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:44:45 PDT

Polly Toynbee “the worst of the old Labour party, the knuckle-dragging neanderthal tendency, emerged to roaring opposition to the guests. David Blunkett, John Reid, Jack Straw, Diane Abbott, now unleashed from government, reminded the world how backward, how unprogressive, tribal and sectarian much of the People’s Party still is”.

I caught Peter Kilfoyle (formerly Labour MP for Liverpool Walton) talking on Radio 4 about his time fighting Militant in Liverpool (oddly he didn't mention that he spent some of the key period in Australia) When asked what was so bad about Militant the first two things he mentioned-before even the thuggish intimidation- was that they lacked 'transparency and accountability'.

Many of us consider that under Bootle Labour we have a crisis of accountability and transparency today in the Sefton Borough.

The have used the chairing of Overview and Scrutiny Committees as a bit of patronage. All the chairs are Labour, even the chair of Audit and Governance. Under Labour Chairs the committees have been neutered with many meetings cancelled. The executive has been given a soft ride
An alternative path for challenging the executive is via the Area Committees. Labour cannot put their own people in to chair them all as in 1/3 of the borough they have no councillors at all. So they have cut the number of meeting and in central Sefton have produced an area committee which combines vastly different communities across a large geographical area with no public transport adequately linking the communities -Formby,Hightown, Crosby, Blundellsand, Maghull, Lydiate etc
Of course we could (and do) turn up to observe the democratic process in action. Legislation compels them to meet in public. But guess what? The decisions are made elsewhere and the public meeting which used to discuss and debate decisions now last a few minutes. Hatton Style.
The Labour Leader usual response is to blame the Government. This threadbare excuse completely unraveled at the last Council meeting when we were appointing the Health and Wellbeing Board. In line with their usual practice all three places were taken by Labour. This situation was worse than it as first seems as the Southport and Formby Area have separate commissioning arrangements for Health than the rest of the borough and not one local councillor was appointed. The needs of the Southport area with its concentration of elderly people are distinctly different to those in Bootle, but so determined were they to keep all the places to themselves they denied the area any say in the Health and Social Care policy. And they couldn't blame the Government it was in their power to behave properly, but they just could help themselves.
I guess the other way to hold the Executive (made up entirely of Bootle Labour Councillors) is to ask questions in public at full council. Observe the response. So respectful of democracy and transparency and aware of the need for accountability.

As Lord Acton observed: All power corrupts

COUNCIL – 18 APRIL 2013

QUESTIONS RAISED BY MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL

Question submitted by Councillor Dawson to the Cabinet Member – Communities and Environment (Councillor Hardy)

“Could the Cabinet Member provide her Department’s current best estimate of the likely number of Green Bins which will become redundant when charging comes in (based upon the estimated price for charging included in the 2013-2014 budget assumptions), together with the original (or current replacement) purchase price of those Green Bins in:

(a) The Sefton MBC area as a whole

(b) Southport

(d) Sefton East parishes

(e) Crosby

(f) Bootle and Litherland”

Response:

“Providing the best estimates at this stage would be inappropriate.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well that is, what the kids would describe as, 'pathetic'. We have a right to know and a duty to challenge. What is going happen to the 64,252 green wheelie bins that they expect to be 'given up'? What is the cost of disposal? How much extra will be pay in land fill tax as a result of people putting garden waste in the 'non recycling' grey bin. What is the cost of the fly tipping that will result?How robust are these estimates based on the experience in the Wirral. I ferreted the information out for myself, but frankly the executive should have made the data available without me having to do the job for them.

The policy is based on 70% of people giving up their bins so why is it inappropriate to tell us?
Grossly embarrassing, yes, but not a reason for the Labour Part to keep us in the dark

Sum of green bins by bin type & ward

Wards

G1100

G240

Total

Ainsdale

1

4,987

4,988

Birkdale

0

5,527

5,527

Blundellsands

0

3,739

3,739

Cambridge

5

3,364

3,369

Church

0

1,573

1,573

Derby

0

1,876

1,876

Dukes

1

2,695

2,696

Ford

0

4,971

4,971

Harington

0

4,928

4,928

Kew

0

4,973

4,973

Linacre

0

1,107

1,107

Litherland

0

2,403

2,403

Manor

0

5,124

5,124

Meols

0

5,021

5,021

Molyneux

0

4,922

4,922

Netherton & Orrell

0

4,794

4,794

Norwood

0

5,495

5,495

Park

0

4,625

4,625

Ravenmeols

0

4,995

4,995

St Oswald

0

4,921

4,921

Sudell

0

5,560

5,560

Victoria

0

4,181

4,181

Total

7

91,781

91,788

The leaving of Southport Town Hall -and the waste that resulted

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:25:23 PDT

John Pugh and IBB outside the Town Hall

So here are a few ways the could save some money. Southport Town Hall has been practically empty for months. I have raised this several times. I am repeated told there are no plans to close the building down. So why is it so empty for so long? And why do the Council continue to rent high cost offices elsewhere in the town? It is a waste of our money. I've heard some daft excuses in my time but when I was told that the offices were the wrong shape, I despair. Have they changed shape since the council moved all the lawyers and the committee clerks to Bootle. No.

Who left and when:

Mayor’s Office – April 2007

Legal Services – May 2011

Town Centre Management– June/July 2012

Electoral Registration – August 2012

Committee Section – August 2012

Another couple of ways to save money:

Cut the number of Councillors

Cut the generous allowances for the 7 member cabinet (all of whom come from Bootle)

A most welcome Romanian migrant overheard in a country church

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:59:51 PDT

I was away this weekend joining in the celebrations of friends birthday. We were staying in Chipping Camden. Around lunchtime wandering around the town we came upon the village parish church of St James and, as is my habit, I went inside to look around. It is one of the finest wool churches in the country.

The church was the venue of the Chipping Camden Music Festival and was laid out ready for a concert with a Steinway Grand Piano alone on the stage in front of the chancel. I sat down for a moment and a young lady came in and approached the stage. She removed the cloth from the piano and began to play.

The young women was Alexandra Dariescu, a Romanian who came to Britain to study at The Royal Northern College of Music and has since played with pretty well every major orchestra in pretty well every major concert hall.

Now there are some folk who wouldn't let her in the country if the were British born artist who could do the job. There are some who would demonise all her country folk and try to frighten us about what would happen if Romanians were allowed into this country. I do not doubt that there are some that would complain about her programme of Beethoven, Scarlatti, Schumann and Chopin-not a Brit amongst them. And yet there could not be a more perfect example of how we are part of a shared culture that has been enriched by contact with Europe. Without Ravel there would have been no Vaughan Williams -that most English of composers. Russell Johnson often used to speak powerfully about our shared European heritage- Bach, Burns and Goethe.

After the birthday celebrations in the Ebrington Arms we returned to our Guest House Seymour House (highly recommended) . In the morning at breakfast we met the other guests including another artist playing at the Festival Steven Osborne all the way from Edinburgh. His concert consisted of one work 'Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus' by Messiaen. Now there is a composer to whom some folk wouldn't give house room.

Stop wasting money on renting offices -use the empty Town Hall

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 09 May 2013 05:23:44 PDT

John Pugh and IBB outside the Town Hall

The ruling Bootle Labour cabal at Sefton council are keen to pile on to Southport residents extra taxes. We will soon have the Green Wheelie Bin Tax- a flat tax of £46, then we have the massive hike in car parking charges aimed at bring in £500,000 which will hit Southport's economy hard-85% of all parking charges are paid in Southport.

So here are a few ways the could save some money. Southport Town Hall has been practically empty for months. I have raised this several times. I am repeated told there are no plans to close the building down. So why is it so empty for so long? And why do the Council continue to rent high cost offices elsewhere in the town? It is a waste of our money. I've heard some daft excuses in my time but when I was told that the offices were the wrong shape, I despair. Have they changed shape since the council moved all the lawyers and the committee clerks to Bootle. No.

Another couple of ways to save money:

Cut the number of Councillors

Cut the generous allowances for the 7 member cabinet (all of whom come from Bootle)

50 years of Ronnie and counting

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 09 May 2013 05:02:23 PDT

guess the date?

I'm writing this in the certain belief that Ronnie Fearn 'doesn't do computers'. 2013 marks his 50 years as a Southport Councillor and tonight at the Mayor Making there will be presentation to mark that achievement.So if you bump into him before the meeting this evening don't spoil the surprise.

I did start writing up a fuller history of his contribution but it began to sound like an obituary and that seemed totally inappropriate as Ronnie is still very much alive. But just consider 50 years, 24 years longer that Alex Ferguson, and he topped the poll in Norwood Ward last May.

There are at least two Councillors still living in the town who pre date Ronnie. Joy Lucas who was a Councillor in Park Ward between 1957 and 1960 and Bob Burnett Hughes who was on the Council between 1958 and 1973. When Ronnie arrived on the scene we had by my calculations reached our high water mark* with 23 Councillors out of 45 with 100% representation in Central, Craven, Scarisbrick, West, Birkdale South, Ainsdale, two councillors in Hesketh and a Councillor in Birkdale West (J. Smith-Hughes), Marine (M Goldberg)and Park (John Campion) with around 4 Aldermen.

I noticed Southport Labour Party were drawing attention to their Parliamentary Candidate during this time -one John Prescot. This was at the time of the pact so there were five Wards which we left to Labour. For those not familiar with Southport politics there was a strict Lib/Lab pact in the town. We fought 10 wards and Labour 5. We even helped in each others by elections! Richard Wainwright was always fond of drawing attention to this arrangement to balance the coverage given to the pacts in Bolton and Huddersfield. When the time finally comes when Ronnie decides to step down one of the important bits of history that will be told is Ronnie's part in the breaking of the pact

Anyway, congratulations to Ronnie-and remember not a word to him if you see him today

* 23 out of 45 Councillors is the highest number of Councillors we have achieved but by another measure I guess you could say that winning 6 out of the present 7 wards in the town in 2012 was a better performance or again you might think 1981 when we won 5 of the 6 county wards was better

Putting small businesses back on the agenda- important for Southport

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 08 May 2013 05:58:24 PDT

National Insurance Contributions Bill

This bill is designed to reduce the cost to small businesses of employing people. If it passes, from April 2014 every business and charity will be entitled to a £2,000 employment allowance. It also aims to stop the use of offshore companies that are sometimes used by companies to avoid paying their National Insurance contributions. The bill will remove the presumption of self-employment for limited liability partnership members. It will apply to the whole of the UK

That is how the BBC reported the item in the Queens Speech aimed at helping small businesses. In a town like Southport where the economy is made up by lots of small employers this is most welcome. Too often government turns its back on the self employed and small businesses, so it is good to see this measure.

local elections

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:02:38 PDT

we didn't get to vote in Southport this year but we are interested in the results. I think these three graphs give us the key messages for a town like ours

‏@adamboultonSKY

Updated @Sky News projection Labour majority of 12.  Lab 331 Con 245 L/D 48 Oth 26.

Anti -Semitic comment in Birkdale shop window

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:59:39 PDT

Today with the rise of UKIP and their anti immigration campaigns it is sadly not unusual to hear hostile comments about immigrants. It is worth reflecting that if UKIP immigration policy had been in place not only would it have excluded many of our Olympic athletes it would also have excluded many of our best entrepreneurs and professionals like doctors etc

I am old enough to remember the storm over the Kenyan Asians fleeing from Idi Amin's.Africanisation policy. The Labour Party was in government and passed the 1968 Immigration Act to their eternal shame. Labour's Bill was rushed through in three days. 'The 1968 Act restricted the future right of entry previously enjoyed by Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, to those born there or who had a least one parent or grand-parent born there. It was introduced amid concerns that up to 200,000 Kenyan Asians fleeing that country's "Africanization" policy, would take up their right to reside in the UK.'

Of course the grandparental rule meant if you were black you couldn't come to Britain, but if you were a commonwealth citizen from a Australia, New Zealand , Canada etc you could. The YL's had posters which said ' Labour washes whiter'. The architect of the Bill was that wretched man Callaghan. (He also opposed the race relations act applying to the police -apparently it was insulting to suggest that they may be racist Tell that to the Lawrence family)

Callaghan first took his proposals for emergency legislation to a special cabinet committee on 13 February 1968. His cabinet colleague Richard Crossman recorded in his diaries: "Jim arrived with the air of a man whose mind was made up. He wasn't going to tolerate any of this bloody liberalism."

I should say that years later I employed a women whose family had escaped from Amin in the most horrendous circumstances on a forged passport. I would not rate her chances of passing the UKIP policy test

Back in 1968 it was the Liberal Party almost alone that opposed the Act. Eric Lubbuck, David Steel and Jeremy Thorpe stuck to their principled position. In the House of Lords it was Liberal again who took on the combined ranks of Labour and the Conservatives with notable contributions from Donald Wade and this from Violet Bonham Carter objecting to Callaghan new category of belongers:
:
Who and what are the belongers? I asked the question, and I was told that you qualify as a belonger you must have an English grandfather: I believe that grandmothers were thrown in last night in another place. Though sex discrimination has been eliminated, racial discrimination remains. A belonger usually has a white face, Of course there are exceptions to this, as to every rule. Someone objected to me that, for instance, the Duke of Edinburgh would not have a dog’s chance of becoming a belonger and jumping the queue because he has not the right sort of grandfather. Well, what a loss to this country that would be! It just shows what nonsense the whole thing is; and what pernicious nonsense. It is racialist through and through.

‘A flagrant breach of faith’

If my memory services me well Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Cantabury supported us in the Lords. He had already alienated the die hard conservatives by support Homosexual Law Reform.

Isn't it interesting how history repeats itself

The Anti semitic comment in the Birkdale shop window is sadly not surprising. The anti Semitic campaign that the Liberal candidate was subjected to in 1910 is well recorded and it is well within living memory that Southport golf clubs did not have Jewish members-Hillside was the first to break the ban and the Royal Birkdale was the last. The good news was that there were always people who stood up against such prejudice and spoke out like the women from Barrett Rd. there are occasions when to be popular is to be wrong. So I don't care what the focus groups say about immigration our policy should be dictate by principle or we land up no different to Callaghan and all the other folk in the Labour Party who Polly Toynbe described as 'knuckle dragging neanderthals'

So what does our Police Commissioner do, exactly?

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:56:08 PDT

I noticed a particularly interesting bit of analysis earlier this week on a blogsite which is particularly concerned with Police & Crime Commissioners (PCCs):
http://bernardrix.com/2013/04/28/who-is-the-busiest-pcc-and-the-least-busy/

Bernard Rix has been checking up on how much work the 40-odd Police Commissioners, elected last November, have been up to. He has reviewed how many decisions they have each taken, as published on their Police Commissioner websites.

So how many published decisions has our own Merseyside Police Commissioner, Jane Kennedy, made in her first 5 months in office? The answer is the grand total of six.

According to Mr Rix’s analysis, the busiest Police Commissioners (as measured by the number of decisions formally recorded since their election, and shown as such on the PCC’s official website) are:

Ian Johnston (Gwent): 85 decisions
Alan Charles (Derbyshire): 52 decisions
Tim Passmore (Suffolk): 40 decisions
Julia Mulligan (North Yorkshire): 39 decisions
Matthew Ellis (Staffordshire): 38 decisions
Mark Burns-Williamson (West Yorkshire): 37 decisions
John Dwyer (Cheshire): 36 decisions

With just 6 published decisions, Jane Kennedy isn’t quite at the bottom of the list (that would be Angus Macpherson (Wiltshire): 4 decisions), but she isn’t far off it.

Jane Kennedy is paid £85,000 pa, which means that in those first five months in office she has been paid over £35,000 in salary. She was elected on a 12.5% turnout, so of every 8 people eligible to vote, 7 did not vote.

Esterson lots of noise -no apology or denial

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:00:24 PDT

Clearly Bill Esterson has been taking lessons at Mark Dowd's school of charm and open accountability on how to handle bad news- talk loudly about anything else to try and drown out the story. Don't apologise,don't explain. The fact the man has a little 'previous' must also be ignored.

I have a small wager about how The Champion will report the story-if at all.

Remember the stick James Parnell-who we should acknowledge was a politician of real substance-was treated for a similar offence

http://billwith.blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html

LABOUR IN PHOTOSHOP SCANDAL!

Bill Esterson is the Labour Member of Parliament for Sefton Central.

In 2012 Bill's website posted a story about an unsafe road in Formby (a place in his constituency.)

In 2013 an article appeared on the same website urging residents to attend an exhibition on proposed windfarm plans.
Look closely at the pictures in the articles. You'll notice something strange...

Before:

After:

The man in the second picture is one Cllr Steve McGinnity. A local Labour Party Councillor.

Now, it's obvious that one of two things have happened here.

Either, Bill Esterson (and Cllr Peter Macguire - far right) managed to turn up exactly in the same place a year later, wearing exactly the same clothes, making exactly the same pose, not mentioning that light seems to bend around Bill on to Steve McGinnity.

OR...

More likely, just like a Labour politician before him, Bill has put himself at the heart of a photoshop scandal.

Do Labour think we're fools? When they photoshop themselves in pictures can they be trusted with anything?

Check your pay slip” urges John Pugh

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 01 May 2013 07:02:16 PDT

Yesterday was pay day for millions of people across Britain, which means they will receive their first pay slip since the Income Tax personal allowance was raised from £8,105 to £9,440. When Liberal Democrats joined government in 2010 this allowance was a mere £6,475.

Raising the tax-free allowance is the Liberal Democrats’ flagship policy and has so far seen Income Tax bills slashed by £600 a year for millions of low and middle income workers compared to what they were paying under Labour. As a result, more than 2 million people on low pay have been lifted out of paying Income Tax altogether.

The tax-free allowance will rise again next year to £10,000, fulfilling a commitment from the front page of the Liberal Democrats’ 2010 General Election manifesto and resulting in a total tax cut of £700.

Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Southport, John Pugh, said:

“If you get paid today, take a moment to compare your pay slip to last month’s. You’ll see that Liberal Democrats have cut your taxes.

“From this month, the Liberal Democrats will have lifted 9,440 people in and around Southport out of Income Tax and given a tax cut of £600 to more than 86,700 people.

“It has taken the Liberal Democrats being in Government to deliver the largest programme of tax cuts for working people for a generation.

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party that will radically cut taxes for people on low and middle incomes to build a stronger economy and a fairer society so that everyone can get on in life.”

By April 2014, the Lib Dems will have taken 2.7 million low-income workers out of paying tax altogether, the majority of whom will be women. The £700 tax cut means, for the average family, Lib Dems have cut the Income Tax bill by a third. That is enough for a working couple to pay their council tax or combined gas and electricity bills for a year.

Beyond this unprecedented rise in the Personal Allowance, Liberal Democrats want to increase the tax-free allowance further until no one pays any Income Tax until they earn more than the National Minimum Wage.

Dr Pugh also drew attention to Labour’s record of unfair taxes:

Labour cut tax for millionaires every single year until their last month in government, while increasing tax on low earners by scrapping the 10p tax rate.

Under Labour, someone on the Minimum Wage paid £1,000 in Income Tax. Lib Dems have cut these people's tax bill by more than half and under our future plans, they would pay nothing.

For all but one month of Labour’s 13 years in power the top rate of tax was 40p. Top earners are paying more in tax every year under the Coalition Government.

Labour helped the richest in society when they cut Capital Gains Tax for hedge fund managers and cut tax on millionaires’ pension pots.

Grantham Road 20mph sign

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:19:37 PDT

I don't know what happens to drivers when the visit the shops at the Grantham Rd/Guildford Rd junction but they to have a propensity to bash into the street signs. The new 20 is plenty sign was hardly erected before some one knocked it and the lamp post has also suffered damage. This was all brought to my attention by the proprietor of the most excellent Chip Shop-the best fish and chips in the town (other food choices are also available) Mr Stannard. The engineers are going to move the sign in the hope of preventing it being damaged. So, if you drive that way, take care and don't bash the signs.

Piratical devices lures children

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:11:51 PDT

With the Ainsdale, Birkdale & Churchtown Library Group still working to try and save Southport's three threatened branch libraries, it was the main Southport Library which was under threat on Saturday when it was invaded by pirates.

The new Atkinson Library hosted a Pirates Day with more than 50 local children attending . Captain Sam Shaw (pictured with shipmate Beth Norris) led the children in a two hour festival of fun and games featuring a treasure hunt and a pirate singalong.

He said: "It was great to see so many children enjoying the new library, but not so great when they made me walk the plank!"

Captain Sam is the eldest son of my Birkdale Ward colleague Simon Shaw. Until a year ago he worked for Sefton Libraries, but left to start a History Degree at Liverpool John Moores University and hopes to become a Primary School teacher (for which he hopes that pirate costume is not compulsory all the time).

Matlock Rd- gets the hump over proposal

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:34:48 PDT

Residents in Matlock Road and Bury Road are massively opposed to a Sefton Council plan to place nine road humps in the area, according to Birkdale Ward Liberal Democrat councillors.

The proposal was advertised earlier this month (in Champion of 10 April) because of concerns about the increase in traffic to be expected as a result of the enlargement of Birkdale Primary School, due for completion by September.

Last week Cllr Iain Brodie Browne and Cllr Simon Shaw (pictured) carried out a survey of people living in the area. They found that, by a margin of more than three to one, those responding to the consultation were against the idea of road humps.

Opinions on the other Council proposal, to make Matlock Road one-way between Bury Road and Upper Aughton Road, were more evenly balanced.

“It is quite clear that residents are strongly against the idea of road humps, which is what we expected,” said Cllr Iain Brodie Browne.

“We have received responses from over two-thirds of the houses affected, which is an excellent response rate. Of those who had a view, over 75% were opposed to humps and barely 25% in favour.”

Councillor Shaw confirmed that the Lib Dem councillors for the area would be proposing rejection when the matter comes back to the Southport Area Committee in May.

“Residents have had to endure months and months of traffic chaos while building work is carried out at Birkdale Primary School. The Council has just introduced a 20mph Zone in the area, which we strongly support, but the idea of road humps was clearly a non-starter,” he added.

new social housing scheme opened -at last

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:27:56 PDT

Back in 2010

Richard in the same place today

I some times think I've pushed and pushed for too long arguing that the derelict land site off Upper Aughton Rd should be developed, but today it all seemed worth while when I went to the opening.

It all started back in 2009 when I was canvassing the street and people kept pointing out to me that the site had been boarded up for ages. They only thing that had changed was that the council had put up a sign proclaiming 'Coming Soon' . Well it didn't, and not unreasonably the locals were fed up. The council reacted to my complaints by taking down the sign with their name on it 'not us gov, honest' That was not my intention, I had hoped that they would kick start the housing association into action. They didn't.

The then owners of the site Servite Housing then got into difficulties and abandoned the NW and transferred the site to another Housing Association in Leigh. We were in the midst of the crash and it was clear that building housing especial social housing was key to recovery-it still is. My colleague Richard Hand and I decided that we needed action so we took ourselves off to Leigh back in February 2010, I told the story on the blog back then. Finally, finally we got some action and planning permission went in and today the site was officially declared open with John Pugh planting a flowering cherry tree to mark the occasion.

some of the new resident -including staff at the Southport Hospital

John and Councillors (I put on the same tie as 2010!)

The new site is name after the old Birkdale Brewery which I am told (by Maureen Fearn) closed down during the war-that is WW2. There are so many councillors because the site although in Birkdale, is in the Kew Ward and all six of us have taken up case work to do with the site.

It is good when a campaign come off-let us hope we have equal success with some other sites we have identified, although I trust the gestation period will not be as long

some of the new homes

Miss Sarah Harding and Southport Guardian editorial

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:35:58 PDT

As news filters through that Miss Sarah Harding, lately of this parish, is emerging as the front runner in the election to chair Liberal Youth my attention has been drawn to an editorial in the Southport Guardian that concludes:

So the Liberal Part both nationally and locally is acting wisely by paying attention to young politicians. "The hope of the Liberal Party "says one writer, "is its youth" and with "youth at the prow, discretion at the helm" there is no sea in which the ship of Liberalism cannot weather; there is no port we cannot make.

Now a Young Liberal movement should play its role in the party helping at elections and Sarah has more than proved her worth both here in Southport at the last General Election and reprising the role to great effect at the Eastleigh By Election. But a Liberal Youth movement has to do more than that, it has to do with ideas. Sarah would do well to heed the advice of one of the greatest Liberals of the 20th Century, John Maynard Keynes, who wrote in his Essays in Persuasion

Half the copybook wisdom of our statesmen is based upon assumptions which were at one time true, or partly true, but are now less and less true day by day. We have to invent new wisdom for a new age. And in the meantime we must, if we are to do any good, appear unorthodox, troublesome, dangerous, disobedient to them that begat us'.

Over the 107 years of their existence the Young Liberals have been central to maintaining a challenge to the comfortable orthodoxies that parties of all hues fall in to. This has manifested itself in the progressiveness of the Edwardian period, in ideas around peace and internationalism in the inter war times, the idea of Ownership for All that drove the movement and the party for 50 years, championing the ideas of Beveridge and Keynes, and in the post war period being the UK expression of the the new youth politics that found its expression in The Port Huron Statement in the US and all that flowed from it; campaigns for international justice in South Africa, Nigeria and the Middle East and at home with the birth of community politics and the early recognition of Green politics.

Ideas should be at the heart of the YL's . It would be good to see a new Blackpool Essays or Scarborough Perspectives published. Radical Liberalism needs kick and the Youth Movement should be among the folk delivering it.

Bootle Labour impose 'Green Wheelie Bin Tax' on Southport

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:53:59 PDT

SEFTON’S £46 'GREEN BIN TAX'

PROPOSAL COMES UNDER ATTACK

Once again the ruling Labour clique in Bootle are seeking to imposing a 'tax' that will chiefly be paid by people living in Southport and by very few people in Bootle. This is on top of their proposals for an extra 'parking tax' 80% of which will be collected in Southport and once again few people in Bootle will have to pay.

What makes matters worse is that they are using these new 'Southport Only Taxes' to fund such schemes as the building of a new Library in the Bootle constituency whilst seeking to close down three libraries in Southport! Local residents will be rightly angry about such moves as the three Libraries ear marked by Labour for closure and amongst the most heavily used in the borough and the new one in Bootle is one of the least used! * see figures at bottom of page

Sefton Council’s plan to charge for collecting green waste – currently subject to consultation until 14 June – has come under attack from Birkdale Lib Dem Councillor Simon Shaw. Until last May, when Labour gained overall control, Simon was Cabinet Member Environmental on the Council, including responsibility for refuse collection.

"I think the Bootle Labour-dominated Cabinet are making a big mistake in proposing to charge for green waste,” says Simon.

“The suggestion is that the charge could be around £46 a year. That is going to put a lot of people off. In fact the working assumption on the part of the Council is that over 70% of households will give up their green bin.”

“I am seriously worried it could end up actually costing the Council money, rather than saving the £1 million a year that the Labour Party hope."

"The reason is that green bin garden waste costs the Council far less to dispose of than the grey bin general waste. There is a serious danger that a majority of people will abandon their green bin if they have to pay nearly £2 a time to have it emptied. If a lot of those regularly place amounts of heavy garden waste in their grey bins then the tonnage going off to expensive landfill will rocket. That will cost the Council money, as well as being bad news for the environment."

"Overall it is a bad idea, which is why Lib Dems opposed it."

Local Lib Dems are encouraging as many concerned residents as possible to respond to the consultation, which has over a month still to run, at http://www.sefton.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=12427

*Library

Items issued
Ainsdale 89,949 - earmarked for closure in Southport
Birkdale 152,066- earmarked for closure in Southport
Churchtown 113,201 -earmarked for closure in Southport

Netherton 35,017 -new build in Bootle

create local banks by breaking up state owned mega banks Archbishop

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:14:24 PDT

The Archbishop of Canterbury warned on Monday night that Britain was mired in an economic depression and called for major steps to drag the country out of it, including the breakup of a major bank in order to create regional lenders.

So reports the Guardian this morning-it then goes on with a peon of praise for Labour who never thought of the idea in office and ignore those (chiefly Lib Dems) who urged them to do. This tells us more about the Guardian than it does about the state of politics.
The recent Lib Dem policy drawn up after a working party on which The Disgruntled radical and Prateek Buch both served advocated precisely that.

I have always favoured the route of breaking up one of the monolithic banks Gordon Brown allowed and which is now in state ownership. I would prefer that it was and handed it over to its customers- ie creating local mutual banks.

A recent publication puts the case:
There are three reasons for promoting mutual building societies: they are less prone than banks to pursue risky speculative activity; a mixed system produces a more stable financial sector; and a stronger mutual sector enhances competition within the financial system. The banking crisis highlighted the importance of retaining diverse models of financial service providers, and while mutuals were affected by the recession, they were not themselves responsible for causing the recession, as were private banks. The UK Government needs to secure a financial return for the failed financial institutions it nationalised and a low level of overall economic risk for the taxpayer. Given a trade-off, the long-run benefits of financial sustainability and reduced risk, plus enhanced competition, need to be given proper weighting compared with any short run gain through a trade sale and the repayment of the government's support.

One of the authors, Johnathon Michie, produced a report for Kellogg College Oxford showing how the bank could be mutualised and the government's investment repaid over an agreed period.This has always appealed to me as the last thing we need is another plc owned bank whose sole objective is to 'build shareholder value'. We need institutions who long term objectives is serving those who save and borrow from them and to who they are responsible.

It is interesting that the most recent figures I have seen should that a small mutual Building Society, The Furness, leant more to homeowners and businesses that Lloyds!

Anyway the Archbishop is to be applauded for his contribution as he says:

Problems were created when banks became distant from the communities they served, he said. "At least part of the banking system should be local".

The Anglican leader said the simplest solution to recreate a local banking system was "recapitalising at least one of our major banks and breaking it up into regional banks".

He cautioned against allowing the banking system to become too concentrated in the mistaken belief that it was safer. "As a bank, you can be big and simple or small and complicated, and do well. If you get big and complicated, you become unmanageable," he said.

Sadly no one got through to Gordon Brown with that message

Sum of green bins by bin type & ward
Wards	G1100	G240	Total
Ainsdale	1	4,987	4,988
Birkdale	0	5,527	5,527
Blundellsands	0	3,739	3,739
Cambridge	5	3,364	3,369
Church	0	1,573	1,573
Derby	0	1,876	1,876
Dukes	1	2,695	2,696
Ford	0	4,971	4,971
Harington	0	4,928	4,928
Kew	0	4,973	4,973
Linacre	0	1,107	1,107
Litherland	0	2,403	2,403
Manor	0	5,124	5,124
Meols	0	5,021	5,021
Molyneux	0	4,922	4,922
Netherton & Orrell	0	4,794	4,794
Norwood	0	5,495	5,495
Park	0	4,625	4,625
Ravenmeols	0	4,995	4,995
St Oswald	0	4,921	4,921
Sudell	0	5,560	5,560
Victoria	0	4,181	4,181
Total	7	91,781	91,788