At yesterday's scrutiny meeting we discussed the shortage of council housing in Cornwall. There are more than 23,000 people on the housing waiting list, of whom 430 have a local connection with Launceston.
The changes to the way council rents are collected means that Cornwall Council has a lot more control over the system. We also have the ability to borrow more money and, because of the low rate of interest that the council pays, it makes sense to borrow almost up to the limit and invest this money into our current housing stock and new building.
That's why the cabinet member has today announced a new strategy for investment in housing in Cornwall and it's very welcome - at least in concept. What we need to do now is to understand better what it will mean in detail.
One of the key concerns will be the balance of investment in making the existing houses better compared with building new properties. Many of our council houses need work on double glazing, out of date kitchens and bathrooms and providing modern heating systems. What should be the relative priorities for this work compared with getting people off the waiting list and into a home for the first time?
The second issue is the type of new properties that can be built. All too often the new social rented homes are one and two bedroom flats and houses. Whilst these would satisfy most demand, there is a stand out need for larger houses. There are currently 24 families with a connection to Launceston waiting for a four or five bedroom property and only nine 4 bedroom properties available in our town, all of which are currently occupied. Other providers are especially unwilling to build these larger social rented houses and so the burden will fall on the council to make sure they are available.
But the council will only ever be able to build a small proportion of new social rented houses. Most will come from housing developers and the level of affordable housing they are required to build as part of the deal for their planning permission. Cornwall Council is meant to be moving towards a requirement for 50% of all new houses being affordable across most of Cornwall and 40% in the biggest towns. But developers are not even being asked for this level at the moment and the new strategy talks about achieving roughly 20%. I think the Council needs to get tough with developers to make sure that they contribute their fair share to reducing Cornwall's housing waiting list.
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Friday, 10 February 2012
That was close...
The people of the South Ward of Launceston voted today in a by-election for the town council caused by the sad death of Olver Harris.
The result was:
Launceston Town Council South Ward
Maurice Davey (Lib Dem) 160 votes 28.67%
Leighton Penhale (Ind) 157 votes 28.14%
Anna Duke (Ind) 104 votes 18.64%
Susan Roberts Alfar (Labour) 73 votes 13.08%
Ashley Crapp (Ind) 64 votes 11.47%
Spoilt 2
Turnout 18.25% (no poll cards)
Lib Dem gain from independent
Obviously it's always good to win, but three votes was a very close margin. Huge congratulations to Maurice who will, I'm sure, be an excellent town councillor. Commiserations to the other candidates, particularly Leighton. I can't imagine how it feels to lose by such a close margin and I feel for him. With the whole town council up for election in just 15 months time, I hope that all the losing candidates consider standing again at that time.
I've noted in the result above that there were no poll cards issued for this election. The resultant turnout of 18.25% is pretty poor. When you consider that just about half of those who did vote did so by post (the postal vote turnout was well over 50%), you see that the turnout on the day (albeit a cold February day) was truly awful. I know that a town council by-election is not the most exciting contest, but it is still important and I know that many people were simply unaware of when the poll was taking place. I think that poll cards should be mandatory for all such contests, even if they do cost a bit of money to send out.
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The result was:
Launceston Town Council South Ward
Maurice Davey (Lib Dem) 160 votes 28.67%
Leighton Penhale (Ind) 157 votes 28.14%
Anna Duke (Ind) 104 votes 18.64%
Susan Roberts Alfar (Labour) 73 votes 13.08%
Ashley Crapp (Ind) 64 votes 11.47%
Spoilt 2
Turnout 18.25% (no poll cards)
Lib Dem gain from independent
Obviously it's always good to win, but three votes was a very close margin. Huge congratulations to Maurice who will, I'm sure, be an excellent town councillor. Commiserations to the other candidates, particularly Leighton. I can't imagine how it feels to lose by such a close margin and I feel for him. With the whole town council up for election in just 15 months time, I hope that all the losing candidates consider standing again at that time.
I've noted in the result above that there were no poll cards issued for this election. The resultant turnout of 18.25% is pretty poor. When you consider that just about half of those who did vote did so by post (the postal vote turnout was well over 50%), you see that the turnout on the day (albeit a cold February day) was truly awful. I know that a town council by-election is not the most exciting contest, but it is still important and I know that many people were simply unaware of when the poll was taking place. I think that poll cards should be mandatory for all such contests, even if they do cost a bit of money to send out.
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Thursday, 9 February 2012
Concerns over Launceston One Stop Shop moving out of reach of many residents
This morning I made the case at a council scrutiny meeting that the planned move of Launceston's One Stop Shop to the library building must not be made at the expense of people being able to use it.
The One Stop Shop is going to move as a money saving measure that has already seen the Tourist Information Centre taken over by the town council. I am concerned that the library building is inaccessible for many people with mobility problems as it is up a sharp slope, so if the OSS moves there then many people who can get to it at the moment won't be able to in the future.
I know that there are local residents who are already cut off from the library unless they can find someone to drive them to the door. The Little Red Bus do a great job of getting people from door to door three days per week. But this isn't the solution for everybody. Neither is being able to get services online or on the telephone.
Even driving to the library can be tricky as there is only limited parking and a single disabled bay which the council now wants to book out in advance. The Council has also started proceedings which could lead to charges being imposed on people parking at the library - although this is not planned at the moment.
So I will be meeting with the Communities Director to discuss the planned move and what can be done to make the library building properly accessible to all. I'm happy to see money being saved by the move, but we should not be scrimping on making council services properly accessible.
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The One Stop Shop is going to move as a money saving measure that has already seen the Tourist Information Centre taken over by the town council. I am concerned that the library building is inaccessible for many people with mobility problems as it is up a sharp slope, so if the OSS moves there then many people who can get to it at the moment won't be able to in the future.
I know that there are local residents who are already cut off from the library unless they can find someone to drive them to the door. The Little Red Bus do a great job of getting people from door to door three days per week. But this isn't the solution for everybody. Neither is being able to get services online or on the telephone.
Even driving to the library can be tricky as there is only limited parking and a single disabled bay which the council now wants to book out in advance. The Council has also started proceedings which could lead to charges being imposed on people parking at the library - although this is not planned at the moment.
So I will be meeting with the Communities Director to discuss the planned move and what can be done to make the library building properly accessible to all. I'm happy to see money being saved by the move, but we should not be scrimping on making council services properly accessible.
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Free Parking offer on 29th February
The local newspapers of the Cornish and Devon Media group have started a campaign to get people to value their town centres more. As part of this, they have teamed up with Cornwall Council to offer a free parking day in towns across Cornwall on February 29th.
Both the campaign and the free parking are very good things. But my understanding is that Cornwall Council's first reaction to the approach from the newspapers was to worry about the loss of revenue. This shows once again how they view town centre car parks as a cash cow rather than a service and how they have built their budgets around a certain level of income (and other services like road safety schemes get cut when they don't achieve their parking targets).
I'm glad that Cornwall Council eventually decided to participate in the scheme and I hope that local people will make the best possible use of the offer - coming to our town centres and doing their shopping there. Many local shops have a huge amount to offer at reasonable costs, but they usually don't even get a look in as people are content to make a single trip to a supermarket and do all their shopping there.
I hope also that Cornwall Council take a look at the usage of the car parks during the free day (albeit a Wednesday in February) and think again about the ever rising cost of car parking. Of course we cannot afford them to be free all day, every day. But if the charges were more reasonable then we might see a lot more people using them and actually end up with more money coming into council coffers. Better for both the Council and the town to have 100 cars at £1 than 25 cars at £2.
I hope that the newspaper campaign is a success and I hope that everybody possible takes advantage of the free parking day on the 29th February by getting hold of the token that will be published in the Cornish Guardian, West Briton or Cornishman.
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Both the campaign and the free parking are very good things. But my understanding is that Cornwall Council's first reaction to the approach from the newspapers was to worry about the loss of revenue. This shows once again how they view town centre car parks as a cash cow rather than a service and how they have built their budgets around a certain level of income (and other services like road safety schemes get cut when they don't achieve their parking targets).
I'm glad that Cornwall Council eventually decided to participate in the scheme and I hope that local people will make the best possible use of the offer - coming to our town centres and doing their shopping there. Many local shops have a huge amount to offer at reasonable costs, but they usually don't even get a look in as people are content to make a single trip to a supermarket and do all their shopping there.
I hope also that Cornwall Council take a look at the usage of the car parks during the free day (albeit a Wednesday in February) and think again about the ever rising cost of car parking. Of course we cannot afford them to be free all day, every day. But if the charges were more reasonable then we might see a lot more people using them and actually end up with more money coming into council coffers. Better for both the Council and the town to have 100 cars at £1 than 25 cars at £2.
I hope that the newspaper campaign is a success and I hope that everybody possible takes advantage of the free parking day on the 29th February by getting hold of the token that will be published in the Cornish Guardian, West Briton or Cornishman.
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Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Young people consultation event
This evening I attended another consultation event with young people fro Launceston, Bude and Callington. Many thanks to Chris Marsh and everyone from the youth service for putting it on.
The main part of the evening was a 'speed dating' style conversation with small groups of young people around various subjects.
Talking about transport, young people highlighted the high cost of getting around as the biggest issue as well as frequency and difficult to read timetables.
On the subject of the image that young people have, they suggested using the local press more to generate a better impression by highlighting the positive things that local groups do as well as putting on more events.
Talking about how to improve their social life, there was a general call in all areas for more places that young people can meet, out of the rain and not involving pubs. There was a lot of appreciation for Bude's Friday Night Splash with Launceston wanting to replicate it.
Discussing how to make their communities safer, young people from all three areas highlighted the problem of badly lit paths as well as dangerous traffic.
We went on to discuss what could make each town better and what we are more proud of in each town. There's a lot of ideas for the Cornwall and town councillors who came along to take away and I have already started following up the requests I received.
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The main part of the evening was a 'speed dating' style conversation with small groups of young people around various subjects.
Talking about transport, young people highlighted the high cost of getting around as the biggest issue as well as frequency and difficult to read timetables.
On the subject of the image that young people have, they suggested using the local press more to generate a better impression by highlighting the positive things that local groups do as well as putting on more events.
Talking about how to improve their social life, there was a general call in all areas for more places that young people can meet, out of the rain and not involving pubs. There was a lot of appreciation for Bude's Friday Night Splash with Launceston wanting to replicate it.
Discussing how to make their communities safer, young people from all three areas highlighted the problem of badly lit paths as well as dangerous traffic.
We went on to discuss what could make each town better and what we are more proud of in each town. There's a lot of ideas for the Cornwall and town councillors who came along to take away and I have already started following up the requests I received.
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Council Leader wrong over twitter ban says legal officer
Cornwall Council's Monitoring Officer has written to all councillors to say the following:
In short - Council Leader Alec Robertson was wrong to arbitrarily 'ban' tweeting and blogging in council meeting as he claimed to two weeks ago. And whilst the Monitoring Officer says that the issue is arguable, it seem pretty clear that if the Leader wanted to take action then he should have at least consulted with the council's top legal officer before bringing the council into such disrepute by seeking to become Cornwall's censor-in-chief.*
I welcome the chance to discuss the use of computers and other devices as well as blogs and social media as part of the council meeting next month. It will give members a chance to showcase how council meetings and decisions are improved by being in touch with our electorate during debates. It will also enable us to highlight the appalling double standards of the Leader himself who showed such disrespect to members of the public and to important issues by prioritising lobbying for awards above key issues such as safeguarding. He then had the nerve to attack those of us who commented on this in a forum where we were not permitted to answer back.
* Not just my opinion. According to Western Morning News Deputy News Editor Scott Harrison:
"Blogging and Tweeting from Council meetingsYou will be aware that the Leader indicated at the last meeting of the Cabinet on 25 January that blogging and tweeting from meetings of the Council was covered by the Broadcasting Code of Practice (“the Code”) approved at the last meeting of Council on 17 January and that prior approval for undertaking such activity was required in accordance with the Code.
At the request of the Leader, I have reviewed the position and although the issue is arguable, I am satisfied that, on balance, the Code does not apply to such activities and Members do not require prior approval.
However, this issue has generated considerable comment and debate about the use of blogging and tweeting and the impact that such activities and use of ICT generally during meetings has upon the reputation of the Council and the effective conduct of meetings.
I anticipate, therefore, that a report will be brought to the Council meeting on 27 March considering whether any form of protocol or guidelines should be introduced to address some of the concerns expressed by Members whilst ensuring that the benefits of such activity are maintained.
In the meantime, Members are reminded that the Code of Conduct covers blogging and tweeting as much as all other conduct whilst acting in their capacity as a Member."
In short - Council Leader Alec Robertson was wrong to arbitrarily 'ban' tweeting and blogging in council meeting as he claimed to two weeks ago. And whilst the Monitoring Officer says that the issue is arguable, it seem pretty clear that if the Leader wanted to take action then he should have at least consulted with the council's top legal officer before bringing the council into such disrepute by seeking to become Cornwall's censor-in-chief.*
I welcome the chance to discuss the use of computers and other devices as well as blogs and social media as part of the council meeting next month. It will give members a chance to showcase how council meetings and decisions are improved by being in touch with our electorate during debates. It will also enable us to highlight the appalling double standards of the Leader himself who showed such disrespect to members of the public and to important issues by prioritising lobbying for awards above key issues such as safeguarding. He then had the nerve to attack those of us who commented on this in a forum where we were not permitted to answer back.
* Not just my opinion. According to Western Morning News Deputy News Editor Scott Harrison:
Sad thing aboutTweet@CornwallCouncil meeting's many good points is they are now lost to story about new Twitter ban. Blame Alec.#ccwebcast
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Subscribe to my regular e-newsletter
I've started producing a regular monthly(ish) email newsletter focusing on my work for the people of Launceston as a Cornwall Councillor.
The first edition went out last week and included a review of the annual Launceston debate, news about the adoption of Kensey Valley Meadow and about the application to build houses on the police station overflow car park in Moorland Road.
So if you are interested in receiving this newsletter, please sign up by clicking on the link below:
Subscribe to my newsletter
*I say monthly-ish because I'm not going to bombard you with non-news. If there's something urgent and important to say then it might come out more frequently, but if there is little going on then I won't clog up your inbox.
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The first edition went out last week and included a review of the annual Launceston debate, news about the adoption of Kensey Valley Meadow and about the application to build houses on the police station overflow car park in Moorland Road.
So if you are interested in receiving this newsletter, please sign up by clicking on the link below:
Subscribe to my newsletter
*I say monthly-ish because I'm not going to bombard you with non-news. If there's something urgent and important to say then it might come out more frequently, but if there is little going on then I won't clog up your inbox.
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