County Council update

David Fish drew this BBC news item to my attention.  Regular visitors will recall earlier posts regarding the generous loan from Leicestershire County Council when they got into financial difficulties.  Obviously, this would have been fine if the councillors had passed the hat round and dug into their own expenses to bail out their fellow Tories.  Unfortunately they didn't, and the money they lent was ours - the money that is supposed to be for social care and children and all those little services which our county council is unequivocally awful at.  Still, it's only a loan.  We'll get it back, right?

To coin a phrase, I wouldn't put money on it.  Northamptonshire County Council is bankrupt and long since voted for its own extinction.  I cannot figure out what exactly the body that operates in its place is called.  If I could, naturally, I would post it here to help out all the other bodies, businesses, and rate-payers who are owed many, many millions.  Anyway, the BBC has helpfully summarised the prospects for seeing anything of the Leicestershire Loan repaid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-55279308

Just thought Leicestershire residents might want an update just in case we are allowed county elections next year.  Especially given the news that we'll all be paying more council tax to swell the Glenfield property portfolio.

By the way, nice offices the non-existent Northamptonshire CC built themselves, aren't they?  Bet they cost a pretty penny...

Lutterworth East Given Go Ahead Despite Local Concerns

Speaking after the virtual Planning Meeting, Lutterworth Labour Councillor Paul Beadle said:

"I am extremely disappointed by the decision to give the massive development at Lutterworth East the go-ahead, despite local concerns.

"Permission was nodded through despite members acknowledging that County's current plan isn't the best option for relieving traffic in the town centre, and despite serious concerns around noise, air pollution and road safety.

"It was a narrow vote, going through five to four.  It was extremely disappointing that of those voting for the application none represented Lutterworth.  Speakers from Lutterworth were all opposed to the application in its current form but our objections counted for nothing."

Constituency Dinner - Special Guest

Back in the distant days of a fortnight ago, when gatherings of more than fifty people were still acceptable, JESS PHILLIPS MP was the guest of honour at the South Leicestershire Constituency Dinner, held at the Kingsway Centre in Braunstone Town.

Jeremy Corbyn launches Labour Party manifesto

Labour's Green Industrial Revolution

We need #RealChange to tackle the #ClimateEmergency.
Labour has a plan to do exactly that, our GREEN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
Read about it by CLICKING HERE.

Tristan Koriya - What I stand for

I am a member of the Round Table, which does such great work for local causes. Every year on Christmas Day I volunteer at Lutterworth Open Christmas which provides a festive meal and entertainment for local people who need a bit of extra company at this time of the year. I have completed the three-peaks challenge four times and helped to raise thousands of pounds for various charities.

 I proudly serve as an Army Reservist with the Royal Logistics Corps.

 My sense of duty and caring for others comes from my parents. My mother worked in the NHS for 26 years. My father has been a factory worker for 30 years after serving in the Armed Forces.

 Sarah and I are expecting our first child. I worry about the future our child will have under a Tory government. The gap between the richest and the poorest is wider than ever. I want to build a Britain that works for the many, not the few. That means building the homes we need to rent and to buy. It means keeping our communities safe. It means giving our schools the funding they need. And it means restoring our NHS to its place as the envy of the world.

So you're thinking of voting Conservative 2019

Posturing on the Police

Today, presumably off the top of his head, Boris Johnson announced that new draconian punishments would miraculously be added to the powers of police officers, judges and magistrates dealing with knife crime.

Diane Abbott, Labour's Shadow Home Secretary, declared: "This is just posturing on crime and Boris Johnson knows it."
 

Johnson supported Tory cuts to the police and has no plans to restore the frontline officers that successive Tory governments have axed. In his time as London Mayor,Johnson promised to recruit 'thousands of extra police' but, of course, never delivered on his promise.

The Tories aren't really putting 20,000 extra officers on the streets to tackle the knife crime that has become an epidemic during their time in government. Nor do they intend to do anything about the youth services they cut, or funding for drug prevention schemes. It goes without saying they will do nothing whatever about the spike in school exclusions. All these things - all these cuts and fiddling with figures - have contributed to rising crime.

Tinkering with police powers will not disguise a decade of Tory failure.

You can't have community safety on the cheap

Repairing the damage

Lord Willy Bach, your Labour Police and Crime Commissioner, explains what cuts to police budgets really mean for Leicestershire.

Our MP claims the Tories are “the Party of Law and Order.” What a joke! Leicestershire has lost 550 police officers over recent years. Our Youth Services have been savaged. Now – surprise, surprise – just before a likely General Election, there is a promise of 20,000 new officers. Even if that promise is kept (and that’s a big if) it would still not get anywhere near the number lost to the cuts.

Meanwhile I have carefully and responsibly increased the number of police officers each year I have been in office. For this year, up to June 2020, the number is 107. By raising the police part of the Council Tax and making sensible use of Reserves, I have set about repairing the damage caused by almost a decade of Tory and Lib Dem austerity.

Of course the fall in police numbers affects the crime rate. Not only is there an increased population in Lutterworth and Broughton Astley, but new offences like Modern Slavery and People Trafficking demand specialist investigative skills.

It was unforgivable of the Tories to cut the police force to the level it did. A Labour Government will ensure we have the right number of officers to properly protect our communities.

Our candidate for change - Tristan Koriya

The Labour candidate for South Leicestershire in the General Election on December 12 is Tristan Koriya.

Tristan lives in Lutterworth with his wife Sarah. He is a Business Consultant and is active in many local causes. There will be much more on this blog about Tris over the coming days. Please check back.

Planning gains fiasco at Glenfield!

Everybody's favourite council is back in the headlines for all the usual reasons. Fecklessness, incompetence, pointlessness...

Leicestershire County Council, the well-known low-interest unsecured loans business, has handed back £900,000 in planning gains to hard-pressed developers. Why? Because these 'gains' must be spent within a certain period of time. It's a long period because some big developments are complicated and take time to come to fruition. There's only one other condition - that the donations are necessary to offset the impact of the development, which is sensible and prudent, otherwise they would just look like backhanders.


So the need existed - was established and proven through the planning inquiry system - it was just that Leicestershire County Council, so busy doing nothing in so many other areas, just didn't get to doing anything about it. So now the need will go on being unmet, for the foreseeable future. Nice work, guys!

More on the Northamptonshire loan

Readers will recall me waxing lyrical last week on Leicestershire County Council's best-buddy loan of £5 million to poor old Northamptonshire County Council. Just seven days later comes the devastating Best Value Report into NCC and its works commissioned by Communities Minister Sayed Javid.


Those with strong stomachs can click here for all the gory details. For hardened horror fans I recommend the appendix case study about Olympus Care Services in which the Council manages to fall out with its own pretend business.

The report's conclusions are stark: "The problems faced by NCC are now so deep and ingrained that it is not possible to promote a recovery plan that could bring the council back to stability and safety in a reasonable timescale [4.16]." "To change the cultural and organisational ethos and to restore balance ... would take of the order of 5 years and require a substantial one-off cash injection. Effectively, it would be a reward for failure. ... A way forward with a clean sheet, leaving all the history behind, is required. [4.17]"


The report writers propose total abolition in 2020 and replacement with two unitary councils made up of the seven districts and boroughs. In the meantime, the Minister is urged to impose direct rule.


The 'history' is quite something. Scrutiny that is not allowed to scrutinise, audit that is not given full facts. A £21.1 million overspend already this financial year. Total financial incompetence. For example, consider the council's approach to financial management - "sloppy, lacking rigour and without challenge [3.66]."


It gets worse. When he heard about the Best Value inspection, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Michael King, felt obliged to write to the inspectors - something that's almost unheard-of. What did he have to say? "...that NCC was one of the most difficult authorities the Ombudsman had engaged with both in the terms of time taken to respond in the course of investigations but also in the authority's approach to complaint handling, learning from mistakes and remedying injustice [3.87]."

That's right, they flatly refuse to listen to tribunals, their external auditors and their fellow councils. Any self-respecting elected member would resign forthwith on receiving this level of condemnation. We can take it for granted they won't. Indeed, they haven't. The Minister will have to abolish the council from under them and even then they will simply stand again for the new unitary authorities. For incompetence that goes above and beyond, for wilful and persistent negligence in ignoring the facts, there should be special punishments. Those responsible should be banned from public service for a period reflecting their level of responsibility.


And as for Leicestershire County Council... Everybody in local government must have known there was an investigation under way. Why didn't they wait for the outcome before dipping into our pockets? Northamptonshire is going to disappear in 2020 at the latest. Are their successor bodies going to be held responsible for their debts? No, why should they be? How could they be?


But, fear not, our £5 million has not been spent entirely in vain. There is a lesson here for our county councillors if they choose to read it. You know how LCC is always banging on about how little funding they get from the government? Well NCC tried that one too. The inspector's response?


"The whole point of a funding formula, however inadequate its basis, is to reflect different needs [3.8]."


Exactly.

CLP Annual Dinner - Guest Lillian Greenwood MP

Braunstone Civic Centre, Saturday March 10 2018.

Cash-strapped County Council enters the dodgy loans business

When Sandra told us last night that she'd heard Leicestershire County Council were loaning Northamptonshire £5 million at nominal interest, I couldn't believe it. But here's the proof - and it's even worse than it sounded.

They're closing children centres and abandoning libraries. They've long since been stripped of schools and flogged off care homes. But obviously they can still 'loan' £5 million to their Tory mates on a neighbouring County Council that is to all intents and purposes bankrupt as well as pointless.


The reason? If Northants actually went bankrupt the government would be the biggest loser. Sorry, that sounds like a win-win to me. It's not as if the people of Northamptonshire would lose out because they already pay through the nose for nothing.


The best bit? The money isn't coming from reserves, money that's sitting in the account doing nothing. It's coming from the revenue account - day to day income and expenditure. It's another £5 million in cuts with the vague possibility of repayment some day. Far better to have an each-way punt on the Grand National.


The best deal for everyone in the shires would be for county councils to be abolished forthwith and their powers given to larger, probably combined, unitary districts. That was our Labour policy at the County elections last year, but somehow Leicestershire still elected these people.

Conservative Achievements.

I return home to find that the Conservatives have posted a card showing their local team, and saying how much they care about you here in Lutterworth. I assume most of you have received the same. They failed to list their achievements on your behalf, so I thought I might help them out.
They have taken the De Verdon Road allotments and left the Town Council with a bill for £225,000 to replace them. They will make about £5m from the site (the exact figure is 'commercially sensitive'), and at this point have not offered the Town any form of compensation.
They closed the Town's toilets with 24hrs notice, leaving us to pick up the tab; whilst keeping those in Market Harborough open using £100,000 of 'Special Expenses'. We kept them open because we felt that any civilised community ought to have public conveniences.
Of the £30,000 that Lutterworth pays in Special Expenses annually they have failed to account for (literally) £10,000. In my time as a Councillor that adds up to £100,000 that we do not know what it was spent on, despite submitting an FOI on which they failed to meet two legal dealines.
The removal of the universal Green Bin collection.
The alteration of a perfectly good parking scheme to something that most are agreed is a backward step.
Against a strong local campaign, erected a Panda crossing on the Leicester Road. The joke now is that they could have saved money by not installing the red and amber bulbs as they are never used.
Councillors Chapman and Hammond have attended 3 out of a possible 54 LTC meetings since their election. They are not obliged to attend these meetings, but it is one sure way for them to gauge local feeling. Councillor Page goes out of her way to try to attend these meetings.
Councillors Chapman and Ackerley did not attend the recent Magna Park hearing. They may, of course had pressing personal reasons for not doing so, and in that case I apologise. This is the single biggest planning issue ever to face HDC let alone Lutterworth, and it will have devastating effects on the local area; yet the Councillor with the nearest Ward is not there. Not only that a total of 11 out of the 33 Councillors found more important events to be at on that evening.
Even when they managed to get this phase called in they managed, as far as Lutterworth is concerned, to call in the wrong bit.  The  Symmetry application will come much closer to the Town, and remains a problem for Semelab.
Incidentally, by passing the first two phases of the Magna Park extension, the HDC Planning committee voted to increase traffic flow through an Air Quality Management Zone. This is one on Lutterworth High Street that they created in 2009, and have done nothing about ever since.
They have also failed to protect the seperation zone between Magna Park and Lutterworth,. This is a result of their failure to produce a Five Year Housing Plan. An estate of over 200 house is now to be built at the end of Coventry Road. It could now been open season for developers on that stretch, much of which is owned by a London Property Developer.
This is your Conservative Council; as they put it, 'A team that care about you and your family'