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A year ago we set out our Manifesto for Staffordshire which resulted in a landslide election win last June…

So, where are we now and what do the hugely difficult economic times mean for the next few years? Certainly for all of our four year term.

A bit of context. On Thursday June 4th last year we won Staffordshire after 28 years of uninterrupted Labour control. And by late afternoon the day after that, any sign of the previous Labour Administration had been removed by officials with offices cleared out and the ‘mechanics’ of new people taking over well underway.

The New Breman Room in County Buildings where Cabinet meets weekly

 When I walked into historic County Buildings on that afternoon to meet for our inaugural informal Cabinet get together, the responsibility for 35,000 employees and 300 public services affecting the lives of of nearly a million people every day began to sink in. Bizarrely, I remember the very moment that happened for me.

Just in case that last statement sounds a bit too dramatic, one thing over the last year is clear as absolute fact. And that is, whilst officials are the ‘constant’ in both local and national government, meaning things happen day to day and services are delivered as a matter of course with or without politicians, the decisions, philosophies, approach, mindset and competence of elected Members sets the fundamentals for everything.

That’s true in national government and local government but particularly in what’s called ‘top tier’ local government, like County, where policies affecting life and death, jobs and the wider economy are part of the day job. The political decisions at County can, and do, lead to outcomes as stark as black and white or up and down depending on those decisions.

As a brand new administration back in June it really was going into the unknown both for us and for the officials who had little idea of what to expect as individuals around day to day relationships.

It was clear that the previous Labour Administration were not ‘as one’, even in Cabinet, didn’t have a clear focus or plan on where Staffordshire needs to be in ten years time and the extent to which politicians were genuinely in charge varied massively department by department as well as being highly questionable overall.

That’s not a criticism of officials because if there’s a vacuum in leadership it has to be filled but that doesn’t change the fact that a fundamental culture change in the relationship between the Paid Service and new politicians was the first massive challenge. I suppose the first thing as far as the title of this post is concerned lies around the fact that relationships between officials and the new Conservative Administration could have been catastrophic because of that big cultural change that was needed.

That scenario didn’t happen and whilst things are not Utopian there is a clear sense of direction, a clear understanding who is accountable and responsible and a firm sense of basic political principles and values which we have set down around fairness, openess and shifting the fundamental approach more towards personal responsibility and away from ever greater state dependency.

So, I guess the first positive was getting through the political transition with the place in one piece and that, I believe, very firm foundations and values now underpin Staffordshire’s next few years. It is nearly as difficult to describe how challenging that journey has been as it is for anyone not directly involved to understand why it was so crucial and tough.

Then policy wise we’ve made a decent dent in our Manifesto pledges already as well as dealing with some pretty big issues we found unexpectedly…

Major retail development in Stafford including two new state-of-the-art office buildings:

This was one of the first surprises within days of taking office. It had been planned by Labour over several years at a cost of around £30million. It was about rationalising some of the many buildings which County has across Stafford town. It wasn’t a particularly robust business case when we opposed it in opposition and with the terrible state of public finances we were going to mothball the project until more stable finacial times when we’d try to improve it. 

The surprise was that just weeks before election day Labour had committed us to it. Our first real achievement was revamping and renegotiating the contracts, squeezing the costs, all in a matter of a couple of months, and turning the overall deal into a substantial cost saving for tax payers instead of the inherited additional cost. In short we made the very best of what potentially was a problem.

Lowest ever increase in council tax by the County Council:

The work to balance the budget ended up with just a 1.9% increase. A far cry from a few years ago when the County under Labour made a series of high increases the largest of which was a staggering 15%. And we plan to keep it below 2% next year meaning Staffordshire will qualify for the new national government scheme to match that cost resulting in no increase in council tax.

£30million pounds capital injection into Staffordshire’s roads:

A key pledge from last June. Moving money around and using an invest to save approach to start major improvements to our crumbling highways. The programme has now started across the county and it will take three years to complete.

Labour’s quarrying increases crushed:

The last Administration let quarrying in Staffordshire get out of hand with big increases in the amount of sand and gravel works our county provides over decades. A further increase in aggregate tonnage was due this year and Staffordshire was already providing two thirds of the total West Midlands quota. We’ve stopped any more increases in a measured way meaning job protection in existing quarries but no new ones. 

New road safety initiatives across hundreds of schools:

Another pledge from the Manifesto which has started the role out across Staffordshire of 20mph speed limits which are only operative at the times when children are arriving at or going home from school. The programme will focus on primary schools and will continue over the next three years. It’s got off to a solid start.

Business Support Fund helping through difficult times:

Banks still aren’t lending even to viable companies that want to grow. We set up in partnership with a commercial lending partner to underwrite a £1million small business scheme. The money lent so far has saved and supported a significant number of jobs. The numbers of applicants is growing and we’ll look at increasing funding further to keep viable businesses in business until banks start lending again.

Joined up services between the NHS and Social Care:

A fundamental change to social care which I’ve been working on for nine months. Including a ground breaking integration between front line social care teams and NHS ones it will mean a step change in the quality of services for people coming out of hospital, getting older and frailer and adults living life with disabilities.

Massive investment in independent supported living:

A four fold increase in the number of FlexiCare housing developments by the end of our first term. We’re on target with a big increase in schemes meaning more independence safe in the knowledge that 24/7 support is on hand. And now more and more will be homes for life meaning those who develop complex needs through Dementia or other illness can stay in the place they know. By the way, these are literally like four star hotels with amazing facilities and are available across Staffordshire for rent, shared equity purchase or outright purchase.

Staffordshire Cares – a better future for older and vulnerable people in our county:

And on the theme of greater independence and choice, Staffordshire Cares, the development of which is ongoing, will revolutionise people’s lives as they get older and need some support and also put Staffordshire in the national spotlight for helping people live life the way they want to. Watch this space for the launch shortly. It will be impressive… I promise.

Above are just a few specifics that come to mind. There are many more around education, a completely new approach to tackling alcohol misuse, encouraging volunteering, a mass reorganisation of Connexions, the careers service for young people, a countywide programme to bring pride to living in our wonderful county and more boring (but vital) things like just manging the money, Staffordshire’s assets and the ‘business’ better and more efficiently than in the past.

As far as the future is concerned, our country is in a bad way financially. Staffordshire must play its part in paying down the national debt. That will be a contribution of between a hundred and two hundred million in the next three years. Tough choices and tight public purse strings.

We will do our bit for the national crisis and I think we are better placed now than a year ago to see Staffordshire and its people through the challenges of the next few years and out the other side safely and very much in one piece if a little leaner, more efficient with some services changed or no longer there but overall better.

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M6Toll, quarrying and now high speed trains. What else can be thrown at rural communities around Lichfield and Tamworth?…

Shock news as the Government announces plans to spend £30billion on a new high speed train line tearing through the heart of the area I represent.

It is staggering and follows only days after winning the campaign to squash plans for massive new quarrying around Hints, Weeford, Comberford and Fisherwick. And now Hints, Drayton Bassett, Swinfen, Packington, Canwell, Whittington and Weeford are to potentially suffer yet again with the plans for the 250mph super trains.

Numerous houses blighted for many years to come, farms lost through compulsary purchase, roads blocked off and, according to some, ‘the bottom has dropped out of our lives’. Devastating for people and scandalous to have the beautiful countryside around those villages changed forever.

If knocking 20 or so minutes off the trip from Birmingham to London helps our ailing economy in the West Midlands then, I suppose, it’s hard to argue against but it remains far from certain that the route the Government has shown a preference for is the best one and I for one will be campaigning for a change.

And actually it’s certainly more than just me. In 24 hours nearly 400 people have signed up for my email updates on issues relating to high speed train (HST). It’s a few years away yet but we have to make absolutely clear, in advance of a Public Inquiry next year, that local people oppose this ferociously.

Draft timetable

March 2010 – Proposals for high speed rail and issued Exceptional Hardship Scheme consultation

Before Autumn 2010 – Further engagement work and consultation preparation

Autumn 2010 – Formal public consultation

2011 – Government decides whether to proceed and proposed route for London to Birmingham

2011‐2013 – Further detailed design and assessment of the route

2013 – Further public consultation

2014 – Hybrid Bill laid in House of Commons

2019 – Construction could start

Proposed route of railway line through LRE (PDF maps): 

Middleton to Drayton Bassett  HERE 

Hints and Weeford HERE 

Swinfen, Packington and Whittington HERE 

Proposed route of railway line through LRE (commentary): 

From Middleton…

Through Marl Pit

Cross country 250 metres west past Oak Dairy Farm

Through Shirral Drive 150 metres west of junction with Drayton Lane. SD to go over railway 

Closing Drayton Lane 400 metres from Shirral junction. Diversion from DL, down SD and new road to rejoin existing DL for 350 metres to A453 junction west of railway.

Through A453 100 metres east of junction with Drayton Lane. A453 to go over railway

Cut through Wagoners Lane (Bangley Lane loop to close off by White Hose Farm)

Through Rookery Lane 150 metres west of water ford (500 metres from Hints village centre). Road to go under railway

NNW through old A5 (cut off old A5) 100 metres SW of Bucks Head Farm

Through new A5 150 metres north of Buck’s Head Farm. New A5 (800 metre stretch road re-alignment) to go over railway

Through Flats Lane 150 metres south of junction with Kox’s Grave Lane. Road to go over railway

NNW 200 metres west of Packinton Moor

North 100 metres west of Horseley Brook Farm

North through western side of Ingley Hill Farm

North skirting western side of Freeford Home Farm

Through A51 (by Bailey’s Beating) 300 metres from junction with Whittington Common Lane. Road to go over railway

Whittington Common Lane to close off 150 metres from junction with A51. New road 400 metres east of A51/WCL via golf land to rejoin WCL 300 metres from current A51/WCL jct

Through Darnford Lane 150 metres east of golf driving range. Road to go under railway

New railway to go on 700 metre long viaduct (30 metres high) over A38 and existing rail line

Via Enterprise Industrial Estate (land take) and on towards Curborough

Information on blight

Click HERE for information relating to a special circumstance voluntary purchase scheme for properties which could be affected  

The Background

Click HERE for the Ministerial statement

Click HERE for the full headline document

Register for email updates on HST as and when issues arise HERE

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The Campaign to change the currently proposed route for High Speed Rail starts now…

Just days after winning the fight to cap quarrying in Staffordshire the areas around Lichfield and Tamworth are faced with an even greater threat in the form of HST or High Speed Train.

The proposed line runs from London north through the UK skirting Tamworth to the west and Lichfield to the east.

That means it it potentially affects the areas of, and around, Drayton Bassett, Hints, Swinfen, Packington, Canwell, Weeford and Whittington. Trains would simply pass through at up to 250mph not stopping anywhere around Lichfield or Tamworth and continue northwards.

The result will be more turmoil for local communities during construction and some of the most picturesque countryside in the Midlands changed for the worse for ever. 

In the first 24 hours after launching my e-mail update on HST for people living in the area I represent nearly 400 individuals registered. It will notify people who register of important HST news and, as the campaign moves forward, provide information and ensure awareness of key dates.

If you’d like email updates from me regarding the High Speed Train proposals please click here and complete the form putting HST in the SUBJECT and Where you Live in the MESSAGE.

It is vital that the areas and parish councils affected work together or at least allign approaches and efforts.

Our efforts must be coordinated to coincide with the Public Inquiry which is likely to happen towards the end of 2010 and into 2011.

You can read more here

You can contact me here

There is also an excellent community website at www.hs2actionalliance.org

This has been a long battle to try and reverse County Labour’s onslaught on rural areas…

It started about 2 years ago with proposals to quarry nearly 30 new sites across Staffordshire and, as always as history shows over the last 28 years, Labour County Councils sat back and watched more of our countryside and rural communities prepare for mass excavations and thousands of gravel lorries tearing up country roads.

The very start of the campaign to reverse Labour’s quarry madness

But after a long campaign involving hundreds of people and a policy reversal I managed to get into the election Manifesto which saw a new Conservative County Council last year, the trend to do more and more quarrying is finally over. 

Avoiding new quarry sites was all about the tonnage quota of sand and gravel that the West Midlands region contributes to the national need and, in turn, what Staffordshire as one of the six strategic authorities in the West Midlands contributes to that regional quota.

So, when we won Staffordshire last June we followed through on policy to reduce Staffordshire’s unfair and ridiculous 65% share which had grown constantly under Labour over their 28 years running our county. Problem was, if we do less others have to do more and whilst Staffordshire was providing that two thirds share, the next biggest contributor was only providing one tenth of the total for the region.

Not as simple as just changing our policy, but today, after much negotiation with the other Authorities, failures, short lived successes and threats by us of Judicial Review, the decision was made jointly to reduce Staffordshire’s sand and gravel contribution by 10million tonnes.

That means that when the County’s Planning Committee look at new applications for quarrying they will also have regard to the overall need meaning with 10million less tonnes to find it can be done by the current quarrying and the odd extension to two or three existing sites elsewhere in Staffordshire.

A big win which marks the start of a downward trend in aggregate extraction unless of course Labour manage to prize Staffordshire back from us in future elections. Good grief.

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