Posts from — March 2010

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

Click here to comment on this post

No need for new laws, no need for alcohol price hikes but a big need to align efforts and resources…

But seriously tackling alcohol abuse has been claimed in Staffordshire, and countrywide, many times before without much real impact. 

And because of the enormous scope of my Department’s work it’s only the last couple of months that I’ve turned my focus to this issue. Nationally it costs billions, ruins lives and devastates families. In Staffordshire 1 in 40 people have a serious drink problem… dependent is the technical word.

It’s not, however, about being a killjoy. The vast majority of people have a drink, perhaps, at weekends or on the odd week night. They know when to stop and cause no harm.

The first problematical drinkers are those who go out on a Friday or Saturday night, get completely out of their heads and start being offensive or, worse still, violent. Sadly the exact thing that is commonplace outside pubs and clubs in the UK on any given night.

That anti social behaviour is dealt with by police, PCSOs, ambulance crews and business. In addition the Courts, criminal justice, the NHS, the reputation of town centres and insurance are all impacted. So incredibly costly to the public sector and the business economy.

Then there’s those who are dependent on alcohol… over 20,000 in Staffordshire. Costing the public purse a fortune in treatment, dependent drinkers are often unable to hold down a job, sometimes involved in domestic violence and get themselves ito a critical downward spiral. It impacts lives and also costs tax payers through Social Care, the NHS, police enforcement,  criminal justice and housing providers enormous sums of money.

And each of the elements of alcohol misuse and the responses to tackling it have historically been dealt with by different agencies in different ways in splendid isolation. That’s the major thing which needs to change and we also have to be brave and spend more of the current money available on getting people off alcohol dependancy once and for all instead of, as is done now, spending money on maintaining the status quo for people who abuse alcohol, and drugs, for that matter.

That’s nonsense in my view and we have to get people off the ‘treadmill’ which never ever makes overall progress and people back into a non-dependent state and then into a more normal life.

And that is entirely possible and practical. I’ve seen this approach working first hand with success rates of over 80%. It’s not about being soft, it’s about being pragmatic and intelligent. Yes, it’s investment up front but it gets ahead of the ‘game’ and steps back from conatant fire fighting which maintains the treadmill.

So, I’ve got meetings set up with the right people around the table from key strategic agencies and we now need to agree to point our efforts, approach and resources in the same direction. Very clear in my mind what we need to do, now just need it to happen.

We won’t by any stretch of the imagination get ahead of this problem anytime soon, but we can make up ground and eventually start to make clear progress. I’ll write again on this really important issue in due course.

Click here to comment on this post

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.

Click here to comment on this post

Staffordshire’s Local Involvement Network is crucial amongst the bodies that oversee Health and Care…

I’ve written a number of times about it. It became clear during my induction that LINk wasn’t working as intended when it was set up well before my time. A report from the Department of Health acknowledged that but the recommendations to improve it, for me, weren’t strong enough and the public had clearly lost faith in it.

At the time, my decision to cease it in its then form and relaunch it wasn’t welcomed by some of the key volunteers at the time and strangeley, as I’ve learned quickly in this job, it even attracted criticism from some close to it who wanted it scrapped.

Anyway time has moved on and whilst it’s temporarily sitting back within my Department, work is moving on nicely to reform it based broadly on the feedback at recent consultation events attended by existing and, positively, a lot of new potential volunteers.

I had a session on the proposals last week and have to say it’s looking clearer, more focussed with a framework for wider participation in steering where LINk goes and what it looks at. I’m really pleased and shortly the final stages of work will see the appointment of a new external and impartial host body to take LINk forwards.

Quite rightly, Health is under the spotlight in Staffordshire and it’s vital that the different bodies, statutory and voluntary (LINk is both) that make up the scrutineering framework for Health and Care collaborate and cooperate much better than in the past. And that’s what we’re aiming to happen going forwards.

LINk is also looking for new volunteers across Staffordshire. It will be important and very interesting work giving a real opportunity to make a difference in the way Health and Care services are deliverd. It’s as time consuming as you want to make it so why not get involved? Click here for more information.

Click here to comment on this post