The issue of the further delay in opening the night time emergency service is controversial but I’m clear that safety and the viability of maintaining a 24/7 service is crucial.

An interesting couple of hours with the BBC at the Mailbox to explain exactly that message. Stafford needs 24/7 walk-in services and the plan is to maintain it with a clear focus on the best options for specialist care.

I for one would always want to be looked after by those who are the very best in their specialism.

Anyway, some decent feedback about the interview from people who heard it and overwhelming support for the statements about the need for a safe and resilient service going forward… rather than any thought of an ‘open at all costs’. So fairly pleased overall.

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I find it verging on the impossible to remember just what a state the Gardens were in. Derelict, overgrown, crumbling walls, a place that had been forgotten and neglected.

It’s ‘owned’ by Birmingham City Council under a charitable trust and for many years had been ignored by them. But the campaign we launched four years ago to get them involved really has worked and I’m delighted that over the past few years Birmingham have been swept along into genuine and active support. 

And when I visited them recently the Gardens were just coming into their most spectacular and colourful look which, frankly, takes the breath away when compared to what it was like.

There were also a dozen or so new faces working there for the first time. A group of youngsters from South Staffordshire College were honing their brick laying skills with a view to preparing them for a career in construction.

The group running the restoration project are also very keen to make sure the Gardens offer some opportunity for benefitting the wider community as well as Elford villagers.

That could be things like the guys from the college while the sensory garden they are playing a part in building will also provide valuable experiences for people who are blind or have other health challenges.

So, it’s all going well and, as I said earlier the whole place is now a real historic asset for Elford, Staffordshire and the wider region.

Bloomin’ marvellous!!   

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The summer months each year brings hundreds of bikers twice a week to the area around the pub at Bassetts Pole.

It’s been a regular meeting place for many years but costs tens of thousands to police and more often than not causes concern and worry for local people who live in the areas bikers travel through on the way to the meet.

As I say, it’s a minority or motorcyclists that do the really daft stuff although I do have first hand experience of just how daft and potentially dangerous it can be. Last year I was driving along the A5 in the direction of the A38 when I had what I estimate to be a dozen motorbikes overtake at high speed on both sides of me. And, of course, it’s a single carriageway road!

But each year I also get complaints from people living along the A513, A51, A5 and A38 about motorcycles travelling at phenomenalspeeds presumably on the way to and from Bassetts Pole on the days they meet.

Apart from the dodgy behaviour it is the shear numbers who meet there which causes problems too. The site is absolutely packed meaning it can be disruptive to people wanting to have a quiet night at the pub and with the bikers often come the ‘boy racers’ who tag along and cause their own issues… often well past midnight.

So it’s a problem but there is a fine balance between being a killjoy, making sure that people aren’t intimidated, safety issues and accounting for the large cost of policing it year after year.

I met with police, at their request, to discuss a way forward and look at options. I also went with them to see for myself the scale of the issue although it’s early in the season and the weather wasn’t conducent to motorcycling on the night.

But I am supportive of looking for a solution which deals with the issues and potentially reduces the need for such a learge, and fixed, police presence. I’ll write more in the next couple of weeks.

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It’s about the Lichfield Live media team providing FREE training to local community and voluntary groups on how to get the most out of websites and social media.

I’ve agreed to fund places through my Local Community Fund for parish councils and other local bodies which work for community good, such as village halls, youth clubs, sports grounds, local projects; in fact anything that brings benefit to the Lichfield Rural East area and the people there.

They intend to widen it out to the whole of the district very soon but any group which is interested about a free place can contact me for more details.

It’s a great idea and they really know what they’re doing in maximising the use and usefulness of existing websites. You just need to know how.

They’ve also got very interesting ideas on the production of very local video news reports online and they’ll be talking about that at the training events which are over the next 2 months. 

Hurry though if you’re interested!!

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We set highly optimistic reductions based on restructuring, buying better and reducing waste and bureaucracy.

And then we wound them back by a few million because we thought the very best case scenario was unlikely to be achieved in only two years. But Ian Parry, the County’s Deputy Leader, who is also in charge of the budget has just announced that we’ve underspent by £3million this year.

In fact it means that we have reduced spend over two years, without the mass cuts that have happened elsewhere, by marginally less than the figure we wanted but thought was not quite possible.

It means our ambition of £120million reduction in County Council annual spend is on track to be achieved.  And we’ve done it even after setting three years of the lowest council tax in Staffordshire’s history. First year of our Conservative administration was 1.9% and then two years, including the current one, of 0%.

We are also the only Authority in the UK to have already pledged a 0% council tax rise for 2013/14. But the final budget spend for year ending April 2012, and the even better than expected financial performance, meant Ian Parry announced at Cabinet last week there is a ‘real chance’ of meeting our ambition of reducing council tax next year instead of simply pegging it.

If we manage that it means our four year term will have seen a near freezing in council tax over the period. In real terms that would mean a 14% reduction. What a big contrast to Labour’s last twelve years of their 30 year unbroken time in power in Staffordshire. Just that last 12 years saw council tax rise by a staggering 99%. 

The thick end of £1000 each year difference for many households when you compare those two scenarios. That’s one of the real differences politics at County level means.

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And it wasn’t just the competitors at Edingale who won ‘Gold’ because the whole event raised money towards the national Sport Relief charity.

Over 50 locals from the Mease Valley area joined in a short church service in the village hall and then headed out into the sunshine for the mini Olympics.

Dozens of children took part in the mini Games which included ball throwing, football, obstacle-hockey, running and balancing. A face painter was also on hand to add to the excitement for the youngsters as they tucked into their picnic lunch.

I thoroughly enjoyed handing out the Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates on what was an excellent afternoon. It was village life at its very best and I was pleased to be asked along to join in the fun. Local resident, Stewart Tyler, who organised the event, said:

“It’s an important year and this has been a big community success. It was lovely to see people from the surrounding villages get together for the service and our thanks go to Mary Howard School for lending us the sporting equipment”.

The event raised a total of £125 to send to Sport Relief.

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Staffordshire’s new combined community health and social care service that we’ve been developing since just after winning the 2009 County Election is now formally a reality.

A thousand County Council social care professionals moved over to the new organisation, joining their NHS colleagues, on 1st April. During the next year, capacity to look after people in their own homes or in non-hospital settings across Staffordshire will improve dramatically.

It means that the large number of people ending up in hospital even though it may not be the best option for them should reduce because of that greater capacity and better scope in community healthcare services.

That’s good for those individuals because it means less uneccessary disruption to their lives but it’s also good for tax payers because people being admitted to hospital when there is no need costs tens of millions each year in Staffordshire.

The new combined service will also save money directly as management structures from the two different services have been rationalised into a more efficient and streamlined team.

And delays in patients receiving their treatment will reduce because the new arrangements put all the money in one combined pot instead of two different ones. It means the historic arguments between Social Care and the NHS about which body picks up which bit of the patient’s care costs will cease.

So, it’s a major step forward for Staffordshire’s healthcare services and the quality of treatment for patients. It is also a major boost in our efforts to make the wider health and care system work better, more efficiently and more seamlessly for Staffordshire people.

Commentators suggest it puts Staffordshire several years ahead of most of the UK in providing better and integrated healthcare services. But there’s a lot more to do!

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And it’s good when a plan comes together. Extra Care and Flexi Care living are complexes with between 50 and 100 apartments with care and support on-call if and when it’s needed.

It’s a tremendous alternative to residential care homes because it allows people greater independence with their own front door in a lovely setting but safe in the knowledge that care services are there if needed. They are hugely important for the future because they are good for individuals’ lives but also really cost effective for tax payers.

Back in June 2009 I inherited a development programme which had achieved 400 Extra Care places for people across Staffordshire. We changed the way the County works with developers to make it a more businesslike experience for them.

That went down well and in a matter of months the investment we were prepared to make and the new way of doing business saw more interest than ever before from potential developers. In late 2010 I pledged that we would grow the number of places to buy, rent, or part buy to 1500.

Staffordshire was recognised last year in a Parliamentary Report for the work on supported living development and I’m pleased to say that the improvement has continued meaning that target of 1500 I set 10 months ago is looking good for over 2000 places.

All good stuff and it means by this time next year we will have attracted, and invested, a total of over £200million for Staffordshire. The latest development is currently under construction in Stafford with more on the point of starting,

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That’s something I’ve always believed in and it’s something that bothers me sometimes about the way public services, particularly local ones, are reported in the media.

In the case of policing, Staffordshire is proving that the pressures on budgets and reductions in some staff have not had a negative effect because every headline crime stat is falling here with nearly 5,000 fewer incidents in the last twelve months.

That’s great news and is testament to exactly what the above strapline says. In Staffordshire the redesign of policing on the front line to keep more uniforms on the streets and fewer tied up in buildings is working. As is the partnerships between policing and other agencies, particularly the County’s community safety operation.

So, proof that Staffordshire’s getting better and also that it’s how you direct resources that makes the big difference not simply throwing money at things.

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In this case I had calls from several constituents over a few days telling me of a burned out caravan and massive heaps of rubbish on two different pieces of land adjacent to a road between Mile Oak and Bonehill.

They’d apparently been there for two months and each was growing steadily as further bits of rubbish and fly-tipping were added to the existing mess despite it being reported to the authorities numerous times over many weeks.

The ‘old’ it’s not us, it’s them, scenario seemed to be rife although to be fair (I suppose) when I looked at the issues in more detail I could sort of see why it was rather complicated.

It was partly because most legal responsibilities for environmental clean up rest with the local council, the one piece of land is owned by the National Highways Agency but adjacent to roads which are the responsibility of Staffordshire County Highways while the other piece of land with the caravan on is privately owned meaning legal notices and all sorts have to be served.

And the sheer size of each clean up job meant it was a very significant cost for the local council and led to a bit of public sector table tennis taking place. I did make some calls and am pleased that within an hour or so agreement was reached between the different bodies to sort things out.

The mess on the private land will take a few weeks although at least the necessary legal stuff has now been done and the huge dumping ground on the other bit of land is being moved very shortly by the County Council and the cost will be recovered from the Highways Agency in due course.

So, getting there eventually but I do find it frustrating that bureaucracy gets in the way of getting the job done for local people in a timely way.

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