And so the Tories start to dismantle all that is good – Human Rights Act under threat

There is a list of the contents of the Human Rights Act which the Tories want to scrap.

The Liberal Democrats stopped them from doing this in the Coalition.

I wonder what else they will try to do that the Lib Dems stopped them from doing before.

There is something rather sick about announcing this on VE day.

I personally quite like: The right to life.  The right not to be tortured.  The right to a fair trial. The right not to be forced into slavery and the right not to be discriminated against.

Now we start to see what the Tories are really like.

 

Human Rights Act:

LABOUR MP RE-ELECTED IN DURHAM

Another five years of a Labour MP failing to properly challenge our terrible council is difficult to stomach. As your local councillors we will continue to fight against the worst of the Labour run council. We will seek as much investment for the area as we can, and continue to work all year round and report back to you all year round!!

Our candidate Craig put up a strong fight in the face of a national backlash against the Lib Dems. I am certain in the future it will be shown that the Lib Dems did an excellent job in government, both in helping to turn around the shattered economy, but also in reigning in the nastiness of the Conservative Party.

To what extent the Tories will govern with compassion now there is no restraining influence remains to be seen, but it is indeed a great worry. The lack of a coherent opposition in the short term will become apparent if we do not as Liberal Democrats get back on our feet, dust ourselves down and take the fight to Labour locally and the Conservatives nationally, which is just what I and others will do.

A big thank you to everyone who supported us in Durham at the general election!

 

Here is Nick Clegg’s resignation speech as leader of the Liberal Democrats in full:

Here is Nick Clegg’s resignation speech as leader of the Liberal Democrats in full:

“I always expected this election to be exceptionally difficult for the Liberal Democrats given the heavy responsibilities we’ve had to bear in government in the most challenging of circumstances. Clearly the results have been immeasurably more crushing and unkind than I could ever have feared.

“For that, of course, I must take responsibility, and therefore I announce that I will be resigning as leader of the Liberal Democrats. A leadership election will now take place according to the party’s rules.

“For the last seven years it’s been a privilege, a huge privilege, an unlimited honour, to lead a party of the most resilient, courageous, and remarkable people. The Liberal Democrats are a family and I will always be extremely proud of the warmth, good grace, and good humour which our political family has shown through the ups and downs of recent years. I want to thank every member, ever campaigner, every councillor, and every parliamentarian for the commitment you have shown to our country and to our party.

“It is simply heartbreaking to see so many friends and colleagues who have served their constituents so diligently over so many years abruptly lose their seats because of forces entirely beyond their control.

“In 2007 after a night of disappointing election results for our party in Edinburgh, Alex Cole Hamilton said this: if his defeat was part-payment for the ending of child detention, then he accepted it with all his heart.

“Those words revealed a selfless dignity which is very rare in politics but common amongst Liberal Democrats. If our losses today are part payment for every family that is more secure because of a job we helped to create, every person with depression who is treated with a compassion they deserve, every child who does a little better in school, every apprentice with a long and rewarding career to look forward to, every gay couple who know that their love is worth no less than anyone else’s and every pensioner with a little more freedom and dignity in retirement then I hope at least our losses can be endured with a little selfless dignity too.

“We will never know how many lives we changed for the better because we had the courage to step up at a time of crisis. But we have done something that cannot be undone because there can be no doubt that we government with Britain a far stronger, fairer, greener, and more liberal country than it was five years ago.

“However unforgiving the judgement has been at the ballot box, I believe the history books will judge our party kindly for the service we sought to provide to the nation at a time of great economic difficulty and for the policies and values which we brought to bear in government.

“Opportunity, fairness, and liberty, which I believe will stand the test of time. To have served my country at a time of crisis is an honour that will stay with me forever. I hope those who are granted the opportunity to serve our country in government now and in the future will recognise the privilege and responsibility that they’ve been given. It’s the greatest thing they’ll ever do.

“It is of course too early to give a considered account of why we have suffered catastrophic losses we have, and the party will have to reflect on these in the time ahead. One thing seems to me is clear: liberalism, here, as well as across Europe, is not faring well against the politics of fear.

“Years of remorseless economic and social hardship following the crash in 2008 and the grinding insecurities of globalisation have led for people to reach to new certainties: the politics of identity, of nationalism, of us versus them is now on the rise.

“It is clear that in constituency after constituency north of the border the beguiling appeal of Scottish Nationalism has swept all before it and south of the border a fear about what that means for the United Kingdom has strengthened English conservatism too. This now brings our country to a very perilous point in our history where grievance and fear combine to drive our different communities apart.

“I hope that our leaders across the United Kingdom realise the disastrous consequences for our way of life and the integrity of our United Kingdom if they continue to appeal to grievance rather than generosity and fear rather than hope. It’s not exaggeration to say that in the absence of strong and statesmanlike leadership Britain’s place in Europe and the world and the continued existence of our United Kingdom itself is now in grave jeopardy. The cruellest irony of all is that it is exactly at this time that British liberalism, that fine, noble tradition that believes we are stronger together and weaker apart is needed more than ever before.

“Fear and grievance have won, liberalism has lost. But it is more precious than ever and we must keep fighting for it. That is both the great challenge and the great cause that my successor will have to face. I will always give my unstinting support for all those who continue to keep the flame of British liberalism alive.

“On the morning of the most crushing blow to the Liberal Democrats since our party was founded it is easy to imagine that there is no road back, but there is – because there is no path to a fairer, greener, freer Britain without British liberalism showing the way. This is a very dark hour for our party but we cannot and will not allow decent liberal values to be extinguished overnight.

“Our party will come back, our party will win again, it will take patience, resilience and grit. That is what has built our party before and will rebuild it again. Thank you.”

Councillors Meet with Arnison Centre Owners over site issues

Cllr Mamie Simmons and I met today with a manager from the company which owns/manages the Arnison Centre.

We have had a number of concerns going back to last year over various issues at the centre and were pleased that someone from London was willing to come up to discuss these issues.

Briefly, we raised issues about:

1. The state of the road and carpark surface within the site, including the dreadful bumps in the road near McDonalds, which have been reported for over 6 months.

2. The problems with access to the Mercia site near Pets at Home where almost everyone ends up driving over the edge of the kerb. Also about the lack of safe crossings from the KFC side to the Pets side.

3. Litter on the path down to the underpass and the fact it is rarely tidied, and the wider failure to keep the whole site and the tree line around it in a litter free condition. In recent weeks it has looked appalling.

4. We also raised concerns about the layout and state of the car park from Marks and Spencer right across to Sainsbury’s where landscaping is poor in places. The surface of the car park is in need of renewal, but the car park layout itself near M&S/Boots is bizarre. Many residents are not happy with the lack of a safe way through the parking area near M&S with their trollies.

5. We further raised general concerns about the capacity of the car park to cope especially given the expected new pod set to be built. New 4 hour parking has been introduced from this week which was a previous request from previous planning consents. This is aimed at cutting the number of staff using the public car park instead of their parking spaces at the back of the units  – which we have previously also pointed out are not sufficient. A private company will monitor the parking going forward throughout the site.

We are pushing forcefully for changes to make sure that the site does not grind to a halt, and that parking and the access and egress is made easier.

6. Discussion about the current planning application for a change of use on the new pods which we have concerns about in terms of the potential for additional takeaways and the resultant littering issues. We can’t justify any more A5 full takeaway licenses on this site.

7. Probably the most important immediate concern however is the lack of proper crossing points within the site. I have been asking for many many months for the crossing near the new units to be upgraded and have to say that I remain very unhappy that these units have opened without safe, working crossings.

When I raised similar concerns with Sainsbury’s before Christmas about their car park – it took a while for action, but the result has been excellent. All the crossings in the Sainsbury’s car park have now been upgraded with new posts, lights and solar panels. Well done Sainsbury’s!

—-

The chats with the Arnison centre official were constructive and we feel that many if not all of our concerns inside the site will now be addressed. That said, I will continue to chase up on the crossings as I feel it is absolutely critical they are improved before someone is injured and more than 6 months is far far too long to have to wait for action.

We are holding further talks in the coming weeks about the site by which time we hope there will be a timetable for all of these issues to be addressed and expect other possible proposals will be discussed.

Labour’s School Budget Shame

Durham Council has invested just £2.5m of council money in council owned schools since 2010. This year it budgeted NOTHING! The Coalition Government on the other hand provided County Durham schools with £139m for school maintenance and repair since 2010. Labour insulted our children in their council budget by failing to invest in repairs.

We put forward a proposal to provide £13m of investment to make sure our children could be taught in safe, draught free, leak free schools.

The Lib Dem plan was fully costed and included reducing the council’s six publicity departments. Council officers confirmed our plans. Labour refused. So do Labour think 6 PR departments are more important than fixing leaking school buildings??

Labour councillors even voted against allowing schools to have loans to do work, right after saying they agreed with us. We are going to fight back against this Labour failure. Our children’s education must come first.

Labour’s County Plan in tatters – greenbelt saved

Last autumn, the draft County Durham Plan (CDP) had its examination-in-public. There were a huge number of objections over development in the green belt and challenges on so many other issues.

Today the government inspector, Harold Stephens, delivered his DURHAM-COUNTY-COUNCIL-INSPECTORS-INTERIM-VIEWS-Stage-1-County-Durham-Plan-Examination-published-18.2.2015

The report essentially rips the plan to shreds. Mr Stephens says that he does not accept the Council’s population estimates. That the Council has not made a case for “exceptional circumstances” to justify building in the green belt. That the western and northern relief roads cannot be justified on traffic and environmental grounds. And that the council’s revised policy on student accommodation will not work.

It is clear that the current plan is unsound and needs major rewriting, something that cannot be done in a few months. Indeed in my view the County Plan is in so many areas not worth the paper it is written on and so many people have been vindicated.

The Council is probably going to have to start over on many key aspects.

I shadow Councillor Neil Foster on the council. He is the Regeneration and Economic development cabinet member. he was responsible for this plan. He and his colleagues completely ignored every submission we made. Their arrogance was nauseating. I fail to see how he can possibly hold on to his position.

As a travelled from Sacriston to Pity Me in the car today there was a beautiful rainbow over the greenbelt.

Perhaps a celestial nod to the people of Durham that for now at least our greenfields and world heritage City are protected from the evil machinations of the dictatorship which is County Hall.

 

20 MPH REVIEW – Framwellgate Moor Schools and New College Discriminated Against

Today, following about 20 hours of work investigating the councils new policy on 20mph limits around schools, I had to challenge the Labour-run Cabinet on the policy, in the interests not just of young people in the area I represent, but for all children across County Durham. Only 33 schools were to be included in the initial roll out of this policy.

I personally believe that wherever possible all appropriate residential areas should have 20mph limits, as should all schools in the County and will continue to push for this.

This is what I said in the meeting and below that, is my interpretation of what they plan to do about my concerns. I hope that at the end of this process Fram Primary Schools and the Comp, as well as New College will have 20mph limits around them.

———-

Chairman, I did not want to be here today in these circumstances. I wanted to come here and applaud you after six years of this new council for finally listening to our concerns and starting to implement 20mph limits.

Unfortunately I spent most of last night not sleeping over this report – because of the way in which the data has be used and interpreted, which are in my view fundamentally flawed.

Just think for a second if you know anyone whose children or grandchildren go to East Durham College, New College Durham, Bishop Auckland college or Derwentside College.

These colleges offer education to varying ages of 14-19. yet because of a statistical error in the way they are defined on our own Council computer systems they have not been included in the data. All other six form schools have been. At least one, New College would have met the criteria to be included in the 33 schools in this phase. (I showed them a map with the casualty data). Further errors mean that some schools have had their data incorrectly calculated because they are based at more than one site.

In addition every single accident outside any school in the County where it is the parent or grandparent who is injured was excluded when calculating the data. How can this be right.

And critically, it is not the location of the school entry and exit points on which the statistics have been calculated but where on our computer system a schools’ postcode comes up on the map.

In the case of Framwellgate School Durham the postcode point for the calculation is 250 metres from the nearest road. (Everyone had been given a map to show this). Had this been taken into account, this school would have been included as well, along possibly with the Primary School.

I understand the constraints you find yourselves in, but it is clearly unacceptable for at least three of the educational establishments in the area I represent to be discriminated against in this manner.

There are serious errors in this report. It took me a whole week to get the information I needed to analyse it. I have discussed it with three directors, made my concerns known to the portfolio holder and the deputy leader.

So one final time I plead with you to withdraw this report due to its serious flaws and after further work and review has been carried out, bring it back so that roll out of 20mph limits is done fairly.

I do not want accidents on my conscience and I am certain you do not want accidents on your conscience either.

——

I believe that what followed was as a direct result of my having told directors and politicians of my concerns in the last few days.

The head of Scrutiny said that a working group would be set up to look at how the 20mph limits are implemented based around this report.

What I now need to see is the terms of reference and whether those schools which have been discriminated against will be included in the review and whether all the issues I have raised will be looked at in  a proper manner.

If it is shown that some schools have been omitted by error or should be included in the initial roll out for other reasons it is essential that the working group is able to get Cabinet to include them with the 33 already included.  Anything less than this cannot be fair.

Coop Bank Stress Failure

The Coop Bank has failed the Bank of England Stress test. Now that doesn’t mean we all need to run for cover, as residential customers are protected to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds in the event of a problem and it is highly unlikely that there will be a problem for the bank.

HOWEVER I raised a question about this on the 3rd December at a full Council meeting over my concerns that the newly formed Durham Housing Group  will have to use the CoOp. And for that matter that the council uses the CoOp for daily transactions.

I was told that concerns over the bank failing the test were not founded and a I shouldn’t be concerned because the Council only has money in the accounts of the CoOp during the day, and not overnight. Fingers crossed it doesn’t have a problem during the day then.

 

How hard is it to move a fridge? Harder than moving a horse apparently!

A resident contacted me this week to say that there was a fridge in the River Wear at Clements Wharf.

They had contacted the Council who had then referred it to the Environment Agency, who said that they would not attend to it unless it was causing flooding.

As the resident said “So much for civic pride”

So I forwarded the residents’ email to our Director of Neighbourhood Services and Head of Service to see if they could find a solution, and they are now going back to the Environment Agency to find out what can be done because the Council doesn’t own a boat.

Interestingly the Environment Agency helped out last year to remove…….a horse.

 

UPDATE:

Following pressure from the Council’s neighbourhood department, the fridge has been removed – a lesson in common sense learnt by the Environment Agency!

 

Part success on 20 mph zones – but Labour proposals woefully inadequate

Next week Durham County Council’s cabinet will discuss introducing 20 mph zones outside 33 schools in the County. We have over 200 schools in County Durham, and what they are proposing is woefully inadequate.

We have been calling for 20mph zones on residential streets and outside schools for years, and I am quite frankly disgusted with Labour’s plans. They are implementing an apartheid system of safety for school children in County Durham.

Their proposals are going to take at least 3 years to implement because they are not putting in enough resource even for the 33 schools they propose. Indeed even if they amended their policy to do all schools, it would take 20 years to complete the job just for schools.

I find the whole approach distasteful. In the Durham City area, only one school out of dozens will see the 20mph introduced. This is simply unacceptable and as Lib Dem councillors we will be campaigning for equality for all children in County Durham.

One way or another we will get safer streets in our area.