Barry Stamp's Political Diary

Norbury Parish Council was a quiet affair this evening. Indeed it was so quiet it was over almost before it had started. High on the agenda were three planning applications which were all discussed in detail before the Council came to a recommendation. I do worry that Parish Council’s take their work seriously only for it to be completely overlooked by the Borough Council’s planning department. Time and time again I’ve sat in Parish Council meetings knowing full well they are wasting their time sending their views to the planners. At the Planning Committee, or in letters back to the Parish Council’s, the officers will say the objections that have been raised are not for planning reasons and have been ignored. I firmly believe planning is about people, and that people living in a Village probably know it better than some officer miles away in the Civic Offices. If the Borough Council asks the Parish for a comment they should at the very least give it proper consideration.

Tonight’s meeting of the Borough Council showed once again just how much contempt the Conservatives have for the rest of the Council. At the start of the meeting a Labour Councillor asked a question to Mike Heenan the Cabinet Member for Resources about grants to outside bodies. Under the rules once the question has been answered further questions can be asked until ten minutes have gone by. It was here that the Tories showed their true colours. Firstly Mike gave a series of very vague answers that in no way addressed the question, and then the planted questions from other Conservative Councillors appeared. It was so obvious that these questions had been planted as Mike blatantly read the answers. Of course these questions received full and detailed answers, as they asked for information about the successes. Any question from opposition Councillors about the failures in the system got an almost standard noncommittal response. The was the Conservatives run the Council is starting to make a number of opposition Councillors wonder if it’s worth attending. Without the ability to ask probing questions no proper scrutiny can take place and the Council will just do what it likes!

Tonight’s meeting of Haughton Parish Council turned out to be another action packed event. At the end of last week I was contacted by a reporter from the Staffordshire Newsletter who asked for my thoughts on the vandalism that had taken place earlier in the week on the Village playing field. He went on to tell me that the porta-cabin that had recently been placed on the field as a meeting place for youngsters from the Village had been smashed up and was now unusable. I had to admit I did know anything about this, but offered to find out some information and get back to him.

To cut a long story short it appears that the cabin had been provided by a group of parents as part of the Village’s Local Action Group initiative. The LAG was set-up a few months ago by Staffordshire Police and was designed to get the local community involved with solving problems in the area. On of the issues raised at one of the group meetings was lack of facilities for young people. PC Steve Wilson, the Police co-ordinator had responded by setting up a sub-group just to look at youth issues. This had resulted in the porta-cabin being placed on the playing field. As a Parish Councillor I was surprised that this had happened as I could not recall the Parish Council giving permission for this to take place.

It was this matter that dominated the Parish Council meeting. All the Councillors agreed that there was a need for youth facilities in the Village, and indeed as a County Councillor I had recommended a grant to be given, from my Local Members Imitative Money, to the youth service to re-establish a youth club in the Village Hall. What was more disturbing was how the parents had gained access to the field as the vehicle gates are kept locked. Without planning permission and insurance, someone could have been in deep trouble if an accident had occurred. Two members of the public added their support to the parents but did agree the whole project could have been better planned. After along debate we had certainly not made much impression and perhaps knew no more than when we started. I’m not sure if some of the Councillors knew more than they were saying, but in the end we did agree to formally write to all the key holders to find out who had unlocked the field gate. I also suggested that the Council invite PC Steve Wilson to the next Council meeting so we could discuss the relationship being the LAG project and the Parish Council.

I would certainly congratulate the parents on their efforts to get something done but can only thank God that no accidents occurred while the cabin was on the field uninsured. As a matter of interest the remains of the cabin was broken up and carted away by a group of parents on Friday night!

Who would want to take down over 100 Liberal Democrat posters that don’t belong to them? That’s the question David Seary and myself were asking each other when we went to take down the remaining poster left up after last weeks Euro election. They had gone! David had seen them yesterday but by this lunch time they had all been taken down. It’s usual for a handful of posters to disappear during an election campaign, but I’ve never heard of 100+ going. One I’ve established that no other part members has them I intend to contact both the County Council and the Borough Council’s to see if they’ve been quick off the mark and removed them, but as posters belonging to other parties are still on the lamp posts I don’t think that is very likely. If I do draw a blank the only other course of action is to inform the police, but I don’t imagine a fully manned incident room being set-up in Stafford to help get the crime solved!

On Friday Afternoon I visited a rather splendid farm house just outside Bradley. The owners of the house have done a marvellous job in restoring it. However they have also installed a new drive, which one has to say is also of a very high standard. Under normal circumstances no-one would have know this drive existed, but the owners have now applied for planning permission to convert some old barns. This was their downfall as an eagle eyed planning officer at the Borough Council noticed the new drive on the plan. She suggested the applicant make a retrospective planning application – which they did. Quite rightly in my opinion the planning officer recommended the development of the new drive be approved, but this stance was overturned by one of her superiors.

As the local Councillor the householder asked for my advice. I suggested he resubmit his plans and I would “call in” the application so the Planning Committee could have the final say. Hopefully, given the recommendation of the planning officer I might be able to get the Committee to agree to the drive. When one sees some of the terrible developments the planners allow I cannot understand why they should turn this driveway down. The quality of the work is exceptional and I would think, given a few years for the new gravel to weather, it will look as if it was installed at the same time as the farmhouse, which incidentally is thought to date back to Tudor times!

The Conservatives are again facing some difficult decisions over next years budget. Tonight’s meeting of the Borough Council’s Resources Scrutiny Committee was told that an expected shortfall of just over £1Million could be expected. Cllr Mike Heenan – the Cabinet Member for Resources – said that it was too early to say how this deficit was to be met. He did however restate the Conservatives commitment not to up Council Tax by more than the headline rate of inflation. Cllr Andrew Compton and myself led the opposition scrutiny, and tried to get Mike to agree that the only way to make up any shortfall was to either cut service and jobs or put up prices. However all he would say was "it's too early to say" and "nothing is ruled out or ruled in"!

One strategy the Conservatives have is to make 2% cuts in the base budget of each Council department. I pointed out to the committee that this would only provide around £300,000 and that still left around £750,000 to find!

It was interesting that during the debate the Conservative members on the scrutiny committee said very little. Only a couple of their members spoke, and one said he was sure Cllr Heenan could find ways of bridging the gap while still retain services and charges at their current level. He did say something about pulling a rabbit out of a hat, but that total confused me and the rest of the committee so I for one switched off at that point!

I’m more concerned that local residents are going to suffer. This year we’ve seen travel tokens being scrapped for the elderly who live in Stafford and Stone; car-park charges have gone up, and rent collectors and local housing offices are being closed. I am worried that next year it will take more than a trick with a rabbit and hat to get the books to balance and that the only real way is to make even more cuts or raise prices even higher!

Tonight I attended a meeting of the Gnosall Community Forum. This group is made up of representatives of different organisations along with anyone else who is interested in improving the well being of the community in the Village. As Sue Green the usual Chairman was unable to attend through illness Sheila Buckley stepped into the breach and chaired the meeting. Shelia is employed by the County Council Youth and Community Service and is involved in many Village organisations as part of her work. However the County council are now changing how they provide youth and community services. This will mean that the rural youth clubs that rely on volunteer staff and are coordinated by Shelia will no longer be supported by the County Council. This is causing major unrest and uncertainty amongst the volunteers and I am extremely worried that clubs might close as a result. I’ve had a number of meetings with Shelia to discuss how the situation could be improved and have raised the issue at County Council meetings only to be told that I’m exaggerating and there are no problems and the staff are happy. I’ve certainly seen moral dip with all those involved with youth clubs in this area so I know that is not the case. In rural areas there is little enough for children to do with their youth club being forced to close through lack of support.

To make matters worse we were told tonight that Staffordshire Youth Service are now looking at new “opening hours” for their youth clubs which will include weekends and most holidays. While on paper this seems a reasonable idea I do think it is fundamentally flawed. As most of paid youth workers only work part-time and in the evenings I don’t see where the County Council expect to get the staff from to make these changes! I know how difficult it is to get people to work in youth clubs at the best of times so this change could be the final straw for some clubs!

I’ve spent a couple of hours tonight at Gnosall Parish Council. Once again much of the meeting passed me by as the Council kept referring to minutes of various sub-committees that had only been distributed to the Parish Councillors. The new Chairman Tony Innamorati controlled the meeting with great skill and finished almost dead on 9.30pm – not at all bad when you consider the length of the agenda. My only real input of the whole 2 hours was to give the Council some details of the contents of the draft A518 Route Strategy. This document has been long awaited, as it is seen as holding the key to future improvements along the road which runs through the middle of the Village. I’m pleased the County Highways Department has recognised that the dangerous junction and bridge at Coley Mill should be given the number one spot in the priority list and that the narrowness of the road at the west end of Gnosall should be placed second. I assured the meeting that once the final document was published they would receive a copy after which public meeting could be arranged to see what everyone thought. The Strategy is only the next step along a very long road, and I do fear it will be sometime before the road is made completely safe for both motorists and pedestrians alike. While I’m convinced the County Council and Gnosall and Haughton Parish Council’s have the willing to see improvements made, I’m more worried about where the money is going to come from to do the work. It would be a grave mistake to waste money doing only half a job, but in the end this might be all the County council can afford!

This afternoon was rather pleasant. It was the Stone Liberal Democrats Annual garden Party held at the home of Richard and Jan Stevens. The weather was quite pleasant but even so most of the gather throng sat round under the shelter of a couple of gazebos and enjoyed an afternoon centred on cups of tea and cream and jam scones. Of course politics was never far from the agenda and I think every aspect of last weeks Euro elections was picked over and dissected. The usual Lib Dem tombola took pride of place in the garden along with a well stocked produce stall – Richard and Jan are keen organic gardeners. All in all the afternoon was a good way to relax in good company and also a way of raising much needed party funds.

As a Governor of my local primary school I am asked to make some difficult decisions, but the one the governors made tonight was an exception. It appears that Mrs Griffiths the head teacher had been asked by one of the parents if they could video the annual leaver’s celebrations as they were unable to attend in person. Teaching staff at the school had already become worried by the disturbance that was being caused by parents with video camera and had decided to ban them from future school performances. Unfortunately Mrs Griffiths had asked the LEA for their guidance and they had sent a document that highlighted the dangers of publishing any photographs of children. What followed was a debate that lasted over an hour at the end of which a compromise was reached which gave Mrs Griffith the power to write to parents asking their permission to photograph their children and also banning video camera at least till the summer holidays. In the autumn the Governors would, after consulting with parents, decide on a policy to cover all aspects of photograph and videos, which the school would then adopt. I have to say that I, along with a couple of other Governors were not happy with the compromise, as we could not see what the difference was between taking pictures with a still or video camera. The British are renowned for taking the middle line on any issue, but in this case I think we were wrong. Mrs Griffiths agenda was to get video recording banned, not because the video would contain pictures of children, but rather because the activity disturbed the rest of the audience and the children who were performing. It will be interesting to see how the parents take this news and the way Mrs Griffith is going to explain the stance the Governors have adopted.

As the County town the one thing Stafford lacks is its own radio station. Tonight the first steps in putting this right were taken. A number of radio enthusiasts from across the town have been plotting for sometime as to how a radio licence could be obtained to allow a station to operate. Changes in the law now looks as if this might be allowed, so the group called a public meeting for interested parties to meet and discuss the idea. This was held in the Borough Council Offices and was well attended. The audience included a wide range of ages and one would have thought backgrounds. Four Councillors turned up which I thought was rather disappointing.

What is clear is that once a recognised group has been established much hard work is left to be done, including raising the start up capital of around £300,000. As the radio station would operate under a community licence it cannot be funded by businessmen intent on making a profit, so must rely on community involvement and funding. Once its up an running at least half of its income could come from advertising which should relieve the burden. I was pleased to offer my support to the project and will be attended the next meeting which is planned for early July.

Meetings of the Sow and Penk Drainage board are always polite affairs. The Board itself is made up of Councillors, owners of land which is in the drainage board area, and a representative of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately to-days meeting was not that well attended, with only four councillors, one land owner, and the trust representative present. Luckily it only lasted about an hour and a half so those people who failed to attend can at least think they didn’t miss much!

Tonight’s Euro Election count was quite a shock in Stafford. Both the Labour and Conservatives lost ground while the Liberal Democrats were the only major party to make gains. Labour’s vote fell by a massive 6.9% and the Tories were not far behind loosing 6.5%. The Lib Dems gained 2.5%. However the big gainer of the night was UKIP. As the votes were counted it was obvious UKIP were doing well and I think everyone, including Victor Chell – their agent expected them to come second in the poll ahead of Labour. However at the final reckoning they only managed third place. As a single issue party I would expect they will have little effect in a General Election apart from taking votes away from the Conservatives who if tonight’s performance is anything to go by can ill afford to loose them! What was also interesting was watching David Kidney’s face. It is obvious he was not happy with the vote and must be worried that his days as MP for Stafford is limited.

What is also good to see is that the trend set in Stafford mirrors exactly what happened nationally. Across the Country the Liberal Democrats were the only one of the three main parties to make gains in the share of the vote. As dawn broke on Monday morning not only had the Labour and Conservative vote slumped but two more Liberal MEPs had been elected to serve in Brussels.

This morning I attended the opening of a new exhibition at the Ancient High House which chronicled the life of William Palmer – the Rugeley posioner. The exhibition was a joint venture between the Borough and County Council and was of the usual high standard one associates with the High House. Mark Hartwell – the Council’s Heritage Sites Manager – should be justly proud of the way he is developing not only the High House but also the other heritage sites across the Borough. My only worry is that as budget constraints continue to bite the heritage sites do provide an easy target to make quite substantial savings. It is clear they will never make a profit, but as a Staffordian I proud of the towns past and think it should be displayed for all to see.

The opening of the ballot boxes for to-days Euro elections was an anticlimax. As usual the event was held in the large sports hall in Riverside Centre in Stafford. Representatives of all three main parties were there trying to get an idea of who the vote had gone. Counting votes in Euro elections is always a funny business. Because many parts of Europe don’t vote until Sunday tonight event was only so the number of ballot papers could be checked. Unfortunately the counters had been given instructions to count the papers face down. It was interesting to watch how the representatives of the political parties handled this situation. Most just stood around chatting but one or two did try to see what was happening. Labour Party representatives had all been given forms on which they were supposed to tally the votes. On Elaine Kidney the wife of Stafford’s MP seemed to be taking this task seriously and at times it appeared she might try to jump on the counting tables to get a better view of what was happening. At the other end of the spectrum one labour worker said he was likely to be thrown out of the party as he had a blank sheet of paper!

James Cantrill, a Conservative Councillor had drawn the short straw for the Tories. His instruction was to get a random sample of two hundred votes to try to gauge Tory support. He wandered backwards and forwards around the hall snatching what ever information he could, and at the end of his sampling came to the conclusion that it was a complete waste of time but if he was right the Conservatives at taken 40% of the vote. Everything will become much clearer on Sunday night when the count proper takes place!

Tonight’s planning meeting was interesting as the first item on the agenda was the proposed development of two huge warehouses on the Primepoint 14 site. The public seats were packed. Despite the prospect of the development bring hundreds of jobs to the town the Planning Committee through it out, with only two Councillors voting for the scheme. The arguments revolved around the fact that the sheds were far taller than the outline permission on the site allowed and that the developer should know better than submitting a plan that breached this size limit. Also the fact that the warehouses were being built purely as a speculative venture, and that no jobs were guaranteed did not help the case. What was surprising was that as only two Councillors had voted for the plans there was not enough supporters to ask for the decision to be taken up to full Council.

Having sat through that debate my item was more mundane, but just as important to the applicant. I was visiting the Committee to support a application in Haughton to renew the outline permission to build two houses on a site within the village. This application should never have got as far as the Planning Committee and should have been approved by the officers under their delegated powers. In essence it was just a renewal of an earlier successful application, but changes in Government planning guidance meant the rules had changed and the plot was now considered green field!

I spoke in support of the application and appealed to the Committee’s sense of moral justice. Luckily all but two committee members agreed with me and the application was past against the officers recommendations.

I spent most of today and yesterday walking the streets in Doxey delivering newspaper for the Euro elections. As County Councillor for Gnosall division I have a keen interest in Doxey as it will be amalgamated into my County area by the boundary changes which come into force next May. Thankfully by the time it went dark tonight we had only failed to deliver to about 30 houses out of a total of well over 1000 so the exercise was worthwhile. It certainly got me out on the “patch” and I did meet quite a few local residents and also picked up some case work.

To-nights meeting of Church Eaton Parish Council was certainly livelier than normal. I should have known something was afoot when six members of the public turned up. When the Chairman reached the public question time item and opened the meeting for comment all hell broke loose when the owner of the local pub accused one of the Councillors of reporting the builders working on an extension at this premises to the health and safety executive. You can imagine the reaction as the councillor protested her innocence. After quite a frank exchange of views the Chairman managed to regain control by pointing out the matter in question was not on the Council’s agenda and as such could not be discussed. As both the Borough and County Councillor for the Village I was surprised as that was the first time I’d heard there was a problem with the building work as no one had complained to me about it.

The rest of the public question time passed more peacefully as one resident asked about grass cutting, and the other four raised a problem over a planning application. I both cases I offered to find out more information and in the case of the planning application agreed to arrange a meeting between a member of staff from the County Council’s highways department and the Parish Council Chairman and the local residents.

Staffordshire County Council are currently undergoing a “peer assessment” to gauge just how well they are performing. This morning I, along with about ten other Councillors were “interviewed” by three members of the review team. One was the review team manager, an other a Labour Councillor from another authority, and the third – the Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council.

I felt somewhat out of place and certainly out numbered by my colleagues as all but one were Labour Councillors and all of these were either Cabinet Leaders or their Deputies. The other Councillor was the ex-leader of the Conservative Group and Chairman of the Resources Scrutiny Committee. You can imagine that very little criticism of the Council was voiced, and at times I felt like a lone voice during the far ranging discussion.

After the meeting which lasted for one and a half hours I popped into to see Roger Carr the officer which leads the Council improvement team and who was responsible for setting up the meeting. It turned out the review team had asked for a mixture of front and back benchers and that I was the only opposition back bencher present as the others had sent their apologies at the last minute.

All in all it was an interesting 90 minutes as I certainly learnt how the controlling group and especially the cabinet saw itself!

Last night I attended a church service at St Mary’s Church in Stafford to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. The service was attended by the Mayor of Stafford – Cllr Frank Finlay – and a number of the Council members. Also in attendance were representatives of ex-servicemen’s organisations from across the town. Although the church was in no way full the service was well attended and gave all those present the opportunity to remember men from Stafford who had fought in that D-Day conflict.

On guard outside the church was a lone anti ware protestor. I’m not sure who the man is but he is a well known Stafford character and can be often seen sitting on his camping chair in the Market Square. I have had a number of long conversations with him about his views on the Iraq war and was interested in his account of his time as a solider. Although he could easily be dismissed by many as an eccentric he does make some valid points about the way this Country was dragged into the Iraq war and the future for our troops that are still in that Country.

Staffordshire County Council has links with Ivanovo City, which is 350 kms to the east of Moscow in Russia. This week a delegation including the City Mayor – Mr Groshev- is visiting Stafford as part of this link. This morning members of the Council were invited to a seminar in the Council chamber where we were told we could compare the differences in the two communities.

The meeting was set to start at 10.30am, but it appears the Russians work on a different time system as the mayor did not appear until just after 11.00. I was disappointed that only about half the Council had bothered to attend, but as the morning unfolded it became clear that the missing Councillors must have been better informed than I was.

First of all Eddie Boden, the Council’s Chairman gave a brief outline of the way the County Council is structured and run. The Mayor of Ivanovo doesn’t speak any English so he was accompanied by an interpreter who followed Eddies presentation from a printed sheet and made the Mayor aware of the relevant details. After about two minutes one Councillor stood up and suggested that perhaps it would have helped if the Chairman had had his speech translated into Russian so the Mayor could follow it himself. To the great amusement of the assembled crowd Eddie said that that would have been a good idea but he had only been given his speech five minutes earlier!

The chairman was followed by a video presentation to show the Councillors what Ivanio looked liked. The only problem being was that this was run from a lap-top computer in the centre of the Council chamber which also produced the accompanying sound track. I have never seen the Council members being so attentive. Everyone leaned forward to try to catch what was being said and quite a few people made desperate attempts to increase the volume on the earring aids. This was an excellent opportunity that failed from the outset!

However the Russian guests were certainly not down hearted and the Mayor started on his presentation. However his interpreter needed to operate the lap-top so remained in the centre of the Council chamber with her back to the majority of the Councillors. The mayor used one of the microphones that dot the chamber – the interpreter wasn’t near one! Once again the audience struggled to hear.

What we did learn was that Ivanovo was historically a textile town but like most other industrialised towns in Europe has suffered through pressures brought about by far east manufactures undercutting the market. As a result Ivanovo were refocusing their economic base to include heavy engineering, expanding their education and university provision, and exploiting the grown Russian tourism industry. It was perhaps this point in the morning when the fact that a city many thousands of miles away was facing the same problems as Staffordshire suddenly struck home.

John Taylor, the Council’s Deputy Leader rounded off the session by telling us all that Staffordshire’s involvement with Ivanovo should be applauded. Drawing on EEC funding the Council had been training Social and Youth workers from Russia, who in turn have returned home to train their colleagues. This has resulted in Ivanovo becoming a leader in detached youth work in the whole of Russia. In return Staffordshire has rethought the way it trains some of its personnel using many examples it had found in Ivanovo.

This morning I meet with two officers from the County Council to discuss plans for a working group to look at how the County Road Safety Department work with other service providers such as the police and fire brigade. The working group has been set up by the Council’s Environment Scrutiny Committee and I’ve been asked to chair it. As this is a subject close to my heart I jumped at the chance!

I think everyone is concerned that many of the road safety schemes put forward by the County Council rely on police to enforce the measures. One good example is the new double yellow lines which have been installed on the junction of Lowfield Land and the A518 in Gnosall. I’d been pressing for these lines for sometime as parents picking their children up from Heron Brook School, which is on Lowfield Lane, park on the junction and cause a real danger. However now the lines have been installed little seems to have changed because the parents know that the police are not going to be around and so still park there!

I spent nearly two hours taking about these problems to Graham Jones - Head of Community Programmes and Safety in the Development Services Department - and Tina Randall one of the Council’s Scrutiny Managers who will provide all the backup administration for the working group. It’s clear from this discussion that more could be done to encourage closer working between the County, police and Fire brigade and that perhaps this study should be widened to include the ambulance service as well. The first step now is to approach the other three organisations to seek their assistance and to invite them to send a representative to a meeting in a couple of weeks time to discuss if they think any thing can be gained by the working group looking at the possible co-operation in some detail. Depending on a positive outcome I hope the first real meeting of the working group will take place in late July.

Working in partnership is I believe the only way forward for all four organisations. This should not only insure the public get a better quality service and that costs will be reduced but also that accident numbers on Staffordshire roads should be reduced.

I’ve spent today at the County Show. Over the years this event has become less and less of an agricultural show and more and more like a market. This no doubt reflects the decline in the agricultural industry in the County. It does not seem too long since the show was dominated by agricultural machine sales stands and other suppliers to the farming industry. Today I would estimate you could count the number of machinery sales of the figures on one hand!

As usually the County Council had the biggest big marquee on the field which was filled with displays and exhibits which the Council think will give the general public an insight into its work. Perhaps I’m a sceptic, but I do wonder how much this marquee and its content costs the rate payers of the County and whether it is good value for money. If nothing else it must take thousands of hours of staff time both before and during the show to get the display together, and while it is I suppose good publicity for the Council it will have no direct effect to the majority of local residents. I’m sure that if they were asked if they would want the Council to spend this money or reduce the rate of the Council Tax the answer would be clear and I think not in favour of the County Show!