Your actions shout so loudly I can’t hear your words

Goggle Cllr Watts, leader of Bolsover DC and you’ll soon find him indulging in some rather pathetic anti-Thatcher rhetoric. May-be that’s because we have to go back 30 years to find any remnants of socialism in his life. Both of them have uttered some distasteful words but how do their actions compare?

Thatcher famously flogged Council houses at a discount, she managed to shift well over one million during her time, but thirty years on the concept of socially rented housing is still around and needed more than ever. So what has Watts and co done? The rent increases they have pushed through last year coupled with the one they are proposing this year amounts to an average of nearly 15%, that means rents doubling every 10 years, during the biggest recession in our lifetime. With policies like this Watts will finally do what Thatcher failed to do and make consign Council housing to history? To make matters worse the Council doesn’t even need the money, this year the Housing account is predicted to take over £5M more in income than it needs in expenditure. The money will all go to the bank with the balances doubling over the next three years.

Thatcher allowed some of the money from Council houses sales to be used to build new Council houses, Watts has a better idea. He’s making so much money from rents that he proposes to use £1M this year rising to up to £1.7M year to build new council houses. Does it matter where the money comes from so long as the houses are built? Yes it does – paying for new council houses from the rents of current tenants is like asking just current patients to pay for hospitals or families to pay for schools. We should all contribute to the cost of new housing, that way we also make sure the rents remain affordable.

Another Thatcher legacy was the poll-tax – by trying to levy a flat rate tax she made sure that the poor made a disproportionately large contribution and protected the lifestyles of the rich. Bolsover under Watts’s leadership have designed and even more oppressive scheme: forcing every working age person on Council tax benefit to pay 8.5% of the bill. This imposes an additional tax paid only by the very poorest in our community and use the money to subsidise the highest basic allowances of any District Council in the country as well as the £1.4M cost of refurbishing the Council’s palatial new offices at Clowne.

Finally Thatcher of course said there is no such thing as society, and not to be out-done Watts is making sure that there is no such thing as a Community, by personally proposing the closure of all community houses in the District unless some Parish Council, rich benefactor or fairy godmother comes forward to pay for them!

If you still prefer words to actions Councillor Watts – here’s an idea. Why not sign-up to the pledges that your colleagues have made on must prefer words to action Cllr Watts how about signing the statement on http://councillorsagainstcuts.org? Its launched by members of your own party who haven’t forgotten what the Labour party is supposed to be about. Have a word with them, you might that you don’t have to leave your ideals in the past.

A message to you Eion

A message to you Eion (Leader of Bolsover DC)

Hi Eion this is the blog that you don’t read and keep telling me that no-one else reads. You mention that at every single Council meeting which is kind of you and the least I can do in return is to suggest some ideas for your very own blog. Here are some suggestions of things we’d all like to know but only you can answer:

·         How luxurious are the beds, and how good are the meals, in the Union Jack Private Members Club which the Council has footed the bill for when you were on Council business in London?

·        How you entertain yourself in your Mercedes Benz on your long and lonely drive to your meeting in Kilmarnock for which the Council paid you over £230 in travel allowances when the train could have cost less than half the cost?

·         Where will any Parish Council, Councillor or Voluntary Organisation get the money from to take over the running of the District Council’s three Community Houses as you proposed last week?

·         What other District Council services you intend to also try and off-load to Parish Councils or voluntary organisations so you can carry on paying yourself and other Councillors the highest basic allowances of any District in the country?

·         Why are you spear-heading Cameron’s attack on the poorest in society by imposing an 8.5% tax hike on those working age families unfortunate enough to claim Council Tax Benefit even though it’s forecast to cost Bolsover DC more to collect it than the Council will get from it?

·         How many miles has the very opulent civic car done in its first year of use?

And if you get bored of writing about Bolsover DC I’m told people in Barlborough would like to know your views on how much of their Parish Council expenditure has gone on legal costs and compensation payments to staff.

Go on Eion, give openness a go, surely you have nothing to fear from the people?

Is Bolsover on your sat-nav Ed?

Never one to miss a band wagon Ed Milliband has jumped on-board the idea of a living wage. He didn’t say much about it whilst in Government but he says his party is totally committed to it now and has threatened to name and shame any Council that doesn’t implement it.

Green controlled Brighton has nothing to fear from that because it’s been our party policy for years. Over a year ago I asked Eion Watts, the Leader of Labour controlled Bolsover whether he was committed to it and he said he liked the idea but it was impossible in Bolsover cos of the cost and equal pay legislation which required him to maintain all differentials!!. He was wrong on both counts of course, as his Leader is now telling him and countless other Councils are showing.

I feel a bit sorry for Ed it must be hard to lead such a party of nimbys but as the District Auditor will tell him it’ll take more than a little naming and shaming to get Elion to see the light. It also occurred to me that if its costs so much to pay people just £7.20 an hour we must have a lot of staff on poverty wages, a fine advertisement for socialism.

Waking up to the bedroom tax

It's taking a little longer to let tenants know in Bolsover, but word is getting round that from April 2013 there will be some dramatic, and highly damaging, changes for Council tenants on housing benefit.

Across the country a few of us are trying to stand up for the victims of this draconian policy. In spite of what the coalition says the victims will be the children not the parents. However Councils can do something and its important they do what they can. Here's a piece setting out some of the issues and our demands - it's work in progress so let me know if you have anything to add:

 

The bedroom tax will hurt our children.

In April some 660,000 families living in Council or housing association houses and claiming housing benefit will have that benefit cut if they are deemed to have too many bedrooms. Of course the politicians who voted for this don’t just have an extra few bedrooms, they get a whole flat in London paid for by the tax-payer, but that’s another story.  Forcing families into smaller properties will ruin the life prospects of many children and increase the risks to them it is both an inequitable and a dangerous development. Here are just some of the consequences:

·         Children of different sexes under 10 and the same sex under 16 are expected to share a room. However there is no definition or allowance given for the size of that bedroom. It means a house with a tiny single bedroom and one double bedroom would be “big enough” for a couple with two daughters aged 15 and 8, whilst next door a couple with just one toddler won’t have their benefit cut even if they have two  double bedrooms.

·         Where parents have shared responsibilities for a child only the one that gets the child benefit can count that child toward their bedroom entitlement. When the child visits he or she will have to sleep on the sofa, and if there’s more the one child they had better buy a tent.

·         Bizarrely foster children don’t count in the calculation of the number of bedrooms the family needs even though Council invariably require each foster child to have their own bedrooms. On the other hand if you have a lodger you will be entitled to an extra bedroom!

·         There’s no chance of tenants affected by these change being able to downsize, there simply isn’t enough smaller social housing units available. Instead they will be encouraged to take a lodger. Here’s what the case review on baby P said about lodgers “One of the most dangerous of these situations is where an anti-social man who is unrelated to the children joins the household” (Para 2.7.8). Is it worth the risk?  

·         The shortage of adapted properties means that families with disabled members frequently have to take whatever they are offered. However if it has more bedrooms than they are assessed as needing the will lose benefit, even if there is no other property available. There is no exemption for the disabled.

·         The proposals are inherently anti-family. A couple with two children under 10 in a three bedroom house will lose benefits, but their neighbour who may be a single parent  with two children of the same age and a “lodger” won’t. Indeed the lodger can pay up to £20 a week without any loss of benefit. What reason is there for couples to stay together if thye are better off living apart?

·         Councils who have introduced pro-family allocation policies like not placing young children in high rise blocks will find it impossible to maintain them in the face of the demand from tenats for down-sizing.

·         Because the regulations take no account of local housing need they will result in larger social house becoming unlettable in areas such as Northern Ireland and parts of North England where demand is low.

What can be done?

The Coalition Government have forced this through, over-turning every amendment made by the Lords. However Councils and Housing Associations can act to protect children from the most dangerous elements of this dreadful policy and we are calling on them to sign the following pledge:

 

1.   To collect data on the impact of these proposals on the lives of children in their area.

2.   To give the highest priority possible to families who need to move houses as a result of these measures.

3.   To review the Councils own assessment of the number of bedrooms in each property and to refuse to recognise as a bedroom any room below 6.5 sq metres (the minimum bedroom size for a multi-occupied house)

4.   Not to evict any tenant who gets into rent arrears as a direct result of this legislation.

5.   In recognition of the Baby P serious case review to fund and execute CRB checks on prospective lodgers for any family affected by these regulations.

6.   To consider using the pupil premium of £600 per head to enable families losing benefit to pay for an extra bedroom to be kept so that children have somewhere quiet to do their homework.

A new translation service

I'm offering the Leader a new translation service, here's a sample of it:

The Claim.

June: "Despite cuts to the government grants we are determined that front line services will not be affected as we do not feel it is fair that our residents should suffer or feel the pain through no fault of their own. The plans we have in place show we are planning for the future, that we are a responsible Council and that we can continue to deliver our services to meet the needs of our residents" Cllr Watts, Leader of Bolsover DC.

The reality.

August: Councillor's Basic Allowances in Bolsover found to be the highest of any District Council in the country (by some £2,700 a year)

September: The Council's fails its value for money assessment.

October: Labour members of the Council's Safe and Inclusive Scrutiny Committee vote (twice) to recommend the closure of all three of the Council's Community houses in spite of overwhelming representations from the residents who they claim to be protecting.

Suggested Translation.

Despite cuts to the government grants we are determined that our own allowances will not be affected as we do not feel it is fair that we should suffer or feel the pain through any fault of our own.The plans we have in place show we do not have a future; that we have been an irresponsbile Council; and that we will continue to cut our services to meet the needs of ourselves.

and it'll rain for 40 days and 40 nights....

Sometimes you can’t make it up. Bolsover Council have decided that the best name for their new posh pad in Clowne is the “Arc”. Unfortunately they haven’t quite got the spelling right but it’s a wonderful metaphor. Whilst the historic Sherwood lodge and green is buried under tons of tarmac and car exhausts the Labour Councillors batten down the hatches of their shiny new vessel in Clowne. Just like the original ark it’s even got three floors, but there seems some doubt whether it will have room for all God’s creatures. We hear that the Housing team may be left at the Riverside and that Environmental Health will be desk-sharing. At least residents will be relieved to hear that Labour Councillors will have their own office and won’t have to breathe the same air as Councillors from other parties. See even a recession has a silver lining.

Meanwhile as the Executive choose their flock wallpaper (that’s a joke by the way) they wave a cheerie Xmas goodbye to the hard-working staff in the cafe at Sherwood Lodge and residents are just waking up to find out that their Community Houses will be closed. The public toilets went last year, along with Saturday openings of the Contact centres, so what will come next year? I’d like to think that with the most savage benefit cuts the country has ever seen kicking in from April Councillors will start thinking whether they deserve a basic allowance that’s over £2,700 a year more than any other District Council in the country. Oh look I just saw another pig fly.

The Pain is only just beginning

It's like the calm before the storm. But although it's not getting a lot of news coverage the Welfare Reform proposal will start to bite from 1st April and Councils like Bolsover need to start taking action now if their fine words about protecting communities are to be realised in practice.

Here's a question I've tabled for the Council meeting next Wednesday when we also have a lobby in opposition to the Morrisons scheme:

"In just 8 months time the most devastating attack on the poorest people in our lifetime will begin when social housing tenants, deemed to be under-occupying, will have their housing benefits cut as the Coalition government takes £2bn in a year from those on Housing Benefit to fund its tax cuts for the rich.

1.       What is Bolsover Council doing now to identify and assist its tenant who, through no fault of their own, will find they need to move to a smaller property?

2.       Have the Council told them what is happening?

3.       Will these tenants be given top priority banding under the letting system? and

4.       Having saved over £1m in borrowing costs this year will the Council be willing to offer them some financial assistance to meet some of the costs of moving?"

Doing all we can (but don't look to hard)

There's obviously a shortage of news in Bolsover as the latest "In-touch" screams once again that the Council is "doing all it can" to make savings. Including, it seems, recycling their own headlines. Obviously they don't fall into the trap of saying "we are all in this together" because that would mean explaining why they ignored the independent panels advice to cut the Councillor's basic allowances.

I thought I'd test the proof of this particularly pudding by looking at some of the biggest cost items. How much savings have they made in managing Council homes and collecting rubbish? Bear with me the figures may not be appetising but they aren't hard to digest.

Back in 2010/11 before the cuts programme started the cost of managing Council homes was £7.56 per week or £393 per year (I don't think this includes repairs). Now the Council has improved its efficiency the costs have of course gone down??????..... No. Actually they've gone up to £9.17 and for the next two years they are "targeted" to increase to £9.50 then £9.80. That means by 2013/14 the costs will have risen by nearly 30% in 4 years, perhaps now you can see why they had to foist a 9% rent increase onto tenants and seek to blame it on the government.

Perhaps the news on refuse will be better?  After all that investment in new bins and the savings with fortnightly collections. Well indeed as a result of this the costs were targeted to fall by about 4.6% from a target of £49.78 per property in 2010/11 to £47.48 in 2011/12. Oh if only wishes could come true.......In reality I'm afraid the costs in 2010/11 were £46.48 and in 2011/12 they also went up, not down, by 4.3% to £48.50 busting their own target.

Now perhaps we can start to see why they see Morrisons as a guardian angel. Unfortunately by the time they realise it is a mirage the financial hole will be quite a bit deeper and that will affect every resident of Bolsover District which is why it is an issue to Whitwell as much as to Bolsover town.

A plea for sanity

It’s taken a long time but finally Bolsover Council has told the public what it is doing with some of its money at least.

The Council minutes for the 25^th April 2012 have only just become available and state that the overall expenditure requirement for Clowne Campus is £5.884m and the cost of the mini-hub in Bolsover are put at £2.433m making a total of £8.3m if everything goes according to plan. The minutes don’t tell us what they hope to sell Sherwood Lodge to Morrison’s for but with opposition from the public, traders and organisations in the town growing rapidly, they may get a lots less than they think for it. In the meantime they are funding this entire pipe-dream by borrowing money.

 

Can we trust the Council with this mega-deal? Well in all honesty it hasn’t got a good reputation. Last year the External Auditors told the Council that they had “fundamental errors” in reconciling income and expenditure and “Significant governance weakness in contract arrangements”. Even a Council with the very best financial controls would know that in major developments, especially in a Conservation area, can easily have over-runs of 25% or more. On this basis Bolsover DC would need to be getting well over £10M from Sherwood Lodge just to balance the books.

 

The truth is that the whole deal doesn’t stack financially, environmentally, socially or for the economic health of Bolsover. The public of Bolsover want to keep Sherwood Green as a park and the traders of Bolsover certainly don’t want to lose Middle Street car park. Currently Morrison’s haven’t even applied for planning permission for Sherwood Lodge and the prospects of its being granted are rapidly disappearing over the horizon.

 

By failing to consult the pubic properly, the Council has got this badly wrong. It has rushed to the very edge of a financial cliff and is teetering n the brink. There is however still time for them to wake-up smell the coffee and put a stop to the whole calamitous exercise. They can then do what every other Council has done and start the savings exercise by implementing the findings of their own independent panel on member’s remuneration (which would save over £400,000) and then come out of their ivory tower and work with the public to make Bolsover better again.

Cluck, cluck

What happens when a Council, assessed by its own auditors as having had an “inconsistent and unsatisfactory approach to performance management” for several years, tries to cut corners?

We all know that times are tough but when last year I challenged the Labour leadership of Bolsover to accept independent advice and save over £400,000 by reducing their basic allowances I was ignored. Instead they made what they like to call “efficiency savings” by declaring a number of posts in the cleansing, grounds maintenance and housing repairs services redundant. Revealing that Labour Bolsover is similar to Coalition Britain in that whilst we may be “all in this together” some are more “in it” than others.

This year the chickens have come home to roost and residents can see for themselves how “efficient” the Council’s cuts have been. However looking at the length of the Council’s grass at the Jubilee street party in our village however we won’t be able to see any chickens at all. And it’s the same story right across the District of Bolsover. I’m told that one excuse is that it’s rained a lot this year. I think it also rained last year before Bolsover cut its Grounds Maintenance staff.

Long grass is unsightly but other cuts are more dangerous. Just two months ago the Council’s internal auditors looked at the arrangements for ensuring all Council homes with gas appliances have their statutory annual service. They found the service wanting giving it the lowest categorisation of “unsatisfactory” which means it has major risks” requiring “fundamental improvements”. Here’s a flavour of what they found:

“A sample of servicing records for thirty properties was examined. In eleven instances servicing took place over twelve months after the previous service, all were less than a month overdue.  It was explained that the delay in servicing was due to the length of time taken to replace an engineer who left the Council.”

So be warned when they tell you that their “efficiency savings” can cut front-line jobs without affecting services, or that they can make oodles of cash from property deals, if you look up the sky is black with chickens coming over the “horizon” already.

People Power

Residents of Whitwell, Hodthorpe, Belph and Creswell  have another to celebrate this weekend as Alkane have withdrawn their application for an mega anaerobic digester on the edge of the village. 

I don't think anyone who has followed the twists and turns of this sage since the application was submitted nearly two years ago would doubt that the single biggest factor in achieving this brilliant outcome was the campaigning zeal of the public pressure group Whitwell Against Alkane. They have shown that ordinary people running a well organised and mobilised campaign can defeat even the vested interest of a large and wealthy private company. The writing is now on the wall for any Council that does not have public support for its actions. 

Many people said that Whitwell Against Alkane were wasting their time but it can never be a waste of time to stand-up for what you believe in. It now seems that it was Alkane were not only wasting their money but tarnishing the reputation of a technology which can make an important contribution to prevenitng climate chnage if it is deployed in the right place. That is on the farm where the waste is produced not 40 miles away, hopefully Alkane now understand this.

Greenwash anyone?

You have to feel sorry for Bolosver Council’s PR team. Tasked with explaining to staff why the Council is moving to Clowne they recite the mantra that the Council faces cuts, something has to be done, and moving to Clowne is something, so we are going to do it. Never mind the other, easier, “somethings” such as cutting members allowances.

The second line of defence is the wonderland logic that says Sherwood Lodge is too big so the Council is moving to a site that is larger. I’m trying not to be disrespectful to the Council so I have nothing to say about this.

When both these justification fails the PR team get all eco-conscious and say the Council cares so much for the environment that they are moving to a building that is more energy efficient. Given that Bolsover’s current climate change strategy expired last year, their climate change office group has been suspended,  the Cabinet appears to have given up on providing PV panels on council houses and the Council thinks nothing of uprooting a few mature trees to make way for a Morrison’s filling station, this claim seemed to warrant closer inspection.

Fortunately all public sector buildings are required to declare their energy efficiency.  The Council’s current HQ, Sherwood Lodge, was grade G, the lowest grade possible, in 2009. In 2010 it improved so much it just squeezed into grade E, but in 2011 it fell back to grade F. Clowne Campus has two certificates one for the main building and the other for the engineering block. The former is grade C but the later shares the same energy efficiency as Sherwood Lodge, it is grade F, indeed its precise rating is worse that of Sherwood Lodge.

Given that the Council was able to improve from grade G to grade E in just one year it would surely be more environmentally sustainable to have continued to invest in energy efficiency in Sherwood Lodge and let someone else, another college perhaps? use the main site at Clowne.

Follow the money

It used to be said that only three people ever understood how Council housing was funded and one of them was dead. But it matters to tenants, enormously.

One of the "bright ideas" of the last Labour Government was to get Council's to borrow a shed load of money to keep the rents from the Council houses that everyone thought they already owned. In the case of Bolsover the amount needed to be borrowed is some £94M. Unsurprisingly when the coalition took over they rather liked this idea as it raised a big wedge of money so it has already been implemented.

So when Bolsover Council officers drew-up the Housing budget and rent increase in early March they had to guess how much it would cost them to borrow £94M later that month. They took a prudent view and one of the consequences was a huge average increase of over 9% in the rent which was then approved by the Labour controlled Council.

At the April Council meeting I asked them what the difference was between the budgeted cost for borrowing in early March and the actual costs in late March and what the rent increase would have been if they had got the guess right. The answer was that the rent increase could have been 6% instead of 9% as the cost of borrowing had been £1.4M below the budget provision.

The next obvious step is to pay this money back to the tenants it was taken from..........but don't hold your breadth.

Sunset over the Horizon

Bolsover's Councils project horizon under which they want to demolish their 18 year old building and sell it, along with the surrounding parkland (see below), and a Victorian house to Morrison's has suddenly hit the buffers.

Firstly the Council passed a new planning strategy for open space this morning which says that Bolsover doesn't have enough parks and open spaces - so good argument for keeping the ones we've got.

Secondly the campaign to register the green under the Commons Act has got off to a great start with "Keep Calm" posters starting to appear all over Bolsover and evidence forms already being submitted. You can gert yours from the Castle Sweet Shop in Cavendish Walk

Follow this blog for more news and keep believing in tomorrow!

If your think Morissons will bring real jobs to Bolsover then read this.

Here's an illuminating article from the Scotsman courtesy of a twitter from a (but maybe not the) Dennis Skinner.  If you are going to the consultation next week ask them how they can justify having 10% of all the apprentces in the Country.

Published on Monday 2 April 2012 12:02

"NEARLY four in 10 of the workforce of major supermarket chain Morrisons are now classed as apprentices, it is claimed today.

More than 10 per cent of all apprenticeships created in England last year were with the chain, according to tonight’s BBC Panorama.

The programme carries criticism of the retail apprenticeship, saying that last year it took an average of just six months to complete.

Charlie Mullins, founder of independent plumbing company Pimlico Plumbers, employs 18 apprentices out of a staff of 200, and their training takes a minimum of three years.
He said of short retail apprenticeships: “I think all they’re really doing is undervaluing the word apprentice, and they’ve really just seen a loophole in the system that they can claim money on it.”
Nick Linford, editor of the publication FE Week, said: “We’ve seen record growth in apprenticeships. Big headline numbers look great on paper but scratch under the surface and maybe we shouldn’t be calling them all apprenticeships.”

Elmfield Training, the private company that accredits Morrisons’ apprentices, has a government contract worth £37 million, Panorama said.

Norman Pickavance, group HR director at Morrisons, defended the high number of apprentices, telling the programme: “Forty per cent of people are trying to get a basic qualification. People who leave school without a qualification often feel that they don’t have access and don’t see the kind of skilled jobs or managerial positions as something they can aspire to.”

Shhhhh, it's a consultation

Rumour has it that the next Morissons consultation is on Friday the 27th and Saturday 28th of April in the Assembly Rooms. However with just ten days to go there's nowt on the BDC web-site. Some people say that the Council simply doesn't want people to know what's going on, may-be they think no-one will notice.

Red Tories , Blue Labour and the Supermarkets

Not had much time to blog recently - been busy helping Dave Wells who's standing for the Green Party in Belper. He fighting a Tory Council who want to inflict a massive supermarker onto a unique and characterful town. Of course nothing like that would happen in Labour controlled Bolsover.............(sometimes you just can't tell the difference).

Last time I checked my calendar said April - so Morisson's seem to be finding it difficult to come up with more reasons. With no date even set for their second consultation it's not surprising rumours are swirling around. To paraphrase Churchill - we're not even at the end of the beginning on this one :)

 Duncan

Unfair, Unaffordable and Unnecessary

The implications of Bolsover's dreadful decision to put Council rents up by an average of 9% and warden charges by up to 26% are starting to become all to clear. Cameron has eagerly announced new right to buy discounts of up to 75% meaning that it won't be long before many tenants find it cheaper to buy than rent. And with properties being given away like this they'll be no money to build any more houses and less coming in in rent to service the £94 million loan the Council will be saddled with.

The only fair and affordable strategy is to keep rents down, whether the Government like it or not (what's it got to do with them anyway??) That way money continues to flow into local shops and the costs to us all in paying for tenants on benefits is minimised. So its good news that the petition to get Bolsover to re-think their decision is now up and running in shops on the many estates across the District. If you want a copy of the petition or the poster drop me an email on kerr.duncan@hotmail.co.uk. Later on we will be holding the first meeting with the Campaign to Defend Council Housing so watch the blog for further details.

Duncan

It's a Ford.

Demonstrating a complete lack of sensitivity for staff feelings, in the same month that Labour Councillors pushed through a major cut in staff mileage rates and refused point-blank to consider operating a cheaper pool car system, Bolsover Council took delivery of a brand new Civic car.

To rub salt into the wound its parked right outside the main entrance where it doesn’t exactly convey an image of frugalness. With emissions well into band F it isn’t going to trouble the Green Car top ten either. Of course it is splendidly equipped with all mod cons including, bizarrely, tinted windows!

I know the Queen has one but does the Chairman of Bolsover need a dedicated car and chauffeur to boot? All Councillors can claim a mileage allowance so why can’t the Chairman, or Chairwoman for that matter, drive themselves to their functions? When youth services are being slashed, staff transferred to shared service units, pay increases suspended and Council housing rents going up by 9% surely it’s time to show some restraint.

I’m told that back in July a member of staff said that a cost of £25K (plus running costs) for this car was out of touch with the views of staff and the public and difficult to justify when severe cuts were being made and jobs at risk. Back then the Council said they had “no idea” where the figure of £25K could have come from so couldn’t comment on it! They then explained that whilst there hadn't been a dedicated civic car in the past it was needed now because the car shared by the Chairman with the courier was no longer needed as that service was being cut.

I don’t know how much the Council paid for this car but according to Ford's web-site the rrp is £22,792 in the showroom with VAT making it £27,560 on the road. When you add in tax, maintenance, cleaning and the chauffeur it would seem to wipe out much of the saving made by terminating the courier.

Who made this decision? – In truth I don’t know. It certainly didn’t come to Full Council. It may have gone to a Cabinet as a confidential item but they don't let me see all of them. This morning I just picked-up a copy of “In-Touch”, the Council’s glossy sent to all residents. Ahh I thought it might be in there...... perhaps alongside an apology for both the rent increase and the recent auditor's letter but those pages must have fallen out of my copy so until they print all the news about Bolsover I'll keep tapping away at my blog.

Black Wednesday for Council tenants

Time was when you were both proud and fortunate to get a Council house. Now that things aren't so easy, benefits are being cut and the Government says a Council tenancy shouldn't be for life, what does Bolsover Council do? Does it extend a helping hand in a time of trouble? Not exactly, on Wednesday morning the Council nodded through an average rent rise of 9% for Council tenants. For some it'll be over 10% and just to add insult to injury, warden and other charges will also be increasing by up to 26%. Feels more like an iron fist than a helping hand to me.

I've spoken to some tenants in Whitwell about this decision and they are both shocked and appalled. They tell me they have never been consulted and ask what on earth is happening to all their money. We are always told most of the Council's budget goes on staffing but no increase at all is predicted for Council staff so where is it going?

Of course if the Council let some of the 149 odd houses standing empty it would help relieve the pressure on rents as would cutting some of the fat, like the £150,000 budgetted every year for "Other Miscellaneous Expenses" but much of the money is being squirrelled away into a fund to build more Council houses. Now I'm all for that but why should only tenants pay for them? - after all they are the ones who already have a Council house! Why doesn't everyone in the District contribute like we do for hospitals, schools and even Housing Association properties (who get grants from the Homes and Communities Agency)? Surely that would be fairer?

The consequence of this short-sighted policy will be to push yet more tenants into benefits ready to fall off a cliff when those same benefits are cut. And it won't even help the Council. With average rents increasing to £74.39 per week it is inevitable that more tenants will get into debt and houses will be harder and harder to let. The Council's budget even calculates just how many will get into debt.

Perhaps the saddest thing of all on Wednesday was not the lack of support from either the Labour group, the Independents or the Residents Association Councillors to my call to cap increases at 5% but their collective failure to acknowledge the pain and distress that their increases will cause. It was as if they didn't want to talk about it. Some even tried to barrack me when as I carefully explained how a pension increase of 5.2% and a rent increase of 9% spells misery to a pensioner.

May-be its time for a bit of old fashioned tenant action to make Bolsover Councillor's realise that Council tenants are not all on benefit. Many tenants have small savings, or miners pensions, that make them ineligible and feel every extra penny charged in rent. They expect a Labour Council to stand-up for them against Coalition policies. Other Councils are rejecting these increases - and it was clear at the meeting that the Leader was well aware of this growing movement. If Labour Councillors in Bolosver can't stand-up for tenants and reject these rent increases, tenants must start to wonder whether they have the stomach to fight for anything........................other than their own allowances of course.