Tears of a Cowne

I've sent this to the Derbyshire Times:

Tears of a Clowne

Amongst all the hype about the decision by Bolsover Council to purchase Clowne College Campus here’s a few facts:

1.       Morrison’s have not agreed to purchase Sherwood Lodge, nor have they applied for planning permission.

2.       Clowne College was built with public money. Bolsover residents are now being asked to buy-back what they already own.

3.       Bolsover Council is cutting its office use by 40% through new technology and won’t even need all the classroom space at Clowne let alone 12.5 acres of pitches, workshops, sports facilities, canteen and a nursery all of which it will liable for rates.

4.       Clowne Campus was built to a high spec because we need to equip young people with the best skills for them to succeed. Instead of stripping its assets, Bolsover Council should be campaigning to prevent its closure. A supermarket in Bolsover may be convenient but it’s training not shopping that will get our economy out of recession.

5.       Sherwood Lodge is not yet 20 years old, built by the same Labour Councillors who now complain that it is inefficient. But they haven’t told us the costs of the “extras” like providing the IT and telephony services along with reception areas and provision for public meetings in Clowne campus.

It has been suggested to me that having over-inflated their allowances Labour Councillors are adopting the same approach to their office requirements. However if they think that the recession has bottomed out, and now’s the time to speculate, then they must have more faith in the coalition than I do. Elsewhere other Councils don’t indulge in pipe-dreams but work with communities to create jobs by insulating cold Victorian homes, providing solar panels, paying a living wage, supporting local businesses, improving green spaces and keeping essential services, like public toilets, open. Bolsover should take note.

Eye, Eye

If you care to part with £1.50 of your hard earned cash you'll find that the decisions of Bolsover Council on Members allowances and closing toilets has justified its inclusion in the "Rotten Borough" section. No comment from me is required.....

Tale of two towns

This is a letter I have sent to the Derbyshire Times.

A tale of two towns.

Cllr Watts, leader of Bolsover DC says he hopes to turn Bolsover into the Bakewell of North Derbyshire. Well it’s fine to have a dream, but the real world is shaped by hard decisions and the simple truth is that better ones are being made by Derbyshire Dales Council.

That Council is opening, not closing, public toilets in Bakewell and they fund a ten day long arts festival in the town, (instead of our excellent, but limited, two day festival held in Shirebrook). We can only be envious of Bakewell’s swimming pool, Fairtrade status, funding for a hydro-electric scheme and better recycling record. However it is the relationships of the Council to its local business that is most enlightening. In Bakewell traders have told the Council that a new supermarket would not benefit their town, where-as in Bolsover, even before a planning application has been submitted, the Deputy Leader is “delighted” to announce that Morrison’s are coming without any apparent regard for the impact on traders.

Derbyshire Dales is far from perfect but at least they seemed to have grasped that the purpose of a Council is to work with, not against, local people. It’s no surprise that their Councillors accepted independent advice and take a basic allowance of £4,100pa, not the £10,000pa that the Labour group in Bolsover pushed through.

Since I was elected I have tried to encourage ordinary people to get involved in Bolsover Council meetings. It’s not easy, and Tim Levers was just the latest to experience the indifference and hostility shown to anyone who tries to engage the labour group in debate. However Tim was, and is, absolutely right to point out that public toilets are not a nicety but an essential service for the most vulnerable in our community. As the only Councillor to vote against closure I’m pleased to offer what support I can and am full of admiration for Tim’s actions. He is not alone, BADGL are also challenging the Council’s proposals to allow green space to be developed. All these people give their own free time, without any payment or expenses because they simply want to build a better Bolsover may-be that’s why the letters pages are so supportive of them. If we really want to become the Bakewell of the North the Labour group have to learn to listen, put all the information they hold in the public domain and engage residents in a proper debate before making decisions.

Cllr Duncan Kerr, Green Party

Thinking twice

I notice that the Derbyshire Times letters pages have been full of complaints about the decision of Bolsover Councillors to close the public toilets. For many of us this may be a minor inconvenience but for some of us it is a major health issue, as this letter makes clear:

Dear Editor,

As Chair of the IBS network, the National Charity for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, I know just how important toilet facilities are for anybody who suffers from digestive problems. A public toilet is as necessary for someone with IBS as a dropped pavement is for someone in a wheelchair. Six million people in this country have to live with the indignity of incontinence, the least we can do is to keep the few public toilets we have left open. According to a Help the Aged survey over 80% of elderly people already have difficulty finding a public toilet and as a result too many stay isolated in their own homes.

I understand that Bolsover has an ailing and elderly population and yet the council are planning to close their public toilets. Furthermore, I am informed that 800 people signed the petition against closure. I realise that councils are having to cut services, but it affronts civilised standards of our societies to withdraw such essential public amenities. I hope therefore that Bolsover Council will consider holding a public meeting so that they can hear the views of vulnerable local people before proceeding with such a damaging policy.

Professor Nick Read,

Gastroenterologist and Chair of The IBS Network

Lets hope that Bolsover Councillors at least listen to a Doctor 

All in this together?

OK you've heard about the Bolsover Councillors awarding themselves the highest allowances of any District Council in the country but what about the pay of those who work for, rather than serve on, the authority? How do they fare?

And I'm not talking about the bosses and Directors who seem to be endlessly re-organised, I'm talking about the refuse collectors, craftspeople, office staff and housing assistants. Over 50 of them are paid less than the Living Wage of £7.20 per hour. That means that over 1 in 10 of the Council's staff get little more than the minimum wage. Apparently they are not "worth it".

Councils such as Green Party controlled Brighton along with forward thinking Labour authorities such as Lewsiham and most recently Preston (where I notice that the member allowance is nearly one third of the Bolsover rate) are doing something not just issuing platitudes so I've put down this question for the Leader to answer at the next Bolsover Council meeting. Let's see if whether he's more George Osborne than George Orwell.

"As his party has made sure that front-line councillors get the highest allowances of any District Council in the country would he like to show that he is equally concerned about front-line workers by joining the ranks of forward-thinking Councils such as Preston, Lewisham, Lambeth, Oxford and Brighton by making a commitment that Bolsover DC will become a Living Wage Employer thereby directly assisting the 50+ Council employees  who earn less than £7.20 per hour and who are suffering most from the coalitions cuts in services and increases in VAT and fuel costs?"

D- Day for Bolsover and Shirebrook

On Thursday the 25th August residents in Shirebrook will be able to give their own verdict on Bolsover Council in a by-election.

The Green Party will be contesting its second seat on the Council. So far our record is played one, won one - and with Ian Musgrove a truly inspirational local candidate we fully expect to continue our 100% record.

It might seem like slow progress but it is starting to dawn on the controlling Labour group that if we can win in both Whitwell and Shirebrook then we can win in any seat on Bolsover Council.

So if you're lucky enough to live in Shirebrook SW turn out and show him your support.

Duncan

High hopes for Shirebrook

Getting Green Councillors elected to District Councils normally takes years of hard work, building local support and explaining green party policies. My own election in Whitwell was very unusual as I only decided to stand a couple of months before the election was due however I know that my work for Whitwell against Alkane was a very significant factor in getting me elected.

On the 25th August there is a by-election in Shirebrook and the Green Party is delighted to be able to field one of the hardest working and dedicated candidates I have ever met:  Ian Musgrove. However there is no "Alkane" factor but we still finding that residents are genuinely impressed by Ian's refreshing approach and trust him to deliver for Shirebrook.

One green victory deep in Labour territory can be put down to chance, two victories however starts to feel like something more significant. We are all working very hard to make the 25th August a great night for the Green Party in Shirebrook, Bolsover and Derbyshire.