A Councillors Lot

It’s been one of those weeks when all the heartache that goes with the territory of being a councillor is forgotten because you have been able to achieve something tangible. Quite often our efforts go un-noticed and un-heralded by a public that either doesn’t care or is unaware of the things we do.

The Library battle has changed all that for a while; after important meetings with Harvey Siggs and John Osman, cabinet members from the County Council, the delegation from Shepton Mallet that included Margaret Robinson, Shepton’s County Councillor, Jeanette Marsh and myself as District Councillors, with Derek Marvin and Bente Heighte from the Town Council, we felt there was a chance that the library in Shepton could be saved. The cabinet papers for the County were published on Tuesday morning and joy of joys our persuasion was not in vain and the library will remain in the town after all.

The consultation process from the county was totally genuine and the views of the people, councillors and business leaders were all taken into account, and the original plan was changed to take account of those views. The county council should be applauded for the stance it took, and the flexibility it showed when the responses came in. We must now take steps to ensure that the library in Shepton is put on a more sustainable footing to ensure its continued survival into the future no matter what slings and arrows are thrown at it.

Our Education System

There was a very interesting programme on BBC 2 during the week, called “Posh and Posher”, hosted by Andrew Neil of The Daily Politics and This Week fame. It looked at our political ruling classes and how the route to the top in government is becoming increasingly difficult for ordinary people.

In the 50’s and 60’s we started to see the end of the political scene being dominated by the upper and upper middle classes in our society, the Grammar School system allowed bright students from poor backgrounds to fulfil their full potential, and go on to reach the top in government or industry as they chose.

The scrapping of the Grammar schools and the introduction of comprehensive education seems to have cut that path where a young person can go on to reach the top no matter what the background.

The current generation of politicians who reach the very top, no matter which party you look at, all come from a very narrow path. All of the top politicians in government and opposition have been to private schools, especially Eton and Westminster, then on to Oxbridge to study Politics, Psychology and Economics before finding a job as advisor to government. These Special Advisors, or SPADS as they are known in Westminster, use their position to build up their network of contacts, most of whom they already know from school or university so that when the time comes for them to step into the political arena they have all the backing they need.

All of the parties parachute their preferred candidates into what they see as prime seats, to ensure they get the candidate they want in Westminster alongside them.

At the last election, even the Labour party, the traditional working class party, only managed to get 6 out of 60 newly elected MP’s from the traditional working class backgrounds elected, all of the others came through the party system, most having never done a days’ work in their life.

So in just a few years we have gone from Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher, both products of the Grammar school system, who reached the very top on their own merit, to the current situation where David Cameron, George Osborne, Michael Gove, Ed Milliband, David Milliband, Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, Nick Clegg et al, who are all undoubtedly very bright and talented, but have also benefitted hugely from the production line that they followed.

If we look at the top of the other professions, medicine, the law, the civil service etc, we find the same pattern. Twenty years ago these jobs were filled by the product of the meritocracy that grew up during the 50’s and 60’s, now most of these jobs are filled by the product of the private school system and Oxbridge.

I am part of the generation that were denied a Grammar School education by the left wing do-gooders that destroyed the system during the 60’s. I sat and passed the eleven plus, only to find out a few weeks later that there would be no Grammar school place for me unless my parents could pay for one. So I didn’t go to Grammar School and instead was subjected to a pretty useless comprehensive education. It was only after the age of 16 when I managed to get into a Technical College that I received any sort of meaningful instruction.

So what chance do the modern generation stand? There must be millions of bright kids out there who would do great things if given the chance, but who have a huge disadvantage over the less able kids that get a decent education in the private sector.

There has never been a more cogent argument for the return of the Grammar School system, especially when you look at the current situation at the top of the political world.

The Lib Dem Road to Hell!

It was illuminating to read the Shepton Journal today and to see the considered thoughts of Cllrs Kennedy and Horsfall in print.

True to form in a letter full of factual inaccuracies, spin and deception, the duo try to re-write history to try to put the discredited Lib Dems in a more favourable light.

They state that Somerset County Council does not have debt, it merely has a mortgage. I looked up the dictionary definition of a mortgage and it states:-

Mortgage  “A temporary, conditional pledge of property to a creditor as security for performance of an obligation or repayment of a debt.”

So are they saying the lender of the money for the widening of the A37 can re-possess the property in they fail to pay? What a load of rubbish! The money borrowed created a debt, it is not a mortgage in any sense of the word, and in any event, a debt is a debt no matter what you want to dress it up as.

The letter provides a list of projects that the Lib Dems spent money on whilst they were in power, and had to borrow the funds to provide. I’m sure all of the projects listed were all worthy in their own way, but the question has to be asked “can we afford it”?

I would like to live in a million pound house in the country with hot and cold running servants, a salmon stream and a 18 hole golf course at the bottom of the garden, the only problem is, I can’t damn well afford it. This simple rule was ignored by the Lib Dems, so as soon as someone came along with a great idea the answer was “yes, we must do that”, “we’ll just put a bit more on the mortgage to pay for it”.

Millions of households in this country did exactly the same thing, times are good, property prices will rise for ever, borrowing is cheap, we live in some sort of la la land, a utopia where nothing can go wrong!!  Then the bottom fell out of the economy and all those who had indulged in profligate spending were left to rue those decisions.

Then we turn to our dynamic duo’s comments regarding Mendip’s finances, and how the Conservatives inherited a debt free council on a solid financial footing. What a crock of s...t another load of nonsense!!

1.       The last Lib Dem administration in Mendip ran up debts of £16 million and were forced into a position where they had to conduct a fire sale of the council house stock at a knock down price, to raise the money to clear that debt. Of the £30 million raised, £16 million went straight away in debt repayment.

2.       They used the interest on the surplus accrued from this fire sale to prop up the revenue budget. That might sound gobbledygook so in simple terms they were spending the interest from their savings for day to day living, whilst at the same time spending their savings as well. As the savings pot got smaller, the interest became less putting pressure on spending or forcing up council tax.

3.       In a combined effort, the Lib Dems in County Hall and at Mendip increased your council tax by 60% in the 4 years prior to the 2003 election, is it any wonder they lost!

4.       The last Mendip budget produced by the Lib Dems in 2003 had included in it some £440,000 of “savings yet to be identified”. Basically they had to fiddle the figures by nearly half a million pounds to produce a budget where income and expenditure balanced. This was described as “borderline illegal” by the auditors.

5.       An inspection by the Audit Commission in 2002 branded the council as “weak” with “little or no chance of improvement” and was particularly harsh on what they called “weak and ineffective leadership”.

If we add to this the Norah Fry debacle where the Lib Dems turned down an offer of £1.3 million for the old hospital then accepted £300k some months later, the 18 year full repairing lease they signed on the Amulet building without a audit being carried out prior to signing leaving a £1.4 million liability, Glastonbury sports and leisure centre off loaded at a peppercorn rent with terrible lease agreement or the clause added by hand at the bottom of the Council House sale agreement making Mendip liable for all sewer repairs for 25 years, a liability estimated at £20 million.

So Mendip left in a financially sound state in 2003? You have got to be joking. Mendip was a financial basket case in 2003 and it took 5 years of prudent action to turn it around.

The last Lib Dem administration in Somerset left debts of £357 million, with annual repayments of £36 million including £13 million per year direct to the banks in interest. That is £36 million that can’t be spent on roads, children’s centres, libraries or anything else. Without these interest payments the County Council could continue to fund all Libraries and much of the other services that they may now be forced to cut. These are facts and they are undeniable, the debt may have been accrued with the best of intentions, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Libraries, Fish and Responsible Politics

A bit of a mixed bag from me this week, as there have been a few events that caught my attention.

Firstly it was great to see a group of totally united Town and District councillors at the public meeting regarding the consultation on the future of our library in Shepton. Members of the public and politicians all spoke passionately in defence of our library, and to the full credit of John Osman, Deputy Leader at Somerset County Council, he came along and listened to the contributions, when it would have been much easier to stay away. The professional contributions from the SCC officers in attendance also gave everyone a full picture as to why there is a consultation about possible library closures, and what options are being looked into.

I have made my own representations to the library service, (see last blog), we must now keep up the pressure on the County Council and do everything in our power to ensure the library remains.

One point that was vociferously made by a number of people was that they did not think it fair if the Town Council took over partial funding for the library, and raised taxes locally to pay for it. The general feeling seemed to be that the people of Shepton would be “paying twice” in that scenario and there did not appear to be any support for that form of action.

As I mentioned in my blog last week, there was a pre-emptive attempt to force through an increase in council tax at the town council meeting last week, with a view to funding the library if it is threatened with closure. The Conservative group managed to fend off the proposal, in the light of last night’s meeting that decision seems to have been vindicated.

On a totally different matter, I have been a keen but infrequent sea fisherman for most of my life, I try to get away for a few days each year for a bit of male bonding with rod and line sport added for good measure. I love eating fish and sea food of all sorts, though as it gets increasingly expensive, perhaps not quite as often as in the past.

I have been aware for a number of years, mainly because of the discussions that we have whilst fishing, that trawlers who catch fish that they are not targeting, and have no quota for, are not allowed by law to land them, and must throw them back into the sea. Fish that have been caught in a trawl net are dead before they come on board the ship, so throwing them back into the sea achieves nothing apart from littering the sea bed with dead fish carcases.

This crazy situation is brought about by the regulations laid down in the Common Fisheries Policy, one of those crazy EU directives that the British slavishly follow and the rest of Europe ignores. The policy is designed to protect fish stocks and prevent over fishing, though how throwing dead fish back into the sea does either is beyond my comprehension.

This ridiculous policy was highlighted this week by one of my favourite TV personalities Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on his programme Hugh’s Fish Fight (Thursday Channel 4 9pm).  One of the stats that came out of the programme was that 50% of the fish caught in the North Sea by British trawlers is thrown back, dead, into the sea. Perfectly good Cod, Coal Fish, Pollack and Bass, unavoidably caught when trawling for Haddock or Prawns, is thrown away. The North Sea is a mixed fishery and all of the species live together and hunt each other for food. It is impossible to catch one without catching the other when trawling, making the CFP regulations a complete nonsense.

This has to stop, and I would urge you to log onto www.fishfight.net  and add your name to the 300,000 plus that have already signed up to fight this senseless waste of edible fish. Maybe if enough of us concerned people put pressure on the bureaucrats from Brussels this ridiculous policy will be re-negotiated.

Finally I want to return to the subject of websites and responsible political campaigning. You all know my views regarding the scandalous, website that our local Lib Dems and certain so called “Independent” councillors hide behind. There have been at least two investigations into this site to my knowledge, and it and its authors have been branded “distasteful and un-professional” by the Standards Committee. Last weekend I received a complaint from a member of the public stating that a posting was “racist and anti-Semitic”.  I advised the member of the public to write to the monitoring officer at Mendip and also report it to the police, I’m awaiting developments.

However, the main point I want to make is that as politicians we should act responsibly when publishing material, and it would be even better if we all told the truth. This came to a head in the USA last weekend when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Arizona. Miraculously Mrs Giffords has so far survived being shot through the head and is apparently making good progress. Sarah Palin, potential republican presidential candidate at the last election, had some months before published a website with gun sight targets on specific areas of a map where certain politicians should be “targeted” as part of the campaign. Gabrielle Giffords was one of them.

Now I’m sure that Sarah Palin didn’t mean for some nutter to take it literally and go after her opponent with automatic weapons, but that could have been the unintended consequence, an investigation is underway. I suggest that it is not a huge leap from that example to our local Lib Dem website where a prominent local councillor is shown alongside a picture of the Grim Reaper with the headline “I wonder where he will be next year”.

I’ll leave you to draw the conclusion.

Shepton Mallet Library

 For your information, here is the text of a letter that I have written to Somerset County Council Library Service setting out the reasons as I see them why the Library should be preserved.

(Picture of John Parham and Jeanette Marsh discussing Shepton Mallet Library with Ken Maddock leader of Somerset County Council in Shepton Mallet Market Place)

I write as District Councillor for Shepton Mallet West Ward and Chairman of the Shepton Mallet Townscape Heritage Initiative.

The proposed closure of Shepton Mallet Library is in my view going to be extremely detrimental to the viability of Shepton Mallet town centre in both commercial and public service terms.

To provide a little background, in 2003 the administration at Mendip District Council recognised that Shepton Mallet was a special case that needed priority action. A great deal of work was put in to get a 5 year Heritage Regeneration Scheme off the ground that over the period succeeded to attracting approximately £1.3 million of investment into the town centre area. The HERS scheme was replaced by the current Townscape Heritage Initiative in 2008 and despite the recession, we have succeeded in attracting further investment taking the total over the last 8 years to a figure in excess of £2milllion. The current THi will continue until 2013 with a phase three application to be submitted later this year.

This is obviously a huge success story, however, in effect we have merely halted over 30 years of decline to the High Street and Market place area; there are encouraging signs with a number of new businesses operating and more on the way, the raised profile for the town as a result of the “Turn Back Time” TV series has also helped, however the regeneration of Shepton Mallet is a fragile child, and a serious shock at this time could put it back by years or kill it off entirely.

It must also be pointed out that Shepton Mallet East ward, the ward in which the Library is located, has been identified as an area of multiple deprivation and falls within the top 10% of deprived areas nationally.

The library is often the focus of activity in our market place area. It attracts significant numbers of visitors, in the region of 300 per day I believe, and this footfall translates into a significant proportion of the footfall traffic that the town centre businesses rely on. If the library is closed entirely or is moved out of the market place to another location, this footfall will be lost and the knock on effect could well be devastating. The people who use the library are drawn from our deprived community, it is convenient for them and has easy access especially for those who are elderly or disabled.

If the library were to be moved or closed, a significant proportion of the clientele would be unable to access library services due to the unaffordable cost of public transport travel to Wells or Frome and the inaccessibility of a location away from the town centre.

I fully appreciate and by appreciate I mean understand, the budgetary position that you find yourself in, however in my view Shepton Mallet should be treated as a special case because of the factors that I have outlined, and I would urge you to find a solution that does not involve closure of our well used library facility.  There are a number of other town centre properties that are empty, that could accommodate the library, and where the rent would be less than a third of the current lease charge that you are paying.

I would also ask you to explore sharing facilities with the Shepton Mallet Tourist Information Centre, the Post Office parcel collection office, Job Centre plus and the Citizens Advice Bureau, who are all facing reductions in funding and where combining facilities could see an improved service for all at the same time as achieving the budget savings you seek.

I believe that due to the terms of the current lease, Shepton Library will continue to operate until November 2012, I urge you to retain the current funding stream for the next two financial years while negotiations are taking place, my fear is that if funding is withdrawn immediately, there will be no opportunity to instigate a compromise when one is identified.

I am, as always available to act as an intermediary at any time should you require one.

Best regards

Cllr John Parham

Portfolio Holder:- Access to Services

Chairman Shepton Mallet Townscape Heritage Initiative.

Ward Member:- Shepton Mallet West

Conservatives thwart Lib Dem/Labour attempt to increase taxes again!

Firstly, can I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy and prosperous New Year, look I know it's a little late, but in common with what seems to be 60% of the population, I've had the wretched flu bug that is going around and the last thing you can do if you get it is to sit in front of a computer putting your thoughts into any sort of order. I think I'm on the mend now, so if you see me in the street, you don't need to walk down the other side muttering "unclean" under your breath!

Quite a lot has happened since my last blog, the most controversial event probably was the announcement that there would be a public consultation regarding the possible closure of the library in Shepton Mallet. I have made the point repeatedly that cuts to public spending are inevitable due to the dire state of the country's finances. Somerset County Council for example has to find annual savings of £70 million in order to balance the books, and when you consider they will have to pay some £36 million next year to service the huge debt left behind by the Lib Dems, you can see the problems they face.

I do however think that closing our library is a step too far, and I will be making representations in the strongest possible terms that we need to find a solution that does not include the closure of our facilities. I am reassured to learn that the consultation process is genuine and that no final decisions have been made so far, the next few weeks will be crucial for everyone involved to ensure that they get their representations in so that they can be taken into account.

Our Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening was an interesting excercise. It was encouraging to see a larger than usual contingent of members of the public in attendance, some even made valuable contributions to the discusssions, what was enlightening however, was the fact that some of our Labour, Lib Dem and Independent councillors tried to get together to force an increase to the council tax.

The majority Conservative group on the council has been very prudent with tax payers money during the recession, to try to ensure as far as possible that there is no need to increase taxes during times of hardship. The Conservative groups at Mendip and Somerset Councils have acted similarly and as a result have ensured there have been no significant increase in tax during the period. Shepton Town Council has built up its reserves to protect itself against a rainy day, and now as the rain is pouring on our heads, we can afford all of our commitments without any increase in tax.

Our opponents however, took the view that no matter how tough things are, it is always the right time to squeeze even more taxes out of the hard pressed public. They didn't even have a coherent plan as to where the extra money was to be spent, merely that we should increase our reserves even further, just in case we want to spend even more of your money for you in the future.

It is just like trying to cure an alcoholic by giving him a bottle of scotch, our Labour and Lib Dem opponents are addicted to debt and tax and the only cure for both in their view is more debt and tax. Sometimes I despair.

Fortunately the Conservative group stood firm against this assault on your finances and there will be no increase in the town precept next year, I'll leave it to our opponents to try to justify their position, I am comfortable with ours.