One of the constant cries amongst residents is that the Council never listen to them and the Council will only do what Councillors want to do. Last night in Yeovil that was overturned.

The South Somerset Lib Dems have been trying to steam roll through a plan to turn the last piece of open land in Yeovil into a concrete Sports Zone. As I have made clear I am not personally against the building of a Sports Zone. What has always concerned me is that this was the wrong place to build a facility that was of regional importance.

The Save the Yeovil Rec campaign was a local campaign by local people who found the idea of the destruction of this open space as abhorrent.

After five hours of questions and debate the Lib Dem leadership, who were committed to this project, lost the vote when a few brave Lib Dems dared to defy their colleagues and vote with the Conservatives against the proposal.

So what now? Will the Lib Dems defy the people and try and find another scheme to put on the Yeovil Rec site? What they should do is take what is a good idea and try and work with the local landowner who has already offered a free piece of land which would be ideally suited for this type of much-needed facility.

But that is not the end of the story. Because what this shows more than anything else is how out of touch and detached from reality the Lib Dems who lead Somerset have become. The fact they believed they had the right to railroad through this decision against the wishes of thousands of local residents clearly shows the time has come for change. There were some tremendous speeches from the public gallery last night and I am really hopeful that some of them might be inspired to put themselves forward for the Council and replace the discredited and doomed Lib Dems.

• How the Councillors voted
• A dramatic night
• Protestors win their battle
• Planning move fails

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“Calamity Clegg” appears to have done it again with this story in the Sunday Mirror about how he thinks his frontbench are not up to it – in fact he is pretty damn rude about a number of them. So much for a united party.

Exclusive: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg slags off his own party colleagues on packed plane - mirror.co.uk

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The Lib Dem MP for Yeovil missed yet another key debate in Parliament when the future of Westlands was being discussed. This follows on from a report from the Public Whip website that the MP has a “below average” attendance record for voting - 68% as at 7th November 2008.

His absence was so serious that it was reported in Hansard that he was not there. Hansard quotes at column 1129 on the 30th October 2008:

Mr. Howarth: Moreover, for the benefit of those in Yeovil, to whom I spoke when I visited Westland 10 days ago, we feel that the Future Lynx is the only game in town. I hope that the Secretary of State will make decision on that quickly.

Dr. Fox: Where's the Yeovil MP?

Mr. Howarth: My hon. Friend asks where the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) is. He waxes lyrical in his constituency about this matter, but he never turns up to take part in these debates, which is a great shame. I visited Yeovil; perhaps he would like to visit the House and participate in these debates.

It has been discovered that he is rarely in Parliament when this important issue is discussed – research shows that he has only attended two defence procurement debates in his entire time in Parliament.

The Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Yeovil, Kevin Davis said,

“It is all very well going around telling workers at Westland that you are on their side, but if when you go to Westminster you are not prepared to stand up for Yeovil, and the vital Future Lynx project, then you are failing the people of Yeovil. If nothing else this demonstrates that with the Conservative Party supporting the Future Lynx project we need a Conservative Member of Parliament for Yeovil who can get things done for Westland and make things happen for Yeovil people.”

Further evidence points to a continuing lack of commitment to Westland and defence matters.

• out of almost 6,000 Parliamentary questions asked by the Lib Dem MP for Yeovil only 3 were about Westlands - source www.theyworkforyou.com.

• rumours that Lib Dems want to axe the Westland Future Lynx contract to pay for their tax cutting agenda - The BBC website reported that the Lib Dems were looking for defence cuts to pay for tax cuts. "The best hints we had were a possible reduction in the number of government departments, and the curtailing of big defence projects.." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7511615.stm

The Editor
Western Gazette

Dear Sir,

Like many of your readers I read with alarm the recent letter from Richard Ashworth MEP concerning the decision by the EU to grant itself nation status by the introduction of an anthem, flag and other paraphernalia of state.

There were many who said that when the Lisbon treaty was defeated that the EU would not take no for an answer and would push through the provisions of that treaty without reference to the people of both this and other European countries. Some of the treaty they shoved into a constitution which both the Lib Dems and Labour refuse to give us a referendum on. It now seems that other elements they are just going to introduce over our heads.

For too long we have seen the West Country elect Lib Dem MP's who do not represent the vast majority of mainstream views on the issue of Europe. Next June we have a chance, by voting against the Lib Dems, to send Brussels a message that we want to have more control over our national destiny. If we want change we are all going to have to vote for it.

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Plans to freeze council tax for Yeovil residents – saving £213

Conservative proposals to help families and pensioners from soaring cost of living

Hard-pressed local residents across Yeovil, Crewkerne, Chard and Ilminister could benefit from lower council tax, under national plans which have been drawn up by Conservatives. Taxpayers in Scotland benefited from a council tax freeze this year, thanks to a deal struck between Scottish local authorities and the Scottish Executive. But those living south of  the border were not so lucky.

The new Conservative proposal involves a partnership with local councils, giving them extra support to deliver a council tax freeze in the first two years of a Conservative Government.

If a council keeps its council tax bill rise to 2.5% or less, then central government will provide sufficient additional resources to fund a further, additional 2.5% reduction in council tax bills.

Each council will be completely free to accept or reject this offer. Those that accept the offer will be able to give their taxpayers a complete freeze, or even reduction, for two years in a row.

Across South Somerset, the value of a council tax freeze would be equivalent to saving £213 over the two years. Under Labour, council tax has soared by 105% over the last ten years, taking the average Band D bill to £1418.

The cost to central government of reducing council tax would be funded from savings from cutting central spending on public sector consultants and advertising, and not from the overall local government budget. The Labour Government is now the second biggest advertiser in Britain, spending five times more than Tescos. It has also been slammed for the irresponsible and expensive use of consultancy firms, on top of civil servants.

Kevin Davis, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Yeovil, said:

“Under a Labour government, and a Lib Dem Council, council tax has soared in Somerset, pushing up the cost of living. In this current Labour financial crisis families and pensioners cannot afford yet more tax rises from Gordon Brown or slashed services from the Lib Dem Council.

“The next Conservative Government will work with local councils to freeze council tax for at least two years.

“Instead of rising council tax bills year after year under Labour, millions of families will get help at the time they need it most. Conservatives will not leave people to struggle with the credit crunch on their own.”
Details of the proposal

CONSERVATIVE PLANS TO FREEZE COUNCIL TAX

In its first two full years in office, a Conservative Government will offer a deal to local councils in England:

If a council can keep its council tax bill rise to 2.5% or below, then central government will provide sufficient additional resources out of the savings made from consultancy and advertising budgets to fund a further 2.5% reduction in the council tax.

Councils that accept the offer will therefore be able to offer their constituents a complete freeze, or even reduction, in council tax for two years in a row

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It seems that the Lib Dems who run Somerset Council may well have been caught in the local authority equivalent of short selling.

It has been announced that Somerset County Council had £25m invested in Icelandic banks that have now gone bust. One of the questions you might ask is why the Council has so much money freely available as cash. In their defence Councils routinely have money on short deposit becaue they tend to collect Council Tax at a faster rate than they spend it in the early months of the financial year.

However, in this case i gather that the £25m is not cash but mooney they borrowed from another bank. Having borrowed it a one rate they then thought it would be great to invest it in another bank with a higher rate an then pocket the difference!I It is quite likely that the Government encouraged them in this.

So, what now? Well, the money they borrowed will have to be paid back and the only source of that money is the Council Tax payer of Somerset. This will mean that unless they severely cut services they will be increasing Council Tax next year by 16% as a one year payment.

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However, two things struck me about it. Firstly Clegg's awful gaffe when asked what the state pension was and secondly the row over the 250,000 automated telephone cold calls they made yesterday.

Being asked how much a price of bread o a pint of milk is an old trick for politicians to fall into. the fact is you do not need to be a politician to nt know how much they are because they tend to be necessities that you just purchase. The same is true of a state pension in that you might not know the exact figure when put on the spot but you must have a fair idea of approximately how much it is. I am therefore surprised that Clegg came out with a figure so hugely at variance with the facts.

Then there are the cold calls. Do we really want political parties making automated phone calls to voters? I am not sure we do and using the justification that you saw them do it in the US just does not wash. I gather they have now been reported to the authorities by the SNP, who themselves were reported by the Lib Dems, some months ago, for doing exactly the self same thing!! I also gather they decided to practice on voters in Somerset!

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Many will have recently read that the Lib Dems intend to go into the next General Election on a policy of taxing the middle class more and cutting taxes to the poor. Many economists are fundmenatlly baffled as to how they imagine, with the current severe economic downturn they aare going to do this. Unsurprisingly they are being told by their opponents that there sums do not add up - which is unsurprising as they admit they have not really done the sums.

However, what has been mentioned is a very worrying aspect for the people of Yeovil and the employees of Westland Agusta. It seems that there strategy is to make cutbacks in Governmnt spending and they are quoted as saying:

The Lib Dems have already identified some cuts in government programmes
- for example, they would scrap ID cards, but they have already
allocated those savings to pay for more police.

They also intend to cut the number of MPs by 150 but that would not
come anywhere near meeting their ambitious cut of £20bn in spending.

The best hints we had were a possible reduction in the number of
government departments, and the curtailing of big defence projects -
but as yet, no firm commitments.

There has been quite a bit of recent noise about the 'Future Lynx' project, a contract wwith Westland that has been signed but numbers are yet to be confirmed. I recently blogged that I had concerns about the future of the project in the light of the Goverment decision to build two new super aircraft carriers.

Bizarely the local Lib Dem MP, David Laws has been spreading rumours that somehow the Conservative party is not committed to the Westland Agusta deal so I took this up with the man likely to be responsible for defence should the party win the next general election. He has categorically said that:

“It is absolutely vital
that we improve our battlefield helicopter capability and right now the only
game in town is Future Lynx.“

So, it seems to me that if there are answers to be had about the support of Westland Agusta then they need to come from the Lib Dems.

Update: To reinforce this story the following statement was made in the House of Commons by Gerald Howarth, a Conservative MP.

The Lynx helicopters that are in service with the Army and the Royal Navy are pretty well at the end of their viable lives, much like the Prime Minister's own political position. When will the Prime Minister note the anger of people such as Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Tootal, who recently resigned from the Army after commanding the Paras in Helmand? When will he stop dithering, and authorise the Secretary of State to make a decision on the 70 Future Lynx aircraft which could make a real difference to our hard-pressed troops? Will the Secretary of State
confirm that if they are not ordered, he will find himself with 150
Army helicopters going out of service in 2012 and nothing with which to
replace them? What will he say to people who are trying to take up the
role vacated by Stuart Tootal?

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