I have recently been on the train to Yeovil from London and must admit what I thought was a 4 car train normally has now become a 3 car train. I put it down to the increased level of service that South West Trains had put in place between London and Exeter – but now I am not so sure.

I am making further investigations.

BBC NEWS | England | Train cuts see 100 carriages axed

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

Image by gazzat via Flickr

Are there really going to be 40,000 homes in the South Somerset area?

I was recently contacted by a constituent who was very concerned about this issue. Like me, he wants more housing so that there is a good stock of housing available of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

However, like me, he knows that what is likely to be built is low grade, low design quality housing built at the lowest possible rate and in the most advantageous and cheap places.

When the Government building programmers were announced it appeared that South Somerset were going to get just under 12,000 new homes. That figure then rose to 24,000 and now we are at the 40,000 mark.

Providing the current economic downturn does not mean the plans are pointless then what are my objections? Well, I am very concerned where you are going to put what amounts to a town the size of Yeovil. There is certainly not enough brown field (already used) land available, so it is almost certain that we will see green fields being built on.

But equally, will they be built without the services that are so important for the needs of a community. Schools, health facilities, drainage, water purification, transport etc. While some of these do get considered we know that many of them do not.

Nothing less than the future of our green and pleasant land is at stake.

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

Kevin Davis, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Yeovil added his voice to calls for the Government to do more to help local firms in Yeovil, Chard, Crewkerne and Ilminster hit by the economic downturn. Conservatives are demanding that Whitehall opens up the massive £125 billion government procurement budget to small and medium firms across the country.

The government is the biggest purchaser of goods and services in the economy, but Whitehall bureaucracy means that small businesses are locked out of this system. Making it easier for small businesses to win government contracts would provide companies in Yeovil - and across the country - with a crucial source of revenue during the downturn, helping to protect local jobs.

The Conservative action plan includes:

• Scrapping the rule requiring companies to provide three years of audited accounts when bidding for government contracts. This unnecessary rule locks start-up companies out of the procurement system – simply because new companies may not have three years of audited accounts.
• Immediately introducing a single questionnaire to be allowed to bid for government contracts worth less than £50,000. This would only have to be filled in once and logged for future contract bids. This will radically reduce the administrative burden involved in bidding for government contracts.
• Requiring all government contracts worth over £10,000 to be published online, so that small companies can for the first time find out exactly what contracts are available. At present, it is not mandatory for contracts to be published online. As a result, over 75 per cent of small and medium firms report that it is difficult to find out about procurement opportunities.
• Aiming for 25 per cent of government contracts to be awarded to small and medium enterprises. This is something that United States federal government does, and would help overcome the risk aversion that leads to them being overlooked for government contracts.

Kevin Davis said: “This is another part of the Conservative action plan for small business, which also includes proposals to defer VAT bills, cut payroll taxes by 1p and reduce the small company corporation tax rate.

“We need to open up the government’s procurement system and get money to small businesses across the country. It’s not just small firms that will be helped – taxpayers will benefit from the innovation and greater efficiency that small businesses can bring to government contracts.

“Small firms in Yeovil are facing a very difficult time and jobs are at risk. If Labour Ministers were serious about making a difference, they would adopt this action plan and instead of trying to spend more by borrowing would try to spend what they have in a smarter way.”

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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

Image by dichohecho via Flickr

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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It seems that South Somerset has been under siege for the past few weeks. We have not quite had pestilence, but we have certainly had the problems of floods - in Crewkerne and Yeovil - and now the threat of the economic downturn hitting us very hard.

Not only did we have the announcement that there were to be job cuts in Crewkerne but we now hear that Nampac, a local Chard packaging company may be closing with the loss of even more jobs.

Couple that with job losses at Pittards - the glove and leather people in Yeovil - and we have a real pattern emerging of closures and job losses from a poor economy and a soaring dollar exchange rate.

Yesterday - as I blogged - the Government signed a new contract for two new aircraft carriers and there must now be real concern that Westland might lose some of its valuable contracts to pay for them. I have now written to the Shadow Secretary of State to see what he can do to lobby Government to save these contracts.

Oscar Meyer, a food manufacturing employer is to cut nearly a third of the jobs at its Chard factory. They have put out a statement saying:

"In a climate of food ingredient inflation, rising energy costs and
increasingly difficult trading environment it has become necessary to
restructure our business here at Chard.

"These changes will underpin the profitability and long term security for this site.

"In order to deliver the cost savings necessary we are consolidating
our business, currently on two sites, to one and reducing our product
lines to minimize complexity.

"This will lead to up to 250 people being made redundant out of a permanent workforce of 813."

After their expensive defeat, when they tried to scrap all the district Councils and take supreme power into Taunton, they undertook a review of strategic services and have now announced that they are going to cut Council jobs by 30%. This scale of cuts can only mean a reduction in services!

The Conservative leader at County Hall has said:

“We were
all shocked to hear of job cuts of this magnitude, and especially shocked
to hear it announced in this way.  This will alarm thousands of
council workers and their families at what is already a difficult time. 
We all know that prices are rising fast and many people have real difficulty
in making ends meet right now.  I call upon the Leader of the Council
to clarify these irresponsible remarks which will be so worrying to
so many hard-working families in Somerset.”