Kevin Davis, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Yeovil, gave his strong support this week to new proposals to help less well-off families with their energy bills. Conservatives have pledged to reform Post Office Card Accounts so that families without bank accounts can benefit from the lower energy and water tariffs offered to customers paying by direct debit.

This could cut the energy bills of up to 4 million Post Office Card Account (POCA) holders by up to £100 a year. There are 8 million people in the UK who do not have a bank account or are effectively without a bank. Many of them use Card Accounts instead. But because they cannot pay their bills by direct debit, they face higher prices for gas, electricity and water.

A Conservative Government will reform Card Accounts so that they can be used for the first time to pay utility bills by direct debit. This proposal, which is supported by leading utility companies, will bring significant savings to energy companies through lower collection costs, which can be passed onto consumers in the form of lower bills.

In addition, because state benefits are automatically paid into Card Accounts each week, customers will benefit from a more convenient way of managing their finances and paying their bills.

This policy could also generate up to £20 million a year in additional revenue for Post Offices, which could help keep Post Offices from going to the wall as a result of Labour cuts. By contrast, the Labour Party is planning to take the Card Account away from Post Offices, which will lead to more Post Office closures.

Kevin Davis explained:

“It is totally unfair that many of the poorest households across Somerset end up paying more for their energy and water bills because they do not have bank accounts and cannot pay by direct debit. Under Labour, it is the poor who suffer most.

“These new Conservative proposals will help people struggling with rising household bills by letting them use their Post Office Card Account to pay their utility bills. Energy and gas bills of up to four million people could be cut by £100, helping many families at a time when the cost of living is rising fast.

“These plans will also bring in additional revenue for Post Offices, helping maintain our important network and stave off more Labour cuts.”

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• Tories plan energy discount card

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South West Trains have recently announced proposals to reduce the opening hours of some 114 stations across their area.

In the past few days I have been out with residents at the Crewkerne station to try and help them fight this reduction in service. I have also been in conversation with the Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA) the Union responsible in this area.

The train companies argument is that a new generation of ticket vending machines will make the requirement for longer opening hours redundant. I understand their perspective, but like the Post Offices, they, and Government, need to understand that the benefits of ticket offices being open spread much further than the mere financial. The fact is Stations such as Crewkerne and Yeovil are some distance out of the towns they serve and in fairly remote areas. One of the key issues for people who use public transport is the feeling of security that a good transit system should provide. The idea that there could be more occasions where passengers are stuck on remote platforms without the presence of rail staff is something that should be resisted.

Interestingly, an argument that has not been deployed, but which I am nevertheless sure is a contributory factor, is the requirement by Government to reduce subsidies. The only way that SWT can do this is to either increase fares or reduce costs. As fares are set by the Government they only have one alternative left. I fear that this is a cut that lies at the doors of Whitehall and I will be doing all I can to change their minds about this damaging proposal.

South West Trains Press release

I am devastated to hear that the The Post Office have announced that they are to consult on the closure of Hinton St George Post Office.

I have contacted the Post Office to make clear that many in Hinton St George will consider this latest proposal a cruel deception. Right across the Yeovil constituency there will have been towns and villages where they believed their Post Office had escaped the recent Post Office slaughter. Instead, Post Offices Ltd has been keeping back proposed post office closures in a secret plan.

In talks with Post Office Ltd it emerged that because they had saved post offices in the first round of cuts they therefore needed to find others to close. They tell me that the closure in Hinton St. George is because they saved a Post Office in Street – 15 miles away. This whole process is a farce and the fact the alternative closure to Street is Hinton St. George proves beyond doubt that this reorganisation is not being based on anything sensible other than a scramble to destroy communities and make savings.

As I did in the previous round of closures I urge Post Offices Ltd to think again, but I also call on the Lib Dem run Council to consider following Conservative run Councils across the country who have entered into talks with Post Offices Ltd. to secure the future of earmarked Post Offices. To date these talks have not taken place which is a lost opportunity.

I have this morning spoken to Post Offices Ltd. and they inform me that because their previous consultations saved Post Offices in the area (none of the saved ones being in the Yeovil Constituency) they have decided to close some more.

Bizarrely, they claim that because they saved a Post Office in Street, they now wish to close the Post Office in Hinton St. George.

I am afraid this shows how flawed their analysis is and this is not about providing a service but about saving money. There is absolutely no connection between Street and Hinton St. George. In fact, they are 15 miles from each other. I am afraid that there is very little that Post Office Ltd does that has any logic to it.

As with the other Post Offices the arguments for preserving this Post Office are huge and we should be doing all we can to ensure that Post Offices Ltd either halts this closure or comes u with a sustainable way for providing these services.

But then also, what have the local Lib Dem Council done about this. At the time of the last closure programme I argued that the Council should be doing what Conservative Councils up and down the country were doing and examining whether they could take over the running of the Post Offices. Councillors are always arguing they want to have more local control and here is their chance. Given their recent track record I doubt the Lib Dems will do anything about this.

Kevin Davis warns of soaring cost of living across
Yeovil

Working families across Yeovil will
find it even harder to cope with the soaring cost of living, Kevin Davis,
Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Yeovil, warned this week, thanks
to Gordon Brown’s new plans to hike taxes on family cars.

Fuel prices at the pump are
rocketing, and households face ever-higher gas and electricity bills on top of
higher council tax. The cost of driving a car will soon be even higher.
Low-income households will be the hardest hit, just as they have been with the
10p income tax hikes.

The Government is to change the way
that Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is calculated to raise an extra £2,500,000,000
for Gordon Brown’s coffers. Family cars face higher VED as well as a ‘showroom
tax’ for new cars. The VED tax will be retrospective – so any car bought after
2001 will be hit by the higher tax rates. This will lead in turn to a plummeting
re-sale price for second-hand cars. This will make it more difficult for people
to replace their car and upgrade to a new or better one.

For example, the tax bill for a
typical Ford Mondeo will rise from £210 to £310 a year, with a new £500 showroom
tax on top. Yet, even the Government’s own estimates show that carbon dioxide
emissions from motoring will hardly be cut at all.

Kevin Davis said:

“At a time when families are feeling
the pinch of the rising cost of living – because of higher fuel prices, energy
bills and council tax – the Government should scrap its plans for a big increase
in road tax on family cars. This is yet another slap in the face for
hard-working families from Labour, on top of the 10p income tax hikes.

“But it does not stop there, because
employers and farmers across the area are also facing financial pressure at the
high levels of taxation Gordon Brown has taken directly out of the fuel tanks of
cars, trucks and tractors throughout South Somerset. The Government must execute
a sharp U-turn. Any change in road tax should focus only on the most polluting
vehicles, and be offset by equivalent reductions in family taxes. All Gordon
Brown is interested in is finding new ways to push up his notorious stealth
taxes even further.”

New
threat to remaining Post Offices in Yeovil thanks
to Gordon Brown

Loss
of Post Office Card Account threatens more post office closures

Yeovil
faces a second wave of post office cuts, Kevin Davis,
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate warned. A further 1 in 4
post offices could close down, on top of existing plans to close
Post Offices in East
Coker, Mudford, Haselbury Plucknett, Goldcroft in Yeovil and Barwick.

• Loss of Post
  Office Card Account: The National Federation of Sub-Postmasters
  has stated that 3,000 post offices will forced to close if the Post
  Office Ltd loses its contract for the Card Account. The Card Account
  is used by 4 million people each week to access pensions and
  benefits.

• Further 1 in 4
  post offices under threat: Card Account transactions bring in 12
  per cent of sub-post offices’ income, and 1 in 4 of all visits
  made to post offices each week are by Card Account customers. The
  Federation has estimated that another 3,000 post offices will go out
  of business – on top of the current round of 2,500 cuts nationwide
  – if they lose the right to handle state pension and benefit
  payments.

• Labour Government
  to blame: The current Post Office Card Account contract ends in
  2010. Gordon Brown’s Government is replacing it with a new
  contract (so-called ‘POCA2’), but due to EU rules, it has to put
  the new contract out to competitive tender. Conservatives have
  repeatedly called on the Government to continue the Card Account
  beyond 2010.

Kevin
Davis commented:

“I am very concerned
about Gordon Brown’s plans for a second wave of post office cuts. A
cloud of uncertainty now hangs over our vital community services. The
future of Saturday deliveries is in doubt and local post offices are
closing by the week across the country. Our postal service faces
death by a thousand cuts – thanks to Gordon Brown.”

Notes
to Editors

Details of
the current Post Office closure plans can be found at:

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=57600693&mediaId=57600697

The National
Federation of Sub-Postmasters warned of new cuts in a press release
on 12 May 2008.

http://www.nfsp.org.uk/Latest_PR.asp

The
table below shows the shrinking size of the Post Office network in
the last decade. The potential 1 in 4 cuts would be in addition to
the closures highlighted below.

	1999	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
United Kingdom	18,374	17,546	17,204	15,895	14,556	14,376	14,219	est. 11,700

A list of
Post Office closures by Parliamentary constituency from 1999 to 2007
is available at:

http://www.conservatives.com/pdf/POs-constituencies.pdf

The
Government has previously said that it would like to maintain a
network of 11,500 under their regime of subsidies. But in an answer
to a Parliamentary Question, the Minister for Postal Services, Pat
McFadden, has admitted that under their current access criteria,
“Post Office Ltd. currently estimates that the minimum size of
network necessary to meet the access criteria is around 7,500
offices” (Hansard,
30 January 2008, col. 418W).

ENDS

]]> http://www.kevindavis.org.uk/2008/05/19/labour-threatens-even-more-post-offices/feed/ 0 http://www.kevindavis.org.uk/2008/04/24/letter-to-the-press-car-parking/ http://www.kevindavis.org.uk/2008/04/24/letter-to-the-press-car-parking/#comments Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:55:00 +0000 Kevin Davis http://kevindavis.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/letter-to-the-press-car-parking/ 22nd April 2008

The Editor

Western Gazette

Dear Sir,

I have read with
deepening concern the views of you Merriott readers over the proposed
increases in parking charges in Crewkerne.

I am sure they are
not alone in finding the decision to increase charges to be not just
unsatisfactory but also incomprehensible. We know, from the experience
in Chard, that increased charges often leads to decreased income and
illegal parking. What it highlights to me is the insensitivity of the
Liberal Democrat run District Council to the needs of so many people
right across our community.

Rural life is
always under attack by this Government, whether it is the closure of
post offices, the closure of schools or the massive hikes in fuel duty.
What we do not need is  the District Council attacking its own people.

Only a change in
Government can do something about schools, post offices and fuel
prices; but maybe we need to think hard about whether changing the
complexion of the Council - that does its best to ignore the views of
residents -  would make Crewkerne and Merriott a better place to live..

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Davis

Once I know how the Yeovil MP voted I will come let you know.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Post vote slashes Labour majority

For some time I have believed that
rather than just campaigning to keep open post offices we should be
enhancing the services that they provide so that the threat of their
closure is no longer an issue.

I am therefore delighted to hear that
Conservative controlled Essex County Council have taken the
initiative and are in discussion with Post Office Ltd. to take over
some of their Post Offices earmarked for closure. They recognise, as
do I, that Post Offices provide a social function that local councils
should be supporting. It is also right that, as politicians try to
drive services closer to the public, that Councils look at how the
Post Office network might support that work.

Local Council support will not work in
every case, but I hope now that the Lib Dem Council, and their MP,
will work with Post Office Ltd to announce their intention to follow
Essex and take responsibility for local Post Office services. Any
closure of Post Offices that happens now will be as much the fault of
Councillors in Somerset as it will be Post Offices Ltd.

]]> http://www.kevindavis.org.uk/2008/03/11/letter-to-the-press-post-offices/feed/ 2 http://www.kevindavis.org.uk/2007/11/25/rpas-minuscule-payout-calls-system-into-doubt/ http://www.kevindavis.org.uk/2007/11/25/rpas-minuscule-payout-calls-system-into-doubt/#comments Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:41:29 +0000 Kevin Davis http://kevindavis.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/rpas-minuscule-payout-calls-system-into-doubt/ We need a new Government because....this type of ridiculous bureaucracy is the the most dnagerous aspect of this silly Government. TIME FOR CHANGE. 

The Rural Payments Agency has sent a 2005 SFP cheque for a single penny to a north Devon farmer, raising questions as to whether the agency is using both time and resources efficiently. John Day, who farms 110ha near Barnstaple, Devon, received modulation remittance advice amounting to £0.01. The cheque, which cost 38p in bank charges to deposit, came out of the blue.

RPA's minuscule payout calls system into doubt