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

Image via Wikipedia

It has been announced that the decision to try and close South West Train ticket offices has been defeated. The Department for Transport were taking the final decision and had received objections from passenger groups and statutory bodies such as London Travelwatch (on which I sit) and Passenger Focus.

The bad news is that it appears the Labour Minister has stopped only 53 of the in excess of 100 closures, and it may well still threaten stations such as Crewkerne where I was campaigning with local residents. I am waiting a definitive list as we speak.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7826472.stm

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

The economy

There is not a lot you can add about the sorry state of our economy. I was a young child during the end of the last Labour Government and I remember spending advent huddled around candles during nthe frequent black outs during the winter of discontent. As a kid it was quite exciting - it was advent after all- but the fact was that for our country it was an utter disaster and soon after the Labour Government was thrown out. This had been preceded by the then Labour Chancellor running to the IMF to beg for money to bail them out. Well, there are two differences now; firstly the IMF does not have enough money to bail us out and secondly we are not having power cuts. However, the really difficult thing is that our economy is in greater peril than it was then and, like then, Labour has borrowed more than we can possibly afford to pay back.

Zimbabwe

There are three international issues that the world needs to face up to. The first of those is Zimbabwe. We cannot let Mugabe stay in power and the UN needs to find resolutions that will enable him still to withdraw from the precipice. If not, then I fear a humanitarian issue that will darken the next year.

A new President

Th other two international issues are ones that Obama is going to have to deal with and the world watches to see whether he has the will to add to his rhetoric. The problems are Iran and Russia. The fact is Russia is building its military forces and looking acquisitively towards the Arctic as it next source of natural resources through which it can hold the world to ransom. The importance of economic power is being replaced by the importance of the power of energy.

Personal thoughts

This has been a tough year. Business has been tough and the attempts to sell my house to move to the Yeovil constituency have proved impossible. You currently appear not to be able to sell houses at any price. The real problem is that no one wishes to buy houses at the moment - or at least they don't have the money to buy. But through all this I remain optimistic about the New Year. Economically we may be suffering but personally I feel fitter and more able to cope with the future challenges than ever before.

Still, let us forget the gloom for the Christmas period and look forward with hope.

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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.”

10:10am Tuesday 28th October 2008

CONSERVATIVES in the Yeovil constituency held their annual dinner in Ilminster where members heard positive news about one of the district's key employers.

Guest speaker Gerald Howarth MP, the Tories' Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement, said that Yeovil-based AgustaWestland's Future Lynx helicopter was the 'only game in town.'

Anxiety is growing over the £1-billion contract and Yeovil MP David Laws has said he wants to get things moving on the Future Lynx project - which has been left in the pipeline in recent months and caused uncertainty for AgustaWestland whose workforce includes many people from the Chard, Ilminster and Crewkerne area.Earlier this year Mr Laws was left angry with comments made by one Conservative MP and claimed the party was trying to scupper the deal.But Mr Howarth, who had earlier in the day visited the AgustaWestland factory, reassured local Tory members that the party was right behind the Future Lynx project.

“The shortage of helicopter airlift in theatre is clearly impacting on the effectiveness of military operations on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.

“It is vital we improve our battlefield helicopter capability, and currently the only game in town is the Future Lynx. In addition, the Royal Navy desperately needs to replace its ageing Lynx fleet.

“Our Armed Forces are paying the price for Labour's catastrophic £1.4 billion cut in the helicopter budget in 2004.”

Mr Howarth also told the guests that the Conservatives want to ensure that the UK has a strong defence industrial base to support our Armed Forces whom he praised for their courage and commitment.

Yeovil's Conservative parliamentary candidate, Kevin Davis, said how delighted he was to have Mr Howarth's support for the Future Lynx.

”This gives the lie to suggestions that the Conservatives do not support this project which is vital to Westland and which plays such an important part in the economy of the Yeovil constituency,” he said.

Image by ianrory via Flickr

Westland's Future Lynx helicopter is the only game in town, according to Conservative Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement, Gerald Howarth MP.

Speaking on Friday at the Yeovil Conservatives' Annual Dinner in Ilminster, Mr Howarth, who had earlier in the day visited the Westland factory, said:

"The shortage of helicopter airlift in theatre is clearly impacting on the effectiveness of military operations on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.  It is vital we improve our battlefield helicopter capability, and currently the only game in town is the Future Lynx.  In addition, the Royal Navy desperately needs to replace its ageing Lynx fleet.

"Our Armed Forces are paying the price for Labour's catastrophic £1.4 billion cut in the helicopter budget in 2004."

Mr Howarth also told the guests that the Conservatives want to ensure that the UK has a strong defence industrial base to support our Armed Forces whom he praised for their courage and commitment.

Yeovil's Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Kevin Davis, said how delighted he was to have the Shadow Procurement Minister's support for the Future Lynx.  He said:

"This gives the lie to suggestions that the Conservatives do not support this project which is vital to Westlands and which plays such an important part in the economy of the Yeovil constituency."

At the end of the evening a collection was made for Help for Heroes, the tri-service charity which has already raised £14 million for the rehabilitation centre at Headley Court and other improvements in the care of those injured on operations.

See previous blog entries on this subject at:

http://kevindavis.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/lib-dems-to-lead-cuts-at-westland-agusta/

http://kevindavis.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/giant-carrier-spending-what-now-for-westland/

This is a very good post from a local Yeovil blogger - who just happens to be a priest!

Here's a snippet, the rest can be seen at the link.

"At the funeral visit you're trying to gauge mood as well: emotions can range all over the place. Family splits come to the surface, and the occasional skeleton emerges from the closet. If everyone knows that the dead person was an absolute scumbag, who beat his children and swore at his neighbours, then you've got to acknowledge that somehow, without starting the funeral service with "we're here to remember John, who, as you all know, was an absolute scumbag...."

St. Aidan to Abbey Manor: Behind the Collarnerals