Sunday 31 December 2006

New Year's Resolutions

Well, the Festive Season is almost over and, thank goodness, so is the round of various parties and dinners.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not really a Scrooge, I thoroughly enjoy this time of year, not least the opportunity to socialise and catch up with friends who you haven’t seen through much of the year.

However, even more than before, this Season has had an expansive effect on my waisteline. Seeing those photos from the Christmas Day Swim has brought that fact in to stark relief for me. So, number one New Year’s resolution this year is to get back to the gym and start getting back in to some kind of shape.

My other New Year’s Resolutions, well

2. Be on time more often (Setting my watch ten minutes fast hasn’t worked as I know it’s ten minutes fast and therefore still think I have time to get places when I haven’t – I have to think of a new strategy).

3. Take Harry for more walks – he’s suffered a bit in that department through the Autumn.

4. Go to the cinema more often – I love it so why don’t I make the time to do it?

5. Write a post a day for this site, after all, if people are going to find out what I stand for then they need to see what I think on different issues.


Have a Happy New Year everyone.

Monday 25 December 2006

Swimming this morning for charity



Happy Christmas!

This morning I joined the Bournemouth Spartans for their Christmas Morning swim off Boscombe Beach in Bournemouth. In the photo above I'm joined by Cllr David Smith from Central Ward in Bournemouth and by the Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr Bob Chapman.
We all joined the swimmers and in the process we raised over £1,000 for the Mayor of Bournemouth's Charity Appeal. It was actually very invigorating, if extremely cold! I'd do it again though, particularly if I can ensure we raise that kind of money for local charities each year.

Anyway, for those doubters amongst my sponsors I need to post evidence of actually having been in the water, so here it is:

Warning!

Before you scroll down to the next photo I should warn you it shows me in a partially unclothed state. It's not pretty. I'm definitely starting that exercise regime in the New Year!




Monday 18 December 2006

Save Dorset's Post Offices


Be they in rural areas or those like our own sub post offices provide a vital service to the community.

This Government has progressively transferred services away from the local Post Offices thereby cutting their income and making them increasingly less viable financially.
To my mind the current Social Network contribution of £150million is a small price to pay for the service those remaining offices provide. When you consider that the government spent £1.1 billion on the services of consultants alone last year it puts this amount in to perspective.
At a time when the government is also cutting subsidies to our local authorities which in turn cause them to cut back their support for public transport, I would have thought that we should be investing in businesses which provide local access to a range of services.

Sub Post Offices provide services to both residents and businesses. If we are to retain vibrant and diverse rural and suburban areas then Sub Post Offices must be part of that picture. The alternative is to force more and more people in to their cars in order to commute to obtain the services they need.


We'd be very grateful of your support for the petition, please sign it by logging on here and following the on screen instructions.

Sunday 10 December 2006

Post Office Closures

Yesterday's Times carried a warning of proposed post office closures next week. Apparently Royal Mail hope to close anything up to half of the current network. The government is likely to only allow the closure of between 3,500 and 4,000. You can read the full story here.

The issue of post office closures is one that concerns me greatly and as soon as we have any indication of which, if any, of our post offices may be under threat then I’ll start campaigning for them straight away. I think the issue goes well beyond the convenience of banking and shopping for local people.

Local post offices are an integral part of our rural communities. As we move towards a situation where we encourage people to leave their cars at home and use local facilities and public transport it seems crazy to me that we are not providing some form of ‘transitional relief’ to encourage the continuance of such vital local services. Services that in my opinion will become even more vital as time goes on.

Wednesday 6 December 2006

3,000 New Homes Near Upton?


I've met with the local Conservative Team who are campaigning to ensure the views of Upton and Lytchett Minster residents are taken in to account before any plans for further residential developments there are approved.

Cllr Paul Johns showed me the current green belt land near Upton, which could soon be used to make way for up to 3,000 new homes over the next 20 years.

I appreciate that more homes are needed for local families, but it is vital that any possible development is examined very sensitively. There must be the infrastructure in place to support these developments. I realise that ultimately the Government and their Inspectors will decide whether this development goes ahead, but the local team and I are keen to know the views of all local residents so that we can best represent you.

A leaflet will be distributed in the area in the next few days requesting the views of the residents of Lytchett Minster and Upton, I hope everyone will take the opportunity of making their voice heard by returning the response form in it to the local team.

Monday 4 December 2006

Campaigning against NHS cuts



Thanks to everyone who signed our Stop Gordon Brown's NHS Cuts petition on Saturday. We spent some time in Wareham, Poole Town Centre and outside ASDA at Canford Heath and collected over 500 signatures to boost the petition.

If you didn't get a chance to sign out petition, you can do so online here.

Why are we campaigning on these issues?

The Royal College of Nursing estimated in August that 18,000 jobs have been cut from NHS hospitals in recent months, 81 community hospitals are still threatened by cutbacks or closure, according to the Community Hospitals Association; 2,036 bed losses have occurred since April

This is on top of the 2,500 beds which were lost from NHS hospitals in 2004-05 and the 6,000 beds cut from NHS hospitals in 2005-06. In just three years, therefore, the NHS is set to lose 12,500 beds – a cut in capacity of 7 per cent.

We want an end to Labour's interference, the NHS has just gone through its tenth reorganisation since Labour came to power nine years ago. We believe decisions affecting local services should not be taken by distant politicians, but by the patients and frontline staff who use and work in our local NHS.

Too much money has been diverted from patient care by an NHS bureaucracy which has swelled its ranks by over 100,000 people since 1997. Gordon Brown's financial mismanagement is forcing short-term decision-making. Hospitals are closing their wards to patients without replacing them with the services needed in the community.

We believe that short-term cuts in the NHS at the expense of building services for the future are unacceptable, and that this short-sightedness will prove even more costly in the long run.

I have a number of friends and family members who work in the NHS, their experiences bear these comments out. We should be very proud of our health service, the dedication of the staff working within it is examplary. It's such a shame that it's the politicians who have let it down, it's time it was freed from being a political football and placed under the control of an independent board.

Finally, it was good too to see our local Lib Dems campaigning at ASDA as well, I support wholeheartedly their campaign for more funding for our local police force. I wish them luck with their campaign and I hope we'll be seeing them campaigning as often as we are on these vital issues.

Friday 1 December 2006

Road pricing - Good or bad news?

The Government has commissioned a report about the feasibility of road pricing which is due to be published today.

Speculation is that the report, written by the former head of British Airways, Sir Rod Eddington, will recommend a considerable extension of road pricing. You can read the full BBC report on the issue here.

Apparently his recommendation is a considerable increase in road pricing schemes, essentially schemes whereby you would be charged to drive on certain roads, the cost being dependent upon the mileage covered and the time of day travelled.
It's suggested this would raise some £28 billion which could then be spent on public transport schemes including a new high speed link between Scotland and London and the expansion of key airports.

There are a number of points about these proposals, if the speculation is correct, that bother me greatly.

Firstly, much of the congestion on the roads occurs in the South and the Midlands and in particular in and around our major employment centres. Government policy is already pushing the expansion of these towns and cities through housebuilding and planning guidelines. Wouldn't any money raised be better spent on improving public transport links in, out and around these locations?

Secondly, why an expansion of airports? One week we are being told that cheap air travel is environmentally harmful and should be curtailed through higher taxation either of air travellers or removal of the lower rate of tax on aircraft fuel enjoyed by airlines. Again, the congestion comes at a local level, regional or international air travel won't remove this. I've yet to travel to or from an airport which doesn't appear to attract an increased amount of road traffic in relation to its surrounding.

Finally, I fundamentally have a problem with the principle of furthering taxation (for this is what road pricing would be) without the removal of tax burdens elsewhere. Too often it appears that we're told the only way to change our behaviour is to levy a financial charge. Under this government that's been a cover for just increasing the tax burden by stealth.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, recently spoke of introducing taxation to encourage businesses to reduce their carbon emissions. He pledged to use this income to reduce the tax burden on business elsewhere however. That's a principle I'd like us to follow in this case too.

Thursday 30 November 2006

Dorset - Labour's forgotten county



Did you know that Dorset receives less money from Central Government per head than any other shire county? That doesn't effect us in Bournemouth, or indeed in Poole, because we are separate unitary authorities.

However, the amounts that the two unitary boroughs receieve from Central Government are equally at the bottom of the heap when it comes to that league table. The issue has been raised by Cllr Brian Leverett, leader of Poole Council and his deputy, Cllr Ann Stribley. The issue is covered in a very good Echo article, available here.

We've long known that the South West and Dorset in particular gets a rough deal from Central Government. Under Labour distribution of national finances to local government has smacked of the worst kind of American pork barrell politics. The majority of the money has been sent to the Labour heartlands of the Midlands and the North.

And yet, the government seems to expect that we here in Dorset should be accommodating a disproportionate number of new homes. The reason? 'Because that's where people want to live and where the opportunities for employment are'.

Our infrastructure is already creaking under the strain of the influx of people. The concerns about gridlock around Castle Lane West at Christmas here are a great example of that.

A fair local government grant from Central Government would give Dorset's local authorities the chance to provide infrastructure appropriate to cope with the population growth. Yet the Labour Government appear to send money to areas where population is falling and where houses are being demolished because no one wants to live in them.

Dorset's local authorities need a fair grant settlement, and we need it now.

Labour appear to have forgotten that Dorset's on the map. I wonder if politics and where the majority of their seats are has anything to do with that?

Wednesday 29 November 2006

Candidate for Mid Dorset and North Poole

Welcome to my blog.

I'm absolutely delighted to have been selected last weekend as the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Mid Dorset and North Poole.

I'm interested to hear from people living in the constituency about their concerns and the issues effecting them. Do please either use the comments section of this blog or the e-mail link on the right to let me know what you think.