Lib Dem councillor defects to Conservatives

Lib Dem Councillor Ian James has defected to the Conservatives on Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

This is the third defection from the Lib Dems to the Conservatives in Dorset in recent times.  

Welcome to the party Ian, and well done to South Dorset Conservatives for showing the leadership in Weymouth that has inspired Ian to cross the floor.

The full story is here.

Annette becomes a grannie

I've heard on the grapevine that our MP, Annette Brooke, is due to become a grandmother for the first time this week.

Congratulations to Annette, Mike and their family. I hope everything goes well.

Susan Jefferies, the RSS and Me

Susan Jefferies is the Lib Dem County Councillor for Corfe Mullen and I appear to have upset her.

Now, I've never actually met Susan.  I have, of course, heard about her and most of what I have heard has been positive.  She represents her community on both the Parish and County councils and she's been consistent in her opposition to the RSS proposals for her area.

She got in to a little bit of trouble last year when she, allegedly, made some rather unfortunate comments about the ladies attending a keep fit class for new mums in Corfe Mullen.  

Susan has a web site, and she's a bit upset about last month's meeting to coordinate opposition to the RSS across SE Dorset.

Aparently the guest list 'read like a Tory cocktail party'.  Despite the fact that there were councillors there from each of the political parties on Bournemouth Borough Council, two Liberal Democrat Councillors and our own Liberal Democrat MP.  

Unfortunately for Susan, there were quite a number of Conservatives, but that simply reflects that each of the authorities in South East Dorset are Conservative controlled.  Therefore it's hardly surprising that a meeting to which the leaders of each of the councils were invited should include quite a number of Conservatives.

Susan goes on:

"At this meeting all sorts of protest actions were discussed and agreed and Nick King seems to be hailing himself the lead protester for the RSS.

May we remind the Tories that when the response to the original RSS was debated in March 2006, ...... the Tory administration in Bournemouth ..... supported the proposals for urban extensions into the Green Belt."

What Susan has conveniently forgotten is that the administration in Bournemouth at that time was a Liberal Democrat one.  The did indeed support development of the Green Belt and continued to do so up until the elections in May 2007.  

I was elected to Bournemouth Council in December 2005 on a clear platform of opposing Green Belt development.  Indeed it was the main issue in the by election as the Liberal Democrats were supporting then and continued to support development on green belt sites in my ward.   I think it goes some way to explaining how I won the by election, gaining the seat from the Lib Dems, with almost two thirds of the vote and how that majority was increased further in the elections last year.

Everyone has now come on board with opposition to the RSS plans.  Some have altered positions they previously held, including Bournemouth's Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives on Dorset County Council.

It's absolutely shameful that Susan is trying to make a party political points out of this.  We are all working together to oppose these dreadful plans that threaten to change the character of our area for ever.  

Stop playing politics Susan and work with everyone to fight the proposals when the Secretary of State announces them next week.

David Cameron and the Regional Spatial Strategy

David Cameron was in Bournemouth today, to speak at the Local Government Association Conference at the BIC.

I had to pick him up from Bournemouth Airport and take him to the conference centre. I therefore managed to get 20 minutes with him to talk to him about how important the Regional Spatial Strategy is to our area. He was horrified to hear about the proposals from the Examination in Public which would result in enormous incursions on to the Green Belt in East Dorset, Purbeck and Bournemouth.

He agreed entirely with our campaign to ensure that local people, through their local councils decide where, how many, of what type and for whom this housing should take place. He also agreed to confirm that a Conservative Government would overturn these plans if we were elected in time to stop the planning permissions being granted.

When we reached the BIC demonstrators from Lytchett Minster and Lytchett Matravers were already outside the building. I had a chance to talk to them while David Cameron went in to do his speech. It was great to see both Conservative and Liberal Democrat Councillors from Purbeck and the County Councils there demonstrating side by side. They were joined after a little while by people from Bournemouth, Christchurch and East Dorset.

David gave an interview to the Daily Echo, which I understand is going to be front page news tomorrow. He confirmed our position over the RSS in the interview. Good for him.

More importantly he also took a few minutes to meet and speak with the demonstrators outside. Again he emphasised the party's opposition and told the demonstration that if we're elected in time we would over turn the plans. He also confirmed that a Conservative Government would do away with all regional bodies, handing responsibility back to local councils to decide what kind of development should take place in their own areas.

Development in Back Gardens

Development in the back gardens of houses is an issue across the two boroughs of Bournemouth and Poole. 'Back filling' as it's known is being encouraged by the Government through their classifying back gardens as brown field sites, thereby making it much more difficult for Councils to reject planning applications on them.

Bournemouth's Conservatives have been fighting this form of development for some time. The Council is currently run by the Liberal Democrats and, reacting to public concern back in July the Council passed this motion:




AT A MEETING OF THE BOROUGH OF BOURNEMOUTH COUNCIL, 25 JULY 2006

c. Residential Development in Bournemouth

Councillor Garratt moved and Councillor Brandwood seconded:

‘That the Council recognises the deep concerns of many residents about the impact on the character of residential areas that redevelopment of house sites as flats may have. The Council further recognises the concerns arising from the loss of back gardens to housing development.

The Council also recognises the similarly deep concerns of many residents that the high cost of housing to buy and rent locally could mean that as their children grow up they will have to move away from Bournemouth in order to afford somewhere to live.

In order to address issues of the loss of character the Council resolves, as part of the preparation of its Local Development Framework, to consider the development of Character Assessment policies.

In order to address the issue of the loss of back gardens the Council resolves to:

1. support calls for garden land to be reclassified as green field land;
2. welcome the commitment of Bournemouth’s MPs towards securing this;
3. express its support for the specific provision within the Local Government and Planning (Parkland and Windfall Development) Bill sponsored by Lorely Burt MP, which would require the Secretary of State to issue guidance to local planning authorities to the effect that ‘the gardens of private houses should be regarded for development control purposes as green field sites.’

In order to address the need, in particular, of local people growing up in Bournemouth to be able to afford a place to live, the Council resolves to confirm that affordable housing both to buy and rent is one of its top priorities.’

The motion was carried, 34 in favour, 6 against, 3 abstentions.





Simply enough, no?





Then why is there an advert in the latest edition of the Council's magazine, delivered monthly to all residents, for a company offering to buy up back gardens in order to develop them?





Why has the Council not vetoed advertisers who specifically advertise services to which we are opposed?





My own business advertises in BH Life, we have been told that there are waiting lists for advertisers in the magazine throughout the Spring as only a certain number of adverts are accepted. The excuse that accepting adverts keeps the cost down and they have to take adverts from whichever source they can therefore doesn't pass muster.





We should be practicing what we preach and ensuring that adverts of this type are not allowed in Council publications.

School Sports - bad for you?

Sandra Gidley, the Liberal Democrat MP for Romsey, has spoken in Parliament about her opposition to competitive sport in school. Apparently her preference is for activities which focused on "personal improvement" like skipping, dance and games.

Now I can speak with some considerable experience of this issue. You see, I was always one of the tubby kids who was last to be picked for the teams on either side.

Only once did I ever succeed in playing well at something, in the final of the inter house cricket competition and, in a Hollywood style 9th wicket stand, I managed to somehow scrape the winning runs for my house that won us the house cup. (This I have to admit was an additionally impressive feat as I have always hated cricket with a passion).

I therefore consider myself to have been one of those disadvantaged and traumatised children Ms Gidley is talking about. Did competitive sports in school do me any harm? Of course they didn’t.

They taught me two lessons, sometimes hardly learnt, but well learnt none the less:

You can’t be good at everything, but there are always opportunities to play to your strengths and that life is essentially competitive and therefore you’d better get used to losing as well as winning.

We should be encouraging more competitive sport amongst our children in my opinion. For these very reasons, let alone the need to encourage exercise in our young people who are lured to sit in front of the TV far more than my generation ever was.