Labour choose their candidate

The Labour party have chosen their candidate for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Chris Thompson.

Chris is also a blogger, his blog can be found here.  His first post is a response to the comments I've made about proposals for the BBC to start local internet news services and the threat they pose to local newspapers.

Welcome to the fray Chris!  

Cannon Hill quarry proposals

Cannon Hill is an area of woodland which runs in to the centre of Colehill.

Dorset County Council have just published their proposals for sites suitable for quarrying over the next 25 years. Cannon Hill is included, proposed as a site for gravel extraction for a period of 15 to 25 years.

The idea is totally bonkers!

The site is completely unsuitable. It's in the middle of the village, access for at least some of the traffic would need to be through Cannon Hill Road, which is adjacent to Colehill First School. There are also significant numbers of properties backing on to the plantation. Not only in Pilford Heath Road and Cannon Hill Gardens, but also in Quarry Road and the roads around Bridle Way.

Complete madness. We'll be circulating letters to help people object in the next few days.

Castleford, empty houses and the RSS

What do these three things have in common?

Well, we've just been watching a programme on Channel 4 about the regeneration of Castleford, where there are apparently streets of houses sitting empty amongst other symptoms of urban decay.  This appears to have been largely brought about by the demise of the mining and other industries in the area.

It was a good example of why this kind of area deserves more than its fair share of Government funding.

However, it made me ask the question why the Government is forcing us to concrete over huge areas of the Green Belt around Bournemouth and Poole while there are clearly areas of housing standing empty in the north.

This Government's prioritisation of funding for the north has resulted in superior infrastructure for those areas receiving it.  Greater funding for local authorities has also resulted in much lower rates of council tax for residents.  This has, it would appear, lead to complacency over issues such as recylcing (see here).

Proper regeneration of deprived areas of the country should be lead by private investment.  In the 1980's the government encouraged new businesses by offering tax breaks, incentives, pump prime funding and practical assistance to start up businesses prepared to relocate to those areas.

They also prioritized those areas requiring regeneration when they decided where to relocate those government departments and agencies being moved from Central London.  

That kind of practical intervention and assistance would begin to bring true regeneration through opportunity to deprived areas, partculalry those in the North.  Maybe then there wouldn't be the need for the Government to propose such enormous housing growth here in South East Dorset.

Nuclear Power Plants

Apparently so little attention had been taken to Gordon Brown today, his announcement that the energy crisis is such that we should be considering sites for nuclear power plants in addition to replacing those already built was missed entirely by the media. Only when Downing Street staff pointed it out to journalists was it reported.

I should be very clear, I'm not in favour of nuclear power in its present form. I'm not convinced that it's safe and I'm certainly not convinced that its expansion is desirable. I recognize that the coming energy crisis is going to need radical solutions. I think these need to be environmentally friendly ones.

I welcome the advances that are being made in tidal power sources.

These, to my mind, offer the best solution to the energy shortage. In the short term we may need to rely upon the refurbishment of our current nuclear power stations. This should be a short term solution only, buying us time to develop further a full range of environmentally friendly options.

The subject reminded me of an e-mail I received back in March. The correspondent was asking me how I would deal with a conflict between my party policy and a local issue which was universally opposed by my constituents. The question came on the back of my comments about the EU Referendum vote in the Commons and the example used was a plan to construct a reactor at Winfrith.

I'm afraid I received the e-mail while I was away in Spain and it was lost when my lap top crashed. I'm therefore happy to answer the query here and hope that the gentleman who asked me the question might understand that I wasn't able to answer his original e-mail.

That answer is quite simple. If I'm elected at the election then I will have been elected on a party platform which will be clearly laid out. I'd react to subsequent decisions on the basis of representing the best interests of my constituency. If that mean opposing a decision otherwise backed by my party or the government of which I was part then so be it.

The greatest form of flattery....

I've spent today updating a lot of the links for this and its sister web site.

I'm amazed at the number of Conservative blogs that have developed in Bournemouth, Poole and the surrounding area since I started my Littledown and Iford blog just a few months ago.

Check out the local Conservative links on the right. They include blogs that cover the Bournemouth wards of Moordown, Queen's Park, Redhill & Northbourne, Wallisdown and Winton West, Westbourne & Westcliff and Winton East.

Richard Booth, one of the Conservative candidates for Wimborne also has a blog, upon which he is running a poll on the desireability of allowing Waitrose to build on Wimborne Cricket Club's ground at Hanham Field. I urge you to take a look at his blog and let your voice be heard in his vote.

Finally I should mention Will Burstow's excellent blog, A Young Conservative. Will is from Ulster, hence the posts about the province and its politics. Will lives in Alderney, which is currently part of Mid Dorset and North Poole but transfers in the boundary changes to Bournemouth West.

Community Action

At a dinner party the other evening a friend said to me: ‘Now don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not really the right type of person to be a Tory candidate; you’re too nice and too caring.’ I took this somewhat back handed compliment in the positive light it was meant.

It started me thinking however, particularly in light of our efforts this Christmas Day, swimming in aid of the Mayor of Bournemouth’s charities.

The perception my friend carries with him, that Conservatives are traditionally uncaring and disinterested in those less fortunate than themselves is plainly wrong.

Conservatives have so often been at the forefront of community action. The problem is that they don’t shout about it. How many times have I spoken to Conservative activists who are heavily involved in charitable activities.

In my short time getting to know the members of Mid Dorset and North Poole Conservatives, I am already aware that we have members who are very much involved with the Citizens Advice Bureaux, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Julia’s House, Help the Aged and various cancer charities.

With local authority grants being so tightly squeezed the way ahead in provision of effective community and social support must be through greater cooperation between public sector and voluntary agencies. This could be as complex as social services using the great work that the CAB’s or Relate carry out to enhance their activities. Or as simple as encouragement of the In Bloom committees throughout the area to take over and enhance our roadsides.

Our government, particularly local government, should be playing a proactive role in encouraging and linking in the services of voluntary organisations to their own. There is an enormous pool of good will and support from the voluntary sector on hand in our area. I’d like to see our local authorities sitting down, as a group, with our local voluntary agencies. They should be discussing how our volunteers can assist in further supporting their efforts. Just as importantly, our local authorities should be asking our voluntary services what assistance they need.

The support can be as straight forward as reducing the barriers to collections for their charities. It’s a shame that this doesn’t currently happen in Bournemouth; hopefully a new administration will address this issue after next May.

It's an issue I'm passionate about and one I'll be returning to over time. If you're involved in a voluntary agency in Mid Dorset and North Poole then do please get in touch with me, I'm very keen to find out what you're doing and how I, and the local Conservatives, might help you.

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.