CREW UPDATE

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while I have been on my holidays. I combined a four day break with my love of football this week as I visited Holland and showed my support to the English national team who played a friendly in Amsterdam on Wednesday night.

I have a letter published in the local press today - which fleshes out some of the details of the Community Respect and Environment Week held in Alamein Ward last week. It gives a list of key achievements - plus an invitation to let me know of anything further that needs doing in the Alamein Ward to improve the environment.

Here it is;

LAST week (3 -7 August) saw the Test Valley Borough Council led Community Respect and Environment Week (CREW) come to Roman Way and Cricketers Way in my ward. It was a great event with various agencies including the police, the DVLA, Twice as Nice and Mencap joining TVBC officers and neighbourhood wardens on the stand outside the Tesco Express on Cricketers Way. Events like this are fantastic because they really bring the community together and certainly the people I spoke to last week were enjoying themselves. On a sunny Monday over 40 children joined in on a litter pick on the playing field and again over 40 children took part in the football event on Friday afternoon. I was able to get down there on a very wet Tuesday morning joining council officers talking to the public about recycling and again on Wednesday knocking on doors in Roman Way with PCSO Snudden. We chatted to people about the environment they live in, about crime, neighbourhood watch and community safety. The week wasn’t just about talking though there was some very practical measures being taken to improve the area, these included; Some 1,410 kg of fly-tipped waste removed, six abandoned wheelie bins removed, the DVLA issuing 25 no tax tickets, 38 graffiti jobs passed onto the team for action, 800 kg of shrubs removed in tidying up the footpaths outside Shepherds Spring Medical Centre, the grounds team cutting all the open space in Roman Way and Cricketers Way, the police deploying their automatic number plate recognition device and a car with no insurance was seized and several tickets were handed out.

As a local councillor there is only so much you can see and get sorted when you walk around the ward – but with a team of people you can really blitz a specific area and improve the environment. It does not stop here though – if there is anything you feel that could do with improving in the Alamein Ward please contact me. My email address is Cllrpnorth@testvalley.gov.uk and my phone number is on the Test Valley Borough Council website.

Cllr Phil North, Alamein Ward.

CREW Roman and Cricketers Way

This week sees Test Valley Borough Councils CREW (Community Respect & Environment Week), come to my ward and more specifically Roman Way and Cricketers Way. It is a great event with various agencies joining in and engaging with residents. We have Council officers talking about recycling and giving away some freebies, our Community Safety Team and Neighbourhood Wardens knocking on doors asking about any major issues, the police running beat surgeries and representatives from Twice as nice chatting to people about their furniture collection recycling service. The Neighbourhood Wardens and the PCSO's are also organising sports games throughout the week for the children to participate in. The full programme of events is set out below. Whilst this is going on we have teams cleaning graffiti, picking up litter, tidying footpaths and cutting back untidy hedges.

I was out this morning under the gazebo (as it was raining) outside the Tesco express at Cricketers Way talking to people & the Wombles (see picture below) of what can be done to improve the area. So if you have some spare time this week do pop along have a chat and have some fun at the same time.

With the Wombles from 'Twice as
Nice'.

Programme of Events

Tuesday 4th August
Recycling Awareness The stand outside Tesco will offer advice to people about waste and recycling issues. Testway Housing's 'Twice as Nice' scheme will also be there promoting their service. This is a free collection service to take away any unwanted items of furniture.

Wednesday 5th August
Crime Prevention Squad Police will be promoting safety issues with the local crime prevention officer. There will also be a chance to meet representatives from a range of local agencies.

Thursday 6th August
Police Street Meet Officers and PCSOs will be on hand to chat to local people about their concerns, crimes and give advice on various issues.

Friday 7th August
The information stand will be open for the final day outside Tesco Express.CREW is closed
All through the week there will also be teams out litter picking, road sweeping, grass cutting, removing fly tipping and dealing with environmental issues.

Anton River Clean-Up

Today I joined some fellow Councillors, Asda staff, helpers and Test Valley Borough Council employees - in a clean-up of Anton river between the two bridges by the Asda store.

It gets cleaned once every two weeks by our environmental services department - but today we blitzed it with about 12 of us. We retrieved 14 dust bin sacks full of rubbish, 2 trolleys, a bike and a traffic cone. The wellies I was wearing didn't exactly serve their purpose when I encountered the deep bit and the water flooded over the top. Despite this it was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon - whilst doing our bit to clean up the local area.

Cllr Lynn & Myself in Anton River

Chloe Smith Wins Norwich North

Chloe Smith has just been elected the new MP for Norwich North with a fantastic majority of over 7,000. That is a swing from Labour to the Conservatives of about 16%. Chloe and the team fought a fantastic campaign and with much support from the voluntary party across the whole country.

I visited Norwich on Tuesday to help deliver pledge leaflets - it was an excellent well organised campaign. I am sure Chloe will fulfill her promise of being a strong, independent voice for Norwich. A clear message has been sent to Gordon Brown today - that not only are the Conservatives ready for Government, the people also want them to Govern.

Chloe Smith giving her acceptance
Speech

Norwich North

Yesterday I accompanied Juliet Henderson & Rodger Jones from the North East Hampshire Constituency to Norwich North to help in the by-election.

It was a wet a muggy summers day, but it was a great day and with fantastic camaraderie we got through a lot of work helping our excellent candidate Chloe Smith. After a good 3 and half hour drive from Hampshire to the Sector 2 office in Norwich - we set about delivering pledge letters. Fighting through the on off showers and stopping for a quick sandwich we managed to do a good four hours delivery - to help get Chloe's message out to the people of Norwich.

The News of the World published these results of an ICM Poll on Sunday on how they predict the percentage of the vote to break down;

Tories – 34%

Labour – 30%

Lib Dems – 15%

Greens – 14%

It is very close and still all to play for - I expect a Conservative Victory overturning the 6,000 - Labour majority though. I will put the results on here when they come in either late Thursday night or Early Friday morning.

Chloe Smith

The Bravest & The Best

This afternoon I hot footed it back down to the South of the Borough (after being in Stockbridge this morning), to join some of my fellow Councillors in Romsey Abbey to Welcome back home the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment after tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a very moving service - especially remembering those three Soldiers of the regiment that never came back. After the Abbey it was back out onto the street to watch the regiment exercise their freedom to march through Romsey. Every shop was decorated with the Union Jack and school children and adults alike waved the Union Flag as the troops received a well deserved round of applause. Our troops serving our Country - are the bravest and the best in the World.

March Past in Romsey

Job Clubs & Youth Groups

This morning I was at the Grosvenor Hotel at Stockbridge and sat in on the Test Valley partnership education & learning meeting. I was there to discuss and to help bring forward the setting up of two jobs clubs serving the boroughs residents as a result of the responding to the recession conference in which I raised the idea. Things are taking shape and with the help of a lot of people and organisations who have put in an awful lot of work - we are looking to go live in September. watch this space for more information.

After the meeting I shot back down the Valley to Andover to drop in on the Askalot community shop in King Arthurs Way. It was full of young teenagers using the computers, and the staff there are doing a wonderful job. After that it was down to Roman Way - to visit a resident who has been asking me about some sort of further community provision on Roman Way - which I am also working on. Again that will be updated here.

Cantari & Carnival

It was once again a busy weekend, Councillors Surgery on Saturday morning, where I spoke to many people and helped them out with issues that they raised. Remember if you wish to visit Councillors surgery we are in the Guildhall the 1st and 3rd Saturday in the month and in the Rendezvous every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. It starts at 10am and goes on to midday.

On Sunday I went to the Winton Conservative Branch fundraising event - and enjoyed an afternoon of cantari singing. The Cantari singers were fantastic and did a good job battling the wind, rain and sirens to deliver a great performance. After a quick chat with every one over a scone and a cup of tea - I hot footed it into town with the Deputy Mayor to watch the carnival procession come into Vigo Park. The carnival was great this year and there was a real party atmosphere. One of the highlights had to be 'Thats Centretainment' winner Jamie Walsh - singing on stage, she was excellent. After chatting to the stall holders it was over to the beer tent for a swift half and to shelter from the inclement weather, before heading home.

The carnival parades into Vigo Park

Cut the Quangos

Last week - whilst I was once again on my soap box arguing that Quangos should be cut down and accountability returned to politicians - somebody asked me what a Quango was. No just what it stood for - it may be hard to remember that the acronym stands for Quasi Autonomous Non Governmental Organisation, but what they actually where. It is surprising that in a day when Quangos have so much of an effect on peoples lives they don't know what they are.

Today David Cameron will lay out his plans to cut down on Quangos - to return the Policy making function to politicians - not unelected bureaucrats.

Here is what he says;
http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/07/Cameron_announces_plans_to_reform_quangos.aspx

How can we make Local Governmnet more accountable?

I have a letter published in the Andover Advertiser today about making local Government more democratic and accountable. Here it is;

Dear Sir,

It was great to see in a recent edition of the Andover Advertiser the ideas of Conservative politicians Daniel Hannan MEP and Douglas Carswell MP were being talked about. In their book the Plan; twelve months to renew Britain they set out a whole range of reforms to make sure Parliament is more accountable not just a creature of the executive – they promote the shifting of power from the state to subjects; from the government to parliament; from Whitehall to communities; from the EU to Britain and one of the most important, from Central Government to Local Government.

In this very newspaper we saw a bit about their campaign for more effective Local Government. At the moment and thanks to a decade and a bit of Labour, Local Government is on its knees. They have transferred power to unelected & unaccountable regional agencies; they have transferred power to the quangos. Much of what local government does – not by any means all - is to have to take a lead and listen to these unelected bureaucracies in which government has entrusted its power. The result of this is a decision making process that isn’t local – and all local politicians say is “we had to do this we had no choice – it has been forced on us by government”. In this scenario no-one is accountable and we wonder why there is little turnout in Local elections. I am sure local politicians of all parties and none would support a more democratic outlook. Carswell & Hannan are proposing we change this and I for one support their ideas, to; Abolish regional development agencies, regional government offices and transfer power to local councils; scrap the department of communities and local government and pass its powers to local authorities; grant English Counties and Cities responsible for all areas of policy which under the 1998 Scotland Act are devolved to the Holyrood Parliament – thus solving the West Lothian Question.

You may think I am supporting this because I am a Local Councillor and I want more power – nothing can be further from the truth. I want Local Government to be more responsible, more accountable, if the electorate believes that a particular governing party (whoever they may be) are not doing a very good job – then they can throw them out at the ballot box – because ultimately with increased powers that authority would be responsible.

Cllr Phil North

Alamein Ward