NORTH LINCS TORY CABINET NOT OPEN AND CERTAINLY NOT TRANSPARENT

We are almost two years into this Tory led council, when they came to power they pledged all business would be open and transparent either at full council or cabinet, this is sadly not the case.
So what were the items on the agenda that needed a cabinet decision?

1. January Budget Review 2012/2013 where The report revealed that the Torys are out of control on their spend and they are having to rob the reserves by a further 1.6million to prop up the super directorate of people’s services.Cast your mind back, people’s services was a merger of education, children and adult services a huge portfolio with huge responsibility that is important to us all We believe too much for one member, worthy of real debate the real business of cabinet, so the question was asked what is being done about this massive overspend? and is the Directorate too big a responsibility for the Peoples Cabinet member Cllr Rob Waltham? Did we get debate? YOU BET WE DID NOT instead we got a disgraceful response from Cllr Waltham by saying it was shameful in asking the question and then tried to belittle by stating he would ask Mrs Brown if she could wait for her knee operation until Council budgets allowed. So the facts are that if the overspend is a result of more people using Adult Services, show us the facts, how many more people are using the service? For Cllr Waltham to hide behind officers with years of experience is shocking, or is it as I suspect savings predicted haven’t been made?

2.Setting the business rate yield for 2013-14 In the report it stated that there may be opportunities which I welcomed, but there may also be threats, it stated in the report that potentially if we were to loose one of our large key businesses that loss would have to be born by the tax payers of North Lincs up to a 3.9% increase in council tax
The Chair said come on Cllr Kirk let’s speak up the area not down something I took exception to as I am proud to have always spoken up for North Lincs the Humber and the Region, but in the real world business is market driven, as has been demonstrated by the closure of Kimberly Clark in Barton and Lloyds TSB in Scunthorpe, totally out of our control. North Lincolnshire is the only council in the Humber that collects more business tax than we receive sending it down south to prop up other local authorities,

3.Now onto a report about the future of waste in North Lincs something that Cllr Len Foster knows a great deal about having led a cross party (YES you read that correctly CROSS PARTY) project group whilst we were in control, Len warmly welcomed the report apart from a typing error in regards to a planning decision for a waste treatment facility in Scunthorpe actually it is in the Burton and Winterton ward, but I guess that was just an oversight in the report, I asked the chair bearing in mind this will be one of the biggest projects North Lincs Council will ever have, would they consider putting Len as Shadow Cabinet Labour member with that in his portfolio on a working group? as it would help officers and the public, irrespective of political party’s it would show that we would be working together for the best interest of North Lincs and its people,we would not have a controlling representation and we don’t want to gerrymander the committee , this could only be good for North Lincs, so to have our request rejected did come as a shock! What exactly are these so called open and transparent Torys running from?

BE AWARE POSTAL SCAM ON SCAM

I would like to thank Paul Thoades from this is Scunthorpe who informed me that a chain Email is going around about a postal scam and that it is indeed a scam in itself and this is confirmed on the crime stoppers web page thanks Paul for letting me know so please ignore the message below however always be on guard

The Police has asked that you take note of the message below and pass it onto your friends and family. Royal Mail and Trading Standards have confirmed the message. With parcel deliveries on the increase leading up to Christmas, it is particularly relevant.

Postal Scam

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number).

DO NOT call this number as this is a mail scam originating from Belize. If you call the number and start to hear a recorded message, you will already have been billed £315 for the telephone call. If you do receive a card with these details, please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655. For more information, see the Crime Stoppers website.

Claire McCafferty
Humberside Police

THE RICH GET RICHER & POOR GET POORER

Last week’s Autumn Statement exposed the Tories’ failure on the economy: growth down, borrowing up, and hard-working families paying the price.

David Cameron and George Osborne have tried to claim their cuts to tax credits and benefits were aimed at ‘shirkers’ and ‘scroungers’. But the truth is that six out of ten people hit by these cuts are in work. The factory worker on the night shift, the carer who looks after elderly people around the clock and the new mum who will lose her maternity pay. These are people David Cameron and George Osborne never meet and whose lives they will never understand.

At the same time, David Cameron and George Osborne are giving people earning over £1 million a tax cut worth £107,000 on average. Not just for one year, but every year.

With support cut for working families, many of them the poorest in society, it is Britain’s strivers who are picking up the bill for this Government’s failure.

SILICA SANDS AND CHILDREN’S CAMPUS DON’T MIX COUNCIL MEETING

Last night I attended a special meeting of full council in regards to the silica sands development for a children’s campus to be built on a nature reserve, Labour councillors called this meeting because of our concerns to the fact that it will be next to a deep sand quarry that now has filled with water to which only a matter of weeks ago two children had to be dragged out after getting in to difficulties but not only that it is next to a busy road where there has been a number of accidents and fatality involving children. The first point raised by Labour councillors was that this was not about the building of such a facility for children it was about location and the way that it had been railroader through, even though it did not have the support of local residents in Riddings and Bottesford.
Comments coming from the torys were unbelievable like children can drown in three inches of bath water to which point Cllr Tony Gosling (shadow cabinet member for children)said the difference of three inches of bath water is totally different to deep deep cold water because in most cases of drownings in deep water such a silica is it is hypothermia sets in then drowning, after labour group members made their views be known Cllr Len Foster was summing up when the Tory cabinet member responsible for children jumped up and moved that Cllr Foster (Ward councillor) and his concerns be no longer heard (DISGRACEFUL).

Tories not for u-turn (or for being reasonable)

Tories not for u-turn (or for being reasonable).

Road-Safety

I have not blogged for a while but after hearing and reading about an elected member from North Lincolnsire Council leaving the scene of a acciedent outside a College in Scunthorpe I have looked
into the 20 Labour Group Councillors and can confirm that it did not involve any member from the Labour Group, I would now ask the Leader of the Conservative Group does the same.

SUNSET AT BRIGG BOAT CLUB