ConservativeHome's Local Government Blog

Margaret Eaton attacks Taxpayer's Alliance

Cllr Margaret Eaton, a Conservative councillor and the Chairman of the Local Government Association, has used her speech to the LGA Conference to attack the Taxpayers Alliance. (You can see a live webcam here as an alternative to Wimbledon.)

Cllr Eaton says: "The Taxpayers Alliance know the cost of everything and the value of nothing."

I know the cost of my Council's annual membership sub to the LGA. It is £48,125. When it comes to its value to the residents of my borough who have to meet this cost I'm afraid I do go a bit hazy.

Winning the argument on grammar schools

Nick Seaton of the Campaign for Real Education, welcomes the reignition of the grammar school debate by David Davis.

Tim Montgomerie has already covered last week's Spectator debate on grammar schools, so sorry to harp on.  But it exposed yet again a festering sore in the Conservative Party that will not go away.  It's
not just about whether or not we should have more grammar schools. It's also about preserving those we still have: 164 in England and 69 in Northern Ireland.

Like them or not, they are excellent schools and extremely popular. Yet all 69 in Northern Ireland and perhaps 1 in 4 of those in England are under some form of threat from socialist ideologues – thanks, in part, to the Conservative leadership's lack of support (see for example, www.savestbernards.co.uk )  The socialists' behaviour is normal. But why should they be allowed to take advantage of lukewarm Conservatives who offer an open goal to the enemies of good schools bent on undermining or destroying them as soon as possible?

Social housing rule changes proposed to thwart BNP

After "British Job for British Workers" we have a new slogan from the Prime Minister: "Local Homes for Local People." Local families will get priority over newcomers. Those on the waiting list the longest will get priority than new applicants in greater need.

I suspect that as with the earlier slogan it will be more about spin than reality. The current system of social housing has dependency in its DNA. As I've said before this will inevitably lead to resentments that groups like the BNP will exploit. Tinkering around the allocations policy will not solve this.

Nobody benefits from the present system - least of all those locked in dependency despite the billions spent on them. Surveys show most Council tenants would like to be home owners if they had the chance. They have no desire to be supplicants of the state languishing in soullesss monolithic "housing units." The rival socialist parties can argue about housing allocations. Conservatives should be a real alternative.

Standpoint magazine attacks Brighton

The new issue of Standpoint includes the following comments by Peter Whittle about Brighton:

Brighton. Shouldn't a visit to our most famous southern seaside resort, with its Pavilion and Theatre, be a harmless day out? If your idea of fun is an eternal Camden Market, then maybe. It is rather as if somebody tipped the 1970s on their side and everybody who rolled off ended up here. Achingly alternative, with a fair amount of New Age-ism around the edges, it feels as if it's in the middle of a perpetual student union meeting — a real city of lost causes. The seafront was mugged by some of the worst modern architecture ever inflicted on a small town. On a recent trip, I saw more tattoos and nose-rings in one day than in a year in London, a sure sign that the egocentric but talentless have come to rest here having fled the capital. How Julie Burchill tolerates it is a mystery. Antidote:Aldeburgh.

I am writing to Cllr Mary Mears, the Conservative leader of Brighton and Hove Council and Cllr Roger Warren and Cllr Marianne Fellowes, who represent the Aldeburgh Ward on Suffolk Coastal Council, inviting their reactions.

Mark Wallace: Councils must resist the demands of local NHS nanny-staters which would have the effect of banning Popeye for under-18s

Mark Wallace of The TaxPayers' Alliance says that local councils must ignore the demands of some increasingly zealous primary care trusts.

Long-standing readers may recall Eric Pickles' admirable call last year for councils across the land to refuse to collaborate with the stealth taxes and schemes of central government. As one city has demonstrated this week, it is also necessary for councils to be constantly resistant to the nannying tendencies of organisations more close to home than the national government.

Unbelievably, Liverpool City Council has been confronted with a demand from its local Primary Care Trust that all films showing smoking except in an unremittingly negative light should be automatically issued with 18 certificates. This means, as the Liverpool Daily Post acutely ascertained, that any future film about Popeye, for example, would be adults-only viewing unless the heroic sailor died of lung cancer as a result of his smoking habit.

It is a bizarre anachronism that councils have the power to increase the age restrictions on films being shown in their area. The vast majority of councils are absolutely right never to use the power at all. The only result of them attempting to force their personal tastes onto local cinemas would be to harm those cinemas by driving their customers elsewhere and then to make the council itself a laughing stock.

Torbay, for example, banned The Life of Brian in 1979 to protect the people of the town from what the council felt to be an anti-Christian message, and that ban was only lifted last year. Is Torbay now notably more God-fearing than any other comparable town in the country? Did the ban succeed in preventing Torbegians (I’m guessing, but I hope that’s their official name) from being exposed to the supposed evils of Monty Python for 29 years? Of course not – the only result was that local cinemas missed out on ticket and popcorn sales for one of the most popular film releases of that decade.

Cllr Edward Lister: Lessons from Wandsworth for David Cameron

Cllr Edward Lister is Conservative leader of Wandsworth Council.

There’s lessons for David Cameron in this week’s survey results on people’s attitudes to their local authority and the place where they live.

In Wandsworth’s case the Government’s Place Survey gave us approval ratings to die for – top in the country on value for money (73 per cent) and top again for satisfaction with the council (75 per cent).

In London average satisfaction scores fell – down to 49 per cent. So what is Wandsworth doing that is different?

Well we do have the clear advantage of the UK’s lowest council tax – but that’s only one component. When residents are judging us on value for money they are influenced by their overriding perception of what the authority is about.

How was I treated last time I dealt with the town hall? Does the council share my concerns on quality of life issues? And how does it look after the local area?

The Wandsworth formula has been finely tuned over the years. Through a rigorous process of scrutiny and challenge that stretches into every corner of municipal activity we make sure we get the last pound of value from every service.

And like any sound business we don’t just do this once – it is a constant process of review which keeps asking why things are done the way are – and whether they could be done differently.

Boris on his "tough week"

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has had some problems. He has dealt with them well - tackling them openly rather than denying their existence or refusing to comment. Here is his email message to supporters:

It's been a tough week this week. I was angry and disappointed to learn that my former deputy had made some very serious errors of judgement when it came to expenses. He rightly stepped down and we must now move on.

I won't gloss over my own issue with expenses. Despite being a fanatical cyclist, I have had to use taxis over the past year to travel to official functions as Mayor. To be honest, I always prefer using the bike, even to very posh functions. However, sometimes using a taxi is unavoidable.

When I was elected, I promised that I would be open and transparent - for good or for bad. Even though the release of information about expenses can be and has created negative media stories, I believe that is a price worth paying for a truly accountable mayoralty. And it is important to focus on our broader efforts to run an open and value for money City Hall. We have made significant savings, such as cutting the media budget by £700,000 and closing down the office in Venezuela, saving £100,000.

We publish all spending over £1,000 and, more importantly, City Hall no longer spends money on narrow political causes. I am pleased to report we have not held any lavish lunches with South American dictators!

All this has enabled us to freeze our share of the council tax for the first time in 8 years.

So, I believe we have a good record when it comes to respecting your money, using it with care and in a transparent manner. I will always be in favour of shining a light into dark corners, and one thing I will promise is that you will never see anything blacked out when it shouldn't be in any document we publish.

Hope you have a good weekend

One local government by-election result from June 25th 2009

It would appear there was only one local government by-election yesterday, in Scotland, the result of which was as follows:

Monifeith and Sidlaw ward, Angus Council
SNP - 2,486 (68.6%, +14.3)
Conservative - 698 (19.3%, +0.8)
Lib Dem - 439 (12.1%, +4.9)
SNP hold

Hat-tip: Luke Akehurst

John Denham gives Tory Ealing "Best Achieving Council" award

Communities Secretary John Denham presided over the Municipal Journal Awards which included the award of Best Achieving Council to Conservative-run Ealing. Congratulations to Ealing which has recently given residents a Council Tax rebates and introduced a bold experiment in scrapping unnecessary traffic lights.

Denham announced that his Department would sponsor an award next year for: "Environmental sensitivity in waste collection." This was a response to the Daily Mail's campaign against wheelie bins.

Some awards had curious titles and I can't find details on why particular awards were given. My council, Hammersmith and Fulham, won the prize for: "Most Effective Political Team Achievement." Thanks very much, Mr Denham. We have certainly been in the political firing line, not least in terms of the barrage of lies told about us by DCLG Ministers. But we march towards the sound of gunfire.

Canterbury Council cleared of anti-gay charge

Canterbury City Council has been cleared by the Local Government Ombudsman of an accusation that it is not "gay friendly." This followed a complaint from the group Canterbury Pride. Their seem to be two defences to the charge. The first was that it was untrue - for instance that Canterbury Council had funded gay events in the past and was willing to do so in the future.

The second was that there is presently no statutory requirement on local councils to promote "Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender culture" to use the jargon description. According to Pink News this will change if the Equality Bill passes in its current form as it imposes "a duty on all public bodies to promote equality and diversity which will include LGBT issues." Should it? What would it mean in practice? An excuse for councils to employ LGBT Officers spending their time attending LGBT Conferences discussing LGBT Issues with LGBT Officers from other councils? Then writing long impenetrable reports nobody reads. Wouldn't the gay (as well as straight) residents in Canterbury rather lower Council Tax bills and a focus on getting the dustbins emptied?

In Canterbury the complaint seems to be a particular organisation that used to get funding and doesn't anymore. It is also demanding funding for a "community drop in centre for the LGBT community." Canterbury Pride also complains that there are no gay bars in Canterbury. Surely that is a matter best left to the market. If the demand is there then let them buy an existing bar or start up a new one. Perfectly reasonable to expect equal treatment from the Licensing Department in the way any application is treated. But not to demand a subsidy.

Then there is the democratic argument. Each time a "duty" in imposed from Whitehall on a Council to do something the decision is taken away from those elected locally.

Labour join Conservative-led coalition in Cumbria

Cllr Jim Buchanan, a Conservative councillor, is the new leader of Cumbria County Council. It means that every county council in the country has a Conservative leader. Independent and Labour councillors will be joining the coalition. The Lib Dems will become the official opposition.

Even if the Lib Dems had accepted a Cabinet post, Cllr Buchanan would have had a casting vote to avoid deadlock. As it is the Conservatives will have a majority of cabinet posts.

There could have been a minority Conservative administration formed and a Conservative/Labour coalition is something of an oddity. But I get the impression that there isn't a great ideological clash in Cumbria.

Mayor of Doncaster recruits Tories to his cabinet

The Mayor of Doncaster Peter Davies, an English Democrat, has announced the appointment of five cabinet members. There will be three Conservative councillors and two independent councillors.

Davies was elected on a bold programme to cut Council Tax and banish political correctness. He will need help in order to deliver it. His election was unexpected and he so he will now have to move fast to push through detailed changes and overcome the resistance he is bound to encounter from officers.

An indication of the opposition he will face comes from a hostile BBC interview for Radio Sheffield. The interviewer even managed to attack him for cutting his Mayoral salary on the grounds that would diminish "respect" for the office. The BBC Sheffield interviewer also abushed him by making an (entirely false) claim that cutting translation services would be illegal, Not only would it be legal but it would be in line with Government policy.

Conservative-led coalition takes charge in Cornwall

The Conservatives have formed a coalition with independent councillors to form an administration to run Cornwall County Council.  Cllr Alec Robertson, a Conservative, becomes the new Council leader. The new cabinet will consist of six Conservatives and four independents. The concept of an "Independent Group" with a collective stance has always struck me as something of a contradiction in terms. But two of the Independents who are now cabinet members were outspoken critics of wasteful spending under the Lib Dem council. So let us hope they will work with their Conservative colleagues to achieve better value for money.

How does your Council perform on the Fixmystreet website?

Grotspotting is an important part of a typical councillor's workload. The "broken windows" theory is well known and shows the importance of getting graffiti cleaned off quickly before a district is dragged down. As well as spotting grot ourselves we rely on other residents to tell us about it. The residents hope that as councillors we have the status to ensure such problems are dealt with.

Another approach I have noticed is the website fixmystreet.com. Anyone can email in a report and it is forwarded on the relevant Council. This system relies on transparency as a spur to action. The unresolved complaints from each Council are there are all to see - along with praise for the success stories where the matter has been sorted out.

It may not be as comprehensive a guide to a Council's performance as resident satisfaction surveys or Audit Commission inspections. Yet I suspect we will be seeing more pressure coming from initiatives like this in the future. Of course the public sector by its nature will be bureaucratic and inefficient but this sort of accountability helps.

Campaign for Better Transport - Charity Commission's response

For those following this saga, I have now had the following response from the Charity Commission. Effectively they seem to be accepting that the charity has broken the rules but don't seem to be proposing any sanctions - or even warning of any sanctions in the event of a repetition:

Dear Mr Phibbs
Thank you for your email of 17 June 2009, in connection with your concerns regarding the recent email circulated by the charity entitled 'Campaign for Better Transport wants to hear from you!'.
We have received similar expressions of concern from other sources and are currently corresponding with the charity's trustees to provide specific advice and guidance.  Our understanding is that the charity has already issued an apology via its Communications Director,
clarifying that it was not intended as any form of attack against a political party and acknowledging that this may have been the impression given due to the particular choice of wording used by the person issuing the email.
In contacting the trustees, we have stressed to them the importance of maintaining an unbiased perspective when dealing with issues which, while within the charity's stated objects, also by their nature involve matters which could be seen by those outside the charity as 'political' or 'politically motivated'.  The Commission's published guidance to charities considering engaging in Campaigning (and other activities which can be seen as Political in nature) is set out in
CC9, a copy of which you can access directly from our website at www.charitycommission.gov.uk by following the link 'Publications and Guidance'.
Any query, please call us on 0845 3000 218.
Yours sincerely
Kenneth Rogers
Charity Commission Direct - Caseworking Team

Read Chris Woodhead's new book

Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, says Chris Woodhead's new book offers a bold critique on the educational establishment and shows how they can be defeated.

A Desolation of Learning: Is This the Education our Children Deserve, is bang up to date and completely demolishes the establishment's cosy myth that everything in the educational garden is lovely.  It isn't and the evidence is here.

After many years in the heart of the educational establishment, ranging from classroom teacher to Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead knows what he is talking (and writing) about.

His honesty and determination to 'tell it as it is' have made him enemies in the establishment, especially among those who specialise in deceit   – and use convoluted language to further that aim. But he has  more friends and admirers than enemies, not least among parents and good teachers who see at first hand exactly what is going on.

Worthing Council threaten pensioner over missing cat poster

Worthing Council have threatened a pensioner with a £75 for pinning up notices on trees about a missing cat. 

Clearly they are being jobsworth and insensitive. Apart from missing cats the pinning of notices on trees is often an ideal way to publicise local community events - fund raising events for local schools, churches, events being put on in local parks and so on. It is something Councils should tolerate and not regard as fly posting. But I do think that after the events has taken place (or the cat has been found or accepted as lost forever) then the person who put them up should take responsibility for taking them down again.

State of the parties after the local elections

The House of Commons Library have produced their guide to the local elections. Most of us are familiar with the glorious victories of June 4 so I think the most interesting section is the summary of where the leaves the state of the parties in Town Halls overall:

“The Conservatives have almost 10,100 councillors, 46% of the Great Britain total, and the party’s highest total since 1985. The number of Conservative councillors has risen consistently since 1997. The Conservatives control 222 councils, 50% of the total, including 96% of county councils and 63% of shire district councils. The Conservatives control two councils in Wales but none of the 32 unitary authorities in Scotland. In England 50% of councillors are Conservatives.

Labour has almost 4,700 councillors, 21% of the Great Britain total and their lowest number since the reorganisation of local government in 1973. The number of Labour councillors has fallen consistently since 1998. Labour controls 44 councils, 10% of the total number of councils in Great Britain. They control one-third (33%) of metropolitan boroughs and just over one-in-five (22%), London boroughs, but just 6% of Scottish councils and 5% of shire districts in England. There are currently no county council under Labour control.

The Liberal Democrats have just over 4,400 councillors, 20% of the Great Britain total. The number of Liberal Democrat councillors has fluctuated around its current level for 3 years and fallen back from its highest of 4,700 4 years ago. The party now has 21 few councillors compared to 2008 The Liberal Democrats control 27 councils, 6% of the Great Britain total. They do not control any of the unitary authorities in Scotland or Wales.”

Victory for tennis fans over Merton Council

Are none of our traditions sacred? For as long as I can remember tennis fans have been camping out overnight to get into Wimbledon. To avoid the pavement getting blocked in recent years the queue has formed in the adjoining park. But this year officers from Merton Council told the fans to take down heir tents and leave on "health and safety grounds." The fans stood their ground and the All England Tennis Club intervened on their behalf. As a result Merton Council backed off.

£78 million uncollected Council Tax in Wales

According to figures collected for the Welsh Assembly, local councils in Wales are owed more than £78 million in unpaid Council Tax. They have only collected 96.4% of the total Council Tax levied in last financial year. Of the 22 councils in Wales, Blaenau Gwent has the lowest collection rate at 94.5% while Pembrokeshire had the highest at 98.3%.

It is generally accepted that the recession is the cause for the falling rate of collection. I would suspect that the higher the rate of Council Tax set the lower the collection rate because the greater the difficulty people would have paying their bills - but I have not seen figures to prove such a correlation.

The Federation of Small Business says Councils are tougher when it comes to collecting the Business Rate.

Offering a discount to those who pay their Council Tax by Direct Debit may well help secure a higher collection rate - as well as reducing collection costs.

Mark Wallace: Birmingham should cut council tax by the £193m it has allocated to a new and unnecessary library

Mark Wallace of The TaxPayers' Alliance doesn't like Birmingham's Central Library but he's even less keen on the city council's plans to spend £193m demolishing and replacing it.

Like their national counterparts, local politicians are often susceptible to the lure of building expensive vanity projects or white elephants. Sometimes this is down to a desire to show that they are doing something – a big building is more eye-catching than a behind the scenes improvement in council management. Sometimes it is an attempt to win votes, taking the Gordon Brown approach that the more you spend, the better you are serving the public. Occasionally it is even just an attempt to institute a personal legacy, physically moulding an area in such a way that the council leader responsible will always be remembered.

In the current economic conditions, none of these are sufficient justifications to spend large amounts of money on capital building projects. In fact, wherever possible councils should look to maintain or renovate existing buildings instead. At the best of times, spending hundreds of millions of pounds on new council buildings must always be closely scrutinised and only done in exceptional circumstances, backed up by solid, responsible funding plans. Unfortunately, all too often councils throw caution to the wind and taxpayers end up with a huge bill to replace somewhere that might not be shiny and new but was capable of doing the job.

I don’t know which of the motives listed above has taken hold of Birmingham City Council, but reports this week seem to indicate that they, too, have fallen foul of the temptation to commission vastly expensive new facilities when the existing ones can do the job.

BCC have been pushing a proposal to spend a staggering  £193 million demolishing the existing Birmingham Central Library and replace it with an all-singing, all-dancing new structure. Granted, the Central Library is a remarkably ugly building, which Prince Charles memorably described as looking like “a place where books are incinerated, not kept”, but any plan to spend so much money replacing it must have a good justification, particularly in the current recession.

That justification was supposedly that the place was structurally unsound, which the council sexed up by describing it as suffering from  “concrete cancer”. It is worrying, then, that an expert report released under Freedom of Information this week says that is not the case.

The new DCLG Ministerial team

It has emerged that, after some squabbling Rosie Winterton, will be the Local Government Minister. She will be part time as she is also Business Minister in Lord Mandelson's empire. Given the extent of meddling from central Government in the minutia bof how Town Halls are run one would have thought a full time minister would have been justified. The problem is that the lack of Ministerial oversight will not result in less interference - simply in DCLG bureaucrats running amok passing ever more regulations with less democratic accountability to restrain them.

So far Winterton is mainly noted as a protege of John Prescott. Her experience of life in the real world before entering Parliament consisted of a job with lobbyists Connect Public Affairs and working for Southwark Council as their "Parliamentary Officer." (I wonder how many councils employ Parliamentary Officers.) She has had to repay £8,000 in expenses after claiming the entire cost of her mortgage rather than just the interest.

Neo-classical wheelie bins?

In his first post for Conservative Home, Roger Scruton, Tory philosopher and former Professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck, joins the debate on wheelie bins.

My views on wheelie bins: major objection to them is that they encourage people to make more waste, since they are of large capacity and make disposal of waste look easy. Second objection, they are made of non-biodegradable plastic and so are in the long run a huge accumulation of waste in themselves. Third objection, that they are ugly in shape, colour and proportions, as well as materials, and inevitably form a kind of visual pollution when assembled in front of houses.

On the other hand, if people object to them, they can always dispose of their own waste, as we do in America, by taking it to the dump.

Preferred solution: smaller wheelie bins, made out of wood, designed by Leon Krier or Quinlan Terry, embossed with the council coat of arms.

Campaign for Better Transport replies

I have yet to hear back from the Charity Commission but I've been sent the following email from the Campaign for Better Transport:

Dear Cllr Hibbs

I am e-mailing to follow up the two postings on your Conservative Home blog on the e-mail sent out by an intern at Campaign for Better Transport. As you’ll have seen from the e-mail you included from our Communications Director, this e-mail does not at all reflect the views of our organisation. We work very closely with the Conservative Party nationally and with Conservative councils across the country. For instance we hosted a very well received speech by Theresa Villiers earlier this year, and we have met with her on a number of occasions and offered support in the development of Conservative policy. Many of the most positive examples of transport policy have come from Conservative councils, and we have highlighted this in our publications and research.

As I’ve said, the e-mail from our intern was a mistake. We are a strictly non-partisan organisation and our work with all the main political parties follows Charity Commission guidelines on campaigning and political activity. We have strengthened our volunteer intern induction and management process so that something like this does not happen in the future. I am sorry for any offence this has caused.

Please do contact me if you are interested in discussing our work and our approach to the role of local government in our transport system. And I’m glad to note you like trams, at least in the right places.

Best wishes

Stephen Joseph
Executive Director
Campaign for Better Transport

> Original post: "Charity" seeks to gather attacks on Tory councils

New Conservative administration in Devon starts saving money

The Conservatives have already shown there will be a change of direction on Devon County Council since they took control a fortnight ago. The bloated councillor allowances which rose sharply under the previous Lib Dem administration are being cut by £80,000 a year.

Savings include a freeze on basic allowances, scrapping a scrutiny committee which paid allowances to its chairman and vice chairman and which duplicated other committees,scrapping allowances for six councillors to support the executive councillors, reducing the leader's special responsibility allowance from  £27,425 a year to £25,000 and that of the deputy leader from £21,940 to £20,000.

Of course the £80,000 saving in the context of the total Council budget is tiny. That is not the point. By making savings themselves the Council leadership will be emboldened in seeking them elsewhere. The new Council leader Cllr John Hart has pledged to "getting tough on administrative costs and waste wherever we can."

Ealing offers £50 Council Tax rebate

Some excellent news this evening, especially if you live in Ealing. Conservative run Ealing Council is offering a £50 Council Tax rebate. Prudent management had already allowed a Council Tax freeze in April - now they are planning to go further and reduce the burden in a bold recession fighting move. The Band D Council Tax in Ealing is high at £1,369.75 but this cut will give encouragement to residents that the finances are heading in the right direction. Cutting the Council Tax in this way will help the poorest the most. It is similar to the initiative in Kensington and Chelsea.

Council leader Cllr Jason Stacey says: "It is important to remember this money belongs to local people so it is only right we give back some money during the recession." Quite right.

Anti Tory group funded by TfL and London Councils

More news of the Campaign for Better Transport, the outfit with charitable status that sent an email seeking information to campaign against Tory Councils as reported yesterday.

They receive £79,639 a year of Council Taxpayers money via London Councils. They also receive funding from Transport for London although I have not been able to identify the sum. Merrick and Boris might wish to reflect on whether higher Council Tax and higher fares can really be justified in order to bankroll a group that digs around for dirt on Tory councils to "show that they are hostile to good public transport."

CBT have now issued the following thoroughly unconvincing retraction:

Good morning,

This is an email to clarify a note we sent round yesterday asking for examples of transport policies being made or considered at a local level, because I realise the note may have come across as party political.

The email referred to the Conservative Party because in the elections earlier this month the Conservatives gained control of 30 of the 34 councils. It should instead have asked for examples of 'council' actions or thinking. Because of the dominance of the Conservatives at the council level, the term Conservatives was used almost as shorthand. It should not have been. We are interested in information about local council transport decisions, not solely Conservative
council decisions.

We are a non-partisan organisation. We are interested in securing good transport policies and programmes, not in party political issues. We work with all political parties to improve public transport. I’m sorry if yesterday’s email gave you a different impression.

I hope this email clarifies things and am happy to take any questions.

Tories back campaign against wheelie bins

Shadow Local Government Minister Bob Neill has expressed support for a campaign by the Daily Mail against wheelie bins. "Households up and down the country are being hit by the curse of wheelie bins - an obsession of bin bureaucrats," he says. "This is all being driven by meddling Labour Ministers who seem intent on dictating how people dispose of their rubbish. This campaign will send Gordon Brown a message that enough is enough."

Council officers are always desperate to comply with health and safety guidance from Whitehall. Conservative-run Guildford has cravenly cited Health & Safety Executive advice as the reason for introducing more wheelie bins. But it is only advice. They do not have to follow it.

A health and safety manual issued in 2007 states that refuse collection involving plastic bags has "potential for injury" and suggests: "Consider replacing bag collections with rigid receptacles where practicable." Yet as with so much health and safety zealotry the problem is theoretical rather than real. No council has identified a single case of being successfully sued by a dustman over a bin bag related injury.

The Daily Mail are to be applauded for their campaign. Councils disfiguring their streets with wheelie bins should desist from doing so.

"Charity" seeks to gather attacks on Tory Councils

Some readers will already have spotted the craven nature of the Charity Commission towards groups that abuse their charitable status to engage in left wing lobbying. Christian Aid are among the worst offenders. They use donations from well meaning people hoping their money will be used for practical benefit. Instead it is spent pushing collectivism and protectionism, a formula for famine.

What's this got to do with local government you ask? Well the Campaign for Better Transport, "a Charitable foundation" has sent out the following email missive to its those on its mailing list from Duncan macKenzie of their Campaigns and Communications team:

We’ve been approached by a campaigner in Nottingham who’s alerted us that the Conservatives, who have just won control of the local council, have said they’re going to cancel the planned tram extension there.  So to help, we’ve been wondering if we can find other examples of things the Tories are doing which are bad for sustainable public transport.  Can you tell us if they’ve done or said anything in your area that’s grabbed your attention about local bus, tram or rail travel, planned roads, or airports?  We’re thinking of ‘negative’ things – things that show that they’re hostile to good public transport.  Perhaps also, what they do and say locally can give us some idea of how they’ll really behave in government.
 
When you tell us what they’ve been up to near you, we’ll try to put that in the national picture and see if we can build up a profile of their local actions and policies across the country.
 
Please send all your comments to me....

Sandwell Council holds Gypsy Awareness month in schools

Labour-run Sandwell Council is proposing to hold a Gypsy Awareness Month in schools with a month of classes to include "myth busting" and telling children why gypsies feel stigmatised. The recruitment of a Gypsy and Traveller Liason Officer to the Council's Communities Unit is proposed as part of a 23-point programme.

Among the "myths" they will be seeking to "bust" is that traveller sites cause crime. The problem is they do. A National Farmers Union survey for their report Rural Outlaws suggests that 80% of farmers have suffered in some way - over half have had farm equipment stolen, over 20% had been subjected to physical threats. The report was from 2003 but I suspect the situation will have got far worse since then with councils reluctant to take action against illegal sites because of the Human Rights Act. (Although there may be something in the Government's response that this is just an excuse for Councils to avoid taking action.)

The plans in Sandwell come from the Equality and Diversity Scrutiny Panel - so let us hope nothing will come of them. The report says it's recommendations would have a "very real impact on community cohesion." It's impact would be real but negative. Mostly it would be a gift for the British National Party who already have councillors in Sandwell.

If the Sandwell councillor's objective of making the "nomadic community feel part of the wider community" is really to be achieved then the answer is equality before the law. The planning law needs to be enforced by Councils to end illegal sites. The criminal law needs to be enforced by the police, for instance in making serious efforts to recover stolen farm equipment, rather than ignore the problem because of the "sensitivities."