Planning news

The three weekly planning meeting was held tonight.

The issues tonight were, replacement shop frontages in 3 Town Street, this was recommended for refusal on the basis that there were too many new shop fronts looking the same and lacked diversity of design, although the address is in Town Street effectively the shop fronts are in the Market Place. However all councillors supported the idea of new shop fronts.

Conversion of first and second floor to self contained flats in 47 and 49 High Street, these were recommended for approval, but concern about the flats not having wheely bins storage provision.

The last item was from Flourish homes at the Hillmead area to demolish car barns, three bin store and refurbish seven bin stores and create two new play areas. This was recommended for approval, although concern was expressed that the new play areas were small and we suggested removal of a block of flats to allow a decent play area, concerns were expressed about loss of car parking.

I was keen to express my view that a lot of money had been spent on the flats over the years, the old play area was lost for housing and significant investment was made in the flats years ago, now the housing company are spending more on the flats, but most people want houses and a garden, this should be a long term aim.

Cllr Dunscombe tried to raise the new MOT bays workshop in Pauls Street, he was concerned that the new workshops distracted from listed buildings, sadly members who agreed the workshop were not keen to hear him. The Town Council recommended approval for this development on the 17 March 2009, sadly I was not a member on the Planning Committee at the time, I would of thought Mendip planners could have agreed better materials for this workshop.

Shepton West By-election

I am standing for the vacant Shepton West District Council seat, Mr Taylor was expelled for six months nonattendance, this will be the fourth by-election by Conservatives resigning or being expelled in the last thirteen months.

You will be aware that I have been a vocal critic of the district council, especially as Mendip is failing, the Audit Commission reckon they do not meet minimum standards in the use of resources; managing the finances and governing the business. There is very clear criticism that Mendip Council has not done enough to help our community through the recession and more remarkable they do not seem clear on what they are trying to achieve.

We have seen this in last weeks Shepton Journal, Mendip criticised for the way the organised the last Town Council by-election and the way they implemented the reduction in service for the grassing cutting, it is clear Mendip needs to work differently.

I believe the district council has to do more on affordable housing, as is clear Mendip residents has lower income than nationally and higher house prices, this makes it more important to act on housing.

There is no doubt that local government is faces huge reductions in central government grants, this will require Mendip Council to work differently, working with other agencies and voluntary sectors and of course the Town Council. This will require open and transparent government, it will require the conversations with the public, it certainly cannot behave like Mendip Council has for the previous years.

In Shepton, Market Place and Town Street needs upgrading and a plan to increase footfall.

I will update this site on regular occasions during the campaign, I hope to have many conservations on the doorsteps and the more entertaining will no doubt be of interest.

Housing

The Sunday Mirror are saying the new Tory lib Dem coalition government are planning to end the previous governments policy of using the planning process to achieve 25% of new housing development for affordable rent or ownership.

We know that the Tory Lib Dem coalition have removed £230million from new build affordable housing from this years budget, this announced by the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

The average income in Mendip is around £17K and average house prices are abour £220K around 12 times average income, with Shelter, the housing charity, says there are 1.8 million nationally on waiting lists and here in Mendip nearly 1400 on the waiting list, these reductions already stated will only increase those waiting lists.

Free Trade Unions?

The dispute between cabin staff and British Airways hopefully will be resolved soon, industrial disputes do not tend to benefit anyone.

With the news media only interested in soundbite tabloid journalism I have put the BA cabin staff case in the hyperlink http://www.unitetheunion.com/PDF/078-BA%20flyer%20the%20facts.pdf

The High Court ruling today that blocked the strike action by unite is frankly unbelieveable, a judge says the ballot is legal and a majority of unite members support strike action, but the unions method of relaying the ballot result to their members was not legal and this should be enough to halt strike action.

The best result for this dispute is a negotiated settlement, but in a free democratic society people should have a legal right to remove their labour, the fact employers can use the law to frustrate those democratic rights will not help solve this dispute or help industrial relations in the future.

Have workers less human rights than their employers? High court judges believe they do!

Stephen Timms MP

I was shocked to hear that Stephen Timms MP was stabbed today, doing his job! In the previous period MPs have been ridiculed, the vast majority of MPs do a great job and are open to their constituents, thankfully attacks on our elected MPs are rare, but I wish Mr Timms a speedy recovery.

I'm Back

So, after a very hard fought general election campaign, where I decided not to blog, I feel it's time to re-start this blog.

I've also decided that I'm only going to write one blog only, it seems silly to compartmentalise my blog, so it warts and all.

I'm glad to see that the new politics that the odd couple (Cameron and Clegg) promised lasted about a day.

I see they are proposing that parliament will need 55% of MPs to get a vote of no confidence passed, the Cons have 47% of MPs, Constitutional expert Peter Hennessey says it looks like they are priming the pitch, doctoring it a bit, not good, it was about a different politics, new politics.

So much for the a new parliament having a greater say over the executive.

Community

We had a couple of interesting presentations at the town council; one on cooperatives and the second by prof Gordon McDougall of the Musical Theatre School at the Academy.

There has to be a golden opportunity for communities such as ours to use our money to invest in our own communities, with financial institutions giving low returns, if people invested in community shares using the industrial provident model, we could allow much greater local control over our communities. Owning the local shops, giving flexibility that private landlords cannot give.

Prof Gordon McDougall gave a very full account of where the Musical Theatre School is at the present time, the school needs £20,000 to advertise for new students. The school now has validation for it's courses, it needs between 70 - 90 students to be viable, I get the feeling this school is at a crossroads, if it can raise the capital to invest, the future for this school looks bright, this could offer a new opportunity for the Town Centre. The Town Council would not support financially, but was happy to give warm words.

I tried to get the council to raise funding to the TIC to £5000, but alas i failed, again.