Twitter

OK, so I'm going to move this blog over to twitter to allow for more regular updates. Please follow me on #CllrLyon. Brevity is beautiful.

What's in a name?

Whenever you encounter some bizarre rule in local Government it is always interesting to see just why it came about. At today's seminar on building and planning regulations Rushmoor councillors were politely informed by officers that although they can see the case for consulting local councillors and residents on what to name new streets and developments, that it just doesn't happen anymore.
This is of course ridiculous- councillors are elected by residents on the basis that we will represent you and will have a pretty good idea about what you want. Just in case we forget what you like we have elections every four years to remind us.
As elected representatives we have the profound responsibility and honour to be able to serve and to enact changes that matter in people's lives. This can vary from the seemingly big stuff which you notice once a year- cutting council tax, reducing the costs of council services and opening new facilities, to the small things which do matter because we see them every day.
There is something hugely important about local names- Cody, Invincible, Empress- all of these things mean things to Farnborough and can remind us of who we are, and why.
So on what basis are councillors denied the chance to help name new roads and developments? Well yes, every opportunity to serve others is also an opportunity to serve yourself- so it turns out that one of the most common uses of this power in the past was for councillors to name streets after well known local citizens... an unusually high proportion of whom just so happened to be those same local councillors at the time!!!
So in this case you can understand the rules but I still think they need to change. Today we pressed for councillors to at least be consulted- who knows, we may actually have one or two good ideas! Anyway, let's see what happens...

Weeds!

Hampshire County Council are now in the process of spraying for weeds around Farnborough. If you know anywhere that needs particular attention let me know by tomorrow and we'll get on to it!

A-Level Results

Congratulations to all Rushmoor students who have achieved such excellent results in this year's A Level Exams. I have to admit that I am surprised at how much local students and teachers manage to achieve, despite the incredible levels of bureaucracy in our state run education system.
I will very soon be bringing a motion to council calling for parents in Hampshire to have the power to set up their own school and receive the money that would have been spent on their child's education in a failing school on education that best suits them.
If you look at the way this model has worked in Sweden you will see that it only takes about 10% of people to get involved in this kind of way to improve school performance for everyone. Competition works so well in improving standards in every other field of life. Surely it would be strange not to try it in the area that matters the most- education.
Please do turn up at the next council meeting to see what I hope will be a well informed debate on this issue.

Town Centre

It has been a busy time recently in the council and things are only likely to get more busy!
The town centre is looking very good right now, as anyone who has been past it in recent weeks will have noticed, and I have been assured by the developers that despite the recession, they expect the development to be finished soon and up and trading well in time for Christmas.

The new town centre is more important now than ever. The town centre will bring jobs, it will bring investment and it will bring more visitors into the centre. It will revive the nightlife of the town centre and act as a deterrant to crime. In short, it will be the ideal antidote to all of the set backs that Farnborough has faced as a result of the national economic mess we are in.

In the council's Development and Control meeting on Wednesday I spoke in favour of a motion that will allow the developers to delay their contributions to local leisure and ammenities development under their section 106 obligations. We are still going to insist on the payment of this money but this is exactly the sort of pro-business, common sense measure I am happy to support in the short run to ensure that we get the town centre we have all been waiting for for so long.

The motion passed unanimously.

The next update will not be so long coming!

Saving our post offices

There are several kinds of council meeting, there is:

- The dramatic high tension set piece, frayed tempers and confrontations a plenty- not always resulting in the best policy, but certainly fun to watch.
- The unpleasant setpiece, when all the key decisions seem to have been taken in advance and all discussions seem to mean something more than what meets the eye
- The sleepy consensus, when no one is able or willing to grasp the key issue or to challenge the asumptions

But in the case of today's Post Office Task and Finish Group meeting it was a clear and decisive policy making forum in which plenty of ideas where kicked around and in which politicians of all parties worked together to the same goal.

We have yet to report back so I cannot reveal the details at this stage but I was very impressed to see the consensus that is developing around my idea of expanding their role in providing council services. This is an area where we can achieve savings and efficiencies for the council and ensure the continued running of sub-post offices where they are needed most.

This is exactly how government should seek to operate more often- enabling and encouraging, divesting power and providing choice and moving away from the old centralising, bureaucratic imposition politics of the 20th Century.

More to follow...

Neighbourhood Watch Returns

Hello again faithful readers!
You might well have been wondering where I have been of late and what I have been up to. Well truth be told it has been a fairly busy few months in Rushmoor Council-

• We have been working with St Modwen on the new town centre to make sure that despite the recession that the town centre development will go ahead as planned and to schedule. This has been quite a success- St Modwen have promised us that we will get the cinema, Sainsbury's and store units we are expecting, and on schedule. We are of course still waiting to see who fills them but we are feeling positive.
• We have been working hard with the local beat officers to achieve the ward priorities on cycling, neighbourhood watch expansion and Queen Elizabeth Park (where a new CCTV camera is due to go in soon)
• We have been working on the council budget to ensure that council tax rises are kept to a very minimum- the Westminster government is up to its old tricks of using unfunded mandates to make us pay for more of what they promise, thereby taking more money out of the pockets of council tax payers in Rushmoor- so we are trying to find local economies to compensate
• And a lot more...

For the near future though our top priority will be setting up neighbourhood watches- especially in the Marrowbrook area and the streets off it.

The police have quite a backlog of watches to set up but we are not going to be resting on our laurels and are still striving for 100% ward coverage.

So the chances are, if you live in that area you'll see me on your doorstep again sometime soon!