Councillor Mark Wheeler

Liberal Democrats on North Yorkshire County Council have announced their intention to “call-in” the Council’s decision to freeze the level of the school clothing allowance at £60 a year. This means that the decision will be sent back to a committee to be looked at again.

The Executive Members of the Conservative-run Council decided last week not to increase the support to less well-off families in line with inflation, but to extend the scope of the allowance to include children whose parents are in receipt of the highest rate of Working Tax Credit.Liberal Democrats feel that this will increase financial pressure on poorer families.

County Councillor Caroline Seymour, from Stokesley, said“In reality this is a reduction in support for disadvantaged families. Around 700 families in North Yorkshire will be affected. It is quite wrong to do this at a time when heating and food bills are increasing faster than normal.”

”It is typical Tory penny-pinching which will hit less well-off families.”“Whilst we welcome the extension of the scheme to families receiving the maximum level of Working Tax Credit, we feel that the rate should be increased in line with inflation. We have a duty to call-in this decision and ask the Council to reconsider its policy.”

County Councillor Mark Wheeler, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem Group at County Hall, said:“The Tories have just used inflation as a justification for raising the charges for home to school transport. Yet they seem to think it doesn’t apply to those people who will be hardest hit by a similar rise in the cost of living.”

 A liberal Democrat colleague of mine Richard Ormerod has launched a campaign to win the freedom of the city of Durham for a local singer songwriter. Paddy McAloon was the highly talented creative force behind Prefab Sprout. Their second album “Steve McQueen” was one of the classic albums of the eighties. Paddy was one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation, and the 1st 3 albums were an ever present background to my time in London. I was lucky to see the band live and “When love breaks down” is one of my favourite tracks of any band. To support Richards campaign please email him at freedom4paddy@hotmail.co.uk

Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire County Council are asking the ruling Conservatives to look at what Essex County Council are doing to try to save Post Offices.

This is an interesting proposal and merits further investigation particularly where the affected local communities across North Yorkshire are showing a commitment to supporting their local Post Office. 

Mark says “It cannot be an open cheque book but the County Council needs to liaise with Parish  Councils (who can levy a rate) and District Councils to see whether individual communities should receive support. The County Council for instance has mobile library services serving communities across the County area already.

We do know that some of the Post Offices proposed for closure are viable and that axing them is just to meet the arbitary 2500 closures that the Government have imposed on Post Office”.

1.The County Council through its Scrutiny Committees is currently reviewing its winter gritting service. Are you satisfied that the trouble-spots in your parish are not overlooked? Can we improve this service? Are there areas that are gritted that we do not need to do? Please send your views to me.

2. How easy is it to get hold of County Council Departments. Is our switchboard working? Do you get the correct information from our switchboard? If you have any issues with this service please advise me and I will forward your views to the scrutiny committee reviewing this service.

Annual budget setting meeting for the county council this last week. A 4.75% increase was approved; our Libdem proposal for just 3.75% was voted down. Yet the council has had an improved settlement from central government -about £3m more than expected. [Remember 1% council tax is about £2.1m]

This year we have seen the introduction of a new element of the budget - the Pending Issues Provision. This is a clever little accumulator buried in the budget papers - a device to allow the Management Board (senior officer team) some “beneficial”, but as yet undefined spending. In 2008/09 this will be £3.3m; in 2009/10 it’ll be £8.5m; in 2010/11 it’ll be £14.4m; and in 2011/12 it’ll be £9.7m.

So that’s a total of £35m to be spent over the next four years at officers’ discretion!! The excuse for this four year, un-defined spending spree is uncertain the challenge of waste disposal costs in four or five years’ time is the spectre on the horizon, we have been told - yes, the logic escapes me too!

Meantime ordinary people on ordinary incomes in North Yorkshire, are receiving pay rises of around 2%, and slowly coming to terms with huge rises in fuel bills. Does the county council care?

Lib Dems Demand More Gulley Clearing

Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire County Council today demanded to know why the ruling Conservatives have cut routine gulley clearing from twice a year to only once.

This is in spite of the heavy rainfall which caused horrendous flooding in Craven last month.

The Tory portfolio holder, Cllr John Fort, said that the whole area was being looked at, but did not promise a restoration of previous service levels.

Airedale County Councillor Mark Wheeler, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats at County Hall, comments:“Cutting this service is an abdication of responsibility. The Tory Council is failing local residents.”“With climate change likely to increase the amount of flood risk in future, surely the County Council should be increasing the amount of gulley clearing, not decreasing it.”

”“I can only hope that when this matter is looked at again, common sense will prevail and the Council will properly fund this vital service.”

The decision of the inspector was to dismiss the appeal and no costs to be paid by Craven District Council. A plug for your local councillor - this planning application was recommended for approval by the planning officer - intervention by your councillor not only overturned the recommendation but this was upheld by the appeals Inspector - Use  your local councillor - you might just be surprised at how effective they can be!

 The appeal notice -

Appeal Decision

Hearing held and site visit made on
13 February 2008

by Victor Crumley DipTP DMS MRTPI

The Planning Inspectorate
4/11 Eagle Wing
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol BS1 6PN
.. 0117 372 6372
email:enquiries@pins.gsi.g
ov.uk
an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State Decision date:
for Communities and Local Government 18 February 2008

Appeal Ref: APP/C2708/A/07/2049581
Rockwood, Cam Lane, Thornton-in-Craven, Skipton BD23 3SX

• The appeal is made under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990
against a refusal to grant planning permission.
• The appeal is made by Mr & Mrs C Jardine against the decision of Craven District
Council.
• The application Ref 69/2007/7266, dated 13 March 2007, was refused by notice dated
11 May 2007.
• The development proposed is demolition of bungalow and construction of 2 dwellings.
Application for costs

1. At the Hearing an application for costs was made by the appellant against the
Council. This application is the subject of a separate Decision.
Decision

2. I dismiss the appeal.
Main issues

3. I consider the main issues in this appeal to be:
a) the effect of the proposal upon the living conditions of the occupants of
adjacent dwellings;
b) the effect of the proposal upon the character and appearance of the street
scene and the adjacent Conservation Area;
c) the effect of the proposal on road safety.

I was pretty enthused by our budget proposals this evening. Working with other councillors and council officers I believe we have come up with an imaginative and thoughtful budget. My contribution to the debate is below -

Budget Speech

I would firstly like to add my support to the previous speakers on this subject this evening - to achieve a significant investment in local services whilst at the same time increasing reserves and freezing the level of Council tax is truly a remarkable achievement that any Council would be proud of, I doubt whether many Council’s will match this performance, this year. Moreover it shows our acknowledgement of how the economy will impact on our residents this year, we will not add to the burden of rising costs to our households e.g fuel, energy and North Yorkshire County Council.

Speaking of performance, and as portfolio holder for transforming the Council, I want to make transformation the central theme of my speech this evening. The hard work that has gone into producing this budget, sustained over a period of time and commissioned in a collaborative and inventive manner with involvement from both officers and members is a testament to our approach to dealing with issues in Craven.

Our performance as a Council has been well illustrated earlier and I make no apology for repeating the excellent result we achieved in 2006 best value performance indicator survey, which placed Craven joint top of the North Yorkshire district councils for overall resident satisfaction, whilst charging the second lowest level of district council tax - this surely is performance that bears repetition. I always like to compare our budget with North Yorkshire County Council – I am disappointed that they set a cynical just under capping rate increase, and I believe at the executive meeting on Tuesday it was reported there was an anticipated year end under spend of £7m – I wonder if they will be as creative as us in addressing service demands and put that under spend to work or perhaps just plonk it in their £51m reserves.

Performance across the Council has also improved dramatically as evidenced by the significant improvement in the direction of travel basket of performance indicators, monitored by the Audit Commission, which show that 57% of the Council’s indicators have improved, according to the latest figures, compared to 43% in the previous year.Performance is of course important and is quite rightly taken very seriously here at Craven, I am however delighted to say that we have also transformed the delivery of some services in the Council in this current year: -

·        The Planning service has transformed its processing of applications across all categories to such an extent that all national standards are being exceeded

.·        Asset management across the authority has been transformed with the capital receipts budget of £500k being quadrupled by a projected actual receipt total in excess of £2m.

·        National initiatives such as the Quirk report have been embraced with the result that the Council is now gifting land to assist with affordable housing development

.… Turning away from our achievements to date I want to talk a little about the major implications that the budget proposals have for the future…

Probably the most significant transforming initiative that this council has undertaken in recent years relates to the “Martini Project”This project is all about allowing staff, members, partners and indeed residents of Craven to enjoy and benefit from world class connectivity to communications infrastructures such as the Internet.The Martini angle comes in since this project will not just content itself with providing world class connectivity in any old way but has at its heart the core ambition to enable the afore-mentioned stakeholders of this council to connect - anytime, anyplace, anywhere - hence the name of the project.

I am particularly excited about this project since this council will, in a few short weeks, be the first district council in North Yorkshire to take delivery of connections to the NyNet ring of fibre optic cable that has recently been installed throughout North Yorkshire.

In point of fact, as a county councillor I am doubly proud of our early adoption of the Martini project since the NyNet ring was conceived and part-funded by North Yorkshire County Council over two years ago in response to the “black hole” in connectivity in our area that existed at that time.NyNet brings an amazing potential for our local businesses to compete shoulder to shoulder with businesses located not just anywhere in the UK, but anywhere on this planet.It also brings the same potential to the doorstep of this district council.

However, NyNet is of little or no use without vigorous and imaginative exploitation of the potential it offers - we believe that this is where the council can come in to play its part in not just exploiting NyNet for its own sake, although this is a major benefit we fully intend to secure, but also catalysing the exploitation of this world class infrastructure throughout the district, within every business and amongst every stakeholder.

This budget provides the finance to secure the first stage of the Martini Project which is centered on exploiting NyNet anytime, anyplace, anywhere primarily in relation to the staff and members of the council going about their day to day business.However, the lessons we expect to learn and the deployment knowledge we will undoubtedly gain will be a priceless asset when we come to the second phase of Martini, later in 2008/09 which will involve catalysing the take-up of NyNet and opening access to our Martini environment to all the stakeholders of Craven.

Much is talked nowadays about the impact of global warming, the need to be planet friendly, and the balance that needs to be struck between environmental considerations and economic ones.Greener travel plans, traffic control mechanisms and home working are some of the more popular mechanisms employed in the UK.We believe that the Martini Project will not only enable our businesses and ourselves to become more competitive worldwide, but it will also enable through its anytime, anyplace, anywhere philosophy, stakeholders to let their fingers do the walking.

There can be no greener travel than not travelling at all. There can be no more potent economic enabler than a world-class communications infrastructure that allows our businesses to compete wherever they are with any other business in the world.There can be no better traffic control mechanism than leaving your car on the drive.As for home working, why restrict this to the home? With Martini, stakeholders will be able to work anytime they wish, anyplace they happen to be, anywhere they find themselves.

Incremental improvement is not just necessary, but an imperative in modern public service today. But truly transformational ideas such as Martini are indeed rare and we are therefore delighted to be leading the charge in North Yorkshire in this critical transformational innovation. 

The improvement bids are a direct response to residents concerns and I am particularly pleased to see the £60K/YEAR community transport bid which I put forward, included. This is an issue that both Cllr Pat Fairbank and myself have campaigned on for our patch in the district. I know Pat was going to speak to this bid but cannot – She would have said that all of us car drivers have no idea what a poor deal bus users have in the area and its about time something was done about it – then slipped out for a fag with Steven and Paul. Well something has been done and this will address the concerns of the more vulnerable within our community allowing them to access essential services and to utilise their concessionary fares passes. It doesn’t let NYCC off the hook but it does plug a gap in current service provision. 

We are told repeatedly at Craven that there is only so much a small council can do; we are told it must be difficult to make a difference without the critical mass and economies of scale enjoyed by larger councils. But I firmly believe that this council is succeeding on virtually every front and I would submit to you tonight that the independent surveys which you have heard about concerning our leading status on satisfaction and our economy of council tax is powerful evidence of this contention.

Furthermore I would hope that I have been able to give members an inkling of the innovative and transforming approach that this council has taken in the past and the unabated appetite that this council has for continuing to innovate and to transform in the future.This council may be small, but it punches above its weight and it moves fast to embrace innovation. We believe this is a potent combination, which has brought us success and will continue to bring us success in the years ahead.

How can you possibly link The Beach Boys to council tax? Well the song title above is a clue. There is a strong possibility of recession in this country and pressures on all of us through steep price rises on food, petrol and energy , means it will be a tough year for families in Craven and the rest of the country. Yet I do not see any councils taking this into account when setting council tax. For example -

North Yorkshire  4.75% increase

Harrogate 4.2% increase

Scarborough 4.4% increase

North Yorkshire Police Authority 4.3% increase

One wonders what we will get extra as a consequence of these increases.

However Craven District Council took the bold step to not only set no increase in council tax but to also invest over £1,000,000 in better services for residents. A direct response to the needs of its residents for better recycling, more local needs housing, plugging the gap on public transport by supporting community transport, more focused economic development for rural and market towns. All of this whilst still recognising it’s going to be an economically challenging year for all of us.

Significant expenditure on services that will make a real difference to the residents of Craven at no additional cost to them. I think that puts our neighbouring councils and our county council to shame.  Setting council tax increases just below the capping limit, bumping up reserves - for what? It is one thing having reserves for those “just in case” times, quite another thing accumulating for the sake of it.

It was a bold step by Craven councillors to vote for this budget this evening, but, to continue the Beach Boys theme I anticipate “Good Vibrations” to reverberate around Craven.

Phishing scam aimed at Nationwide customers Most people will have received e-mails which appear to be from banks and similar organisations requesting personal information, these types of e-mails are used by criminals attempting  to obtain bank and other account details for fraudulent purposes. This sort of scam is known as ‘phishing’ and is a form of identity theft. North Yorkshire County Council Trading Standards and  Regulatory Services have received many reports of attempts to get account details from customers from all the high street banks as well as passwords for e-bay accounts and the like. The most recent one that has been brought to our attention is headed in the subject field “Nationwide Bank account Security Verification needed” Our advice is to be extremely cautious about any requests for account details. The banks will not contact customers in this way to obtain account details so the best response is to treat all such messages with suspicion, not to give any personal information and to contact your bank. Reporting such e-mails These e-mails can be reported to the relevant banks or organisations they are purporting to be from.  Most banks and similar organisations have a section on their websites for reporting such scams. There is also a section on the “banksafeonline” website to report such scams.  Useful websites  http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/ This is a  website run by APACS, the UK’s payments association. Bank Safe Online is the UK banking industry’s initiative to help online banking customers stay safe online.   www.getsafeonline.org     This website is  sponsored by government and leading businesses and provides expert advice to protect everyone against internet threats.  If you need further advice please contact Trading Standards on details below.  Regards North Yorkshire Trading StandardsTel: 01609 534868Fax: 01609 771696E-mail: business.advice@northyorks.gov.uk  You have been sent this email because you completed the Trading Standards Questionnaire to receive Trading Standards News Flash Messages. If you would like to un-subscribe from further information from Trading Standards, please send an email to trading.standards@northyorks.gov.uk marked unsubscribe and you will be removed from the list.     Regards North Yorkshire Trading StandardsFor clear, practical consumer advice call Consumer Direct on08454 04 05 06 or visitwww.consumerdirect.gov.uk