Conservatives hold Ravenscliffe

After an intensive campaign, the Conservatives held on to the Ravenscliffe seat in the Borough Council by-election.

The results were:

Con 229 (25.39%: down 14.5%)
Lab 213 (23.6%: up 1.2%)
BNP 180 (20.0%: up 20.0%)
Lib Dem 149 (16.5%: down 2.4%)
UKIP 131 (14.5%: down 4.4%)

(Percentage change is since 2008)

It is disappointing to see so many votes going to the bogus patriots who have betrayed local workers and contribute nothing to the community. It must be seen as a bitter-sweet victory for the Conservatives, losing 14.5% of the vote to the BNP.

Home composting is greenest solution

All parties on the Borough Council agreed that it was not good value to spend an extra £700,000 to extend the green waste collections before other recycling measures could take at least half of the material out of the grey bins.

In the meantime - until resources can be released by changing to alternate weekly collections of grey and brown bins - the best answer for green garden waste is home composting.

The Council, through the government's WRAP body, can offer composters at reduced prices.

What has Labour done with our £70,000?

The Labour candidate is making much of the fact that there has been a delay in claiming recycling credits from the Labour-run County Council. It is clear that the County Council knew all about this, but did nothing to alert Borough Council finance officers.

As a result the County Council has had responsibility for investing an extra £1.2million of taxpayers’ money. The interest on this should have given the County an extra £70,000 to spend in the Borough. Taxpayers have not ‘lost’ this money, as Labour say – it has simply been in the hands of a Labour controlled Council for longer than it should.

So Labour need to tell us - has the money been well invested? Did they get as much interest as the Borough would have done? And how has the money been used in the Borough?

In case Labour’s memory doesn’t stretch that far back, they never claimed any recycling credits while they were in power in the Borough. No claims were made from the time the credits scheme was introduced to 2006, although Labour did set up the system that has failed now. The only claims have been since the Lib Dems took over the recycling portfolio in 2006.

Labour candidate voted for recycling policy

The latest Labour leaflet asks 'Why are we waiting for garden waste bins?'

Yet the Labour candidate knows very well. She attended the Council's Scrutiny Committee meeting on 10th October 2007 when the all party working group's proposals for the new recycling strategy were presented by its Lib Dem chair. The report received unanimous support. In other words, she voted for it!

Putting the strategy into practice takes time. First there was a consultation through the Reporter, from which residents gave overwhelming support to the strategy. Then new contracts had to be prepared and tenders had to be sought and submitted.

Now the contract for the first part - extending the kerbside collection of dry recyclable material to include plastic bottles and cardboard - has been signed and the new service will start before the end of June. That is exactly on schedule and within budget. The strategy Labour supported specified this stage should be introduced in the first half of 2009.

The second stage, to be introduced later in the year, is the separate weekly collection of food waste. Food waste accounts for around 20% of the contents of grey bins at the moment.

With the extra dry recyclables collections plus the weekly food waste collection, it will be possible to reduce the residual waste in the grey bins to less than half what it used to be.

That was the 'trigger point' - requested by Labour and agreed by all parties - at which the resources used to collect the grey bins weekly could be switched to alternate weekly collection of grey bins and garden waste in new brown bins. So, Labour, you'll get your garden waste collection before the end of this year - exactly according to the strategy you voted for!

(The picture, copyright Newcastle Liberal Democrats 2007, shows Lib Dem councillors checking out a type of vehicle that could be used for the weekly collection of food waste in the front part plus a collection of either residual or garden waste in the rear part.)

Vince Cable wins two political awards

Vince Cable, Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor and Deputy Leader, has won two of the prestigious Channel 4 political awards - Opposition Politician and the Political Impact Award.

Channel 4 broadcast the award presentations on Saturday evening. Vince Cable was commended for his accurate insight into the economic situation and was described as 'the kind of person who gives politicians a good name.'

The awards came at the same time as Vince Cable was featured on the front page of the third
Ravenscliffe election leaflet from the Lib Dems - responding to some voters' questions about the economy. The key points of the Lib Dem 'Green Road to Recovery'are set out.

The leaflet also comments on Labour's 'skeleton in the cupboard' - the fact that one of their own Kidsgrove councillors and a former group leader left for Spain shortly after his election in 2006, continuing to draw his allowances and taking a Council-owned computer with him. Labour say the absentee Tories are 'shameless' - but they seem to have conveniently forgotten about their own expensive absentee.

Sentinel raps Tories for absenteeism

A detailed article in the Sentinel on Tuesday (10/2/09) entitled Row
over councillors missing meetings turned the spotlight on two other Conservative councillors who were failing to attend Council and committee meetings but still drawing their allowances.

The revelations come following the publication of the first Lib Dem by-election leaflet which highlighted the minimal attendance of the outgoing Tory councillor. In the leaflet Lib Dem group leader Robin Studd said, “She is not the only Tory councillor to be drawing an allowance for little or no work.”

The Sentinel followed this up, obtained the Council records and identified the two other Tory absentees by name. The article also reported that, apart from one other Conservative councillor who had been unwell, all other councillors had at least a 50% attendance record and several had a near perfect record.

Government is bringing economy to its knees

In an Opposition Day debate, the Liberal Democrats called on the Government to immediately bring forward funding for capital projects, to generate future income and counter the recession.
It was the sort of practical and workable proposal one would expect from Vince Cable, widely recognised as the parliamentarian with the best understanding of the present economic situation. As long ago as 2005, he saw the problems on the horizon, saying “This binge of debt-financed consumer spending will lead to disaster.”
As the recession continues to take its toll on the economy, the Liberal Democrats used their Opposition Day to ask the Government to use the opportunity to invest in programmes to create new jobs and build a stronger, greener Britain.
“Instead of tackling tricky but necessary reforms, it looks like ministers are taking the easy way out, offloading problems on to councils, cutting front-line services and axing valuable public investment,” said Vince Cable.
“Sensible public investment creates jobs today and builds assets for the future. Ministers must develop an efficient system to identify and fast-track good public investment.”
Labour voted against the motion whilst the Conservatives abstained.