Thursday 15 December 2011

Environmental

Two little snippets today on environmental issues. One local, the other on the big stage.

CORY Environmental Services

A few weeks ago Cornwall Council announced that its waste collection contract for all of Cornwall had been won by Cory Environmental Services.

Now in the West of the Duchy, in fact, the old Penwith, we have ‘wheelie bins’. Now much as I moaned about Penwith this has proved to be one of the best things ever done, no black bags being ripped open overnight by rats/seagulls, rubbish being blown down the street, street cleaning costs down.

So you can imagine how upset I was to hear on the grapevine that Cory had no way to collect from ‘wheelie bins’. This was taken up by a Cornishman newspaper reporter and the answer appeared in today’s paper.

“Rubbish in west Cornwall will have to be put into black plastic bags before you put them into the ‘wheelie bins’ from April. This new rule means that Cory will be able to sort all waste in the same way once it is colleted”.

So good news we still have the ‘wheelie bins’. The rest just does not make any sense.

TESCO

A quick question for those of you that travel the high-ways & by-ways, when was the last time you saw one of these, think about it?



Some time ago, yes.

Well there is a reason for this TESCO’s decided to drop this marketing opportunity some time ago and now uses plain white lorries. The reason, well I think, the thinking goes, that if you see a lot of TESCO lorries going up and down the highways you just may think about “food miles” and just how many of our lorries are on the road, so its better to let people think that the food gets to our stores by magic” Good environmental thinking there then.

Saturday 10 December 2011

New Head OF HMRC

Most of the blogs I write are about local matters, but on this occasion I’m writing about something that is happening at a national level, but may have an effect on the thinking of those in power at a more local level.

So here goes, Her Majesties Revenue & Customs, HMRC,  today it was announced that the new head of HMRC was to be Ms Lin Homer , Ms Homer will take up the post in 2012. A top job for a top person, maybe?

 Sir Gus O'Donnell, head of the civil service, welcomed the announcement and said 'a wealth of experience working in the public service in central and local government' would allow Homer to excel in her new role.”

Well Ms Homer does have a lot of experience working in Local Government; she qualified as a lawyer in 1980 whilst at Reading Borough Council. In 1982 she joined Hertfordshire County Council where she stayed for 15 years, rising to Director of Corporate Services. She then left to join Suffolk County Council as chief executive in 1998. After four years at Suffolk, Homer went to be the chief executive of Birmingham City Council in 2002.

Birmingham City Council, Chief Executive, 2005: That rings a bell, Chief Returning Officer, Ms Lin Homer. Election year.

 John Hemmings (then a Lib Dem councillor and now MP for Yardley) launched an election petition which led to the first Election Commission in one hundred years.

Hemming’s allegations were that the Birmingham Labour party were involved in the corruption of the postal ballot rules on an industrial scale. Several Labour councillors were accused of serious electoral malpractice.

The allegations were really beyond belief. It appears that the Kashmir war was being re fought on the streets of Birmingham. Postmen, carrying postal ballot forms were threatened with having their throats cut if they didn’t part with the goods. Heads of households, acting like latter day moguls, were signing off whole families to vote Labour whether they liked it or not. Two were found, late at night in a factory unit in front of a table groaning with postal ballots, pens and tippex.

The night of the council elections were a total fiasco. Ballot boxes were lost or turned up too late to count. After the elections a couple of Tesco carrier bags full of uncounted votes were found in a very senior council executive’s office. He resigned.

Needless to say the Election Commissioner look a pretty dim view of it all and made the famous remarks that in electoral terms Britain had become, “a banana republic”. He ruled that Labour had been responsible for, “massive, systematic and organised postal ballot fraud.” But some special words were reserved for the Chief Returning Officer, also the chief executive of the council. She had, “thrown the rule book out of the window”. Very sensibly our Lin thought it was time for a career change.

So her old mates in Labour helped her out. She became the new head of the UK Borders Agency.

How strange that she left to become Permanent Secretary at the Department of Transport this year during the holiday season, when it appears the rule book had been thrown out of the window by relaxing checks on those entering the UK.
Lin, is now to be made the Chief Executive of  HMRC.
Just what do these people have to do to get the sack?

This just goes way past “Peter Principle”

Thursday 1 December 2011

Cornwall Council, Mr Lavery

A second post in one day about Cornwall Council, I posted earlier today about officers running the council, contrary to member’s wishes and now we know where this culture comes from, the very top.

Mr Kevin Lavery, ex-Serco golden boy, ex Newcastle City Council, parachuted in to run Cornwall Council on the tidy sum of £200,000 plus benefits a year.

Has taken the (very well paid £16,000) post to be returning officer for the election of a Police Commissioner for Devon & Cornwall, this despite the council telling him not to, for political reasons. Mr Lavery of course does not have to worry about this as he runs Cornwall Council PLC a small branch of SERCO, a non political organisation, with just a small board of 10 to keep happy.  So ignoring his employers he has taken the job on a personal basis.

So it’s a bit like you or me doing a bit of bar work in the evenings to make ends meet?

Mr Lavery, had to attend an interview for the job in London on the 1st Sept, a Thursday. Now in my world this could be a bit tricky, to take a day’s holiday or maybe pull a sickie, sneak up to London quick interview and back.

Now I don’t know how Mr Lavery, got the day off from his real job, but he’s not too bright, because he then charged the cost of getting to Newquay Airport on that day to his employers, 40 miles for travelling from home to Newquay airport and back, as well as taxi fares totalling £25.50. The reason on his expenses claim form was: "Flight to London – interview re Police Area Returning Officer."

Now I say he’s not to bright, because even the lad who washes the glasses in the pub where I do a bit of work on the side, isn’t stupid enough to do that.

It’s not yet known if Mr Lavery, also charged the cost of the flight to his employer, but I hope we soon find out. His employers said that they would have to ask Mr Lavery but could not because he was "out of the county" and unable to be contacted.

Unable to be contacted, can’t afford a mobile phone then or may be just run out of credit, now that sounds more like it, the lad who does the washing up has used that one.

Sainsbury's Sec106, Benefits to Penzance

Last night Penzance Town Council had a Special Full Town Council Meeting to discuss the Section 106 agreement and Food / Other goods split regarding Sainsbury’s Supermarket to be built on the heliport site.

[Section 106 of the Act, in conjunction with DoE Circular 5/05, allows for Local Planning Authorities and persons interested in land to agree contributions, arrangements and restrictions as Planning Agreements or Planning Obligations. Applicants can offer such agreements unilaterally or negotiate and agree them as support for their application to make it accord with local planning requirements, but without some of the rigorous controls of Planning Conditions under s 70(1).
It relates to monies paid by developers to Local Planning Authorities in order to offset the costs of the external effects of development. For example, if a developer were to build 100 new houses, there would be effects on local schools, roads etc., which the Local Authority would have to deal with. In that situation there might be a Section 106 agreement as part of the granting of planning permission. The developer might agree to make a contribution towards the provision of new schools.]

The Town Council are rarely if ever consulted on these agreements, but this time we were to be consulted because when this application came before the Strategic Planning Committee at Cornwall Council part of the resolution proposed and passed was that Sainsbury’s had to negotiate with Penzance Town Council & Ludgvan Parish Council on the retail split and sec 106. (Something I wrote about in a previous blog…. Here).

So all is good……… Sadly no, in fact a very big NO.

The first big problem is what the resolution of Cornwall Council was….?

Having viewed the web cast of the meeting many times (available here   at 2hrs 52mis to 2hrs 57mins)

My reading of this is “to pass the application with the condition that Sainsbury’s negotiate the retail split with Penzance Town Council & Ludgvan Parish Council proposed by Cllr A Wallis, and the section 106 agreement added by the chairman of the meeting, and a failure to do so, the application was to return to the Strategic Planning Committee”.

The Minutes of the Meeting do not reflect the above resolution.

Representatives of Penzance Town Council & Ludgvan Parish Council were asked to a meeting (in Camborne), by officers of Cornwall Council, the purpose of the meeting was to consult, the Town Clerk and two members attended along with two members from Ludgvan. Two officers of Cornwall Council, Sainsbury’s representative, a representative of JBP planning and a rep from British International Helicopters, were in attendance. The meeting was not productive, with Cornwall Council and Sainsbury’s making it very clear that they were not prepared to vary their original proposals. The Councillors and the Town Clerk were then put under pressure to make a decision on behalf of the Town Council but where steadfast in not doing so, and in fact had no mandate to do so. Remember this meeting was meant to be about consultation not negotiation.

A long way to get to last nights meeting, in fact this was the first chance the Town Council had to discuss the Section 106 agreement, the details of which where only made known to the council the day before the Strategic Planning Meeting.

So what are we talking about….


SAINSBURY'S SUPERMARKETS LTD & BRITISH INTERNATIONAL
HELICOPTER SERVICES LTD
PROPOSED MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT ON LAND AT PENZANCE HELIPORT
PA10/08714
S106 HEADS OF TERMS

Transportation

Item 1. Dedication to Cornwall Council of land with access rights through the Sainsbury's site for the purposes of constructing a Park and Ride facility (250 spaces).
Financial contribution to Cornwall Council to cover the cost of constructing the Park & Ride. (£1,200,000)

Item 2. Financial contribution to Cornwall Council to cover the cost of constructing two double length bus stops on Jelbert Way and pedestrian links to the Sainsbury's site before the store opens for trading. (£213,000)

Item 3. Financial contribution to subsidise a reduced price fare stage on public buses between the application site and Penzance town centre. (£75,315)

Item 4. Financial contribution to cover the costs of linkage improvements on A30 Eastern Green including a new at-grade crossing of A30 Eastern Green with the works to be completed before the store opens for trading. (£225,000)

Item 5. Financial contribution to cover the cost of replacement signage on the A30 Chy-an-Mor roundabout as required by the Highways Agency. (£20,000)

Town Centre

Item 6. Financial contribution to cover the costs of setting up the Penzance Business
Improvement District. (£35,000)

Item 7. Financial contribution to cover the costs of free or subsidised parking events for town centre car parks between September and May inclusive. (£152,000)

Item 8. Advice and support to Penzance Town Council on a strategy to promote the vitality and viability of Penzance town centre. (£15,000)

Item 9. Free in-store advertising space for town centre businesses.
A055583/SC   17 October 2011


A total of £1,935,315 that is a lot of money, all of the above was negotiated with Sainsbury’s by officers of Cornwall Council without any reference to any elected member and what a good job they have done for the highways department.


Item 1 & 2.  A Park & Ride for Penzance cost £1,200,000.

£1.2 million to turn a car park into a car park? Does Penzance need a park & ride? I was not sure about this so I sent an e-mail to the officer concerned to ask on what data was the decision made that Penzance required a Park & Ride (remember Cornwall Council are spending £9.5 million on a Park & Ride at St Erth just up the road), a week later I got a reply, well I didn’t in fact, I got an e-mail saying something else, so by return I sent a further e-mail asking the same question, 16 days later and no reply, I submitted a Freedom of Information request,( FOI’s cost you and I £350), why can’t you just answer an e-mail. Still waiting.
But this money is just for the building the Park & Ride, where are the funds coming from to operate it?

Item 3. £213,000 to build a bus stop.

WHAT, and that sum does not include any land cost, this is going to be some bus stop.

Item 4. Subsidise a reduced price fare stage on public buses between the application site and Penzance town centre. £75,315

Cheap bus to get you to and from their Supermarket. Big benefit to the town.

Item 5. Linkage improvements on A30 Eastern Green £225,000.

A roundabout on the A30 so you can get to our store.

Item 6. Replace signs on roundabout. £20,000

Going to have to anyway, they say that there’s a heliport down the road.

Town Centre

Item 7. Financial contribution to cover the costs of setting up the Penzance Business Improvement District. (£35,000)

Penzance has not decided if it wants to be a Business Improvement District. If it did this money would go to Cornwall Council.

Item 8. Financial contribution to cover the costs of free or subsidised parking events for town centre car parks between September and May inclusive. (£152,000)

I’m not sure what this means, but I do know that the money goes to Cornwall Council

Item 8.  Advice and support to Penzance Town Council on a strategy to promote the vitality and viability of Penzance town centre. (£15,000)

Thanks guys.

So let’s get this straight of the £1,935,315 for Penzance 98% goes to Cornwall Council and you tell us how to spend the other 2%.

Not such a great deal for Penzance.

We had an interesting meeting, I’m not going to post here (yet) what our plans are, as I wish to keep Cornwall Council Officers as much in the dark as they like to keep us. But I can assure you this is going to run and run.

Update: Penzance Town Council did return to the table and you can read  the outcome  Here