Bound Together Residents Group

A very successful meeting of this newly formed residents group. The meeting was well attended despite the cold weather. Many new faces at the meeting which may indicate the regular forum meetings are not representative of the area. Still some good issues raised. Some criticism of the police was harsh given the work we know is being done by local officers. All in all a very good evening.

Still Yellow Tories

As my comments appear to have hit a nerve it may be worth looking at this in a bit more detail.

During elections the Lib Dems contact tory voters and say things like "can we borrow your vote" you know the conservatives can't win here. They also put out leaflets with the same message. This is aimed at Tory voters.

However, after the election the Fib Dems then claim that all the votes were "Lib Dems Votes". Clearly incorrect. In actual fact the votes are mainly made up from traditional tory voters encouraged to jump ship.

Its not then a big jump to look again at some of the floppy haired public school sorts who make up the new group of Fib Dem councillors and say they would be just as happy in the new conservative party. Its just that they would not have won in Hull under a Tory banner.

Since most are only interested in as Janet Toker put it "money and greed" they are only in the Hull Fib Dems because they think they will get elected.

This MUST really annoy some of the older longer standing members of the group perhaps ex-leader Cllr Butterworth who left during a vote at the last council meeting.

Bound Together Residents Meeting

The next meeting of the newly formed residents group takes place Tuesday night 23rd of January 2007 at Buckingham Street School.

Yellow Tories finally take control at Hull City Council

The Yellow Tories who are now in control at Hull City Council finally showed themselves today with the staged release of their budget proposals for the next financial year. A budget based on selling off council assets, giving away to private trusts council assets, redundancies and service cuts has been trumpeted in the local media by the Yellow Tories leader Carl Minns.

Even before the budget proposals the splits within the Liberal Democrat Group became very evident at the Council Meeting yesterday. There has always been a split between the traditional “liberal” wing and the younger aggressive anti everything group of newer Lib Dem councillors.

The budget proposals have very obviously widened that gap.

Whilst the older element of the Hull Lib Dems retail their liberal roots, the new breed have long since dumped any pretence at political philosophy in pursuit of power.

Or as Janet Toker put it “ The Lib Dems in Hull are all about money and greed”.

Years of claims of a two horse race in Hull have resulted in the Lib Dems totally replacing the Conservatives. Many Lib Dems councillors owe their seats to traditional Tory voters no wonder then that the group is rapidly moving onto Tory ground.

Full Council Meeting.

The Full Council Meeting for January was held at the Guildhall. Despite an unusually light agenda the meeting still overrun its allotted time. One of the most interesting things about to today is the extent to which Liberal Democrat Councillors are prepared to spin, bend the truth or tell outright lies. The other interesting thing is the small number of councillor involved. The divisions within the Lib Dems are becoming clearer and clearer. At one point the Cllr Minns was reminded by the Tory councillors that he was only leader due to the votes of Cllr Percy and Cllr Fareham. Actually this is true of all the Liberal Democrat Councillors. Despite claiming to be liberals the actual vote base of the Lib Dems is very small and they rely on natural conservative voters jumping ship. In many of the contributions today they really did look like yellow Tories.

Holderness Road Forum.

On Wednesday a neighbourhood forum was held at the Balfour Street Community Centre. As usual there was a good turnout of residents and a very good level of discussion on a variety of topics. The police usually attend meetings but have decided not to recently. I understand that the current Lib Dem administration are trying to bully the area police team, of course the Lib Dems dont care about local police, residents or crime.

Special Council Meeting

A special meeting of the Council was held on Thursday this week. The main topic of discussion was the activities of the portfolio holder for Social Care. Complaints had been made by residents that services had been cut without any warning or consultation. In what was a disgraceful attack on residents Councillor Baker called them liars. Anyone with any doubts that the Liberal Democrats a the Real Nasty Party should listen to this vile contribution to debate.

Political decision to carry on with incineration.

Political decision to carry on with incinerator

Yesterday I attended the planning committee meeting which decided the fate of the proposed energy from waste facility at Saltend.

As usual the Events staff at the Guildhall were able to put on a professional well-organised show.

A large number of people attended but it was very clear that very few were from the city itself with many residents being bussed in from the East Riding.

The majority of Lib Dem councillor backed the incinerator. The debate within the Liberal Democrats must have been interesting. The move in their position on this issue is truly staggering. But ultimately correct.

In practice whatever the wishes of local politicians the argument to build an incinerator was overwhelming.

Hull does not have a landfill site and with rising costs of landfill projected to well into the future the financial consequences for the authority would be dire if the proposal had been turned down.

It is a great credit to the Lib Dems that the proposal was agreed. This was a tough political decision for them and for once they gave up the opportunity to back out. Well done.

The Burning Issue

The Hull City Council Planning Committee finally meets on Monday to decide the fate of the proposed Energy from Waste facility at Saltend. There is talk of little else in the Guildhall with a number of prominent councillors scrambling to be on other duties that day.

New Liberal Democrat candidate doesn't even live in Hull

Questions are being asked after the Liberal Democrats in “East Hull” selected a candidate who is not even a resident of the city to stand for election in the Drypool Ward in May. Under existing election law a candidate must be a resident or work in the city they are attempting to seek election to.

But their candidate lives miles away in the East Riding at Lane End Farm, Swine Lane, Coniston in East Yorkshire. After a series of defections they must be struggling to find paper candidates to fight seats in the city.

Bound Together Residents Group

It was really nice to attend the new local residents meeting yesterday. The group formed following problems in the area with anti-social behaviour it has now widened into a full residents group.

Lib Dems run up massive overspend.

This story published in Saturday’s Mail caught my eye. Can anyone explain the headline?
The crux of the story is the Liberal Democrat administration in Hull is heading for a massive overspend. Even with the service cuts already planned like reducing home helps the projected overspend is £3,600,000. The Mail says “ this will be the first significant overspend for several years”. The Lib Dem bosses at the Guildhall are clearly financially incompetent.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Lib Dem overspend now running at £5M

The current Liberal Democrat administation at the Guildhall is running up a massive £5,000,000 overspend according to this weeks cabinet reports.

a) The net projected overspend is now £4.997 million compared with £5.140 million at the end of Period 5.

Liberal Democrat councillors agreed at the meeting to continue with the list of budget cuts listed below.


"The actions taken/proposed were again reported to members in November for Period 5 and remain unchanged for Period 7. In summary the key areas remain:

· (£290k) saving by introducing tighter controls over Care Home placements resulting in a one in for every four leaving care. This will need to be carefully monitored.

· (£180k saving achieved by review of residential placements to ensure appropriate accommodation is secured.

· (£135k) additional income can be achieved through carrying out individual assessments of ability to pay for respite care rather than charging a flat rate.

· (£195k) saving to be achieved by review and revision of home care packages where applicants receive between 0-5 hours per week.

· (£190k) reduction in the scale of core packages offered.

· (£250k) saving achieved by ceasing purchase of equipment for Aids/Adaptions."


Lib Dem bosses have also held a crisis meeting to discuss massive cuts in other council services.

Is Christmas spirit banned at the Guildhall?

Check out The SUN

This is how the SUN covered the Guildhall Liberal Democrat bosses banning of Santa Hats.

The quote from a Guildhall spokeman is priceless.

I am grateful to a local resident from the Franklin Street area who forwarded this letter from my ward colleagues. The letter dated 12th July promised double yellow lines would be removed “in the relatively near future”.

Instead the council repainted the lines in fresh yellow paint!

What residents want are the lines removing, so come on deliver on what was promised.

Councillor Minns failed to mention this act of Lib Dem councillors misleading residents at this weeks Full Council Meeting.

Victory in Baths Battle.

Liberal Democrat bosses at the Guildhall have been forced to back down on plans to make budget savings at the cost of East Hull baths. Worried users have contacted me regarding the future of the much-loved baths after staff had told them about plans for closure. However, The Liberal Democrats have been forced to climb down from their plans. Councillor Kalvin Neal was forced to admit defeat at this weeks council cabinet meeting.
“ I had asked officers to look at all leisure centres as part of the budget process, but I can say now that East Hull Baths will not be closing.” said Councillor Neal
That’s good news for local users of the baths. But the question of were the Lib Dems intend to make their budget saving remains.

Victoria Dock Residents Forum

A meeting of the Victoria Dock Residents Forum will take place today in the Village Hall starting at 6.30. pm.

Weekly rubbish collections will be scrapped by the Lib Dems

Lib Dems set to introduce fortnightly rubbish collections.

Liberal Democrat administration at Hull City Council are drawing up plans to roll out the introduction of fortnightly wheelie bin collections in the city.

The Liberal Democrats are planning to introduce four pilot schemes.

The areas chosen will trial different methods of rubbish collections.

Two areas will see fortnightly rubbish collections with and a recycling collection.

In two other areas weekly wheelie bin collections will remain but the larger 240-litre bin will be replaced with a smaller 140-litre bin about the size of the current Blue bin.

The trial area are being kept secret by the administration. The recent changes to collection days for 35,00 households in the city was the first stage of the Lib Dems plans.

The areas selected will also see enhanced collections of recyclable materials including green waste and cardboard.

This is the second time that a Liberal Democrat administration in Hull has tried to scrap weekly collections.

Changes to collections will take place after next year’s local elections.

Lib Dem cuts start to bite.

Youth Club Scrapped to save money.

The Liberal Democrat administration at Hull City Council have scrapped a weekly Youth Club on Victoria Dock.

The weekly Youth Club met every Wednesday in the Village Hall on Victoria Dock.

It will be scrapped from the end of December after a decision was made to withdraw funding.

The Liberal Democrat administration is currently £5,000,000 overspent in this financial year and is desperate to reduce costs.

We need to provide alternatives for young people to hanging about on the streets, it is very sad that a weekly youth club in the area has had its funding withdrawn this decision need to be reviewed.