Follow My Leader…
You could have been forgiven for being totally confused at the political and mischievous voting alignment in the Leader vote. The Labour Group voted for the Independent nominee while the former electoral pact (in political literature of the election) with the LibDems resulted in a number of abstention for that nominee and that only the Conservatives supported their candidate Nigel Holdcroft back to the Leader role. Interestingly, an Independent member abstained from voting for his own fellow member…Net result a split and a successful election for the town of a Minority Conservative Administration.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been entered into by the Thorpe Ward councillors and the Conservative Group to sustain an Administration and also resulted in sharing committee chairs and vice chairs. The other groups rejected entering into any agreements but were still generously recognised in the committee structure…so for now hostility has ceased and the business of running the town is a number one priority.
Mark Flewitt Wins again………..
No nonsense…..!!
St Laurence Conservatives say “Thanks” to those residents who voted on a cold and wet day and especially those who supported Mark Flewitt and gave him a third term of office and rejected the LibDems for a second consecutive time.
The results were:
Mark Flewitt 758
Reg Copley 407
Carl Whitwell 229
Steven Whitman 115
LibDem LOST
With a bad night across the country for Conservative and LibDem, Mark and his team bucked the trend and attracted a small swing to their vote…sending Mark back to represent the St Laurence Ward at Southend Council.
NOC….No Overall Control means that the council will need to agree a governance method which will not involve anyone having a majority…talks are or will be in progress as to running the council for residents without uncertainty or delays.
Cabinet
A great time…but……
Mark say’s
“To have the luxury of leaving something you really enjoy is a strange feeling and in politics to go without being pushed or sacked is even stranger. But i have other civic based interests to follow and a need to return to my roots as a ward councillor. A huge thanks to my cabinet colleagues for some good friendships and the encouragement they gave me in whatever my task was and to promise that a break from the intensity will refresh me….i will offer views and constructive criticism but wish the new cabinet well in the mammoth tasks which lay ahead of them.”
Airport……….
As some residents are making their views known on the operation of the airport, Mark has set up an e-mail contact just for the airport…
southendairportissues@hotmail.co.uk
Please allow a few days for response…..
The austerity plus budget
The budget is still measured as if we do not have the biggest post war deficit in our history, but that magically escapes some politicians of the local and national kind. The budget was for all the rhetoric, for containment of costs and the continued payback of debt. Labour must remember that it had stewardship of the economy for some years and spent to the limit, put it this way, if it had been a credit card it would have maxed out and been stopped. They actually did not vote against the council budget or put an alternative budget…well nationally that was the case too…except nationally they managed or will vote against!
Tax is complex, but the government has begun some simplifying of the taxation system but what is given has to be paid for, a balance the last government forgot.
The Conservative Party believes in cutting taxes for hardworking families. And because of the tough decisions we have taken on welfare, in this year’s Budget we have been able to announce the biggest ever increase in the tax-free personal allowance. This means an additional tax cut of up to £220 for 21 million basic rate taxpayers from April 2013 – a total tax cut of £546 since the election.
From April 2013 ordinary hardworking men and women across the country will not pay a penny of income tax on anything they earn under £9,205. And we will have taken 2 million people on the lowest incomes out of tax altogether.
The so-called ”granny tax” is a media and oppositionist anti conservative creation….how can the Conservative Party be anti pensioner when it has…
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Introduced a new £140 a week pension
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Introduced the largest rise in State pension ever.
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Restored the earnings link to pensions.
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Protected key benefits, like Winter fuel, free prescriptions and eye tests, free bus travel and free tv licences for older pensioners
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Protects poorer pensioners, by the government decision to uprate the pension credit guarantee to match the cash rise in the basic state pension and warm homes discount, meaning that more than 600,000 of the most vulnerable pensioners will benefit from £120.00 discount to their fuel bills.
Removing an age related income tax allowance is not anti pensioner and is effective for new pensioners with existing pensioners age related income allowance being frozen. The mild loss of £80 is outweighed by the bigger increase in the state pension…in this context, just what did we all expect?
Non resident parking…it’s no joke
A long road to help in this matter but Mark and Adam had conducted a quality consultation, which resulted in the council being impressed that they have agreed to formalise the consultation and undertake a review of the traffic management in the roads of Feeches, Denton, North Crescent and South Crescent and in fact to look at the alleged cause of some of the persistant non resident parking, a large employer within St Laurence Ward.
The first formal meeting between the council and the RBS will be on the 5th March…more news to follow.
The RBS could not keep to this date and another is being planned within the month. Yes this is frustrating for all but the hard groundwork has been done.
The 23rd April 2012 turned out to be the meeting date and positive offers were made to the council side including Cllr Mark Flewitt who attended..a letter to the sections of the roads most affected has now been hand delivered by Mark and his team to about 160 residential addressess in St Laurence.
Kent Elms…..it’s not forgotten
Kent Elms Junction… What is happening? Cllr Mark Flewitt and Cllr James Courtenay are still working on this matter and have secured full officer engagement in doing improvement work at this very important and strategic junction. It is slow process as this is a long term piece of work even to get the council in a position to use the funding streams being consulted upon at this time. This piece of work is underway and likely to see some movement once the councils own budget is settled in very early March of this year. There is, with this major junction, some serious level of traffic capacity survey work and technical analysis to be carried out, to save money the council have early day signified to Mark and James that this could be carried out internally. Your frustration at the seemingly slow progress is appreciated by both Mark and James, but whatever work is done at this junction must “dove tail” into the rest of the major highway system or risk losing so many of the gains made by the previous “Better Southend” projects. The objective of all concerned is to enhance the capacity at the junction, so that surface crossing becomes possible rather than the current bridge arrangement. Mark and James are clear that you should realise that this is not a simple matter and are continuing to push for enhanced safety at this junction and not just a quick political result for the May elections.
More recently it was rewarding to see our Labour colleague in St Laurence putting his view about the Kent Elms junction situation, it really is what people like to see, constructive action…even if it is a financial mountain to climb.
Morrisons…the story so far
Victory for residents….
The Development and Control Committee asserted its right to reject both the Morrison applications with Cllr Mark Flewitt presenting arguments against and arguing that both applications should be considered linked…after considerable discussion the committee supported the refusal.
The SKIPP pressure group were congratulated by Cllr Mark Flewitt on their joint working for local residents.
But the threat has not past…
Morrisons will appeal but Cllr Mark Flewitt wants to challenge them to work with the community and develop an acceptable inclusive approach, that means the café could exsist side by side with in store local small businesses providing the personal services people have become so comfortable with…
Officials
The fear is that Morrisons could be successful at appeal and cost the council a huge amount in costs.
Cllr Mark Flewitt recognises this, but put simply say’s “Should local planning be governed by the fear of costs and if so what the hell is localism about?”
Letters to the Agents for Morrisons……….
Dear Ms Walley
Re Development Control Application 11/01582/FUL
Following the refusal by Development Control on the 8th February 2012 I thought that you may wish to discuss the following points with me.
(a) The opportunity to enter a fresh application for assimilating the current two live business service sector shops within the store with a coffee/café experience and public lavatory around them.
(b) The strength of feeling around the now refused applications.
(c) The need to restrict the temptation to “knee jerk” appeal and if successful cost my community (via the Council) unnecessary sums of money or that should you appeal and be successful you would donate this sum to local charities within the Southend Borough Council jurisdiction.
As a senior Councillor I have rarely come across such passion as to a local planning matter and as your clients’ business is so respected, I thought a discussion may be helpful.
I look forward to your response.
Yours Sincerely
Dear Mr Foot
Re Development Control Application 11/01676/FUL
Following the refusal by Development Control on the 8th February 2012 I thought that you may wish to discuss the following points with me.
(a) The strength of feeling around the now refused applications.
(b) The need to restrict the temptation to “knee jerk” appeal and if successful cost my community (via the Council) unnecessary sums of money or that should you appeal and be successful you would donate this sum to local charities within the Southend Borough Council jurisdiction.
As a senior Councillor I have rarely come across such passion as to a local planning matter and as your clients’ business is so respected, I thought a discussion may be helpful.
I look forward to your response.
A brief first informal discussion has taken place…but in the interests of all parties and their legal rights all involved will now need to arrive at conclusions ….i will leave that to happen for a period of time.
About Mark…..
Mark is a long serving councillor in St Laurence Ward. He was first elected in May 2004 and was once again re-elected this May 2012 for a third term….he is acknowledged as having a leadership ability and seeks with determination to achieve the best results for his residents.
Mark joined the Cabinet (the group of Councillors who run the council on a day-to-day basis) in 2007. He currently holds the portfolio of Children & Learning but has experience of two other senior roles, Adult Social Care Health and Housing and Transport and Planning….a serious portfolio of knowledge.
Mark has been active in the ward at all levels and a recent selection are illustrated in activities including:
