Personal Touch

 

Apologies for the delay in getting last weeks round up to you. This week I have mostly been:

 

Analysing the changes proposed by First Bus - formally the biggest users of our public subsidy. I can reaffirm that for our evening routes, only three roads will see a loss of service. These are Somerset Avenue (Harefield) and Butts & Botley Road (Weston). For a saving of £392,000 for the public purse, I would suggest that this is a considerable result. To confirm, this also means that there will be an evening bus running from the General Hospital into Portswood. There are some changes to the Sunday schedules, but the positive news is that I would estimate 85% of the network would be unchanged. Commitments made on a use it or lose it basis, include the Bitterne Hoppa, the combined S1 & S2 (which services Freemantle, Millbrook, Shirley and Coxford) and the new W1 service from the new Wheelers Bus Company. The W1 service will run between Romsey and Southampton with a diversion along Highfield Lane and Westwood Road before carrying on down the avenue.

 

We held our first informal Cabinet session as the new Cabinet. I get a new feeling in this Cabinet and I look forward to working with a very experienced group of individuals who can deliver for this city in a new style, whilst nodding to the direction Richard set.

 

Briefed on the plans for the redevelopment of the Cedar School, right on the very edge of our city. Many of the children who attend have complex Special Educational Needs that result in the need for a different approach to their education. Whilst Bitterne Park School have been devastated by the loss of central government money, the Cedar School has been given funding. There is a public consultation taking place on Wednesday 22nd May (SO16 0XN).

 

At Full Council on Wednesday, I was proud to introduce a 20 mph pilot scheme for Millbrook and Maybush. This is something which the Tories had talked up as something which they were going to implement, but curious as there were no plans for this shown to me by officers when I became Cabinet Member a year ago. Cue lots of thrashing around from the Tory front bench, but to be honest I think they have to hold their hands up on this one and say that with everything else going on, they didn’t manage to bring this in. Anything less is a little bit naughty. You should've received a letter in the post from the Council asking you opinion on it - I know I got mine on Saturday morning! There will be a public consultation event will take place from 4pm on Thursday 30th May, at the MP3 Centre on Evenlode Road. Hope to see you there.

 

Another item for debate at Council was the introduction of the administration charge for parking permits. I do feel that a charge of 8p a day is a fair reflection for the implementation of a parking scheme. £30 per year compared to £40 in Wiltshire or £50 in Bournemouth or £100 in Bath seems like a common sense approach. However, the opposition seized on this issue decrying aberration and horror; albeit without working out how to balance the £130,000 gap left by not bringing in this scheme. It is strange to see them criticising the local council for "placing more burden on local taxpayers" whilst sitting silently by as their government heaps misery on millions across our country. We as a group of Councillors had the opportunity to change to motion, to make it more palatable to us, but we decided to hold our hands up and admit that we brought it in and we did so to re-coup money as other councils of all colours have done up and down England.

 

One of the high points of the Council meeting was introducing another report following a successful bid by officers from the Environment and Transport Portfolio. It was another multi-million pound success, this time to deal with the backlog of maintenance of our major bridges - It’s a bit bureaucratic but every time we win some substantial amounts of cash, we need to get Council to agree to accept it. These are opportunities for grandstanding over opponents and pointing out the differences in bids etc, but I have found that the best way to present these reports is to be magnanimous and praise the hard working officers who obtain this money for us.

 

Thursday saw the Chairman's briefing of Transport for South Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, or TfSH as we call it. The agenda saw discussions of the business plan for the upcoming two year period, smart ticketing and setting up of the Local Transport Board; which will be shortly dealing out some considerable finance to the region. With changes to elected representations, myself and Councillor Fazacerly from Portsmouth remain, whilst we welcome Councillor Woodward from Fareham and an unconfirmed independent from the Island. The good news is that I should be named as TfSH chair at the next meeting, and prudently as vice-chair for the LTB. Fingers crossed for more positive announcements in the future.

 

The highlight of Friday afternoon saw me having a conversation with the two senior managers in Children's Services over the state of their Performance Framework. Not wanting to tread on any other Cabinet Members toes, but this was a request made by Richard last month. Suffice to say that I wasn't surprised at the state of information within the department, given my experience as a performance professional within a number of public sector surroundings. Its not the worst by a long stretch, but there is certainly room for improvement. I have offered some advice as how to improve reports to our Corporate parenting meetings and I have offered my services to the team as a volunteer with considerable performance framework development skills. See, Councillors can be useful.

 

Late afternoon, I went to Regents park to talk to residents about a planning application to extend car servicing hours on an industrial estate just behind some homes. I'm all for supporting business in Southampton and attracting investment and jobs to the city, but it must be at a cost which the local population can afford. Having the sound cars revving and pneumatic drills going from seven in the morning until seven at night, seven days a week just isn't on really. So there I was in my shirt and tie, hand delivering letters to all 57 properties in the road before my meeting with residents. That is the personal touch.

 

Before I forget, last week someone wrote in to ask about the quality of road markings. I agree, in places they don't seem to be up to scratch. Therefore I have asked balfour beatty what is going on and am looking to see what we can do to improve the situation. Watch this space!