On the Streets

Today was a day spent out meeting people in the streets and on the doorstep. Something we keep doing in Harlow Conservatives. One of our Action Days!

Far too often in towns up and down the country, politicians only knock on peoples doors "when they want something" ie its election time and they want votes.

In Harlow, the Conservatives spend time all year round knocking on doors and delivering leaflets to people to keep them informed of whats going on. We also hold street stalls and this has been a great way for so many people of the town to meet our Parliamentary Candidate Robert Halfon; He has met and helped hundreds of people in this way.

There were about 20 people out on the streets, either delivering leafltets, knocking on doors or at the stall, as there are every time we have one of these days.

It was really good fun, you get a great sense of camaraderie, and get to meet lots of members of the public. In general they were all really worried about the national economic situation and many people told us what a bad job Gordon Brown was doing running the country.

Operation Dinner Out

It's Friday night.

My wife and I have a babysitter!

So are we out on the town like most other 30 something couples in the same situation?

Er.... Not exactly.

My wife (the other Cllr Johnson) is also one of the key members of the Harlow Conservatives Ladies Committee, an organisation that exists to arrange fund raising events for the local party, and gives us all a chance to unwind.

Just not in the way that most "Normal" people do.

So this Friday evening finds us attending what we call "Supper Club"

About 30 of us are at a local hotel, having a nice meal, and listening to David Gauke MP, who for those who don't know is a member of the Shadow Treasury team and MP for SW Herts (our neighbouring county).

David is an interesting guy and speaks very well - about the mess that the government has helped get our economy into and about why it is so important for us to send Robert Halfon to Westminster at the next election, as part of a fresh Conservative government.

I also get called upon to do the honours as Auctioneer for a couple of nice watches, to help raise some more cash for leaflet printing (we do print and deliver a LOT!)

All in all a very good evening, and I did get the chance to unwind and have a glass (or two) of wine.

Having a lark

Ok - so I am going to try it....

I am going to Twitter

Don't worry though - I am not going to be telling you what I am having for dinner... unless its a really spectacular dinner! Nor will I be telling you my every movement at all hours of the day.

I am however going to try and give you a further flavour into my mind and activities as I represent the people of Harlow.

Follow me @HarlowTory

Response to the Opposition Budget

The budget moved by the labour party did not make financial sense and did not add up!

Firstly they wanted to rob Peter to pay Paul, taking money from reserves to prop up revenue spending with no plan of how to pay for these things in future years.

Secondly they admit in their budget amendment that their budget would create a "black hole" of £347,000 next year, again with no plans for how to deal with this.

And finally their budget proposals didn’t add up, because they have not factored into their budget the charges and taxes levied upon us by the Labour Government if we don't change the towns waste contract. There will be Landfill taxes to pay, because of the higher amount of waste going to landfill as well as higher "gate fees" for taking the rubbish lorries back to the dumps and higher "tipping away fees" for each extra time we tip away the waste. Remember the new waste collection will get us closer to 50% recycling rates rather than the low 20%'s at the moment.

The Labour budget proposals were nothing more than political opportunism!

Yes we would all like to have given more money to HWRA and the grants budget, and that would have been much easier had the Labour government dealt with Harlow fairly.

We got a misely 0.5% increase in our government grant, whilst most councils got 4.2%. Had we got that amount we would have had an extra £322,000 to spend on advice and grants. Why was the government so unfair to Harlow?

The Liberal Democrats claim to be the opposition in Harlow, yet they were unable to put together a budget. They claim they don't want to make cuts, they claim they don’t want to increase income, for example from parking charges, but they won't be honest with the people of Harlow and tell us where they would find the savings from. Is pets corner and the playhouse top of their list to cut? I think they should have the guts to be honest with us.

What do you think?

In the interests of being fair I publish below the other parties budgets so you can see for yourself:

Labour Proposal

Liberal Proposal

Budget Night - Some facts (II)

Ok

So everyone will of course be talking about the negatives.

Let me tell you some of the many positives that we managed to get out of budget night, besides trying to put the Council's budget back on track.

Here are some of the things that the budget included.

£250,000 to top up the insurance fund, money from which was used to balance council budgets, leaving the ammount in the pot dangerously low.

£50,000 a year for 5 years to top back up the restricted reserves that were raided last year, such as the Church Langley reserve.

Control of Ragwort, a nasty little plant which is such a danger to animals if allowed to spread on our common land. The council has never before had a budget for dealing with this.

Money for cleaning the skatepark at the weekends, which you have to think will be when it is most used and most in need of a clean.

A new Energy officer, to try and reduce not only the council’s energy bills but that of our housing stock – and to reduce our carbon footprint in accordance with the Nottingham Declaration. Importantly the sort of officer whose job saves the council and the tax payers money.

A new Sponsorship officer, to bring in sponsorship for events such as the Town Show and the Fireworks Extravaganza. Another officer who should reduce the burden on the taxpayer, by initially paying for themselves and hopefully generating income for the council.

A new budget each year for running repairs to Childrens Playgrounds, instead of waiting for a capital bid to replace whole pieces of equipement.

£17,500 a year to be spent on sorting out paving stones to make pavements safer.


And here are some things the budget didn't include that you might not hear about:


There were no increases for councillors, whose allowances were forzen. Labour and Liberal members voted AGAINST this on Budget night.

£50,000 came out of the communications budget. Labour and Liberal members voted AGAINST this on Budget night.

£28,000 was saved by a basic review of software licences, and £22,000 was saved by having fewer telephone lines and cheaper call charges. Labour and Liberal members voted AGAINST this on Budget night.

Overall there are a number of good things that were in this difficult budget and residents are able to see that the promises we made at election time are being kept.

Budget Night - Some facts

So the first ever Conservative Budget in Harlow has been passed.

It was not the budget we wanted, and it was not an easy thing to do, but as I have discussed here previously it was something that had to happen to put the council on a firm footing again.

But lets remember some important things that this council had to deal with first:

• £860,000 Difference between the grant for Gordon Brown’s “free” bus passes and the actual cost.
• £500,000 Labour Government’s ‘Gershon efficiency’ savings the Council must find.
• £3,000,000 Every year, to top up the pension fund after Gordon Brown’s 1997 Smash and Grab raid.
• £196,000 Loss of Planning Delivery Grant. o £140,000 Loss of LABGI grant
• £346,000 Forced Labour Government transfer to Housing Revenue Account
• £750,000 Extra years of pensions granted by previous Labour Councils.
• £177,000 Cost of 30 Redundancies made in Labour/Liberal’s 08/09 Budget.
• £400,000 Inflation cost, catered for by Labour Government,
• £250,000 Repay insurance fund, after Labour/Liberal "borrowing".
• £50,000 Repay earmarked reserves “borrowed” to prop up Labour/Liberal 08/09 budget
• £20,000 Cost of implementing Labour Government’s “International Financial Reporting Standards”£860,000

Thats a total of £6,512,000 to be found before one pound is spent on services for the people of Harlow.

That’s £83.49 for each person (including children) in Harlow this year before paying for real services.

The true Legacy for Harlow of the Labour and Liberal run administrations, and the Labour Government.

The Budget - Some Background

A lot has been written in the press recently about Harlow Councils budget, and as is often the case, just like pass the parcel, he who is left holding the mess is often he who is blamed.
So how did we arrive at this mess and what is the background to it all?

I thought I would share with you a few facts about Harlow's budget position:
In November 2007 Harlow Council had a budget black hole of £1.8 Million and the labour council leader and former labour council leader started blaming each other,. The black hole was revealed at the same time it came to light that the Lib Dem/Labour run council had ditched its Budget monitoring group!

Within the first 3 months we had discovered that the situation was far worse than we feared
It was obvious that for a variety of reasons the budget that the outgoing administration had set was not balancing, and that we would need to modify it and find savings "in year" before we could even start working on our first budget.

Then there was the Non Housing Capital Account (basically the account from which we pay for major one of items, like say a new piece of machinery or some building work) For that there was a plan to spend about £4 million, of which almost £2.5 Million was already committed to Urgent Health and Safety works or to contractually obliged items. How much was there in the account to pay for these thing? £88,000!

On top of this, the council needed find £400,000 to replenish reserves after in the words of one local newspaper "panic-raiding them in January following the last budget crisis."
Then there was a £1m shortfall in the 2007-08 housing capital budget because of the £800,000 that was 'borrowed' from the 2009/10 budget to plug the Gap!
Oh and don't forget the 30 odd redundancies that they made, of which the financial strain payments were put into next years budget for someone else to deal with....

Looking forward to next years budget which we will be setting in mid February, there are still a lot of problems.

We have a standing item in the budget of about £2 million a year, which is needed to top up the councils pension funds after the Gordon Brown as Chancellor raided pension funds half to death in 1997!

On top of that we have to spend a further £750,000 a year on topping up the pension fund, after years of Labour Led administrations gave "excess years" on people pensions as golden handshakes to officers retiring early, effectively making up their pension fund from taxpayers money!

The rules around Planning Delivery Grant (PDG) from the government has changed this year and Harlow, despite coming under pressure to find more space for more homes, doesn't look like it will get its PDG this year, so that's another £200,000 lost.

LABGI grant, or a government pot to recognise us bringing new business to the area, and effectively a refund of some of the business rates that these companies pay to government is likely to be nothing this year, that another £250,000 out of our budget.

And don't forget the Bus Passes! "Flash" Gordon kindly offered every pensioner a free bus pas, which is nice, but he didn't offer the Council the money to pay for it. The difference between what it costs and what we get is in the region of £800,000, that's money we have to find from somewhere.

In amongst all of this we are taking a look at the insurance fund that has been raided year on year, the Church Langley reserve which the Lib/Lab administration raided and other smaller reserves that were raided, all with no plans from the socialists to pay back, something we are determined to rectify.

Given the above, its not surprising that we have some really tough decisions to make, and its no surprise that not everyone will be happy. But we were elected to get Harlow Council working again; and that's just what we are going to do.

Another Fine Mess!

What do you do when you take over a council and find out that its finances (which have never been good at the best of times), are in the direst of straights....?

What do you do when planning your first budget, your first real mark on the town, to find that your administration has to come up with over £4 million from a £16 million budget in 6 months?

Quit? I have to be honest it went through our my mind. Run round screaming and shouting, yes I did a bit of that too.

Then my mind went to that recently rediscovered poster from WWII "keep calm and carry on". So typically British and at it's root so typically Conservative.

Ok we had a budget that because of misuse and abuse by previous Labour and Liberal led administrations was in dire need of fixing, we had a budget that because of government meddling and dishonesty from "flash" Gordon was deteriorating fast. But good conservative principles HAD to come to the fore.

And that's what we have done, and that's what our budget later in February will deliver. There will be tough decisions. Not everyone will be happy.

But I have a Choice.... I can either do what every other Council Leader has done for years, nibble round the edge of the budget and not really touch the problem, trying to push it away to be dealt with by someone else.

Or I can bite the bullet and put the council's finances on a sound financial footing once and for all and give us a chance to start again. It's not a pretty choice, and as a politician in a town with elections every year, I understand why previous leaders have not had the guts to deal with the problem. I have to. I love my town, and I want it to get better, so I have to give it it's medicine.