More Regeneration for Harlow

This week the council was able to sell the old swimming pool site as part of the Gateway project. We have really missed the swimming pool in Harlow since the previous administration had to close it due to the years of neglect and underfunding it had been through, but of course now we have our nice shiny new LeisureZone we need to do something with the old site.

And so as planned in the Gateway scheme it has been sold to developer Croudace which plans to build much needed new homes on the land. I think we will see a planning application, for the site, submitted to Harlow Council in the next few months.

No town stands still and the new homes will be very welcome by the people of Harlow who want to stay in the town but cannot find a home at the moment, and of course the sale of the land was one of the things that made the overall scheme to deliver the new leisurezone possible.

I hope that Croudace will plan the homes sympathetically to the area and not propose anything outrageous. I look forward to seeing their proposals.

Wow its hot

Isn't it?

I am not the best person at dealing with heat, I know that and I try and stay in shade/indoors as much as possible in weather like this. Some of my work mates are not the same; a number of them came into work today looking a "steaming lobster" colour, and it looked from the way they moved that they were in pain.

Why do we Brits not learn? The first weekend of sunshine and people are stripping off, tanning and forgetting to lather on the sun tan lotion.

Maybe I have an aversion to burning because that's all I do, I burn and go white again, burn and go white - I don't tan much at all. Returning from the Caribbean last year after a fortnight where it was difficult to stay out of the sun people laughed at my sickly pale white legs....

But better pale than burnt and the skin cancer dangers that go with it I say!

Pottering in the Garden

One of the things that I do to relax, if I ever get a spare moment, is to potter in the Garden. Pottering I think is quintisentially English, and I enjoy it immensly.

I am not very good at gardening, as I don't give it the time that it really deserves. My plants lurch from gardening session to session not knowing how much attention they will get and mostly end up fending for themselves.

I do like growing fruit and vegetables though. There is something, I think, that is genetically pre coded into certain men, the desire to grow food and provide for the family. Its something primitive and just on the edge of my consciousness, but it is there and this year it's in full flow.

I only have a small garden and because I don't have a lot of time the crops are limited, but I still have beans, peas, potatoes (in grow sacks), tomatoes, cauliflowers, broccoli, onions, garlic, lettuce (both red and green), strawberries and raspberries, oh and some asparagus but as it is its first year I cant pick any. It sounds an awful lot written down like that but overall takes up very little space in my small garden. I suspect if I had more time and didn't mind sacrificing my lawn that the daughter plays on then I could produce an incredible amount of food!

I suppose that's what makes Allotments more attractive to people these days, the chance of organic, locally produced food that tastes brilliant straight out of the ground!

I am seriously thinking about an allotment for future years, but suspect I will only be able to have one if I find some friends who want to "share" it with me!

If like me you have the urge to grow stuff, then why not consider an allotment yourself? Harlow Council have a number of sites around the town - Find out more here.

Church Langely Reserve - Repaid - Early!

Last night at the Executive Committee of Harlow Council we were discussing the Good news of the £1.5m underspend in the council budget. The underspend was a result of very tight budget management during the year and a number of one of "windfalls" during the year.

The oppositions Councillors were critical of the original conservative budget, as of course is their right, but none of them seemed to see the foolishness of their arguments. Previous Labour and Lib/Lab coalitions in Harlow had often set budgets gambling on the thought of windfalls that might come during the year, and if that failed they drained reserves. As a prudent Conservative council we decided to not rely on these potential one off windfalls to back up constant revenue spending, thats only sensible.

Anyway, to sensibly use the money that was left this year we decided to top up the councils reserves (which were drained of millions & millions of pounds by profilgrate labour councils in the 80's and 90's) and also to top up some of the specific reserves for problems like future redundancies and insurances.

In the last two years of the Lib/Lab coalition a lot of the emergency reserves were raided to prop up spending. The then administration refused to make the tough choices that my administration has since had to face. During those two years they drained £390,000 from the Church Langley reserve; money given to the council by the developers of Church Langley to help maintain it. We gauranteed that a Conservative Administration would pay back that money within 5 years of taking control. Last night it was a pleasure to move a motion of repayment three years earlier than planned, and know that prudent budgeting had made that possible.

New Harlow War Memorial - Harlow Needs You!

I am really pleased that Harlow Council is working in partnership with the local Royal British Legion to introduce a new memorial to the Netteswell War Memorial garden in the Town Park.

The new plinth will show Harlow’s gratitude to those members of the Armed Forces who have given their lives in conflicts since 1945. The memorial will include Private Robert Foster who died in Afghanistan in 2007.

So both the Council and the Royal British Legion are inviting members of the community to put forward names for commemorating on the new Harlow War Memorial.

The criteria for an individual to be commemorated on the memorial is that they were member of the armed forces killed on active service in a recognized conflict, born in Harlow, and/or had strong links with the town. For example been an established resident of Harlow, been a resident of Harlow immediately prior to service in the forces, been a long-term employee in Harlow or has a family home in Harlow.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I think a great deal of those who put their lives on the line in the Armed Forces, so I will be particularly happy to see this memorial finished with the input of local people. All being well with confirming names supplied with MOD and any remaining family of the deceased then the new memorial should be ready for its dedication on Armistice Sunday this year.

To meet that deadline any names need to be submitted by 31 August 2010. Any names received after that date may not be included in time for this years ceremony, but will be added at a later date.

If you are going to put a name forward, then please provide as much information as possible, including: the service, regiment, name, date of birth, service period, service number and short background.Details of personnel can be submitted online by following this link and completing the on-line form or if you prefer you can send the details to: J. McGill, Property & Facilities Manager, Harlow Council, Water Gardens, Harlow, Essex CM20 1WG

Scrutiny Review

The new opposition Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee, called an informal briefing for his new committee members and anyone interested, last night. He asked me as Leader of the Council to come along and give people my view of scrutiny and what I thought it should be doing as a committee.

Firstly I was glad it was an informal meeting, I brought Mrs Johnson (the other Cllr Johnson) and my four year old daughter with me. My daughter is very used to the idea of daddy going to meetings but rarely goes with me, so sitting in the corner of the room colouring in whilst daddy spoke to the committee was a bit of a treat for her, and it meant we were able to pop into the briefing whilst not totally disrupting a family night!

I spoke for about 10 minutes and outlined a number of things:

First I didn't like the premise of the briefing "how to make scrutiny work" as I felt that implied that it had not worked previously, when I think there are a number of scrutiny reviews that were very successful in recent past - take the flooding review for one.

Second that it was not for me to tell scrutiny what to do, as it was more their job to challenge me and the work of the administration. We publish forward work plans for our committees and working groups showing the plans for the year and if scrutiny want to pre scrutinise some of these issues that is for them to choose.

Third we do not always have be adversarial. The scrutiny committee should act like a select committee in Parliament offering advice on upcoming bills etc and suggesting useful changes.

Fourth that the committee has powers to look at issues outside of the council, such as health and education of Harlow.

And finally that they should be realistic in their objectives - remembering that they are one committee in a small district council.

Scrutiny is an important part of local government and if run well by all parties involved can make a valuable contribution to the running of a town.

I left the briefing session with the thought that perhaps the rest of the evening should have a slightly different title to the one published, "How to make Scrutiny work better"

Go England!!!

I cannot use words to say what I want about the Match this afternoon, so I will simply give you the words of the Greatest playwright in History:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rockO'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height.
On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war.
And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start.
The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

LeisureZone - NOW OPEN!

I blogged here about our awesome new £25m state of the art Leisurezone.

It opened at six am today!!!

I am so excited.

Harlow was the first town in the country to have a public sportscentre and now we are back at the forefront of public sport, with probably the best sportscentre in the country.

I hope the people of Harlow love the Leisurezone as much as I already do.

Regeneration & Enterprise

Tonight was the first meeting of the new Regeneration & Enterprise Policy Working Group.

Sadly it was not attended by all political parties. The Lib Dems didn't send anyone, just like they didn't send anyone to the Resources working Group the night before. I hope this is not to be a trend. The working groups are an important part of the life of the council and need all the politica groups representated to take part to fully represent the range of views in the town.

The first meeting was concerned with setting the terms of reference for the group, the forward work plan (a couple of good suggestions from the labour member on the group) and recieving some reports on ongoing work.

It's a slow start but I am very pleased that we have this new working group. It reflects Harlow Conservatives committment to business in the town and a desire to do things differently from how they have always been done and reflects our top Corporate priority - to regenerate Harlow.

If we were to have a Cabinet system tomorrow I would definatly have a cabinet member for Regeneration and Enterprise because the two subject matters are so important to Harlow.

£1.5 Million saved!

Harlow Council spent £1.5m less than planned in the last financial year!

The Council's draft statement of accounts for last year (2009/10) which are going to both the Audit Committee and the Executive Committee on Thursday night show that the Council managed to save over £1.5m despite the effect of the recession.

This is good news for the people of Harlow and shows how our budget and budget monitoring process has worked well. The under-spend is a direct result of regular monthly monitoring by Councillors of the budgetary position and of Council officers keeping a tight control on the finances of areas they run. We have been able to reduce costs in some areas, making Harlow a more efficient Council.

There were of course some unknown wins during the year, with us receiving some
more income than expected in some areas. Previous administrations planned on an element of unknown wins during the year. We felt that was wrong and so My administration purposely didn't. Meaning that these little extras can now top up the reserves!

Just as we said on Budget night, Harlow Conservatives are always looking at ways of working smarter and better to provide value for money for our residents

£300,000 is recommended to be carried over to the current year, 2010/11 because of delays in spending. The rest of the money will be put back into the reserves helping to safeguard the Council's future financial position.

The good news doesn't stop there - As a result of the Council spotting an error in the Government’s housing subsidy calculations, and forcing a major U-turn from the former Labour Government, the Housing Revenue Account (which funds the Council’s housing services) also shows a £1.5m underspend, almost all of which (£1.4m) is due to an improvement in the subsidy. The original budget did anticipate the change and the year end position is broadly what it should have been.

These are significant achievements for the Council given the financial pressures facing local government.

Topping up the towns reserves puts our finances on a stronger footing and will help protect the Council’s future financial position.

We took some very tough decisions in the last two years , but doing so has resulted in a more stable financial position.

I suspect George Osborne & David Cameron will have the same thoughts tomorrow in the national budget!

Chris Huhne - why he should resign

Gone, it seems, are the days of Ministers resigning over matters of principle.


I know that people see politics as a dirty game these days and that the public's view of politicians could not be lower, but I long for a day where Ministers, the highest ranking officials of Government felt bound by a moral code, felt bound to be better than the rank and file, and were willing to fall on their sword should they do something wrong.


Chris Huhne is currently in the spotlight for having an affair. It seems he only let his wife know and decided to leave her, when confronted by a national newspaper.


Iain Dale has argued here that actually its not a resigning issue. I like Iain, and I love his blog, but respectfully I must disagree with him.

Any minister must have the trust and respect of the Country and of the Government that he/she serves. That trust MUST be reciprocated. I fail to see how a Minister can be trusted to tell the truth and do the best thing for the nation, having lied to and cheated on the wife that he solemnly promised to be faithful to forever.

I just can't trust a man like that as a minister of state. And in all honesty can you?

I am not calling for Mr Huhne to resign as an MP. Only his electorate should have the ability to do that, and one of the reasons why I support the right to recall MPs. However I would not want to see Mr Huhne continue as a Minister.

Feel free to argue with me....

Newsflash

For those of you who are early risers, I have just found out that I will be chatting live with Ray Clark at just after 7am tomorrow, about the proposed changes to the way Harlow Council is run.

With the formal paper going to full council on the 8th July, there has already been considerable interest expressed to me from both buisnesses and individuals about the option for Mayor. Have I got my view of Leader & Cabinet wrong?

Only the consultation will tell, but I am looking forward to that big conversation with everyone in Harlow about what there view is. Perhaps the debate will liven up peoples interest in Politics? I can only hope so.

Flying the Flag

I am really pleased that flying over the Civic Centre in Harlow, at the moment, is the English Flag of St George. I am pleased that the council is publicly showing support for our boys as they battle at the World Cup.

Even prouder am I, now that the Armed Forces flag is flying above the Civic Centre, supporting our Boys and Girls battling in a much more dangerous way so far from home.

Ever more bittersweet this lunchtime as I heard of the 300th death our troops have suffered in the conflict in Afghanistan.

We are flying the Armed Forces flag this week to celebrate Armed Forces Day on the 26th June (the day in 1857 of the first investiture of the Victoria Cross) and so we jolly well should.

Regardless of your view on the conflict in Afghanistan or Iraq, I hope we can all agree that those in the armed forces who put their lives on the line day after day in support of the country deserve the countries support!

It is a sad society where some places, towns, people show little or no respect to those who risk their lives to provide freedom to the people of the British Isles, and indeed freedom for our friends in other countries.

That is why people and towns need to make a difference. We can't all be Wootton Bassett, but we need to keep faith with our Armed Forces and make their celebration part of everyday life.

Nothing wrenched my gut quite like my daughter the other month, when in a supermarket and spying a gentleman in Army Dress Uniform said "look mummy daddy its one of the brave ones!"

I hope by the celebration of Armed Forces Day, by big events or just by "Flying the Flag" more young people will grow up with a greater appreciation of what our Armed Forces do for all of us.

In the meantime Harlow Council continues to promote the charity Help for Heroes , as they provide direct support for those wounded in conflict, with a collection box and wrist band sale on our main desk in the reception area.

The Morning after the Night Before

Phew

What a BAD night.

And yes I am talking about the footy!

It should have been a wonderful evening - and let me tell you why:

Firstly the Germans had lost earlier in the day; a warm feeling of Schadenfreude should have filled every Englishman.

Second we were Celebrating Robert Halfon's win at the General Election at Harlow's wonderful Royal British Legion club (its a lovely venue with a great big screen)

And third lets be honest England should have been about to trash the Algerians.

We witnessed a depressing turnout of sub standard football. I have been a leader long enough to recognise the problems, Fabio Capello obviously doesn't see them yet. I always think leaders particularly strong leaders need to be able to bend in the breeze and not be so fixed on one direction that any problem snaps them like a hard twig. Leaders need to be more like Bamboo flexing in the wind.

Capello needs to see that some great players are great because they play a certain way, week in week out in the premiership. Asking them to play a different way just to fit into his preferred formation will not work. Fabio needs to be more flexible and accommodating to the styles of the players he has in his squad, and needs with only one chance left to let the players flow more like they do in their natural environment.

It's fine having a team of the best individuals in the world, but if they don't gel as a team, and are not allowed some degree of leniency then they will never achieve what they can.

Multiple rules and regulations can help an undisciplined team in the beginning, but lets be honest we all desire less regulation, less intervention and ultimately want to be able to work to the best of our abilities.

Fabio needs to relax and then perhaps the rest of the country can relax with him as we start winning.

Dispersal Orders?

Last night I went to a briefing session held by Harlow Police for Harlow Council.

The purpose of the meeting was for the police to pitch their latest idea to councillors. Their latest idea being to designate more than half the town for dispersal orders.

What is a dispersal order? Well the legislation as part of the Anti-Social behaviour Act 2003 allows police to disperse groups of 2 or more persons from an area if an officer thinks that the group has caused or might cause public harassment, distress or alarm.

I don't actually think that's a bad law. I can see all sorts of use for this law around football stadiums, big social events, or festivals. I think it could be very useful to clear large crowds from areas where needed.

The police in Harlow were not talking about that sort of situation though, nor anything as targeted.

They were talking about moving on small groups of kids and effectively imposing a 9pm curfew on anyone under 16.

Now I know that some groups of kids do cause problems, just like I know some groups of adults cause Anti Social Behaviour Problems. The police were not concerned with the adults who cause 3/4 of all ASB (by their own stats), this was blatantly about getting the legislation in place before the school summer holidays.

I was sceptical. Very. The whole proposal seemed vastly draconian and bulky. The whole basis of the proposal seemed more about the police having the ability to just move people on if they thought there was a problem rather than dealing with it.

There were a lot of questions from the eleven councilors (of all three political parties) who had come to the presentation. Most of the councillors accepted that ASB was a problem, but like me were sceptical of the Police's proposed solution.

I asked what powers the police didn't already have to deal with ASB in the (mainly shopping) areas listed. The police started talking about young people swearing and spitting. When I challenged them that these were covered by public order offenses and were arrestable, they talked about kids playing knock down ginger. I wondered aloud how many games of knock down ginger get played in shopping areas. The police were not happy.

It appeared to me at the end of the meeting that the police have all the powers they need to deal with Anti Social behaviour by the powers of arrest but for the sake of "A Quiet Life/not raising their crime statistics/not wanting the paperwork or some combination of the above, they were looking for an easy out to just be able to move the kids on. Not satisfactory policing in my view.

Add to that the unseemly "rush" for the police who wanted to get this law enacted in time for the school summer holidays, and no promise of any real additional resources to enact these powers, and it all seemed more than a little ill thought through.

Members from all parties were concerned.

I have asked for a report to come to Full Council so that all elected members can give the police their views in a proper debate. I have a feeling that the police wont get the local consent they are seeking.

That must not absolve them from dealing with problems using the arsenal of laws they have at their disposal, and if that means making arrests that is what the people of Harlow want, no matter how much paperwork it generates for the police and no matter how "bad" it makes their crime stats. People want to see police on the street and arrests of troublemakers.

Perhaps it really is time for elected Sheriffs to be in charge of local policing - at least then residents concerns would finally be addressed by the police.

LeisureZone - Awesome!

I was fortunate enough to have an hour tour of the new Harlow LeisureZone yesterday.

Most of the Harlow Councillors had the opprtunity to do so the other night, but because I was chairing the new executive committee I missed it, so Tonia Gosling the Chief Executive of the Sports Trust kindly offered to show me round.

All I can say is, I was in awe of the place.

It is incredible. State of the Art. Probably the best leisure centre in the country.

It opens on 23rd of June. Why not get down there and have a look?

I can tell you it will be worth it.

Harlow Business Exhibition

Yesterday I was pleased to be able to speak at the opening of the first ever Harlow Business Exhibition, held at the Harlow Greyhound Stadium.

It was a wonderful event, attended by about 60 businesses with stalls, offering all sorts of services from catering to legal and everything in between.

The event was the brainchild of a few local and passionate people who want the business community in Harlow to thrive.

I was very impressed with the range of businesses there and the amount of people visiting the event. The organisers can be rightly proud.

Robert Halfon MP gave the official opening speech, and I was pleased to hear that the Coalition Government will be pressing forward on reforms to help businesses, like mandatory rate relief for small businesses and a one in one out rule for new regulations.

Rob is obviously on top of his brief where Harlow Business is concerned and was able to talk about what he had been doing to help business in Parliament.

It was good to have a leader of the Council and the local MP pulling in the same direction. Something I look forward to over the coming years.

I Hate Shopping - A Rant

Being a straight male, I am sure that I am genetically pre disposed to dislike shopping. I find myself frustrated with people banging trolleys into me, pushing past me and spending hours queueing.


So this evening whilst on my way home from work, when my wife texted me saying "lets go shopping after work" you can tell that I was filled with deep joy!


I normally manage to find a way out of shopping, but if I have to go then I usually occupy myself either in the vegetable area looking for ideas of stuff to grow, the fresh fish counter thinking of stuff to cook or more often the wine area thinking of what to drink!

And so this evening I found myself in the Wine section.

Now I don't know lots about wine, but I generally know which ones I like and which I don't like, and I am always keen to know more.

This evening I spotted that one of the wines we had drunk before and enjoyed was on offer. A nice Prosecco. Now I was first introduced to Prosecco a few years ago by friends of mine who live in Zurich, who prefer it to Champagne, we tried a few different sorts here in the UK and found one that we particularly like, that normally sells for £9.99, putting it in the "occasional" drinking column for me.

This evening the shelf said this wine was 1/3rd off - so only 6.66? Well worth a bottle. In fact, lets get two and put one away for another night.

Except as seems to be the rule in Supermarkets, if it's on offer its never on the shelf. This always annoys me. It sometimes seems that the supermarket mafia have organised for all the "deal" items not to be available. You think there are tons of deals but can never get one yourself.... Or maybe I am just a bit paranoid.

Anyway, not wanting to miss out on a good deal and now already tasting the wine, I set off in search of a shop assistant. You know, the teenage ones who shrug their shoulders lots and tend to grunt a bit when you ask them questions.

Unable to locate a single shop assistant on the whole floor of the supermarket I ended up heading to a desk for enquiries. After queuing about 5 minutes whilst someone in front of me was returning a can of deodorant (I didn't try to hard to listen as to why) my time came and I explained to the young lady behind the counter my problem and asked "is there any chance you could check out back and see if you have any there"

Her response? "Sorry. I can't do that."

oh.

"I have to check it on the computer and that will tell me what to do"

OK.... seems like a plan

"what is it you are looking for?" she asks

"Prosecco" I say

"Whats that then?" she says obviously confused.

Ever the helpful customer I reply "it's and Italian Sparkling wine"

"Oh - Champagne" she says

Without thinking I was there "Well no actually, you see Champagne can technically only come from the Champagne region of Fran...." I peter out. Why on earth am I trying to tell this Girl about where Champagne comes from... "yes" I continue "you may well have it listed under champagne"

"How do you spell it?" she asks. I spell it.

"It's Italian right? What's it called in English?" she asks me. *Facepalm*

I explain its got the same name in English as in Italian, starting to worry ever so slightly.

Eventually she finds it on the computer. Yippee!

But hang on - it couldn't be that simple. "Pete!" she calls her work mate over "I got this wine on the computer but the code against it I don't recognise"

Pete huffs over to the computer screen as if she is being dopey. Stares. Presses a few buttons and then stares again. Concerned.

"I never seen that code before" he says. Oh dear....

"Tell you what" says Pete, "why don't I just nip out back and have a look!"

I only just manage to contain myself, mentioning that had been my original suggestion 15 minutes ago.....

Thankfully, Pete knows his way around the storeroom and within two minutes I am adding my two bottles to the trolley. Just as my wife appears round the corner, daughter trailing and says to me - "Is that all you've done for the last half hour, get two bottles of wine?"

I bite my lip. Hard.

I Hate Shopping.

Successful first Executive Meeting

Tonight was the first meeting of the Executive Committee of Harlow Council, part of our new way of working in Harlow. I think overall it was a success.

The meeting was well attended, only one Lib Dem apology, but a number of other Labour and Conservative Councillors who were not members of the committee also turned up to speak and ask questions. There were even some members in the public gallery, which is always nice to see.

Two main items of business, establishing the working groups and naming their Chairmen and members. I now have my full team in place and we can effectively get to work. I want to see the decision making process streamlined so will be watching very closely over the next couple of months to see how it works.

The other key item of business was to kick start the discussion on moving to a formal different model of control, and we agreed to ask full council to go to a period of consultation on this. I really do think the opposition thought that it was a sown up and done deal, but I hope I persuaded them that I really am interested in what the public have to say about this. I am not sure if the people of Harlow will care a great deal about the differences between committee structure and cabinet may be but I want to hear what they have to say about both of them and the mayoral system as well. I want to consult the community, the business community the faith based communities. In fact I want everyone in Harlow to have a chance to have their say.

After that it will be up to the politicians, of all colours, to listen to the will of the people. I hope the opposition will agree to listen as much as I will expect my group to.

Just how special is that relationship? Time for Cameron to be a fighter!

This really annoyed me when I read it this evening.

How dare over very special friends the Americans stab us in the back like this.....again!

There was a time when American and British soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder, fighting and dying to repel the forces of tyranny. In fact that is exactly what they are still doing in Afghanistan.

Over the years Britain and America have been the strongest of Allies, so much so that we always speak of the special relationship without having to qualify because everyone knows who it is between.

I don't think the special relationship really exists anymore, and to be honest I think its time that David Cameron said something.

Can you imagine if some nutty Japanese group demanded that the US handed over it's 50th state of Hawaii to them to rule? Not only would the Americans treat the proposals as insane and be mightily offended, their closest allies would stand with them in decrying such proposals.

Yet when the boot is on the other foot they feel they can bin their allies for closer pan American ties and of course the prospect of vast oil reserves much closer to home than the unstable middle east.

But really this is not surprising, America has often been a bully and recently President Obama has shown he has no love for Britain, with some of his comments over the BP affair.

I think its time someone stood up to the playground bully. For me that someone is David Cameron. I am not looking for the scene from "Love Actually" - you know the one, that makes every British heart sing to be British, but I do expect our Prime Minister to stand up for the nation - all of the nation, even if they are a few islands thousands of miles from London.

Come on David. Tell Obama he is wrong and remind him that he is in serious danger of losing the special relationship.

UK economic problems worse than thought..... Thats not really a surprise

BBC news reports this morning that

Prime Minister David Cameron is set to deliver a stark warning about the action needed to tackle Britain's budget deficit and public debt. He is expected to say the UK's economic problems are "even worse than we thought" as he sets out why he believes "painful" cuts are necessary.

Well to those of us in Harlow that's not really surprising. We had exactly the same situation in 2008 when we took control of Harlow Council for the first time. We had a fairly good idea that the books were in a mess, but there is only so much that the opposition really ever know. What we did know was that Labour over many years in Harlow had been wasteful and not tended to the budget carefully, putting off painful decisions to a later date and trying to spend its way out of other decisions. Sounds fairly similar to the national situation.

So what did we do in Harlow and what learning can I pass on to the new Government (albeit from a much smaller perspective)

1. Open the books up to public inspection and let the journalists/public know why the economic mess happened. Transparency is just the start though.
2. Be honest about the depth of the problem and how painful the solution is going to be. People appreciate it so much more when politicians give a straight answer, even if it's not the answer that they want
3. Keep people informed regularly about your thinking on recovering the situation. Its no good solving the problem behind closed doors and then failing to bring people with you on the journey.
4. share the pain equally. In Harlow this meant a freeze in allowances and councillors as well as staff paying for their car parking, not easy decisions but the public were more accepting of the other financial decisions because it was apparent, that just like the campaign slogan "we're all in this together"

To be fair I think David Cameron knows these things already and has shown that he is following a similar play book nationally. Will it work? I think the national economy is in a bad state, but I think Cameron and his team do have the guts to make the changes that need to be made even though they will be painful.

Will the public accept and understand? I really think that there is a chance they will, but Cameron will really have to remember to bring a wider audience of people with him, and ultimately the government will stand or fall on whether we really are ALL in this together.

Monthly Surgery & Blitz.....

Today was the first Saturday in the month and thus my ward surgery day. I got together with Cllr Simon Carter and Cllr Tony Hall the other two councillors in Church Langley for two hours. We are fortunate in having a good working relationship with Tesco and they let us hold our surgery in their entrance hall every month. This month we were also joined by Cllr Clive Souter who is a Cllr for the neighbouring ward of Potter Street.

We had a lot of comments from people about the election results, and a lot of congratulations to pass on to our new MP Rob Halfon. We were also very happy to congratulate the voters of Church Langley for their record turnout at the election - 68% the highest in the town.

Issues raised today were the normal ones of traffic speeds, litter in bushes and some planning issues.

We were also able to spend a few minutes with the new tesco store manager Alex, who kindly gave us a walk through of the proposed refit of the tesco site and chatted to us about future developments that he would like to make on the site.

Tescos, the other shops the pub, the doctors surgery, church and school are a real community focus of Church Langely, so its always nice to know whats happening there. The refit sounds like the shopping options in Church Langely are going to get a lot better.

Later tonight I am off out with Mrs J and her friends to a Blitz Party in London. I am very much looking forward to the event, with swing bands and tunes from the 40's and everyone dressed up. The ladies are spending this afternoon doing authentic hair and makeup. I have managed to hire a Colonel's Uniform.... I just hope we don't get too many strange looks on the train! :-)

The Harlow Open

I was privileged to be able to attend the private view of the Harlow Open last night in the Gibberd Gallery at Harlow Civic Centre.

The Harlow Open is a chance for local artists to enter pieces of work for display, only the best works make it, and I have to say the standard was very high this year.

There were a range of artistic styles on display both in paint and textile work.

The Open also gives some of these budding artists a chance to sell some of their work, although some works are not up for sale, there were many at very reasonable prices.

Wandering the gallery I was struck once again by just how much talent there is in Harlow.

If you get a chance to pop into the Gallery in the next few weeks, please do - it will be well worth your while.

Greece with the ENTP

I was in Greece recently, as those who follow my tweets will know.

I thought some of you would find it interesting if I blogged about the reasons for being there.

You see, I am president of the ENTP, the "European New Towns Platform" and the General Assembly of the ENTP was held in the new town of Agios Stefanos from 26th to 28th May.

The ENTP is a pan European group of New towns, that was formed in 2001. Its key objectives are:

• For New Towns to share experiences, as all new towns have similar themes, issues and problems it is worth talking to each other to avoid re inventing the wheel
• To act as an automatic grouping to access EU funding; many people don't know that to access the monies the EU gives out you need to be working in a network of other towns, the ENTP is a ready made network
• To lobby the EU and National Governments to take note of the particular roles and difficulties suffered by new towns in policy making and spending reviews.

It represents 31 New Towns from 12 European countries and has about a dozen partner organisations who are interested in New Towns.

In 2008 when the Conservatives took control of Harlow Council, I took over from the Labour Leader Tony Durcan as a board member of the ENTP; Tony had been a board member for two years.

In December 2009 the Board of ENTP elected me as their President.

Since becoming President I have been keen for the ENTP to look beyond the borders of Europe and share the knowledge and experience of New Town development in other countries. We welcomed to the General Assembly this year a new "associate member" of the ENTP the town of Luodian in China. We also welcomed NUAC to talk to the Assembly, an organisation representing about 30 New Towns being developed in Egypt.

I have also been keen to strengthen the lobbying aspect of the ENTP to ensure that Harlow's voice and the voice of new towns across Europe is heard by those making senior decisions.

So what does Harlow get out of this?

Well there is an office and staff in Brussels that we have access to who have a finger on the pulse of whats going on in European funding streams and law making, we have a network of European partners to learn from and a greater opportunity to access EU funding. In the last 4 years our membership of ENTP has gained us access to £580,000 worth of EU monies (that's Harlow tax payers cash coming back to the Harlow!)

Overall I think it is a very worthwhile organisation and one that I am proud to be President of.

I was reelected President of the ENTP on 28th May to serve until at least the next General Assembly in 2011.

Tidying up my desk

Popped into the civic centre after work this evening.

I needed to drop off my council Blackberry to the IT team, as the roller ball was not working - Its a problem I have had with my personal BB a few times over the years and almost always needs a fresh one to sort the situation.

As a council leader who works full time my BB is a lifeline, enabling me to work on the go. It has taken officers a while to get used to virtual meetings via phone or email about issues but most now no problem about emailing me at all times of day or night with issues for my attention. I hope they either fix it or get me a new one ASAP.

I also grabbed the post from my tray and waded through it. My PA is very good at spotting urgent issues from the pile but I am always left with lots to look through. The thing that always amazes me about the leaders post bag is the wide variety of information I get! Despite living in an Internet age and lots of organisations sending emails and PDFs there are still a plethora of organisations out there who want to send glossy brochures explaining their latest genius ideas.... Sadly a lot of these glossy brochures come from Government departments, something I hope will cease under the coalition.

There are the normal letters from constituents in my ward with issues and some from people who have not got the answer they wanted from officers or other councillors.

Then there are always invitations to events, some national conferences, some regional but the ones I look forward to most are the Harlow events. I have one firmly in my diary for tomorrow night - an evening view of an exhibition that formally opens in the Gibberd Gallery on the 5th, a showcase of local Harlow Artists.

After tidying my desk I dash home to see my daughter before she goes to bed and read her a bedtime story.

Executive Committee means faster decisions

So at annual council we decided to back my plan to move to an executive committee, getting rid of the P&R, Housing and E&C committees that did exist.

Getting to grips with a new system will take a while and I am sure people (who in the main don't like change) may be a little upset, but it removes the long trudge of items being referred from one committee to the other, speeds up the decision making process and I think will work out cheaper and more transparent to the public.

In the mean time I will be bringing a paper to the first executive meeting, next week, about moving to full cabinet style governance, and the 6 months of consultation and thoughtful reflection the council must go through before any such decision can be taken.

The first executive also gives me the first question session of the year to answer, as leader, which I am very much looking forward to!