Charlotte's blog

2010-08-05T14:59:00.000+01:00

Charlotte's blog is now here.

Labour winning in Falmouth and Truro

2010-05-03T12:15:00.001+01:00

This week's West Briton contains some good news for Labour and my determination as your prospective MP to make Cornwall's economy more sustainable.

First up, Falmouth Chamber of Commerce chairman Sandra Pilson said: "I am voting Labour to give Gordon Brown a chance to sort things out. I don't think Clegg or Cameron have the experience to do it. Unless they keep with what we have now it will put us back years."

And Kieran McVey who manages one of Falmouth's waterside hotels said: "Labour would be better purely because we appear to be on the road to recovery and a move away from the strategy currently in place may upset the process."

In Truro, shop-owner Doug Hughes said: "There's this opinion that a Conservative government is pro-business but in my experience business rates come down under Labour and they have been kind, especially to small businesses in the credit crunch."

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrat candidate here has been calling for improved rail services - between Lancashire and Yorkshire!

More about Charlotte's campaign to win

2010-05-03T12:10:00.000+01:00

Recent news:

BBC Radio Cornwall - listen to the Truro and Falmouth debate

West Briton - listen to the Truro and Falmouth podcast

Voting for Cornwall's economy

Housing and earnings in Cornwall - candidate debate

Cornwall's NHS - candidate debate

Charlotte's candidate column - Falmouth edition

Labour launches manifesto

Cornwall's environment - candidate debate

Cornwall Council - first candidate debate

Charlotte's website

Charlotte's blog

Charlotte MacKenzie TV

Follow Charlotte on Twitter

Find Charlotte on facebook - politician's page and profile

Student voters in Falmouth and Truro

2010-05-01T12:47:00.009+01:00

This year, it seems that campaigns encouraging students to register - led by the NUS and others - have had some success.

As the Labour candidate, I listen to what students say.

I have pledged to vote against an increase in student fees. I support a fair system of student funding which enables people from all backgrounds to go to university.

We need a more sustainable economy - new jobs and industries will mean more graduates can use their skills to work locally if that is what they want to do. I'm supporting development of the creative, digital, marine, and renewable sectors.

When people contact me asking my views I reply - I will do my best to get back to everyone before polling day.

Students who vote can have a real impact on who becomes the first MP for this new constituency. On the 'notional' figures based on 2005 results it is a three-way fight between Labour, Tories, and Liberal Democrats; and there are about 5,000 more people on the register than in 2005.

I'm really happy that some students are actively supporting my election campaign - there is still time to volunteer to help by contacting me through my website, facebook, or twitter.

Backing Cornwall's pubs

2010-04-29T14:38:00.012+01:00

This is my reply sent to the 'Back the Pub' campaign in support of Cornwall's pubs:

"As Labour's prospective MP in an area with some excellent local breweries, and pubs which are at the heart of some of our local communities, I am supporting CAMRA's 'beer drinkers and pub goers charter'.

I warmly welcome Labour Minister for Pubs John Healey MP's recent announcements helping community pubs.

I also actively supported the move to ban smoking in public places because of the clear evidence related to the negative health impacts of passive smoking on industry workers and non-smokers in a smoke-filled environment, and I will continue to do so."

Why I want the job of being your MP

2010-04-13T11:52:00.000+01:00

As Parliament was dissolved yesterday, people paid tribute to Matthew Taylor, who was the MP for Truro and St Austell for 23 years. When Matthew Taylor announced in 2007 he was standing down at the end of this Parliament, he said that the biggest thing he had achieved as an MP was the A30 Goss Moor by pass.

If I can do one thing as your future MP, it will be to bring together the investment that is needed for the dredging and development of Falmouth docks to make Falmouth's economy more sustainable, lifting the town's economy to the same level as Truro. This is what I said when I was interviewed recently on the BBC Politics Show (11 April broadcast, last report); the editors cut it.

Achieving this for Falmouth has the support of Labour in Government and Cornwall Council are a partner in the proposals. It will help to support the development of wave power and renewable energy as a new local industry.

Everybody understands that an MP of the Party of Government is more likely to be pushing on an open door.

Falmouth can't afford to wait 20 years for the economic development we need. Labour can win Truro and Falmouth on a swing like that which made Julia Goldsworthy MP in 2005.

Vote match - vote yellow, get blue

2010-04-11T18:40:00.000+01:00

The Vote Match website is designed to help people work out which Party best reflects their individual policy priorities.

Those who, like me, are immersed in campaigning everyday for one Party may feel that the questions don't reflect all of the issues people raise most frequently with candidates. There are some policy gaps in the issues covered by the questions.

Even so, it is a useful ready reckoner. I worked through the questions and was unsurprised by my results.

The closest match for me, of course, is Labour. Nor was I surprised - as someone who feels strongly about the environment and local community empowerment - to find that a long way behind Labour the Green Party was my second closest match.

What the survey confirms is the widening policy gulf between Labour and the Liberal Democrats - who match just 40 per cent of my priorities as a Labour candidate, the same as the Conservatives.

For anyone wanting to keep the Tories out, and undecided between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, this quiz is a wake up call and reality check of just how close Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats in Cornwall really are to the Blues.

The grand national

2010-04-10T22:34:00.000+01:00

For months the Liberal Democrats have spouted the language of bookies at the grand national, shouting two or three horse odds.

Nationally, as the general election started, Nick Clegg claimed lamely that it's a three horse race.

Reality message to Nick Clegg - here in Falmouth and Truro your vote is roughly divided between those who would rather have a Tory, and those who would rather have a Labour Government.

In this constituency, seven candidates have so far declared. Only one, like Ophelia, prays for remembrance, claiming that this time it's a two horse race - and, occasionally, crys in the wind that this must be a safe seat for the joke Party.

As Labour's candidate I make no apology for being in touch with reality. This is a three way seat. A swing to Labour of similar proportions to that which led to Julia Goldsworthy's election in 2005 will return a Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth.

Free theatre tickets for under-26s

2010-04-08T21:57:00.000+01:00

Last year a consortium of venues in Cornwall participated in a Labour government scheme to make free theatre tickets available to people up to the age of 26. The scheme was launched through online videos featuring Eddie Izzard, photographed here at Labour's annual conference.

So I was delighted to see the Arts Council continue this approach in 2010, with some of Cornwall's arts venues taking part again.

It's easy to forget that many young people may never have seen a live performance in a theatre, even though TV and computers are part of their everyday life. Also, as people cut back on non-essential spending during the recession we are now edging out of, some theatres and arts venues saw audience numbers fall as a result. This scheme helps both.

The lobbyists' bombardment hopefully reaches it's crescendo

2010-04-02T14:29:00.000+01:00

Why do lobbyists bombard parliamentary candidates with an avalanche of letters and e-mails as we get closer to the time when an election must be called?

This is a genuine question because the one thing that is certain is that any prospective MP who is actively seeking election will reply first to constituents' enquiries. We are too busy just now to sit with our feet up browsing through a paper mountain of glossy brochures.

I have a simple message for lobbyists. I am seeking election to represent people in Cornwall - or at least, people in the new three way Truro and Falmouth constituency. This includes the local business community.

As a candidate and if I am elected as MP I will not reply positively to lobbying requests to lend my support to any purely commercial interests.

I will always put my community first.

Where constituents approach me asking me to support causes, some of which are led by charities and voluntary associations, I am lending some of these causes my support.

Some contacts made through charities - for example, an excellent briefing I attended on dementia and carers after being contacted by the Alzheimers Society - improved my understanding of issues affecting many people in this constituency, and that is something I appreciate.

Overall, lobbyists might engage the attention of future MPs more readily if they contact prospective candidates - or newly elected MPs - at any other time.

Another former Liberal Democrat

2010-03-31T15:51:00.000+01:00

The former leader of Restormel Borough Council says he will be supporting Mebyon Kernow's leader Dick Cole in the forthcoming general election.

It is difficult to escape the impression that Liberal Democrats in Cornwall have yet to recover fully from internal rifts produced by the decision to bid (successfully) for a single unitary, and the fall out this caused amongst their councillors who are now much reduced in number.

Tim Jones has a reputation for working for people in his local community - the last time I heard him contribute to a meeting was at a Citizens Advice Bureau AGM at Kingsley Village. So perhaps it is not surprising that the reason Tim Jones gave for his decision is that if Cllr Dick Cole is not elected as an MP he will continue to live in and work for his local area.

Even so, it strikes me as odd to support the person you trust to champion your community if they lose, rather than if they are elected.

As a candidate I'm asking for support for what I will do if elected - and most people I'm speaking to will consider candidates on that basis.

I love Cornwall and people here. So there is something I'd like to change. I want to find a way to enable everyone in Cornwall to recognise we have - and can have - equal political access to influence, power, and funding. Despite evidence to the contrary there are some people who behave politically as though Cornwall is destined to lose and they are powerless to do anything about that.

With Labour in Government Cornwall is benefiting from investment. If people here elect MPs whose Party is in Government (and hope to form the next government) maybe people will start to feel they are pushing on an open door. Rather than digging a trench ready for whenever the next local battle lines are drawn.

And whenever the general election is called, I hope there will be a much higher turnout than at last year's Council elections, when just 14 per cent of Cornwall's electorate voted for Tory candidates, and 86 per cent didn't - but most of these stayed at home.

Students, doctors, and business

2010-03-29T19:43:00.000+01:00

Suddenly it is two weeks since my last post.

There have been several hustings events. A student Q&A, a hustings style event at Truro School, Cornwall BMA hustings for the three main Party candidates, and a business breakfast in Falmouth the day after the Budget.

It was interesting to see how far similar questions were raised at these events. Each audience also had some expected specific interests - university fees, graduate employment, NHS funding, business taxes and regulation.

There was some heart-warming feedback after each of these events - including from a Liberal Democrat candidate in another constituency.

What's news?

2010-03-14T00:57:00.000Z

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a local journalist. This arose from a press release I'd issued about my support for NSPCC's campaign to highlight child protection issues. It is a topical issue locally because, following a highly critical Ofsted report, Cornwall Council has an independently chaired Improvement Board reviewing and overseeing the service changes that are needed.

For personal reasons, the former portfolio holder Cllr Sally Bain resigned and has not yet been replaced.

While the Tories and Liberal Democrats argue about the minutiae of the Council business plan, balance sheets, and costs of the unitary authority, they hurl in fleeting references to 'failing services' as though these are just part of the everyday Council furniture - about which the only argument is how much it cost - or, like the weather, are something the Council has no control over.

I know I'm not the only person wondering when Councillors will start showing more concern for people and services. And when a new portfolio holder will be appointed. There are plenty of people in Cornwall who care whether our child protection services are working. The journalist asked me why a press release about this - and my positive support for the NSPCC's child protection campaign - was news. I said that I wanted to highlight the issue because it is one I know people are concerned about, and there has been little communication about when a new portfolio holder will be appointed.

Recently, Cornwall Council was found to have acted unlawfully in its approach to assessing some adult social care needs and charges. Today, I read this comment on serious case reviews by Cllr Chris Ridgers. Which to me reinforces the point that services for people are more important - and newsworthy - than political ping-pong and mudslinging that fails to say what practical impact the Council's recent financial decisions will have on people's lives.

Facing the music - yes. Pantomime politics - no.

2010-03-06T14:17:00.002Z

This week the BBC's Nick Robinson expressed political surprise that Labour is rising in the opinion polls despite the pre-elections media onslaught and the Chilcott enquiry hearing Gordon Brown's evidence. I am not surprised, because I'm talking to people here everyday. With elections looming, people are thinking seriously about what they do want for the future. And while this may be mainly about Labour's investment and delivery for the many, people also want politicians who are prepared to face the music. If the Tory leader didn't know Lord Ashcroft's tax status after ten years of public questions being raised about it, most people are wondering why David Cameron didn't ask his Party's biggest donor and deputy a few straight questions.

People here are also saying they want politicians of all Parties to work together. Nationally, the Tories walked away from government talks about care of the elderly and the new National Care Service. Most people recognise this is one of the biggest challenges we face, and they want politicians who will get round the table and help work out positive practical solutions. Locally, Cornwall Council is no overall control, but the Liberal Democrats walked away from being part of the Cabinet, allowing the Tories to dominate decision making while the Liberal Democrats whinge, grumble, and protest about local decisions after choosing to be in opposition.

People don't want pantomime politics with politicians shouting each other down. It does seem that some local politicians really haven't got this message. BBC Radio Cornwall this week pre-recorded an 'Any questions?' style event at County Hall with a panel of the four Cornwall Council political group leaders. I was upstairs at county hall at a well-attended public event discussing transport needs, while this recording took place, although I mingled downstairs and spoke to people before and after the recording. The audience invited by political Parties were mainly prospective parliamentary candidates or Cornwall councillors - who heckled loudly, objected and interrupted as political opponent group leaders answered their questions. The public - and the Independent group of councillors - were not invited to be part of the audience.

Last June, people here elected a no overall council. Now they are saying loud and clear that they want politicians who will work together to do what's best for Cornwall. I doubt that those who listened to the pre-recorded BBC broadcast felt that their views are being heard or listened to by most of those taking part in this local political bun fight.

Michael Foot 1913-2010

2010-03-03T14:19:00.003Z

Michael Foot always reminded me of my much less well known grandfather, my mother's father, who was a life-long Labour supporter who lived to be a similar age. It is impossible to read or talk about the Labour Party over the years in Cornwall without bumping into the Feet. There is some retrospective annoyance that, when he was a determined Labour candidate for 'Falmouth and Penryn' - the first Labour held seat in Cornwall which had almost identical boundaries to the new seat of Truro and Falmouth - A.L.Rowse dismissively claimed that Labour supporters in North Cornwall would be better supporting the Liberals, because the Cornish Foot family's intellectually vigorous Liberal tradition meant it would never go Labour. Rowse was a young, academically elitist Labour candidate convinced politics was about winning the rational argument, who moved Labour into second place here but was never elected, while occasionally confiding to his private diary that the "idiot people" got things wrong.

Last year a friend in Cornwall gave me a collection of some of Michael Foot's journalism. It includes Michael Foot's memoir of an old political sparring partner George Brown, which begins: "When Lord George Brown died at his Cornish home in June 1985 no comets were seen, but .... within a few days came a heavenly leakage or downpour, call it what you will, with the latest information, confirmed in colourful detail, that he had died a Catholic, that the local priest from Falmouth had been ready and prepared to perform the last rites." And later recalls: "The same George Brown who whispered at the top of his voice warnings against 'authoritarian' or 'Presidential' tendencies in the Labour Party, once got me expelled from it at a meeting called at three hours' notice .... George Brown with a thumping majority at his back or a card vote in his pocket, could be a boorish bully, and part of the Brownite or Gaitskellite fury against Wilson, one suspects, was that he outmanoeuvred them at their own game of behind the scenes confabulations and contrivances."

As a politician, Michael Foot was of a very different temper, and I doubt he privately converted to Catholicism because he let people read him like a book. While many more column inches may now be written about his brief Labour premiership, Michael Foot was someone who, with both feet grounded by his family's Cornish roots, could simply quote - in a moving tribute to Jennie Lee - this from Robert Ingersoll: "I believe in the fireside. I believe in the democracy of home. I believe in the republicanism of the family. I believe in liberty, equality, and love." And that is partly why Michael Foot will be remembered by many in Cornwall with great affection.

Total politics

2010-03-01T23:57:00.002Z

There has been no shortage of things to blog about, just a lack of writing time. This weekend I wrote the PPC diary and review of the week for the political magazine Total Politics. I decided to focus on local news production and community media. It was published today and I decided to include it here too.

Sunday 21 February

First up an 8am interview about Fairtrade fortnight on BBC radio Cornwall - as a Truro councillor, I chair the city's Fairtrade group. With me are two youth workers from the charity Young People Cornwall, who run some great projects and are helping to raise awareness of Fairtrade. As we part company after the interview, one of the youth workers dubs me the "Fairtrade guru".

Monday 22 February

I do a candidate interview on Penryn community radio The Source. I enjoy talking to Gwen Willoughby, whose programme creates the relaxed atmosphere of a chat in the kitchen. Gwen starts the telephone interview by asking my view on the news headlines. Her concerns about the number 10 allegations by Andrew Rawnsley confirms for me that this is probably going to be the issue that local voters will want to talk about today. Later in the programme, Gwen gives me a good opportunity to chat about my constituency priorities. No sooner had I put the phone down, than I got a call from a broadcasting student asking if I could go to the campus to be filmed at their studio this afternoon - I said no, because of other commitments.

Tuesday 23 February

Monday's Council and today’s community network meeting both include discussion of plans for local development including new park and rides, and housing needs. I express my concern at Cornwall Council's decision to market a former school site in my ward as a potential district retail centre, and to reduce the affordable housing expectation from 50 to 35 per cent, as well as cutting the total number of homes to be delivered on a site previously identified as for housing. A local newspaper journalist calls me for more information and a quote.

The community network meeting includes a housing presentation. I ask for an update on the Council's re-registration process. It emerges that something has gone badly wrong. Some households previously registered with more than one former district council, but nobody believes that the 7,000 households that have re-registered so far reflects the full extent of housing needs in Cornwall. Previously, there were over 18,000 households registered. The form is complex, and worryingly re-registrations are almost non-existent in some areas. I ask what the Council is doing to publicise the re-registration process, and I am now following up these concerns.

Wednesday 24 February

I give a short talk to politics and academic academy students at Truro College, and am impressed by the fact that both groups have lots of searching questions about politics and the news headlines. Discussions like this - and the fact that I can remember wanting to be able to vote when I was doing A-levels - contribute to my view that the voting age should be lowered to sixteen.

Thursday 25 February

I pick up copies of the local weekly newspapers. One of the local MPs is now expressing concern about the housing re-registration process. The former school site story gets a write up too, and the quote I gave them is included. In the early evening, I pre-record another telephone interview for The Source; and then meet a broadcasting student in Falmouth to record comments for her “radio programme” assignment on whether personality is important in politics.

Friday 26 February

On Friday evening, I catch up with some local political blogs. These are growing in number from Councillors, candidates, activists and commentators, and there are now new sites devoted to aggregating Cornish blogs and political comment. Most of the content is local, although the activists write comment on the news headlines too. This week, one anonymous blogger who isn’t a Labour supporter describes me as “media-savvy”. By late Saturday evening, the latest opinion poll showing Labour closing the gap to win is published online.

Second homes and public spending in Cornwall

2010-02-09T13:38:00.000Z

Some mixed messages from Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs about second homes and public spending in Cornwall.

Their latest press release claims they "successfully campaigned to reverse the Conservative policy of allowing second homeowners to pay half the council tax that full-time residents pay." In fact, the Labour Government decision to make second home owners pay 90 per cent of full council tax has frequently been cited as a complaint by local Liberal Democrats when arguing that second homes should need change of use planning permission.

The reality is that second home owners can switch their properties to business rates - which are lower than council tax - by identifying them as holiday lets, and these switches have multiplied since second home council tax increased.

Other tax breaks associated with letting second homes have already been ended by Labour in Government from April 2010. So it is laughable that Dan Rogerson MP and Julia Goldsworthy MP's political press releases say they are only now lobbying for this change, which was announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling in the 2009 pre budget report.

What needs to be understood - as no doubt it is by local MPs - is that the business rates which are collected locally - like the tax breaks second home owners will now lose - are central government revenue. That is one reason why I do not support requiring change of use planning permission for second homes. There is a danger that it would reverse the positive impact of the 90 per cent council tax received from some second home owners.

The one exception to this is the local business rates which support Business Improvement Districts - including those in Falmouth and Truro. These support local events and other improvements which benefit the local community and Cornwall's economy.

And as someone who consistently supported the Sustainable Communities Act, I look forward to more detailed reports on public spending in Cornwall.

A fully elected second chamber

2010-02-09T11:48:00.000Z

Speculation today that the proposed electoral reform referendum has a majority in the Commons but not in the Lords. So here is a reason for those actively advocating electoral reform to move an elected second chamber to the top of their political agenda. Until now, they seem oddly reluctant to give greater urgency to changing the anachronism that is the fully unelected second chamber (except that the Bishops who are peers are elected through the Church of England), rather than tinkering with the voting system for the Commons.

Another person's treasure - reduce, re-use, recycle

2010-02-09T11:20:00.000Z

When I was a little girl, one of my best toys ever was a red scooter, which I bought at a jumble sale.

I was reminded of this scooter on Monday afternoon because I went to the United Downs household recycling centre. Cars queued up for people to leave their discarded household items while two employees asked us survey questions and several others helped organise who parked and left their items where.

There are lots of ways to recycle useable items - car boot sales, charity shops, e-bay, small ads, jumble and garage sales - all in use in Cornwall.

Do SITA really need to do a survey to establish that Truro, as the fourth largest residential settlement in Cornwall, also needs its own household recycling centre? Otherwise its a ten mile round trip to United Downs.

Did I hear at some stage that SITA's contract with Cornwall Council gives the Company exclusive rights to the household waste it collects in Cornwall? As the cars queued, I was paused by a roadsign saying '60 per cent recycled'. As the SITA newsletters say, that is probably a bigger percentage than before. But it is 60 per cent of items brought to this household recycling point. None of the black bag waste gets recycled. Do they calculate what proportion of all household waste gets recycled through kerbside recycling collections as well as household amenity sites? And if so, please will they add that to the information in their newsletters.

Like many people, two of the reasons why I consistently oppose a centralised incinerator are that it would reduce recycling and increase the local miles that Cornwall's black bag waste travels.

And I agree with Councillor Andrew Wallis that creating opportunities for people to re-use items locally that have been taken by others to the household amenity sites makes environmental and social sense.

I can still remember waiting for that second hand red scooter to be reduced from 15 shillings to seven shillings and sixpence (37.5 pence) at the end of the jumble sale, so that I could buy it with my pocket money, and the many hours I spent playing on it.

Do you remember the bad old days before Labour?

2010-02-06T14:39:00.000Z

I received a letter of support today with a request to publish it:

'Dear Charlotte

We are writing to remember & to memorise some youngsters that go to the polling stations to give their votes on the big day to decide the MP to be elected in Cornwall.

We as elderly pensioners can remember what the Tories did destroy our country in 1970/80s - miners & steel jobs was devastated, hosiery workers also closed down leaving the people jobless - all unemployment was high as well in those days - that was the old Heath and Thatcher governments etc.

There was no heating allowances, no free pensioners bus passes - now these was all created by the Labour governments policies like we are at the moment with the present concessions for us age concern heating allowances, public free bus passes - do we want this taken from us again under these Tories government.

We're asking these voters to be sensible and vote a Labour candidate for a better Cornwall - more for the poor, not for the rich - under Labour.

Let's have good memories & remember what the Tories did to our workforce last Tory government - all closed down.

From yours truly
Keith & Joan Davies
(ex-miner and his wife)

Please kindly publish in local Labour paper.'

This letter wasn't written in Cornwall. But in this student constituency, whenever the election is called, people voting for the first time could decide the outcome.

Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs

2010-02-04T11:31:00.000Z

The report on MPs' expenses is published today.

In the clear with 'no issues' leading to requests for repayment are Dan Rogerson MP and Matthew Taylor MP.

The requests for repayment are:
Colin Breed MP                     £3,639.49
Andrew George MP               £4,348.25
Julia Goldsworthy MP               £171.32

All of MPs' expenses information is now published in a searchable database on the parliament.uk website.

Cornwall's Tories: community asset strippers

2010-02-03T17:30:00.001Z

Following my questions to the Council about the office transformation plan, Council Leader Alec Robertson wrote a letter to local newspapers saying they own over 4,000 properties, and suggesting that disposing of 48 of these is really not that significant. I don't agree, but I do think that if he wants to communicate directly, openly, and transparently with the public he shouldn't just tell us half of it.

So let me refer to two other Council properties which they are currently marketing:

(1) Devoran Old School. On Monday evening I was one of over 100 people who attended a meeting called by Devoran Action Group. This group has been working to develop plans for the community to take over the village centre building and develop it as a community centre with a nursery, after school clubs, village shop, and other employment units. The Council backed this scheme by applying for it to be one of two possible community asset transfer pilots and access government funding. The outcome of this bid is not yet known, but those at the meeting on Monday evening want it to go ahead. However, while the Council is waiting for the outcome of the bid they have put the property on the open market, and say that if Devoran Action Group cannot come up with a competitive bid and available funds by 11 February (next Thursday) they will accept one of the other bids they have so far received. The fact that they are trampling on the wishes of the community seems to make no difference.

(2) Old Richard Lander School site - which is in the ward I represent as a councillor. This site was placed back on the market on 23 January 2010. Now this is one of very few brownfield sites in Truro, and one which local residents accept could sensibly be used for new social and affordable homes. The draft Truro and Threemilestone Action Plan - which has been through public consultation - ear-marked the site for housing development including 50 per cent affordable housing as it is currently public sector land. But the Council has now ignored it's own plan and advertised the land as suitable for development of a district retail centre, with limited housing, of which only 35 per cent will be expected to be affordable. The fact that they are trampling on community aspirations to meet the need for social and affordable housing on a suitable, available site which is in public ownership seems to make no difference.

Neither of these Council property decisions has been communicated well, or fairly, to the communities involved. Indeed, as a councillor, the only communication I previously had about the Council's change of thinking on the Richard Lander School site was an anonymous letter with a Plymouth postmark, which was sent to all Truro councillors.

I am glad the Liberal Democrats lost control of Cornwall Council last year, but the fact that their group of councillors then refused to work as part of a no overall control Council leadership means that - frankly - they have no-one else to blame for their current exclusion from decision-making, no matter how often they throw their toys out the pram at scrutiny and other meetings, as they did today. Choosing to be Liberal Democrat is choosing to support a political Party that will never form a UK government, but they could if they wanted to accept responsibility for stopping the worst excesses of Cornwall's new Council leadership, rather than opt to protest feebly and futilely from the wings. This is not just about Council properties east of Bodmin, important though these are to residents in east and north Cornwall.

I have no illusions about the Tories. I saw what they did at every level of government in the 1980s and it didn't work. What they did impoverished and damaged entire communities including many in Cornwall. People were made homeless while unscrupulous profiteers cashed in by buying repossessed first homes and turning them into holiday lets - not least, in this constituency. If you want to find out what 'broken Britain' - or broken Cornwall - would be like, time travel to the 1980s by asking someone who can remember.

A burning issue revisited

2010-01-26T21:43:00.008Z

Today the Cornwall Council waste strategy panel met to decide whether to ask their contracted waste company SITA to submit revised plans for an incinerator. SITA's previous incinerator plan was rejected by the Council's planning committee before the local elections last year. SITA appealed against this decision. There will now be a public enquiry in March, followed by a decision by the secretary of state after the latest possible date for a general election.

It was the Liberal Democrat Cornwall County Council elected in 2005 who chose incineration as their preferred approach and contracted with SITA. The comments on today's meeting to a local newspaper by Matthew Taylor MP would be comical if it weren't for the fact that - for financial as well as environmental reasons - practical decisions need to be made. Conveniently ignoring that it was a Liberal Democrat Council that agreed the contract with SITA, Matthew Taylor MP was the first to throw stones in the glass house: "The Conservatives opposed the incinerator to get elected, but now they are in charge they are about to double-cross electors and back the incinerator."

The fact is that the panel of five Tories, four Liberal Democrats, four Independents, and one MK councillor today decided a recommendation that will go to the Council's Cabinet. The majority backed incineration as an approach by recommending SITA develop a revised proposal.

The argument about Cornwall's waste strategy has run through three Councils and (so far) two general elections. It is fair to say that the issue is not Party political, in that representatives of the three main Parties have spoken for and against incineration in different representative roles, where there are different local factors to take into consideration, and at different stages of the process; for Labour, the only government view is that the chosen approach to waste management should be a local decision. And if anyone failed to deliver that, it was the Liberal Democrats.

I agree with Matthew Taylor MP that "Other communities are developing better, more environmental options for dealing with waste." Like him, I have consistently supported objections to his Party's original choice of incineration and at every subsequent decision stage; and the political boundary changes have not weakened the opposition of my constituency Labour Party to a single, centralised incinerator.

The Liberal Democrats dug the Council into a hole by supporting incineration and then allowing SITA to submit a plan that was refused planning permission. Financially, today's meeting may start to move the Council into a more manageable position and make it more likely that costs can be stopped from escalating.

For Cornwall's environment and carbon emissions it is still the wrong decision, caused by the Liberal Democrats who could have stopped the incinerator many of their supporters oppose when they were elected five years ago, and by now delivered a sustainable waste strategy for Cornwall. And fortunately, it may still be possible to do that, provided a single, centralised incinerator can be stopped.

Looking for work

2010-01-20T23:46:00.006Z

Today's unemployment figures show a slight decrease nationally in the number of people seeking work. But in this constituency - even though unemployment is lower than the national average - there has been a slight increase in the number of people without a job.

The figures published today show the UK average has returned to the level of unemployment in March 1997 (4.1%). But in Cornwall, this comparison tells a different story. It isn't good that unemployment in this constituency has now risen to 3 per cent. But this is three quarters of the national figure, and just half the level of unemployment in Carrick in March 1997 (5.8%).

Every one of the 1,622 people seeking work in this constituency faces a challenge, and I know from listening to people who are seeking work locally that more support and better help is needed.

They will be helped by the fact that - even in the wake of the recession - Cornwall's economy is now much stronger than it was before Labour was elected in 1997. Labour's investment and employment policies - including the minimum wage and tax credits - mean that those seeking work now face brighter prospects than those who were unemployed in March 1997.

The map above shows the decrease in unemployment compared to the last previous recession in 1991-2. It highlights quite clearly the challenges Cornwall faced during the last Tory government, and the way that people in Cornwall have benefitted from Labour's actions in government since 1997.

The big issue

2010-01-19T19:26:00.000Z

Cornwall Council has a few things to decide. It's forward plan, it's office 'vision', it's services and other budgets for next year. But councillors at the full Council meeting today spent three hours - with a break for lunch - discussing whether to award themselves a pay rise of up to 33 per cent.

In a previous post, I speculated that: 'the allowances issue will be politically neutral if the Tory and Liberal Democrat groups both vote against it, and if that is the case I would expect both of these groups to reward their councillors next year for good behaviour.'

After talking for three hours the Council agreed on a one-year freeze. The Liberal Democrats proposed an amendment in favour of a 4 year freeze. They lost. So next year it seems likely the Liberal Democrats will be able to do the same thing, and then laugh all the way to the bank. OK, this is one of a very small number of things I get cynical about.

But now the only issue they seem to think worth debating for three hours is out of the way, maybe the Council decision-makers could talk about some things that matter a great deal more to people in Cornwall.

Voting for what you believe in

2010-01-18T19:34:00.002Z

There are two things I have never understood about arguments for electoral reform.

One is the claim that votes only 'count' if the Party and candidate you vote for is elected. This is absurd. The purpose of democratic elections is to make a choice between Parties and manifestos. If you do not vote - or if you spoil your ballot paper - you choose not to make your vote or have it counted. If you vote, it is counted, and your vote does 'count' and contribute to the result at every level.

Democratically, the challenge we face is the disengagement with politics which means many people do not vote. Last year, a low turnout gave us the new Cornwall Council elected by a minority of the electorate.

So here is one of my wishes for the general election - I hope people will take part and vote, as they queued up to do in the most recent American presidential election. In this new constituency, if the student population registers and votes, they could determine the outcome of the election.

The second thing I don't understand about arguments for electoral reform is why anyone thinks being asked to vote for more than one Party would make your vote 'count' more, because - like tactical voting - it is a systematic dilution and distortion of choice at an election.

And while we are talking about non-choices - people in Cornwall don't want a playground politics, where Lib/Con Party hacks swap taunts that their campaign chiefs are 'fatty', 'lardy', or dementing because they are standing on the same ground and treading on each others toes. If you don't have anything more worth saying, why bother opening your mouth.

No matter how many times the Lib/Con double act write to me, I will stand, fight, and vote for what I believe in - Labour.

Cornwall's Cons - we can't go on like this

2010-01-16T14:31:00.000Z

The latest press release from Cornwall's Tories claims of their plans to dispose of 48 office buildings and spend £12 Million plus on remodelling three main offices:

"Capital receipts from property disposals will be re-invested in better services."

Whereas Local Government Association guidance published in October 2009 confirms the legal position:

"Councils can only use assets sales to finance capital spending."

This fact was made clear to Cornwall Council's Cabinet on Wednesday 13 January 2010, and the Tory press release was published after that meeting.

While we are on the subject of Tory bogus claims, the fact that buildings which are no longer Council offices will not contribute to the Council's carbon emissions may do nothing to reduce Cornwall's carbon footprint if these buildings continue to be used by others without being retro-fitted. What has happened to Cornwall's climate change action plan?

Cornwall Council - we can't go on like this

2010-01-14T15:44:00.002Z

Yesterday morning I attended Cornwall Council Cabinet. On several occasions during the discussion of office disposal the corporate resources portfolio holder Cllr Jim Currie asserted "we've got to start doing things". A new resolution was tabled to replace the published one, and the Cabinet duly approved "the reduction from 78 principal buildings to 30 by 2015".

Several councillors made heartfelt pleas to see the list of 48 properties to be disposed of - or the list of 30 properties to be retained - and expressed concern that relocating staff to expanded main offices in Camborne, Truro, and Bodmin constituted centralisation at the expense of north, east, and west Cornwall. They were rebuffed with assurances that neither list exists - it seems the precise numbers 48 and 30 just popped up like Wednesday bonus balls, and the 'Property Transformation Plan for the Office Estate' approved in the resolution is a statement of intention for which the 'plan' has yet to be developed.

Paragraph 3.2 of the published report says that the changes may lead to the 'withdrawal of one stop shops' but that this would not be 'widespread'. If it weren't so important to the community, it might have been comical to hear Cabinet members assert that the plans are about back office accommodation and will have no impact on customer facing services, while the officer explained how they would provide better customer access - for example, at Dolcoath Avenue it may no longer be necessary for members of the public to take a lift to the second floor to see planning applications.

In the circumstances, perhaps I should be pleased that - in response to my question - Cllr Jim Currie directly denied that the office transformation plan will have any implications for the one stop shop in central Truro. If I were one of those who had voiced concern about centralisation, I might have wondered whether the Council intends to locate more than 1050 employees at offices in Truro.

The one stop shop in Truro is located on the ground floor of the former Carrick District Council offices. This is identified in the draft Truro and Threemilestone Action Plan (which is not expected to complete it's inspection until December 2011) as a development site. The draft action plan is already underpinned by back office project planning indicating when development is expected to take place, although that timetable drifted during the recession. The planning application for the Penzance new ferry terminal foundered partly because English Heritage is a statutory objector. It is unclear whether the Cabinet's plans to increase the number of staff working at County Hall from 680 to 1050 and move it's reception to a newly constructed 'public link' will get the listed building consents it would need. But it will be surprising if in due course the former Carrick District Council offices in Truro - one stop shop and all - do not come forward for redevelopment.

Perhaps surprisingly, until yesterday's meeting political blogs in Cornwall had been drawing dividing lines for the vote on proposed increases in allowances, at the full council next week, rather than the Cabinet's planned assets sale. For once, the allowances issue will be politically neutral if the Tory and Liberal Democrat groups both vote against it, and if that is the case I would expect both of these groups to reward their councillors next year for good behaviour. Politically, it will be more interesting if the Liberal Democrats behave as they have done previously and ditch their 2009 election pledge by voting for the increase.

If we didn't need genuine democratic renewal in the wake of the MPs' expenses revelations, it might be comical that David Cameron MP used his new year message to call for new politics before returning to his slapstick routines at Prime Minister's questions on Wednesdays. There is an important difference between the way that politicians' behave, and you see it in Cornwall councillors too. Regardless of political Party, I respect polticians who are direct and honest, speak their minds frankly, and show their political values. I do not respect politicians who are disingeuous - it may be one sort of political skill, but to me it only communicates self-interest and I believe politics is about public service, not conning people.

Cornwall's Tories - selling assets, cutting services

2010-01-09T18:26:00.000Z

Since Wednesday, people all over Cornwall have been battening down the hatches in the snow. Many schools closed, lanes icy and dangerous, and stretches of some main roads inadequately gritted and salted forcing some drivers to abandon their cars. The former Carrick District Council was previously criticised every time there were insufficient sandbags to protect frequently flooded streets. Now Cornwall Council is rightly under the spotlight for its inadequate level of preparedness in freezing weather.

Some Cornwall Council meetings have been cancelled this week, but not the scrutiny meetings looking at the Council's draft budget - provided these meetings were quorate they went ahead. I can't help wondering whether some councillors - snowed in at home or not - have now missed their only chance to comment.

I wrote before about the fact that Liberal Democrats are the only group that decided to work in opposition to the no overall control - but now Tory dominated - executive. This doesn't alter the fact that some of the opposition concerns raised by Liberal Democrat members are naturally very local - actually, these ward-specific concerns might be raised more effectively if they were working as part of the administration. This week, it emerged that Truro Councillor Rob Nolan is the Liberal Democrats' whip. I'll resist the herding cats analogy because I'm more interested in what another minority political group - the Tories - are planning to do with some of Cornwall's assets which are currently in public ownership.

Next Wednesday, Cornwall Council Cabinet will discuss whether to dispose of 48 of its 78 office accommodation buildings. The list - which is unpublished - includes properties rented as well as owned by the Council. These proposals form an integral part of the draft budget for the corporate resources portfolio holder Tory Councillor Jim Currie, who was quoted in a local newspaper saying of the Council's approach to budgeting: "We have already been cutting things and that is why we don't have the resources we need to do things."

There are a number of big questions here. Is it financially sensible to bring forward plans to dispose of six out of ten of the Council's office properties while the commercial property market remains slow enough for the Government to have recently reintroduced empty property rates relief? It would have a negative impact on Cornwall's economy and communities if office buildings discarded by the Council remain unoccupied.

The Council can only sell properties we own - and yield the proceeds for spending - once. If some sales make sense following the unitary reorganisation, the Council has a financial responsibility to consider whether selling, renting out, or reusing in other ways for the community constitutes best value. The Council is looking to provide more social housing - has it made an assessment of whether any of the office sites that it owns might be converted to housing or used for new housing? The former Carrick District Council site, for example, has been identified in draft local plans as suitable for housing.

If some of these Council office buildings are community assets, will local communities be given the opportunity to take them on? Even in situations where buildings require some refurbishment and maintenance, communities may aspire to do this. Despite delays with initial refurbishment followed by burst frozen pipes and flooding, Malabar community and childrens centre is making good use of the old Treyew primary school buildings. Politics aside, Labour in Government has encouraged community ownership and management of assets; and the Tories have trumpeted that they would introduce a 'community right to buy' (which is disingenuous given that buildings in public ownership have already been bought once by the community). If some of Cornwall Council's buildings are transferred to the community, they will come with their maintenance and repairs backlog which the published paper suggests the Council is eager to dispose of.

The paper also makes it clear that it's plans to dispose of office accommodation may mean the relocation of some one stop shops - I guess this may include the former Carrick District Council offices in Truro. The one stop shop there cost £20,000 to refit the Council reception area as a Council reception area (oh yes) last summer, and a section of the building's slate roof has also recently been replaced.

The Council expects to be able to make longterm reductions in it's carbon footprint by reducing it's office accommodation - not that this will make much difference to Cornwall's carbon emissions if offices are disposed of and reoccupied without being retrofitted, and hundreds of relocated staff have further to travel to the smaller number of sites retained as Council offices (Trades Union consultation is underway). It is fair to say however that plans to undertake some redevelopment and refurbishment at Dolcoath Avenue and new County Hall include improved provision for cycling to work.

Good governance - more important than the Liberal Democrats

2010-01-04T18:37:00.000Z

BBC Radio Cornwall today interviewed Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne who was visiting Cornwall in his role as their home affairs spokesperson.

Perhaps Chris Huhne MP doesn't know that in Truro and Falmouth constituency, at local elections last year, the Liberal Democrats were in third place and they now hold just one in six (4) of the council seats in this constituency. The voters' verdict was clear - people just don't want more of the same Liberal Democrat incompetence and poor governance: cuts to adult social care, threatened cuts to local fire services, Cornwall's only airport closed for three weeks in the run up to Christmas, planning permission refused (for good reasons) for the waste incinerator planned by the Council, and independent audit reports criticising their financial management. Chris Huhne MP claimed Liberal Democrats 'look after ordinary people' - try telling that to those who had their adult social care cut in Cornwall, or those rightly concerned about their child protection legacy here.

When a BBC Radio Cornwall caller today said that 'good governance' is more important to people than Party politics, Chris Huhne MP said he agreed 'entirely' - focusing swiftly on national politics. But the only Party locally that is refusing to work as part of the 'No Overall Control' Council leadership to deliver better governance for people in Cornwall is the Liberal Democrats.

Last year the Tories' voteshare here also fell compared to 2007, so that they now hold one in three (8) of the Cornwall Council seats in this constituency.

Two for joy (again!)

2010-01-04T00:12:00.001Z

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the fact that my youngest cousin and my niece were both expecting first babies due at similar times. Luke and Stanley will be two this year. Last year, Luke's younger brother Tom also joined the family. I heard this weekend that my nephew and his partner, who married last year, are expecting twins.

Extended maternity leave, paternity leave, childcare vouchers, free nursery places, Sure Start and children's centres are making a difference for this generation of parents with young families. Before the general election, as well as the leaders' debates, there need to be detailed policy debates to draw out the differences between the two main Parties on issues which make such a big difference to people everyday.

2010 - the year for hope

2009-12-31T21:18:00.001Z

The new year is about hope.

As I write it is dark outside, blowing a gale, and the temperature is dropping sharply. Nevertheless the days are getting longer, one of the things I love about Cornwall is how quickly ever-changing weather blows across this narrow peninsula - as well as the fact that it is usually a few degrees warmer than the rest of the UK - and the next few days are forecast to be sunny and dry.

Political forecasts which turn out to be right are always lucky guesses. Journalists and politicians spice plausibility with personal predilections and the 'predictions for 2010' article is written.

The new year messages from the Prime Minster, opposition Party leader, and Liberal Democrat Party leader encompass the mood music and issues which it is believed will determine how people make their choice in the 2010 general election.

David Cameron clearly believes the way to maximise the Tory vote is to seek to occupy Labour's ground - 'the same progressive aims: a country that is safer, fairer, greener and where opportunity is more equal. It's how to achieve these aims that we disagree about.' This actually shows the strength of Labour's achievement and election potential as we enter a general election year.

No matter how many times Cameron wails 'politics is broken' like a needle stuck on a scratched vinyl record, his core vote message is: "we can't beat Labour, so let's pretend to be them". Politics is broken when it is reduced to a focus group led PR exercise that results in empty presentational cross-dressing. Politics is broken when a Tory democratic choice is marketed as a 'change' label with the fraudulent strapline 'same progressive aims'. Many Tory, UKIP, and BNP voters are happy to be honest that they don't in the least subscribe to 'progressive aims' - they know it's their democratic right - and fortunately in the UK, their retrograde views are in the minority.

David Cameron's new year message included much headlined cosying up to the Liberal Democrats: 'between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats is a lot less disagreement than there used to be.... And once the battle is over, we will need to rise above our differences and come together because that is the only way.' Whereas Nick Clegg's new year message was devoid of the same message a few weeks after he signalled a willingness to work with a Cameron government.

Clegg's new year message contains a rare moment of clarity, in which all his fluffy claims about the third Party delivering 'fairness' are replaced by a directly simple message urging voters to 'vote for what you believe in'. I had thought that the Liberal Democrat blog 'Moment of clarity' might have the inside track on their intended election platform when he worried out loud of the leaders' planned TV debates that 'Participation will also force us to solidify our narrative and the somewhat schematic approach we have to policy-formulated-to-grab-headlines (which vanishes soon after its served its purpose) may well be exposed.' If 2010 is going to be the year when the Liberal Democrats ditch forked-tongue campaigning and tactical voting before a general election, I will be the first to welcome their honest conversion to sincere politics. It's not what Nick Clegg said in his letter to me.

Of the three Party leaders, only the Prime Minister had a message that sounded sincere to me. I think Gordon Brown does believe that 'what matters is not where you come from but what you have to contribute', and his message outlined a substantial strategy for economic recovery.

I hope that the coming general election will be a real debate about future prosperity, equalising access to opportunities, and political renewal.

I hope that Cornwall will take local action to tackle climate change, while we wait on practical commitments from some world leaders.

I hope that this will be the year when voters decide to ditch tactical voting in favour of sincere politics.

And I hope that 2010 really will be the first internet election.

1979

2009-12-30T18:28:00.108Z

At the time of the 1979 general election, I was living at Trieste in northern Italy, teaching English as a foreign language. Falmouth reminds me of Trieste. The naval vessels visiting port, which at the time included a US airforce carrier. During lunchtime siesta breaks, I would catch a bus to the nearest beach to go swimming. Former fishing boats also ferried people to villages and beaches along the Serbian coast. At weekends, both Venice and northern Yugoslavia (as it was at the time) were a short train ride away.

I heard the result of the 1979 general election on the BBC world service. I was in the office at the language school. When the radio headline announced that Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, one of the directors at the language school said 'jolly good'. That wasn't how I felt, and the result certainly didn't strengthen my inclination to return to the UK. After the language school term ended, I advertised in the local paper for individual students; there were just enough. I stayed on in Trieste, and then spent a few weeks travelling around Italy, before returning to the UK to take up a university place in the autumn.

The publication today of papers from Margaret Thatcher's first months of office reminded me of two things.

One is the historical irony that - despite Thatcher's predilection for public spending cuts, combative approach, and thick skinned capacity to engender rising poverty and tolerate its human consequences - soaring unemployment meant that the total welfare bill rose rather than fell on her watch and that of John Major. It is also clear from the reports of the papers published now just how little traction a monetarist approach gave the incoming Tory administration on the economy.

The descriptions of Thatcher's dismay at the lack of immediately discoverable profligate public sector waste to trim also reminds me of recent reports of the incoming Tory dominated Cornwall Council executive. In particular, Cllr Jim Currie's apparently annoyed response to an independent report which confirmed that the Council's finances are in reasonable shape with current borrowing levels - and even though, as audit assessments have highlighted, some aspects of their financial management need improvement.

In 1979, the idea that a general election might change the Party governing the country wasn't novel. It was the fourth general election in a decade, and those in 1970 and 1974 - as well as 1979 - had transferred government between Parties. Maybe it was because I was living in Italy during the general election campaign that it was only after I returned that I understood the depth of political change brought by the 1979 general election - persuasive evidence if it were needed that politics, voting, and elections really can change things.

Truro - a market town with a cathedral.

2009-12-26T21:14:00.000Z

Truro councillors were informed for the first time last week that since July 2009 a working group has been meeting to draw up plans for a 'strategic investment framework' (SIF) for Truro which will spend part of Cornwall's EU convergence funding to improve transportation ('connectivity') and strengthen business infrastructure. Fortunately, it seems we have managed to get the timetable extended from January to March so that there can be proper discussion of the options summarised in the draft document.

Brought forward in the draft proposals are some elements of the Local Transport Plan which are sustainable, can be match funded by Cornwall Council, and will probably be accepted fairly readily by people who live in Truro. If the funding can be brought together for a park and ride in east Truro and parkway station at Treluswell (which is also in the Falmouth/Penryn community plan, and university proposals), people who are fed up with traffic congestion caused by commuting into and out of Truro may well say 'yes please'. Even if it occurs to them to ask questions about who is going to pay for the buses, trains, and drivers after the EU investment has been made. About half of the residents in the ward I represent (Trehaverne) will probably also take the opportunity to suggest that a more sustainable transport system means there is no need for the proposed distributor road.

Built into the draft document is an assumption that, to be made to work, park and ride must be backed by a robust 'parking strategy'. This will be music to the ears of residents in Gloweth, who have long been exhorting Cornwall Council to introduce a 'parking strategy' for the residential roads near Truro College, the hospital at Treliske, and the existing park and ride near Threemilestone, to stop people parking inconsiderately on their kerbs and verges. Presumably, this means the new park and rides will be expected to be cheap or free for commuters, and parking in the centre of Truro will be horribly expensive and subject to meticulous civil enforcement (as it is now). Truro isn't the only Cornish town where some people will be calling for fairer, free or cheaper parking for local residents, and they have my support. Cornwall Council's latest draft 'parking strategy' puts Truro - which is the fourth largest centre of population in Cornwall - in a category all of it's own as a 'city'. Like St Davids, Truro is a town that is only called a city because it has a cathedral. Plymouth or Exeter it's not. There is a 'large towns' category which lists other places in Cornwall, three of which are larger than Truro - if Cornwall's new parking strategy is going to have categories, that's the one Truro should be in.

As a Councillor, there is no getting away from parking, but other aspects of the draft Truro SIF proposals concern me more. One is a suggestion that £225,000 ERDF might be spent on a Truro town centre traffic study. As Councils without access to ERDF manage to design town centre traffic systems, I think it is completely wrong to try to divert some of the last, stretched EU funding that Cornwall will be eligible for into this everyday business.

The second concern is bigger. We were told that one of the reasons why councillors were not involved in earlier discussions is that the working group was 'technical'. That being so, you would think the working group would have drawn on the available technical studies which form part of the draft local development framework, which was recently scheduled by Cornwall Council to complete its inspection two years from now (December 2011). This includes important studies of flood risk management, given Truro is located in a river basin, and renewable energy - both seeking to address issues neglected in the earlier 'core strategy' document which failed it's inspection partly because of inadequate attention to climate change risks.

EU convergence investment is supposed to deliver zero carbon economic growth including new green sector jobs and businesses. My heart sank at the answers I was given about this at the briefing meeting. The Council has signed up to 10:10 at my instigation, and is utilising it's powers to promote microgeneration, but it didn't occur to me we would have a difficult job getting it built into the EU convergence programme planning for Truro. The draft document includes just one funding proposal to research and develop an implementation plan for an energy supply company (ESCO). Other aspects of the draft SIF document and evidence base directly contradict the renewable energy technical study produced for Truro's draft local plan. So it should be back to the drawing board with a need to make rapid progress on alternative additional proposals in the early new year.

My letter from Nick Clegg

2009-12-25T12:01:00.002Z

The post has been getting later every day, and fell through the letter box at about 2pm. I opened the Christmas cards first and put them up. I'm registered with the marketing preference service, so I very rarely receive junk mail. Organisations lobbying on a range of issues write to me as a prospective MP. Some with informative briefings on issues which matter a great deal to some people in this constituency, like that from the Alzheimers Society. Others adopt a more clubbable approach, and the stack of invitations can make Westminster appear like an all year round Party conference of events hosted by interest groups. I thought the envelope that contained my letter from Nick Clegg might be one of these.

The letter headed as from the House of Commons address bore the Liberal Democrat logo and a photo of Nick Clegg. It contained a postal vote application form and freepost envelope addressed to the local Liberal Democrat office in Truro. The Electoral Commission recommend that people return completed postal vote application forms direct to the local Council's electoral registration office, to avoid the risk of interference. A previous similar mailing by Julia Goldsworthy MP made using her parliamentary correspondence allowance led to her actions being investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog.

Last week Paddy Ashdown made a campaign visit to Cornwall. The local newspaper's 'Ex-party leader shows support for candidates' reported that Mr Ashdown said "In Mr Cameron I think you will get a Home Counties Government with a Home Counties cabinet, which will not be good for the Westcountry." But if the coming general election were to result in a hung Parliament, Nick Clegg said recently Liberal Democrat MPs would lend their support to the Tories to enable Cameron to form a government (pictured above). It is presumably through this route that Mr Clegg feels able to make the imaginary claim in his letter to me that "our growing force of Lib Dem MPs after the next election ... will be able to get even more done for you."

In his letter to me, Mr Clegg says: "hardly anyone really wants a return to the way things were under the Conservatives. Many cannot forget the way they treated Cornwall when they were last in power." This is true, and Cornwall since 1997 has benefited from unprecedented investment in the NHS, a new university, new school buildings, more jobs, the minimum wage, and home improvements for tenants. Now why is that? Because, and only because, Labour has been in government. It has nothing to do with the Liberal Democrats, nor does Mr Clegg claim that it has.

However, Mr Clegg says "Cornwall needs real change. Real change that only the Liberal Democrats will deliver." This is a strange claim for him to make, because Cornwall's current MPs are Liberal Democrat. Mr Clegg doesn't pretend it is they who have delivered any of the positive changes in Cornwall since 1997, nor does he acknowledge that Labour's successful track record needs built on. Many people in Cornwall want Labour's investment to continue.

In contrast, after four years of Liberal Democrat leadership of the county council, only one is six of the Cornwall councillors in this constituency are now Liberal Democrat - their voteshare fell by 13 per cent, and the Independents won most seats here in the local elections this year.

There are no claims in Mr Clegg's letter that Cornwall is better off thanks to Liberal Democrat MPs, rather than Labour in government. The only achievement claimed by Mr Clegg on behalf of his MPs is a recent OFWAT decision which is likely to take about £6 a year off an average local water bill. If more is achieved for water customers it will be because the government decides to take up recommendations in the Walker review which Labour commissioned - the Liberal Democrats responded to the consultation and spoke to the water Minister about it. As a Labour prospective MP, so did I.

The next bit made me laugh out loud: "Your support really will help [us] get a better deal for Cornwall...PS Don't forget the choice is between [a] Cornish local champion ..who has a record of action or the unproven Conservative." Zero promises of what the 'better deal' would comprise, zero examples of any local action by the Liberal Democrat PPC, zero support gained from me (obviously), and zero acknowledgement that the last time this person was candidate here she took the Liberal Democrats from second to third place when Labour won the seat.

Like that election, in this constituency the next one will be a choice between a Labour and Tory government and the future they offer for Cornwall. Bring it on. A vote for either of the other Parties is a vote for Cameron to form a "Home Counties" government, with Clegg's collusion, and to bring Labour's further planned investment in Cornwall's future to an end.

Homeless children in Cornwall - the tip of the iceberg

2009-12-24T13:50:00.000Z

Some recently published data shows the extent of acute housing need in Cornwall.

Households in temporary accommodation are the tip of the iceberg as far as housing need is concerned. They summarise how many households - faced with the prospect of homelessness - have gone to Cornwall Council and been placed in temporary accommodation.

The latest figures are for the third quarter of 2009 (up to end September). Spare a thought anyway for all the homeless families, children, and individuals who will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.

There were 337 Cornish households in temporary accommodation up to the end of September 2009; 51 of these were in bed and breakfast, rather than short-term private or social housing lets, or women's refuges.

Backed by Labour in Government, District Councils in Cornwall worked hard to bring these figures down. That responsibility has now transferred to Cornwall Council.

This is part of the human story behind Cornwall Council's red flag for housing in their area assessment report. Bringing more of the many empty properties in Cornwall into better social use would mean fewer people in acute housing need being placed in bed and breakfast; it would help to increase the availability of both temporary and long-term homes for rent.

The figures don't say how many people - as opposed to households - are in temporary accommodation.

I'm just hoping any Cornwall Councillors and officers reading this will make a new year's resolution to do their bit to reduce the number of Cornish families in temporary accommodation by Christmas 2010.

Climate justice and poverty

2009-12-20T19:31:00.002Z

The Queen's speech commitment to increase international aid to 0.7 per cent of the UK's national income by 2013 has had limited coverage, partly because the Tories fell in behind the proposals rendering them politically neutral. And yet the stalling of the UN conference at Copenhagen showed that global co-operation needs new momentum. Since the Make Poverty History campaign, one of Gordon Brown's strengths has been finding ways to provide aid as practical support - such as HIV vaccination - rather than as liquid funds which can be diverted away from their intended purpose. The global response to climate change needs to provide practical support for sustainable development and adaptations to climate change, and accept that developed economies need to make bigger cuts sooner. It is better to be where we are now than for the UN to have put a detailed but inadequate agreement in place. The agreement as it stands includes funding of 10 Billion dollars a year. Now we need to raise our game by agreeing robust targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - the next opportunity to discuss these will be in February.

Deal or no deal?

2009-12-18T20:45:00.001Z

There's a media strategy which says if you raise hopes too high you may end up disappointing people, but if you lower expectations you may be able to snatch success from the jaws of failure if things turn out better than you have led people to expect.

The messages put out before the Copenhagen summit - that a deal might be reached but it was expected to take more time to make it legally binding - reminded me of the latter. Several of Obama's big US policy shifts - including health reform - have gone right to the edge of possible failure before the decision-makers votes were counted and the reforms came in.

So - as the Copenhagen conference comes to an end - the prospect of a fragile accord on the longterm goal of stopping climate change, with no agreement on targets for 2020, feels like a let-down. In the world of politics, it will be easy for people to emphasise the negative uncertainties left lying on the table as the world leaders and negotiators pack their bags to go home.

I'm a natural optimist, but following the G20 I wrote about why it was going to be much more difficult to get agreement at Copenhagen. I would love to have been proved wrong. And yet, comparing where we are now to Kyoto, real progress has been made. At Copenhagen we have three things that weren't there at Kyoto: a scientific consensus on the need for action that withstood the climate change deniers best efforts to undermine the reasons for action; a US President at the conference calling for agreement and pledging an 80 per cent cut in his country's emissions by 2050; and perhaps most importantly, poorer countries with the confidence to bite the hands that partly feed them by demanding a further shift in their direction to achieve a fairer global deal, and prepared to walk from the negotiating table when it wasn't forthcoming.

The threat of climate change is the opportunity to utilise the growing necessity of climate justice to end global poverty. Creating a stable and prosperous world economy will not be easy - it will take much more than tinkering with the financial systems we make until they start up again. But the international dialogue in the past two weeks put the real issues out on the table, and it isn't really surprising the deal is still some way off.

A bright future for Falmouth Penryn

2009-12-16T22:46:00.005Z

Last week I attended the launch of Falmouth and Penryn's Community Plan. It's a fine example of what can be achieved when the community - individuals and organisations - sit down to talk about what their locality and people need. In this case, both the range of organisations working together to develop the plan, and the number of individuals who responded to the consultation, mean that decision makers can be confident the community is genuinely behind the plan.

Falmouth and Penryn have had their fair share of difficult issues and community divisions over parking, proposed housing developments on cherished green spaces, and adapting to the presence of the growing student population; so it's good to have a plan that has been generated by the community and is focused on future solutions. Cornwall Council chief executive Kevin Lavery spoke at the launch and gave the plan his backing, including the regeneration, dredging, and development of Falmouth docks.

The launch is well-timed because EU Convergence funding is still available for 'strategic investment frameworks' to help develop infrastructure and boost the economy. As two of the community plan's themes are 'transport and the community' and 'employment and prosperity' there is scope to bid for funds to start making some of the community's aspirations happen. The strategic investment framework by itself won't resolve the issue of funding to dredge the docks, but if it is successful it will help to put in place some of the sustainable transport links that are needed, as well as helping to create jobs in the digital, marine, and renewable sectors. That economic regeneration would be very much strengthened if the dredging and cruise liner terminal also go ahead.

These are developments that I'm also backing as a prospective MP because it is the future that many people say they want to see for the university, Penryn, and Falmouth.

This week, Falmouth is in the news for another reason. The proposed new terminal at Penzance for the Isles of Scilly ferry was refused planning permission on Monday. I feel sorry for the islanders because the ferry is their lifeline, and the links to and from Penzance are deeply rooted in the communities and economy at both ends of the sealink. The battle lines were drawn at an early stage when it proved impossible to get objectors and the planning portfolio holder in the same room to listen to each other - until the planning hearing. Rumours have now started up that Cornwall Council may look to Falmouth to provide the future ferry service. This is something that the company that owns Falmouth docks is exploring, and Cornwall Council has said it is now an 'option' they are considering. From what I'm hearing, people in Falmouth might accept this - and even welcome the boost to Falmouth's economy if that's the way it went - but the town would never set out to purposefully break the strong, long-standing links between Penzance and the Scillies.

Falmouth and Penryn have a bright future ahead.

Helping Cornwall's poorest children

2009-12-12T20:22:00.006Z

There are 4 Million children living in poverty in the UK today, including 1 in 4 of the children living in Cornwall. These figures are based on the number of children living in low income households.

The Child Poverty Bill - which is completing its journey through the House of Lords - will introduce a legally binding commitment to end child poverty by 2020. Amidst the major concerns about child protection and other issues in Cornwall, it is worth remembering that Cornwall Council has been awarded Beacon status for it's work in tackling child poverty.

Ending child poverty by 2020 will require well-considered, co-ordinated action by Government - to redress low incomes in families with children, to address fuel poverty (and in Cornwall, unaffordable water bills), and to ensure that statutory agencies and local government work together to address multiple deprivation which reduces children's opportunities. The minimum wage, tax credits, child benefit increases, Sure Start, and the extension of free school meals to more children are all steps in the right direction.

To end child poverty there needs to be well-considered action by local government too. Cornwall may be a Beacon authority for tackling child poverty, but the Council's less effective action in addressing unmet housing need, homelessness, non-decent homes, delayed housing benefit payments, poor rural transport, and limited access to services blight the lives of children too.

In this constituency, the new network of eleven children's centres in Falmouth, Penryn, Truro, and Perranporth - adjacent to primary schools or located in community centres - are home to better co-ordinated services for children, and provide conveniently located after school and play activities. All of these were built with Labour investment.

Locally, the new Cornwall Council is generating concern through rumours that it intends to close one in three primary schools, and by it's actions in relation to the Trevu children's centre; as well as because it is now subject to government intervention to sort out it's child protection arrangements.

Nationally, the last Tory governments up to 1997 allowed child poverty to double - I remember that one of their first actions after being elected in 1979 was to cancel any government action in response to the 'Black report', which had shown that poverty causes ill-health.

Here are some reactions from independent policy watchers to the emerging, current pre-election debate on ending child poverty:

‘We welcome the fact that Conservatives are taking seriously the scandal of four million children in poverty in the fourth richest country in the world. But their proposals miss the point that without real income redistribution to close the inequality gap we will never reach that goal.’ - Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group

'No credible commitment to end child poverty can ignore income levels. Social activism and entrepreneurship are important but no substitute for direct government intervention, such as tax credits, which raise family incomes.’ - Claire McCarthy, director of public affairs at 4Children.

‘Ending child poverty is proving one of the hardest challenges for Labour to tackle and more money is needed to target benefits and tax credits at the poorest children. It needs an active state which provides tailored support for families (for example through Sure Start, another key service which would be at risk under the Tories), rather than one which leaves them to the perils of the market. I don't believe Cameron can deliver on this pledge when he is committed to cutting taxes for millionaires. And his judgemental and spiteful tax breaks for married couples will not only damage gender equality, but will come at the expense of poor children in single parent families.’ - Kate Groucutt, chair of Young Fabians.

For my family, Labour's welfare state ended poverty in a single generation. A 'big society' without the backing of government resources would never have done that. It happened because of Labour's commitment in government to real change and social justice.

Fighters and believers

2009-12-11T23:09:00.000Z

Films seldom make me cry, but this video shown at Labour Party conference brought tears to my eyes. An elderly gentleman sitting near me in a wheelchair wiped a tear from his cheek. Young Labour supporter Ellie Gellard has also written about how it made her cry. The film was edited to become Labour's party political broadcast following the Queen's speech.

Politics is partly about debate, but there is nothing that anyone could ever say that would persuade me that it's purpose isn't to build social justice.

The Tories have no moral agenda, and the Liberal Democrats are prepared to back them. When I noted this previously, a local Liberal Democrat councillor suggested I read the Independent - well, I do, and the link I've added here is to their report. The logic of Clegg's morally vacuous argument is that if UKIP or the BNP ever got most votes (unlikely as that is given British common sense), the Liberal Democrats would be prepared to back them.

The Equality Bill had it's third reading in the Commons on 2 December 2009. The legal requirement for public authorities to close the gap between rich and poor, and increased protection against age discrimination outside the workplace, makes this more than consolidating legislation against inequality and discrimination; notwithstanding which, local disability and gay rights campaigners tell me they would like the Bill to go further in protection from harrassment.

After the Queen's speech, Cornwall's five MPs put out a press release saying it "contained none of the key measures necessary to help residents in Cornwall". Are they out of touch with the fact that Cornwall has an older and lower paid than average population, much affected by the gap between rich and poor? Everyone is entitled to protection from discrimination. In the event, three of Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs voted for the Equality Bill; and two didn't vote - including recent champion of a Cornish census tickbox, Dan Rogerson MP.

The political slogan 'action not words' was coined by suffragettes a century ago, when they were lobbying the three last Liberal governments to change the law so that women could vote. It took until 1918 - it may be a coincidence, but the Liberals haven't formed a government since women got the vote.

I'm Labour because we believe in and fight for change and social justice; and I personally will always do what I can to counter injustice and pull things forward.

Social care

2009-12-03T09:16:00.004Z

A national care service has the potential to make a huge difference for people needing care in Cornwall.

Today, the Care Quality Commission reported on Cornwall's adult social care, placing it in the bottom eight out of 148 local authorities. The care provided is 'adequate' - no authorities are providing 'poor' care - and this rating has not changed since last year's report.

Behind every official report like this there are people receiving less good care than each of us would wish for our loved ones. One of the issues highlighted is the lack of integration between Cornwall's NHS and social care services. There are some similarities here with the concerns about child protection, in that it relates to improving communication and response to care needs.

The Council committee responsible for scrutinising these services (the local NHS and adult social care) is the Committee whose chairman recently called an 'emergency' meeting to discuss the issue of upper GI services which has already been under discussion for over a year partly because the Council did not refer it for consultation when it was first raised.

The Council needs to grasp the nettle here and set in train improvements in Cornwall's adult social care, as they are already doing through the Government led improvement Board for children's services.

Their 4.5 per cent increase in funding for next year needs applied to our major services. Now is not the time to be looking to make cuts given the savings achieved as a result of the switch to a unitary authority.

Breaking the link

2009-11-29T15:21:00.002Z

I support a fully elected second chamber, and that is what I will vote for if I am elected as an MP. In a democratic and multi-faith society, where there is a political consensus that reducing appointed quangocracies is part of the modernising that British politics needs to do, it is important to break the link between all peerages and a seat in the UK's second chamber. This is possible within the White Paper published in July 2008 - legislating to implement this is long overdue.

The Queen's speech commitment is to introduce a draft Bill in this Parliament - that means it will not be enacted before the next election, which is why I say how I would vote as an MP. I once had a conversation about House of Lords reform with Cornwall's former Bishop Bill, who put the argument for a proportion of appointed peers, but he didn't persuade me; even though, as a member of the House of Lords elected through the Church of England, he was an instinctive democrat in the arguments he voiced on Cornwall's behalf.

Cornwall's democratic conundrum - you decide

2009-11-25T13:13:00.000Z

The move to a new unitary authority had some vocal critics. The Liberal Democrats tried to counter these partly by suggesting it might lead to devolution of more powers to Cornwall. I would welcome that.

Enter the new chief executive, Kevin Lavery, who in January this year warned members that the former Cornwall County Council was on the brink of Government intervention. Calls for the then Liberal Democrat leader to resign were faced down.

This is Cornwall's democratic conundrum - would our elected representatives rather make decisions locally, with the accountability that brings? Or carry on collecting their allowances, while blaming 'Whitehall bureaucrats' and the 'London Parties' for local service decisions it is within the Council's powers to make.

Take three issues:
(1) Waste management - there will now be a completely unecessary, costly public enquiry to inform a decision which will be made by the Secretary of State. This stems from the failure of the Liberal Democrats to develop and implement a locally workable approach when they were elected in 2005.
(2) Children's services - given the child protection concerns uncovered by Ofsted, I welcome the creation of the improvement Board overseen by Children's Minister Dawn Primarolo MP, but it should never have reached this point. The new Board was reported in a local newspaper on Thursday 12 November, and by the BBC twelve days later (yesterday). It is strange but true that a member of the children's scrutiny committee is now twittering in the blogosphere that nobody told him - he heard it first on BBC news this morning.
(3) Transfer of upper-GI cancer services to Derriford. Enter the not-so-independent Tory Chair of the Council's NHS and Adult Care scrutiny committee, who has called a special meeting and appears to be trying to steer the local service decision onto the Secretary of State.

People in Cornwall deserve better.

Stop Truro's clocks

2009-11-24T14:15:00.000Z

Truro's Logistics Corps staff sergeant Olaf Schmid was laid to rest here today with full military honours.

Truro stood still to mark the passing of an extraordinarily courageous person who described the purpose of his job defusing improvised explosive devices as saving lives and gathering forensic evidence to convict criminals.

Three months ago, after being contacted as a prospective MP, I signed up to support the Royal British Legion's 'do your bit' campaign. Yesterday I visited the Citizens Advice Bureau in Truro, where I learned amongst other things about the excellent work for ex-services personnel by the Royal British Legion's benefits and money advice service in Cornwall.

Today in Truro, Olaf Schmid's widow Christina called for more support for those serving in our armed forces - regardless of political views. As a politician, I heard loud and clear her challenge for those in Government to work hard for peace.

Who do you trust on Cornwall's economy?

2009-11-23T14:29:00.002Z

On Saturday, Truro was busy with shoppers. It reminded me that almost a year ago Woolworths closed - the shop now occupying the former Woolworths store in Truro seemed to be doing a brisk trade. However, in Falmouth the former Woolworths store has not yet re-let. The recession is affecting people, places, and businesses in different ways, even within Cornwall. Some places may turnaround more quickly than others, but the latest data suggests Labour's active measures to stop the economy nose-diving into depression are working, and that Labour's real help for people is making a difference.

The local evidence to support this?

1. The new constituency of Truro and Falmouth covers the former Carrick District Council area except for Mount Hawke ward. To enable comparisons over time, the Office of National Statistics still publishes some data for 'Carrick'. The latest unemployment data shows that in October 1,492 people locally were claiming Job Seekers Allowance. This is 2.7% of local people of working age, compared to 4.1% nationally. Three quarters of people who are known to be seeking work are claiming JSA. This is similar to numbers in January 2009 - the number of people out of work fell during the summer season. For every one of the people seeking work, it's an exceptionally difficult time. Despite the recession, long-term unemployment (more than 12 months) is around one quarter what it was in October 1996 before Labour defeated the last Tory government.

It is Labour's investment in Falmouth and Truro which has helped to make that difference. That investment needs to continue through convergence and other funding to maximise new jobs in renewable, digital, and creative industries.

2. Housing. For those waiting for social housing in Cornwall - 3,400 households in Truro and Falmouth - much hangs on the success of Cornwall's bid for new council housing, and other positive future action by the Council. Tucked away at the end of this newspaper article is the news that - thanks to Government action to keep people in their own homes during the recession - the repossessions forecast for this year is now 48,000 rather than 75,000 - and that at 1990s repossession rates, that would have been 91,000. I hope the Treasury will invest more in new council housing as Housing Minister John Healey MP is asking - construction also helps to keep people working. The repossession numbers show how important it is that people facing mortgage difficulties and the frightening prospect of being made homeless find out what help is available - you may be able to keep your home.

Most people will welcome the new legislation to stop fat cat bonuses and ensure that the mistakes and excessive risk-taking of the financial sector are not repeated. Many people would also accept or welcome a new tax on financial transactions such as buying and selling shares - sometimes called the 'Tobin tax'.

There is a need to pay down debt, and Labour's commitment to halve the UK's deficit during the next four years demonstrates seriousness of purpose. I am not going to second guess what will be in the coming pre-budget report. What I want to see for people in Cornwall is continuing investment in jobs and homes, and protection for the lower paid and those like pensioners who are on fixed incomes.

A burning issue

2009-11-22T14:08:00.004Z

Cornwall's waste management should never have reached this point.

Cornwall Council is in what can only be described as a lose-lose situation in relation to proposals for a centralised incinerator. A public enquiry, and ultimately the Secretary of State, will now adjudicate between it's former planning and waste decisions (which, coincidentally, have been brought together in a single department at the new unitary authority).

Let's start at the beginning. There has already been a public enquiry into a proposed incinerator for Cornwall's waste. It recommended that the previous proposals for an incinerator did not go ahead, and also that Cornwall should develop an integrated municipal waste strategy. Cornwall's seven former Councils failed to do that, instead pursuing six different District approaches to recycling and waste collections, while the County Council continued to rely on landfill for its waste disposal.

French social historians like to write about what they call the 'longue duree' in history - focusing on long-term continuities rather than the dramatic short-term events of politics and wars which they term 'eventual history'.

There are those who would say that the 'longue duree' of Cornwall's waste management are the officers at County Hall. Following the previous public enquiry, proposals for an incinerator resurfaced in the run up to the 2005 local elections. The then NOC Cabinet approved issuing tender documents for a 30 year waste management contract which included incineration. They did so without the support of Labour Councillor Jill Ferrett, who was a member of that Cabinet. During the 2005 local elections, Labour ran a petition calling for genuine, open consultation on Cornwall's waste management plans.

There was a golden opportunity when Liberal Democrats formed the next Council, with a promise of a more consultative style, to reconsider the agreement by the previous NOC Council before issuing the waste management contract. In 2005, the Liberal Democrats five recently elected MPs issued a press statement opposing plans for an incinerator. All Labour county councillors voted against the proposed incinerator. Against vigorous public opposition, the Liberal Democrat led Council ploughed on and awarded SITA the contract. Negotiations on detailed terms included a contractual obligation to a centralised incinerator that had no planning permission; that permission was then refused by Cornwall County Council in the run up to the 2009 local elections.

The golden legacy left by the Liberal Democrats for the new unitary authority's waste management is dead cert landfill tax and legal bills, with the Council liable both through it's contractual obligations to SITA, and for the costs of defending it's planning decisions. It has been reported that to break the contract would cost the Council £30 million.

As a Truro councillor, I'm aware that the community dividend from landfill tax helps to support some very worthwhile local projects, including contributing towards the Hendra skatepark and Trelander community centre. But a relatively small proportion of the total landfill tax bill returns directly to the community.

At both stages of the planning consultation, Truro and Falmouth Labour Party made representations against the single, centralised incinerator in favour or more localised waste facilities. There is no household amenity site in Truro, although planning permission was granted this year for a new site near Falmouth. I also spoke for Transition Truro against the incinerator at a public consultation meeting in St Dennis which formed part of the planning process.

Despite public debate of this issue for over five years, and a new unitary authority, the facts of Cornwall's current waste management aren't easy to assemble. SITA says fairly that it has increased the proportion of household waste that is recycled - but all that this means is that more of the waste taken to its household amenity sites is reclaimed and recycled. All of the black bags collected every week go to landfill, they are not included in the figures showing increased recycling. Meanwhile, the former district Council in this constituency area reported that four out of ten households make no use of kerbside recycling collections - that's a lot of unused bumper boxes and recycling bags, and many more weekly black bags of recyclable items being ploughed into landfill.

Cornwall Council is now NOC with a Tory-dominated executive. The new Council badly needs to bring it's thinking on waste management up to date. There's an opportunity to move to an integrated municipal waste strategy - with unified recycling services - with a single new unitary authority replacing seven former councils. From April 2010, the Council has new legal obligations to reduce carbon emissions in it's activities; is a centralised incinerator generating 120 mile round road trips going to help do that? Landfill also produces greenhouse gas emissions.

Whatever the 'eventual history', Cornwall needs a new, fit for purpose waste management strategy that will make a positive contribution to meeting carbon reduction targets and generating renewable energy in the 21st century.

Digital Cornwall, digital economy

2009-11-21T20:47:00.000Z

Most important of all for Cornwall's digital economy is keeping our infrastructure up to speed with latest developments. Act Now - which was supported by EU Objective One funding - provided almost universal geographical access to broadband in Cornwall, and helped many businesses understand and access the commercial potential of the internet. The legacy of this funding is optimism and confidence among Cornwall's business community - and has helped provide increased resilience through the recession.

As the only UK region to receive EU convergence funding, Cornwall has an opportunity to step ahead of the game with next generation broadband access, and Digital Cornwall is the project that is leading the search for investors to unleash that potential. In Cornwall, and for everyone who wants the UK to accelerate our exit from recession, the Tory shadow spokesperson for the digital industry sounds quaintly twentieth century in his 'urban first' perspective on priorities for investment in next generation infrastructure. Hopefully, commercial investors have more vision.

Cornwall's University - built with Labour's investment - has raised awareness that digital industries across the spectrum from electronics to film and other creative industries have a vigorous contribution to make to Cornwall's new economy. Locally, premises for digital industries relying on next generation infrastructure are already being built into strategic investment frameworks and other plans. This vision is now part of everyday dialogue about planning our economic future in local organisations such as Falmouth Town Forum.

The digital economy Bill included in the Queen's speech will shape the way in which digital industries and communication will be regulated, and covers issues such as protecting copyright on the internet, digital radio, and ensuring the future of regional news. It will provide for regional news consortia to be established and guarantee a plurality of news providers.

In Cornwall, the long-anticipated switchover to digital TV has now been completed. However, ITV's decision to close it's Plymouth studio reduced local TV news coverage in Cornwall. So I welcome steps to provide a new framework within which a plurality of local news providers can flourish, and I hope we will see independent TV / digital channel news in Cornwall.

Cornwall has vibrant local newspapers and other media, which are trusted news sources off and online. We are fortunate too that the University teaches professional broadcasting and journalism. Community radio stations in Cornwall are already taking advantage of the opportunity to broadcast on the internet.

A growing number of elected representatives, candidates, and other opinionated individuals express their views through websites, blogs, and social media. As a politician, I welcome and utilise these relatively openly accessible media. If other candidates agree, the first parliamentary candidate hustings on Twitter will take place in Truro and Falmouth. Another first for Cornwall.

Free personal care at home

2009-11-20T15:36:00.002Z

No-one who listens to older people in Cornwall can be unaware that many fear needing everyday care, and worry about what this might mean for them and their families. People fear major illness, but the NHS means that in the UK this fear is not about how to pay for care that is needed. In contrast, at the moment, personal savings and - for the three out of four people who are home-owners - the value of a person's home are drawn into the calculation of how individual social care is funded.

Labour's personal care at home bill will enable adults with high levels of assessed care needs, who want to continue living in their own homes with the support they need, to do so free of charge. It is a first step towards creating a national care service like the NHS - free at the point of need, and free of worry about how care that is needed is going to be paid for.

In Cornwall, more than half the population are over the age of 55. There are many people who need care and support to continue living in their own homes. Dementia affects a growing number of people, with almost 8,000 people with Alzheimer's living in Cornwall. I recently attended a carers' meeting to learn more about dementia, local care services and support, and the impact that dementia has on sufferers, carers, and their families.

We are fortunate to have vocal and determined local groups advocating a better deal for people with disabilities. While creating a national care service is applauded as the right principle, people want to know 'what's this going to mean for me?', and - if they already receive care and support - 'will this be better or worse for me than current arrangements?' Both the Disabilities Living Allowance and the Attendance Allowance give people living at home and in need of care freedom to create care arrangements which suit their personal circumstances - and free to decide whether and when everyday care is provided by family, friends, and professionals. It is that freedom of individual choice that advocates hope to see continue in the new system. Following discussion with local campaigners, I've already written on their behalf to Secretary of State Andy Burnham MP.

This morning, I was interviewed by a local community radio station about the changes announced in the Queen's speech.

Given the number of local people this issue affects, the Liberal Democrats showed how seriously out of touch they really are by suggesting the Queen's speech "contained none of the key measures necessary to help residents in Cornwall". A Party that has previously called for free care for the elderly, in an area where a majority of electors are over 55, made no mention of Labour's plans for free personal care at home. Perhaps that's because they've abandoned their own previous manifesto pledge to free personal care for the elderly.

The Tories have been equally political and opportunist, scare-mongering that future arrangements would not provide the same level of support for people who currently receive DLA and Attendance Allowance - in fact, Government Ministers have already provided an assurance that they will. So far, the only Tory promise is that they will make people pay £8000 for needed care - that's £16,000 for a couple; and force people off incapacity benefit, many of whom have mental health difficulties.

Queen's speech

2009-11-18T12:10:00.005Z

In seven minutes the Queen's speech was strong on substantial measures, and short on detail. Some I particularly welcome, not least because people I speak to on a daily basis are calling for changes or will benefit:

1. Stronger financial regulation and control of bonuses.
2. Halving the deficit over the four years of the next Parliament, making this a legally binding target.
3. Improving social care and free access to care.
4. Communications - implementation of the Digital Britain report, and strategic investment in next generation broadband.
5. International co-operation through Copenhagen to tackle climate change.
6. Global justice - investment 0.7% GDP in international development, supporting middle east peace process, furthering progress on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
7. Ending child poverty.
8. Equality Act.
9. Elected second chamber.
10. Education and families.

In future posts, I will look in turn at some of the proposed legislation, and what it will mean for people in Truro and Falmouth.

Housing - here's some I made earlier

2009-11-14T15:06:00.003Z

As a councillor, as well as prospective MP, I advocate meeting the need for affordable local homes. And I have been calling on our local Councils to work together - and with Labour in government - to that end.

There is a growing need for social housing, with the Cornwall Council website saying 3,400 households are registered as in local housing need in this constituency. I want every one of those families and individuals to find homes which meet their housing needs sooner rather than later.

The Liberal Democrats practical track record on this issue in Cornwall is utterly abyssmal. To be fair, let me acknowledge two things first. Matthew Taylor MP's report for the Labour government includes some sensible proposals which have support in the housing sector - I hope these will be implemented. And it was the Liberal Democrat led former district council which decided to set up Carrick Housing Ltd, which is now an award winning registered social landlord. This had two direct results: it made the management of Carrick housing independent of Council decision-making, while allowing the Council to retain public ownership of the properties as assets.

Carrick Housing Ltd successfully accessed Labour government investment to improve homes whose maintenance had been neglected since the Tories sought to abandon public responsibility for social housing and homelessness. New rooves, cladding, central heating, kitchens, and bathrooms were installed as needed in most Carrick Housing properties. At the same time, with a vocal tenants forum able to have a formative influence on Carrick Housing's decision making, they have been positive partners in the development of new community centres and other projects to improve previously neglected local neighbourhoods, including effective action to tackle anti-social behaviour. And it was Carrick Housing which first made Cornwall eligible to build new council housing.

There is a catalogue of reasons why I say the Liberal Democrats record is abyssmal. Here are just four examples:

(1) When considering the latest draft local action plan for Truro and Threemilestone, I proposed Truro City Council advocate more than one in three homes be affordable. With one abstention, Liberal Democrats voted against more affordable homes when the Council agreed by a majority vote to include a 50 per cent target for affordable housing in new developments.

(2) When the Liberal Democrats led Carrick District Council, they sold some council-owned land which had been set aside for housing, next to the Malpas Road estate in Truro. They then allowed the private housing developer who had purchased the site to buy their way out of the usual requirement to include one in three affordable homes in a new development of more than 45 properties. So the Liberal Democrats waved goodbye to even 15 new affordable homes within walking distance of Truro centre, on a site that had originally been bought with public money to meet council housing need. And then, to make their intentions even more woolly, the Liberal Democrat MPs and prospective candidate for the Carrick area had themselves photographed at the gates of the construction site, and included it in their leaflets alongside calls for more affordable homes.

(3) When the Liberal Democrats led Cornwall County Council, the new Richard Lander School was built. Draft local plans identified the former school as a new housing site, the only substantial proposed housing development which has support of a majority of residents in the ward where I'm a councillor. Instead of making its land available for new social housing, the Council decided to market it to the highest bidder. The prospective purchaser then pulled out. One of the last acts of the outgoing Liberal Democrat led Council was to apply for planning permission to continue to use the old school site as business premises for up to three years - clearly they were not in a hurry to build new affordable homes.

(4) Neither Liberal Democrat MP will be a candidate in this constituency at the next general election. While both chose to make affordable housing an issue at the 2005 general election, neither then publicly challenged the failure of Councils led by their Party to maximise the practical delivery of more affordable local homes. Julia Goldsworthy MP's wobbling and contradictory statements in different forums on proposed housing developments in Cornwall makes jelly look like a solid and stable material - and I have not heard her say anything at all about locally controversial specific proposals such as new student flats in Penryn.

Apparently cast in the same woolly mould, a recent leaflet from the Liberal Democrat prospective candidate here, headed 'The facts' suggests 3,000 - not 3,400 - families are registered in local housing need; and blames 'Margaret Thatcher's right to buy policy' for local housing shortages - when in fact the increase in house prices means Carrick Housing say they are not losing any local housing stock to tenants' right to buy. Out of date, and no comment on the more recent dire failure of elected Liberal Democrats at every level to deliver more local homes - it seems it is easier to blame a Tory prime minister who was elected 30 long years ago partly on a popular platform of extending housing opportunity.

When the new Cornwall Council cabinet was announced in June, I immediately contacted Independent councillor Mark Kaczmarek, who is the housing portfolio holder, and asked for a meeting. I urged him to do two things in his new role - for the new Council to take up opportunities to bid for housing investment from Labour in government, including building new council housing, and to make some of the land owned by Cornwall Council available for housing development while retaining ownership of the land, because this makes it possible to deliver more lower-cost housing.

At the same time I made this campaign video about Cornwall's housing needs, calling for more action by the Council:

The Council didn't bid in June - it wasn't something the Liberal Democrats put in hand before the voters chucked them out - but the new Council has now agreed two things: to build new council homes, with Truro (Tresillian) and Falmouth included in the first three sites. And to bid for funding to build up to 900 homes on Council-owned sites, including 265 homes for older people and those with disabilities. The locations have not yet been announced.

Cornwall Council is still going to be a long, long way away from meeting local housing need if these proposals come to fruition - over 19,000 households are in housing need. Politics won't stop me welcoming the prospect of more affordable local homes if the new Council's bids are successful - they will after all be built thanks to Labour investment. And I will be watching closely at every stage to maximise new homes for families in this constituency, which has one of the highest levels of housing need in Cornwall.

Hitch your wagon to a star

2009-11-04T21:13:00.005Z

Those seeking to hitch the electoral reform cart to the runaway horse that is the public response to MPs' expenses revelations misread - or wilfully misinterpret - the change that people want to see. Their opportunistic efforts to shift the focus of political renewal onto tinkering with the voting system will not succeed.

The Kelly report recommendations published today come closer to downsizing greed and exploitation by a minority of MPs, in a way that redresses the public outrage at what has been revealed; although many will question the proposal that mortgage payments should continue for up to five years for existing MPs who are re-elected. As a prospective MP, I welcome the proposed shift to rented accommodation in London rather than second homes. And I support moves to prevent MPs employing family members.

Political renewal in the UK is partly about ensuring public service is free of self-serving interests. It is also about delivering the new constitutional settlement that Gordon Brown promised as he became Prime Minister.

That is about whether legislation will be completed in this Parliament for the long overdue, fully elected second chamber. It is about creating a democracy in which citizens engage willingly and actively because they have a formative influence locally as well as nationally. And it is about Parliament carrying forward the call of the UK Youth Parliament for lowering the voting age to sixteen to be debated and decided.

Voters dismayed by some MPs abuse of the expenses system are not calling for changes to the electoral system; they just want to end the self-seeking, extravagance, and waste. They want representatives who understand that for most people everyday life is about working hard to afford one home for their families, and at a time when unemployment is rising. That means strengthening, not diluting, the link between voters, local communities, and the individual elected representative or representatives.

Political Parties that want to take a first step in that direction by holding open primaries can do so without changing the law.

We need to keep talking about homes, jobs, cost of living, schools, hospitals, better transport, and safer communities. Not cynical, tactical or 'strategic' voting, and proportional representation.

House rules

2009-11-02T22:05:00.000Z

Comments are on. I welcome interaction - particularly with and between readers in Cornwall - and I won't stifle debate.

Reluctantly, moderation is on too. Don't expect an instant response, but I will publish most comments the same day. I won't publish anything I find offensive.

Mostly I find that people using social media respect everyday conversational rules. If anyone doesn't, I'll encourage them to move on.

First post

2009-11-01T22:16:00.006Z

I've decided to start a new blog. This is it. It's a place for me to express my personal opinions. For which, I willingly accept, the responsibility is all mine. Some of the posts here may be published into other forums too.