The council initiated an inquiry into the mishandling of many aspects of the recent elections.
The investigators report found problems with printer selection, their ability to carry out their duties, and general oversight shortcomings.
You can see the report online here: http://bit.ly/mWbC5y
This, from the Vale officers (I’ve snipped out bits to make it shorter, without sacrificing meaning):
…We will suspend collections for two weeks over Christmas, […] to enable us to collect the extra household waste produced at this time of the year. [We will also] collect extra garden waste during a week in spring, which we will publicise nearer the time.
[…] for new customers we will only accept direct debit payments […] We are planning to include a letter with future invoices to advise existing customers that we will be moving to direct debit payments only for our garden waste service before their service is next renewed. We hope this will encourage some customers to switch now but gives all customers up to 12 months notice of this change.
For more information on the terms and conditions, please visit the council’s website at www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk.
For questions related to the garden waste service, please contact Ian Matten on (01235) 547640 or waste.team@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
So, garden waste (brown bin) pick-up will be skipped in December, and we’ll have an extra pick-up in spring, with the details to be announced nearer the time.
But it won’t be announced in Unvaled, because the Vale cabinet are discontinuing it.
When I hear details, I’ll post them here.
My colleague Councillor Angela Lawrence, today wrote on her blog:
COUNCILLORS will push ahead with free parking in Abingdon and Wantage despite warnings it is unaffordable.
The Conservatives promised free short-stay parking in council car parks by Christmas after taking control of Vale of White Horse District Council in May.
To read the whole post, see her blog: Councillor Angela Lawrence’s blog
Vale officers warned the cabinet on 8 July 2011 that spending cuts will be needed elsewhere to make up for lost income, forecast to be £250,000 a year.
In the Herald coverage, Council leader Matthew Barber said the council was committed to the scheme and the expense was something he had planned for. He said the council was likely to use the home bonus cash and make some (unspecified) long-term savings. What he didn’t mention was all the parking fees are going up top help cover this cost! When you pay for parking, you;ll now pay more.
Richard Webber, the leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group, said the free parking promise was “electoral bribery”. He said: “It’s a promise they frankly should not have made. I’m really anxious about what’s going to have to go to pay for it.”
The previous, Lib Dem led council, had already given 2 hrs free parking (after 4pm is free instead of after 6pm). Under the new plans, those hours will not be exempt.
The Abingdon Herald ran some polls (as they do).
“Should the Conservative-controlled Vale council push ahead with plans for free parking despite the view of its chief finance officer?”
20% Yes, 80% No
They took it down before I could get a picture of it.
The second question was: “Do you believe providing free parking will increase business for traders in our towns?”
We’ve found a venue for our first Get it Sorted session.
Tuesday 13th September 2011, 6-7pm, upstairs at Seacourt Hall.
Come talk to Janet Godden, Oxfordshire District Councillor,
or me,
please.
Related Reading: Get it Sorted Sessions
I had an email from Unite the Union today, who are promoting a No vote on the Tories proposed NHS changes.
Here’s the text of their email:
Tomorrow is the 63rd birthday of the NHS – but it’s fighting for its life.
Despite the sham “listening exercise” and resulting cosmetic changes to the NHS Bill, the government’s privatisation plans are still on track. It’s up to us to stop them.
Without any action, Cameron’s “birthday present” to the NHS will be one that keeps on giving: cuts totalling more than £20bn in the next four years. Already this has meant 50,000 job losses, reduced clinical services and rising waiting times.
You can stop this happening. Please take just a couple of minutes now to send your MP an e-card and save our public health service.
http://nhs.unitetheunion.org/nhs-birthday
Before the election, David Cameron promised that the NHS would be safe in his hands. It’s clear now that’s not true – and it’s down to us to protect it.
Please, send your e-card now: let’s make sure this birthday is not the NHS’s last.
I clicked the link to send an email my MP, Nicola Blackwood, to ask her to vote No. She’s a Tory, and I didn’t vote for her, but she’s my MP and should be representing me. Right? I rather expect her to support her party, not necessarily her constituents. Still, it’s democracy in action, right?
In preparation for considering the short term free parking in Abingdon car parks this week (on the 8th of July 2011), the Vale of White Horse officers have published a helpful report.
In summary:
In my view, adopting the free parking scheme is a wrong action to take, given the following:
And finally, this free parking scheme benefits a small sub-group of the Vale population: those who drive their cars into Abingdon during daytime hours. For those of us who don’t do that, it provides no benefit, and LOTS of costs, which will have to be made-up somehow, presumably in cuts to services.
I SAY NO!!
If you agree with me, write to the cabinet members today.
You can see the summer 2011 edition of Unvaled here.
The Tory-led Vale council doesn’t seem to be committed to communications with residents: they are considering discontinuing this community newsletter.
The new council is also looking at the future of Unvaled, and
whether it should continue to produce a magazine for
residents. Please let us know what you think by emailing
haveyoursay@southandvale.gov.uk or call 01235 547614
If you like reading Unvaled, and like hearing how the Vale is putting your money to work, send them your views by email (or phone, but I’m suspicious of anything that doesn’t have an electronic records these days.)
County Councillor Janet Godden and I are collaborating to bring a Get It Sorted session to a location near you. We’ll have a session every other month, and hold it at a different venue each time, so that everyone will have a session near where you live. I hope you’ll come along and meet us!
No matter your local government-related question, you’re likely to find the answer at a Get It Sorted session. District concerns are things like planning applications, rubbish and recycling, housing. County concerns include road repair, education and social care.
The first Get It Sorted session will be Tuesday, 13 Sept 2011, from 6-7pm. We don’t have a location determined yet (today is 30 Jun 2011) — but as soon as it’s firmed up, I’ll post an update here.
I hope you’ll come along so we can meet IRL (in real life). I’d like to hear what you think.
I’m in earnest discussion with some of the Vale Councillors as to the value of having a blog site. They wonder, if I have no real idea whether people come to read what I have to say, is it worth the time spent?
I usually work a strategy based on first deciding the overall thing I’m trying to achieve, or the longer-term goal. In this context, by ‘longer-term’ I mean 3-4 years or so. Medium term would be over a year. And Everything less would be ‘short-term’.
In this case, unashamedly, one of my longer terms goals is to get re-elected. In order to get re-elected, I think it’s important to keep in touch with the people who will vote for me. Newsletters, flyers, knocking on doors, Twitter, and blogging are all good ways to do that. I want to find a way to keep in touch with people who are online, which I think hasn’t been done very well (or at all) in the past. So, that’s why I have a blog.
Please let me know what sort of communications you value, and what types of things you want to hear about. If I don’t hear from you about what you want, then I can just keep on writing about the things I want. 🙂
The graphic here is called a Wordle. This one happens to be Obama’s inauguration speech. You can make one of any written doc, through the Wordle website.
At the North Hinksey Parish Council meeting in May 2011, Cllr Ag McKeith relayed a question from one of our residents, who sought reassurance that the recycling effort was still working, even with the sound of breaking glass she heard as the men picked up the bins near her home.
I spoke with Clare Kingston, the Office in charge of recycling for the Vale, plus did a bit of my own sleuthing, and learned a few valuable things:
Blue Peter, ever the champion of explaining how things work, joined a recycling collection in the midlands, which works much like ours. Watch and see the recycling at Greenstar’s super MRF (Materials Reclamation Facility) at Aldridge, near Birmingham, which is where the Vale’s residential collectibles for recycling end up: http://www.biffa.co.uk/about-biffa/media-centre/videos.html
On the video, you’ll see that a load of mixed recycling (plastic, glass, paper, cardboard, metal all together) is dumped into a giant feeder bin that’s processed by high tech machines and computers, helped by people who make sure things go where they should. For example, as the mixed material passes through on a conveyor belt, people first pick out the light-weight plastic (shopping bags, loo roll or bread wrappers, cling film, etc) and toss them up a giant hoover to be gathered and re-used. Giant cogs shake up the materials to extract the cardboard. The glass breaker machine yields small pieces of glass and sends it to manufacturers of glass products. A magnet-based machine separates steel from aluminium.
Once I saw this video, I understood why crisps and sweets wrappers can’t be recycled: they’re bonded metal and plastic that can’t be separated. It’s the same for the blister packs that tablets come in. And it’s thoughtful to make sure your recycling is clean.
Sometimes we might find aspects of the rubbish and recycling collection annoying. But if we keep in mind how each household’s efforts contribute to the overall success, then it’s a good trade-off. Every time we fill a green bin and set it out for collection, we save taxpayer money, natural resources, and precious landfill space.
What you can recycle: http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/services-and-advice/recycling-rubbish-and-waste/household-collections/recycling/what-can-i-recycle