My Speech To Norfolk County Council - 10th December 2018

My speech at Norfolk County Council today during a debate about whether or not the Council should lobby the Government to stop further cuts to local Council funding.

Chairman, I welcome the intentions of this motion and its attempt to stem the cuts to Council funding through a relaxation of removal of the rate support grant.

During the recent children’s centre consultation, I had time and reason to reflect on what my own community in Thetford had lost of the years.

When I was growing up in Thetford, we had a County run youth centre in the town with employed, professional youth workers. All of course now gone. When I was a student, there was a Connexions service offering careers advice, also now gone. When I started work as a Community Development Worker in the town, we had a publicly accessible police station and I worked closely with Police Community Support Officers and we held multi-agency meetings to work towards reducing crime and anti-social behaviour. Now, our police station is not publicly accessible and there are no PCSOs – all 275 were made redundant in Norfolk and we have 177 fewer Police Officers. We had a vibrant adult education service, but the Adul Ed centre at Tanner Street in Thetford was closed and later sold to a private developer. My old pre-school Nursery at Elm Road was turned into a social services base and pupil referral unit – but that too was closed and has sat derelict for many years. More recently, whilst I’ve been a County Councillor, it was the Priorsmead Care Home, built when the estate was built in the 60’s, but closed and the building sold. Not because the demand for care had reduced of course, but budgetary constraints.

When I first started attending my local residents association – there would be a good group of residents, working alongside the Police, the local Housing Association and an officer from the District Council. None now attend – their roles deleted or such worked blocked through time pressures. As a local Councillor I’m pretty much the only person there able to answer any questions so do my best. If only my UKIP District Council colleague for the ward would attend maybe we could share the work, but that’s not to be either.

More recently of course its our children’s centres that are threatened. We’re now looking at taking services away from the very youngest in my community. My District of Breckland is already ranked 300th out of 324 local authorities for poor levels of social mobility. With even fewer support services, one might think Norfolk is aspiring to reach first place.

Recently, whilst delivering leaflets for the children’s centre consultation, I came across a guy with clear mental health issues – with our mental health trust rated inadequate yet again, I made the necessary referral knowing full well it’s unlikely he’ll get the support he needs.

And lastly, Council Tax – one might think that with so fewer services we can all rejoice that we’re paying less at least. A Band D in Thetford has seen a 25% increase in Council Tax over the past 10 years. Our Town Council’s share has increased by 71%! I doubt local people’s wages have increased to such an extent over the same period so people’s ability to pay will have inevitably been compromised, not least because not even the poorest in our communities are exempt from paying all of their Council Tax. Don’t get me started on cuts to welfare, universal credit and support for the disabled through services such as motability and what is going on with our health service.

This motion talks about a cliff-edge being presented in years to come, I would argue that in many areas, and for many services, we’re already there. For many, we Councillors are the front line. I see the end result of such cuts on a daily basis. I see the cumulative impact upon them and the erosion of the very structures that bind our communities together. If we don’t stand up for our residents here in Norfolk, who will?

I want this motion to be as effective as possible, I want it to have the greatest impact possible. I don’t entirely disagree with what is there now, but it could be so much stronger. I ask our Conservative colleagues to go further and to fight with more determination than has been evident thus far.

Councillor Allowances - 2018

In December 2017, there was much outrage in Norfolk as Conservative members of Norfolk County Council voted to increase their own allowances by 10.5% against the recommendation of the independent renumeration panel. The panel exists purely to review Councillor allowances and after reviewing the situation, they recommended no increase, a recommendation which was ignored.

As if that actual increase wasn't controversial enough, the increase was backdated some 7 months so all Councillors received two pay packets in January 2018 - one with their normal monthly payment and the second with the backdated amount - near £700 alone for most of the 84 Councillors - those with special responsibilities received more. In total, the decision cost Norfolk taxpayers an additional £140,000 - and of course there would be additional costs year after year.

Like all Norfolk Labour Councillors, I voted against the increase. Sure the extra money would be great, but at a time when the Council is cutting services for some of the most vulnerable in our communities I couldn't vote for such an increase - it felt wrong.

It also felt wrong for us to be voting for our own pay packet and if we had to do this, surely we'd just note and accept the views of the panel? if you don't, you might as well scrap the panel?!

Labour Councillors vowed to not benefit personally from the decision but instead, we would make the money available for our communities. In Thetford I specifically wanted to use the money to help organisations and people that have been impacted by austerity. Through 2018, I have received an extra £1,498.90 (after tax). I've just made my final allocation of funds for 2018 and every penny has been allocated to local good causes.

Here's what I spent the money on this year:

Citizens Advice Bureau - I gave the full backdated amount of £685.01 to the local CAB way back in January 2018. With Gift Aid they will be able to claim an additional £171.25. The CAB have seen significant increases in demand thanks to Council cuts and welfare changes but many forget the CAB is a charity in its own right and very poorly funded.

In February I used £35 to purchase gift vouchers for Bishops School on the Abbey Estate to run a colouring competition with the school children.They helped design new speed awareness signs erected on the Estate to try and slow down cars passing the school gates. My separate NCC Councillor budget for highways was used to purchase and erect the new signs.

In March I used £25 to support the new Norwich Mustard campaign following news that Colmans Mustard may be leaving the county and Norwich Mustard crowdfunding to get a new community initiative off the ground.

In June I used £95 to support a vulnerable resident on St John's Way impacted by the bedroom tax and forced to leave her family home. Myself and other Councillors and members of the community decorated her new home with the money being used for paint and other essentials. Thetford Carpet Warehouse helped provide discounted new carpet for the property. Volunteers assisted with moving furniture etc. I separately lobbied Flagship Housing on behalf of the resident and secured a meeting with a member of the senior management team to highlight their failings as an organisation and suggest ways to improve in the future.

Also in June there was a donation of £50 to Leaping Hare who provide community and tourist information services locally but yet receive no regular core funding.

In July there was £20 donated to Thetford Foodbank to help prepare for an expected increase in demand linked to Universal Credit.

£36.25 was donated to Charles Burrell Centre in September.

In December I donated £161.03 worth of items to the Thetford Evening and Night Shelter project led by the Salvation Army and other local Churches. The shelter was set up to provide somewhere for homeless people to stay over the Christmas period. Item donated included; Toiletries, cooking equipment and clothing.

In December I purchased £136 worth of items to be used as raffle prizes for local charitable events, so that groups can use the items to earn more money for themselves. The first prizes will be used on New Year's Eve to raise money for the Charles Burrell Centre.

£179 has been allocated to fund publicity materials to help combat fly-tipping in Thetford - this is a major concern for local residents - not helped by Conservative Councillors at Norfolk implementing new charges for DIY waste without any publicity about what the new charges are etc. Our Thetford campaign will seek to address this in the new year.

Lastly, £76.61 to Croxton Road Community Association - they've been fundraising for some time to build a new play-park on the Ladies Estate at Harriet Martineau Close and it is hoped at some point in 2019 the go ahead will be given to start building.

Total: £1,498.00 (not including gift aid + amounts raised through facilitated fundraising)

Children's Centre Debate At TTC 30.10.18

There was a really good debate at Thetford Town Council meeting last night about the possible closure of Children's Centres. I'm so pleased that the Town Council unanimously agreed to my proposal that we (the Council) would write to Norfolk County Council formally objecting to the closure. Several Councillors made some really good contributions about why children's centres should not be closed. The Town Council agreed they would also be doing more to promote the consultation locally. Here's my notes that I read out at the meeting;

1. Thetford was not afforded a specific consultation session, and when one was organised, it was not widely promoted by Norfolk County Council. This is very disappointing. Further, Councillors have not been provided with hard copies of the consultation form until well into the consultation period.

2. Staff at Thetford, with significant experience and expertise, were not consulted or made aware in advance of public notice about these proposals. The staff, who know far more than any Councillor, should be respected and listened to, to a much greater extent, and their views used to shape alternative proposals.

3. The consultation itself is unclear and confusing. Online primarily with ambiguous and misleading questions.

4. The current delivery model is working. Children's centres are working! Norfolk County Council’s own statistics show that the centre’s are reaching 75% or more of their target audience. How many Council services can claim such a success rate? The narrative surrounding the proposals is not sufficiently respectful of the good work that's being undertaken and implies the service is not working - which is not the case.

5. Thetford is an area of entrenched deprivation. Within top 10% in the UK. Significant demand locally for services provided by children’s centres.

6. Crucial to a child’s development that support is available from a young age. Without such support, development may be compromised and much more difficult, and costly, to rectify in later years. We have issues with poor educational attainment locally already which will be exacerbated if children's centres close. Thetford Academy obtained some of the worst GCSE results in Norfolk this year (believed to be second worst in County).

7. NCC proposal relies on other buildings being available for activities when children's centres close – but there has been no review in Thetford of availability and suitability of such venues. Local knowledge would suggest there are few buildings available (that's why children's centres were created, the one at Kingsway purpose built for its use).

8. Proposals do not take into account rurality and a lack of public transport. Thetford is a market town.

9. Social mobility is a major issue in Breckland, of the 324 local authorities in England, Breckland is ranked at 300 in terms of poor social mobility. That’s a worse position that Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn.

10. The new proposal has not been properly quantified – how many sessions will be delivered? And where? No evaluation of time travelling to venues, taking equipment etc. cost of hiring other buildings.

11. Let’s face it – we’ve already lost so much in Thetford. Youth Service - gone. Youth Centre on Croxton Road - gone. Connexions - gone. Adult Education base at Tanner House - gone. Elm Road pupil referral unit and social services base - gone. Teaching Assistants in Schools - reduced significantly. Schools in Thetford alone have lost £817,647 – between 2015-2020. Where does it end? Council now wanting to reduce services for babies. Enough is enough.