Breckland Budget Setting Meeting - 25.02.16

Busy week for Council meetings! Today was Breckland Council budget setting and Council Tax meeting. Here's the key points raised by myself and fellow Labour Councillor Harry Clarke.

Breckland Council Budget – 25.02.16

Firstly, I feel Breckland has been quite risky but also quite fortunate in relation to Council Tax. Not increasing it previously and taking advantage of the Freeze Grant has resulted in the Government effectively paying a greater extent for services locally than they might otherwise have done so – this is something we would of course welcome. But the Council has been lucky this year that when additional money is needed that they’ve been able to increase by greater than 2% to offset the fact that the baseline figure hasn’t risen over previous years and with the freeze grant not available it makes sense to increase. Even with this increase there are savings that need to be made and the Labour Group has been actively supporting the transformation programme.

Whilst politically it would be easy to criticise a Breckland increase in Council Tax of such a percentage, I won’t do so. Frankly its necessary to do so. My only disappointment however is that residents are going to be hit simultaneously by increases from the County, District, Police Commissioner and in my case the Town Council, all in one go. (Note" Band D households in Thetford will be asked to find an extra approx £60 a year in Council Tax at a time of wage stagnation and decreasing living standards). It is clear that these are very deliberate tactics by the Government to shift the burden of funding services to Councils and to local people.

Now as members may be aware, the Government changed the way the Council Tax benefits system works in 2013 and gave Local Authorities the ability to implement localised council tax support schemes – I have details of the Breckland scheme here. In short, we provide 100% support to qualifying pensioners, quite rightly so, and do not give discounts for second homes and we do support military personnel, again rightly so. Where we do not support fully however is working age people. Qualifying people are only supported up to 70% of the cost. Given the increases we’re looking at today and what other authorities are increasing by, I feel that should also adopt that 100%. In short, we must do more to support working people who are struggling to get by. As the Foodbank in my ward revealed recently, 50% of their claimants in the last 12 months have been working people. So often dubbed the working poor. So, the Breckland Labour Group would like to propose;

Proposal: Breckland Council to review its localised Council tax support grant scheme and review the financial impact of providing 100% support for ‘working age persons’. Report to be brought forward to a future Full Council meeting.

Without such a proviso, we would be unable to support these proposals as presented.

Specific budget amendments:

1. Budget amendment from Councillor Harry Clarke - Locality budgets: Several other Councils provide members with a locality budget whereby they can support community initiatives in their ward. The amount available varies per area, but in an authority close to me, namely West Suffolk, they make £2,500 for each member to spend in their ward on projects. Breckland is proudly a member led Council. This amendment would give all Councillors the opportunity to support community projects in their areas, assisting their roles as community champions. It would also help ensure every corner of the District receives support from the Council and would no doubt help lever in additional funds from elsewhere. Therefore Mr Chairman, I’d propose earmarking £98,000 from the underspend in this financial year for a one year pilot to establish locality budgets for all 49 Councillors.

Amendment: Propose earmarking £98,000 from the underspend from this current financial year to fund a one year pilot to establish locality budgets for all 49 Councillors.

2. Budget amendment from Councillor Terry Jermy - Fairfields, Thetford: You will note in your report on page 88, there is to be £35,000 received by Breckland Council for the sale of land at Fairfields in Thetford. This has caused considerable concern locally as much used play space will be lost in an area with already limited play opportunities. I’d like to propose that rather than this money going into the general capital fund that it is ring-fenced for this area to be spent on a capital play project in the future to off-set this loss in play space and to help alleviate some of the considerable traffic concerns that exist.

Amendment: Ring-fence £35,000 from sale of land at Fairfields for future play equipment project within the Fairfields vicinity and to help alleviate traffic issues generated by the development being allowed to proceed.

Fly-tipping Letter sent to T&B

Letter regarding fly-tipping sent to Thetford and Brandon Times

Dear Editor,

Further to the letter last week from Jane Bishop, I wanted to write and respond on behalf of the West Thetford Community Fly-tipping project which was referred to. This is a pilot project undertaken diligently by Barbara Bysouth, which has been making important strides forward in recent months. The project was born out of partnership working between the Safer Thetford Action Group, local resident associations, Breckland Council and Flagship Housing Association. Part of the project is indeed about reporting incidents of fly-tips, but more importantly it’s about encouraging others to report them too so that items can be removed promptly and they become less of a common sight and therefore the very presence of fly-tips does not become an acceptable norm. If we as a community are to tackle fly-tipping the solution I feel is about changing hearts and minds and indeed culture. Partly through enforcement and partly through education. For example, work is ongoing to highlight what can and cannot be taken to the waste recycling centre and what can and cannot go in which wheelie bin for example. Rarely in my role as a Councillor do I come across a fly-tip which could not have actually been dealt with through one of those routes which is why I do not agree with the view that fly-tipping is predominantly because of restrictions for legitimate disposal. More often it’s the result of sheer laziness, a lack of pride in ones community and the knowledge that enforcement and therefore repercussions are unlikely. Part of the project has been to engage in regular community walkabouts and identify evidence within fly-tipped material so that follow up action can be taken, and as a result, several residents have been contacted and investigations are ongoing. Further to this, at our most recent Fly-tipping Project Management Group meeting, we heard about some very encouraging work due to take place in local schools whereby children will be investigating the impact on communities because of fly-tipping, what the law says including fines that exist and how to dispose of items responsibility. This mix, together with generally working to improve pride in our communities will hopefully help reduce such incidents occurring, but sadly it will never of course remove the scourge that is fly-tipping but that should not dissuade our efforts. The ‘report it’ function on the Breckland Council website is an easy to use method for reporting a number of common community matters and I’d urge people to give it a try – (www.breckland.gov.uk/content/report-it).

Best wishes

Councillor Terry Jermy (Labour)

Chairman, West Thetford Community Fly-tipping Project Management Group

Norfolk County Council budget speech

Norfolk County Council Budget Speech - 22.02.16

I did not stand for election to cut services, or to reduce them. I didn't stand for election to support redundancies or make the lives of the people of Thetford or indeed Norfolk more difficult than they already are. I stood for election and indeed I am involved in politics to help ensure all people in our communities are supported whenever that support is needed. In short, like so many of here, for me being a Councillor is about improving people's quality of life.

It's somewhat a juxtaposition then that In many ways I’m relieved with the budget before us today.

Quite frankly it could have been so much worse, but that said there’s still numerous things that I would have preferred to not be in this budget.

But our preferences as Councillors count for little, they can merely shape, not define the final outcome. The ultimate determining factor is the financial envelope in which we have to work and given the commitment to austerity that the national government has adopted, that envelope is reducing.

I look round to other Councils and what services they’re being forced to cut, it soon dawns upon me how much worse still things could have been for us here in Norfolk. In many other Council areas there’s been some very significant cuts. Whether it be fire stations likely to close in Suffolk, significant bus service cuts in Hertfordshire or ending the mobile library service entirely in Cambridgeshire.

It's the nature of politics isn't it that you have to blame whoever is in control and attach bad decisions to their leadership - the Conservative Group today obviously attempt to paint all of the cuts here in Norfolk on the Alliance, but lets face it, if things were different, and if the Conservative Group were running the Council, there would still be cuts needing to be made – just like in those Conservative Councils I’ve mentioned.

As far as I'm aware those councils didn't have to spend millions on botched incinerator contracts. With that in mind, I'm not surprised our Conservatives don't want to kick the can down the road - they want to incinerate it!

And it’s not just authorities in East Anglia:

As this person outlines - and I quote: “I was disappointed at the long list of suggestions floated in the briefing note to make significant cuts to frontline services” – that was the Prime Minister, commenting on Oxfordshire County Councils cuts. And as the Conservative Leader of Oxfordshire highlighted, Government grants there have fallen from £194million to £122million, a drop of 37% or £72 million in 5 years.

As Ian Hudspeth, the Conservative Leader of Oxfordshire highlights – 

😃

"these cuts are being driven centrally by the Government, who have reduced funding to local Councils"

As a report commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation discovered, the cuts in some areas are so extreme that local authority provision is now being reduced to little more than social care, child protection and other core services, while the budgets for libraries, museums, galleries, sports facilities, small parks and playgrounds, children’s centres, youth clubs, after-school and holiday clubs, planning and environmental quality have already been slashed to the point at which these can barely function.

Simarly, Conservative controlled LGA” “Councils have worked hard to shield residents from the impact of funding cuts. However, efficiencies cannot be remade or buildings resold,” they say.... Report goes on to describe the services which bind our communities together and protect the most vulnerable... Are being eroded.

Now of course as an authority we should be looking to become more entrepreneurial, we should look to increase income opportunities, drive down costs and maximise efficiencies – and much of that is already on being done but the cold hard truth of the matter is that if you cut funding to local services to the point which has happened, then services will inevitably suffer and residents will inevitably suffer too. I can only assume that this transition money is a recognition that the cuts have gone too far too quickly.

This is not the budget speech I'd like to give. I'd like to be able to argue for funding to be restored so that we can once again have a Norfolk Youth Service and a Connexions service that was cut by previous Conservative administrations, I'd like to be about to argue for County street lights out in my division to be switched back on after midnight - something which is of concern to people in my division who undertake shift work, and people who are concerned about the fear of crime. Or perhaps I could use my time to argue to the boost adult education service which has been cut in Thetford with the sale of Tanner House.... But I can't.

Given the context Mr Chairman, given where we are financially, I'm reluctantly prepared to support this budget as presented but not as an endorsement of austerity or the Governments contempt for local government but because I recognise I have a duty to perform as an elected member, no matter how uncomfortable that may be.

In defence of the Charles Burrell Centre

On Friday, at NCCs ETD meeting, a leading member (former Deputy Leader of the whole Council if I recall correctly) - Councillor Ian Mackie, criticised for the second meeting running, the Charles Burrell Centre in Thetford. Apparently if the County had not "given away" the "asset" then we could have done something better with it and the County would not be so strapped financially. He clearly doesn't understand the background to the project or understand what's currently being achieved, so I thought best to email him the below.

Dear Ian,

I hope you are well.

At two ETD meetings in a row you have felt the need the criticise the Charles Burrell Centre in Thetford – today you outlined with a bit more detail why you thought this was a bad deal for NCC, and as a result, it occurred to me that you are either unaware of the detail of this matter or have forgotten.

In short, in 2009 NCC decided to close one of the two High Schools in Thetford, the site earmarked for closure was Charles Burrell High School towards the south of the town (in an area of entrenched deprivation and already bereft of many services). As a Town Councillor at the time I wrote to then Leader of NCC, Derrick Murphy and urged him to ensure that consideration was given to usage of the site once it closed, particularly given that it was located in a deprived area and the venue was relied upon by numerous organisations. NCC ‘slept-walk’ into the closure of the site and in 2013 it closed without no plan put in place for its future use. At the time of its closure it was costing NCC £2,000 a week to remain shut (security, utilities, rates etc) – I understand that in total this cost in excess of £100,000!

The site is constrained in that it is within the 1500 metres ‘stone curlew buffer zone’ and therefore no development (e.g. housing) would be permitted making alternative uses of the site limited.

Any commercial use of the site was clearly limited and in any case, this had not been developed over the two years that it had been known that it was closing. The danger of course was that the longer you left the building empty, the harder it would be to bring it back into use – it could become prone to vandalism and issues with damp etc. Considerable equipment and furniture had been left on the site and NCC would have incurred costs dealing with this.

Thankfully when the administration changed at NCC a different tone was taken and NCC agreed to lease the site to Thetford Town Council for a peppercorn rent - resulting in NCC no longer incurring the costs that it was.

From 1st April this year the site has been run by Charles Burrell Centre Ltd – a new organisation set up as a ‘co-operative’ with exempt charity status granted by HMRC.

There’s something like 30 permanent tenants on site now ranging from Thetford Toy Library and Thetford Foodbank to commercial tenants including ‘Hertz’ (car rental) and Recruitment Zoo (a recruitment agency) and Zebra TM (call centre).

In addition, there’s around 40 weekly sessional hirings including Slimming World, Zumba etc (all your usual’s).

We’ve also managed to get West Suffolk College to invest in the site, becoming one of the major tenants by opening a ‘Thetford Campus’ and providing more than 200 courses which were previously not available locally (enrolment has been significant).

A soon to be announced tenant will be the NHS. Co-locating services has brought significant benefits, particularly considering the diverse mix of voluntary and commercial – the centre truly ‘adds value’.

In short, what this decision has done has enabled jobs to be created, new services to be provided, training courses to be undertaken and people’s lives improved – this is something I would urge that all NCC councillors should be proud of, and something the Council should be proud of.

Quantifying these outcomes is a clear task that needs to be completed.

In addition, we’re close to the end of signing a deal with Norfolk Energy Futures for them to install solar panels on some of the roof space which will generate a significant return for NCC (and assist the Centre with reduced electricity and of course there are environmental benefits).

There is a NCC rep on the CBC Ltd board in the form of Cllr Ian Monson – who’s contributions are most valued. (there’s 11 Board members: 3 Town Council reps, 3 Tenants reps – elected by all tenants on site, 3 co-opted for specific skills and expertise, 1 NCC rep and 1 local resident rep).

I’d urge you (and anyone else interested) to visit the site, either with myself, or with the Centre Manager, and gauge for yourself if this is indeed a good investment for the Council.

Best wishes,

Terry

Obstinate for the fun of it.... the NCC Tory Group

It's Friday.... I need to rant... particularly when it's a Friday and it includes an Environment, Transport and Development (ETD) Committee meeting at Norfolk County Council, of which I am a member.

I know I have not been in this politics world too long, OK - (I've been a Town Councillor for 8 years, on the District for 5 and on County for 2), but I remain shocked on occasions at the way in which decisions are made and the way in which people (Councillors) conduct themselves. (Remain shocked and at times want to rip my own head off).

I wish more people would get involved and take an interest in local government, their eyes would be well and truly opened and a great many Councillors would never be elected again.

Today's a good example which is typical of the behaviour of the Tory group at Norfolk:

Proposal 1 - to reduce the amount of cutting of grass verges around Norfolk. This applies in rural areas, it's something that would increase bio-diversity, help wildlife, improve the landscape etc - environmentalists are (largely) in favour of it and it's generally a good thing. Road safety people at County Council been consulted and no concerns. I spoke in the debate and and said all fine, crucial however is flexibility in the approach - some areas it will not be appropriate (sharp bends etc) and other areas would be delighted. 8 Tory members of the Committee vote on block not to support. 9 'Others' do support - motion carried. (Committee is balanced with 8 Tories, 3 Labour, 3 UKIP, 2 Lib Dem and 1 Green).

Next, a discussion about incineration. We are currently sending tonnes and tonnes of waste to landfill in Norfolk. Ever since the failed incinerator project, the fault of the previous Tory administration, (costing £30+million to terminate the contract with nothing to show for it) the County has been in a mess on dealing with waste and it's been costing taxpayers dearly. Proposal was to send a large amount of waste to incineration in Germany and the Netherlands. I'm ideological opposed to incineration, but, this proposal would save £2million a year (£2million!) and the burnt material would generate electricity and heat. The incinerators were not objected to by residents in these areas (as far as I can tell) and there are not the environmental concerns that the Norfolk incinerator generated (as far as I am aware). So, you'd think the Conservatives who led the previous incinerator proposal, and ideologically in favour of incineration would support? No. Voting against en block - for what reason other than to be obstinate, I really don't know.

Finally... recycling centres.... sadly the County Council has voted to close the recycling centre at Docking. It's the least used recycling centre in the whole of Norfolk and there were clear alternatives for residents within a reasonable travelling distance. As the Chair of the Committee said a number of times, "given the scale of the Government funding cuts, if you're merely inconvenienced by cuts to services at this present time, then you've got off lightly".

And there's the rub of the matter - every single one of the proposals was primarily driven by money - no wonder when Norfolk County Council is having to try and provide services when the Conservative Government is allocating it hundreds of millions (!!!) of less funding at a time when costs and demands are increasing.

When I challenged the Tory position on opposing these matters, and explained that should they not wish to cut these services (neither do I!) then what are their alternatives proposals, i'd love to hear them. "It's your problem, you sort it out" - is so often the reply. One of them couldn't wait to have a pop, for the second meeting in a row, about the Charles Burrell Centre and how it's a "waste" and that it should have never of been given away - clearly forgetting that under the Tory controlled Council they allowed it to edge towards closing whilst doing nothing about it - despite me warning them - and it ended up costing them over £100,000 to keep it SHUT! (Hey, that £100k could have kept Docking open for a while bit longer), and whilst CBC is not paying them for the privilege of saving them a tonne of money, it is helping to create jobs, provide services and all the rest of it - but as usual, these numpties open their mouths and criticise something before they've even had the decency of researching it. So I shall be writing to said 'numpty' and asking if he'd like to come round CBC for a tour, so he can properly evaluate what they've "given away".

Which services are we cutting today?

as usual an interesting meeting of the Norfolk County Council Environment, Transport and Development Committee was held yesterday (or 'TED' as I like to call it). Sadly, as with most council meetings - the primarily focus was on 'which services are we cutting today?' - such is the state of local Government finances thanks to the Conservative Government. Sadly as a committee we had to vote through to close a recycling centre at Docking, it's currently a part-time recycling centre but it's the less well used in the county and has the least tonnage deposited there annually and as officers pointed out there are alternative recycling facilities within an acceptable travelling distance ('acceptable' is of course dependent upon your opinion). Three other sites were also reduced from full-time to part-time provision. What was annoying as ever was the Conservative members of the ETD Committee grand-standing and objecting to this closure but offering no alternatives for saving the money that was needed to be saved. As I pointed out to them, I did not stand for election because I wanted to close anything, reduce to part-time or cut back on services in any way but; look at the context. Massive funding cuts from the Conservative Government, increasing demand for Council services particularly in relation to adult social care and children's services, rising costs as a result and other cost pressures, Conservative County Councillors and UKIP blocking any increase in Norfolk County Council's share of Council Tax and departments that have already teased out 'efficiencies' over many years so there is little less to save - what do you get? oh yes, CUTS. Another proposal on the agenda was to close all of Norfolk's recycling centres on bank holidays, i.e. all 5 bank holidays in the year. I could not bring myself to back this and it was not supported by the committee (only just)!. The Committee did accept my amendment however to establish a working group with Councillors looking at other ideas to save money so that further cuts, including closure on bank holidays, is not necessary - answers on a postcard anyone? (Personally, I think the opening hours for recycling centres are incredibly generous - 7 days a week, I'd much rather we reviewed what are the quietest days, I think probably Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and close on these days to maintain a stronger service for the remaining five) Interestingly, at the same meeting we had a long discussion about waste. District Councils collect waste, i.e. wheelie bins and also fly-tipping, but it's the County's responsibility to dispose of it - this currently costs £40million a year in Norfolk and as a County we only recycle 43%. I think there's a big opportunity to increase this 43%, particularly through better publicity and education and there's also a strong message there; recycle more so it costs less, which means more money for fire stations, schools, recycling centres! etc.

Charles Burrell Mayor Making Report - May 2015

CHARLES BURRELL CENTRE COMMITTEE

Report for Mayor Making / Annual Town Meeting – May 2015

By Terry Jermy

The Charles Burrell Committee met frequently over the past year as the plan to re-open the Centre materalised and things quickly took off. This time last year our first tenants had moved in and began delivering their activities. Word quickly spread that the Centre was open for business and several new organisations came forward. 2 became 4, which became 8, which became 16 quite quickly – as of today there’s 27 permanent tenants and up to 30 regular sessional hirers. The project received a significant boost in September last year when a new manager came onboard in the form of Mark Snowdon, a former Charles Burrell pupil himself who had 9 years experience as the Deputy Manager at the Leisure Centre. Marks first week of work was dominated by the Centres Open Day that took place on the 6^th September which turned out to be a huge success, organized by one the centres regular volunteers – Sharon Nash. The event gave groups that use the Centre the opportunity to showcase themselves; recruiting new volunteers and members and raising funds in some cases. The open day also gave former pupils, some from the 1960’s and 70’s the chance to walk around the school and see how it had changed over time. Several former teachers also attended. Pupils and teachers alike were so pleased that the school had been saved from demolition. It was pleasing to be able to offer former pupils and teachers with a venue to hold a memorable service to notable former headmaster Derek Briggs who sadly passed away – a memorial bench dedicated to Mr Briggs now also stands in the middle courtyard section of the site.

Moving forward, new tenants continued to confirm throughout the Autumn and into the Winter months – the most significant of which was West Suffolk College who committed to six classrooms and two offices, not just boosting the Centre financially, but also improving the education and training offer in Thetford – a win win for the town. The most recent tenant to confirm has been Hertz, the car rental business, highlighting that the Centre is a home for a broad range of organisations ranging from Thetford Foodbank through to commercial businesses – all benefitting from usage of the centre and additionally benefiting from increased networking opportunities and enhanced ability to work together; sharing ideas and resources wherever possible.

This rush of interest at the start of this year led to the Town Council agreeing an injection of cash to bring forward the recruitment of a new full-time administration assistant to help with the rapidly increasing enquiries and admin related tasks. We were pleased to be able to offer the position to Karen Robinson, a resident of the Barnham Cross area and herself a former user of the site through her daughters involvement with roller skating. Karen was one of the people that attended the public meeting way back in July 2013 to discuss keeping the site open, fitting therefore that Karen was now joining the staff team to make the project a success.

From the 1^st April this year the Centre has been run by a newly created organization – Charles Burrell Centre Ltd – which has taken on the management and development of the site from Thetford Town Council. This saw the completion of the Committees work and our last meeting took place during March of this year. From the 1^st April a new management committee was formed for Charles Burrell Centre Ltd, consisting of 11 members. There are 3 Town Council representatives, elected by the Town Council, 3 tenant representatives elected by tenants at the Centre, 1 Norfolk County Council representative, elected by the NCC Communities Committee and 1 community representative, the current Chairman of the Barnham residents group. In addition to this there are 3 co-opted members of the board, chosen for specific skills and experience which they can offer. This new board, democratically chosen in an open and transparent way as it should be and reflecting the various stakeholders that exist.

It is early days but the new board are already making fantastic progress and they are optimistic for the year ahead. Anyone can become a member of the new organization and have a say in the future of the Centre, shares can be purchased for just £1 and as you might expect, I have share forms here if anyone would like one. In addition, there’s numerous volunteering opportunities at the Centre so please do enquire if you are interested. Applications forms also available!

We were incredibly fortunate to safeguard Charles Burrell for the town, a rare window of opportunity, and rarer still, one that was grasped. Now it’s everyone’s job to keep it available and to enable it to thrive. Throughout our research stage we travelled to both Barnsley and Leeds to view examples of good community projects and to learn from what they had done. Our discussion on the train journey home on those occasions about how it would be great for people to visit Thetford to learn from our community, may just be that little bit more realistic now. Thank-you.

RIP Matthew Percy

On Monday night of this week something tragic happened; a young 21 year-old guy that I knew called Matthew Percy from Ipswich decided to take his own life. This person was not someone that I knew very well but as a fellow member of the Labour Party we were ‘connected’ and I would regularly see him at Labour Party events where we would say hello etc. Through social media - it added a different level of ‘connectivity’ and we would ‘like’ and comment on each other’s statuses and engage in discussions about local politics and community issues. Ever since I found out that Matthew had died I have thought about him and his situation a lot. I saw so much of myself in Matthew, I became actively involved in politics at a young age and despite only being 21, Matthew was already a local Councillor and through his Facebook statuses his passion was clear – I remember thinking regularly that everything was so important for Matthew, I’m sure that was partly his age, and no doubt partly because of his autism, but also because of his passion. I saw on Monday a Facebook thread of Matthews where there was a debate about suicide, it seemed quite intense but that was not of surprise. I did not see that later on Matthew had posted a Facebook status that was in effect a suicide note. Reading as I did the following day the comments from people frantically trying to contact him and discussing who should phone the police was absolutely harrowing. To read officially that he had indeed died - I gasped out loud. To have it play out online in that way was just excruciating. Death is such a final thing, I’ve always struggled with it, there’s no returning from it – nothing you can do can make any difference once someone has gone – that’s what’s so saddening about it for me. We will never know how Matthew could have developed and what he could have achieved. That's a big part of the reason this is tragic. It’s inevitable I guess but I can’t help but think of what more could have been done, what could have prevented this? I think if we’re all honest we all have insecurities, we all have things that make us unhappy. The difference is that we all deal with this in different ways, we all tolerate things to greater or lesser extents and we all have different support structures in place, whether they be friends or family, or professional forms of support. I’ve really taken a lesson from Matthews situation that we should all be more considerate of others, we should all think about making comments that may cause somebody anxiety or distress. I guess in short we should all be more human. I think too that we should also make sure that there is support there for others. Matthew was somebody that cared deeply for others, he did this despite clearly having his own issues. Whilst I know that nothing can be done for Matthew, I hope, I so so hope that it does not need to happen to anyone else and whilst we cannot bring him back, we can try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. That’s my only crumb of comfort in what is otherwise an incredibly tragic and sad situation. RIP Matthew.

http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/touching_tributes_paid_to_labour_campaigner_matthew_percy_following_tragic_death_on_monday_night_1_4043715