Full text of Cllr John Kingsbury’s opening speech to council

May 27, 2010 — simonashall

Cllr John Kingsbury’s speech to council on Monday was the benchmark for the municipal year and come the elections in 2011, it will be on this document – containing as it did reference to our manifesto – on which the council will be judged. I reproduce it below for reference and comment.

Fellow Councillors, Thank you for re-electing me as Leader of the Council.  It is an honour to serve again in this role and I undertake to carry it out to the best of my ability.

We continue to face difficult local and national economic conditions.  The new coalition government has already started to reduce the budget deficit with the announcement today.  We in local government will no doubt face tough challenges to maintain core services whilst our residents always like us to do more for them.

Council management must continue to be of the highest quality to deliver the best value for money for services provided through the funding we receive from Council Tax, fees and charges, and diminishing government support.  Under this administration, striving to improve service delivery will be a fundamental aim of the Council, with all costs to be kept under rigorous examination.

While canvassing during the recent election campaigns, I frequently heard how pleased residents were with our initiative to introduce a food waste collection service where we are already diverting over 60 tonnes of food waste each week from landfill.  Also, residents were pleased with the green waste subscription service for which subscriptions approaching 9,000 are more than double our initial expectation in the first year.  It was also acknowledged that the Conservative Administration had met its pledge to keep Council Tax low for 2010/11.

However on the doorstep it was clear that our increased level of long-term debt continues to worry many of our residents, particularly our borrowing to purchase  the Wolsey Place Shopping Centre which has great benefits for the Council in that it is expected to produce a net profit after all costs of £1.5 million per annum.  Clearly this has not been understood and we must redouble our efforts to explain such good news to our residents.

In charting the way forward, I would like to outline our manifesto promises for 2010/11.

· Continue to deliver a low level of Council Tax and where possible generate income for the Borough.

· Invest in Woking Town Centre to provide a better experience for shoppers and businesses.  Already we are seeing the results of our earlier investment with more retail space being utilised and more planned expansion.

· Through the Local Committee of County and Borough Councillors, fight to keep essential bus services and improve the condition of roads and pavements.
· Work with residents to achieve a 60% recycling rate across the Borough.  Already, with the introduction of the food waste collection service, we are seeing a recycling rate of around 54% which is a remarkable achievement in such a short space of time.

· Work with the police to combat anti-social behaviour, littering and graffiti using neighbourhood officers and on-the-spot fines to help achieve these objectives.

· Continue to invest in new children’s play areas and youth play schemes.

In addition to these pledges, I would also like to comment on one or two other important issues.

Affordable Housing

Subject to the new government’s Coalition Programme not springing any PFI surprises, we look forward to making progress on the Moor Lane project which is now behind schedule.  Hopefully later this year the successful contractor will be chosen and the start of the project will only be a few months away.  In bringing forward further sites for affordable housing, we must always be sensitive to existing local residents and the ability of the infrastructure and local services to bear additional development.  Woking Borough Homes continues to acquire street properties and in the year just ended around 80 properties were purchased.  We look forward to the early completion of the 10 eco-friendly homes on Brookwood Farm.  The 2011 Business Plan for Woking Borough Homes will be carefully considered when it is put before the Executive in September.

Finance

It seems clear from the government’s Coalition Programme that Council Tax will be frozen at the current level for at least 1 year and possibly 2 years.  Accordingly it is vital that we seek to reduce our operating costs  further as well as our reliance on fees and charges which in the year just ended were  below budget.  Unless previously agreed, any new borrowing will be subject to approval by the Executive and must demonstrate clear benefits for Woking residents.  We will seek to improve Budgetary Control within the Council and try harder with officers to simplify the presentation of the Council’s finances.  We will not support any new investment proposals outside the Borough and all costs and modes of service delivery will be kept under rigorous examination to seek savings where possible.

I believe that in 2009/10 this Council made excellent progress through taking a number of cross-party decisions for the benefit of all our residents.  Since this approach is now being mirrored by our national government – we started it first in Woking! – I hope we can continue to work together to achieve an excellent level of service for residents and make good progress with our major projects, such as Hoe Valley, the leisure services project, and Wolsey Walk and Peacocks developments.  This Administration looks forward to working with  LibDem colleagues to achieve these and other goals.

In conclusion, with the new government commiting itself to a review of local government finance, abolishing Regional Spatial Strategies, agreeing to review the unfair Housing Revenue Account which is currently out to consultation from the former Labour government, abolishing the Standards Board regime, implementing the Sustainable Communities Act, abolishing the Comprehensive Area Assessment, and giving Councillors the power to vote on salary packages for Council officers, we are in for a busy and interesting year ahead!
John Kingsbury,
Leader of the Executive,
Woking Borough Council
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Three times a leader

May 24, 2010 — simonashall

Cllr John Kingsbury

At the first council meeting of the municipal year, Cllr John Kingsbury was re-elected as leader of the executive, even if with no overall control he can’t quite claim to be leader of the council. John took over as leader of the executive in 2008, was re-elected last year and this is the third confirmation in his position, which makes it the longest tenure since Jim Armitage.

In him, Woking has both an experienced and gentle touch. I’ve known John for many years going back to my reporting days and no-one cares more deeply about doing the right things for the borough than him. A consensus politician in the best possible sense, John has friends across the chamber and it says much about him that in a situation where the necessity for cross-party working could not be starker, he is the person the council as a whole feels can best deliver that.

I believe that he is the best choice for Woking and that he has a strong executive team in people like David Bittleston, Beryl Hunwicks and Graham Cundy to support him.

No doubt there are those who would prefer a more robust approach and who believe that it is possible to force through more fundamentally Conservative policy. Perhaps if the elections had left us with different maths, there might be a case for that but at the moment the only way to keep things working at Woking Borough Council is compromise and negotiation – the electorate, after all, has spoken. The 80-odd votes in key areas that would have seen things emerge differently weren’t won and that is something that needs to be put aside now we are into the real business of the council.

In his speech to council, John was quite clear that those in local government at the present time face great challenges ahead over services and financial pressures. But he maintained that a focus on service improvement was the key guiding principle of the council and that he would look to deliver everything in the Conservative manifesto – low council tax, community investment, 60% recycling, green belt protection, youth facilities and community law and order – in co-operation with the other parties.

Both he and Lib Dem leader Ric Sharp referenced the national coalition, with Cllr Sharp finishing his speech by quoting the PM. It might not be the Grand Coalition but if John believes he can make it work for the residents of Woking, I’m more than happy to put my trust in his judgement.

PS I had a great deal of fun doing a live Twitter feed from the public gallery tonight, pity the council doesn’t have a better 3G signal or even WiFi.

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Coalition would be grand

May 19, 2010 — simonashall

On May 6, the local elections produced another indecisive result in Woking. There were gains and losses on both sides but despite no Labour representation to consider any more, the political scene in the borough continues to be ambigious. Even in 2007, the first year of overall control since 1998, the result was only 19-17, which when you take account of absences and mayoralty is not really a majority at all.

With the decision of Peter Ankers to go it alone, the numbers have stood at 18-17-1 and so it remains after the local elections. Just 70 more votes across Knaphill and Horsell West could have seen them 20-15-1 and shown a decisive shift – but that is not what the electorate wanted and the council has to listen to that.

It is my personal view therefore that with a Conservative mayor in 2010/11 and the numbers effectively at 17-17-1, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups should consider what the parties have done nationally and think about forming a Grand Coalition. 

This could entail three members each on a six-strong executive committee with a Conservative chairman and Lib Dem vice-chairman. Such an arrangement would also have the welcome side-effect – although it is not designed for that purpose – of removing the effective casting vote of the council from one independent councillor. No doubt Peter Ankers would use this reasonably – but how much happier that the total considered view of the council should be involved in the first place rather than just via one person’s judgement?

In normal circumstances, it would be up to the party with the mandate to take responsibility and implement its manifesto. But at present, neither party really has a proper mandate with the numbers that exist and the maths of the mayoralty suggest that unless there is broad agreement about the year ahead, a rather unseemly mess could result. That’s not good for the council, nor more to the point for Woking.

No doubt an agreement could be reached whereby some of the key problems can be tackled together and elements of both parties’ manifestos placed into the work programme. The PM clearly thought that it was silly (although I think “uninspiring” was the word he used) to have a minority administration trying to take decisions in the current climate. It appears that Nick Clegg agreed.

I don’t see how that situation is different in Woking given the close make-up of the council. Whether either side would agree to it is of course a completely different matter.

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Centre-Righter’s block

May 14, 2010 — simonashall

So now Gordon and his merry men are out of Downing Street and DC has become PM, what is there left to write about? It wouldn’t be so bad if I could switch attention onto the Lib Dems but they are now our partners so I can’t write anything about them either (plus they are all such nice people, of course).

Thankfully, Woking Borough Council fires up in six days with the first Muslim mayor of Woking, Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, being sworn in. I’ve known Cllr Iqbal for a number of years and he cares about his community. He has worked very hard to bring about positive changes in Maybury and Sheerwater and is a very approachable man with a great sense of humour and humility.

He will make a superb mayor – and it is about time that the Muslim community in our town should be represented among the roll of those who’ve served this town as council Chairman and later Mayor. I’m particularly proud that they should come from the ranks of the Conservative Party, though I know the other parties will share our enthusiasm for this development.

In addition, we wait to see what form the council will take this year. Although the election results produced no net change with 18 Con, 17 LD and one independent, our tenancy of the mayoralty this year means that the numbers are effectively 17-all with Peter Ankers having the casting vote if parties follow the whip. I have my doubts as to how healthy this situation is but perhaps more on this another time.

While I would obviously have preferred to have been sitting in the chamber around the benches on May 20, I was sworn in as a magistrate on Monday afternoon by the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey Sarah Goad, High Sheriff Robert Douglas and Mr Justice Critchlow at Guildford Crown Court in a short but memorable ceremony. I was particularly delighted that my parents were able to be there and I could see Mum welling up as I read the oath!

In all honesty, I have several months of quite intensive training and sitting ahead of me and it would have been ambitious to have combined it with the duties of a councillor. My father thought I was completely mad to have even considered it – perhaps he was right and some things happen for a reason.

That said, I have got a meeting of the Horsell and Woodham Conservatives this evening where I have to explain away our failure to win (joke, they are all extremely supportive) and we have got plenty to do in Horsell to make sure that people’s lives are improved and that they are represented well in council. As I said a week ago, councillor or not, the community is always there to be served.

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A very long night (part 1)

May 7, 2010 — simonashall

During the past few days I have been too busy campaigning in Horsell West to blog and of course I’m disappointed that having got more than 1,800 votes in the ward – the largest number by some way that I can recall the Conservatives getting - this wasn’t enough to win. The Horsell campaign team – Ben Carasco, Tony Branagan, Michael Gammon, Beryl Hunwicks, Alex Smith, Matthew King, Tim Read and others – worked extremely hard to try and secure a result in the ward and I can’t express enough gratitude for the work they have done.

As John McCain said, the failure is mine, not theirs – but I also have to pay tribute to the Lib Dem effort too. We didn’t see much of them but there was clearly some work being done somewhere as you don’t pull 1,850 votes out of Horsell West by just turning up to the count. It’s quite an achievement and congratulations to Ann-Marie Barker for being elected to replace Richard Sanderson in what was a closely-fought and intense battle with turnout at a furious 77%.

We all care about these things very much, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing them and to say that I’m not disappointed would be untrue. But I’m also philosophical – I knew Horsell West would be very, very close when I put myself forward for selection and I certainly didn’t get sucked into envisaging myself as a councillor on May 7. It’s a ward where nothing can be taken for granted and victory really is only for four years. Let’s also not forget that this was a Lib Dem seat with a majority of around 150 in 2006. So I walked into the hall not a councillor – and I walked back out not a councillor, the only thing it has cost me is the time and energy of the campaign.

And the campaign has been a real blast, a chance to get to know the area even better than you ever believed you could (you start to remember the names of houses and their order on South Road and the location of hidden front doors) as well as meet people from all over the village. I couldn’t honestly say I look upon that as a “cost” – more like a benefit and an experience that will help greatly in the future. It won’t be much of a surprise to learn that I’m not giving up and see highs and lows as part of the political process.

Being a councillor is a great honour but it’s not a requirement for contributing to the community. I will be continuing to do this and – after a suitable break – we’ll see what next year brings.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Dorothy Farrant, new-elected councillor for Byfleet and terrific news for Carl Thomson, who unseated Norman Johns to be the new councillor for Mount Hermon East. Well done, Carl.

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Assessment of Horsell Village Centre

March 25, 2010 — simonashall

Let's keep the development in the town centre and out of Horsell

I attended a meeting tonight on behalf of Horsell Residents Association at Woking Borough Council about carrying out Character Assessments for the Local Development Framework Core Strategy. What this means is that I will be filling in survey details – quite a few of them, actually – about an area in order to provide the council with information it can use when putting together future planning policy.

The area I have chosen is an important one – Horsell High Street between the village school (where Church Hill ends) to the junction with Bullbeggars. This obviously includes the pubs, the village hall and all the shops and so getting the information right is going to take a little while. Among the questions on the survey are positives and negatives about this area and this doesn’t just include planning and built environment issues. I know that we need better parking arrangements in the village centre both to allow people easier access to our shops and make the pavements and roads in the village safer for other cars and pedestrians.

But if there is any other feedback on the character of this area of Horsell that anyone would like to raise, please let me know either by commenting here or emailing me.

In addition, I think that Horsell could benefit from some more surveys being done by residents in conjunction with Horsell Residents Association, particularly in areas of urban heritage value. The whole process should take around three or four hours in most instances, depending on the size of area. All the areas not completed by HRA or residents will be done by the council – they won’t be done badly, but it would be nice to have some control over the information that goes back to the council in the areas of Horsell that we care about most.

So if anyone else would like to do a survey, please get in touch with HRA or Woking Borough Council’s planning department.

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Rhetorical Questions

March 23, 2010 — simonashall

Firstly, it’s good to see that Ann-Marie Barker’s nomination as my Lib Dem opponent in Horsell West is now official (unlike her, I am happy to afford my opponent the courtesy of using her name!). Richard Sanderson has left big shoes for whoever replaces him to fill and I look forward to a good-tempered if hard-fought final six weeks.

I’m also glad to note that she’s been reading my blog judging by her comments on Community Question Time and I’m delighted to discover that she’s in agreement with me over developing and expanding the Community Question Time into something more meaningful:

The funny thing is a local Conservative [that's me by the way - Simon!] is now suggesting that a quarterly or twice yearly event that moves around the borough would be a good idea. It’s a great idea and one that was put in place under the theme ‘Tune In’ through a local Liberal Democrat initiative.

Let’s make one thing clear – Tune In was never given a budget to do anything. So its travelling around the borough raising residents’ expectations of what might be achieved was a particular exercise in futility and one that as a journalist and then a press officer at a participating local authority I looked upon on in amazement. The only thing that Tune In was able to do was shift money from one budget heading to another and push some things further up the work programme.

The idea that “working in partnership” is the answer to everything needs to be challenged. Partnership working can be a useful tool in some regards but having six different organisations trying to make decisions together is seldom successful. Very rarely do they truly gel as one “partnership” and the individual interests – usually budgetary – almost always prevail. What you need is the right balance between operational matters that are best worked on together with the support of the community and those that really should be left to one organisation and its professionals to deal with.

My idea of a Community Question Time separates the democratic elements of community dialogue and council accountability from the bureaucratic rhetoric of partnerships and any false expectations of delivery. The views of residents should be constantly expressed at every level by members and every single year, voters have the chance to show their feelings at the ballot box. They are entitled to ask the questions in public that will give them the information they need to inform their vote. I believe that few are interested in how well various slices of local government are working together or not – so long as the outcomes are there.

I agree with Ann-Marie that Tune In was meant to be much more but I believe the only way to achieve it is by little steps. The idea of Question Time standing alone is meant to be that first step - it is distinctly not trying to emulate the flawed Tune In model.

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Mythbusting Jonathan Lord (part 1)

March 22, 2010 — simonashall

During the past few weeks, I’ve encountered all sorts of nonsense about Jonathan Lord from Lib Dem campaigners and activists across the borough. It is quite normal that Lib Dem campaigns in areas where there is Conservative incumbency focus on current areas of discontent and supporting “Motherhood and Apple Pie” while at the same time furiously attacking the Conservative candidate. In the past, it has been very effective – less so now as voters see through it more.

I know that Jonathan is intent on running a positive campaign based on the direction that the Conservatives want to take Britain while emphasising his credentials as a communicator and man of action who will be a great representative for Woking. So it’s left to me to defend some of the negative rubbish that the Lib Dems are blogging and tweeting among themselves.

Myth #1 – Woking was Jonathan Lord’s third choice. This is a very strange use of the word “third”. Jonathan fought Oldham West and Royton in 1997 but hasn’t stood for Parliament since. Before Humfrey Malins announced his retirement and the Woking seat became available, he sought selection for two other seats unsucessfully. Compare this with Rosie Sharpley, whose been a councillor in Woking since 1988. If she is such a popular and passionate candidate, why was she not selected to stand in 1992, 1997 or 2001 and why did she stand in Horsham in 2005?

Myth #2 – Jonathan is a “career politician”. Jonathan is an experienced council politican who was deputy leader of Westminster City Council and in charge of multi-million pound budgets. He is a campaigner and a campaign manager with a proven track record of getting elected. He stood for parliament once before. In between elections and being a councillor, he held down a job like anyone else. Let’s compare again to Rosie – her political career started in 1988, she too has been deputy leader of a  council in Woking and stood for parliament once, while holding down a job in between her duties. The only different between Jonathan and Rosie is that his political career has been on a bigger scale than hers.

Myth #3 - Jonathan’s not around in Woking much. Jonathan is out in Woking all the time – from Horsell to Brookwood and from Maybury to Mayford, Jonathan has been knocking on doors, attending functions and meeting with community organisations to understand their successes and problems in equal measure. If he hasn’t knocked on Lib Dem doors, that’s probably because they were out. It’s not uncommon. And has anyone actually seen Rosie outside of her full-colour 42-picture literature? I saw her in Sainsbury’s the other day in the cheese aisle - it didn’t look impressed either.

Myth #4 – Jonathan’s Conservative colleagues don’t like him. In order to back this one up, the Lib Dems are quoting the same person over and over again. We’ve no idea who he is, whether he is who he says he is and even if he’s genuine, people don’t always agree in politics. You have to take decisions and that entails pleasing some people and not others. As a journo I heard many people say many things about Rosie Sharpley too. Most of them were positive – as I’ve said before, Rosie’s a good councillor. But not all of them were – that’s the nature of the political arena. It’s no big deal.

I’m sure that they’ll think of more myths in the coming weeks…part II to follow.

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Community Question Time

March 19, 2010 — simonashall

It's no good looking down on Woking - people want a dialogue!

I went along to the Community Question Time held at HG Wells on Wednesday night, which promised to allow residents the chance to quiz members of a panel including WBC chief executive Ray Morgan on matters of interest within Woking. It didn’t quite work out that way and by the time I had to leave at 8pm to attend another meeting elsewhere, not a single question had been asked.

Identifying the problem was not difficult. Unfortunately there is a tendency among many organisations to believe that talking to people is the same as communicating with them. They say they’re very keen on communications and what they mean is that they are very keen on talking about themselves. That’s not communciation; what matters is the dialogue and while I know some questions were answered after I left, mine and many others weren’t and the balance of the meeting proved all wrong.

On the plus side, I think that a Community Question Time is a great idea, whether as part of the Tune In process or on its own. I would like to see them held quarterly – or twice a year if take-up isn’t good – and travel around the borough with a panel that varies according to the geography. It could be chaired by the MP for Woking and would be totally devoid of councillors (who should be in the audience asking questions on behalf of residents rather than on the panel batting residents’ questions away on behalf of the council).

There could be a podcast, a Twitter feed and perhaps IT facilities for live blogging. Schools are an obvious venue option and one of the question times each year could be dedicated to engaging young people and feature members of the Woking Youth Council on the panel. It would be a useful exercise for all politicians in the borough to guage opinions on their policy decisions as well as a democratic opportunity for residents and a small step to help re-invigorate politics locally.

Meanwhile, I look forward to an answer to my question appearing on the Woking Borough Council website, which I will duly address once it appears.

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Wobbling over Wolsey

February 26, 2010 — admin

The purchase of Wolsey Place has attracted a lot of debate in various places, including local Lib Dem blogs and a dismal Facebook group set up by UKIPpers, who have taken a break from blaming everything on Europe.

I’m disappointed that having agreed to it in council, some Lib Dems in Horsell are trying the old “we don’t have to follow the party line” gag just as they did over county hall. No – you don’t have to follow the party line on a Horsell issue such as development in the village or bus service cuts. But this is nothing to do with Horsell specifically and it’s a major financial commitment that the council has signed up to on a cross-party basis. For local activists to now try and wriggle out of their party’s official position on Wolsey Place is opportunistic and disingenuous. If they were so concerned, did they lobby their leadership against cross-party agreement?

For what it’s worth, Horsell West councillor Tony Branagan voted against the purchase but now the matter has been resolved he is committed to defending the council’s position, even though it wasn’t his own. How very easy to abdicate responsibility in the face of hard questions – to me, elected representatives need more fibre than that and Tony has it in spades.

I’d prefer a world where Woking Borough Council was debt-free, as it was six years ago under Jim Armitage. But that isn’t the council we’ve got and only a firesale would restore that position. In the circumstances, the best place to spend the borrowed money is on appreciating assets and generating revenue. So let’s look at Wasteful Woking and see just how inaccurate the UKIP information is.

“Not only do they splash out 68M for Wolsey, they also just announced a 2.5% council tax increase. It’s time to take some control back!”

And just think how much more your council tax would be without £1.5m in revenues next year from Wolsey Place. This is a totally misplaced statement based on the notion that Woking Borough Council itself has written a cheque for £68m.

“It will take the council 50 years to pay back the loan for Wolsey Place, a development that will probably be beyond it’s usab…le life within 20 years. That means a major capital expenditure to either rebuild or upgrade the current site. “Invest to save” is a phrase usually best applied to upgrade work or repairs that will lower future bill and fixed cost base. Not buying a leaky old shopping centre and half occupied office.”

What is wrong with taking 50 years to pay back the loan? People with mortgages usually pay them back over half that and they usually borrow a good deal less than half the money. As time goes on, the value of the repayments will decrease while the rental income keeps pace with inflation ie the value of income over repayments will increase hugely over 50 years. If the centre is sold on, the loan could be paid back or if the site is sold in say 15 years, it will be most likely be worth a great deal more than was paid for it and will cover substantially the amount of the loan outstanding.

Whatever the author’s view of the shopping centre, actually looking at the books (rather than guessing wildly) revealed a sound basis for buying. In addition, there is potential for development in the future, although that’s not something I think would be considered for some time. For the record, floors one to five of Export House are empty, with six to 15 occupied. The internal decor and facilities are very good and I know that because I work on the 14th floor.

Elsewhere, we’ve had concerns about maintenance, unforeseen legislation and all sorts of other things that really scrape the barrel. There are always risks associated with everything – given all the information available, councillors on all sides took the view that this was worth doing.

Finally, there are Lib Dem concerns about the process, about the fact that the deal was done with press and public excluded (Part II). I’m no fan of Part II and as a journalist I fought tooth and nail to find out what was going on “behind closed doors”. But consider this – councillors are elected by the people to take decisions. As residents, we’d no doubt prefer everything to be decided in public but just because the press and public are excluded doesn’t make the process less democratic. These are still the same councillors making the same decisions under the same constitution in the same way that magistrates confer in private rather than open court. And the Lib Dems, who have to a person all been involved in Part II items in the past, know that perfectly well.

In his blog Denzil Coulson claims that the Lib Dems have helped rescue us from a financial disaster this year by backing Wolsey Place. If that makes him happy, so be it - but he is right that the financial outlook for 2010/11 is a lot better because of this purchase. Remember that net of repayments, net of tax, net of maintenance the council will get £1.5m a year from the Wolsey Place purchase – it pays for itself and a lot more besides.

So t’s time that UKIPpers stopped spreading rubbish about the deal that was done for pure electoral gain and that Lib Dems locally had the bottle to agree – as Denzil seems to want to say – that this deal was the very best of the bad job that Woking’s borrowing is.

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