Brown bottles it!

Andrew Sheridan drove the England front row forward to victory today.
Gordon Brown led the Labour retreat from calling an election today.



What an incredible day it has been! Unfancied England beat Australia 12 -10. The front row of their pack was immense, driving Australia back time after time. France beat New Zealand, favourites to win the 2007 World Cup, by two points. And Gordon Brown rules out an election!

For a guy who was 10 points up in some polls one week ago to call off the election after polls in the marginals suggest a 6 point swing to Conservatives is some humiliation! It shows Brown in his real colour. He has been trying to become leader of the labour party for years, prepared to stab Tony Blair in the back whenever he could. Now we see that the colour of his liver really is yellow. Is he fit to run the country? When will he bottle it next? Can he cope with a real crisis? He can talk tough, but his real colour is yellow.

And Ming's party is now down to 11% in the polls. Looks like Chris Huhne is heading for a drubbing in Eastleigh. Will he try to find a safe seat somewhere else? Is there a safe Lib. Dem seat anywhere in the country?

Disabled Rights campaigner selected for Eastleigh

Eastleigh Conservative Association has voted unanimously to elect Maria Hutchings as their candidate to fight the next general election.

Mrs Hutchings, 46, and mother of four, said "it is a huge honour and privilege that I should be selected to represent Eastleigh. We will start right now to build upon the hard work of local Conservatives to ensure a victory in the next general election. The Blair/Brown project has brought this country to its knees with stifling stealth taxes and now Brown is poised to submit even more power to the E.U. The people of Eastleigh and Great Britain deserve better and this lady is ready to deliver."

Maria Hutchings first came to our attention in February 2005 when she lambasted Tony Blair on national television for the closure of special schools and the lack of provision for disabled children.

Maria is a communications consultant and married to Stuart, 49, who is a marketing manager to a group of electronics companies.

We are absolutely thrilled to have Maria as our candidate. She is a passionate politician, full of conviction and a bundle of energy.

Eastleigh's Conservative Parliamentary Candidate

Eastleigh's Conservative Parliamentary Candidate will be announced this Saturday 29th September. Be one of the first to know his or her name. Find out here on the blog on Saturday evening.

Referendum on the EU Constitutional Treaty

Last week residents of East Stoke, a Dorset village voted in a referendum about whether the nation should be surveyed on the new legislation for the European treaty

The vote was called when a local resident, John Barnes, used an obscure provision of the 1972 Local Government Act which states that if 10 members of a parish call for a vote on any subject then the council is obliged to carry out the request.

Mr Barnes said he hoped the result would lead to further polls being held across the country to put pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call a referendum on whether to accept the treaty.

Imre Niedermayer, Hungarian-born landlord of the village pub, The Stokeford Inn, said he was happy to take the time to cast his vote as he believed the poll represented "democracy in action".

"What this is about is democracy. I was brought up under communism and unless we have a vote about this treaty and unless we are all allowed to make our contribution to politics then it is not healthy and we will end up with a police state."

If you would like to vote on this issue please select yes or no on the right. You may also post your comments below.

Britain's broken society

What are the causes of Britain's broken society? Are they

• High crime rates
• Drug abuse
• Alcoholism
• Gambling addiction
• Divorce
• Cohabitation
• One parent families
• Debt
• Television
• A lack of religious beliefs and teaching
• Poor education
• The yob culture
• Overcrowding
• Multiculturalism

What do you think? Please let me know.

A couple of statistics I came across recently are

"Half of unmarried couples separate by their child's fifth birthday. One in 12
married couples separate by their child's fifth birthday." David Cameron

Britian's broken society costs the country £102 b a year:
Family breakdown £24 b
Educational underachievement £18 b
Crime £60 b

Personal debt is now at a total of £1.38 trillion in the UK. The average debt of each family is £54, 452. 7 - 9 million people say that they have a serious problem with debt.

At least the Conservative party is trying to address these issues. Gordon Brown, like is predecessor Tony Blair, seems happy to send us further into debt.

Air pollution: the consequence of more building in Eastleigh

One effect of all the rain we have experienced recently is the tremendous growth of plants, particularly weeds. Kate and I spent a peaceful couple of hours yesterday weeding part of our allotment. We had planned to continue this morning (Saturday) but it is raining again. While we were quietly working away I was listening to all the noise around- the roar of two motorways, each about a kilometer away, the traffic on Passfield Avenue and Derby Road and the occasional take off of a plane from Southampton airport, a kilometer in the other direction.

Most of the town of Eastleigh is hemmed in between the M3 to the west, the M27 to the south and the airport to the East. The motorways are heavily congested and occasionally gridlocked. Traffic flow around the town is poor; it can sometimes take an hour to travel a couple of kilometers. Air pollution is bad. Monitoring sites in various places around the town frequently exceed UK National Air quality standards and mean annual levels are above safety limits.

Eastleigh Borough Council will soon be examining plans to build 452 houses on South Street Allotment site and an unknown number of houses on the Woodside Road Allotment site. For each new dwelling there will be an estimated additional 6 traffic movements. What will happen to the Nitrogen Dioxide levels? They will rise further. Do the people of Eastleigh want to live in an increasingly unhealthy environment?

In the 1970's I conducted a piece of research on the park lakes of Liverpool for my M. Phil. degree. The 7 Liverpool parks were constructed because "the researches of sanitary science show incontrovertibly that the general health decreases and the rate of mortality increases in proportion to the density of population in a given area......it was suggested to construct a series of parks in such a relation to each other as will secure a central line of open space, to act as a kind of lung which will in a few years be the heart of Liverpool." (Anon 1868 - quoted in my thesis).

It appears to me that those 19th century Liverpool planners were more enlightened than 21st century Lib. Dem Councillors who are intent in pushing through plans to destroy places which have been public open spaces for over 80 years. By building more houses and roads they will further damage the health of Eastleigh people.

Mean annual Nitrogen Dioxide levels at a few sites around Eastleigh



Notes
Figures are in microgrammes per cubic metre, μgm-3
The National Air quality standard for Nitrogen dioxide is a maximum annual mean of 40 μgm-3 with 200 μgm-3 as a maximum which must not be exceeded more than 18 times in a year.
References
1. http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/site_search.php
2. http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/laqm/tools.php?tool=background04
3. http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/laqm/tools/95_2004.csv
4. http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/data_and_statistics.php?

Flooding and the Eastleigh Allotments High Court Decision.

In a week where much of England has experienced exceptional rainfall and floods the people of Eastleigh have mercifully escaped. However the High Court decision this week to allow building on Eastleigh's allotments will only bring that risk of flooding closer. Just today I heard a professor from Liverpool's John Moores University stating on the radio that building houses, roads and paving gardens all increases the risk of flash floods. He urged people to keep woodlands and green spaces within towns as these absorbed up to 50% of the water falling on them.

If, as the Lib Dem run council in Eastleigh desire, these two prime sites are sold off for hundreds more houses the risk of flooding to low lying parts of Eastleigh will incrase dramatically.

We have been warned by this week's weather!

It is a sad week for Eastleigh people. A couple of years ago 14 000 people signed a petition to keep Eastleigh's South Street and Woodside allotments. Hundreds of people are on waiting lists for allotments near their homes. We are being encouraged to go green, grow our own, reduce the food miles, eat more fruit and vegetables, get fit by undertaking more exercise, plant more trees - all things which are promoted by having an allotment. Yet because of overpopulation in the South of England and poor planning of housing needs we are forced to relinquish one of our most precious assets.

Eastleigh Allotment Holders Judicial Review Appeal denied

I am publishing the Allotment Holders statement directly as released. Please let me have your views!

HIGH COURT CHALLENGE OVER ALLOTMENT SALE
JUDICIAL REVIEW PERMISSION HEARING – Monday 25th June 2007

On 12th July 2006, the Secretary of State granted permission for the disposal of South Street and Monks Way allotments in Eastleigh, Hampshire. It is our firm belief that the Secretary of State’s decision was flawed. It is an anomalous decision that is inconsistent with the requirements and application of allotments legislation and has relied upon conclusions that are factually incorrect.

Whilst the Secretary of State’s decision was of considerable disappointment to plot holders on the affected sites in Eastleigh, its potential impact upon the future of other allotments around the country is more worrying.

Today, the High Court has refused permission for Ruth Kelly’s controversial decision to be subject to a Judicial Review. This is a huge disappointment for the plot holders and supporters who have fought tirelessly for over 4½ years in a campaign not only to save the threatened sites in Eastleigh, but also to prevent the basis of protection for all statutory allotments from being undermined. By not proceeding to Judicial Review, this decision increases the uncertainty surrounding the protection that can be expected for statutory allotments across the Country. Should it result in, or even encourage, the erosion of the Country’s allotment resource, it will have helped to achieve precisely the opposite of the Government’s stated intention in 2002 to provide better protection for allotments and ensure that future demand for allotments can be met.

On behalf of the Eastleigh and Bishopstoke Allotments Association, I would like to thank everyone who has committed so much in support of this campaign and enabled us to bring it this far. Such commitment comes from a deep passion for allotment gardening and a determination to adhere to the principles of democracy.


Tim Holzer
Association Chairman

Local Conservatives

do not attempt to deceive the electorate, do not lie and do not indulge in personal attacks.

Conservatives believe in:
honest debate
the role of the family in promoting discipline and a stable society.
safe, clean, streets properly policed at all times
discipline and respect for our teachers in our schools
only more housing development where the infrastructure (water, sewers parking and roads) can cope, and where the plans are supported by local people
an independent Great Britain, the primacy of our own Parliament
strict control of immigration.

Local Conservatives will:
continue to work for the preservation of our greens and open spaces.
oppose plans to build 6000 dwellings on the ‘green belt’
seek to introduce a waste collection policy that collects rubbish, green and food waste weekly and recyclable paper and glass, fortnightly. All for free! No new charges!

News of Eastleigh Conservatives

Membership of the Conservative Party in Eastleigh Borough has increased by hundreds over the last couple of years. We are currently in the early stages of selecting our Parliamentary Candidate to lead us forward.
A new Conservative branch began in Eastleigh town last Autumn and we meet monthly to discuss local issues.
We’ve already enjoyed a party and a dinner together since the May 3rd election.

Issues facing Eastleigh

Are you concerned about these issues facing Eastleigh?

A. Litter
B. Refuse problems e.g. flies, rats and smells

Are you prepared to help do something about the problems?

Gerald Sewell is launching a clean-up campaign. Please contact him, telling of your experiences and what you think should be done about it.
Phone Gerald Sewell 023 8061 6324
Or write to him at 6 Starling Square, Eastleigh

A message to UKIP voters

We ask you to seriously consider the result of voting UKIP in the Eastleigh area.
By voting UKIP at the last General Election, you have allowed Chris Huhne, a pro- European Lib Dem to gain a slim majority and get into Parliament.
By voting for UKIP in local elections you may be keeping out anti - European Conservatives and helping pro-European Lib Dems to be elected.
Is this really what you want? Please vote Conservative next time.

Conservatives want trade with Europe, not control from corrupt Brussels Bureaucrats.

Council Offices in Winchester: the truth

Do you re-call the Lib Dems made a great fuss about the cost of the refurbishment of the Council offices in Winchester? On checking it was found this was the most economical solution to a building in a bad state of decay.

Guess what
The Lib Dems attended committee meetings on this, and at County Council gave support for the work to be carried out! How can they then go to the electorate and repeatedly slate the Conservatives for something that they had supported?

Velmore Plans withdrawn!

I've been on holiday for the past week, walking in the Austrian Tyrol and just returned today. My wife Kate and I are celebrating 25 years of wonderfully happy marriage! Our actual Silver anniversary is in the summer but we expect to be leading a comp of English and Austrian young people at the time, which won't enable us to have a romantic time together!

I am delighted to hear the news from Godfrey Olson and others. The full text of the original email reads.

Dear Member
I have this morning received a letter from the First
Wessex Housing Group withdrawing all 7 of their planning applications for the redevelopment of Velmore estate. This is to enable them "to embark opon new consultation and full engagement with the local community." They say that "once we have concluded this process incorporating their needs, we will be resubmitting a revised scheme for the estate".

Colin Peters.
Head of Development Control

Let us hope that next time those of us who care about the community can have a full imput into the planning process.

Southampton/Eastleigh merger still possible

Even after the overwhelming response to the Conservatives campaign to preserve the independence of Eastleigh Borough a merger is still possible.

Eastleigh’s Conservative leader Godfrey Olson put before the council a motion seeking to maintain Eastleigh’s independence. This motion was overwhelmingly defeated by the Liberal Democrats.

At a recent Council meeting Lib Dems stated that they wanted the borough to be part of an enlarged Southampton City region and were prepared to build a further 6000 houses in Eastleigh for Southampton workers..

Velmore Bungalows: Age Concern Report slates Atlantic Housing Association

The Age concern report on Atlantic Housing’s treatment of Velmore Residents states that ‘the whole process of consultation has been handled without compassion’ in a ‘total, matter of fact, faceless and uncaring way.’
In a meeting of the Local Area Committee on May 15th attended by about 80 angry local residents speaker after speaker called for Atlantic Housing to withdraw the plans or the Lib Dem and Labour councillors to throw them out. Sadly all the Councillors did was to postpone further consideration until June. Elderly residents must go on waiting anxiously.

A Simple Quiz by Chris Rhodes

Q. Who determines housing policy? A. The Government.
Q. Who determines where the houses have to be built? A. The Unelected Regional Assembles.
Q. Who are told by the Regional Assemblies where to build? A. County Councils and Unitary authorities.
Q. Who runs Hampshire County Council? A. Conservatives
Q. Who blames the County Council for building quotas? A. Liberal Democrats
Q. Who loves Regional Assemblies? A. Liberal Democrats
Q. Who would abolish Regional Assemblies? A. Conservatives.
Q. Who sanctions planning applications in Eastleigh? A. Liberal Democrats
Q. Who blames the County Council for overdevelopment? A. Liberal Democrats
Q. Who is lying? A. Who do you think!

Eastleigh's Spitfire roundabout. A marvellous picture by Matthew S Myatt

I met Matthew earlier this week and he kindly offered me this marvellous picture of the spitfire. Matthew is a very gifted local photographer who can be contacted on www.adhdsupport.info

News of the election

A big thank you to all 525 of you who voted Conservative in Eastleigh South last Thursday. We managed to increase the number of votes cast for Conservatives by an amazing 76% (from 298 to 525). The events of the count were very exciting, with first Liberal Democrats thinking they had won by 15 votes, only for 20 votes for Labour to be found in the recount. Another spoilt Lib Dem ballot paper meant that eventually Labour won the seat by 6 votes. The actual figures were UKIP 180, Lib Dem 766, Lab 772, Con 525. Despite the tremendous successes nationally for Conservatives, it was a bad night for Conservatives, Labour, and the people of Eastleigh. The Lib Dems gained both Conservative seats and one of the two Labour seats. Only you, the Conservatives of South Eastleigh (many of whom had previously voted Lib Dem) stopped them making a clean sweep and sending a man from Hiltingbury to the Council as our representative.

The electorate has been conned
The Lib Dem newsletters were full of misinformation and spin and seem to have conned thousands of people into voting for them. Senior members of the party say they have never experienced such a filthy campaign by one party and a legal team is examining a number of their publications and certain voting irregularities.
One of the Lib Dem newsletters published in Eastleigh South has already been denounced by the Velmore Residents Association as "a complete lie."
The Lib Dems have been forced to apologise to the Eastleigh News Extra for producing a publication of the same name.

Lib Dem lies
One of the lies told by Lib Dems is that "an Eastleigh Conservative has launched a website campaigning AGAINST Eastleigh's planned cinema and leisure complex - SPOILTSPORT". We believe that they are referring to this site. The site was launched last November. The only mention of the cinema on this blog, before today, was the entry on April 11 which included a map of the town and an arrow showing
“New Cinema Complex – more traffic movements & parking problems”.
Hardly a website campaigning against the cinema! Incidentally, in an autumn 2006 newsletter the Lib Dems stated that work is not starting on the site until "after Christmas so there is no disruption in the town centre over the busy shopping period." Some of us have been waiting for this cinema for 8 years. Which Christmas are they referring to?

The Conservative Party
Tonight the Conservative team from Eastleigh South is having a party. We believe in celebrating success and rewarding our hard working activists. Next Wednesday evening (9th May) we begin to plan for the next 12 months. If you appreciate what we are trying to do for Eastleigh and want to help us move forward, please do get in touch. We would be delighted to send you membership details.

Allotments for all

Allotments for all. There are over 200 people onthe Eastleigh waiting list forallotments. We are losing prime sites like South Streetand Woodside and beingoffered motorway embankments in their place.
Allotment gardening is booming. People are turning green by cutting down food miles and growing their own. As an allotment holder in Burns Close, I am in favour of creating more allotment sites in our town.

Preserving our green spaces

Rather than building on our greens we believe Eastleigh Borough should offer financial rewards for any local community who comes up with a design to enhance their green space. Children and young people should be involved and begin to take pride in and ownership of their local area. Local groups might work together to design a garden, create an allotment, build an adventure playground, install a sculpture or a stone table tennis table or a wall for hitting tennis balls and kicking footballs against. They may prefer to restore an old boat for children to clamber over and play games in. It could be a tank or a plane or an old truck or a gipsy caravan ( not scrap rubbish but something attractive). Teenagers may grow attached to the feature as a place to chill, and if there were a number of these features around our estates it might help to keep young people in their local areas rather than roaming around in gangs. Of course it may not work, but "nothing ventured, nothing gained" as my Father used to say..

I came across a great idea tonight. We should make more of our roundabouts! Many French ones are really nicely presented, often with pieces of sculpture or a boat and fishing nets or something characteristically local on it. Why don't Eastleigh do the same? We could rent out the space to firms prepared to put some interesting feature on the island with some discrete advertising. Currently we have just one really good island -the Spitfire roundabout with Eastleigh's own Spitfire aircraft on it. Why don't we have more of these sorts of pride generating symbols around the town?

P.S. Has anyone got a decent picture of the Spitfire roundabout for this blog?

Council Tax: the burden on pensioners

In a full Council meeting this year the Conservatives proposed a 4% reduction on Council tax for pensioners. This would have cost the Borough £20,000. Guess what! The other parties voted it out.

What Atlantic Housing don't want you to know

In January the Conservatives prepared the newsletter shown in the photo for you. We had applied for permission from Eastleigh Borough Council (EBC) to publish the two drawings on 24th December 2006. From December until early March we were passed back and forward between Atlantic Housing (AHA) and EBC until eventually AHA refused us permission to print because they said our prints did not do their designs justice. We wanted everyone to know what the plans look like. Atlantic Housing don’t.

What is wrong with the plan?
• It fails to take into account the needs and desires of local residents.
• It does not offer existing bungalow dwellers a chance to continue living on the estate in a bungalow.
• It seeks to move people (such as 94 year old Dorothy Bell) from their homes.
• Overdevelopment. In Kent Road 6 bungalows will be demolished and 32 two bedroom flats will be constructed.
• Lack of car parking facilities. In Westfield Crescent there are plans for 24 new dwellings but only 18 car parking places, including 8 for registered disabled. Where will the remainder of cars be parked and where will visitors park?
• More parking problems. The bungalows on Belmont road will be demolished and be replaced by houses. Car parking places will be behind the houses on the service roads. These will not be used much as homeowners and visitors park on the road. So there is likely to be double parking on Belmont road, which is already heavily used at rush hours.
• Worsening traffic flow around the borough.
• Overloading of Eastleigh’s Sewers.

What the Conservatives propose
• Preparation of an overall plan for the estate in phases over 7-10 years.
• No-one over 75 should be expected to move unless they wish.
• Start with an area where most properties are vacant building 2 bedroom bungalows. These would be offered exclusively to existing bungalow dwellers who are prepared to move.
• Slowly replace all the bungalows with new 2 bedroom bungalows.
• Build some bungalows with small private back gardens and some with communal gardens. Build bungalows around courtyards with central parking to maintain a sense of community.
• Build at least as many bungalows as are currently on the estate. Only then consider building houses or flats.
• If demand is proven, build sheltered housing similar to Surrey Court.
• Provide abundant off road parking in front of the houses, not behind.
• All social facilities to be provided by AHA as development takes place.
• Improve the sewage system and the road system before these or any more house are built in Chandlers Ford and Eastleigh.

Velmore bungalows – what happens next?
Liberal democrats know that passing the 7 Atlantic housing applications just before an election is a vote looser. So they have postponed the April meeting for a report from Age Concern until after the elections on Tuesday May 15th when a determination will be.
What is the Local Area Committee? It is the group of elected councillors from the town of Eastleigh. At present there are the 10 elected councillors for the town of Eastleigh; 7 Liberal democrats, 2 Labour and 1 Independent. But the constitution of that committee could be changed by your vote in the elections on May 3rd.
Is there any way to stop these crazy plans? Yes!
1. Get rid of Liberal Democrat Councillors and replace them with councillors like Robert Quane (Con, Eastleigh Central) and Andrew Ross who will say “NO.” Your vote is important. Please stop these dreadful things happening to our town. Vote Conservative.
2. Attend the meeting in the Committee room, Borough Offices, Leigh Road at 7 pm on Tuesday May 15th.

It's time for a change!

We have now had 12 years of incompetent government by the Liberal Democrats in Eastleigh.

They are building everywhere they can. This raises income from developers contributions to the council (e.g. £250.000 for the Pirelli’s site) and by bigger receipts in Council tax.

But little has been done to improve the state of the roads, to provide more parking and to improve the sewers. Look at the current plans for South Eastleigh!

What will be the consequences of all this development for the people of Eastleigh?

A message for the Liberal Democrats Give us our money back!

Eastleigh Borough Council received £250,000 from developers of the Pirelli estate which has been earmarked for improving Grantham Green.

Where has it gone ?
£2,039 spent on internal staff time
£1,135 for Topographical survey
(Wait for it - it becomes worse) A whopping £17,030 for the Planning Policy Engineers time.
Now it becomes serious;
The cost of a small trampolinewas a staggering £12,847.

An email from the Council states, “Officer’s time is being spent working on a new scheme and further consultation is underway.”

“The nature of the scheme is still to be decided and it is hoped to take an initial report to Cabinet in April 2007. Costs incurred will be charged against the developers and it is estimated that to complete the design and consultation process will cost approximately £30,000”

We already pay our council staff out of the Council Tax, now we are being charged a second time for the same service!!

The conservatives want the money back.

“Give the people the power to decide what to do and let them manage the money to implement their plans.”

Elderly asked to move out

“Atlantic Housing Limited are pestering us to move out of our bungalows“ according to Dorothy Bell of Kent Road.

Dorothy is a sprightly 94 years young and has lived on the Velmore Estate for 42 years, twelve of them in Kent Road. But, both she and her neighbour have had several phone calls from the ominously named Resettlement Officer for Velmore.

Dorothy told us that the Resettlement Officer “phones now and again and keeps on about getting us out of the bungalows. She tries to get people to go to meetings. My neighbour is being pestered too. People who live in other parts of Eastleigh are worried sick that they will be the next.”

We understand that around 25 of the 123 bungalows have become vacant and will not receive new tenants as Atlantic Housing Limited awaits a determination on May 12th on whether they can demolish 123 bungalows and build 120 flats, 78 houses and just 37 two bedroomed bungalows.

Andrew Ross is the Conservative candidate for Eastleigh South. With your help on May 3rd he will begin a long tenure as your councillor and, amongst many important issues to be addressed, will work hard to effect a sensible housing policy within a coherent local plan.

Keith House refuses to listen to the people of Eastleigh

A couple of years ago 13 000 people in Eastleigh signed a petition opposing the taking away of allotments in Woodside and South Street from the people for more housing development. Since then we have been fighting the council and at times the Government over the land.

I have two allotments in Burns Close and I fear that they will soon be under attack from Councillors eager to sell off council land for further development. So I am supporting the fight to retain South Street and Woodside Allotments.

The following is an extract from Cllr. House’s budget speech to Full Council on Monday evening, 26 February 2007. Keith House is leader of the Liberal Democrats in Eastleigh Borough.
The full speech is available via a link on EBC’s home page: http://www.eastleigh.gov.uk/

Cllr. House said:

It has been a year of success for our communities.
But to be candid it has been a frustrating year too.
At the Swan Centre, a stack of legal and tender delays have held up our new cinema and bowling leisure scheme, such that work has still not yet started though the signs are still that it will before the spring is out.

And north of Lakeside, the Council’s proposal for new housing and a wide range of highway and leisure improvements cleared its final approvals from government, only to be immersed in a legal challenge to the Secretary of State’s decision that has still to finally be resolved. Justice moves slowly, not helped by the small number of people who are delaying the provision of major benefits for the town.

As I said last year:
“With consent for 432 new homes, of which 149 will be affordable rented, shared ownership and keyworker homes, we can make real progress in meeting housing need. Secondly, we will create, through high quality design, a clear and definable urban edge to the south of the town. And thirdly we will achieve investment in new walkways through housing areas to the Country Park, improvements to the Country Park itself, new play areas and cycle routes in the south of town, and a fund to stimulate urban regeneration in the town centre.”

There is a lot at stake.

It is everyone’s right to use the courts to further their own cause. And I acknowledge that this package has been controversial with some. But I really do wonder how a small number of people can sleep easily in their beds, knowing they are denying beds to those in greater need than themselves.

So yes, it has been a successful if a frustrating year.”

Tony Murrills, Secretary of Eastleigh Allotments Association says

Contrary to the impression given by Cllr. House, the principles being fought for by the allotments community are of great importance and the outcome of this case could seriously affect hundreds of thousands of allotment holders throughout the Country. It is a fundamental matter of upholding the law, not, as suggested, just a few difficult plot-holders holding up the Council's plans.

What do you think? Should our council be allowed to flout the law and build wherever they like? Or should existing residents have any say about what happens in their town? Post your comments below.

Come to picturesque Eastleigh

When I first came to Eastleigh about seven years ago I was impressed with the tidiness of the environment and the cleanliness of the streets. However, things have gone sadly and badly downhill over the last seven years. Our Liberal Democrat council appointed 37 new car parking attendants a couple of years ago, but they seem to have cut back on all the street cleaning and repair services.

I wonder what visitors from overseas countries such as Austria, which is incredibly clean, think of our town. I would be too embarrassed to invite anyone to walk around these streets in south Eastleigh.

Councillor Airey is Liberal Democrat Cabinet Member for Transport and Streetscene. While the streets around the town centre have been given a facelift, nothing seems to have been done in Eastleigh South.

Councillor Bloom is Liberal Democrat Cabinet Member for the Environment. She boasted recently that Refuse collection was down 25 tons a week. We know where it all goes! Little seems to be done to stop littering our streets. Imagine what it will be like if the Council start charging for refuse collection? There will be even more fly tipping.

Bungalows: the people have spoken

In a packed meeting of over 100 people at Velmore Chapel, organised by the Residents Association, the people of Velmore gave a resounding “NO” to the plans of Atlantic Housing Association.

AHA wish to demolish all 123 bungalows on the estate and build 120 flats, 78 houses and just 37 two bedroom bungalows. Where do they expect bungalow dwellers to go? Into flats like the ones shown on this page? We support the Residents Association in their endeavours to stop these plans and say “Think again, AHA.”

Bungalows give more domestic contentment than any other type of home, more than penthouse flats and even country mansions in the nation’s affections, according to a survey by Halifax.
Atlantic Housing is a “not for profit” company who should be seeking the wellbeing of residents and the whole community, not making money out of cramming as many homes into the area as possible.


What is our council doing to Eastleigh?

Local Liberal democrat councillors may say it is a disgrace to rip the heart out of Velmore in newsletters. Yet some of these councillors will sit on the very local area committee that will consider and eventually determine these applications.

Eastleigh Borough Council’s Liberal Democrats hold 34 out of 44 seats on the council. They are committed to granting planning permission for between 615 and 720 houses on brownfield sites in the Borough this year, next year and right up to 2011 and then building similar numbers of dwellings on greenfield sites.


What is wrong with the plan?

• It fails to take into account the needs and desires of local residents.


• It does not offer existing bungalow dwellers a chance to continue living on the estate in a bungalow.


• It seeks to move people (such as a blind 94 year old) from their homes.


• Overdevelopment. In Kent Road 6 bungalows will be demolished and 32 two bedroom flats will be constructed.


• Lack of car parking facilities. In Westfield Crescent there are plans for 24 new dwellings but only 18 car parking places, including 8 for registered disabled. Where will the remainder of cars be parked and where will visitors park?


• More parking problems. The bungalows on Belmont Road will be demolished and be replaced by houses. Car parking places will be behind thehouses on the service roads. Experience elsewhere in the Borough suggeststhat they are often not used as home owners and visitors park on the road. So there is likely to be double parking on Belmont road, which is already heavily used at rush hours.


• Worsening traffic flow around the borough at rush hour. Firms are moving out of Eastleigh because it can take an hour to travel a couple of miles.


• Overloading of Eastleigh’s Sewers. In the Autumn of 2006 the Eastleigh sewers overflowed 3 times in certain roads discharging untreated sewage into the road. With another 120 dwellings coming on stream the situation is likely to get worse.

What the Conservatives propose

• Preparation of an overall plan for the estate.


• A phased development over 7-10 years.


• No-one over 75 should be expected to move unless they wish.


• Start with an area where most properties are vacant building 2 bedroom bungalows. Tese would be offered exclusively to existing bungalow dwellers who are prepared to move.


• Slowly replace all the bungalows with new bungalows. Make most two bedroom.


• Build some bungalows with small private back gardens and some with communal gardens. Build bungalows around courtyards with central parking to maintain a sense of community.


• Build at least as many bungalows as are currently on the estate. Only then consider building houses or flats.


• If demand is proven, sheltered housing similar to Surrey Court should be built.


• Provide abundant off road parking in front of the houses, not behind.


• All social facilities to be provided by AHA as the redevelopment takes place.


• Improve the sewage system and the road system before these or any more house are built in Chandlers Ford and Eastleigh.

Is Politics dead?

By Mark Greene Christianity p 56-58, December 2005

For far too long programmes like Question time and Any Questions have been treated by politicians as opportunities to take pot shots at the opposition: ”When you were in power”, “When we were in power”, “Not our fault, it was you.” All this sounds like a pair of ten year olds squabbling round the dinner table over who was to blame for spilling the milk. I’m all for snap crackle and pop in debate, but what we have is nit, pick and squabble. And “squabbletics” is simply wearisome.

Similarly, the political interview, a genre whose tone is increasingly infected by Paxman’s reductive gladiatorial style has, as I have written before in Christianity, been reduced to a verbal fight

In which the politician’s chief aim seems to be to avoid getting bludgeoned by the interviewer. Paxo is all onion and no sage and has poisoned all political conversation with the sulphur of suspicion.

………………………………………………………………..

How on earth, for example, can a Labour party apparently concerned for the poor countenance the further development of a gambling culture which has already been shown, like the lottery, to aggravate the plight of the poor in every country that has a lottery?

How can the party that cries “Education, education, education” possibly pursue its policy of closing grammar schools in Northern Ireland when their results at GCSE and A level continue to outperform the rest of the country and when the comprehensive system has signally failed to produce the social mobility that it was designed to deliver?

Kind Words won’t fix a terminally ill NHS

By Liz Hunt, Daily Telegraph 30 Dec 2006

Ten years after Tony Blair claimed there were only 24 hours to save it, and following billions of extra investment (from £34 billion in 1997 to £81 billion this year), the system that we see lurching from crisis to crisis is surely teetering on the brink.

Across England and Wales, hospitals are struggling to balance budgets by shedding jobs and shutting wards. At the same time, morale among staff, the health service's most precious resource, is rock bottom. Restructuring of training – Modernising of Medical Careers – was initially welcomed, but has been badly implemented. It could result in as many as 11,500 junior doctors being out of work or in dead-end jobs. Despite a national shortage of physiotherapists, 90 per cent of graduates couldn't get a post this year. Half of the newly qualified nurses, four out of 10 radiographers, eight out of 10 new speech and language therapists and two thirds of midwifery graduates are in the same boat. And all this after the Government invested heavily in training and increased recruitment.

Then again, the hallmark of New Labour is incompetence, waste and short-termism, and nowhere is that more evident at the end of 2006 than in the NHS.