Referendum or no referendum?

At the last general election in 2005 all three main parties promised a referendum on the planned European Constitution. Where is that referendum? Well it is being held in 10 constituencies across the UK but sadly without all party Parliamentary support.
Our Parliament is currently debating whether we should accept the Lisbon treaty or not. When will Parliament give us a referendum on that? If, at a referendum, the United Kingdom rejects the Lisbon treaty then we should have Mr Clegg's referendum on whether we should be in or out of Europe. Step by step our country can make decisions. The people: Parliament: The People. Simple!

Lib Dem Councillors vote to destroy part of Recreation ground

At last week's meeting of the Local area committee (Monday 18th February) six Lib Dem councillors voted to extend the Point, Eastleigh's Community dance centre further into the Recreation Ground, Eastleigh’s Protected urban green space.
The proposals will allow for the creation of new dance studios, a link building and alterations to existing buildings. 150 square metres of land is to be lost including Sid the Sycamore tree which has been the subject of a major conservation effort by people from Eastleigh.(see http://www.everyoneweb.com/savesid/).

Sid is now a famous tree having featured on Meridian tonight and being available to view on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra-XYQY_Cag

Although Planning regulation 58 BE Urban Greenspace states "The Council will not permit development on a greenspace which is identified on the proposals map, unless as part of a comprehensive redevelopment it is replaced by a greenspace of equal and improved amount, quality and accessibility," the Councillors plan to completely disregard this regulation. The planning proposals also admit that this proposal is "technically not according with the requirements of PPG 17 to retain all public open space." Elsewhere the planning application states "Strictly speaking in accordance with PPG 17 this policy should be applied to all sports and recreational uses such as The Point," but the report goes on to state, "it is not considered that the open space being lost is significant." Currently there are no proposals to give back any land to the people of Eastleigh to replace these 150 square metres because they say that they are improving the area.

So not only have they broken their own planning rules under 58BE, they have twisted national planning policy PPG 17 to their own ends and, if this was not enough, they have broken major planning rules under PPS 9. This states that trees should not be removed if they “enhance biodiversity in green spaces and among developments so that they are used by wildlife and valued by people, recognising that healthy functional ecosystems can contribute to a better quality of life and add to people’s sense of well being.”
PPS 9 also states that “developments must take account of the role and value of biodiversity in supporting economic diversification and contributing to a high quality environment” and that “if significant harm cannot be prevented to such tree’s, then planning permission should be REFUSED.”

So our Liberal Democrat Councillors are continuing to break the planning laws of this town They did it on a much bigger scale when they allowed the Pavilion in the park to be built on the green fields of the Fleming Park Golf course and they got away with it then. This allowed the Council to sell off the site of the Nightingale Centre for another 30 odd flats and 10 houses. You would think that the miillions of pounds that the council make from selling land (it is reputed to be around £10m for the sale of South Street allotments) would allow them to reduce Council tax and local charges, not put them up further. These Lib. Dem councillors are slowly destroying our town and they must be stopped.

If you are concerned about these issues please contact me asap. See more about Sid on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaOXpRIDOIW.

Pictures of Matthew Myatt and his son in front of Sid and

the six Lib Dem councillors who voted for this plan. Their names are (from top to bottom)

Councillor Peter Wall (Lib Dem)

Councillor Glynn Davies-Dear (Lib Dem)

Councillor Andy Moore (Lib Dem)

Councillor Wayne Irish (Lib Dem)

Councillor Chris Thomas (Lib Dem)

Councillor Jenny Head (Lib Dem)

Maria moves to Eastleigh

Maria Hutchings has moved to Eastleigh! After months of waiting for exchange of contracts at last the Hutchings family contract has been exchanged and she is moving in. She has been incredibly busy since her selection last autumn so now she will be able to do even more to help the people of Eastleigh.

The Referendum on Europe

With Eastleigh in the middle of a referendum on Europe it is perhaps worthwhile thinking about those two questions on the ballot paper:

1. Should the United Kingdom hold a national referendum on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty: yes or no?
2. Should the United Kingdom adopt the EU’s Lisbon treaty: yes or no?

Parliament is currently debating the new European Union Treaty called the Lisbon treaty which would give significant powers to the EU. MPs are going to decide whether Britain should accept the Treaty and whether to give people a say in a national referendum.

Currently most Labour and Lib. Dem MPs are in favour of accepting the European Treaty while many Conservative MPs are opposed to accepting it.

Can we trust the M.P.s to do the right thing? Well first we need to know what people think. That is the reason for having a referendum in 10 constituencies nationally and we are fortunate to be one of those. Our vote is supposed to represent the South East of England.

Personally I am in favour of being in Europe but not ruled by it. As the Lisbon treaty seeks to extend its rule over 60 of our vetoes I am against accepting the Lisbon treaty. In fact I would rather be out of Europe than accept the treaty. Why?

1. A secret European Parliament report has uncovered “extensive, widespread and criminal abuse” by MEPs of staff allowances worth almost £100 m a year. Many are illegally claiming £125 000 a year for staff and then disbursing it as they wish.
2. For 13 years in a row the European Court of Auditors has refused to endorse the European budget. However the MEPs have voted through the money anyway.
3. If MEPs cannot run their own accounts honestly are they the right people to be in charge of our taxes, our foreign policy, our laws and our borders?
4. The Lisbon Treaty will give them 60 new areas where they can make laws that affect us. Britain, by enlarge, obeys these European rulings, the rest of Europe, by enlarge, ignores them. So we as a nation are constantly shooting ourselves in the foot.

May I encourage all my readers to think carefully through these issues, vote in the referendum and make your views known to our MP and ex MEP who is one of the most pro- European people around.

We want a referendum!

A report of a meeting held on Saturday 16th Feb. 2008 at the Railway Institute.

Yesterday afternoon I attended a meeting at the Railway Institute in Eastleigh organised by the I want a referendum.com campaign. I had heard various bits about this referendum in the media which has been organised in 10 constituencies in Britain but wasn’t very sure what was going to happen at the meeting. It proved to be a very interesting time!

The meeting was hosted by a Michael Taylor of the “I want a Referendum” campaign who was at pains to say that he was politically neutral and had voted for all 3 parties in recent years. On the platform was Daniel Hannan, Hampshire’s MEP, Richard Robinson, prospective MEP, and Maria Hutchings, Eastleigh’s prospective Parliamentary candidate. There was a place set for Chris Huhne, but he didn’t turn up. The audience seemed fairly evenly divided between UKIP, Conservative and Lib. Dems. I didn’t discern that there were any Labour supporters present, perhaps they are not interested in Europe?

There were some good speeches from Michael Taylor, Maria and Daniel followed by a lengthy question and answer time.

The most interesting points for me were:

The Lisbon treaty is very similar to the Constitution which was rejected by two nations recently. It would effectively make the EU into a country with a head of state, a foreign policy, the power of coercive force and allow it to be recognised by other nations.

Many people spoke of the loss of Britain’s national sovereignty and the increasing control over Britain by Europe and felt this was a step too far. The general feeling seemed to be a preference “to be in Europe, but not controlled by it.”

When Daniel Hannan was challenged (by a UKIP guy I think) why the Conservatives had voted for the Maarstricht treaty he asked how many people who were old enough had voted for it. About 2/3 of the people in the room put up their hands while 1/3 of the audience had voted against it. Daniel explained that this was roughly in lines with the national vote. People thought they were voting for a common market, not national unification. They had been hoodwinked by the politicians (particularly the European ones). He then asked how many would vote for the Lisbon Treaty now. One person was in favour with almost everyone else against. He explained that this was like the Conservative party, they had made a mistake supporting the Maarstricht treaty and should not make the same mistake supporting this one.

One questioner suggested that it was as if the European train was hurtling along towards full unification and that we needed a referendum to give us as a nation an opportunity to stop the train briefly so that we could consider whether we wanted to stay on the train or get off.

A member of the audience explained that Chris Huhne was opposed to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but wanted a referendum on the whole issue of whether to be in Europe or not. Evidently he is starting his own campaign for a “real referendum”. This seems rather bizarre as Huhne was a European MEP and has really profited financially from Europe as well as being one of the most pro- European Lib. Dems. Before the last election Huhne promised the Eastleigh electorate that he would support a referendum on the European Union’s Constitutional Treaty. He has gone back on that promise, refusing to support a referendum on the treaty in his own constituency and yet wants his own idea of a referendum on whether to be in or out of Europe.

There were some interesting discussions between UKIP and Conservative supporters, with UKIP members expressing their surprise that Conservatives were so Eurosceptic and Conservatives urging UKIP voters to vote Conservative to install a more like minded MP and kick out a strongly pro-European MP.

The meeting ended after about 75 minutes with the platform speakers urging all present to use this opportunity to vote on a referendum. Some Eastleigh people will not have received a voting form because they ticked a box on the Electoral list form saying that they did not want to be contacted by 3rd parties. If they wish to receive a ballot paper they must call 0208 365 8909 within a few days. Voting closes on 25th February.