Supporting Local Boozers.

Friday 5th February

Its difficult having just one 'local boozer' when you're involved in local politics. With my area of operations extending across four villages because of the various hats I wear, I've found over the last year or so that I frequent several pubs for business and pleasure feeling equally at home in all of them.

So, if I'm in Windlesham, I'm generally enjoying Conrad Sturt's hospitality at the Half Moon; if West End, then Gerry Price at 'The Inn'; if I'm in Bagshot it's Lizzie at 'The Fighting Cocks'; Camberley Town Centre, then either Martin Lock at 'The Carpenter's Arms' or occasionally Ben & Nina at 'RSVP'. And in each of these I always feel that I am cordially welcomed.

Last week, I was actually invited to 'The Half Moon' by Conrad although this one was for business, rather than for pleasure. Conrad had organised a meeting of the 'Six Villages Pub Watch', in order to discuss national and local brewing matters and other areas of concern for the local hospitality trade. I was there in my capacity as Vice-Chairman of the Borough Licensing Committee, along with Michael Gove MP and the Police, although the operators in the main seemed happy with the functions provided by the Borough Council; main concern from operators seemed to be their decreasing purchasing power with the breweries.

Another point which struck a chord was employment law and the manner in which employers were increasingly being seen as the enemy with regards to the management of employees. Gerry Price had mentioned this before at the previous week's Business Breakfast and mentioned that he had to pay increasingly dear insurance premiums to protect his business from the claims of employees. Its a tricky one, for while I support the idea that all employees require some degree of protection from unscrupulous employers, businesses - and in particular small businesses, without the resources for massive HR departments - need protecting from unscrupulous employees too. My business had experienced a similar case in recent years with a groundworker who had unilaterally decided that he no longer liked groundwork and we had similarly determined that in some cases employment carried onerous penalties for the small businessman: we switched to contracting as a direct result.

I had to agree with Gerry. with businesses under mounting financial pressure, a simplification of the rules is required and overdue.

Silly bloggers!

Thursday 28th January

Since my election in May 2009, I've had less and less time to spend online at a desk surfing the web. The effect of this has been two-fold. Firstly, I've stopped buying Jaguar parts that I really don't need off ebay; and secondly, that I haven't become one of the 170,000 strong cult that is the monthly readership of Tory commentator and professional blogger, Iain Dale.

The local Tory 'Curzon Supper Club' met on Thursday evening at 'The Half Moon' in Windlesham, with Iain Dale as special guest and after dinner speaker. A taller man than he looks in the pictures, Iain was able to provide us not only with an insight into blogs, but also some very interesting anecdotes about some of the major players in British politics, some of whom Iain had dealings with personally; Peter Mandelson, to drop but one name.

Iain also talked about the campaign trail as a Tory Parliamentary Candidate and his desire to become selected once again to fight the forthcoming election as a candiate. But given his nose for information and his ability ably demonstrated thus far, I for one think that would be a loss to the media world; which has so far for example seen a recent survey deem him the 66th most influential man in Britain, one in front of the Foreign Secretary and would be leader of the Labour Party, David Milliband.

***

The 'Curzon Supper Club' meets periodically and traditionally encourages less traditional Tories as guests. For more information about the next dinner contact the Chairman, Robin Horsley.

A New Mosque in Surrey Heath.

Tuesday 26th February.

Or rather a new building to house the existing mosque.
Or rather
not.

More on this later.









Update - http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/news/news.htm?mode=10&pk_news=713

Business in Bagshot

Tuesday 26th January

As a man with a business in Bagshot, I was cordially invited to the inaugural meeting of the recently formed 'Bagshot Business Association'.

This is a project that the ubiqitous Glyn Carpenter has had in mind for quite some time - we have discussed it at length for at least eighteen months - and I was keen to support the project in order to emulate what the 'Lightwater Business Association' does for Lightwater.

The meeting was very well attended by about 25 business owners and I certainly felt a surge of enthusiasm by members keen to work together and drive Bagshot up the ladder in terms of a place to do business.

It was a timely event. I was able to subsequently complement my attendence at this meeting by joining Borough Councillors and local business leaders at the Surrey Heath Business Breakfast the following morning. During the meeting I asked the Leader of the Council, Cllr Moira Gibson about a subject close to the hearts of the BBA - that of car parks. The BBA reported a drop of about 20% in trade since the imposition of charging in the Bagshot car park, which I duly reported to those present. Moira reminded us all that a review of those charges was to take place in October once a years data had been collected.

Afterwards I discussed the subject with the SHBC Car Parks Manager, Ron Matthews, who was keen to point out that the machines - in addition to taking money - also provided the sort of data that would enable further accuracy in determing charges in the future. Ron also promised me some new signs, due in February.

Bus Budgets.

Monday 25th January

The matter of the bus review had been raised as early as October 2009 as part of the review of transportation services, but this week saw a flurry of emails to my inbox as the consultation end-date neared.
And rightly so - while the service is heavily subsidised, parents of children who use the service should rightly have a say in its future.

Locally, Lavinia Sealy took the lead on this one and held a meeting in order to address the increasing alarm. Regrettably the County information provision had not been clear and while our division was, as part of Phase 2, due for formal consultation in 2010/11, it was deemed appropriate to seek all representations on the subject in before the initial Phase 1 deadline. Just to be sure.

More information on the consultations can be found at www.surreycc.gov.uk/consultations.
Please click on "Your buses Your say" and then on "School special services bus review"
Comments can also be emailed direct to busreview@surreycc.gov.uk or please call the Surrey County Council contact centre on 03456 009 009


Please make your representations and encourage other parents to do the same.

Snow Debrief.

Tuesday 19th January.

In amongst the formal meetings conducted at County Hall, each political group holds periodic 'Group' meetings to enable a forum for more informal discussion about matters affecting the council. Our Conservative Group has also spawned a 'Backbench Forum' where all non-cabinet members are permitted full vent...

This week County Council Budgets were at the top of the agenda with most of the discussion concerning how 'frontline' services would be maintained in the face of central government cuts. The other topic of conversation was of course the snow and the performance of the authority in tackling it.

Notwithstanding the 'deer in the headlights' outlook of elements of the highways contractors - what? still no sand in the bins? - considerable Surrey stocks were 'Shanghai-ed' so that only limited salt supply made it out for the benefit of residents. I say again; it was a political decision all the way down from Downing St and came down to rationing, so that marginals could benefit.

There were a number of issues that were raised and I supported the case in the strongest terms that some sort of enquiry be started as to that performance. In particular I have issues regards the way that the main housing areas in this division - in particular Connaught Park, Snow's Ride and Briar Avenue - were all inaccessible and cut off for several days. It follows that there's no point having hospitals open if residents can't leave and ambulances can't get into those cul de sacs.
David Ivison, Chairman of the Transport Select Committee was similarly enthused and has subsequently persuaded the leadership that a 'wash up' be made.

In the meantime, I have also spoken with our Highways Teams, Borough officers and the Parish members about a number of more tactical methods that might be employed during the next 'event'. Ranging from 'Road Teams' with shovels through to dispensing residents with bags of sand, I shall continue to press for a more collaborative response and as importantly find out the final position on the salt bins.

Note: A note on the 2009 change of road gritting priorities.
A number of residents have asked me to press for a change in the prioritisation of roads on the basis that roads that were gritted in 2008 were not so done this time. Initially I thought that this might be the answer to the problem, but it seems not. Many Priority 1 roads weren't gritted at all and I sense that given the same circumstances, they wouldn't be again; so upping the priority isn't necessarily the answer. I shall await the full report of the abovementioned enquiry, but as far as I'm concerned residents would have enabled themselves to get out if they'd only had the appropriate aggregates to do so. And that takes us back to more grit not taken by Cheshire, and aggregate in the salt bins.

County Council Thankful for the Weather

Friday 15th January

The rise in temperature, that is.

You the taxpayers, through the administration of the County Council, provide us members with a BlackBerry Wireless Device. These devices are effectively hand held laptops with a phone function, and while I personally use an iPhone - which actually I prefer owing to the applications and operating system - it is extremely useful to be able to be accessible on the move. Particularly when these days people are increasingly using emails to communicate.

During the last fortnight's snow, I might almost have used the heat produced by the device from the many, many emails received by both residents, county officers and members in respect of the whole gritting and salt bins question, to melt much of the snow. While I managed to respond to most, I did direct most enquiries to the blog here and to the CC website where for information, but it was clear that on the ground at least that the authority was lacking in certain areas.

Clearly, the lack of grit proved to be an insurmountable problem.
The LGA (Local Government Association) - the association that represents local councils - advised central government in October that stocks were low and yet no-body actioned anything until December, when salt was ordered.
But of course not enough.
The stocks that the County did have were then further fettered by a government keen to redistribute, which means that not only salt bins and P2 routes have suffered with a lack of supply that would enable gritting, but also P1s and even some 'A' roads were omitted.

Fortunately, the County just about managed to meet its statutory obligations: the fleet of gritters continued to salt the county’s 'A' roads and routes to those hospitals with accident and emergency departments, and indeed to schools where examinations were being taken.
But notwithstanding that, with the salt bins, P2's and even some P1's being abandoned, we had a local situation here with entire residential estates cut off for days, doctor's surgeries inaccessible and a system that failed to replenish sand stocks even after that update appeared upon the County Council website.

This simply is not good enough.

I shall therefore be directing a similar report to Ian Lake, SCC Transport Portfolio Holder in order to determine specifically the rationale that led to a change in road and salt bin prioritisation last year and what specifically the council will do to ensure that a similar situation does not arise next time. I'm particularly concerned by the fact that our village communities seemed marooned, while other areas within Surrey were not so.

Similarly, I shall be asking Chris Rowbotham, SHBC Built Environment Portfolio Holder about the Borough responsibility for footway clearing.

I imgaine that both answers are likely to be budgetary, but if other rural counties suffering with similar supply can get it right, then why can't we?

Twitter & Iain Dale for dinner

Tuesday 12th January

My 'Twitter' experiment is developing. I had originally envisaged recruiting a number of local 'followers', but the experiement has led me to begin using the format as an up-to-the-minute news feed.

Effectively, 'Twitter' works on the basis of each account holder signing up to get updates from - or following - other account holders, thereby being consistently updated by those account holders as to their daily -or indeed hourly - exertions. I have started to follow not only several individuals, but also companies, brands and news companies with the result that when I log on to 'Twitter', whether it be from home, the office or even on the move from my iPhone, I have a one page update on all the matters that I am interested in.
So for example, last week I was consistently updated by 'Sky News' about the weather & travel, 'The New Statesman' about the coup that never was and Iain Dale, Tory political blogger about the 'Robinson Affair', all at the touch of a button, or in my case a sweep of the screen.

I don't have time to regularly follow Iain's online blog, but I do find some of his 'tweets' quite useful in pointing up items of Tory interest, particularly the Westminster comment. As such, I am looking forward to meeting him in a fortnight's time at an opportunity occasioned by a meeting of the locally based 'Curzon Supper Club', held at 'The Half Moon' pub in Windlesham on Thursday 28th January and asking him about blogging, party prospects and other elements of his 'Twitter' experience.

Tickets for this dinner are available from Robin Horsley - http://curzonsupperclub.blogspot.com/

'Thar She Blows!'

Saturday 9th January

I had some business to attend to on Saturday and decided, in spite of the weather forecast and emboldened by my Lightwater/Camberley success, to brave the elements and meet some clients in Shepperton. Strangely, while Lightwater, Bagshot & Windlesham had remained 'wilderness-like', the journey to Shepperton took me closer to the Greater London micro-climate and presented a completely different type of condition.
In Shepperton, many of the roads were literally sheet ice, and as I drove into Broadlands Avenue, I managed to get the car (unintentionally) sideways much like a villain out of 'The Sweeney'! Fortunately no-one was injured, for I managed to turn into the skid and snake-tail down the deserted road to safety.
However, during the journey to Shepperton I had spotted a spreader out spreading what limited supplies the government hadn't reserved for Cheshire, thus confirming the reports I had previously received from our highways team.

Regrettably, the dire situation has had the effect of delaying the salt bin deliveries to us here in our division, so in spite of being able to get to some of the more inaccessible areas myself - I drove with the family up to Connaught Park for example - I know that there are still some of you out there effectively marooned. In that case, I would ask that you enter your address and postcode in the comments section below, and I shall endeavour to find out if and when the deliveries are due.

There and Back Again.

Thursday 7th January

The sand deliveries for the bins have started today, and I can only hope that some gets through to those areas thus far deprived of any supplies. That said, I also hope that those who use it for their private driveway use are estopped by others - the sand and salts are suppoed to be for the highways, and for the benefit of all rather than just the self interest of a few.

It's not all bad news. I drive rear-wheel drive cars and managed to go from Lightwater to 'The Carpenters Arms' pub in Camberley and back this morning with relative ease in one of them. (The battered one, just in case of any accidents). The conditions were quite tricky but it can be done, with most of the main routes passable on a journey that took me past Cllrs Chapman, Fuller and Ivisons addresses. On the strength of my journey, I shall be driving about in my division and ward this afternoon to check on the progress of the salt bin issue and to see if can offer any assistance to residents and shall report thereafter.

On a lighter note, having decided to remain in situ for the remainder of Wednesday, my son and I managed to build a seven foot Darth Vader Snowman with yesterday's snowfall, although Sky News are yet to broadcast the photograph.