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City of Shame 2014
How fortunes change. Worcester's Labour council was planning to be City of Culture 2021 before last month's local elections.
This dirty deal between Alan Amos and Tory leader Simon Geraghty has made us the City of Shame 2014.
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Labour Councillors Challenge Decision to End Park & Ride Labour councillors say that Worcester’s park & ride services should continue without a tax-payer subsidy because they support the city and county’s economy, reduce congestion and pollution and are liked by travellers.
Labour motions have been tabled for the full council meetings of both the Worcester City and Worcestershire County councils on 2nd and 3rd July which say that “We believe that the impact on the city's employers, employees, local residents, hospital workers, school children, students, users of health services, shoppers, potential tourists and other visitors will be harmful to both the city and county economies. “ Paul Denham, city and county councillor for Rainbow Hill, said “The full potential of P&R is not being realised because the service is not properly advertised. The cheapest council car park costs £3.60 to park all day but park & ride is only £2.20 return including parking. A weekly P&R ticket is only £8. Many more visitors to Worcester would use P&R if they knew this. The county subsidises the W1 (Perdiswell and City Centre) service by 56 pence per passenger. Putting the price up by 56p would still be cheaper than parking in the city centre. About two-thirds of P&R passengers do not park cars at Perdiswell. They use P&R buses because they are much cheaper than the First buses which have single fares of £2.20 or £3.70 return.” Joy Squires, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Worcester, added, “My vision for Worcester is that it should attract both employment and tourism. Surveys have repeatedly shown that traffic and congestion are the top concerns of Worcester residents and this will deter both employers and tourists. The county council is making a big mistake removing park & ride when it could easily be run on a commercial basis.” The head office of Sanctuary Group, one of the UK’s largest housing associations is in Worcester. It is building extra offices in Farrier Street which will provide 500 more jobs, an increase of more than 50%. No extra parking is provided and the firm’s travel plan provides staff discounts on the P&R service so they can get to work. Residents living in central areas of the city who already find it difficult to park near their homes will face added pressure if park & ride users decide to drive into the city and park on residential streets. County Leader of Labour’s opposition group, Peter McDonald, said, “The county Tory leadership know the cost of everything, but don’t look at the bigger picture. The county is responsible for planning to reduce the severe, health-threatening pollution caused by vehicle exhaust emissions in three Air Quality Action zones in Worcester. They have done nothing since they were told about this several years ago. Removing P&R and forcing more cars into the city centre makes this worse, not better” Government U-turn on School Meals Policies Cause for ConcernMany school children from poorer families receive their main (and sometimes only) meal of the day at school. It is well known that children who are under-nourished are much more likely to fall behind at school, so the government’s new policy to provide free hot meals for all children in their first three years at school from this September is a welcome proposal.
However, the policies of previous governments mean that many schools are without kitchens. In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government decreed that schools no longer needed to provide hot meals and Worcestershire’s Tory-controlled county council was one of the first councils to do so. Primary age children entitled to free school meals were given packets of sandwiches which identified them to other pupils. Kitchens were converted for other uses and new schools were built without them. Schools without kitchens are now expected to provide free hot meals by September. Some do not have sufficient space to seat pupils for lunch and will need multiple sittings which require more supervision and impact on lesson times. Government has made funding available for schools to improve their catering facilities, which schools have to apply for. Questions still exist over whether there is enough cash to do the work and whether there is enough time to provide the facilities. Some Worcestershire schools are to have meals delivered from outside caterers and other schools but that might mean that their meals are lukewarm, not hot, when served. Charities Lose Out in Tory Plot. Dirty politics is alive and well in Worcester.
Having been Deputy Mayor for the last year, I had the reasonable expectation to become Mayor of Worcester yesterday. I had made plans which would have benefitted the city. More importantly I had worked with charities which I intended to raise money for during my mayoral year. At yesterday evening's Annual Council that expectation was snatched away in an act of political skulduggery which gives politics a bad name. My plans to send disadvantaged Worcester children on adventure holiday breaks with the Youth Hostels Association, with assistance from Action For Children will not now happen. Worcester Volunteer Centre, which needs funds to recruit and train volunteers who are badly needed to patch up gaps in council services, will not get its share of the mayor's fundraising. The Air Ambulance charity which needs to build a new helipad at Worcestershire Royal Hospital will not get mayoral help. Perhaps my greatest disappointment is that my plans to reallocate the mayor's budget cannot now be achieved. I would have cancelled the expensive free meals and drinks provided for mayors and other important people who can afford to pay. This Inaugural Banquet costs about half the mayor's allowance each year. I intended instead to provide more modest hospitality to local volunteers. I also planned to provide a Christmas lunch for our homeless and foodbank users. Several weeks ago, I spent time with the clergy at the cathedral planning the Civic Service, which is on the morning of 22nd June. I thought carefully about a theme for the service and decided to use the same theme for the whole of my planned mayoral year: "No Community Left Behind". The bible readings and hymns I chose reflected this theme. I subsequently invited the congregation from my own church to come to the cathedral and arranged for the usual Sunday service there to be moved to a different time to accommodate this. So why has my former colleague Alan Amos wrecked all my plans? Alan was digruntled because his Labour colleagues hadn't given him any position of responsibility - mainly because they didn't trust him. On Saturday, 24th May - two days after the local elections - Alan put his name forward to be considered for nomination as Deputy Mayor, but his former colleagues voted for the other candidate in a secret ballot. Alan stormed out of the meeting. Three days ago he resigned from the Labour Party, despite being Deputy Labour Group Leader at the County Council. Yesterday evening all became clear. The Tories had promised him their votes to elect him Mayor in return for his support to gain and retain control of the council. We can learn a lot about Alan Amos by reading about his checkered past on the internet. He has been a right-wing Tory MP advocating flogging and hanging. He switched to Labour after being cautioned for indecency. His former parliamentary colleague, Edwina Currie, describes him in her Political Diaries as "an unpleasant little twerp who simply wants to be an MP for any party which will have him, and hang any sincerely held views." By substituting the word "councillor" for MP you get an accurate description of today's Alan Amos. The person who brokered this dirty deal for the power-hungry leaders of the Tory group also has form. Marc Bayliss (now Tory Deputy Leader) is a former Labour councillor and parliamentary candidate. Bayliss joined the Tories a few years ago in a similar deal, with the promise of a cabinet post and a safe Tory seat to fight at the next election. After last month's local elections, the Tories had 17 seats out of 35 on the council. They needed 18 seats to take control and their attempts to gain political support from the single Lib Dem and Green councillors were rejected by them. It is well known that Marc Bayliss and Alan Amos have been close pals for years so it must have been fairly easy to hatch a deal. Self-interest and the gaining of power to feed local politicians' egos will, unfortunately, always be the hallmarks of a minority of local councillors. This is precisely why many residents think that "Politicians are only in it for themselves, there's no difference between them." The reality is that most of us politicians, certainly in local government, and of all political persuasions, have nobler aims. |
AuthorPaul Denham is a Labour Councillor on Worcestershire County and Worcester City councils. He represents the Rainbow Hill ward. Archives
May 2018
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