Mike Thornton, LibDem Candidate, still peddling untruths

In response to continuing Liberal Democrat accusations, it is necessary to put the record straight again.

Schools

Councillor Roy Perry says "Every child in Hampshire was offered a school place at the beginning of this term - well over 95% in a school of one of their 3 choices and almost 90% in their first preference.

 "There is no crisis, no shambles but there is a marked increase in the birth rate, and people moving into the area which is certainly increasing the pressure on school places.  Measures are in hand to increase school building over the next fifteen years so that there will continue to be no shortfall."

Police

Hampshire Police Authority state that there will be no reduction in front-line police officers.  Savings will be made by cutting bureaucracy.

Libraries

Regarding libraries, out of the 54 in the county, there will be no change in 17 of them and only an average reduction of 2.5 hours in the rest.  Two libraries will be run by the community because of a drastic decline in their usage over the last 5 years, North Baddesley by 33% and Stanmore by 50%.  The latter is used by only 3% of the population.

Buses

Bus services have been hit due to a 33% cut in the subsidy from central government, but council chiefs say they have made journeys to work, the shops and hospitals a priority. Council bosses have promised that no village or housing estate with a current bus service will be left without a public transport link.”
Despite LibDem claims to the contrary bus passes for the over sixties will NOT be affected.

Child Centres

4Children vision:

“for every child, in every community, to have the opportunities to realise their  potential – to learn, develop and be with friends – and for every parent to access the support they need to build a better future for their family”

This is what Hampshire County Council says:

We want to make sure that the funding cuts have as little effect as possible on the work children’s centres do with families, particularly those who need the services the most. The changes we are thinking of making would keep centres open and available for families everywhere to use.

To achieve this, we are proposing an approach that would:

·               Keep children’s centres open and accessible across the whole of Hampshire.

·               Take half of the savings out of the County Council’s central costs of running the children’s centre service.

·               As far as possible, protect staff who deliver children’s centre services directly to families - so that people who use the centres are affected as little as possible.

Keep enough managers across the centres to understand the needs of local families and to organise and supervise activities.

·               Reduce the costs of running the centres, for example allocating less money for travel and equipment. 

This is what Councillor Roy Perry said:

Commenting on the range of bids Councillor Roy Perry, Hampshire County Council's Deputy Leader and Executive Lead Member for Children's Services, said:

"I am delighted at the levels of response to the tendering process. We have had 17 bids involving at least 32 organisations with all clusters attracting more than one bidder.

"We have had significant interest from a range of local and national voluntary organisations and schools following the invitation to tender for the management contracts of up to 15 clusters of children centres. The centres will continue to deliver services through over 81 local centres and a variety of community-based venues."

In May the County Council approved the transfer of all its Children's Centres to third party management in a bid to secure the long-term future of Children's Centre services across the county and achieve savings in the wake of cuts in Government funding.

So don't believe the scaremongers!  The children's centres are safe.

More money is being spent to improve Adult and Children Services. No Children's Centres have been closed - all 81 of them are open and providing more services such as speech and language therapy.  

A Better Town Centre??

That remains to be seen.  Fortunately, Sainsbury's have withdrawn their plans for extending their store so at least the Rec and market are safe. 

But the LibDems are still intending to go ahead with their disastrous plans to move the civic offices into the town centre. There will be virtually no parking space and thus inaccessible not only to staff but also to those who need to visit the council offices.  Inevitably, it will have the effect of making parking for shoppers in the centre very much more difficult and lead to reduced trade for shopkeepers.  They intend to move from here:

 to here

at a cost of £12 million.  They say they'll recover £4 million by the redevelopment of the existing site.

Now that Sainsbury's have decided not to go ahead with their development, there is going to be a serious shortfall in parking for the proposed new council offices.

Maria Hutchings, Conservative candidate for Eastleigh 'has faith in Hampshire schools'

As reported in the Daily Echo

2:19pm Monday 18th February 2013 in NewsBy Luke Tugby, Reporter

Maria Hutchings and Theresa May

Conservative candidate Maria Hutchings says she has “full confidence” in Hampshire's education system.

Mrs Hutchings praised the county's schools after coming under fire for claiming that state education would not help her son become a heart surgeon.

As reported in today's Daily Echo, National Health Action Party candidate, Dr Iain MacLennan, labelled Mrs Hutchings' remarks as “disgraceful”.

But the Tory candidate explained her comments today, as she continued her by-election campaign by canvassing voters in Hedge End.

Speaking to the Daily Echo after visiting residents in Pudbrooke Gardens, Mrs Hutchings said: “I've got four children. I went to state school, my husband went to state school, my eldest daughter went to state school and my next child went to state school.

“My daughter is on the list for Wildern or Wyvern in September, so I have full confidence in the education here in Hampshire.

“My son is gifted - I needed to find the right place for him.

“When I was talking to the original journalist I was referring to when he was five years old. I couldn't find the right provision for where I was living at that time, not Eastleigh.

“I was telling the journalist that when my son was 12 years old, he had a careers talk and they had a cardio-respiratory surgeon come down and he said he wanted to be a cardio-respiratory surgeon. And it was nothing linked to state schools.

 “This is something that's been mish-mashed together by somebody else.

“The fact that I've my youngest daughter on the list for Wildern or Wyvern in September surely tells you what I think of local education here.”

Home Secretary Theresa May, who was on the campaign trail with Mrs Hutchings in Hedge End this morning, said: “Parents will always have to make decisions about what is right for their children.

“What we want to see across the whole of the state sector is ensuring that they are providing education that is right for every child and education that is rigorous.”

Mrs May also hit back at critics from opposition parties who claimed that Mrs Hutchings has not lived in the constituency for as long as she has suggested during her campaign.

She added: “Maria has been absolutely clear about how long she has lived here. I've just been standing on a doorstep with her and she said to somebody I've been here for five years.

“But what she has done over those five years is she has really fought for local people, she has campaigned with them on issues, she has worked with local charities, she has worked with local voluntary groups.

“She has shown that she is somebody who as a member of parliament would really care about Eastleigh, take on the issues of people here, and I think, be the best voice for Eastleigh.”

MARIA HUTCHINGS CALLS ON COUNCIL TO RE-THINK DEVELOPMENT PLANS

Sensible plans needed in order to protect our local communities

Local champion Maria Hutchings has led calls for the local Council to re-think it’s plans for large scale housing developments across Eastleigh and our villages.

Responding to plans to build almost 10,000 new houses across Eastleigh and surrounding villages, Maria said:

“I’ve worked alongside concerned local residents to put forward sensible alternatives to the plans drawn up by the Council. Everyone wants to see new family homes, but bulldozing over our green spaces is not way to do it.”

Hundreds of local people have contacted Maria to express their concern. Maria has been quick to challenge the Council’s “consultation”.

“We must fight these plans. I want to ensure that good quality family homes are built, especially for front-line public sector workers, the armed forces and those who have strong family links in Eastleigh, protecting our green spaces and excellent public services.”

Across Eastleigh there are thousands of empty dwellings and unused ‘brown field’ sites ready for new development.

Maria Hutchings has asked the Council to re-think these plans and listen to local people.

LibDem Wealth Taxes

This is another excerpt I have taken from Peter Hoskin in ConservariveHome:

And there’s another Lib Dem-related story that CCHQ has set about exploiting today: the Mail on Sunday splash about Team Clegg’s plans to extend wealth taxes into your jewellery box. According to the paper, the Lib Dem leadership is considering—alongside the introduction of a souped-up mansion tax—an idea to allow taxmen into people’s homes to value, and then slap levies across, assets such as necklaces and paintings. Admittedly, Vince Cable has since played down many elements of the story, but not before Tories across Twitter seized on it with alacrity and gratitude.

In truth, the Lib Dems’ general eagerness to tax wealth creates as much a conundrum for the Tory leadership as a target. Of course, it’s easy to strike out at any jewellery tax, but a stronger variety of mansion tax is a different matter altogether. As “one influential figure” suggests to James Forsyth, Labour's sympathy for such a levy could alter the balance of negotiations in the event of another hung parliament – meaning that “Cameron will have to fold and accept a mansion tax as the price of power.”

Myself, I think the Tories shouldn’t dismiss higher taxes on expensive properties out-of-hand – for reasons I've set out before. But this is hardly a possiblity that will cheer many party members.

Meanwhile Mike Thornton, the LibDem candidate, promises he will cut your tax bill!  

In fact, he can't.  We have a Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer and Maria Hutchings will support the policies to reduce taxation.

LibDems at it Again - Can you believe anything they say?

The LibDems Cannot deceive the voters for ever - they've 

been found out!

Mike Thornton, the LibDem candidate for the Eastleigh by-election, continues to declare that he is fighting to protect our countryside.  He states that he and his team are working to protect the land between our villages from development.

He also states that the LibDems have prevented the building of 6,000 houses by axing the last government's plans.
But the LibDem Council is the planning authority!!!

In fact, the LibDem Council replaced their own plans to build these 6,000 houses with plans to build a total of 9,400 houses in the borough  - on greenfield sites - and he was one of the councillors who voted for these plans!

And then there was this report over the weekend:

What larks in Eastleigh! As various Tory MPs have tweeted in identikit fashion, the Lib Dem candidate has today ‘fessed up to voting for 5,000 new homes to be built on previously undeveloped green space – and this despite campaign literature which warns that “countryside spaces between our towns and villages across the borough of Eastleigh are under new threat thanks to Hampshire Conservatives”. Grant Shapps puts it thus:

“The Lib Dems Eastleigh campaign is in turmoil. Their central promise to the people of Eastleigh is to protect the local area’s green spaces. But now their candidate has admitted that they will concrete over the countryside with their plans for 5,000 new houses on green field sites.

The Liberal Democrats cannot mislead the voters forever – they’ve been found out. Nick Clegg now needs to apologise for the Lib Dems’ totally inaccurate claims.”  

By Peter Hoskin

And this isn't all.

The same LibDem campaign literature continues to spin that Conservative run Hampshire County Council has spent either £40,000 or £43,000 - depending whether you read the front or the back of their leaflet - on "smart new offices". 

UNTRUE

The TRUTH is that Ashburton Court, the council offices in question, were in a very poor state of repair with the soil pipes totally unable to cope with the waste, abd the whole building in complete need of refurbishment.  So the Council, rather than building new offices which would have cost considerably more, refurbished Ashburton Court at a cost of £40.1m, and also closed down other offices altogether and enabled certain staff to work from home.

This is what the Royal Institute of British Architects said about the project:

The Elizabeth II Court project (formerly Ashburton Court) in central Winchester represents a groundbreaking transformation of a dilapidated 1960s office block into a modern, efficient and highly sustainable working environment for continued occupation by Hampshire County Council (HCC).

The building has traffic on three sides, restricted floor-to-floor to ceiling heights and most main elevations façades facing east and west, which are difficult to shade. The original building was also uncomfortable to occupy, suffering from overheating in summer and a huge heating requirement in winter.

The project presented an opportunity to create a benchmark addressing a universal challenge – the creative re-use of 1960s building stock.

Far from being a waste of resources it will bring great savings in the future and it would have cost far, far more to relocate.

The transformed building

Ther LibDems also accuse the council of spending £12,000 on TAPS if you please!
UNTRUE!!
The TRUTH  is that  for a mere £12,000 a modern, waste resistant water system was installed in this building.  To fit central heating in a 4 bedroom house would cost at least £3,500.

THE TRUTH is that in Conservative led Hampshire County Council we have one of the most efficient councils in the whole country.  It receives the third lowest Revenue Support Grant from the government yet its council tax is the fourth lowest.

This comes from efficiency savings, not from the cuts the LibDems would have us believe, and from growing our income.  Examples of these will come in future posts, which will also expose the true state of Eastleigh Borough Council.

John O'Farrell - Disappointment that Mrs Thatcher didn't die in Brighton bomb blast

Fury over 'moral reprobate' Labour candidate who wrote of disappointment that Mrs Thatcher didn't die in the Brighton bomb blast

From Mail Online

The Labour candidate in the crucial Eastleigh by-election said he wished Margaret Thatcher had been murdered in the IRA attack on Brighton’s Grand Hotel.

Left-winger John O’Farrell felt  a ‘surge of excitement’ when he heard of the attempted assassination in 1984 and was ‘disappointed’ the terrorists failed.

He asked himself repeatedly: ‘Why did she have to leave the bathroom two minutes earlier?’ The bathroom of Lady Thatcher’s suite was wrecked in the explosion. She had been in it shortly before the bomb went off.

Writing about Lady Thatcher, Mr O’Farrell said: ‘I would invent all sorts of elaborate scenarios whereby she would cease to be Prime Minister of Britain. Some involved a sombre deputation from the 1922 Committee  [of Tory MPs] and others involved me popping up with a machine-gun at the Conservative Party Conference. 

‘In October 1984, when the Brighton bomb went off,  I felt a surge of excitement at the nearness of her demise and yet disappointment that such a chance had been missed. 

'This was me – the pacifist, anti-capital punishment, anti-IRA liberal – wishing that they had got her. “Why did she have to leave the bathroom two minutes earlier?”  I asked myself over and over again.’

In the same book, published in 1998,  Mr O’Farrell made a similarly provocative statement on calls for Lady Thatcher to be given a state funeral. 

‘It would be far more appropriate to allow competitive bids from private companies to run the funeral arrangements: “And we now go over live to Westminster, where .  .  . we see the coffin respectfully borne on the shoulders of six part-time burger-flippers .  .  . before the private cremation when the body will be flame-grilled with gherkins and a slice of cheese.” Now that’s a funeral I would turn out for.’

'I would invent all sorts of elaborate scenarios whereby she would cease to be Prime Minister of Britain'

Five people died in the bomb attack, including Tory MP Sir Anthony Berry and Roberta Wakeham, wife of Tory Cabinet Minister Lord Wakeham.

Lord Tebbit told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Ed Miliband should repudiate this incontinently voiced moral reprobate who  tries to excuse murder as a weapon against those who won democratic elections time after time against the rag-bag remnants of a once great  Labour Party.’

Mr O’Farrell also  said he wished Lady Thatcher had lost the Falklands War in 1982,  in which 255 British servicemen died.  ‘I settle on the uncomfortable and convoluted position of wanting Great Britain  to lose the war for the good of Great Britain.  I was against the war, against people’s reaction to the war, even against the outcome of the war.’

A Labour Party spokesman said: ‘John made these comments many years ago and of course does not condone  or wish harm on anyone.’

LibDem Future Power Cuts

Future Power Cuts

Conservative run Hampshire County Council say: "While advances are being made in the generation of renewable energy, we believe that land based wind farms are the least cost effective way of generating renewable energy, spoil the appearance of our countryside and cause noise pollution.  They are also not unreliable as the wind does not blow all the time, with the result that reliance on these - which is  Liberal Democrat national policy - will lead to power cuts in the future. 

"We will not allow them to be built on the land we own. Never the less, we would not oppose the establishment of collections of wind turbines on ‘off shore’ locations, where they could be more effective and less obstructive. We would also not oppose schools that might wish to erect a single turbine on their premises where these might be used to support power generation at the site and for education purposes.

"We would also support the development of land based photo-voltaic energy generation from sunlight in the countryside and on farm land, dependent on the outcome of formal environmental appraisals."

District Heating

The County Council is in favour of district heating in con-junction with combined heat and power installations and is supporting a pilot scheme to install one of these in Winchester to support the provision of heat and power to the Hospital, Prison, Police Authority and a number of Local Authority owned buildings in the area.

Highways

Hampshire County Council has been named as the 'Transport County of the Year' at the National Transport Awards ceremony in October this year supported by the department of Transport.

It is committed to ensuring that Hampshire's key net-work resource - its highway network - is fit for the demands of the 21st century. Wherever possible it is working to improve local travel options, so that public transport, walking and cycling, on their own or in combination, can provide viable, cost effective alternatives to the car.

It is working with Local Authority and Commercial partners to take a strategic approach the provision of multi mode solutions to provide an easily accessible and less congested transport provision for all travellers across Hampshire.Investing in Shared Space Investment is being made in a pilot ‘shared space project’ that reduces sign-age clutter and gives equality of access to pedestrians and vehicle traffic in town and village centres and for the provision of funding for Community centres

Road Maintenance

Following the severe winter and the damage left in the roads, the County Council’s Highways Department resurfaced over 70km of roads and repaired 30,000 potholes in a six month period in 2010. This paved the way for a major resilience programme that represents a substantial shift from reactive, to planned maintenance. Last year this planned programme saw work at 400 different sites, that included resurfacing, drainage works and pavement improvements aimed at making Hampshire’s roads resistant to the effect of the severe weather con-ditions that we might experience in future. This Capital Investment in Hampshire’s roads will continue over the next five years until all of them have been treated and is estimated to save millions each year in the recurring costs incurred in past years for reactive maintenance work.

The performance of Hampshire County Council shows what could be achieved if we had a Conservative government.  

A vote for Maria would be a step in the right direction.

Pupil Premiums

LibDems are claiming credit for the Pupil Premium, saying it is a Liberal Democrat Policy.

However, Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, is a Conservative - and this is a Conservative policy.

This is what the Department for Education says:

 Pupil Premium - What you need to know:

Purpose

The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

The Pupil Premium was introduced in April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’).

Schools also receive funding for children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months, and children of service personnel.

Up to £50 million of the Pupil Premium will fund a Summer School Programme for disadvantaged pupils to support their transition to secondary schools in September 2013.

Accountability

The Government believes that head teachers and school leaders should decide how to use the Pupil Premium. They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:

• he performance tables which show the performance of disadvantaged pupils compared with their peers
• the new Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of pupil groups, in particular those who attract the Pupil Premium
• the new reports for parents that schools now have to publish online

Funding

In most cases the Pupil Premium is paid direct to schools, allocated to them for every pupil who receives free school meals. Schools decide how to use the funding, as they are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need.

For pupils from low-income families in non-mainstream settings the local authority decides how to allocate the Pupil Premium. The authority must consult non-mainstream settings about how the Premium for these pupils should be used.

Local authorities are responsible for looked after children and make payments to schools and academies where an eligible looked after child is on roll.

LibDem Scare Tactics

With the Eastleigh by-election just two weeks away, the Lib Dems are conducting their usual negative campaign to scare people into voting for them and to paint an ugly picture of the Conservative run County Council that they would like electors to believe.

They want people to think that, because the Council has to cope with funding cuts in a time of rising inflation, it is going to cut the services needed by local people - but nothing could be further from the truth.

Children's Centres

In literature going out today, their candidate Cllr Mike Thornton says he will fight cutbacks to Children's Centres the LibDems claim that the Council is carrying out, but this is completely untrue. All 81 centres are open and are now delivering the additional service of speech and language therapy for children with special needs.

School places
So is their claim that there will not be enough school places for Hampshire’s children. No child in Hampshire will be without a place in any one of Hampshire’s excellent schools that are acclaimed for achieving above average results. Not only that, but the Council is also providing funding for more apprenticeships to improve the life chances of our unemployed young people. The County Council expenditure of £565,000 on youth services for the Eastleigh Borough and Winchester District areas was an increase over the previous year, with specific spending on Youth hubs such as the "Energy Centre" in Eastleigh town, the HYPE in Hamble and the Y Zone in Fair Oak and Horton Heath.

Running costs

Because of the efficiencies the Council has made in reducing running costs, it has been able to increase service budgets to care for vulnerable adults and children by an extra £14 million this year to cope with the rising numbers needing  care. Also it is setting aside £45 million to fund the building of over 500 extra care units to cater for our ageing population.

The Council is spending more money on bus services than the districts and Boroughs had to spend and, having repaired the 30,000 potholes caused by severe weather conditions, it is now rolling out a multi- million programme over 5 years to make them resistant to further such damage.

Museums and Libraries

Unlike other Counties, all our Museums and Libraries are not only open but improving the range of services they provide.

Police

Their claim that the Council is reducing the number of Police Officers is also wrong. Not only does it have no control of the police or its staffing but it is also understood that the Police have no plans to cut the number of officers.

Webcast

Lib Dems deplore the Council's new initiative to use unspent funding from Councillors’ own budgets to broadcast, on its website, the Cabinet and Council debates that allow the Public to see how their taxes are being used.  They say only 57 people access these debates, but those people are the councillors and council staff and it completely ignores the members of the public who access it live or watch the recordings later.  The web streaming enables members of the public to access council debates when they would not otherwise be able to do so.

Perhaps Lib Dems fear it will show to the public their ineptitude in debate and reveal how wrong is their description of the County Council they portray in the leaflets they push through people’s letter-boxes.

Push-me-pull-you

13 February 2013 Last updated at 13:58Help

Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt attacks the Liberal Democrat 

campaign in Eastleigh and claims made by its candidate over green 

fields.

During Prime Minister's Questions yesterday Penny Mordaunt, Conservative MP for Portsmouth North, said; "Does the Prime Minister take a dim view of people that say one thing and do another, like campaigning against greenfield development and then voting for it, as the LIberal Democrat candidate has in Eastleigh?"

David Cameron praised his party's candidate as he urged his MPs to visit the constituency and back her campaign to take over from Chris Huhne who stood down last week.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Mike Thornton voted with his colleagues on Eastleigh Borough Council for the Eastleigh Plan, which approved the building of 9,400 houses on greenfield sites, yet he is now campaigning against it.

The LibDems have form for this.  This was my blog on 5th October 2012:

Threatened land:

Liberal Democrat Mayor Rupert Kyrle is demanding that the council should protect our countryside. And this after presiding over a Council meeting on 1st August when it was agreed to build 9,400 houses on green spaces including strategic gap.  What hypocrisy!

OSBORNE: CONSERVATIVES’ COUNCIL TAX FREEZE HELPING FAMILIES WITH THE COST OF LIVING

George Osborne has sent a clear message to the people of Eastleigh to vote for Maria Hutchings to get an MP who will stand up for hardworking families.

Responding to questions about how Conservatives are helping families with the cost of living, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said:

“We are determined to clear up Labour’s mess by dealing with the deficit and rebuilding our economy. It’s not easy and we know that many people are making sacrifices in these tough times....

Lib Dem misrule on Eastleigh Council

If the Lib Dems lose the Eastleigh byelection then they may wonder where they are safe. Eastleigh Borough Council has four Conservative councillors - the other 40 are all Lib Dems. No other local authority has that scale of Lib Dem dominance.

In Sutton the Lib Dems have more councillors, 43, but that is against 11 Conservatives. The Lib Dems still have strongholds in South Lakeland and in Oadby and Wigston.

But nowhere else in the country do they wallow in the sort of landslide dominance they enjoy in the Council Chamber in Leigh Road in Eastleigh.

Yet while they swank and swagger, have they actually done a good job?

They strike me as a left wing council with a casual approach to wasting their residents money - not least on politically correct gimmicks. Also an extravagant council with a culture of entitlement.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the situation is with some examples:

• Employing a Community Climate Change Co-ordinator on £47,544 a year with a brief to "raise awareness on climate change issues" - while working alongside two Sustainability Policy Co-ordinators.
• £500 for staff flights to attend arts and tourism training.
• Loaning Hampshire Cricket Club £32 million to build a hotel. If it is a solid investment why couldn't finance be raised commercially?
• Spending £141,000 on communications.
• Employing someone to work for Unison - at a cost to Council Taxpayers of £12,000.
• Debt interest payments of £736,000 on its £8 million of borrowing - excluding the money poured into to the pension scheme.
• Wasting money on a huge sub to Chartered Institute of Housing - plus subs to an array of other outfits, as well as thousands on hotels, chauffeurs, agency staff and a staggering £25,458 a month on LexisNexis.
• Holding meetings at the prestigious Concorde Club - at £591.85p a time. A great venue famous for its jazz. But why not use the Council offices?

The Council leader Cllr Keith House claims allowances and expenses of £28,231, plus another £25,000 from Hampshire Council. He is "Deputy Chair" of the Local Government Association's Environment and Housing Board for which he gets another £7,778.  He is also a Board member of the Homes and Communities Agency, for which he gets another £13,000 a year.

Then his partner Cllr Louise Bloom, whom Cllr House has appointed as a Cabinet Member,   collects another £14,018.66.

So that comes to £88,027.

Cllr House used to get another £5,000-£10,000 to sit on the South East England Development Agency. But this has now been abolished. Still, when you keep in mind the gold plated pension subsidies the total remuneration package must be worth well over £100,000.

Does Cllr House have entirely the right attitude towards civic duty?

No wonder Cllr House was happy for his underling Cllr Mike Thornton to fight the byelection for the Lib Dems. After all, an MP is only paid £65,738. Could Cllr House have managed the pay cut?

One of many reasons for voting for the Conservative candidate Maria Hutchings is to ensure that those presiding over Eastleigh Borough Council are a bit less cocksure in their behaviour.

The council recently bought Ageas Bowl, adjacent to which they have bought the hotel, so it is amassing  a large portfolio of property, leading one resident to say that Cllr House is using council funds to play his own version of Monopoly, and it is beginning to cause problems as it owns the block where Comet has been trading.   

so this is one property that isn't paying any rent.

Article largely from Conservative Home

Hamble Airfield Gravel Extraction

The LibDem candidate Mike Thornton, has said that the Conservatives want to extract gravel from the Hamble Airfield site, but that the LibDems are fighting to preserve greenfield sites.  However, Maria Hutchings has campaigned against the County Council's plans for the gravel extraction.

This is the official response from Hampshire County Councillor Colin Davidovitz:

The Hampshire Mineral and Waste Plan which identifies part of the Hamble Airfield site for gravel extraction was drawn up by officers of the three Major Hampshire Authorities and were endorsed by the Liberal Democrat Run Portsmouth City Council, the Labour Run Southampton City Council and the Conservative run Hampshire  Council in conformity with the requirement that minerals should be extracted as close as possible to the building developments they are intended to supply. Eastleigh Borough Council is preparing plans for the development of 9600 houses, half of them on  significant large developments on what is left of our  green field sites in the Borough.

Is this protecting our greenfield sites?  

I wrote this on 29th May 2012 about Stoneham Park:

Following on from my last blog, it appears that people just don't realise that it is LibDem run Eastleigh Borough Council that wants to concrete over this local beauty spot.  And they actually voted for this to be concreted over just a few weeks ago!!!!

The consequences will be enormous:

• It will remove the strategic gap between Eastleigh and Southampton.
• If this happens, Southampton will develop from the other direction. 
• It will place an enormous strain on local services which are already struggling to cope with the Pirelli development; and the Prysmium development will also be competing for these services.
• It will cause a massive increase in traffic in Chestnut Avenue.
• There already insufficient open spaces in Eastleigh.
• It will remove local heritage for our posterity.

On Saturday, I took part in a walk - above - around North Stoneham Park and we aim to make a lot more noise in the future about this as trhe development must not be allowed to happen.

Maria Hutchings has campaigned tirelessly to protect Stoneham Park and all inappropriate development in our Borough, and has been commended by Pat Ford, the leader of Save Stoneham Park.