More Money on Services Needed by People in Northampton

Nick Spoors of the Chronicle and Echo has set up a petition calling on the government for a fairer allocation scheme to better reflect today’s population growth and levels of deprivation in Northamptonshire. You can see it here.

He highlights Surrey as better funded.  You may remember they benefitted from a sweetheart deal from the government to persuade their Tory controlled County Council not to hold a referendum to increase Council Tax.  Jeremy Corbyn confronted Prime Minister Theresa May in February with leaked text messages involving the leader of Surrey County Council that appeared to show negotiations over a deal. Read more about it here.

Northamptonshire has been underfunded according to a number of commentators for decades, so it’s interesting to explore why so many Tory council leaders and Tory MP’s are suddenly drawing attention to it now. Whilst in control the Conservative administration in the County and the Borough has successively failed to put up Council tax to pay for services, essentially awarding themselves less and less income to manage delivering essential public services. Despite Labour calls to press government for more cash for our increasing needs and increasing population, Tory Councillors have failed to act over a number of years. Instead they have sought miraculous panacea-like solutions that they have invested hand over fist into. One of the latest of these was an online portal on which they spent £1 million pounds but which has just been abandoned after just 5 years. 

The Tory County Council administration has failed to increase income either by raising Council Tax or asking Government for a better settlement, nor has it managed finances well. The investment of £54 million on new offices was something that even Tory controlled Daventry District Council pleaded with the county not to go ahead with. The building remains 30% empty. All of this while axing 30% of the council's spending on vital services.

For a number of years I have attended and spoken at County Council budget- setting meetings arguing about the human cost of cuts. Austerity, from the coalition government’s time to the present day, has been critiqued as a damaging response to our economic situation by the majority of academics in the field. The fact that it has no economic justification exposes its true purpose; it is an ideological attack on working people. 

Last month, a number of senior Tory politicians sought to change tack and, after all these years, requested more from government. Local MP Michael Ellis, as of 14th September, is yet to state his position.

Is Northamptonshire underfunded? Yes.

Should local people be asking for more investment into the area? Yes, but we want it so that all areas get fair funding with well managed, well funded services so that all those in our community that need support get it. If you want to do something practical towards this, yes sign the petition, but also join those of us in the Labour party campaigning for a better more hopeful tomorrow. For a government which rejects austerity in favour of building public services and funding them in a way that works for all of us.

If you agree with these views, please support my campaign to become the Labour Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Northampton North. Get in touch and let me know that you are supporting me.

Leader of Northampton Borough Council "Staff work" in "holiday camp"

You can read the article about this here

As a local resident proud of my Northamptonian heritage I'm really disappointed by the comments of David Mackintosh about Council staff and his statement that when he talked  "to businesses across the whole of the town, the terms and conditions under which ... staff work[ed], frankly they ... think this is a holiday camp".

Perhaps he could do working people of the town a big favour and name and  shame these organisations so that we can know what they think about the need for decent pay? Perhaps we should look at all of the facts to see whether this is an objective assessment or an off the cuff remark.

For our town to thrive we need excellent public services staffed by well trained, well motivated individuals who know that they are valued by the people that they serve and the people that lead thier organisations. We only have to look at the effect of the County Council altering the terms and conditions of their staff on the services they deliver. The result - abysmally poor levels of experienced permanent staff in social services and a heavy over reliance on expensive agency staff to deliver basic service levels that are still classed as "inadequate" by inspectors.

The Borough Councils expenditure on staffing is a big proportion of the budget. What a shame, that the Council leadership don't try and get the most out of this spending by valuing the best resource that they have and choose rather to have a race to the bottom for both staff and local services.

Making a difference

The Northampton Borough Council International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHo) on Thursday was an uplifting experience. To see over the years the growth of the event can’t help but give a sense of optimism for the future.

One of the highlights of the event was hearing Ben Cohen’s personal video message for the event. It was the first time that I had heard him speak about his motivation emerging from the murder of his father and his drive to take action to achieve something positive about the experience.

Northampton Borough Council has come quite some way over the past couple of years. In 2010 I suggested that they look at Hate Crime as a piece of work for their scrutiny committee. Part of my reasoning for doing so was to draw attention to culture of the Borough Council in dealing with hate crime.

This culture was no more clearly demonstrated by the failure of the Borough Council to deals with hate incidents reported by residents who had the misfortune to live near Gavin Kerr, one of the individuals that was convicted of killing Peter Cohen, when he lived on Kings Heath up till two years ago. People were obviously unwilling to report the incidents and so the homophobia and the racism continued.  The Council at the time refused to deal with the issue and did not bring the case for discussion at multi-agency groups designed to review such cases.  Gavin has now moved and I’m not sure what he is doing now but for the black families and young gay men that had to endure his offense verbal diatribe on a regular basis, life is better.

Northampton Borough Council has bravely included taking more action on Hate crime as an equality objective that it commits to make progress on. It is indeed brave but it will have to be so much more than making noise. It will be getting to the bottom of hard issues and really making a difference rather than working hard and making noise.  

Cuts and the recession

The cuts are the big news at the minute with the reality of what will go finally emerging. In the County and the the Borough.

This is the first set of budgets that I have seen that have clear evidence that there has a least been an attempt to equality impact assess either through referencing in reports or through full publication like the County Council. However, these documents have clearly been carried out in some haste with some having completely inadequate data sets to inform them. Some of them are very poor pieces of work with others not recognising the leverage that small amounts of investment can have particularly in the voluntary and community sector. Investment of a few thousand for the County Council can assist levering in tens, even hundreds of thousands from other sources for some organisations in this sector. All this at a time when there is in addition to these local cuts decisions, national cuts decisions that are a complete assault on the vulnerable in our communities. This is a must see for all. The disabled women presenting in the film highlights the focus from some in the voluntary and community sector "picking the carcass of the welfare state". It is reference to the hours, often days of time trying to apply for a plethora tenders and contracts to see some future after 31st March rather than putting the kind of energy that is needed to challenge the cuts. All too true. The cuts locally are difficult to see as much of them are hidden in debris of enormity of the cuts. For instance, in the £2,772,000 cut known as SC016 the complete axing of all advice work in the County lies. This will in particular hit Cleggs alarm clock Britain. It is those who have always worked for a living who perhaps now find themselves in hard times through redundancy, ill-heath or bereavement that will feel this the most as the services that have previously guided these people in need through an unfamiliar and complex welfare system disappear.

The recession and the cuts that exacerbate them are about inequality. Figures released last week show only one in five under 24 year olds are in work with an increasing proportion never having experienced work in the last two years. Over 50% of Black under 24 year olds unemployed, our nation is failing an entire generation. Since the Fawcett Society's attempted challenge on the governments budget the case for the gender equality implictions of the cut carries on growing.

So what is the answer? the only one that I can think of is about resistance. There are many ways of doing this, talking planning objecting but overall making the job of implementing cuts as hard as possible. The demonstration on 26th March should be a highlight of the campaign. Why don't you commit to going along too.

A Better Northampton

I have a deep love of where I live and I do get frustrated when it's not all I want it to be. I'd like less closed down retail units in the town centre, I'd like more people to have work and have the economic power to figure out the changes they would like in their lives and how to get them, I'd also like an environment where there was more chance that my daughters can have relationships with other human beings without some thinking that because they are women that they are lesser human beings. I'd like to bringing my son up in an environment where he does not have to walk past a lap dancing club every time he goes to play warhammer at gamesworkshop, past unclad female images of bill board proportions. The outside of the venue itself is regularly strewn with litter and rotting food which in addition to the graphic marketing tools scream out that our town is not family friendly, and doesn't have a pride in the way in the place we live or the way people can expect to be treated as citizens. My town would be a better town without it. Join with me and others in objecting to its licence.

There is until 11th January 2011 to get objections in.

Objections can be sent by post to:

The Licensing Officer
Northampton Borough Council
Borough Solicitors Division
The Guildhall
St Giles Square
Northampton
NN1 1DE

Or by email to pbayliss@northampton.gov.uk

What's the difference or making a difference

With thoughts turning to the new year and resolutions, it's worth considering what a citizens manifesto for the May elections would look like.

One key concept that hasn't enjoyed much discussion is a Northampton Living wage. This would involve the Council committing to pay staff a living wage rather than minimum wage and also committing to only contract with companies and organisations that paid staff a living wage.

It was a key policy platform that all candidates for the London mayoral elections fought on, however in the face of austerity is it still an aspiration that is deliverable or even able to capture the imagination of the electorate. With so many going into 2011 with uncertainty about the future maybe all people want to hope for is security as opposed to hoping for something better.

Change - anyone else up for it?

With those great guys at 38 degrees fundraising for this and the CWU folk mobilising against the proposals for the post offices and the post, it seems to be activism all round. However the proof of the pudding is in the change it creates or doesn’t as the case maybe. With the key change point being next May, perhaps it’s time to think ambitious in the an alternative coalition ... a coalition for change. Post-Xmas and new year those into electoral politics will be winding up for the target of success at Borough and District Council elections. For those of us that have been here before, in the past it has meant that the better organisation (historically Northampton Town Football Club Supporters Trust), canvassed the opinion of all candidates on their views about the Sixfields stadium. A while back there was the semblance of a coalition for change with the debate in the Guildhall organised by Northampton town football club supporters and Market Traders. Unfortunately, the ruling Lib Dem group declined to have a formal presence with some individual Lib Dem Councillors skulking in the audience. Perhaps it’s time to renew that energy and as citizens make our own manifesto for the town and then ask those putting up for office what they will buy into. What’s certain is that it won’t happen on it’s own but with more than one local community group thinking of hosting a hustings, IMHO should be something that the party pundits should be thinking of their responses to.
Who knows it may even change the stability of the Westminster coalition?

In the fast lane with a whole load of crashes around

I was presenting a statement signed by about a dozen Black and minority ethnic groups and 80 individuals at the Northampton Borough Council Overview and Scrutiny Panel tonight. The statement was developed by Voice 4 Change with input from NREC and Council for Ethnic Minorities. The first shocking thing about the experience was the paucity of Councillors in attendance. Although the weather was dire it was traversable and clearly myself and several other members of the public had made the trip out. Having elected Councillors the least that they can do it to actually turn up and represent you or in this case listen to you.
The statement was not news. It was basically the articulation of the frustration that many Black groups have had with not achieving any resource from Northampton Borough Council. The Council’s position is that the applications made by the Black and minority ethnic organisations were simply not robust enough to get through the scoring framework. One could argue a very similar argument used by 21 Oxbridge Colleges here.
The other big news is about the cuts released by the County Council so far but so far very little detail exists on what this means for specific communities. It’s all very well stating that bus route subsidies will have to be re-negotiated but to look at this effectively with an equalities eye, it is really important to identify which ones we are actually talking about and which communities that they actually serve. In the mean time things that were seen as important for vulnerable members of the community now seem to be put on hold

Northampton and austerity

Surprised to see David Kennedy in the Guardian discussing austerity in local government. The question going through my mind is whether it is really possible for doing more with less. I believe it is possible to change the way services are delivered to provide something better for a large volume of people with a certain set of needs but event that change costs money in the short term. It is certainly true that local government still doesn't know the actual amount of money that will be delivered or even how much they can generate themselves. However what is really clear is the future is going to be brutal in particular for those who are disadvantaged with multiple needs having to be addressed.

For those of us in the third sector there is even more uncertainty. For a government which talked about the opportunity of "Big Society" what's on offer seems to be considerably less than that. Ken Clarke yesterday suggested that third sector organisations could help offenders find jobs and be paid piecemeal only if an offender found work. In this economic climate certainly not a proposal that would survive the dragons den.

In the meantime, the County Council has released it's third sector commissioning strategy which simply isn't clear enough about what it is they we actually commission. For smaller groups the prospect of a small grants scheme is to be welcomed bringing a more open process to almost the grace and favour approach for doing small scale short pieces of work. Already this year with the demise of Ability Northants, it's no wonder that many in the sector are sceptical about commissioning given that local groups partnering together don't seem to be winning the goods. It seems that there will be a bit or a lot of a cull in the days ahead,

Wanting to think the best of folk

With news rapidly running about town about the proposals to close down the Northampton Borough Council Cliftonville offices there are plenty of people worried about whether they have a future in their job.
In the mean time the BNP locally seem to have taken to heart campaigning against them with a series of offensive posts on their blog. They try to pass the requests for the age of consent to be lowered to 10 and hate messages to the african and caribbean community and asian community as infiltration ... the truth is ... the BNP and their supporters do hate and this is the essence of what they do whether they like to think of this happening or not.

Will the last one to leave please switch off the lights

With news today that the carnival hangs in the balance it seems like it's going to be a long bleak summer with very little to look forward to. But maybe this is one thing that we really can't blame the Liberal Democrats for. After all it was athe Tory County council which gave the carnival the funding axe. Well think again, as fundemental to this situation is the fact that the Lib Dem Borough council which has given no black or minority ethnic groups any funding in this financial year or the previous one also give no money to the carnival making them realiant on a County Council grant which is no longer available as the Tory county council wishes to spend more pennies in areas other than Northampton where there might be a quite vote or two in it.

With the loss of the St Crispin's Fair and the Balloon festival it's going to be a long hot lonely summer.

Kings Heath in the Springtime

In May 2005, the Silver Cornet was where we stopped to wind down at the end of a campaigning session. This is what it looks like today. I guess the derilict environment is slightly better than the wreck of the Morris Man on the other side of South Oval. Both sites have had planning permission to build housing for a good three years or more now. Doesn't stop the rumour mill of the potential of a mosque being built there. Local Lib Dems don't seem to care that the rumours exist or even that the sites remain eyesores for the local community. Clearly, with overwhelming control of the local Borough Council, they could do something about it if they really wanted to. Perhaps, the real priorities are shutting down services and axing neighbourhood wardens.

Careful who's bandwagon you jump on

I have a lot of respect for Tim Hadland, having served as a borough councillor with him. I remember when he expressed his condolences at the death of my parents, he wasn't aware that they were Conservative voters. He said that they didn't seem to be on their voter identification list. I did let him know that I seemed to be on the Tory voter ID list given that I seemed to get all the promotional literature from them.

However the letter six of the letters page of the Chron today really does concern me.

With the local Northants Patriot website (local BNP website) hoping that muslims stay away from the march through the town this week, I believe it is a case of being careful what bandwagon that you are climbing on.

Talking to key Army recruitment personnel in the region they talk about the activities of the British army from this region returning from Afganistan. They talk in terms of those from the forces responsible in reconnecting electric and water supplies for the area that they were working in. The officer I spoke to, spoke in very emotive terms of the muslim officer killed alongside him when trying to undertake the task. Almost exclusively, the muslim community would accept the actions of this regiment as support for Afgani communities and would celebrate the courage and commitment to duty that these individuals have shown. No need to think the worst of people.

Credit carrot crunch

I've been talking to people about the market over the last couple of weeks. I've been genuinely surprised about the amount of deep, sincere feeling that the market elicits from local people. Although you come across the sections of the community that no longer go into town either because of mobility issues or just driven out of the Town centre by the prohibitive parking costs, even amongst this group of people there is a significant proportion that passionately care about the market and see it as a key feature of the towns heritage.

I went into the mobile consultation unit on the market square this morning to have a look at the proposals. Many have been commenting positively about the idea of placing a version of the historic fountain as a key feature on the entrance of the square. Aside from that there was a lot of focus on the potential of large and small events on the site rather that the core work of providing a shopping area for fruit, veg, meat, fish and clothing.

The council representative glibley commented that if the town wanted big events "We can close the market when we need to". With the potential loss of the Balloon festival impending the horizon looks like event on the market square and the the eventual ceasation of the market as traders find it hard and hard to survive with the credit crunch and a council unsympathetic to the difficulties of running a business as a local trader.

Development in Sixfields

Let's get this clear ... I have a complete aversion to any sport. 14 years of being a cricket widow and always being picked last for the team kinda did it for me. However as someone with a sport aversion ... I believe it's really important that the sixfields development goes ahead if the Northampton is to survive and have a hope of thriving.

The key problems are with the exclusive relationships that the Borough have with other key partners in regenerating the town who see anything as a threat but still won't put the required time and energy to give the town a boost.

Time to re-evaluate relationships at the very least.

Time to lay it on the line...but will it happen ... we'll have to wait and see.

Northampton- extreme snow, and the need for authorities to lighten up

There were high spirits and a atmosphere of a town where people really cared about each other and wanted to create out of the snow the essence of joy and playfulness. So was it right for the six foot snowball that appeared outside the Grosvenor Centre to be destroyed ?.

With town campaigns increasingly led by the people and not politicians it's concerning when there has been yet another incident when authorities seem to be out of touch with the wishes of local people.

The tenth anniversary of the MacPherson enquiry report being published is coming up in a few week. In the report, ten years ago there was out and out damning condemnation of the police but have things changed now?

Race for a long while has been something that's been too hard to raise as an issue in Northampton with the oh so many problems that are faced locally ... failing schools despite more government investment than anywhere else in the country, a dying town centre, an absence of ambition. Perhaps the key is harnessing the peoples sense of injustice. In that way perhaps race really does need to be on the agenda.

The Fishmarket - don't let it be another loss for Northampton

I remember really disliking the fishmarket as a child. I just couldn't work out why somewhere indoors was so cold. When it closed in 2006 it offered the opportunity to showcase cultural and artistic spirit. This offered opportunities for local artists to have their work exhibited alongside national figures. Certainly it has florished to an incredibly short space of time. All the more concerning now that it appears that the Borough Council want to snaffle back the building and throw out the cultural baby with the bath water.

The lack of strategy in relation to the Borough's relationship with the voluntary and community sector is astounding. I remember sitting in meetings with the previous Borough Chief Exec where she denounced the Borough for not having proper service level agreements with the organisations that they gave grants to. Strangely enough there actually were contracts in place then and there aren't now. In addition there seems to be very little understanding of what investment into the voluntary sector there is. So when the Borough Council consultation document on the budget suggests that support to the voluntary sector should be frozen, then maybe it is about the temperature in the Fish market and the relationship with the Northampton Arts Collective rather suggesting that support to the sector should remain at a standstill. Maybe the current administration liked it better when it was cold.

neigbourhoods and renewal - Council priorities or not?

With the continual revolution both in the County Council and the Borough Council, the new dynamic seems to be the unilateral decision by the County Council to at short notice ditch multi-agency neighbourhood renewal arrangements. With the County taking that stance with the alleged deletion of all the neighbourhood manager posts in the County. Again allegedly, the Police (in the middle of their own negotiations on their own re-structure) have stated that if the County don't want to play ball then neither will they. For voluntary sector agencies there are concerns as to what will happen to infrastucture (support) organisations. A County Council cabinet report suggests that there is an expectation that local District and Borough Councils will pick up the resourcing of support organisations.

So when car crashes like this take place one has to ask, "where's the learning in this". The learning is things don't change if statutory agencies can really improve their image by appearing to care about the County's most disadvantaged communities and then feel that it's totally acceptable to leave the most vulnerable communities in our County in the lurch because they want to take quick (presumably budget saving) decisions. There really isn't any point in being two-faced with the communities that need the most help.

The other surprising thing is the inability or lack of concern of the Borough to prevent this hiding to nothing. Honestly, I really don't know which it is ... but if things could be changed ... I think that can be changed. You just have to want it.

With both Roger Conroy and Mel de Cruz (I'll vote for an increase in pay for me despite already earning over £1000 per meeting I attend) unable to do what they say they'd like to do for Spencer, Dallington and Kings Heath, I thought it would be helpful to reflect on who else had promised to deliver for the area. I came across an old leaflets from an erstwhile contender for the Spencer County seat which had the image of Tony Woods currently leader of the Council proclaiming his undying passion for ensuring that the goods were delivered in Spencer. This passion was demonstrated at the Council meeting a few weeks ago where he was quite triumphant about charging the Need 2 Know shop rent for the year even though the Council had agreed to supporting it in the same way as a community centre (without rent). Not to put too fine a point on this, the story about the Lib dems claiming to have saved the Need 2 Know shop appeared on a Kings Heath focus leaflet in April 2007. A lib dem friend so it seems is a fair weathered friend.

Councillors ambition to be lady bountiful

The current to and fro about local councillors pay increases seems to be a story that will run the distance. What is really shocking is the lack of political foresight by so many of the players.

Clearly, offering the people who are employed by the council a 2% pay increase, and offering Borough councillors substanstially more, is a circle that can never be squared. Labour Councillor, Cllr. Joy Capstick was the first Councillor to suggest the only plausible alternative which was to spend it in her own ward.

Strangely, two of the political groups on the Borough (Lib dems and Conservatives) then suggested that they would set up trust funds to distribute the resource. Quite rightly both have been admonished by the effective and efficient Northamptonshire Community Foundation Chief Executive, Victoria Miles here. Given the very work of the Community Foundation which has made real and genuine differences to Northamptonshire communities, particularly in the way that they use funding they receive for leverage (making your pound, two pounds or even three) it's crazy to think about setting something up, unless it was simply to get political leverage. Not what Northampton communities need, not what Northampton communities want.