48 HOURS IS A LONG LONG TIME IN LIBERAL DEMOCRAT POLITICS

My last few posts have been predominantly about the antics of our Liberal Democrat administration on Northampton Borough Council. So much so that I began to worry that a degree of balance may be needed in order to ensure readers do not think me obsessive with the dealings of our Liberally challenged friends.

But I can only write and report on what is happening, and if we have a Tory County Council which is making itself more and more irrelevant to the everyday lives of people in Northampton, and if we have a Labour Party that is so often as an opposition missing in battle, then the focus will inevitably fall on the activities of what is fast becoming Britain's Craziest Council.

So what delights can I share with you today?

Well, for some time now I have been trying to get the Council to act on ever increasing problems with flytipping in Castle Ward, I pointed out in the local press recently that the Council themselves were responsible for much of the flytipping, as their own housing department staff when clearing a vacated property often just leave abandoned furniture on the road for "later collection" thus acting as a magnet for anyone else to come along and add their own rubbish to the pile.

I have also pointed out to them on more than one occasion that increasing the charge for the household collection of large items from £10 to £25 in last years budget would hardly encourage more people to deal properly with all their old items of furniture.

But the Councils response was always the same

"Northampton Borough Council has a very good record of clearing any flytipping within the town with 99% of all flytipping cleared within 48 hrs" On their performance reports this is even written in as "two working days"

And yet fridges, beds, televisions, and sideboards seem to lying around the estates for days on end? Perhaps my bit of the borough was the 1% not collected within the stated 48hrs?

But now, once again after lot of wrangling and questioning including from the Labour Group on the Borough Council (I always will give credit where it is due) we finally have a better definition of how long a Liberal Democrats 48hrs really is.

After all, most of us would guess at it being 2 days?

But no, in Liberal time it is 8½ days......................................

8½ Days!!

Surely some mistake I hear you cry?

But no, you see in order to keep the performance indicators the right side of the green line they have determined that 48 hours really means 48 'working' hours and as the council only work 37½ hrs in a five day week, and that a weekend would always intervene then it is a 5 day week plus a 2 day weekend plus a day and a ½ before the whole 48hrs are up.

And this is what we are now up against as the hidden cuts to service start to bite, and the indicators have to still be met, a reinterpretation of the standards to enable the Council to say" look at how wonderful we are" when the exact opposite is the truth? It is the mother of all efficiency savings, a political time machine to make the bad good and the new good palatable

Oh What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

Whatever next? Perhaps the Lib Dems want their 4 year term in office on the Borough extended in a similar fashion? meaning that instead of an election to remove them in May 2011 we would have to wait until 2023!

God help me, now I am depressed!

THE ANSWER MY FRIEND IS BLOWING IN THE WIND

Most of us are familiar with Network Rails "wrong kind of leaves" excuse to explain "leaves on the line" type delays to rail services. But where Network Rail lead, Northampton Borough Council are sure to follow with increased gusto and even greater hilarity and exposure to public ridicule.

Let me explain all:

A Northampton housing tenant informed me this week that the great mass of leaves outside his block of flats had got so out of control that they were now not only a danger to elderly residents who couldn't use the footpath without risk of slipping but also that the piles of leaves were attracting vermin looking for suitable nesting sites. Its not as if the leaves have suddenly accumulated, most of them have been there since the Autumn! So as a responsible citizen he contacted his landlord "The Council" to ask for them to be removed. He got a very speedy reply, in fact he got two.

The first came from a Customer Relationship Coordinator in the Neighbourhood Environmental Services directorate which informed him that:

"Leaf clearance is conducted by this department up to the edge of the Cartilage (sic) of the property but not encroaching onto pathways or garden spaces. This remains the responsibility of our Housing Department to maintain"

The second response came from a Housing Services Team Leader in the Housing Department who told him:

"I can confirm that Northampton Borough Council does not provide a programmed leaf removal service to any land owned and managed by the Housing Services Directorate"

It then went on to say inevitably that "in light of financial pressures" there are no plans in the future to change this.

So despite the tenants paying a service charge within their rent for "cleaning and maintenance" of communal areas, and despite the Housing Department being responsible for the up keep of their own communal gardens, picking the leaves up to stop people slipping on wet paths, or to stop rodents nesting within them is not it seems within their remit?

I raised this case on behalf of the tenant at this weeks Council Budget meeting and the Portfolio Holder for Housing Cllr Sally Beardsworth informed all present that the tenant should "Do what I have to do at home, and pick the leaves up for themselves" An extraordinary response given that the tenants already pay the council to pick them up for them? I wonder if Cllr Beardsworth would feel any different if she had a paid gardener, who told her that leaf picking wasn't in the contract? And are the tenants in the blocks of flats supposed to take it in turns at being the Floating Leaf Wardens?

It was a callous and unforgivable response from the portfolio holder, and a pointer perhaps to the levels of service our housing tenants can expect to get for their money in the future? Perhaps if the Council now admit to not being able to afford to provide a simple service like this, then the Council will consider repaying to the tenants all the money they have taken off of them in the first place to do so?

So it seems that these leaves will remain outside this block of flats and indeed others, because their in the wrong place for the contract. You see we now have "Highway Leaves" "Housing Leaves" and I guess within our parks even "Leisure Leaves" and whether or not they are picked up and taken away to prevent a fall or remove the risk of rat infestation is dependent purely on which way the wind blows.

Meanwhile in the Council's budget we noted a bid for £25,000 of new money to deal with "rat infestation of housing communal areas" which will have to be paid to an outside contractor after the Council closed down its Pest Control service last year as a budget saving.

So we cant afford a council rat catcher? we cant afford to pick up leaves outside our housing schemes, and we can't even afford to bring in an outside rat catcher to remove the rats from the uncleared leaves which shouldn't be there in the first place without making a bid for new money in the budget?

What a sorry state the Liberal DemocRATS on Northampton Borough Council have now got us all in.

Perhaps they should take a leaf out of Homer's book (from the Iliad than than the Simpson's) when he said "A generation of men is like a generation of leaves: the wind scatters some leaves upon the ground, whilst others the burgeoning wood brings forth _ and the season of Spring comes on. So of men one generation springs forth and another ceases"

So role on Spring 2011, I think a new generation of men and women springing forth at the Guildhall is desperately needed!

Meanwhile will the last one to" leaf" the Guildhall please switch out the lights?

£50 + LIB DEM INFLATION = £350

"The way we plan for the future, the pattern of uses for buildings we promote, the jobs and housing we encourage and the street scene we create in our town centre will all determine whether specialist retailers will want to come here.Increasing the number of people living and working in the town centre is part of this. An office development in Angel Street and a new hotel in St John's would increase the number of people in the town centre during the day and in the evening."

So said Cllr Richard Church, the Liberal Democrat portfolio holder for regeneration when asked in August 2008 what his party's plans were for the Town Centre. Its all part of creating a "City of Culture" where people not only shop, but work, and play and of course LIVE in the heart of Northampton.

But of course living in the centre of town brings its own problems, I live on the edge of town and gladly pay my £25 a year for a residents parking scheme to protect a space for my vehicle, but if you live in Sheep Street? or Castillian Street? or maybe on the Market Square itself? parking your car is a bit more difficult. Of course town centre dwellers are green in many ways, often they have everything they need within strolling distance, and car use is usually limited to getting to and from work and for leisure trips, but where can you park your vehicle?

Well for as long as I can remember, Car owners living in town centre could buy a "residents" permit allowing them to use the Councils car parks to park their cars. It was a sensible way of using space often empty in the evening and whilst the £50 was double the cost for residents just outside the town centre and it was an additional cost, it was accepted as part of the cost of convinience of living so close to all the facilities and there was an understanding that there would an administrative charge of issuing the permits.

So how is Cllr Church and his Lib Dem Colleagues going to encourage more people to choose the Town Centre as their preffered place of residence?

Well for a start they are going to raise the cost of them parking their car by 600% !

Yes that's right 600% at a time when we are all struggling to make ends meet and where the increase of Council Tax proposed by the Council is running above inflation at 2.47% the residents car park charge for those residing in the town will rise from £50 to £350 in one fell swoop.

But worry not, this is one of the income and efficiency moves that Cllr Brian Hoare said we would all like, so I am sure those effected will feel only too happy at the increase. After all they have been consulted right? There ward Councillor was consulted surely? No such luck on either count, as with the rest of the budget this underhand, sneaky and imposed car parking tax was once again hidden away in the minute detail of the budget book.

So as always with the Northampton brand of Liberal Democracy it is say one thing and do another, and they wonder why their star is no longer in the ascendancy?

TIME TO COME CLEAN NBC

In the recent article below:

http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com/2010/02/pinky-and-perky-get-their-sums-wrong.html

I explained that Lib Dem Leader of Northampton Borough Council Cllr Brian Hoare told us recently that we "might like" the efficiency savings they were making in this years budget, but that we were unable to judge at the time whether or not we would like them ,because there was no details given! What did they entail we asked?

"Things like savings on electric and gas" shouted Perky (Cllr David Perkins) as answer to what these efficiencies were. The audience at the time however not convinced with Perky's explanation asked how many redundancies would be involved, No answer was forthcoming.

Well now we know, after a trawl through the various "efficiency and reorganisation and restructuring plans we can reveal that at least 94 posts are proposed to be removed from the Councils workforce.

These are being 'Consulted on' with staff as we speak and some of those consultations finished on Monday and others continue right up until the day the Cabinet Set the budget next Wednesday, meaning that as Councillors we have to respect the privacy of those consultations by not revealing which posts are under threat.

So next week we will set a budget, the results from the public consultation, which took place in limited form won't say much because the Public were not told much. Alternative options from opposition Councillors will be few and far between because like the public, we have also mainly been kept in the dark, trying our hardest to glean information here or there but being told. "There are no redundancies planned as yet, only consultations"

Now don't get me wrong here, I never thought for one moment that the Council would be able to balance its books without some reductions in the workforce, and if asked I have plenty of suggestions as to what could be cut (The West Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit for a start)
But Councils are supposed to be about elected members meeting to take part in full and robust debate on a range of options where we can make real choices and all strive to do what is best for the town.

They should not be about the ruling administration colluding with officers on secret plans, not disclosed to the public which are then presented as a Fait Accompli to backbench councillors and the public let alone the staff who may lose their livelihoods in the process. A Council is the whole sum of all its parts, administration and opposition, and on important matters such as this we should do more to act as one rather than the ruling party trying to play party politics by revealing the good news to us all whilst hiding away the bad from our eyes and ears.

I still can't tell you which jobs will finally go, as that would breach the confidentiality of the information which I have gleaned from the Council but expect less staff to be maintaining our housing stock next year, and less working in our parks and our cemeteries, and less cleaning of our streets, expect less neighbourhood management and less partnership working with the police on the anti social behaviour which troubles so many of our communities, expect less staff working on the recovery of our local economy, and expect less staff to manage our museums, expect less staff to manage or look after our community centres and expect at some time in the future for many of these services to be hived off to the private sector now that they have been made "procurement friendly" by hiding all of the on costs of managing such services.

But the Liberal Democrats will tell you that everythings fine, the public won't notice the difference, and then they will ask you to look at the marvelous new fountain on the Market Square and the not so shiny new paving slabs in Gold Street as proof of their "Improving Council"

It doesn't wash with me, and I don't believe it will with the public either because they didn't have the decency to inform them, instead you have to learn about it here, and wonder why they bothered in the first place to hold public consultations if they were hell bent on keeping the details from us.

If they had been upfront and honest then maybe there could have been some agreement between us as to how to proceed, maybe we could have put some alternative suggestions up for consultation? but their actions have been underhanded and their deception of the public unforgivable.

This lot are not Liberal and they are certainly no Democrats, they shame the very basis of their national parties founding aims and objectives, and those within their fold who know that what is not being said, but being done in their name should have the courage of their convictions and be as critical as the opposition are in their responses to next weeks budget, not just in their group meeting but in the Council chamber as well.

POP THE KETTLE ON IT'S VICTORY TEA

Well that's that then, less than a week into the "Tea War" and hostilities have come to end as Northampton Borough Council surrendered and declared an end to their proposed tea drinking ban in the Walled garden at Delapre Abbey.

Not though before many an attempt to try and make out they had no intention of doing so in the first place, let alone the odd comment or three suggesting it was all a slip of the tongue by an officer and nothing to do with the politicians.

But lets not carp on about the past, victory is as sweet as Earl Grey with three sugars, and amazingly 414 people had joined the campaigns facebook group in just 3 days.

The planning officer who let this slip though, has done everyone a huge favour, because if this had of gone by unchallenged then I believe FoDA (Friends of Delapre Abbey) would have been in real trouble in the coming weeks when trying to negotiate their lease with Northampton Borough Council. You see they have been banned from the walled garden since November of last year and the new conditions on the lease being proposed by NBC had in it the following inexplicable clauses banning FoDA from using the walled garden for any of the following purposes:

Community Events
Volunteering Activities,
Tea Room Seating,
Fruit, Flower or Vegetable growing, or
Greenhouse Restoration

I can now exclusively reveal to you that as part of the surrender treaty negotiations that FoDA have also now been given permission to pick their Leeks which have been growing happily away without interference in the greenhouses, (this is really all true) So lets now hope that the rest of the above ridiculous list of restrictions are now banished forever.

As I have said before if the Council has real concerns about say Marquees being erected or big events spoiling the ambiance or tranquility of the garden, then lets put in a serious clause about having to have permission from the council for such occurrences, but don't ban them out of hand because who knows? maybe NBC and FoDA might want to arrange a jointly held Victoria Sponge competition in a Marquee on the garden only to find they had banned themselves from such potentially dangerous activities.

Many have rightly guessed though that there was a lot more to this dispute than meets the eye, and I am certainly happy to confirm that a small minority within the Lib Dem group have been agitating for some time to upset FoDA and trying to cause trouble for them and their volunteers, but hopefully all that can now stop? A truce? and an agreement for all Councillors from all sides of the Borough Council to work together with FoDA and others to ensure that our hopefully shared objective of seeing the Abbey restored to it's former glory and accessible to the public now and in the future is achieved.

We can but live in hope.

By the way, thank you to so many of you who joined our campaign on facebook, and also thank you to those Lib Dem Councillors who responded so predictably and thus made our tea in the sun all the more enjoyable.

Tea Anybody?

Still concerned over Northampton Borough Councils ban on noisy tea drinkers at Delapre Abbey? (see post below) So are we, so let battle Commence.

Following on from the Boston Tea Party (No taxation without representation) We have now started the NORTHAMPTON TEA PARTY ( Say No to No Tea at Delapre) at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northampton-Tea-Party/302273234884?v=photos#!/photo.php?pid=3280625&id=302273234884

or search for us 'Northampton Tea Party' on your facebook page.

Below is a copy of our inaugural speech given in the Walled Garden this morning

This battlefield of kings, this green oasis, This earth of majesty, this seat of nuns, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of a Liberal Democrat Council, This happy breed of Northampton men and women, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which served in it's walled garden cups of tea, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of Northampton Borough Council ,-- This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this Abbey they call Delapre!!!

Let us therefore commit ourselves to drink from the cup of thy beauty and thus defy the planners and plotters of Clegg's Army, defiant in the knowledge that truth is our tea cup and righteousness our saucer.

LAWBREAKERS

Our Photo Shows Independent Cllr Tony Clarke, Dr Marie Dickie OBE (former chair of Northamptonshire Police Authority) and John Dickie (former Leader of Northampton Borough Council) defying the Councils Tea ban in the walled Garden on Saturday 13th February 2010

Why not join us by sending your own tea based photos to our facebook wall? Together we can beat this tea tyranny

THERE'S NO T IN DEMOCRACY

Whilst a nervous Northampton public awaits the Borough Councils final verdict on the administrations plans for a new Leaflet Police for the Town Centre (see below) the 'Liberal' Democrat Politburo have been upping their game in ensuring that Citizens of the Town remain well ordered and controlled.

Whilst unable to confirm rumours of a ban on gatherings of more than 4 people on the Market Square this blog can now confirm the introduction of the heavily rumoured ban on Tea Drinking in the Walled Garden at Delapre Abbey.

Yes that's right "Tea Drinking"

In a statement to the Politburos Revolutionary Planning Committee a junior Commissar of the Council, Comrade Planner Andrew Holden told those in attendance that,

" We want to keep the Garden as a peaceful space and it was being disturbed by tea drinking"

see http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Drinking-tea-is-too-noisy.6066455.jp

As a consequence the Abbey Tea Rooms run by the counter revolutionary Friends of Delapre Abbey have been told to

MOVE YOUR TEA TABLES OFF OUR LAWN

Only in Northampton and only under a Liberal Democrat Administration can you be assured of such ridiculous, yet compelling news stories such as the one above.

Of course the real story behind the story is confirmed by the fact that the "Tea drinking ban" was also included in the terms of the new lease currently under discussion between the Council and FoDA which the later must sign if they want to remain on site. All this because a small group within the Liberal Democrat group on the Council have made it their lifes work to make life almost impossible for FoDA.


Complaints are fired off to the Charity Commission like confetti, Pickets made up of Liberal Democrat Councillors are sent out to agitate and leaflet those arriving at FoDA meetings and even yours truly has fallen victim to their well-orchestrated campaign of complaint, innuendo, distraction techniques and smear tactics, when a Lib Dem Councillor reported me to the Standards board for not declaring in my register of Councillor interests that I along with Sir Hereward Wake was a founding Patron of the Charity at the time of its formation! My crime? I tried to mediate in the dispute.

But I am not allowed to discuss with you what the Standards board said on this matter, but you will note that I still have my Liberty and that none of my fingernails have been extracted, much to the disappointment I am sure of some in the Lib Dem group.

But I feel really sorry for FoDA, and I think it is high time that some of the Liberals on the Council put their cards on the table and say exactly what their beef is, instead of using the Council officers both through its estates department and now through its seems the "non political" planning process as a stick to beat the charity up with.

FoDA has suffered a great deal in recent months from both infighting and a lack of tangible support from the Council, and this needs to stop right now. Some members of the public have been used by Councillors in my view to do their dirty work for them, but now that also has to stop.

Its now time for all of us who hold the future of the Abbey dear to our heart to tell the administration and their bullies within, that their campaign against FoDA must stop right here, right now. And I will work with any member of the Council of whatever political party to ensure that happens.

It may have taken this ridiculous story to surface in order for the real truth about what has been really been happening down on London Road to be flushed out for all to see, but maybe the embarrassment that follows might prompt some within the Liberal group to ask whether or not their underhand tactics to date have served them well?

MP DETAINED AFTER IN FLIGHT BANANA EXCHANGE WITH STEWARDESS

It was the story that all the tabloids missed, but surreal as it may seem, during the late 1990's whilst a Member of Parliament, I was actually detained at O'Hara airport by armed members of the Chicago Fruit police for entering into US territory whilst concealing on my person an illegal substance, in the form of a banana.

It was the sniffer dogs that did for me, I was cautioned, my banana was confiscated and the details of my villainy were placed on the official record for future reference. They were not interested in my protestations of innocence at the time, and despite me telling them that the banana in question was for my own personal use, and that I had no intention of dealing in illegal fruit substances whilst in the USA they booked me. I even snitched on my supplier, to try to cut a deal, and told them that the said offending banana had been given to me on the flight over from Charles De Galle airport by a friendly American stewardess on a United Airlines Flight. All to no avail, I was done for. You see in the States the law is the law, unbending, unchallengeable and enforced with vigour.

So it was with some trepidation that I attempted last night to influence the views of the Borough Councils Overview and Scrutiny Committee not to support the Liberal Democrat Cabinets latest plans to introduce Leaflet Police onto the streets of Northampton. You see it seems that we have a big problem, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights with businesses advertising their mostly alchoholic wares via the exchange of hundreds of colourful leaflets handed out mostly by young men and women (probably being paid the minimum wage) to entice Joe Public into this bar or that night club. We were told that the leaflets were a Health and Safety hazard, that women in high heels might trip over them (one brave Councillor suggested that the public were under more threat from the pavements than the leaflets) We were also told they made it difficult for our street cleaners to clean up (Cllr Pam Varnsverry asked sensibly if they didn't have to clean up anyway, and sometimes clean up mess a lot worse than leaflets) But the officer class stood firm to their task of telling us all what they thought we we wanted and needed regardless of our views.

So the same Council that has bought to you "Talking CCTV" (this system barks out orders to you as you walk down Abington St, which most infamously told a couple to stop making love in a shop doorway) and now plays upbeat Muzac to shoppers and traders on the Market Square leading the Chronicle and Echo to compare Northampton to North Korean capital Pyongyang, now wants to add leafleting to the ever growing list of offences (including skateboarding and dropping a discarded cigarette stub) punishable by the inevitable £80 Fixed Penalty Notice.

Now I have nothing against punishing litterers, and we already have laws to do that, but when we start to introduce new bye laws to fine those supplying the litterers and those supplying the suppliers, then you have to question what the intention really is? After all what about the fast food shops whose customers leave the remains of their late night feast on the pavement (eaten or uneaten!) or all those discarded bus tickets courtesy of the bus companies? They it would seem were all to be exempted from the new by law? As were, believe it or not political parties ! and you should read some of the cr*p thats on thier leaflets!

I have said before that Councils used to be "Providers" of service to the public, we then, post Thatcher and Blair became "Enablers" whereby it mattered not who provided the service (or sometimes it seems to what standard) as long as it was done. But now local Councils are becoming "Enforcers" and I don't like the path we are setting ourselves on.

Thankfully last night the Scrutiny Committee mostly agreed with me (almost cross Party, one of the Tories Cllr Kevin Reeves made an input suggesting almost that hanging was too good for them and we needed to get tougher on these litter louts!) The committee to my relief have now suggested that when the Cabinet go on to consider the matter in full, that they might want to try out a voluntary code with businesses before we send in the heavy mob.

Let us hope the Cabinet listens, after all for a council that can't even afford a rat catcher, agreeing to employ leaflet police to chase around town after young underpaid leafleteers may not be seen by the public as a top priority for an "Improving" council.

PINKY AND PERKY GET THIER SUMS WRONG

So if Tory controlled Northamptonshire County Council use sleight of hand to sell their annual budget plans to the public, how do their Liberal Democrat neighbours across the road at Northampton Borough Council fare when it comes to openness and transparency?

I decided last week to attend one of their "Public Consultations" to judge for myself whether the information available to the public was any clearer this side of the road from County Hall? The answer? A big no I am afraid, in fact its worse than that, let me explain what occurred.

Those bothering to attend (very few) were submitted to a hour and 30 minute party political powerpoint presentation where Brian Hoare the Council leader, with David Perkins in the background share with us all their views on how wonderful a council they now are and lecture us on Local Government finance, including the fiscal pitfalls of an inequitable regressive Local Government tax systems not centred on ability to pay (The Lib Dem's Local income Tax) An explanation of NBC's 10p a week increase against NCC's 10p a day without telling us that NCC pay for Schools and Social Services and and etc) and at every opportunity a rally against the awful government and the way they treat Northampton on concessionary fares and on being been sold short on population figures.

All good political knockabout material, and I actually agree with them on the last one, but none of this, was what we were actually there for!

The meeting was advertised as a consultation on the Council's 09/10 budget, so where was it?

No leaflets, no handouts, no brochures (glossy or recycled) telling us what their plans were, or asking us to make choices as to what we might like to see saved or what we could do without, just a continued ramble through the "Bigger picture" as Cll Hoare puts it, as he turned an ever pinker shade of red as he blustered on and on and on, with Cllr David Perkins as his prompt and foil, they were turning into the Pinky and Perky show right before our very eyes.

It was 1 hour and 15 minutes into the show that I finally gave in and could resist no longer the urge to intervene, and ask when we were going to get to next years budget?

And at last we got there, one slide that at least acted as a signpost to what might lay ahead (although where to is anybodies guess)

We were shown a slide with eight lines on it, 3 under a heading of "What you might like" and 3 under a heading of "What you might not like" You will be pleased to discover that we might like:

80% of the reduced budget coming in efficiency" savings
Protection of all Community Grants, and
A freeze on "day to day" car parking charges

but we might not like:

A 2.4% Council Tax increase
Changes to the operation of Community Centre (15 Caretaker redundancies) and
Increased charges for leisure centres and other activities.

We of course didn't like any of it and asked for more detail.

It felt like sitting in a restaurant in rural Estonia wondering what each of the dishes on the menu really might be? and whether or not the waiters translation could be trusted?.

A few hardy souls tried to question our" liking" the 80% of the reduced budget coming from efficiency savings, As the budget reductions added up to £4m what exactly were these £3.2m worth of efficiency savings?

Perky assured us that it was all innocent stuff like "cheaper Electric and Gas" and "restructuring efficiencies" members of the Trade Unions present asked how many redundancy's were included in the "efficiency savings"?

Pinky and Perky couldn't answer.

A member of the public asked what services would be reduced as a result of the savings?

Pinky and Perky couldn't answer.

I asked if the savings were like those not announced last year when they scrapped the Councils Pest Control Service without telling us?

Pinky and Perky couldn't answer.

There most amusing response, which I wrote down word for word came from the leader himself when he told the audience that:

"We didn't want to confuse the public with figures"

How we all laughed, but the joke is really on us, whats the point of a consultation if we have nothing to be consulted on?

If they were serious they would be asking us for instance if the NBC proportion of the council tax should rise by 10p a week or 12p a week or 14p a week? and give us the chance to say what services we would like to save if we elected to spend more.

Or heaven forbid if they don't want to go that far, how about asking us our views on the real cuts they are making, but not telling us about?

Our local councils need to get real over their need to consult, Both Councils are in a difficult position, money is tight and will get tighter and only by being open with us as to what the options are open to us will they ever have a chance of bringing us on board.

This however was a further attempt at smoke and mirror politics and hidden agendas and it does little to alleviate the publics understandable mistrust.

If music be the food of politics, play on no more

At yesterdays full County Council meeting, 14yr old Simon Williams pleaded with the Council not to carry through their threat to cut £238,000 from Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Service in next years proposed budget reductions.

His public address was clear, impassioned, reasoned and delivered on behalf of thousands of people who have signed petitions written letters and emails to councillors. all asking the County Council to think again.

The meeting was at the time discussing a Liberal Democrat Motion which called on the Tory Administration to do just that.

So far so good, but hang on whats that I spy creeping into the Council chamber? hypocrisy? deceit? party politics?

You see the Tory administration responded to the Liberals motion with an almost identical amendment seeking to do the very same thing. In other words to save the music service from themselves! It basicaly said "we the Conservative administration must do all we can to make sure that the cuts proposed by us the Conservative adminstration, are not carried out unless we can find the funding from elsewher! Political schizophrenia at its very very best.

I got my opportunity to address the Council, and Simon who sat in the public gallery, and I congratulated him on his speech, and I also apologised to him on behalf of the whole Council for the fact that he and thousands of others in the County had been taken for Fools by the Politicians.

I explained to this very intelligent 14 year old, that I believed that the Tory administration had no intention in the first place of cutting the funding to the music service, and that history will show that immediately after they had announced their draconian plans, that their own Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton North Michael Ellis had come our fiercly and publicly to announce he would fight the plans to the end, I reminded the Council Chamber that it was indeed one of their administrations own back benchers that had gone on to propose an alternative plan to save the service at a recent Overview and Scrutiny meeting which had met to discuss the proposals.

And here, now, we had in full public view, in the Council Chamber the Tories and the Liberal Democrats trying to out do each other to see whose motion or amendment to save the service would be agreed first.

The Tories were obviously upset, it wasn't meant to happen like this, THEY were the ones who were supposed to come to the rescue of our young musicians at the eleventh hour, and here we were not too long past breakfast, with the Liberals stealing their plans from them without even a hint of irony.

I told the chamber that the Tories reminded me of my favourite Horse trainer Richard Hannon, who often puts three horses in a race, allows one to attract all the press and market speculation before bringing home a different winner at 33/1 under every ones noses. In other words the Tory Plan was a stalking horse, it was a smokescreen to grab the medias attention and to draw it away from the real serious threats to services proposed in the budget including further cuts to care for the elderly and vulnerable in our community.

I told them that their behaviour was unforgivable, and that they were both playing politics with the future education of our children and were fighting simply over who could grab the headlines first and claim in their pre general election leaflets that "WE SAVED THE MUSIC SERVICE"

There were a lot of bowed, lowered heads, a lot of people squirming uncomfortably in their chairs, and not one denial from any quarter of the chamber that my revelations and opinion were wrong.

Today's Chronicle and Echo does however carry half of the story, squeezed for space the Chron's reporter Wayne Bontoft (a very able and considerate scribe) struggled to get in quotes from 14 yr old Simon, the administration, and an opposition member Cllr Sally Beardsworth who ironically agreed with my assertion that it had all been a smokescreen. To their credit the Labour Party (also unreported) told the administration how despicable their deeds were.

So I never got a quote in the press, but hey ho I can live with that, neither did Andrew Simpson (Lib Dem PPC for Northampton North) who spoke as a member of the public after Simon, to crys of "Bring back the young lad he was better and more coherent than you" and Micheal Ellis was also there waiting to get a line in on the story. They were both to be disappointed, but no doubt they will write their own versions of events in the avalanche of election leaflets on their way to us in the coming weeks.

And for my part I get to inform you all, of what really went down on the day in this blog.

What I witnessed was a cynical, despicable manipulation of the publics concern over proposed cuts to services responsible for the education of our children, which were never going to implemented in the first place.

All delivered in the name of political spin, oneupmanship, electioneering and sleight of hand covering up other serious cuts which really will come to fruition and will affect the most vulnerable in our society.

And they ask me why I think our politics are broken, they ask me why I no longer trust any of the parties to serve the public with any dignity, and they ask me why I am now Independent of the whole lot of them.

If music is to be used as the food for political skullduggery, then as I say in the title to this piece, let it play no more.