Shamblehurst By-Election Date Set

The by-election caused by the resignation of Lib Dem Cllr David Humby after only eight months of his four year term will take place on 1st March.   The date was confirmed at the 12th January meeting of the Town Council Finance and Administration Committee.

The Town Council will foot the bill for the by-election, which is estimated to be in the region of three to four thousand pounds.  Polling will take place at St Luke's Church on St David's Day, but as was pointed out by Cllr Keith House at the meeting, postal votes are likely to be key to electoral success.

Turnout for parish / town council by-elections is usually very low.   Electors who apply to vote postally show that they are more likely to vote than not.  It will therefore be in the interest of candidates to make sure they get their messages out before the postal voting slips are delivered.

By-Election Looms

Following the resignation before Christmas of Lib Dem Town Councillor David Humby, the Conservatives have stated that they have collected the necessary signatures from local residents to call for a by-election in Shamblehurst Ward.

It looks as if the Tories are better organised in Hedge End than they were in May last year when they failed to put up a single candidate in the Town Council elections.

The Lib Dems could only put up a full slate of candidates in May by pulling in members from West End and Botley.  Will they find a Hedge End candidate this time round? 

Labour are another party which failed to put up candidates for the Town Council in May, and they seemed to have problems finding local candidates for the Borough elections as well.  Has Ed Milliband's leadership inspired any Hedge End Labour supporters to stand for the Town Council?

UKIP did put up a candidate in May, so it is likely they will want to contest this by-election.

And then there is the possibility that a non-partisan resident might stand as an independent to represent Hedge End rather than a party's interests.

A Promise Kept

Good news for young people came Monday evening as the new Hedge End, West End and Botley Youth Partnership became a reality.

Nearly fifty local people filled the small hall at the Hedge End 2000 Centre as the meeting, chaired by Town Councillor, Borough Councillor and County Councillor Rupert Kyrle, approved a constitution establishing a committee of trustees to keep youth services - including The Box in Wildern Lane - running across the three parishes in the face of swingeing cuts imposed by the Conservative County Council.

As Rupert said in his opening remarks, a promise had been made to the HEWEB Youth Council that The Box would be kept open, and Monday's meeting was a major milestone towards the keeping of that promise.   It is still not clear if the County will impose any conditions on the transfer of the building itself and other assets to the partnership, but people were optimistic that agreement would be forthcoming.

 The first committee will consist of some local councillors (including Hedge End Town Councillors Dan Clarke and Jenny Hughes in addition to Rupert) and representatives from the Scouts, the Teenage Drop In Centre, YMCA, Wildern School, local churches, other youth organisations and even one non-aligned member of the public.  Meetings will be held in public at a time which allows young people from the Youth Council and other organisations to attend and give representations.

An emotional presentation by colleagues and young people also marked the departure of three local youth workers from Hampshire County Council.   One of them described the rewards of working with young people:  "They challenge, they question and they don't accept". 

Not a bad motto for all of us in week which saw County Leader Ken Thornber manufacturing a cabinet post for a party crony.

House Hits Out at Hampshire Hogs

"Now is not the time to increase the size of the Cabinet,"  according to Hedge End Councillor Keith House - who is also leader of the Lib Dem opposition at Hampshire County Council and County member for Hamble-le-Rice.  Cllr House was responding to County Supremo Ken Thornber's decision to appoint Basingstoke Councillor Stephen Reid as his new "executive member for strategic development".

It is certainly a fair comment that at a time of austerity, public service cuts and redundancies, it is politically inept even to give the appearance of manufacturing a job for a party crony, particularly when it has been done - according to the Echo report here - without any public debate or consultation.

Unfortunately attention has been partly deflected away from the substance of the report into a party political handbag fight over whether the Conservatives have been unduly secretive or whether the Lib Dems have breached a confidence.  The gory details of who sent which email to whom are documented by Eastleigh News here.

Cllr House goes on to claim that with a reduced budget and fewer staff it should be possible to run Hampshire with a smaller cabinet.   Again, that is a fair comment, but it does raise the question what is the best size for a cabinet. 

Let's take Eastleigh Borough Council as a good example.

Cllr House is the executive leader of Eastleigh in much the same way that Cllr Thornber is the leader at Hampshire.  When introducing efficiency savings in 2011, Eastleigh chose to keep its cabinet the same size and instead to reduce the number of local area committee meetings to be held in public and to sack two of its scrutiny panels. 

Eastleigh in consequence has eight cabinet members for a council of 44 members.  Even with Cllr Reid's elevation to executive status Hampshire will only have ten cabinet members for a council of 78.  If Eastleigh were to reduce its cabinet to match Hampshire in proportion to the council size, Cllr House would have to sack two of his Lib Dem cabinet colleagues.

Hampshire estimates it spends about £1,913 million on services(1), so just under £200 million per cabinet member.  In comparison, Eastleigh's budget of £61 million works out at less than £8 million per cabinet member.

Eastleigh employs about 500 people, which gives a cabinet member to employee ratio of one to 60.  Hampshire, with an employee count of about 40,000, has one cabinet member for every 4,000 employees.

It was perhaps unwise of Cllr House to draw attention to reduced budget and employee headcount in calling for a smaller cabinet when Eastleigh's own budget and staff are so much smaller than Hampshire's and his own cabinet is almost the same size as Cllr Thornber's.  Direct comparisons are difficult to make, but when there are orders of magnitude in the difference between the two councils, it is justifiable to ask whether one or two of Eastleigh's portfolios could be combined in the interest of further efficiencies.

Cllr House is quite right to point out inappropriate spending by Hampshire and to question unnecessary secrecy in the County's decision making processes, but he needs to make sure his own back yard at Eastleigh is beyond reproach as well.


(1) All figures are taken from the councils' own web sites
(Picture credit Joy Schoenberger)

Hedge End Freezes Council Tax

Hedge End Town Council has agreed a budget for 2012/2013 which maintains its council tax precept at the same level as 2011/2012.  Unlike the Borough and County Councils, the Town Council will receive no grant from your central taxes to cover any budget shortfall resulting from this change to the long standing Lib Dem policy of putting the Town Council precept up each year.  The freeze is made possible by continuing efforts to reduce ongoing costs and cutting back on proposed capital projects for the coming year.

The Council is still discussing changes to charges for community and sports facilities, but it is looking likely that all hirers will be subject to an increase in line with inflation for the coming year.   That is what is required to balance the books, and a working party convened on 30th December failed after two hours of discussions to come up with a feasible and fair alternative.  Its recommendation to the January Recreation and Amenities Committee will be to confirm a 5.2%  increase for all hirers and that the working party will continue to meet to discuss ways of addressing historical anomalies in the Council's charging structures.

Lib Dems - More Broken Promises

For the third time this year, the overwhelming Lib Dem majority on Hedge End Town Council have avoided any public debate on the Borough Council's local plan consultation.

After promising at the May elections to "stand up for our area against more building and even more traffic" local Lib Dems have failed even to discuss plans to build nearly 4,000 houses in Hedge End and Botley, while the same plan proposes only 68 new houses in Hamble and 536 in West End.

In July, full council agreed to defer any discussion until September.  In September the decision made was to discuss and agree a response at the December meetings of Highways and Planning and Full Council.

But come the December meeting, there was no item on the agenda for this subject.  This was doubly strange as not only were Lib Dem heavyweights Keith House and Rupert Kyrle behind the September resolution to discuss the plan in December, but chair of Highways and Planning Committee, Cllr Cynthia Garton, reported that she had specifically asked that the discussion be deferred to Full Council.

There has been no explanation why the Lib Dems did not follow their own September resolution to "make a full response to the Borough" in December.

Hedge End Lib Dems have failed to represent Hedge End voters and they have failed to keep their election promises. 

Botley Parish Council, in contrast, is not swamped by Lib Dems, and is talking about budgeting for legal representation to oppose the Borough's plans in 2012/13.

July Council Minutes
September Council Minutes
December Council Minutes
Eastleigh News Report on September Meeting
Eastleigh News Report on December Meeting

Berry "First Class"

It is great to see Hedge End's new theatre getting such good reviews for its first Christmas show, Hansel and Gretel.

The Daily Echo has described it as "simply first class ... The Berry Theatre proves the perfect venue", and online review site mintsouth.com exhorts: "If you are thinking of taking the children to a Christmas show, make sure you take them to Hansel and Gretel ... you are guaranteed to be going home with very happy children ... and they won't be the only ones ... with smiles on their faces."

Congratulations to director Sarah Brigham and all the team.

The show runs until Christmas Eve, although ticket availability is already  limited for Friday and Saturday.