Your local Labour campaign team in Hedge End

Hedge End Labour campaigning all year round

Regular readers of this blog will know that as Hedge End Blogger, I (Keith Day) have been keeping in touch via this blog since 2011. That is when I resigned from the Lib Dems and sat as an independent councillor on Hedge End Town Council for a single term.

I am proud to be campaigning for the Labour Party now, and keeping in touch all year round. I have been keeping an eye on local politics for decades, calling both Lib Dems and Tories to account.

In that time the Lib Dems have broken promises about protecting green fields around Hedge End, and hiked charges for council services.

Just as they lied about being opposed to the Conservatives in the 2010 general election and then let themselves be used to prop up Cameron’s austerity government.

Just as they lied about scrapping tuition fees when they got into power.

Even now the Lib Dem leader on Eastleigh Borough Council sided with the Tory government as they tried to scrap vital protections designed to prevent even more pollution in our rivers and water ways.

As Hedge End moves into the new Hamble Valley constituency, experts put the Lib Dems a poor and distant third.

It no longer makes sense in Hedge End to vote Lib Dem to keep the Tories out. A Lib Dem vote is now a wasted vote. 

Keep your eyes open for more news soon about your local Labour campaign team. 

Labour action on road safety

 

Your Labour team are more and more concerned about increased on road parking at the west end of Turnpike Way.

This is mainly during the week, and during working hours.

Traffic heading towards Upper Northam Road is forced onto the right side of the road, and possibly face to face with buses and cars turning into Turnpike Way.

Hedge End Blogger (aka Labour campaigner Keith Day) raised this at a recent Town Council meeting. 

Lib Dem Borough councillors at the meeting admitted that all highway matters had recently been transferred back to Hampshire County Council (so much for not cutting services at Lib Dem Eastleigh).

Your Labour team will keep pressing for action. We will keep you updated on this blog.

If there is a traffic issue in your street, let us know at hedgeedblogger@gmail.com.

We are here to help.

In case you missed it - Hedge End in the news in August

 

In case you missed something while on summer holiday, here is a catch-up of stories reported by local online media in August. These are stories covering Hedge End and neighbouring villages. Do let me know if I have missed anything.

Eastleigh News reported on:

Boorley Park - new play area

No local schools affected by concrete scandal

Council grant for COVID recovery support

Botley local plan

West End hospice memorials

West End plans for solar farm

West End - Hampshire Cricket boss stands down

Boorley Park - Families move in to new homes

Hamble and Netley councillor defends Hedge End station ticket office

Hedge End care home residents day out at the cricket

West End hospice benefits from Southampton festival

Hedge End - new care home opens

Hedge End - Arrest in relation to building site burglaries

Botley and Bursledon planning applications await decision

The Daily Echo reported on:

Hamble burst water main causes chaos

Hamble burst water main causes delays

Eastleigh Borough Council COVID recovery grants available

Hamble - comedian moving into village

West End - Ageas bowl development consultation ends

Hamble - mystery surrounding man found dead

Botley and Bursledon planning applications

Hamble quarry plans in limbo

(Photo credit: Ruth Hartnup)

Labour set to beat Lib Dems – expert prediction

When the next general election comes around, Hedge End will be in a new constituency called Hamble Valley.

Expert political forecasters Electoral Calculus looked at recent results in the areas which will make up Hamble Valley.

They initially predicted the Lib Dems would come a poor and distant third, giving them a 1 in 100 chance of winning the new seat. Labour came out as 16 times more likely to win.

They have subsequently updated their figures but still show Labour comfortably beating the Lib Dems into third place.

You can see all the working out on the Electoral Calculus website together with a map of the new constituency: New Seat Details - Hamble Valley (electoralcalculus.co.uk)

Labour candidates are overturning huge majorities in by elections as more and more disgraced and discredited Conservative MPs resign their seats. Who would predict the same thing couldn’t happen here?

Hedge End Labour are pleased and proud that an independent team of experts make us favourites to kick out the Tories here.

In Hamble Valley Hedge End a Lib Dem vote is now a wasted vote.

Labour still best placed to overtake Tories in Hamble Valley

Labour reveals huge hike in Town Council budget

 

Labour's summer newsletter leads on Town Council budget

Hedge End Labour Party were shocked to see local Lib Dems set a budget over a million pounds for the first time.

The Town Council - run entirely by Lib Dems - agreed the £1 million  budget earlier this year.

Hedge End council tax payers will be asked to stump up £836,000. The rest will be made up from fees for sports pitches, community halls, allotments etc.

In 10 years the council tax precept for Hedge End Town Council has gone up by 30% when inflation has been in the region of 2-3% for much of that time.

Meanwhile Lib Dems  have hiked council charges across Eastleigh.

Famously Lib Dem Eastleigh Borough Council now charges £20 if you forget to put out your wheely bins and ask the council to come back to empty them.

They used to do this for free as recently as 2013 - at least for a first "offence".

We first reported this back in June: The Hidden Costs of Lib Dem Councils

Budget spreadsheet showing total budget of £1,099,910

Lib Dem leader shows his true colours

 

Lib Dem leader and Hedge End South councillor Keith House has once more revealed Lib Dems will put development in our green spaces above protecting the environment and biodiversity.

In recent Twitter / X posts he has sided with the discredited Sunak government's plans to throw out more regulations designed to protect our waterways from pollution resulting from housing development. 

In doing so, he has undermined the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and fellow Eastleigh councillor who appeared to take a stand against the Conservatives in her post "England's rivers at risk as Michael Gove rips up rules on new housing". 

So the question now is will Liz Jarvis stick to her principles or fall in behind her leader? How badly are local Lib Dems split on this issue?

Moreover Cllr House backs up his pro-development stance with reference to Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, and co-author of Boris Johnson's 2019 election manifesto. The CPS is an increasingly right wing think tank which has drawn praise from some of the hardest of hard right Tories (cps.org.uk):

Rishi Sunak: "Lots of exciting ideas are being generated at the CPS, many of which are finding their way into government"

Boris Johnson: "The Centre for Policy Studies - the pre-eminent centre-right think tank"

Liz Truss: "The CPS is making the case for free markets, free trade, free speech and a free economy"

Cllr House would seem to have planted the Lib Dem banner squarely in the pro-developer, pro-Tory camp. We must therefore question if the Lib Dems can be trusted as an anti-Tory party at the next election(s).

Meanwhile, environmental organisations, including Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust are horrified that the Conservative Government is breaking promises it made as recently as July this year about environmental protection. The Trust's CEO has called it "Outrageous back pedalling by Sunak and Gove." 

The Trust has developed a scheme to protect the Solent from excessive pollution which depends on the mandatory regulations being in place: Nutrient Reduction Programme | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (hiwwt.org.uk). This must now be at risk if the Tories go ahead with abolishing these protections.

Even Eastleigh Borough Council's own website recognises there is a problem with excessive nitrate pollution in the Solent: "The Solent has recognised problems from nitrate enrichment; high levels of nitrogen from human activity and agricultural sources in the catchment have caused excessive growth of green algae (a process called eutrophication) which is having a detrimental impact upon protected habitats and bird species." (Water Quality Issues in the Solent Catchment Area (eastleigh.gov.uk))

Has Cllr House rewritten council policy on social media? He describes himself as "Lib Dem Council Leader. Green." Perhaps he should change his profile colour to Blue.

Local Lib Dems getting on the world cup bandwagon

Lib Dem council leader and Hedge End councillor Keith House has joined the growing list of politicians trying to get a bit of free publicity on the back of our women's football team's success. Cllr House went on Twitter to say "The World Cup Final Sunday morning is a special national event." No problem with that. 

He goes on to say he has said to the Eastleigh Borough Council licensing team to "go light and get relaxed" and to not block pubs and cafes from opening ahead of their licensed hours. No problem with that sentiment. 

However the Borough Council website shows that there is no Eastleigh licensing team. "These functions are administered by Southampton City Council's licensing team."

Also, they would not normally be working on Sunday morning anyway. "Members of the Licensing Team are normally available on weekdays at the Civic Centre, Southampton, from 9am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4pm..."

It seems Cllr House has forgotten he transferred licensing administration to Southampton. Otherwise his twitter post is just empty gesture politics. Like so much from our local Lib Dems, it looks good on the surface but there is no substance behind it. 

Alcohol and entertainment licence | Eastleigh Borough Council