What’s going on at the Borough & County Council's
Snow Tax blow for Eastfield & Osgodby!
When a Council consults with its residents on a 2.5% increase in Council Tax wouldn't you expect that to be the figure proposed?
Well not over in County Hall! The Conservative and “Independent” Councillors imposed a staggering 2.95% increase in your Council Tax to cover road repairs caused by the cold weather.
Lib Dem Councillors were the only members opposing this “snow tax” We wanted the increase limited to what we had consulted on and to take the money needed for our roads out of the cash reserves of the County Council. This could have been done as a one off and kept the County Council from going back on its promise of a lower increase.
“Independent Councillors” Can you trust them? NO YOU CAN'T!! Are they really Tories under another name? Looks like they are!
27th November 2009 Middle Deepdale went briefly PINK!
Well how quickly things can change, Middle Deepdale was all set to give a massive extension to Eastfield with 1200 new houses and “promises” of an improved Eastfield on the back of it. Then a blast form the past no less from the Iron age as evidence of an ancient settlement has been found on some of the land, now that seems to have put the cat amongst the pigeons! If the find is significant then it stands to reason that the “master plan” which has been subject to allot of public consultation and has actually built up some trust between residents and SBC will have to change. So why put all that hard work and trust at risk by producing a Cabinet report and then make it a restricted document? This act in its self could have wiped out any trust which has been worked for by me, fellow ward Councillors, SBC officers on the ground and Eastfield community groups and residents? I made sure that this went public. In my opinion to many decisions are taken on “pink” restricted documents, yes I know some things have to be private like personal details or details regarding individual companies tendering for Council contracts as this could give an advantage to rival companies, but no need at all to include it in the main body of such a report, this sensitive information can be made into a separate report so the public can see what is going on. It is not rocket science it is called building trust.
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7th October 2009
LABOUR DUO STUCK IN THE PAST!
Today Scarborough Borough Council changed its administration, the Conservative group are now not in control of the Council. Instead the Cabinet will be made up of all the different political groups... well almost all. I strongly believe that party politics should be placed second, as Councillors we should be working together and putting the needs of the whole Borough way before political differences, O I am sure there will differences of opinion along the way but in the end this is democracy in action and will only benefit the Borough. It is sad that two Councillors to choose to cling to the past and the Punch & Judie style of politics, the Labour Councillors, they have put the needs of the Labour Party before yours, they continue to be told how to vote and what to say by their bosses far away in London!
7th October 2009
The Sands Development & Open air Theatre
Today Scarborough Borough Council decided to go ahead with the plans for the Open Air Theatre at the Sands over in the North Bay; I supported this and voted to go ahead. My reasons for doing so are as follows; I want to see the whole development delivered successfully, I know the press have been negative about the project with the head line saying water park in 2012 and we want this now and so on, but the fact is that if we had turned down the opportunity for the Open Air Theatre then it would be certain that we would never see the water park at all, indeed the whole project would have ground to a halt, if we had tuned it down potential investors would have been put off and we would be left with a half built project. I for one could not let this happen, yes it is a risk, but in my view the risk of doing nothing and turning it down would have been far greater.
14th April 2009
ANOTHER TORY/LABOUR PRICE INCREASE
If you have kids going to college on the bus or train and buy a pass from the County Council you will be paying an extra 3% for it from now on! This comes on top of a 5% increase last year and this year’s massive rise in Council Tax. Both I and my Liberal Democrat colleges tried to get this decision overturned as it will hit struggling families the most. But as usual Labour helped the Tories force this through making all of us with young people trying to get on and get qualified pay through the nose!
18th February
Betrayed!
Today at County Hall the Conservative councillors betrayed us the people of Eastfield & Osgodby by forcing upon us a massive 3.95% increase in council tax even though North Yorkshire County Council is sat on over £60 million’s of reserves!
I am proud to say that I did not support this, I supported the Liberal Democrat proposal of just a 2% increase, and this would have helped everyone in Eastfield & Osgodby by reducing the council tax bill during this time of recession. We could have used some of the reserves to fund this and help everyone. At the same time they failed to make any improvements to services such as youth services or road & footpath repairs.
Conservative councillors do NOT care if you can afford their massive increase or not, again they have proved that they will do NOTHING for the people of Eastfield & Osgodby!
8th January 2009
Gypsy Update!
Well Common sense seems to have prevailed! Recently at a Scarborough Borough Council Cabinet meeting it was unanimously decided that the Seamer Horse Fair will in fact be held in Seamer!
The new site (subject to planning permission) will be the land off Stony Haggs road… the very land we suggested for last year’s ill fated fair.
Both myself Cllr O’Flynn & Cllr Evans told you we would get this unwanted fair out of Eastfield…. AND WE HAVE!
17th September 2008
Today I chaired a meeting of the Borough Council's Corporate Strategy Committee. One of the items talked about was Seamer Horse Fair. It seem that council officers have now accepted that the travellers intend to hold their event in Seamer ( in my view as it should be ) As you know the Council choose land at High Eastfield Farm for this year’s ill fated fair. Due to the rain and the desire of the travellers to go to Seamer the site was abandoned after only a few days. We were told at the meeting that High Eastfield Farm would almost certainly not be suggested again to host the site as it will not stand up to heavy rain and that the travellers will not stay there. This year Seamer Horse Fair has cost us the tax payer over £10,000! Council officers have now been instructed to find a site within or very close to Seamer for future horse fairs.... WATCH THIS SPACE!
23rd September 2008
Education
Today the County Councils executive met over at County Hall, on the agenda was an item concerning the future arrangements for primary school provision in Eastfield including the new development.
With the new houses will come allot more children; so how are we going to accommodate them in our schools? Well there were three options to consider; first we could build a new primary school for the new development alone; second we could build a new Overdale school in the new development to take children both from the existing Eastfield and the new part. This would mean the old Overdale school site could become a children’s centre/youth centre; then we had option three which was to take all the new children into the existing primary schools with no new school been built.
A consultation took place here in Eastfield with parents and community leaders and it was clear that option two was the preferred option. As County Councillor I too support this and it has now been adopted by the County Council.
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