Kevan Lim

I sit on the audit committee of the County Council.  Very boring you will say.  Actually no!
it is one of the more effective committees of the County Council.

Amongst its investigations has been the failure of a home care provider to meet the contractual requirements of the county council.  They  were failing to turn up on time for home visits to elderly patients or some times not at all whilst claiming money from the county council.

It was also the committee that investigated the Chief Executives salary increase and recommend changes to council procedures following the District Auditors report.

yes both of these issues were mine, but the committee has a conservative Chairman and a conservative majority.

The reason I think it has worked well is because the Chairman, a conservative county councillor from kesgrave is fairly independent of the leadership of the county council and expects the committee to fully investigate any examples where the county council is failing to either get value for money or is failing to deliver adequate service to users of the service.

This independent attitude has probably got him into a bit of trouble with his conservative colleagues but it has meant the committee has been effective and has not been afraid to challenge failings in the system at the County Council.

So next time you meet a boring auditor remember he or she is probably doing a very important job.

With the start of the election campaign. I am now spending much of my time delivering leaflets to the 7,000 voters in St Helens. Fortunately there are a number of people who are prepared to deliver leaflets which makes my life much easier. Without them it would be very difficult to deliver to everybody in the time available.

Many electors would be surprised how limited the resources are we have to communicate with everyone. Whilst the local party has a very good election machine and an effective organisation, it is totally dependent on volunteers.

Its at times like this that you wonder what you have been doing over the last 4 years and whether it has made any difference. In the 3 years up to 2005 I was at least part of the then Labour led administration and was able to introduce several policies some of which the conservatives have kept. So at least we still have the Xplore youth card which I introduced and the renewable energy centre and the urban development corporation in Lowestoft, projects I started and the conservatives finished.

However the last 4 years have inevitably been frustrating in opposition to a big conservative majority. However I think I have still had an impact. The investigation into the failings of one of the private home care providers in Ipswich which I persuaded the county council to investigate has I hope led to some improvements in the level of service elderly people in Ipswich receive.

The audit investigation into the Chief Executives salary whilst it produced massive headlines and forced changes in the councils procedures did not stop the salary increase from being paid. I am also not certain the conservative administration have learnt their lesson from the public outcry. Surprisingly I get the impression that think they did the right thing.

But at least I had some impact on a number of individual cases in St Helens from school places to residential care. And I did manage to get changes in the layout of the New Suffolk College building to move the workshops away from the residential areas around kings avenue.

I also played a part in getting the European unions renewable energy policy adopted and I have got the regional development agency promoting to businesses in the region the use of European research and development funds to try and development the renewable energy industry in the region.

So on balance whilst it has been a frustrating 4 years their have a number of successes. So do I want to do it again.

Yes I do.

But first I have to get re-elected

I have never understood why some drivers are unable to read road signs. Over the last year I have been putting pressure on the police to take action against people ignoring the access restrictions in the town centre pedestrian areas around buttermarket and along tavern street. The Police have been very responsive and have now agreed that action should be taken whenever people drive into the pedestrian area. The signs are very clear that their is no access after 10.30 in the morning, but their are always one or two people who will drive along buttermarket and park up. When they are asked they claim they haven’t seen the signs or that they are only rushing into a shop. Apart from the fact that its dangerous for vehicles to be driven into areas used by lots of pedestrians, especially young children and older people, I think the restriction for vehicles during the day improve the environment for pedestrians and make the town centre a more attractive place.

And for those who say they need access during the day, if the market traders can unload early in the morning and then move their vehicles to car parks in the town so can everyone else.

However its not only Ipswich where a small number of drivers seem not to care about anyone else. In Manchester they have had to introduce rising bollards which are controlled electronically and restrict access to the pedestrian areas. They do allow access for smaller buses into what is a very large pedestrian area. Amazingly some drivers still think they can cheat the bollards by slip streaming the buses as they pass through the bollards. This has resulted in several drivers damaging their cars. The latest victim is shown below. Many of the people writing into the local press in Manchester have little sympathy for such irresponsible behaviour.

It may be that similar equipment will be necessary in Ipswich. I hope not, but it does appear that their are a small number of drivers who either don’t read the signs or don’t care.

car drives over rising bollard in manchester

Interesting email with an elector concerned about both the Labour government and the performance of St Helens Primary.

I understand the concerns about the economy. I just hope that people will not judge Labour County Councillors performance on what is happening nationally.

St Helens seems to be recognised as a good school. I am aware that the school does have a significant intake of children whose first language is not English

So I checked the performance of the school with the education department at the County Council. Whilst its true that at age 5 children at St Helens perform a little below the average for Suffolk, at age 7 the school is well ahead of the average for schools in Suffolk and its the same at age 10. Its clear that even those children who enter the school with English as their second language make massive progress by age 7.

Its nice to know that the school is dong well. I think there are major advantages for children in a school where children speak several languages if the teaching is of high quality. Encourages children to learn several languages. Indeed my daughter Cara can already speak two languages.

The surprise news that Ipswich Town have appointed Roy Keane as Manager raises some interesting issues.

I was born in Manchester, taken to old trafford the home of united by my father when I was five and so grew up as a united supporter. My mother an Ipswich supporter having been born in Felixstowe had no chance in persuading me not to support my home town team.  Indeed I represented a part of South Manchester on the City Council for 9 years where lots of united fans live.  So I have seen Roy Keane in action as a player over many years.  And although he is not a mancunian by birth, having been born in Southern Ireland, he does seem to exhibit many of the traits common to Mancunians. One of my colleagues calls it Manchester manners.  Its true we are very direct, often impatient and don’t suffer fools gladly.  We expect things to be done yesterday.    Ipswich and Suffolk will be a culture shock for Roy Keane.  You have to have a little more patience here if you are going to get things done.

Whether Roy will succeed will very much depend on whether he can temper his Manchester manners.  It will be an interesting season next year.

Postscript

I cannot believe that today the County Council have issued a press release from jeremy pembroke welcoming Roy Keane to Suffolk.  Apart from the fact that jeremy probably doesn’t know who Roy Keane is, I certainly don’t remember seeing many Merchant Bankers on the stretford end at Old Trafford.   Its the worst kind of political opportunism.  Cannot imagine that at any other time other than a few weeks before an election that such a statement would be issued.

Its always the simple things that make life difficult.  I had agreed with a request from Clifford Road school that they needed to improve safety arrangements outside the school.  The sidestreets around the school are relatively narrow.  So the school wanted safety barriers put up in both tennyson road and woodville road.  I had agreed to pay for barriers next to the school entrances.  This would solve two problems.  Children coming out of school would not be able to run straight into the road and parents driving to school would not be able to park on the pavement directly outside the school entrance.  Seemed a simple solution and I agreed to pay for the scheme from my locality budget.  Asked ipswich borough to do the work.  Surpise, Surprise two weeks later when I am chasing up the work, the borough tell me that might not be able to do it because the county council might object.
After several very strange telephone conversations, I am told by the county that their is a policy which discourages safety barriers because “children might run into the barriers and hurt themselves”.  Well this is news to me.  certainly never remember any such discussion and I thought I would know as I sit on the County roads and transport committee.

Anyway I tell them the barriers will go up.  Hopefully they will do the survey work this week.

Its frustrations like this which drive me crazy

Interesting conversation with a constituent who wants the incinerator because she believes its the only way to stop rubbish going to land fill.

Whilst I understand her concerns I do not believe we should be spending close to a Billion pound on such a scheme.  Whilst the actual cost of the incinerator may only be £670 million and even at that price i think its a crazy cost, Suffolk will have to use Private Finance initiative moneys to allow a private contractor to build the scheme.  So national taxpayers will pick up the extra costs of the scheme and we will end up with an incinerator that will have to be used and that probably means importing rubbish from other parts of the country.

Much better to use that kind of money to introduce incentives for people to recycle.  If Bury can get up to 50% recycling then it would be possible in the rest of Suffolk with the right incentives.

As the election campaign starts it will be interesting to see what the big issue is people are concerned about. It is always difficult to get people to think about local issues when the election is being held on the same day as a national election. In this case the European elections

I now have over 7,000 voters in St Helens with the growth on the waterfront who will determine my future.

For me one of the big issues is the massive increase in home care charges. Back in 2004 I chaired the committee that agreed to introduce free home care charges. it was very clear from the evidence we received at that time that a free scheme would be very beneficial to a lot of people, would be relatively cheap to administer and would give over 5000 people free care.

Now since the conservatives scrapped the scheme 2 years ago the county is collecting over £3 million pound in home care charges. With charges up to £31 a week many people are now either reducing the number of visits they receive or are not taking the service at all.

There is on this issue a very clear philosophical divide between me and the county conservatives. Complex means testing is is often a very strong reason why older people refuse to claim benefits or take advantage of services. I remember my mother found it almost impossible to complete forms of the kind now used by the tories for home care. There are also many people who are too proud to claim even though they are entitled.

The beauty of the free scheme is that it was made as simple as possible for people to get the service and that meant a large number of claimants qualified.

During the last budget debate at the County it was clear that the tory administration believe that every one should pay something. They have also failed to understand that many of the private home care providers they now use have profit as their first priority. This was clear from the carewatch investigation I forced them to undertake in Ipswich where we found the care staff were being given too many clients a day to see which often resulted in late or missed appointments.

We need to get back the free scheme to make sure the vast majority of people in Suffolk get the home care they need and don’t have to worry about if they can afford it.

We also need to improve the management and spot checking of the private providers to make sure they deliver what the county is paying for.

I am determined that if we win back the county we will re-introduce the free home care scheme.

And for those who say theirs no difference between the parties this is one issue on which the voters have a very clear and major divide between ourselves and the tories in Suffolk.

The present row over MP’s expenses does little good for the standing of the political process.

It gives the impression to voters that all politicians are the same. Indeed thats a view that I get from time to time on the doorstep and I have no doubt I will get more often at this election.

I think I am well paid when I earn £16,000 a year from all my County and Regional council work.  Yes its my main income and I probably don’t earn as much as others but my wife works and we cannot say that our combined income is poor.

So when MP’s are claiming in excess of £100,000 in expenses a year as well as their £60,000 a year salary then I understand why voters get angry.

I have always believed that politicians should be paid a decent income especially local politicians who for many years were very badly paid.  And its important that they can pay for good levels of staff to support their work

But their is clearly something wrong with a parliamentary system which allows MP’s to claim expenses for  furnishings and fixtures and fitting.   And now a London MP claiming for a home in woodbridge when he has lived in London for 30 years.

It s abuse of that sort even if it is technically legal which creates the impression that all politicians are corrupt and which seriously damages the respect by voters for politicians many of whom are hardworking.

The sooner the system is changed the better.

well its election time again and already the dirty tricks have started.

A letter in the ipswich evening star, claiming I want to cut road maintenance.

its true I opposed the tories £2.5 million increase in road maintenance back in 2008.  I do get so frustrated when people claim you have to keep on spending more and more money otherwise our roads will fall apart.  Well they already are in ipswich even though the county council is one of the highest spenders in the east of england.

And what happened when they voted to spend the extra money. well they ended up only spending half, £1.2 million.

And this year they have increased spending again but we won’t see much of it in Ipswich.

At least a lot of the governements capital spending is coming to Ipswich over the next 3 years, somewhere in the region of £25 million.  I really hope the changes around the waterfront at Duke street roundabout will have a positive effect.