Kevan Lim

When ever we have a local election campaign there is one issue that I can guarantee will come up in discussion with electors. Its the highly likely prospect of residents not understanding the difference between the county council and the borough council.. For most people its the council and they have almost no idea of the difference between the two councils. And why should they.

A typical example was a letter from a resident supporting improvements around Clifford Road School for children’s safety, but blaming me for allowing a planning application in the area which will increase traffic even though its the borough council who made the planning decision.

There is absolutely no reason why we should have two councils. Its a reason why I have always supported having a single unitary council for an area. It means voters have a clear line of accountability, one council to deal with and one councillor with responsibility for decisions in their area and we avoid the kind of duplication of services and costs the current system give us.

One issue which I hope will come out of the current public anger about national politics is greater power for local councils. But if councils are to have any impact then government has to simplify the system. That should mean that all public services including health and economic development in an area should be the responsibility of one council. It seems so obvious.

The problem is that successive governments have made it more complicated. Its no wonder voters get confused.

Well today the Evening Star has used my comments about the reduction in Home Care numbers following the conservative changes to the free home care scheme in 2007. Yet amazingly, Graham Newman the conservative executive member for adult care at the county council is claiming its nothing to do with changes they made. In a bizzare quote he says it was the fault of the Labour led county council and changes made in 2003.

Well I think he needs to get his diary out. The conservatives won control of Suffolk County Council in may 2005. According to official figures from the county council, in 2004, 5300 people were receiving home care, went up to 5600 in 2005 with 80% getting it free. In 2006 it had gone up to 5725 with still 80% getting it free.

Then the conservative changed the scheme. Indeed we managed to delay implementation of the ending of the full free home care but it still went ahead in 2008.

And guess what, the numbers dropped in april 2008 to 3523 with only 20% getting it free.

So how could anyone but the conservatives be responsible for the fall in numbers. It would be much more honest if they accepted thats what they had done. As one conservative said at the time. Our priority is the 80% of people who don’t get home care. More »

Having now delivered some 10,000 pieces of literature across my St Helens seat, its always difficult to know how many people have read any of it and how much of what you say is of interest to voters. In my latest newsletter I have emphasised the work I have been doing on environmental issues and in particular renewable energy.

One of the strangest consequences of all the anger against the mainstream parties expressed in the media is the potential impact this may have on the fringe parties.

In the case of both my St Helens seat and that of my colleague Sandy Martin in St Johns, the only minor party we have standing against us is the Greens.

Which seems extremely strange considering both Sandy’s and my record on environmental policies. Whilst I have heavily involved in promoting public transport through the Explore youth card and in my renewable energy work at regional and european levels, Sandy has been a stanch campaigner against the new county incinerator, a strong advocate of recycling and one of the rare breed of cycling councillors.

I am not sure most voters realise that in our case voting green at county level will probably give the St Johns seats to the conservatives and could well also give them my seat if some liberals also vote green.

It would be a strange irony if voting green results in a bluer county. Not a very good prospect for the environment.

In any election you will get people making claims in their literature. Often its a question of interpretation.

So for example I claim that the £56 million taken by the conservatives out of spending on social care services over the last 4 years is a cut. The conservatives claim that they are spending the money more wisely mainly by charging for their services. So home care which was free for most is now a charged service.

So technically neither of us is wrong. They have reduced the budget and taken in a significantly higher proportion of the remaining budget by charging. They will argue this is fair, I maintain its unreasonable as some of the most vulnerable are paying higher costs rather than the general taxpayer.

So for the voter its a question of which direction is right.

However when election literature is fundamentally wrong how does the voter know.

The conservatives have now issued election leaflets showing all the council tax increases since 2001. Surprisingly their chart shows the conservatives responsible for the last 5 county council budgets. Which is strange considering they have only been in control of the county council for 4 years.

The problem is that budgets are set in the February of each year so in 2005 it was the Labour/Liberal administration who set the budget and with the Conservative opposition voting against. The Conservatives then won in may 2005 and inherited that budget.

So does it matter you may say.

Well I suspect most people won’t even notice. However it does raise the question, if the conservatives don’t even know how many budgets they have been responsible for, then are they capable of running the county council.

or could it be something to do with the fact that it was one of the lowest council tax increases since 2001.

With all the anger over MP’s expenses their is a tendency for lots of people on phone in programmes and television shows to claim the simple solution is to have more independents elected. The assumption seems to be that being an independent will mean that you have all the answers.

Yet we already have plenty of evidence of how an independent system can fail to deliver real accountability.

The current evening star campaign against the changes to heart attack services is a prime example of decisions being taken by so called independents with little understanding or concern about the implications or the public reaction to such decisions.

The health service now in the East of England is run by a so called independent arrangement. Members of the Strategic Health Authority and the board at Ipswich Hospital are all appointed by the appointments commission. Its so called independence means that in Ipswich for example we have a board with a chairman who does not even live in Suffolk and a board with no local Ipswich representation. Their are no local councillors of any party on the board.

Its little wonder that decisions like the transferring of heart attack services take place.

The creation of an independent culture doesn’t lead to greater accountability. I have never been in favour of the separation of health from local government.

Most of this separation has ironically happened because of demands to loosen day to day management of the health service from control by Government.

The reality is that as you create more impendent arrangements you actually divorce local councillors and other public representives from control of key local services leading to control by appointed independents who have accountability to no one and often little understanding of the needs or demands of the population they are actually supposed to be serving.

Maybe some progress on the Mint Quarter.  I have been talking with Paul Clement who heads up the Ipswich Business Improvement District, a fancy name for the businesses in the town centre.  He agrees with me that the borough council need to take action to ensure the shops are occupied probably by offering very attractive short term rents.  He is meeting with most of the key players including the potential mint quarter developers this week so I hope we can make some serious progress.

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We seem to be getting finally some action on the whole issue of MP’s expenses.  Whilst the latest agreements on restricting the amounts that can be claimed is progress, I hope that  that all the parties will implement any recommendations from the independent review by Christopher Kelly.

However its no wonder why people get angry with some MP’s.  As I was delivering my latest leaflets, I heard Sir Anthony Steen on the radio, Conservative MP for a safe Conservative seat in the South West.  One of the MP’s standing down because of his gardening claims.  Claiming it was a witch hunt and that it was the governments fault because they brought in the freedom of information act and without it no one would have ever known what he was claiming.  They say power corrupts, but in his case its even worse as he was MP for a liverpool seat in the 1970’s. Clearly real life passed him by a long time ago

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I have written to Gordon Brown in connection with the ongoing scandal of MP’s expenses. My letter is set out below.   I resent having to face an election when I will be judged on the behaviour of MP’s some of whom have clearly been ripping off the taxpayer.  The system has to change.  I cannot blame any elector who thinks we are all the same.  It just makes the work of a local councillor so much more difficult if national politiicans first priority seems to be their own personal interest rather than the public interest.

Having looked at my own expenses claim for last year as listed in the county council accounts its £420.  Wouldn’t have paid for some MP’s pot plants.

County Councillor Kevan Lim

Deputy Leader, Labour Group

and Labour Councillor, Ipswich St Helens

Suffolk County Council

Ipswich

Suffolk

Tel 01473 216097

Email Klim55@googlemail.com

Blog kevanlim.agilityhoster.com

10 May 2009

Prime Minister,

MP’s Expenses

I am writing this letter in a personal capacity but I suspect I speak for many of my colleagues.

I and many of my colleagues are currently fighting elections to the County Council. We had expected to fight these elections on the work we have been doing locally on behalf of our constituents and on the clear differences between our Labour policies in Suffolk and the policies of the Conservative administration at Suffolk County Council.

In areas like home care and social care, the future of recycling policy, the scandal of the Chief Executives salary and the issue of road maintenance, there are clear differences between our policies and those of the local Conservatives which give the voters a clear choice. We have been very successful over the last couple of years especially in Ipswich in winning and retaining seats.

However the ongoing scandal of MP’s expenses is overshadowing the local elections and is bringing the whole of the political process into disrepute.

I like all of my colleagues operate under an allowance scheme determined by an independent panel and our expenses are strictly controlled both by national rules and by the Inland Revenue.

I do not see why MP’s should not also operate under salaries and expenses set by an independent body.

It is a disgrace to read on a daily basis of the ways in which MP’s and Lords of all parties have manipulated the system and these abuses have to end. I am extremely angry that all the hard work and dedication shown by Labour councillors in Suffolk could be undone by the shameful way in which some MP’s have used the system to enhance their own personal lifestyle at the taxpayers expense.

You have a responsibility as Prime Minister and Leader of the party to ensure urgent action is taken to end this damaging fiasco and to restore some credibility in the public mind to the political process. The government should commit to accepting the recommendations of the independent review and should ensure that MP’s will no longer able to determine their own salaries and expenses.

I am happy to stand on my record as a local councillor and be judged by my electorate. I suspect however that some of us will be judged by the electorate not on our own records but on the behaviour of greedy MP’s.

However of even more importance is the ongoing damage the revelations on MP’s expenses are doing to all politicians. This is damaging for the political process in the UK and for the long term future of the Labour Party.

I hope therefore that you will take decisive action to ensure that trust in the parliamentary process is restored and that the scandal of MP’s expenses ends as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

County Councillor Kevan Lim

In between election delivery and canvassing I have to try and live an ordinary life especially this week as it was my daughters 5th birthday. So I went into St Helens primary for the “goldilocks and the 3 bears” event where parents along with their children heard the story and then attempted to make a storybook, face masks and model chairs. Great fun for the children but terrifying for parents like me who are not great at turning paper plans into model chairs. My bear mask looked more like a werewolf than a bear. Still cara and all the other kids enjoyed it.

I have been impressed with St Helens. They really involve the parents. Indeed both the schools in my area St Helens and Clifford Road seem to be doing a good job. Schools have done pretty well over the last couple of years from government funding, but a school is only as good as its teachers and St Helens seems to have a good group of committed teachers.

No canvassing last night as it was cara’s birthday party and we took her to pizza express. Scary, she’s 5 already and it seems only yesterday she was born.

I had an interesting conversation with some residents in Newton Road, the Hollywells part of my county seat. A year ago during consultation on Ipswich Borough Councils Local Development Framework document, some bright spark at the borough council decided to reassess all potential housing land in the borough including large gardens. As a result the draft proposals they created for the area include redeveloping the conservative club site on newton road for housing and identified two areas of residents gardens which might be suitable for housing.

The latest plans still show the areas as potential housing but only the conservative club site has so far been possibly allocated as future housing.

Having spoken to a senior planner at the borough its clear there is little prospect of the rear gardens being taken for housing and when the final housing plans are announced later this year the garden sites should be eliminated from the plan.

But what seems ludicrous is that they ever consulted on such a proposal. Even worse the local conservative got up a petition opposing the redevelopment of the gardens. Which is very strange considering its the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats who run the borough council and who are responsible for the Local Development plan.

Its issues like this that frustrate residents and create confusion.
Why even start a debate about taking some of their gardens when it was never a serious option especially as the complexity of negotiating land acquisition with multiple owners meant that the scheme was probably never viable anyway.

Its strange how the conservative running the borough council never seem to want to take responsibility for decisions of the council they actually run.

Makes you wonder who is running the council.

I always find it difficult when canvassing how best to deal with those people who raise the issue of the growth of “foreigners” in ipswich. In most cases it is more to do with the conservative and traditional nature of some people in ipswich who may find it difficult to deal with something new.

Coming from a family with a vast mix of racial elements to it, I tend to use my own experience to emphasis how beneficial most immigrants have been to this county.

My grandfather emigrated from China in the 20′ to Manchester and helped establish one of the earliest Chinese laundries in the city before they moved into restaurants. In the days before washing machines it was a great success.

Now the Chinese community in Manchester is an integral part of the success of the city.

I also have Irish links into southern Ireland.

My wife was Ukrainian although from the Russian speaking Donetsk. Its one of the reasons why I am being forced to watch eurovision tonight as its coming live from Moscow.

And whether I look at my own family or my wife they all have one thing in common. They learned the English language quickly, either set up business or studied to get work. And my daughter is continuing the tradition, already at 5 fluent in english and russian.

Indeed I find little evidence that the new migrants to ipswich whether Polish, Kosovan, Russian or from the Indian sub continent have done anything other than improve the success of ipswich and contribute to its economic well being.

Indeed I myself was a migrant from the North and I suspect most people if they look into their family tree will find someone who migrated to Suffolk.

The diversity now in the town is a good thing and I believe that ipswich would be a poorer place without it.