Kevan Lim

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.

Excellent article in the times today from comedian Frank Skinner. I especially liked his paragraph
“You see, I now realise that David Cameron, with his pushbike and his “call me Dave” man-of-the-people-ness, had begun to blur my long-held view of what the Tory party was all about. Thank God, Mr Hogg and his moat have brought me back to my senses. The most damning criticism aimed at MP’s nowadays is that they’re isolated and out of touch. It’s pretty hard to refute that if you’ve got a moat.”

The thing so many of the MP’s who have been bending the system don’t seem to understand is that most of us would find it very extremely difficult to write a cheque for £41,000 or even £13,000. I know if i did it would bounce!

In the current public fury it not surprising but bizarre to see parties like UKIP dramatically increasing in the polls for the European elections, especially as one of their elected MEP’s last time is on police bail pending fraud investigation on his expenses. However if all this fury leads to a system that is open, accountable and strictly regulated then in the long term it may benefit us all.

However the real danger of this fiasco is that the issues that really matter like home care, better education and health get buried in the public demands for heads to roll and we end up with people elected to both the county council or the European parliament who either cannot do the job or even worse don’t want to do a proper job but get there simply because they are none of the above

So if anyone wants to know, no I don’t have a moat and I wouldn’t have anywhere to put it.

Crazy 24 hours.

Firstly an interview for Radio Cambridgeshire in my role as Chair of the Europe panel of the regional assembly. They wanted someone to explain why European issues were important.

Then, Suffolk Colleges “any questions”. Run like the real thing with the media students running the studio. Facing Jeremy Pembroke, Mike Baxter from Ipswich town and a representative from federation of small business. Interesting. Of course first question of the night was to me about MP’s expenses. However my views that the whole situation is disgraceful and damaging to democracy seem to be shared by most of the audience.

Most interesting session was when we got onto UK debt, an issue I will return to.

This morning Cambridge for further discussions about the future of regional arrangements in the east. A complete mess because of the governments insistence on some regional grouping that can only contain leaders of councils. we have made some progress but my problem is convincing government ministers to leave the best arrangements to people in the region rather than imposing from London.

And then back to ipswich for the Labour Party regional launch of the European campaign with cabinet minister Liam Byrne. Probably a complete waste of time especially as nobody talked about Europe. However I did manage to grab Liam Byrne and pressed the need for the PM to do something decisive about MP’s expense.

Which brings me back to the debate at Suffolk College on debt. Whilst David Cameron seems to be projecting a voter friendly image, a bit like Tony Blair and claiming that the conservatives have changed, on the ground in Suffolk we still seem to have the old style Tories in action. One of Jeremy’s key responses on national debt was to say, that it is essential that we dramatically reduce the size of the public sector.
Which means in Suffolk more and more reductions in social care, higher charges and probably drastic cuts in staff.

Of course we will have to make choices and even if we win the county council I do not expect the choices to be easy. But its clear I could never be a Tory because Jeremy and his colleagues don’t seem to understand that what the public sector is about first and foremost is protecting the weak, the poor and the disadvantaged. In the brave new world of new Tories the Tories of Suffolk seem to be locked into the age of thatcher.

We all produce election leaflets hoping to convince electors why they should vote for us.
For a sitting councillor I have always felt they should be positive and reflect what you have actually done.
Unfortunately many now seem to be an excuse for claiming the impossible.

So I read one of the Ipswich liberal democrat leaflets with some surprise. I get on well with most of the county liberal democrat group. On a number of issues they have similar policy positions in opposition to the conservative administration. And they were in a joint administration for 12 years in Suffolk with the labour group until 2005.

However in Ipswich at the borough council we have the strange situation of the liberal democrats keeping the conservative borough administration in power. I see little difference between the fundamental conservative policies at the borough and county councils on key issues.

Yet the county liberal election leaflet in Ipswich spends most of its time attacking the conservative county council and supports restoring policies like the free home care system I introduced back in 2003.

Which raises the very interesting question of which polices they would support if elected at the county council. Because a number of both the Ipswich conservative and liberal democrat candidates are existing borough councillors currently running the borough council. And the conservatives are certainly fighting a conservative county manifesto that makes clear that the existing county policies on cutting social care spending and on charging for home care will continue.

I cannot seriously believe that any conservatives elected in Ipswich will want to radically change the county policies. Whilst they might have some marginal influence on the conservative group it will still be business as usual as we have had for the last 4 years.

So where does that leave any radical liberal in Ipswich wanting change at the county council. How can you promise the electorate to oppose conservative policies at the county and support them at the borough. Indeed how could you be both in a partnership at one council and opposition at another against some of the very same people.

No doubt some libs in Ipswich will say you can do both. For me not only will most electors be confused but I think it is promising something you cannot deliver.

Unless of course you do have two heads.

I am not sure how many people read political manifesto’s other than journalists and political anoraks.

Apologies to any anoraks reading this. It appears to be one of those political traditions in the UK.

However I remember too well the 1983 labour manifesto dubbed by some “the longest suicide note in

history”.

So manifesto’s should be clear and straight forward and focus on the key issues of concern to the electorate. Especially I don’t believe you should promise something you cannot deliver.

So I read Suffolk conservatives manifesto for the county council elections expecting it to say very little.

And then I saw the quote in the East Anglian which said “ It is in Social Care that the Tories believe they have made the biggest impact, transforming the way it is provided for vulnerable adults, a more efficient, adaptable and responsive service geared to help older people get the help they need”

Whoever wrote that quote must have either had his tongue firmly in his cheek or must have been smoking something illegal

Over the last 4 years the conservatives have cut £56 million from the social care budget, have changed home care from a largely free service where 80% of people got home care for free to a service where 80% pay and are now raking in care charges to the extent of £32 million a year. They have also managed a regime criticised by their own audit committee for failing to effectively police private contractors delivering key services at home.

In debates on these changes at the County Council I have understood the rational of some conservatives who argue everyone should pay something. Not a view I share especially as everyone already pays something through the tax system.

But to dress up these radical changes to key services to the elderly and vulnerable as a more efficient, adaptable and responsive service is quite frankly a disgrace.

Upper Orwell Street in the centre of Ipswich is probably the most neglected part of Ipswich centre. It is the boundary of my St Helens seat with the town centre and also the boundary of the Mint Quarter, a development scheme that the borough council and the original owners NCP have been promising for over 20 years. Much of the mint quarter is a temporary car park so temporary that I can remember parking on it in around 1989 when I visited my mother in Ipswich.

Purchased by a new prospective developer a couple of years ago who is following the tradition of NCP and letting the shops on upper orwell street fall into neglect.

The developers and the borough council have been promising a wonderful new shopping scheme which has never happened.

It is a disgrace and whilst there are one or two shops still trying to run an effective business its is very difficult for them in a street where no shopper will willing want to go.

I have today written to James Hehr the chief executive of Ipswich borough demanding they take action to force the developer to improve some of the shops or even let them on a peppercorn rent.

The borough council have one power they probably don’t even realise they have. Back in 2000 the government introduced into law the well-being power which enables councils to take action to improve economic well-being in an area. I used it back in 2005 to extend the Xplore youth travel card to everyone under 20 including those not in full time education.

Some councils have used it to force developers to improve areas or even to compulsory purchase some property. It just needs a bit of vision and some guts to pressurise the developer.

After 20 years its clear the borough council have failed. They cannot just sit back and wait for the developer. Even though its not a county responsibility I need to put pressure on the borough council. Despite the economic climate its madness to allow a major part of the town centre to become derelict. It is hardly likely to encourage investors and shoppers into Ipswich.