Local people in Walsall are set to be given new powers to influence decisions in the places in which they live after councillors gave the thumbs up to a new scheme at a special council meeting on Thursday 28 January 2010.

Nine LNPs have been operating in Walsall since 2004 to help local people to become more involved in matters that affect them in the area in which they live. Despite early success however, their popularity has waned in recent years, with limited attendance at public meetings and lack of understanding of their purpose.A review of the LNPs, which began in September 2008, confirmed that a new way of engaging with the public was required for the council and its partners to work more closely with residents.

The new model will see the borough divided into six community areas. Within each Community Area, there will be at least one ‘Place of Focus’. These will be relatively small, locally identified places where residents and the council and its partners will work together to solve specific issues and problems.

Each Community Area will have a local budget of £40,000, managed by an Area Manager, which will be used to tackle issues affecting the people who live there. Of that, half (£20k) will be ring-fenced to the identified ‘place of focus’ within each Community Area.

It is estimated that the implementation of the new scheme will cost the council £412,000 in 2010/11 and £357,000 in 2011/12.  In addition NHS Walsall and Walsall Housing Group have committed financial support to the scheme.

For further details:

http://www.walsall.gov.uk/news/green_light_for_new_neighbourhood_model.htm

Nick Clegg has promised to scrap tax credits for better-off families and put £2.5bn into schooling for the underprivileged.The link between poverty and low achievement was “still as bad as it was” before Labour took power, he said.

The Lib Dems would free up £1.5bn from the tax credits change and £1bn from reductions to administration costs.

He wanted to give every child “a chance to get ahead… and give every child a chance to fulfil their potential”.

See the full BBC article here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8490701.stm

New rules have come into force that require some stores selling batteries to provide in-store recycling bins. Anyone selling more than 32kg a year - equivalent to about one pack of double AA batteries a day - must comply as part of targets on cutting landfill.The UK currently recycles only 3% of portable batteries, but the aim is to raise that figure to 45% by 2016.

An estimated 30,000 tonnes of portable batteries - from those in electrical goods like torches, to rechargeable ones in mobile phones - enter the UK market each year.At present, the other 97% eventually end up in landfill sites, where they can leak toxic chemicals into the soil.

I’ve already seen the recycling bin in the entrance of a number of supermarkets and there is one of course at the Council rubbish tips , so it is easy to ensure they go to be recycled.

If you want know more here is a link to BBC article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8490175.stm

The way Britain is governed has gone wrong over the past 30 years and is in urgent need of reform.

The Better Government Initiative report,  compiled by 14 former senior civil servants,  says: “There has been too much legislation in recent years, some of it has been unnecessary and too much of it has been badly prepared.”

It says badly trained ministers, both Tory and Labour,  have rushed through “ill thought-out” legislation to satisfy media demands. And they say “political point scoring” has become more important to ministers than solving actual problems.

Examples given of bad laws that have resulted from the way government now operates  include: the poll tax of 1990, the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, the failure of the Child Support Agency, the Hunting Act 2004 and the story of the Millennium Dome.

The report says governments have created “perverse incentives” and “unintended consequences of targets and performance indicators”.There is “confusion and loss of expertise resulting from frequent changes of policy or organisation and movement of staff to meet new demands”, it adds.

The report also argues that there has been “loss of direction as one initiative is laid on top of another, or ‘trialled’ and ‘rolled out’, distracting attention from ordinary business”.

It criticises “excessive bureaucracy in prescribing new systems or procedures” and “a ‘tick-box’ culture in which complying with the rules replaces responsible judgment and individual discretion”.

For further details:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8481943.stm

http://www.bettergovernmentinitiative.co.uk/da/57700

I liked to think I did my bit when it came to recycling, but I felt put to shame when I watched the BBC item today about the family from Gloucestershire, who manage to do so much recycling that they only produce one bag of rubbish for the entire year!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8483320.stm

I have managed to drastically reduce the waste that we put into our grey bin for landfill - usually 2 small carrier bags full a week - but I will now look again to see if there are further steps I can take to reduce this even more.

We are lucky to have the big recycling bins that with the increased items you can put in make things much easier than they were.

It would be nice to see the investment of a small amount of my time in improving recycling might one day result in the Council having to pay lower landfill charges, enabling them to use the money more usefully - maybe on speeding up the filling of potholes……

The gap between rich and poor in the UK is wider now than 40 years ago, a government-commissioned report says.

“Deep-seated and systemic differences” remain between men and women and minority groups in pay and employment, the National Equality Panel found. It said in areas such as neighbourhood renewal, taxes and education, policy action was needed to limit inequality.

Commenting on today’s report, David Law the Liberal Democrat Shadow Children, Schools and Families Secretary said:

“This report confirms the damage done to Britain’s society in the 1980s by the Conservative Government has yet to be repaired.

“Gordon Brown has failed to make significant progress in reducing inequality. His Government has run out of ideas for tackling the lack of opportunity for so many children and the chasm that separates the rich from the poor.

“The Conservatives talk about a broken society, but their policies on inheritance tax and cutting education funding would make Britain less fair and further reduce opportunities for disadvantaged young people.”

1993 - 3 year old killed by two 10 year olds.  Blair described the murder as “a hammer blow against the sleeping conscience of the nation” and sought to blame the Tory Government. Blair was rightly castigated at the time for seeking to use the death of a child for political advantage.

2010 - 2 boys attacked. David Cameron claims that the teenage boys torture case in South Yorkshire had to be considered as part of what was “going wrong” in society because of Labour. Surprisingly the papers have not castigated him, instead many have chosen to agree and blame Labour - double standards or what?

Attacks like this have unfortunately taken place without reason or pattern over the years - and sadly may happen again - irrespective of which party is in power. They are, thankfully, too rare to tell us much about the state of the nation.

I believe political leaders and the media should avoid using the human tragedy of families involved for political gain!

Commenting on reports that Alastair Campbell has written to the Chilcot Inquiry to clarify his previous evidence in relation to the forward of the dossier published in September 2002 by the Government, Sir Menzies Campbell said:

“The efforts at clarifications have not been effective. In fairness to Mr Campbell and in the interest of the Inquiry itself, he should be recalled to give further evidence on these matters and to allow members of the Inquiry to question him again.

“These issues go right to the heart of the deliberations and the responsibilities of the committee, this is why clarification is key.”

Cameron’s admission he didn’t think carefully on Iraq shows unfitness for government said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Commenting on David Cameron’s claims that he would have to think ‘much more carefully’ on future interventions such as Iraq, Edward Davey said:

“Iraq was a judgement call and David Cameron and the Conservatives got it badly wrong. David Cameron could have joined the Liberal Democrats in opposing this illegal war at the time, but instead he backed Blair and Bush.

“Now Cameron admits that he didn’t even think carefully before voting for Britain’s worst foreign policy disaster since Suez. If he didn’t think it was worth thinking things through before backing a hugely destructive invasion without the support of the UN, then he is alarmingly unfit for Government.

“David Cameron should just admit he got it wrong and apologise to the British people. Without recognising his own failure of judgement, and with unrepentant neo-conservatives like Liam Fox and William Hague at the helm of Tory defence and foreign policy, the public will question whether the Conservatives have changed at all.”

Is it any wonder people turn off politics when you see our elected councillors appear more interested in political point scoring than sorting out the problems facing Walsall residents.Well if you needed further evidence of this practice as the General Election approaches you don’t have to look any further than the council’s own website which carries a story about “Families urged to sign up for free broadband” see link http://bit.ly/865TUA

Reading this story you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was an initiative of Walsall’s Tory Cabinet when in fact it is a Government initiative launched the other day by none other than the Prime Minister.  Now I’m no lover of the Labour Party, but credit where credit is due.

Compare the Tories version with the one carried today on this website Free laptops and broadband for 270,000 families across the country in ground-breaking scheme.  The issue is about free computers and broadband access being available and putting that information out to make people aware of that fact, not trying to make out it’s you’re idea.