A reminder of the meeting in the Strutt Centre.

The meeting is a chance for bus passengers to meet bus providers and councillors to discuss the current situation where buses are cancelled and many routes downgraded from hourly to two-hourly. We also have representatives from the Women's Institute, Accessible Belper and Transition Belper (Transport & Travel group TB,T&T) to speak about the impact on the lives of specific user groups.

This meeting is not to apportion blame but to understand the problems faced by bus operators and to explore possible immediate solutions.

The basic meeting agenda is:

1. A greeting by the chair (that's me and I promise to be brief)
2. The panel of bus operators and councillors to introduce themselves.
3. Women's Institute, Accessible Belper and TB,T&T to do likewise.
4. Then questions from the floor to be answered by our guests.
5. Conclusion of meeting to indicate next steps.

Many have emailed saying that they would like to attend but are unable because they have no evening bus service so there is a possibility of a follow up zoom meeting that they can attend.

Public Meeting in Belper to discuss bus cancelations -Thursday February 22nd 19:00

Public Meeting to discuss bus cancelations

Thursday 22nd February at 19:00

Strutt Centre, Derby Road, Belper DE56 1UU

As an Amber Valley Borough Councillor I am receiving a lot of contact from people who have experienced buses not turning up. Other councillors tell me that they too are getting complaints so the issue is widespread across many routes. That is why a public meeting has been called, a chance to meet bus operators and councils to discuss the problem and, hopefully, to chart a way forward. So far I am aware of ongoing problems with the Sixes, Sevens, Nines, 138, 141, 147. 

Invitees that have accepted the invitation to the meeting are:

• Trent Barton Buses (a company director and an operations manager)
• Derbyshire Community Transport (board member)
• The leader of Amber Valley Borough Council
• Belper Town Council
• Women's Institute (currently have a bus campaign)
• Accessible Belper
• Transition Belper (transport & Travel Group)

Derbyshire County Council have been invited as well as other bus companies and it is to be hoped that they will be able to attend.

All welcome at the meeting

Belper Leisure Centre in trouble but needs calm, not sensationalism

 Belper Labour candidates for the Amber Valley Borough and Belper Town Council elections had a meeting last week to consider the problem of funding for the Belper Leisure Centre. We had just been made aware that the Leisure Centre financial advisors were proposing to issue a press statement in the next few days and we had to decide how we would respond to this.

Link to: Belper Leisure Centre Press release 

Pleased to see that in that statement is an acknowledgement that Belper Town Council tried to help by doubling their annual £10k grant to £20k. I know, far short of what is needed but as we set the Belper Town Council budget for 2023/24 we were conscious of the fact that local tax payers already pay the borough for leisure facilities and should not be asked to pay twice.

Obviously the discussion between Belper borough councillors and candidates centred around a rescue plan but we wanted to work towards a long term solution for funding and to make the future secure. We chose not to pre-empt any press release even though we were appalled that the Tory party leadership of Derbyshire County Council and Amber Valley Borough Council had chosen not to make the knowledge of the leisure Centre's financial problems known to the Labour opposition. We did not want the leisure centre and also Belper School to suffer from becoming an election football. What was needed was calm deliberation and a coming together of all interested parties to find a lasting solution and, we agreed to work towards a plan that had sustainable energy at the heart of it. We therefore prepared a "just in case" statement but hoped that with voter's support we could become the ruling group in AVBC and then put together a package ........... no, not a rescue package ........... but help create a sound financial basis to secure the leisure centre's long term future. 

So, this is the response from Chris Emmis-Williams, leader of the AVBC Labour Group:

The parlous financial state of Belper Leisure Centre has not formally been raised at the Council and I was disappointed to hear that applications for funding to the Council have been refused without any public discussion or engagement.

While the Council's finances have been left in tatters by 13 years of Tory austerity, if Labour takes control of Amber Valley Borough Council on May 4th we will immediately call a meeting of all involved parties including Derbyshire County Council and Belper School to explore and follow up on all the options. You will have seen from the official press release that both the Tory controlled  DCC and AVBC councils have walked away from this extremely serious situation which especially affects the children of Belper and their educational needs I will thoroughly investigate how this situation has been allowed to occur, and ensure that everyone is fully informed from now on. A Labour-led Council will also explore what discretionary funding options may be open to the Council in order to avert this crisis. In the longer term, the priority must be to work in partnership with all parties to put the Leisure Centre onto a more secure financial footing so that it can continue to provide key services to the town into the future.  

As a borough councillor for Belper I am very annoyed because in March of this year I attended a briefing in the council chamber that detailed the financial situation of the three leisure centres, Ripley, Alfreton and Heanor. I spoke up about the fourth,  in Belper but was told that there was no plan or even an acknowledgement of our centre. To sit there and have to listen to the complacency of spending over £3.2 million plus £800k to make good the hit of energy price rises was galling when at the same time the Tory led councils of DCC and AVBC were cutting back on financial assistance to Belper Leisure Centre ................... in fact, AVBC halving the grant to £40k. £4 million for Ripley, Alfreton and Heanor but only a hundredth of that for Belper. It should be noted that only Tory and Labour councillors attended that meeting.

Finally the statement from Belper candidates for AVBC:

Belper Leisure Centre is a vital facility for the entire community and essential for a town of this size, as well as providing key services for Belper School. We are disturbed to hear that the Leisure Centre is now working with an insolvency partner due to the 400% increase in energy costs faced by leisure centres worldwide. The Labour-led Belper Town Council has done what it can, but more is needed. It would be unforgivable to see our Leisure Centre close because of inadequate support from this Tory government, or from the Tory-led County and Borough Councils.

If elected to Amber Valley Borough Council, we will pursue every avenue to keep the Leisure Centre open. While the Council's finances are severely constrained following years of disastrous Tory austerity and economic mismanagement, we will ensure that all avenues are explored in terms of how Amber Valley Borough Council can support our Leisure Centre through this crisis. We will work with all others, including Derbyshire County Council and possible other funding sources including sustainable energy, in order to find a solution leading to the long term security of our Leisure Centre.

Derbyshire Tories public transport plans - Less for More

 The woeful performance of Debyshire County Council (DCC) Tories in dealing with the cancelation of the 71 & 72 bus routes after Christmas has prompted a re-emergence of BelperStuff blog. This is yet another example of Tories claiming big investment into transport needs when the reality is cut after cut. The best way to illustrate this is to follow a timeline through the years of austerity. Yes this is the root cause of cuts to services, the year by year shrinking of the grant from central government to local authorities. The Tories took control in Westminster in 2010, at a time when the economy was starting to recover from the global credit crunch, with the promise that the country would have a balanced budget by May 2015. In the 2019 election the latest Tory prediction was that a balanced budget would be acheived by 2023 .... or would that be 2025.

2011 - More for Less ................. or .............. Less for More

Derbyshire County Council dutifully followed the party line and adopted policies reflecting the philosophy of austerity. This meant cuts to Derbyshire services but strategy papers tried to put a positive spin by claiming that efficiencies would be found to enable a bright shiny future under the Tories.

Derbyshire Local Transport Plan 2011 - 2026 

This plan was full of definitions of how decisions and policies would be determined but very short on key investment objectives. Mostly concerned with roads and potholes the only tangible policy initiative for public transport would be "Public transport (bus and rail) information"; found on page 4 of the document with nothing else of note in the following 121 pages. So the Tory promise for public transport over 15 years would be to improve information.

2017 - Tory County Council Election manifesto promise

"We will reverse Labour's cuts and restore important access to health and social care, shopping and social activities". 

Six years later and the cuts to services following the Tory Westminster government inspired austerity measures and the starvation of funds available to local authorities, meant that bus services would gradually lose county council support funding. The county had become Labour controlled in 2013 and in the run up to the 2017 election provided an analysis of the effect government funding cuts would have on Derbyshire services. The Tory manifesto response to this was to blame Labour for the cuts.

2018 - Derbyshire Tory cuts to bus services

The Tories won back control of DCC in 2017 and by 2018 were making savage cuts to bus services. This is evidenced inThe future of the bus report , a paper produced by the Campaign for Better Transport in 2019. Below is an extract from that report:

The report clearly shows during 2018/19  Derbyshire Tories were complicit in cutting 26 bus routes; that's 27% of all routes in England outside London. Further to this the report indictes a reduction of 38% in the budget for Derbyshire School transport and that the overall budget for bus subsidy was cut by 60%.

2021 - Derbyshire Tory Manifesto

The only mention concerning buses in the Tory 2021 manifesto is that there would be free companion bus passes for disabled public transport pass holders. No mention of reversal of Tory cuts. The promise of 2017 just did not happen and in the 2021 election the failure to honour that pledge was conveniently forgotten.

-----------------------------------------

So now we turn to what was said by the Leader of DCC following the electoral victory in 2021. - delivery-pace-will-be-our-mantra-council-leader-cllr-barry-lewis-sets-out-aspirational-vision and here are listed key passages from the DCC AGM speech: 

"I am immensely proud of the achievements of the last four years

We know too that there is going to be significant change and hopefully investment coming for public transport, because something transformative needs to happen in this space to ensure we can meet our carbon reduction targets, not just locally but nationally.  As an administration we’ve already committed to working with the Peak District National Park Authority to trial and deliver innovative public transport solutions there. 

 our innovative Levelling up for Young People scheme, something I’m particularly keen on.  It is sadly the case that too many young people in Derbyshire, mainly young white males in our instance but also young white females to a lesser extent find themselves disconnected from education, educational opportunities and therefore from the world of work and possibly ending up getting involved in illegal or criminal behaviours eventually.

We’re also keen to get on with delivering our commitment for Companion Bus Passes for disabled public transport users, an important scheme that will make a big impact on the lives of some disabled people in Derbyshire.  It’s not just about the big things but about looking at where we can make a real difference to the lives of Derbyshire residents".

I will finish by saying we have a new mantra for the next four years “Delivery at Pace”  

-------------------------------

Welcome to the paralell universe inhabited by the entitled Derbyshire Tories. Barry Lewis is proud of being the leader of the county that cut more bus services than anywhere else in England. At least there is an acknowledgement that there has to be investment in public transport but 7 months later, when the resolve of Barry is tested by the unsustainability of the 71 & 72 bus routes, Derbyshire Tories can find no investment; their only concern being carbon reduction targets. Is this a hint of how that will be acheived .............. less buses equals less carbon in the atmosphere? Do they not realise that with every bus that is cut from service there will be an increase in the number of cars travelling on our roads?

Barry - if you are serious about carbon reduction then put your money into public transport.

(sorry, that should be our money raised from taxes)

Barry then goes on to comment on the "Levelling Up for Young People Scheme" which will address the disconnect with "education, educational opportunities and therefore with the world of work." The first priority for young people to access anything is to be able to get to where those opportunities exist. Cutting bus routes stops this sort of initiative dead in it's tracks. 

Barry does however point out that these nebulous Tory ambitions will be subject to "Delivery at Pace". What good is that catchphrase for those who become isolated and disenfranchised from normal opportunities of life, because their bus services have been cut. If they have no car then the alternative is to go by foot; for them it will be:

Delivery at Walking Pace

Bus services lost in Belper - We expect better from our county council

The recent announcement by Notts & Derby Bus company that they could not make the 71 and 72 routes between Belper and Derby pay or even recruit enough drivers came as a real shock for residents who depend upon these services to get to work, college or school; to shop or have an acceptable level of cultural or social life. Derby Telegraph December 1st article

Many in the community contacted Derbyshire County Council to urge them to step in and this they have done though the solution that has been agreed for the continuance of service past the threatened deadline of Christmas Eve is far from ideal. Ther Derby Telegraph reported the 7's being replaced from 29th December by an extension of the 137/8 Langley Mill <> Belper service which would allow passengers to access Derby via a connection with the 59/59A Derby <> Shipley service but in reality the best routing will be via  "the nines" at Kilburn Toll Bar. BelperStuff checked the Derbyshire County Council website news to check for accuracy but here too it states that a combination of 137/8 and 59/59A services will replace the 71/72 services when they are discontinued we must hope that more definitive information will emerge in the next few days.

Timetables/ 137& 138 Belper<>Langley

Timetables/ 59/59A

Timetables/ the nines Derby <> Ripley etc.

Aside from passengers from Holbrook, Bargate and Parks areas losing their direct link with Derby this effectively means that on a school day the first bus into Belper from the Parks will be at 09:49. The loss of the 72 service impacts badly on not just the Parks Estate etc but also Mount Pleasant.

There are still questions to be answered:

• Where are passengers expected to change between the 138 and the 59 services?
• When will an integrated timetable be available?
• Will through ticketing be allowed if passengers combine the 138 and the more obvious 9 services?

Belper estates still lack services in the evenings or on a Sunday.

This is hopefully an interim situation

The routes being lost are:

 Credit to moovitapp for these maps

The loss of the 71 and 72 services has happened despite promises by Derbyshire Tories to protect public transport in the county. In 2011 they proudly announced "more for less" in their Derbyshire Local Transport Plan 2011 - 2026. Cancelation of bus routes is what they are actually delivering. BelperStuff will explore the Tory record on public transport in Derbyshire in the next blog post - Less for More.

Derbyshire Tory promises .... Bus services protected ..... No

BelperStuff has been following the progress of the new Tory regime in Matlock with ............ well ................ few expectations. One of the most intriguing promises was to reverse Labour's cuts to bus services which were honestly disclosed by Labour's Councillor Dean Collins in January of this year. He stated that because of government cuts the DCC would have to gradually cut subsidies from £4.2 million to £2.7 million over the 4 years up to 2020/21.New Blueprint for Derbyshire Buses. Don't forget that these are Tory government austerity cuts imposed on councils.

Bus interior scene - Eustace Pain Elliot Nash (Russell-Cotes Art Gallery - Bournemouth)

Derbyshire Tories reacted to this by making the reversal of "Labour" bus subsidy cuts a major election pledge in May 2017. Many people voted conservative because they were promised that by voting Tory they would be protecting bus services. Below is that very promise .......... number 10 in their manifesto:

THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY MANIFESTO - DERBYSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL 2017 Working for Derbyshire
We know that Derbyshire Community Transport Schemes and subsidised bus routes provide a vital service for vulnerable and isolated people, particularly in the county’s rural and former mining areas.
We will reverse Labour's cuts and restore important access to health and social care, shopping and social activities. 

Here is a link to the Derbyshire Tory 2017 manifesto

So what have the Tories done now that they are in office?

In a DCC press statement made in September the Tories announced that they were reversing £3m of the cuts: 

You can read the September 2017 press statement here

............ and this is the salient announcement:

Subsidised bus services to continue

Bus passengers in Derbyshire are to keep services paid for by us as plans to cut public transport funding are reviewed. It had been proposed to withdraw funding for around 144 subsidised services from October 2017. Following consultation where more than 90% of respondents said they disagreed with the plan, we have now agreed to provide £3m to continue funding some of these services.

The future of individual services has yet to be decided but we will be working closely with operators to see if some can be run commercially. We will also continue to review the whole of the bus network, streamlining less well-used services by reducing their frequency and joining up other services to reduce duplication.

There is another reference to the £3m in the revised budget announcement of July 2017:

• putting back £3.1m over two years (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) into public and community transport, reversing a previous budget saving and resulting in an additional £11.9m over the next five years you can find that here. 

Have the Tories made good on their manifesto pledge?

Not quite sure how putting an average annual sum of £1.55m can become an additional sum of £11.9m over the next 5 years ............ (surely 5 x 1.55 = 7.75) ............. must be Govian maths.

The total sum allocated for public transport in the Labour budget for 2017/18 was £13.7 million. It would be helpful if the new administration could publish their revised public transport budget figure for this current year and give an indication of what subsequent budgets might look like. The eagle-eyed amongst you have probably noticed that Councillor Collins was talking about a 4 year budget period (up to 2021) but the Tories are planning on a 3 year timescale (up to 2020). What do they propose in the 4th year? What is needed is a like for like comparison. That claim of an extra £11.9m over the next 5 years would equate to an additional annual figure of £2.38m. If we use Councillor Collins January 2017 press statement as a baseline then we could have expected the 2021/22 public transport budget to be around £12.2 but the revised Tory forecast would make that £14.58m. If inflation is included in the calculation then the 2021/22 budget figure would have to be in the region of £15m to keep parity with the 2017/18 figure. Obviously £3.1m over two years falls way short of the election manifesto promise.

Finally

A cynic might well say, "so what's new .......... Tories make big promises to get elected then do exactly the opposite once they have your vote".

The trouble is that they do it time after time, election after election. "oh yes ..... (the cynic would say) ............ but all parties renege on their election promises".

Maybe so but in this instance it would appear that Labour were more trustworthy than the Tories. In fact there are other Tory promises that have already been broken that will feature on this blog.

As usual BelperStuff tries to be a reliable source of information. If you spot any factual inaccuracy then make a comment below and if something needs correcting it will be corrected.

Tories get their sums wrong in the lead up to the County Council elections on May 4th

It was really refreshing to write yesterday's blog (On the campaign trail with Labour's Carol Angharad). Much more satisfying to concentrate on the positive and get away from negativity of criticising the opposition. But ........ if statements are made then they should be provable so in today's blog we revert back to fact checking Tory claims.

Elections can have a strange effect on candidates and their supporters. You start to look at your opponents for any sign of a weakness that you can exploit; a means by which you can entice some of their voters in your direction. Let's be honest, no political party or electoral hopeful is immune from such temptations and yes, I too can feel myself being attracted as if by gravitational force to the black hole of political shenanigans.

This really is a shame as it results in a debate that at best distorts the truth and ............. in some instances .......... gives voters information that is simply false. I shudder each time I hear the term, "false news" because if it's false then it is not news ............. it's lies. Now where am I going with this?

I feel lucky that I don't have to invent anything to blacken my opponents because so many unsubstantiated claims have been made by Derbyshire Tories that just a few minutes fact checking can easily disprove them. I am sorry, that did seem a bit smug. I am actually rather disappointed that the debate is so ......... well ......... uninformative.  Like what follows ..................

Amber Valley Conservatives website claims

Amber Valley Tories, led by Kevin Buttery make quite a few claims (see here on their website) and their leading "fact" just had to be investigated:

"Over the last 4 years the Labour-run council have cut the services you value and stashed £233 million in reserves ............. "

It didn't take me long to discover the truth because it is possible to verify by consulting the county council website where you find a succession of year end financial statements. I have chosen the years 2009, 2013 and 2017. You will remember that the council was run by the Tories between 2009 and 2013. I sum up the information in this little chart:

It jumps out at you doesn't it ...... in the past 4 years Labour has actually reduced the DCC reserves by £43 million ........... but, what is even more startling is that in the 4 years the Tories were in the majority they increased the reserves by £77 million. Try as I might I cannot find any evidence for the claim made by Kevin Buttery and his Amber Valley colleagues. I assure you that my figures are accurate and I have compared like with like so no distortion.

I searched elsewhere for corroboration and only came up with evidence in line with my findings. In fact, even Clr Mike Longden, Tory DCC Shadow Cabinet member said this in 2015:

"The carefully managed Earmarked Reserves are healthy and undoubtedly cushioning and protecting some areas of spending .............. "

See here for the source of that quote - Tories blast Labour spin and yes he did go on to apply a goodly dose of his own spin.

Yet more evidence

It was interesting at last week's hustings in Belper to hear the Tory candidate Chris Short making the claim that Labour had underspent during the last 4 years in control of Derbyshire County Council by £32 million. This was immediately refuted by Stuart Bradford the deselected Tory councillor who is now standing as an independent. Clr Bradford spoke of his years on the DCC audit committee and he could assure us that Labour had not underspent ........... in fact they had been taking money from the reserves to protect front line services from the effects of Tory government cuts (I admit that he did not use the word Tory). Again, hard evidence that Tories are making claims about Labour that when analysed are found to be pure invention. It is ironic that the one Tory that states that honesty in politics is paramount has been deselected by the local Conservatives. At the hustings Stuart went on to say that the debate should be about the differences of approach between Labour and Conservatives, about the differing strategies to deal with government cuts and the delivery of services. I could not agree more.

What now

I could of course work my way through all the other unsubstantiated claims the Tories are bandying about by checking through their own spending history when in power ............ but you know I really do have a life.

This election is about Labour asking you to vote for a continuation of their policies, the excellent way in which they are handling the cuts to funding being imposed by the Conservative government in Westminster.

The Tories claim that Labour chooses to make these cuts and they even go so far as to disown the one Tory County Councillor who dared to tell the truth, that Tory central government funding to local councils has been cut by 37% since 2010. That's what happens to Tories who break ranks and tell the truth ........... they get deselected.

I must stop this as I can feel the attraction of that black hole of political shenanigans. 

On the campaign trail with Labour's Carol Angharad ......... Duffield & Belper South

In every election there is something that stands out, something that captures the mood. In the 2010 general election it was the myth of Labour debt and hug a husky; in 2015 it was the false spectre of the SNP pulling Labour's strings; then in the 2016 local elections it was the inability of the Tory Amber Valley Borough Council to respond to voters wishes to oppose housing developments on green fields.

So what has struck me as being the motif of 2017 and the fight for control of Derbyshire County Council ............... it was the Labour candidate for Duffield and Belper South, Carol Angharad, speaking passionately last week about the anger she feels at the damage to local services caused by cut after cut of central government funding of local councils (since 2010 a reduction of 37%). Following her barnstorming performance at the hustings in Duffield I really wanted to interview Carol for the BelperStuff blog, to find out where she gets her energy and what drives her. Carol is retired after a lifetime of caring for others, her children, grandchildren ........ and also the many children and adults she helped during her career as a social worker.

In the past I have canvassed with Carol, going from door to door speaking with voters of all persuasions and what I learnt very quickly was that it was best if I did not try to match her walking speed. Carol's energy and drive put me to shame. She set herself a mammoth task of calling on as many of the homes in the electoral division as possible and I know that she is still out there, visiting yet more of the 4,927 homes in the district. She has been at it for months. At the hustings Carol mentioned some of the stories of those she had visited and stressed that 15% of the households in the division were occupied by single pensioners ............ that's 740 pensioners living on their own. She spoke of those in need of care and it is a salutary lesson to learn that in the Duffield & South Belper division there are 1,384 folk receiving unpaid care. No wonder Carol is angry at government cuts. She reminded me that some parts of the country care services have been halved following swinging Tory cuts. No wonder Carol is angry.

I wanted to know more about what motivates Carol so I asked her for an interview. She shared with me not only her thoughts but also some of the photographs she has taken during her long days of campaigning ............ so what follows is less of me and more of her:

Carol in her own words (and photographs)

Photo with a camellia was taken on Hillrise & looks down the valley to the East mill & across to the Chevin.

Looking over the roofs of Belper I was thinking that Belper is a great Town & I am very settled here. It's a Town where people do things for themselves, the annual Arts Festival, the Town's Sports Day, the Green Festival and numerous music events all organised & run by Belper folk. You could be busy everyday of the week and it could take you an hour to progress down King Street as you stop & talk to the people you know. But I also thought about those who are isolated from this beehive of activity. Isolated because of age, infirmity, lack of money or transport or having no one to go with, despite the friendliness of Belper there are those not included in its life. The County Council is aware of the isolation of the elderly.

Milford Mill

In other places Mills like this would have been developed for housing or art space but the empty Mills of Belper & Milford rot with neglect. The Borough Council seems incapable of seeing the potential of these heritage buildings. The Borough Council needs the muscle and expertise of the County Council in forcing the owners of the Mills to restore and develop them or sell them to someone who will.

The closed pub on the Parks Estate

There would have been a time when a Councillor could have championed this building and identified money that could have turned it into a community centre for the Estate; years of central government cuts have put an end to such ideas. A group are working to rebuild their Youth facility, the Blue Box, which was burnt down and a group of young mums are now running the Children's Centre. Again Government cuts meant the County Council could not financially support the Centre but two local councillors, John Owen & Stuart Bradford gave money from their community funds to help and John Owen arranged for Council Officers to negotiate a peppercorn rent.

Ecclesbourne School

Ecclesbourne School will lose £568,744 per year by 2019 which is equivalent to employing 15 teachers. That's a cut of £524 per pupil. Down the road, the Meadows Primary School will lose £85,909 per year, a cut per pupil of £294 and risks the loss of 2 teachers .......... the William Gilbert loses £70,774 which is again £294 per pupil and a further 2 teachers' jobs at risk.

In Milford and Belper it is the same story with similar cuts which add up to a cut of over £38 million of central government funding to schools in Derbyshire. In this  electoral division the cuts to our 10 schools amount to £1.69 million per year. What are these Tories doing to our young people? We have to find ways of securing their future and invest properly in education and meaningful apprenticeships.

Finally

Carol with her granddaughter

Amongst the photographs that Carol sent me was this charming snap of granny and granddaughter ....... framed. I just had to share it with you. 

If you are a Duffield or Belper South, Milford, Quarndon voter you should by now have received Carol's leaflet through your letterbox (the header of which is shown above). Carol writes about her use of buses and their importance to our area; pledges to oppose fracking; mentions the new care home and library in Belper; her views on planning and housing ........ the NHS and so much more. I know how easy it is to bin political bumf after just a casual glance but I do urge you to spend a couple of minutes more over Carol's leaflet. Yes Carol is angry but she has great compassion for those who are disadvantaged and would be a powerful voice in the county council chamber.

Voting for Carol would give you a cracking good county councillor

Duffield & Belper South Hustings .............. Tuesday April 25th

Not to be missed.

Vote Jyoti Wilkinson for Alport & Derwent (including Belper North)

Alport & Derwent is mainly a rural division of Derbyshire County Council with main centres of population being Crich and Belper North. Referring to the Derbyshire Observatory Area Profile of Alport & Derwent we find that it comprises a population of 11,523 living in 5,035 households. These good folk usually return a Conservative Councillor but the Tory majority has been dwindling in the past few elections.

Jyoti Wilkinson standing for Labour

I would normally write something here about Jyoti; very well known in the area and a really good candidate. However, he has produced a very good video so my words are really not needed:

Oh no, I had hoped to embed Jyoti's video here but blogger says that the file is to big ......... so you can access the video here: Jyoti Wilkinson video on Belper have your say and you can find out a bit more about him here: Jyoti Wilkinson on the web ............. but I do urge you to look at his video as it is really informative.

................ and here he is supporting the NHS in Crich:

I'm sorry but I have no idea who took this photo. Credit will be acknowledged once I find out

David Taylor standing for the Conservative Party

David Taylor was elected to Derbyshire County Council in a 2014 bi-election. He is also of course an Amber Valley Councillor with a responsibility for housing in the current AVBC Conservative administration. You can access his page on Amber Valley Conservatives website here. I notice that he states that one of his three priorities is:

Protecting our greenbelt and preventing the over-development of our villages.

Remember the wise words of Tonto

Of course we have to check this out. We are in the middle of the consultation period for the latest attempt by AVBC Tories to deliver a local plan which you can reference here: Amber Valley Borough Council Local Plan consultation document. It is safe to assume that the councillor responsible for housing in the borough will be a steering hand to the plan so, given Clr Taylor's priority to protect the greenbelt it is a surprise to find the proposal to build on the greenbelt north of Denby, nigh on doubling the size of that village with 1,100 new houses. There are also plans to build on green field sites such asn120 houses on Belper Lane and 80 houses in Crich (where there are "environmental constraints"). Not forgetting the 150 houses being planned for Bullsmoor in Belper, a much loved green open space. None of this squares with David Taylor's priority  to protect the greenbelt and prevent over-development of villages.

If we delve deeper into the Local Plan we find that it contains a watered down commitment to provide affordable housing which is desperately needed in our area:

Policy H5 - Housing development proposals on any sites of 0.5 hectares or more (or 15 dwellings or greater) will be expected to provide up to 30% of the gross number of dwellings, in the form of ‘affordable housing’, subject to considerations of viability. 

There then follows a raft of clarifications of the term "viability" which does not really strengthen the councils hand in negotiations with developers ....... from page 65 onwards. Looking back at page 61 we see the council estimates of housing build but if they fail to negotiate with developers the 30% affordable or correct size of home needed for both market and affordable then we can expect the numbers of homes to be built to be something like this:

To be honest this is a projection and may or may not be accurate. If anything I may have under-estimated the number of 3 bed semis but it  If I was a councillor with responsibility for housing then I would not be happy with this. Kevin Buttery the Tory leader of AVBC says that David Taylor is a strong man but he would need to be superhuman to hold developers to the 30% affordable homes target, let alone their desire to build 3 bed semis on greenfield sites. AVBC Belper councillors Ben Bellamy, Maurice Neville and Erik Johnson tabled an amendment at a recent council meeting for an increase in brownfield instead of greenfield development with a greater proportion of 1 and 2 bed dwellings ........... as advised by in independent housing needs assessments of the area and also in line with residents wishes but all the Tory councillors including David Taylor did not support the amendment.

It might be said that I am commenting about AVBC business and not DCC but it is fair to compare what a person in public life says they will do against what they actually do.

Two other candidates

There are two other candidates for Alport and Derwent:

Paul Smith - Liberal Democrats 

William Macfarlane - The Green Party

I can find no references to their candidacy online other than this produced by Amber Valley Borough Council: Statement of persons nominated

Proud to live in Derbyshire .............

I want to be a bit more positive with this post because the subject of care for the elderly is a serious matter and should be way above political skirmishing. If by some miracle BelperStuff was asked to create a UK Bill of Rights then respect, love and care for the elderly would be up near the top of the list. I do not understand how anyone who is elected to power can even contemplate cutting the funding that underwrites services for the elderly in their own homes or the provision of facilities such as care homes and day centres ............... yet we have a Conservative government who have been cutting grants to councils who then have to decide which departments will bear the brunt of underfunding. In this respect the Labour controlled Derbyshire County Council have done an amazing job of shielding adult social care from the harshness of these Tory cuts.

Proud to live in Derbyshire

Last year BelperStuff attended a meeting of senior care providers, member's of parliament, academics and journalists to discuss the deterioration in social care to all age groups and the predominant theme was the plight of the elderly. Frontline care workers spoke from the floor of their daily struggle to look after their charges; the lack of resources, the gradual loss of staff who had to care for an increasing number of people ............. I'm sure you've heard this litany before. I was struck by their compassion but also the feeling of helplessness in the face of impossible odds. It was abundantly clear that this same frustration was felt by all care providers as senior managers and even those at the helm of regional and national care organisations spoke of the crisis that was already upon us.

When I spoke from the floor about Derbyshire County Council and their fight to keep care homes in council hands the meeting burst into applause. Let there be no mistake about this, despite what Derbyshire Tories claim, Labour have performed brilliantly in maintaining a level of services that are seen as an example to follow by other authorities.

Barbara Keeley MP

The keynote speaker was Barbara Keeley MP, the Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Social Care. Looking back at my notes I see that her main points were:

• We need an extra 275,000 care workers
• 191,000 care workers are from the EU
• £5 billion has been taken out of social care by the Tories in the last 6 years (remember she was speaking in 2016)
• 26% less people receiving care from care system as a result of these cuts
• 1 in 7 unpaid carers are over 80
• 417,000 people providing care are over 80.

Her passionate closing remarks were:

"Why is there no outcry about this?"

"Now is the time to be outraged".

Thinking about it, why didn't BelperStuff make a report about this meeting back in 2016? I apologise.

So what is happening in Derbyshire?

I can already feel the urge to plunge straight into a critique of the Tory manifesto but first I'll speak about Labour:

Labour

Labour regained control of the DCC in 2013 and promptly squashed the outgoing Tory plans to close DCC run care homes and enter into contracts with private providers. Despite cuts in funding (£13 million less per year for care services from central government) Labour have increased the amount in the budget for care; the amount spent per head of population for Adult Care rising from £250 in 2016/17 to £268 in 2017/18 and Children's Services from £115 to £117. Obviously this has to be funded and a combination of shifting money from one pot to another plus an increase in council tax has had to adopted ((can be found here online).

Reading from their council tax leaflet,  I see that Adult Care is provided to almost 17,000 older, vulnerable and disabled people and supports 21,000 carers across Derbyshire. Nearly 1,000 home care staff, 2,200 residential and day care staff and teams in hospitals supporting NHS colleagues, helping people to be discharged into the community.

There are 22 residential homes and community care centres including specialist care for people with dementia and commissions 215 schemes which support people to live independently; with 1,254 minor adaptions and nearly 131,000 pieces of equipment worth up to £8.25 million.

John Owen enjoys a cup of tea when visiting the Ada Belfield

There are of course other schemes such as the new care home being built in Belper to replace the Ada
Belfield, from 26 rooms with shared bathrooms to a modern 40 en suite room facility in Derwent Street (I cannot resist making the point that Belper Town Council - 16 Conservatives - has been opposed to this scheme right through the planning process but it was finally passed last week after an intervention by John Owen at the AVBC planning meeting).
BelperStuff visited the Ada Belfield care home late last year with John Owen, County Councillor for Belper and we found real enthusiasm from both staff and residents for the move. (John is pictured opposite, chatting over a cuppa with staff and residents - but I forgot to ask permission to use a photo of them on the internet so I've cropped them out - sorry).

What do the Tories propose?

We are back to the Tory manifesto but this time leavened with comments from the Amber Valley Tory website. The salient points are:

• Restart our £30m Care Programme to provide new modern care homes - scrapped by Labour
• Derbyshire Conservatives implemented a self financing building programme that would have provided new homes for older people across the county. We agreed to invest £30m in partnership with housing associations and the private sector. Savings on the running costs of former old people's homes would have paid the debt charges on our £30m contribution. 

This is a PFI scheme and I am mindful of  a report by the National Audit Office in 2011 which was critical, finding that the use of PFI "has the effect of increasing the cost of finance for public investments relative to what would be available to the government if it borrowed on its own account" and "the price of finance is significantly higher with a PFI"(see here for that report).

By cutting funding from central government the burden is shifted to council tax payers; compounded by ill thought out privatisation which inevitably costs more.

There is of course nothing wrong in principal with housing associations providing care services (as long as they use properly trained staff and pay them a decent wage) but I am fearful of finance deals that might be involved. I recently talked with a director of a local housing association who told me that their financial backers were looking for an 11% return on their investment. One has to ask who would be paying that 11% if those same investors were involved in the Tory scheme and the answer is Derbyshire County Council.

An example of a PFI scheme in Amber Valley

We also have an example of a Tory PFI scheme in Amber Valley where the borough council signed up with DC Projects (Amber Valley) Ltd in 2009 with what seems to be a 31 year contract involving the refurbishment/building/management of three leisure centres in Alfreton, Heanor and Ripley. A quick look at the financial outturn of this project in 2016 (Amber Valley Borough Council Statement of Accounts 2015/16 - turn to pages 104 and 105) and we find that during the remaining 25 years there will be service charges of £18.85m (subject to inflation), repayment of finance liability of £18.262m, finance interest of £25.189m which comes to a total of £62,301,000. So the total cost of the project is that last sum plus whatever else has been paid between 2009 and 2015/16. Unless they had a payment holiday in these initial years then the total project will probably come out somewhere over £74 million given that the annual payment for 2016/17 alone is £2,614,000. The finance charge would seem to be around 8.32% which doesn't look like a very sharp deal when we compare it to the £22m AVBC holds in a variety of bank accounts that are earning on average less than 1%.

A mitigating factor is that the leisure centres generate revenue but how much of this is passed back to the council is not very clear in the accounts.

So what could the Tory PFI scheme for Derbyshire care homes look like

Given that this is an example of the sort of PFI that Derbyshire Tories have entered into (the leader of Amber Valley Tories is Kevin Buttery and he is standing for the county council in the Horsley division) it would not be too much of a stretch to imagine that the £30 million that they want to tie up to their  "self financing" care home scheme would be in many respects similar. If we assume that the finance charges will be comparable then the cost of finance over say, 30 years would be nigh on £52m so the much vaunted "self financing" scheme would entail each care home contributing an annual saving of £100k. The £30 million investment would, we are told, be matched by a minimum of £100 million from private investors so if they also expect a return of 8.32% the total saving per care home would have to be in the region of £600k per year resulting in a net reduction to the adult care budget (for 18 homes) of  £12m. The annual cost of financing plus repayment of the loan would over 30 years amount to £354 million or nigh on £1 million per month and that, for an already squeezed budget is before we add in wages for staff and all the other ancillary costs plus maintenance.

Given that the income of these care homes is derived from payments from Derbyshire County Council such a PFI scheme, if following the AVBC Leisure Centre arrangement, would result in a payment to private investors of at least £12m per year. It would make much more sense to generate this sort of sum internally from the total DCC budget and use it as a rolling annual budget to be invested in improvements and, where necessary, new build facilities such as that in Derwent Street in Belper. Without the benefit of being fully briefed on the DCC Adult Care budget this is just a back of fag packet calculation but I would suggest that care infrastructure costs are a small proportion of the total cost when set beside that of staffing and other more general care home costs. The private sector exploits this fact by reducing wages and benefits to staff once they take over a contract.

Derbyshire Tories advocate transfer of social care to private sector as the private sector is collapsing

The warnings of Barbara Keeley are sadly being proved correct as there are an increasing number of private care home contracts being handed back to local authorities. Outsourcing care for the elderly and other vulnerable adults has become unattractive to private investors. It's those Tory government cuts again as cash strapped councils try to pass on the squeeze in funding to private contractors.

See this informative Guardian article - Care contracts cancelled at 96 UK councils in funding squeeze

and

BBC news item - Social Care system beginning to collapse as over 900 carers quit per day

I have copied these bullet points from the BBC article:

• An estimated 338,520 adult social care workers left their roles in 2015-16. That is equivalent to 928 people leaving their job every day.
• 60% of those leaving a job left working in the adult social care sector altogether
• The average full-time frontline care worker earned £7.69 an hour, or £14,800 a year. The median average UK salary last year was around £27,600 for full time workers.
• One in every four social care workers was employed on a zero hours contract.

Tory mismanagement of social care is a disgrace

"Now is the time to be outraged"

A brief note on the method of calculation. If anyone reading this post has knowledge that would indicate that the calculations are wrong or the methodology is in any way seriously flawed then I will gladly amend what is written here. I'm not talking of comments and opinions but hard provable facts. You can make your point via the comments button at the foot of this post.