AVBC elections May 5th ...... Cox ...... judge me on housing 2

Tories want to build on the Green Belt

The last post looking at Clr. Cox and his desire to be judged on his housing record (Cox ......... judge me on housing 1) started a train of thought about the overall record of the Tory years in charge of the borough council, the years that saw council houses being handed over to what eventually became Futures Homescape which effectively left the council powerless to intervene in what has become a housing crisis in our region. Cox's statement about being in the hands of private developers who only want to build 3 and 4 bedroom semis/detached on prime sites is evidence of that loss of control.

So I studied the annual financial reports of Futures Homescape and the later 2016 press release about their plans to build 1,000 new houses in 2020 across the East Midlands  (Futures Homescape annual report 2014/15) finding many facts that disturbed me ............ so many in fact that I started to doubt that my analysis was correct. My calculations showed an increase of debt owed to financiers on the Amber Valley ex council houses of nigh on 350%  (£28 million in 2003 to £96m in 2015) whilst the number of houses owned by Futures Homescape in Amber Valley only increased by 1.5% (5,361 in March 2003 rising to 5,719 in 2015). Surely my interpretation of the figures cannot be right. The safest course of action is to complete the analysis and then ask the housing charity to comment ............ this I will do. and will also take note of the fact that the Tory Westminster government has introduced measures to force housing associations to sell off their housing stock (see this article in the Financial Times).

The other concern was, "is it right to blame the AVBC Tories for this just because it was their decision to hand over the council houses to a housing association?" This issue demands to be
handled objectively as we are dealing with real homes occupied by real people. They deserve honesty and openness that is devoid of any political bias aimed at short term electoral advantage.

Winter Fields by Lewis Noble - Foundation House in Ripley

So where am I going with this post. Well ....... writing that last post regarding Cox and housing I just could not understand how the leader of a borough council could say one thing in May 2015, indicate the opposite only 7 months later and then compound the uncertainty by stating that green belt land is under threat (when a year before it was not). The suspicion is that these contrary statements are made for electoral advantage (well of course they are) but to state that a vote for Labour could endanger green belt land without some evidence to that fact would be mendacious (and here I am picking my words carefully as we should not suspect the leader of a borough council of being disingenuous). I naturally asked the Amber Valley Labour group for clarification and was told that the AVBC Tories had voted against the Labour motion to remove all proposed green belt housing development sites from the core strategy. This vote was held in September 2014 during the one year that Labour held control of the council and I was interested to read the comments of the then Labour deputy leader of the council:

 Clr Chris Emmas-Williams, " ............ we have followed through on our commitment not to develop on Green Belt land, which we feel is very important.”.  (you can read the full press release here on the AVBC website).

The vote was necessary because in 2012 the Tories had proposed building on two green belt sites (once again a link to the AVBC website - this time a Tory press release in 2012) with the words,  "Although this site is within the Green Belt, its development will secure a significant contribution .........................". 

Two statements just a couple of years apart. Labour voting to take housing developments on Green belt land out of the core strategy whilst Tories voted to build on Green Belt land.

Private developers take notice of all this and must obviously consider that they have more of a chance to send their JCB diggers onto the green fields that surround our towns if they are dealing with a Tory controlled council. This explains the volte-farce (yes I know it should be volte-face) of Cox. The pressures from private developers following the Tories 2012 plan are there to see in the their core strategy submissions which echoed the Tory press release on the "significant contribution" that would be made by building on this virgin land.

It is no surprise that Cox's election leaflet  does not mention the Tory record of building on Green Belt land and propagates the myth that voting Labour leads to an assault on our countryside. What matters is that voters are not given the full facts and are led to believe the opposite of the true situation. Typical Tory tactics.

Two links that are of interest:

Interactive map of the Green Belt I may have posted this before. Use the search box to refine the mp area.

Building on Green Belt land has soared over the past 5 years a BBC news article which is very disturbing.

AVBC May 2016 elections .... Cox .... judge me on housing 1

Clr Alan Cox's election leaflet features an invitation to judge him on his performance over the past 17 years on a range of issues, amongst which is housing. Now this is a big subject and 17 years worth of statements and decisions takes some wading through so BelperStuff will be dealing with it in two posts. "Cox .........judge me on housing 2" will be forensic, looking specifically at the demographic requirement for housing in Amber Valley and comparing the performance of AVBC to meet that need.

Post 1 is much more straightforward and deals with the confusion that Tory propaganda creates, specifically contradictory statements by Cox regarding green field development. I'll get right to it.

Spring in the valley, Belper (James Henry Crossland 1852 - 1939) Derby Museum and Art Gallery

Cox election leaflet April 2016

Cox has implied in his election leaflet that voting for Labour will unleash full scale development on green belt and heritage protected land:

If they (meaning Labour) get back in power they will put houses on Bullsmoor and will they stop there? Is Bessalone next? And then Blackbrook? Broadholme? The Chevin?

Contrast this with the Cox statement in May 2015

On the 6th May 2015 (the day before the election for town, borough and parliament) Clr Alan Cox was reported in the Belper News thus: Housing rumours in Belper are dismissed.

Councillor Alan Cox says there has been a flurry of rumours regarding potential housing developments on the site of Bessalone Hill.

However, Councillor Cox insists that the site remains part of the green belt and that, for the time being, there are no plans in the pipeline to develop the site.

He says it is ‘unlikely’ that there will be any development on the site before 2028 - under the terms of the current Core Strategy

Cllr Cox told the Belper News: “There have been increasing rumours about the possibility of land at Bessalone Hill in Belper being developed for housing.

“I can assure the residents of Belper that these rumours are exactly that and are simply rumours.

“The facts of the matter are that JC Balls and Sons, the owners of the land, have applied to have the site allocated in the Strategic Housing Land Allocation Availability (SHLAA) for possible future development.

“This document is held as a list of sites which may be available for development in the future.

“The current Core Strategy, which is under consideration, covers all housing development up to the year 2028.

“There is no reference to the Bessalone site in this document. Therefore it is unlikely that there will be any development on this site before that date.

“The land is in the green belt, whose primary purpose is to stop communities, in this case Belper and Heage, coalescing into one.

“This is a very important consideration to be taken into account before any land is allocated for development.”

Cox blatantly creating rumours

The two statements co-exist within Clr Alan Cox's head. Green belt is safe but also not safe. Which does he believe?

The only site that is currently endangered is Bullsmoor and there has been a huge protest in the town against this with many petitioning directly into the core strategy process. Remember that strategy? This allows for a structured and considered approach to housing which includes the associated development of schools and health facilities where needed but the AVBC Tories have withdrawn from that process. It is astonishing that Tories who believe in market forces should then blame private developers for their own failure to plan properly for Amber Valley as was reported in the Derby Telegraph in December 2015:

Fear of attack on green belt by aggressive developers after Amber Valley planning strategy scrapped

In that article Cox says, "................I fear there will be more applications on land which is unsuitable and will have a negative impact on residents. This could include green belt land". 

This is a statement made by the leader of a borough council who is also the chairman of the planning committee that has to approve all planning applications. If an application is made to build on green belt, buffer or English/World Heritage protected land then it is but a routine matter for the planning authority to refuse such applications. From Clr Alan Cox's own statements the implication is that the Tory controlled AVBC has lost control of the housing strategy.

In conclusion

It has been an eventful 12 months in Amber Valley housing strategy ........... or should that be the Amber Valley lack of a housing strategy. What has changed in those 12 months that has led Cox to state:

• May 2015 - Bessalone Hill safe from development.
• May 2015 - No chance of development on Green Belt land. This is assured by the Core Strategy at least until 2028.
• December 2015 - Applications will be made to build on Green Belt with a negative impact on residents.
• April 2016 - Is Bessalone next?

The only element that has actually changed is that on May 6th 2015 Labour were in control of Amber Valley Borough Council but now it is controlled by Cox and his Tories.

You may be interested in looking at this BelperStuff blog from December 2015 - Local Tory housing strategy in ruins

A brief note on Bullsmoor

Extract from AVBC 2011 document

It should be remembered that under the Tories, in the Amber Valley Borough Local Plan (2006) Bullsmoor was designated a site for industrial development. This document: Draft Development Brief, Bullsmoor, Belper 2011 describes the intention as stated here:

" A development brief for this site will provide a framework against which detailed development proposals can be considered. The Brief site forms allocated for business and industrial development in the Amber Valley Borough Local Plan (2006) and the Council is committed to producing a development brief for this site".

It is well known in the town that Bullsmoor is currently only protected by the fall back in global economic activity. The designation of Bullmoor for industrial and commercial development has been actively promoted by the Tories in Amber Valley. Bullsmoor is under threat because it is far easier to re-assign land from commercial to housing use than from green field or heritage protected status.

 

AVBC May 2016 elections .... Cox & Nelson ...... Tory Tea Room Follies

Clr Nelson MBE made an interesting statement on his election leaflet:

"I am committed to restoring the Swiss Tea Rooms - unlike Labour who withdrew all funding last year when in control of the council".

The actual evidence is - funding was cut in 2013 by the Tories.

The Swiss Tea Rooms saga is just that, part myth, part truth depending on who you listen to. Clr Cox claims that the Tea Rooms replacement could not be completed because the national economy was in recession but as the Tory controlled borough were able to pay over £1.6 million (purchase price plus all fees and expenses) for the bungalow on Field Lane it is obvious that they made a choice to withdraw funding from the Tea Rooms and use the money for the ill thought out new Leisure Centre Project. If they had not done that the Tea Rooms could have been built and the Amber Valley Borough Council reserves would be £1,150,000 richer today. If you believe Nelson there was full funding by the Tories right up to 2014. They can't both be right.

Lifted from Belper News

The Saga of the Tory Tea Room Follies

Let's take a look back at the history of the Tory Tea Room Follies which started with the decision to stage an architectural competition, with the public able to choose their prefered building design. However, Tory controlled AVBC decided to set up a  Panel of Experts (as headlined by the the Derby Telegraph in February 2011) consisting of 4 Tories and the Belper News Editor. Cox was one of those Tories. The final judgement was made by just three people, Tory Councillors Cox and Tomlinson who outvoted the only person who was a genuine expert, Mark Suggitt, director of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Partnership. Cox and Tomlinson chose to ignore the public choice of a design that resembled the building it was replacing (the public vote was 5 to 1 in favour of this) and instead went for a more expensive modern design against the advice of Mark Suggitt.

This Belper News article from October 2011 sums it up nicely

Two quotes stand out from that meeting; first Clr Alan Cox:

“The public consultation was for what they preferred, not what would win.”

.......... and Tory Clr Peter Arnold:

“The public only ever complicate matters.”

You will notice that in 2011 the cost was put at £400k and there are many references to the sum being set aside or earmarked by the borough council. The building was due to be completed in 2013 but we know that no construction work was started and from the statement by Cox we know that it was the Tories who cut the funding. If only they had heeded the wise advice of  The Friends of Belper River Gardens and gone for the the cheaper public choice the Tea Rooms may well have been built already.

The evidence of the Tory cut is contained in these internal AVBC documents:

Amber Valley Borough Council Belper River Gardens Swiss Tea Rooms briefing document

There are updates to this on the AVBC website (though you have to do a fair amount of digging to find them) where you can watch the process slipping year by year. The odd phrase "source funding" appears in all the documents, initially planned for 2013, so there is some doubt that the ear-marked sum mentioned in 2011 actually existed. You cannot ear-mark nothing ........... but we'll let that go.

Within that document we also find:

Both Councillor John Nelson and Councillor Jim Anderson prefer (as reported verbally) the design chosen by the panel. That needs no further comment from me.

So where are we up to now in 2016?

We know that Belper Town Council have pledged £100k but if only they had gone with the public choice in the first place the Swiss Tea Room might well have been built by now. This we cannot tell for sure but it is obvious that by choosing the more expensive building against the wishes of the public and the Friends of Belper River Gardens these two Tories made it far more difficult for the project to proceed.

The current estimate comes in at £450k and what we need is a facility that serves those who stroll in the gardens but principally the children and families who use the play area. They desperately need proper facilities. The Labour Party pledge to fully fund the Swiss Tea Rooms by allocating proceeds from the sale of redundant council assets brings sense to this farce. Nelson claims on his election leaflet that he is "committed to restoring the Swiss Tea Rooms," as the evidence of the past 6 years clearly shows.

What Next ?

It is clear that if voters choose Ben Bellamy over Alan Cox in Belper North and Maurice Neville over John Nelson in Belper Central on May 5th then there is a sporting chance that Labour will take control of Amber valley Borough Council. If that happens then the pledge to fully fund the Tea Rooms will have to be honoured; that is the deal with Belper folk.

It is hoped that we can finally put aside the years of Tory prevarication, throw out the design chosen by Cox and Tomlinson and go for what was voted for by the public in 2011, a design in keeping with what has been there for over 100 years ........... and get some much needed tea and toilets near to the play area. Link to the Latham design and a little more background information from Belper Civic Forum.

AVBC May 2016 elections ............ John Nelson's campaign claims about tax

It slid through my letterbox like an invitation to believe in a parallel universe. The campaign leaflet from John Nelson MBE ended up on my desk for my consideration but I just could not get past the strapline, "your priorities are my priorities". Look I am not going to lampoon or make snide

comments about a man's beliefs as Nelson is as entitled to his opinions as I am of mine. It is obvious that a socialist blog such as BelperStuff will find very little to agree with in a Tory party candidate's election address because, quite frankly we live on different planets; we view the world from opposite perspectives. However, what I do find worthy of comment is any degree of selectivity of facts ........... if you know what I mean ........... so I will briefly look at a couple of statements made by Nelson which do not not quite ring true.

Amber Valley Borough Council Tax 

Nelson states, "Under Conservative control the Council froze their share of your Council Tax bill and has cut it this year - in stark contrast to the local Labour-run County Council who have increased it by 4%.

Admittedly this is factually correct but the cut in the Amber Valley Borough Council element of my own council tax amounts to 34p in the year. Yes that's right, less than one penny a week. I am still considering how I will spend this windfall.

This cut is the Tory led borough council's response to a cut in grants from central government to the borough of £783,000 (combined Revenue Support and Council Tax Freeze grants), with overall council expenditure (less transferred funds) going up from £7,249,000 in 2015/16 to £7,356,000 in 2016/17. How have the borough council balanced the books .......................... with an increased transfer from reserves ............ from £1,600,000 last year to £2,439,000 this year .......... an increase draw from the piggy bank which cannot be sustained. At this rate we will reach 2020 with nothing left.

I am thinking of making a personal contribution, over and above what I pay in council tax by sending the council a cheque for 34 pence. I just don't need it.

Derbyshire County Council Tax

Now back to Nelson's comment on the county council, " ...................... in stark contrast to the local Labour-run County Council who have increased it by 4%".

It may surprise Clr Nelson to learn that the 4% increase in county tax was a concession made by George Osborne to local authorities who were being hit by austerity cuts in the grant from central government for the provision of  care of the elderly. So Clr Nelson, by his own admission is opposed to the policy of the Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer and would accept even deeper cuts to our elderly care facilities. Goodness knows what this would have meant for home care and services in support of vulnerable adults. Even with the 4% increase these services are under real threat.

See the quote from this leaflet:  Derbyshire County Council - Your Council Tax 2016/17

Social care charge. This year councils with the responsibility for adult care services were given permission by the Government to raise council tax by up to 2% in addition to the 2% maximum ordinarily permitted. Our council tax rise will be 3.99%. The extra 2% is specifically to help protect some adult social care related services. To find out more about what we are planning to use this money for please visit here.

It should be remembered that austerity cuts to government funding of Derbyshire County Council services has lowered the grant from £312 million in 2010 to £171 million in 2016 .................... that's savings that DCC have had to make of £141 million. More cuts are in the pipeline with government funding dipping further to £137 million by 2018. Yes George Osborne will have cut central government funding contributions to the DCC by 66% in just 8 years.

To put all this in perspective for Clr Nelson the national funding gap for adult social care would reach £4.3 billion by 2020 without some form of positive intervention. This is but the tip of the austerity iceberg as our Derbyshire buses, police, fire ............... it goes on and on .............. services are all being squeezed. Although the easement by George Osborne allowing local authorities to increase council taxes to support these underfunded services gives the county the merest hint of a breathing space it does unfortunately represent a shift of taxation from central government to individual council tax payers. This lessens the tax burden from income tax and other government sources of revenue such as inheritance and capital gains, transferring the cost to those who are not so well off. If we look at the proportion of tax paid by council tax band in Amber Valley we find that nearly half of council tax in Amber Valley is due from band A and B households ........... these being the smaller homes which are usually rented, mortgaged or owned by those with smaller incomes. Moving the tax burden to councils directly impacts on the proportion that those on lower incomes have to pay ........ and lessens the tax take from the rich. The list below shows the current proportion of council taxes paid by each band, A being the smallest 1 and 2 bedroom apartments and terraced homes, through band C equating to the average size semi-detached with band H being the province of the very wealthiest.

Tax Band	% of revenue
A	27.21%
B	20.36%
C	20.13%
D	13.51%
E	8.12%
F	5.11%
G	4.99%
H	0.56%

Conclusion

Ah yes Clr John Nelson MBE you can indeed say that the Tory AVBC have lived up to their promise to cut taxes and I thank you for my windfall of ............ a Tesco packet of ready to serve custard (well that's what my google search came up with when I asked what I could get for 34p). I have to be honest though, even when I try to make allowances for our different world view I struggle to comprehend how you can make the claim on the back of your leaflet:

Maintain and improve local services by making savings in the way the council works so more money is available for frontline services. 

If the Tory government continues with the threatened further cuts to AVBC then we will have precious little left to argue over come 2020. AVBC net expenditure in 2010/11 was £16.34 million whereas in £2016/17 the budget provision is £10.7 million (underpinned by  a very large transfer of funds from reserves). There are rumours that by 2020 it will be down to near £7 million. I wonder what efficiency savings are planned to cope with this Clr Nelson.

As usual I make the offer to correct any factual inaccuracy there may be in this post. It takes a lot of digging to find out AVBC information, in contrast to Derbyshire County Council who maintain a website where all facts and figures are very easy to find.

BelperStuff will return to the parallel universe in the next couple of days with a look at what Nelson says about restoring the swiss tea rooms.

Working together for the environment meeting ...................... update

An update on the "Working together for the environment WTFTE)" meeting.

The Clusters, Belper by Cherry Moore
Amber Valley Borough Council, Old Town Hall

As previously posted the evening was designed to feature a range of environmental issues, each one introduced by a short slide presentation; words or charts superimposed upon artworks or photographs of a local theme. The one I have chosen to reproduce here is a delightful work by local artist, Cherry Moore. It was a wonderful surprise to find that Cherry was actually attending the meeting and was enthusiastically applauded for her work. You see, boring old environment meetings can be fun.

The paintings were sourced from  http://artuk.org/ which is a search portal for 212,660 artworks created by 38,356 artists, that can be found in 3,258 UK venues. Just type "Belper" or "Cherry Moore" into the Art UK search box to find Cherry's painting ........... and many more.

Other highlights of the evening were a very informative update of Derbyshire County Councils work for the environment given by Kathryn Sowerby Warrington and a lively presentation by the Amber Valley against fracking group (ambervalleyagainstfracking@gmail.com).

Those who showed an interest in joining the new SERA branch in Derbyshire should please make contact via the supplied address. A web presence is being created right now and an inaugural meeting is planned, possibly following a second similar WTFTE evening that has been mooted in the north of the county.

Perhaps the one regret about the evening was that no topic or theme could be explored adequately; inevitable with so much ground to cover and wanting to give as much time as possible for those attending to voice their ........... as it turned out .............. expert opinions which kept the meeting presenters on their toes. Lessons have been learnt for future meetings.

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The SERA Derbyshire web presence will be announced on BelperStuff as soon as

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Neighbourhood Plan for Belper ........... April 2016 press release

BelperStuff is pleased to post the latest NP4B press release.

APRIL PRESS RELEASE FOR Neighbourhood Plan for Belper - NP4B

THE NEXT PHASE 

APRIL CONSULTATIONS AND FEEDBACK MEETINGS

Public consultations and publicity to ask for comments from business, residents and interest groups have been going on throughout the spring. More than 100 members of the public have attended the consultations and many written comments have been received.

These are now being collated and identified issues are emerging. For example; in the feedback from “community and leisure” there is agreement that Belper needs a better defined “community hub” for networking and information sharing about all local activities. Views were also expressed that we do not make enough of the River Derwent on our doorstep.

As the facilitators from the first round of meetings are collecting local opinion they are publishing detailed reports on the planforbelper website.

The next feedback meetings are as follows;

7.30pm Wed 13^th April at Milford Social Club . topic COMMUNITY AND LEISURE

7.30pm 20th April at Strutts Community Centre Rm 14.  topic ENERGY
                       & INFRASTRUCTURE [first meeting]

7.30 pm 27^th April at Alton Manor Community Centre.  TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL

Please come along to hear the feedback and join in the discussion.

A note from BelperStuff

As regular readers of BelperStuff will know this is an intensely political blog with, shall we say, a recognisable bias towards the left (well raise my rent - I had no idea). The exception to this are entries to do with the NP4B. No comment is made about the activities of this group because the neighbourhood plan is not political ................. perhaps a better way of describing it is to say that NP4B tries to embrace opinions and ideas from anyone living, working or studying in the town from whatever political, religious, ethnic or identity point of view.

BelperStuff carries NP4B posts so as to help publicise the meetings and work of the group. Other sources of information are Belper News, Belper Nailed and the NP4B website.

Nature's way of telling us something's wrong

Wednesday 6th April 2016 @ 19:30

Meeting in No.28 Market Place Belper

Working together for the environment

BelperStuff has been plugging this meeting for the past few days so regular readers might be suffering from event notification fatigue. If that's the case then don't go any farther than the embedded video .......... Nature's way by Spirit ........ I think recorded in 1970.

Link to the Nature's way for those who receive the post by email without embedded stuff

If you have made it this far, hopefully enervated by the video, you might like to read on to the blurb and agenda that goes with the meeting:

Working together for the environment

This meeting has been convened because many of us in the green movement have been dismayed at the gradual unpicking of legislation and commitments by the government since the 2010 election; most alarmingly the accelerated attack on a Zero Carbon Britain that must be our goal. Despite the best efforts of thousands of hard working individuals, protesting on endangered sites, holding meetings to educate and inform, writing articles and letters to news media, lobbying their MP’s or taking part in political party policy forums ………. despite all of this we are faced with a government that is turning the clock back on environmental reforms. Their determination to retain carbon sources of energy and to go big on nuclear are headline news but the devil is in the detail. In their autumn 2015 analysis of the international sustainable energy industry Ernst & Young has seen the UK drop out of the top 10 for places to invest in renewable energy for the first time. The report declared that the government had ‘sentenced the UK renewables sector to death by a thousand cuts …………. such as:

·            Scrapping the Zero Carbon Homes building standards

·       Changes to Vehicle Excise Duty

·       Privatising the Green Investment Bank

·       Applying the Climate Change Levy to renewable energy

·       Cut renewable energy subsidies for onshore wind

·       Cutting subsidies for larger solar power schemes

·       Cutting subsidies for small-scale renewable

·       Proposals to remove pre-accreditation for feed-in tariff schemes

·       Delaying the autumn 2015 round of Contracts for Difference for large scale         renewable energy projects.

·       Scrapping the Green Deal for home energy efficiency investments

·       Abandoning a previous commitment to increase the share of environmental taxes in the total tax take

So how do we respond

We can carry on as we are and hope to win the hearts and minds of the electorate come 2020 but many fear that this will not be enough. We have to do more to make this present government take notice and this is what we want to explore in this meeting. Therefore:

Our meeting agenda

1.       Welcome and overview by the meeting chair

2.       Environmental gains since the clean air act of 1956

3.       The current situation

a.       Withdrawal from the zero carbon commitment

b.      Fracking & UCG

c.       Unpicking the commitment to environmental transportation

4.       How can we best work together

5.       Labour Environment Campaign (SERA)

Each element will involve a short introduction then be open for general discussion.

There will be a chance to discuss the role and potential of a local SERA branch at the end of the meeting.