The City Council will tonight (20 January) debate and decide its precept for the next financial year.

14% has been recommended by the Policy & Resources Committee; by the casting vote of the Chairman.

A massive increase, when wages have been frozen, utility bills are rising and the Trussell Trust are at bursting point, giving out food boxes to the needy in our City. Our own residents are having to make tough decisions; some whether to ‘eat or heat’ and making cut backs of their own.

Hasn’t the time come for councils to live within their means? No-one who I have spoken to in Harnham wants council tax in rise. Residents just don’t have any spare cash to throw at a local authority.

I have been fighting for 0% in the debate and will listen to the debate this evening. I am aware that the Tory group are going to make amendments and have heard that it may be a higher increase, but this is not confirmed. Anything above (a maximum) £5 a year increase will be unacceptable.

To see the agenda and papers, please click here.

Wiltshire Council have just announced that due to the amount of objections received about increasing the speed limit to 40mph, the limit will remain at 30mph. Well done to the residents that sent in objections! The Council has listened in this instance to local people.

Please click here to see the report and click here to see the decision details, which are at the bottom of the page.

Following the farce of last week’s Wiltshire Council meeting, 38 Degrees have submitted an online petition, which can be accessed here.

The meeting discussed member’s allowances. The Conservative administration forced through a near 37% increase in allowance to the leader and 22% for members of the cabinet, whilst making staff redundant, the rest of us having to make cut backs and public sector workers getting just a 1% increase.

There were a series of amendments raised at the meeting, which the Conservatives rejected. All the votes were recorded, so you can see which councillor voted for what, when the Council finally publishes the Minutes. I have to say that Conservative councillors don’t like recorded votes!

I did not support the huge hike in allowances. My opinion was to support a 1% increase, as all public sector workers, or a freeze. Both amendments were threw out by Conservative councillors.

Some City councillors are talking of raising the City precept from £90 a year to £115 – a 28% increase, to fund some ‘grandiose’ schemes. I will NOT support raising council tax to this level in this current climate.

The City council must make efficiencies, just like everyone else has had to do. With rising utility costs and wage freezes, people just don’t have any spare cash to throw at any extravagent council. If this means cutting unnecessary things, then so be it.

The council is about to spend £800,000 on a new roof for the Guildhall, just three years after a £1.2million refurbishment. As a City dweller, you will be paying for this for years to come! The Guildhall, after any income, runs at about a £108,000 deficit a year. This is paid for only by council tax payers within the City.

Ask your councillor if they support raising the council tax to this level. They’ll have to justify their position if they say ‘yes’.

For information: Wiltshire council is likely to freeze their share of the tax in 2014.

Resurfacing works to Norfolk Rd and Essex Square will commence on November 28th and will take about six days to complete.

Residents will be alerted by letter from Wiltshire council about the resurfacing, and all vehicles will have to be moved during the works.

The crossing point on the corner of Norfolk Rd, will be moved away from the corner, at the request of local residents. This will make it much safer.

There will be a second phase, which will cover Sussex Rd.

I will be pushing for:

• Ravenscroft and
• Old Blandford Rd

to be resurfaced as a priority.

More details will follow.

The ever popular Food & Drink Festival takes place at the weekend.

For details of the 8th September event click here. For the list of Real Ales on the day, click here.

For the great Food offers around the City for the week, click here.

Enjoy!

Two of Harnham’s worst roads will be re-surfaced in this financial year. After constant nagging to officers, the highways department has relented and will finally do something with these two roads.

Watch this space for more information!

Thank you for the fantastic election result. I will do my best to serve all residents for the next four years and always put Harnham first.

To see the Wiltshire Council result click here.

For the City (parish) Council result click here.

Many residents in Hollows Close have contacted me recently about parking at school times. Those that contacted me would like a permit scheme, as in Saxon Rd.

We formed a ‘residents committee’ and have had several meetings, two of which were attended by our local police. We suggested that Folkestone Rd should be included, if residents there wanted to be included in the scheme. I then canvassed Folkestone Rd to gauge their views.

I asked the Fire Brigade their thoughts and they sent a Fire Engine up Hollows Close three times in one day: morning, afternoon and evening. Only the afternoon caused them problems, when their Tender got stuck and was wedged between two double parked cars.

On Saturday 9th March, 10 residents and me, canvassed all Hollows Close to gauge support for such a scheme. We then fully canvassed Folkestone Rd for a second time.

Results are still being analysed, but two residents in Folkestone Rd and six residents in Hollows Close were not in favour of a permit scheme. At the moment there is overwhelming support for such a scheme to be introduced.

We will be calling another committee meeting after Easter. If you have any comments, please let me know.

A plan consisting of single and double yellow lines for Parsonage Green has been approved by residents fronting the proposal. I visited all residents here and explained the proposal, which received 100% backing.

This section of the road gets clogged every school day and often results in the r5 bus getting stuck.

The plan can be seen here Parsonage Green Scheme FINAL

The scheme will be advertised soon and has the backing of Wilts & Dorset.

There will still be ample parking here for the school drop off, but the proposal will stop the double parking which is causing an obstruction to buses, a danger to children and nuisance to residents.