Published 4th July, 1996; with a postcript issued on 10th July cos the sections on Education in the City & the opt-out of Trinity School were not accurate enough. Mapperley division issues Unemployment
The May figures are 643, 13.7%, 19th highest District ward in the County; down a bit.
Cases - 39 in 1996; 45 by the 10th. Local Government re-organisation
Decision imminent
The Parliamentary Orders for a unitary City Council have now been placed and are expected to be passed within days.
Because the new authority does not cover the conurbation, I believe this change will increase social segregation in Nottingham and encourage doughnut development.
the costs of change
It will also cost a great deal of money and the Govt. will not be paying.
To persuade the Govt. of the case for change, many prospective unitary authorities understated the costs. (First signs from Cleveland are that the costs of re-organisation are even worse than the Counties predicted - and they used figures to show why they should survive!)
Unison strike
I think the fear of job losses from re-organisation has strengthened Unison members' resolve to strike over the City's revised redundancy scheme.
Generally, it's thought that the terms of the City's proposed scheme is still much better that the County's.
And yet the proposed change has provoked a one-day strike.
Mandates
All I'd say is that I hope the City Council's way of deriding the strike mandate (only 15%!) doesn't catch on.
My own union can frequently struggle to claim 55% representation in certain areas; and ballots for strike action do not always get high turnouts.
I was elected to the County Council with the support of only 18% of electorate; allowing for those not registered, II probably only had the support of 15% of adults living in the ward.Iˇ
And I was recently selected to stand for the Unitary Council at a meeting where again only 15% of the branch members attended.
However, should you believe I should take a principled position, I am willing to plan for winning 3,800 votes next May instead of 1,487 (required - a 71% share of a 71% turnout).
Losing control of education
The number of children from the City at private, GM and CTC schools is now approaching 10%. At that threshold, the new City Council would lose control of the budget to the Govt's School Funding Agency.
Panic not. A Labour Gov't should be elected well before April 1998.
Three year terms
The surprise is that the first two terms of the new Council will be for three years only.
(Suspicions are that this will provide the opportunity to reduce the number of Councillors from 55 to 37 more quickly.)
Local Government review (10th July)
The Parliamentary Orders approving a new Unitary City Council were passed on Thursday, 4th July.
Term of office
My term as County Councillor has now been extended for a further 11 months; to finish 31st March, 1998.
Derby City
Derby City have announced that re-organisation is to cost £4m and the Gov't will only give credit approval for £2.5m.
Losing control of education - Trinity School (10th July)
The school opted out at very short notice following the leadership of Ted Hickey, former Deputy Leader for Tory City Councillors.
County Officers worked hard to ensure that the reasons for staying in the LEA were set out for parents, but the school frustrated their efforts.
LEA literature to be distributed through pupils did not go out early enough and voting had started before the advertised LEA meeting was held.
Appeal
The LEA complained, but this was never going to be enough. IHowever, enough parents have now appealed against the manner of the ballot for the Secretary of State to acknowledge that some form of investigation is required.Iˇ
Result expected to stand
Given the Tories' enthusiasm for GM (especially in Notts. which has fought so successfully against GM), the Secretary of State is likely to use the large majority in the vote for opt-out to stand.
10% threshold is broken
This confirmation would mean that about 13% of pupils in secondary schools in Nott'm will be in G.M. schools. [The 10% threshold only applies to G.M. and LEA schools.]
This means that that the Secretary of State can lay Parliamentary orders so that the new LEA would lose total independence to decide strategy to match places with pupils.
There would be a joint responsibility between the Govt's School funding Agency and the LEA to ensure there are enough school places; and the Govt's School Funding Agency would have powers (such as) to -
create a new GM school;
change the character of a GM school, or increase it size.
Not so bad
This is not quite such the problem it might seem because secondary schools in Nottingham have surplus places (though the numbers the Tories use are exaggerated), so new development is unlikely.
Further, the new LEA won't be created until April 1st, 1998. This is well after the next General Election, and Labour is committed to bringing GM schools within the LEA.
However, some interpret the new powers to be more significant and schools may react to the Funding Agency being involved in decisions about City schools.
Nottinghamshire County issues
Education Cttee.
called for the dismissal of Chris Woodhead, the Govt's Chief Inspector;
called for the scrapping of the nursery vouchers scheme;
approved a new scheme to help children with emotional and behavioural difficulties;
condemned Gov't plans for league tables for primary schools;
approved plans to retain school milk for 5-7 year olds.
Bid for Transport Schemes
The County Council is seeking Gov't money for a range of schemes for next year. The bid is collated in a document titled "Transport Policies and Programme".
NET Line One
Top of the list is the tram.
The plans look swish, though the predicted passenger figures have been re-checked in the light of the poor performance of the Sheffield tram.
Bus stops
One problem is that bus stops may be removed from the Old Market Square to accommodate the trams. Combine this with possible City Council plans to pedestrianise Long Row Central, and the convenience of the bus could take a serious knock.
GNARDS blow
Current projections are that the running costs of a suburban rail network are set to double with rail privatisation.
The bid to develop GNARDS has therefore been postponed for a year.
Sherwood Shopping Centre
Officers hope to change traffic flows such that queues build up outside the shopping centre instead of within it, so as to improve the environment for shoppers.
A new control for the traffic lights at Winchester St. junction could also give flexibility, allowing pedestrians to receive higher priority during shopping hours.
New bus lanes beyond the shopping centre are proposed (starting next year), to make buses even faster in and out of town.
There are also plans for cycle paths linking Mapperley to Radford, St.Anns and Carlton.
Aspiration
The schemes represents our aspiration - now we have to win the money from Gov't.
Traffic Calming
The next eight calming schemes are documented in the bid (Sherwood Vale is still around 16th) to demonstrate our ambition, although money for these smaller schemes is not paid for by Gov't directly.
We're out of money for schemes like these which is a shame because calming schemes are saving lives and saving money.
In the past five years, £4m of measures have seen 863 fewer accidents, a saving of £35m (based on Dept. of Transport figures).
The Wells Road has seen the biggest fall - from 26 accidents a year to 8.
Govt. Green paper
The Govt's response to the environment concerns expressed in last year's Royal Commission on pollution is woeful - devolve some decisions on trunk roads to Government Regional Offices; and explore road pricing schemes.
The County opposes road pricing, because it favours the better off and is likely to cause traffic to seek rat runs to avoid tolls.
I personally doubt whether the schemes will work and believe we should not be investing public money in a complicated tax collection scheme.
In fact, Govt. (of any colour) should stick to the current policy of annually increasing petrol tax; even to the extent of replacing the road tax and committing the DVLC centre in Swansea to tracking the service history of cars (to improve safety and consumer rights, and to tackle car crime).
No doubt, this isn't in Labour's new draft manifesto ("The Road to the Manifesto").
"New Labour, new danger"
To coincide with the manifesto's launch, the Tories have called new Labour dangerous. Oh yes.
Euro '96
I have placed a question for tomorrow's County Council meeting.
The tournament was so successful - primarily because of the football supporters at the matches - that people who didn't watch it have now been labelled conscientious objectors. new Labour new Life for Britain (10th July) Five promises from new Labour -
we will cut class sizes to 30 or under for 5, 6 and 7 year olds
by using money saved from the assisted places scheme;
we will introduce a fast track punishment scheme for persistent young offenders
by halving the time from arrest to sentencing;
we will cut NHS waiting lists by treating an extra 100,000 patients
as a first step by releasing £100m saved from NHS red tape;
we will get 250,000 under-25 years-olds off benefit and into work
by using money from a windfall levy on the privatised utilities;
we will set tough rules for government spending and borrowing and ensure low inflation
and strengthen the economy so that interest rates are as low as possible to make all families better off.