Is there an aim to make MPs and councillors pointless?

Rushcliffe sold its council housing to a housing association about 20 years ago (one of the many ways that Rushcliffe does as little as possible). Being a councillor has taught me that many housing associations (and other registered providers) are poor landlords, completely unaccountable and often run by well paid executives who don’t even have a long-term interest in the state of the properties. Rents in West Bridgford have gone through the roof, and we are now coming across residents who are being evicted by landlords who want to put up their rents. A few months ago, myself and an independent (Cllr Thomas) asked Rushcliffe to scrutinize its policy on social housing given that the council has a surplus in the capital account related to housing (partly left over from the original sale all those years ago).

Even Cllr Combellack (Tory, ex Mayor) agreed with us, saying something like ‘it was a mistake to get rid of our council housing’. The issue was discussed at the Communities Scrutiny meeting this week. The report was simply a statement of the status quo and although Liz Plant and Dora Polenta did get the officers to concede some points, the whole process seemed like a pointless waste of time. It was all very disappointing. Scrutiny at Notts County Council is not perfect but at least it results in resolutions, not just waffly discussions.

I was shocked to learn that the officers thought that one way they could spend their capital budget would be on paying developers for adaptions for disabled people: it seems strange transfer of public resources to the private sector (with adaptions potentially being ripped out in a few years time). As it is the council pays developers to build social housing which is then transferred to Registered Providers, some of which are profit making.

We need to now work out what we will do when we win the next election. Right to buy needs to be suspended or scrapped, but in the meantime it does not apply to specially adapted homes or those designed for older people, so these properties should be our initial aim. We need to speak to neighbouring authorities about possibly managing our housing in the first instance so we do not need to create a full housing office for what will initially only be a few homes.

Talking about scrutiny, the constitution at NottsCC has been fiddled with several times since the election 28 months ago and has now a complete dog’s breakfast. For instance, they have decreed that no motion can be discussed for more than an hour, that the meeting must finish at 5.30 pm, and so discussion should end at 5.15 pm. Speeches can be 5 minutes long but apparently (?) no one thought to limit the time a discussion could start. Guess what happened? The last motion was from the Tories – to ensure that all new schools had a drop off area of cars.  One of them started moving it at 5.04, another seconded it and then we were forced to go to a vote. We didn’t get to propose the amendment on including bus drop off and cycle facilities (amendments which we are now forced to table two days before the meeting). They were so short-sightedly certain that this was going to reduce traffic around schools that I could almost feel sorry for them- if they weren’t so smug. So it was passed. They photographed us when we abstained as our amendment would have made this into a somewhat sensible motion. I hope they send me the photo to use when their plan backfires.

Sticking with traffic, last weekend a group of us went out to visit residents in the Exchange Road area. There were a number of issues raised but the top one was that residents want 20 mph limits. This was a day after the PM had started his war against the supposed ‘war on motorists’. Sadly some residents didn’t really understand that the County is political and will react to the messages coming from Downing Street.

Over a year ago I got Notts CC to pass a motion resolving to put 20 mph limits in all residential areas. The Tories voted for the motion but now won’t enact it; they just want to do the easy thing at every opportunity. The irony is that in my experience most people want less traffic, less pollution and less speed. Those who don’t are very loud and aggressive. Of course the Tories keep lying, trying to get people riled up, cross and upset (spoiler alert: Labour doesn’t want 20 mph on motor ways, Labour doesn’t want to tell people when they can go to the shops). We need to find ways to manage this narrative, and make it clear at every opportunity that the current situation is worst for the poorest. (In any debate the Tories will suggest they are motivated by supporting in disadvantaged in the most convoluted and popularist way).

Next up in the war on transport is the loss of HS2. I am permanently infuriated by the transport infrastructure in the East Midlands. It takes longer to get the train to London now than it did 33 years ago, it takes longer to get the train to Birmingham than to drive, and the situation in Newark is an insult (the lines through Castle and Northgate stations cross about half a mile away from both stations (see picture- I’m a bit of a train track spotter!). I won’t pretend I was a fan of the original eastern leg for HS2 as I think trains should come to people not the other way around, so I preferred the more recent plan that had trains coming to Nottingham via EM parkway. However, HS2 was meant to take traffic off the mainlines as well as speed things up. Hunt had the gall to ask why it cost 10 times more to build infrastructure in the UK than France. Maybe because SNCF is publicly owned, they don’t waste endless money on so many legal agreements.

Either way, it is completely wrong that an unelected prime minister should abruptly back-track on a manifesto promise in such a final and vindictive way. They are going to sell off the land that has been carefully banked along the route over the last 10 years, and I suspect that expensive luxury flats will replace the cheap housing that has been (and is being!) torn down in the cities, for instance around Euston. This looks very much like a short-term plan to raise money to fund bungs to the voters before the next election.

There was some light relief in this sad story. Despite the fact that we were meant to benefit from HS2, Nottinghamshire only got a brief mention in the plans that the Tories proposed as an alternative to HS2, and this included the tram to Clifton South! This does beg the question.. what’s the point of Ben Bradley? He claims that being MP and leader of Notts CC allows him to raise local issues with the government. Given he is also their mayoral candidate you would have thought he might have been shown the plans for Nottinghamshire before they were published. Being, charitable maybe he doesn’t know where the tram goes- I expect he never gets it anyway.

Bradley made me very cross at the last County Council meeting. We were discussing a motion on funding school meals to the age of 11 when he suddenly brought up ULEZ, claiming that this was being used to pay for school meals in London (clearly it is costing London to pay for scrappage). It was particularly annoying as, he seemed to be condoning vandalism of street signs. I find Bradley particularly annoying as he knows how to be nice and charming, but he is prepared to do and say anything to further his own career. I actual prefer the old Tories who sometimes say awful things, but really believe them, and may have never been exposed to any other ideas. Bradley knows full well that he goes beyond the pale.

We do not want someone like Bradley representing our region.