Derbyshire - no place for the young?

I've just come back from a protest march and a County Council consultation meeting in Chesterfield regarding its proposed closure of all its youth centres.

Unlike those who are making these decisions, it’s not our children who caused the recession; however not having a vote has made their services a soft target. With youth unemployment across Europe at an all-time high, tuition fees tripling and the EMA gone it’s no longer good to be young.

Those making these decisions say there’s no choice. If we are “all in this together”  a fairer way would be for those individuals and large businesses who can afford it to give a little more back to the people who generated their wealth in the first place. The truth is there is always a choice; it depends on where your priorities are.

Cutting youth services may save a little money in the short-term but in the longer term it is economically as well as socially, disastrous. If the County Council didn’t know this before the meeting started they certainly should do now. If, as they say, they are listening and haven’t made any decisions yet they had better start working on a different plan.

If you have the time, please complete the on-line survey available here: www.derbyshire.gov.uk/youthservice2012

Many thanks

Council housing - what's going on in Bolsover?

It comes to something when we have to rely upon the Government to tell us things that Bolsover won’t but there’s something rather strange about how the Council manages its housing. There’s a Council meeting at 10am on Wednesday the 25^th of January and here’s a couple of questions I’ll be asking the portfolio-holder for housing management:

1.       According to the data provided by Bolsover to the DCLG (Department of Community and Local Government) the number of vacant council properties in Bolsover over the past few years was as follows:

2008 : 10

2009 : 40

2010 : 106

2011 : 128

With average rents of over £63 this dramatic deterioration in performance has lost the authority over £350,000 in the last year alone.

During the same period there has been a national improvement of nearly 25% in reducing voids so can he account for Bolsover’s problems?

2.       According to the data provided by Bolsover to the DCLG the number of applicants on the Council’s housing register dropped from 3,299 in 2010 to 1,180 in 2011 meaning that nearly two in three applicants have been removed from the register.

As a result Bolsover now has not only the shortest list in the County but also the smallest percentage of households in its District on the register. Going right back to 1997, when DCLG records begin, Bolsover has never had so few people on its housing register. It is all the more remarkable that it has occurred when the national trend has seen another increase in households registering.

Can he explain what traumatic event in 2011 occasioned this outcome in Bolsover and what measures has he put in place to ensure that no-one in genuine housing need has been removed from the register?

 
I’ll let you know what reply I get.

Better News for 2012?

Some good and some not so good news from the last meeting of Bolsover Council in 2011. The good news first:

A presentation was given on the Council’s excellent apprenticeship scheme, which as the Leader pointed out, is particularly impressive because it last for 18 months and offers placement to people who do not have many, or indeed any, qualifications, a particular issue in Bolsover.

Second piece of good news was the Council’s decision to continue to investigate the installation of photo-voltaic cells on the Council’s housing stock even though the reduction in the feed-in tariffs reduces the financial returns. Credit to Bolsover for persisting when other Councils have pulled the plug. Yes it would have been even better if the Council had moved earlier but I blame the Government not Bolsover for this. Their U-turn leaves the claim of being the “greenest government ever” in tatters and threatens to destory our solar industry which includes companies employing people here in Bolsover.

On the debit side the Council received a very bleak report from District Auditor. You can choose your own adjective to describe it and the circumstances that led to it: “critical, damning, a good hiding and abysmal” were all terms used at the meeting. Either way the Auditor told the Council that this was the worse audit letter she had written this year. Gloomy though it is it does at show that the Labour group are now starting to realise the severity of the situation and that is the first step on the road to improvement. You can call me an optimist but I think some Councillors now “get it” and with a new Director we should be able to take some steps towards recovering public confidence. The nagging voice is of course that the Council said all this last year and instead of getting better it got worse.