10/03/2010 by Steve Barclay.

The Labour Government’s top down approach to planning risks serious traffic problems in Whittlesey.  A plan has just been submitted for 460 homes on Feldale fields as you come into Whittlesey from Eastrea.  We need significant improvements to the transport infastruture of Whittlesey before another major housing development is considered. 

This proposed scheme would mean up to a thousand extra cars, most of which will travel into Peterborough along the A605.  This road is already congested at peak times.  Some cars will also travel onto Drybread Road and past the Alderman Jacobs school. Few trains stop at Whittlesea station with most passing straight through, and Network Rail has no plans to extend the platform and encourage more trains to stop locally.

Whittlesey also has issues with flooding, and such a major development will put further pressure even without the potentially added risks we hear about from climate scientists.

Cllr Martin Curtis is leading the fight against this development, and has set up a facebook site to gather local views.  If you agree that this planning development would be bad news for Whittlesey, please add your support at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=384643594767

Posted in Labour Failure, Whittlesey | No Comments »

08/03/2010 by Steve Barclay.

On the 25th September I blogged that the Labour Government would sign a number of contracts at the 11th hour, which would prove to be poor value.  “I suspect we will see a surge in last minute Government contracts being signed early next year before the General Election”.  So it is little surprise to hear today their announcement of £11 billion of new IT contracts.  As David Blackburn writes in the Spectator online:

“An £11bn bender is irresponsible in this climate, plus Labour has a baleful record on IT contracts. It has bungled a staggering £26bn on flawed IT systems, many of which were introduced without pilot schemes. Ever the optimist, I’d hoped the government might become responsible; yet again I’ve been mugged by the reality of Brown. Rushing implementation is a concern. These latest programmes are for the most part extensions of the failed NHS and MoD super-computer systems; will they be any more effective than their predecessors?

But this episode speaks more of the government’s mindset. Whatever the question, Brown’s answer is to throw good money after bad. It is scarcely credible that he can reduce the deficit within four years.

After years of wasteful spending (which Labour spin calls prudent investment), Gordon Brown cannot give up his addiction to spending our cash. Do you believe rushed contracts on IT systems, most of which have a disastrous track record, are going to be a good way of spending money we do not have (paid for with extra borrowing?).  For those who say they will not bother to vote, or indulge in a protest vote, are you happy to go on like this for another five years with Gordon Brown wasting our cash?

Posted in Labour Failure | No Comments »

03/03/2010 by Steve Barclay.

Not a joke, but an example of how your money is wasted by some trade unions.  The answer depends on which part of the country you are in.  In some areas, the RMT have restrictive trade union practices which mean a fixed gang of four people must respond to any job.  So even if very minor work involving one person is required, a fixed gang of four people still have to be sent.  Elsewhere flexible work gangs are permitted.  So two people can be sent to minor jobs, one to do the work and one to act as a train look out for safety.

Likewise trade union restrictions means that Network Rail must have stand-by emergency crews at Kings Cross station and also at Euston, even though they are less than one mile apart.  It would make more sense to have emergency crews located where they could respond most quickly to problems.  These were just two of the issues highlighted at a meeting this morning with Iain Coucher, Chief Executive of Network Rail.  I was also struck at how little incentive there is for Network Rail to get more freight on the railways - they receive just £48 million in revenue from freight against £3.6 billion revenue from passengers.

An issue we discussed was Network Rail’s plans for rural lines, including how people now commute further by train.  In the 1990s, the majority of commuters were not prepared to commute more than 45 minutes by train, when adding on the rest of their journey at either end.  Now that train element of the journey has increased up to 1 hour 15 minutes, after which there is a significant drop off in commuters.  This is not a surprise, as the increased number of travellers from Littleport, Manea and those driving from the constituency to King’s Lynn or Peterborough highlights the willingness now to commute further.

It was positive to hear of Network Rail’s plans for Peterborough and Cambridge, but also frustrating that the focus seems to be almost exclusively on city to city journeys with little investment in rural areas where significant house building has taken place.  Whilst Network Rail have access to cheap capital, rural lines take time to pay and so there is little short term incentive for them to open up more rural lines.  Cambridgeshire is the fastest growing county, and it is telling that Network Rail have no plans to spend any money in North East Cambridgeshire at all.  I raised the issue of extending Whittlesea station, and connecting Wisbech and Chatteris, and Iain Councher’s team kindly agreed to follow this up.  Improvements to the journey from Cambridge and Peterborough will help locally, but we need to be able to get to these stations in the first place.

Overall it was a interesting and positive meeting, and hopefully the start of a constructive dialogue on how we improve train transport to and from the constituency.

Posted in Road & Rail | No Comments »

03/03/2010 by Steve Barclay.

I met up with Amanda McLean this week who is the Chief Executive of Prostate UK, to add my support to prostate cancer awareness month. It was a chance to learn more about the prevalence of prostate disease in North East Cambridgeshire, and to try and raise awareness of what men can do to be aware of their own prostate health.

Around 31,800 men in the Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust area are likely to suffer from what is technically known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (a non cancerous enlargement of the prostate), with 23 men in every 100,000 suffering fatally from prostate cancer. Whilst many of those diagnosed with prostate cancer recover, we should not lose sight of the fact that nationally prostate cancer kills one man every hour in Britain. Early detection vastly improves the chances of successful treatment so education of the public and of healthcare professionals is vital.

I was surprised to learn from Amanda that one in two men will suffer from a prostate disease at some stage in their lives. Given that I am one of three brothers, such figures hit home. To find out more about the simple steps you can take to help prevent this, please visit their website at http://www.prostateuk.org/

Posted in Cancer Research | No Comments »

02/03/2010 by Steve Barclay.

The examples of government waste just keep coming.  I thought I would share with you one from today’s press.   45 years ago, there were just 18 government economists. Today the civil service has nearly 1,600 economists. Are we so much better governed for this increase?

Economists cannot agree on the key decision facing the country - when to start tackling the deficit with cuts. Some recently wrote in the Sunday Times in support of the Conservatives approach of tackling our massive debt sooner than the Government plans.  Others backed Labour’s plans to wait another year.

What we do not need to wait to know is that it now costs more for the British government to borrow than Italy.  We are paying almost an extra 1% to borrow compared to Germany.  The markets are already speaking - will the voters act or wait until we are forced to do so like Greece?

Posted in National Deficit | No Comments »

01/03/2010 by Steve Barclay.

I had a meeting with David Cameron this week-end at the Conservative Party Spring Conference to put the case for the new campus for the College of West Anglia. 

It was an opportunity to build on the positive announcement last week by Fenland District Council Leader Alan Melton that £1.5 million would be made available to try and resurrect the campus, after Labour cuts last year scrapped it just a month before building work was due to begin.

Cynically, the current Government gave the go ahead to just 13 colleges nationwide, with all 13 being located within Labour constituencies.

Whilst David Cameron was never going to be in a position to comment on the specific plans locally, he recognised the importance of the College as a catalyst for growth and in driving better socially mobility here in North Cambridgeshire and was supportive of what we are trying to do.  It is good to have his engagement on this, and a useful discussion which I can now follow up with our education team.

Posted in College, Fenland District Council, David Cameron | No Comments »

28/02/2010 by Steve Barclay.

A treat to look forward to is the arrival at Ely Cathedral in Feb 2012 of the award winning Quaker Tapestry collection, which I had a sneak preview of today.  In Brighton for the Conservative Spring Conference, I discoved the exhibition by chance and popped in to see it at the Quaker Meeting Hall where part of the collection is on temporary display.  It is stunning and thought provoking.

Tapestry tutor Bridget Guest kindly gave me an insight into the collection, and in particular explained two key panels which stood out for me (pictured), one of the anti-slavery movement and the other on banking.

Quakers played a leading part in the movement challenging slavery, led nationally by Thomas Clarkson of Wisbech and supported by Conservative MP William Wilberforce.  There was also a timely tapestry panel on the need for honesty in banking, which current bank chiefs could do to take note of.  Wisbech and Peckover House sit at the heart of Quaker history on banking, and the panel even has the Barclays bank eagle on it.

In total there are 77 panels, which took around 15 years to produce involving 4,000 men, women and children in 15 countries.  More details about the 77 tapestry panels can be found at: www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk

Steve Barclay is pictured with Bridget Guest

Looking at the award winning Quaker Tapestry which is heading to Ely Cathedral in 2012

Posted in Ely | No Comments »

27/02/2010 by Steve Barclay.

Our internal drainage boads sit at the heart of protecting land in the Fens from flooding, with some of the land below sea level.  They are effective, practical, and have stood the test of time.  Their future has been called into question, but we mess with a tried and tested system at our peril.  Much of the work is now done on a volunteer basis by local farmers who benefit in return by keeping their farm land free of flooding.

Today was a chance to get out on the ground and see the internal drainage boards first hand, and chat with local farmer and the chairman of one such board Marc Hedding.  Marc very kindly took time out to brief me on the work undertaken, budgets involved, and key issues.  It is important that we do not take our eye off the ball on flooding, and today helped build on earlier discussions I have held with the Middle Level Commission, and other visits such as to the new pumping station St Germains which will be the second largest in Europe.  This issue also came up in questions at the NFU dinner at the Plate and Porter in March on Wednesday, where I was the guest speaker.  Next month I have a visit planned with Whittlesey farmer and businessman Ralph Potts to see the work of the internal drainage boards there.

Earlier in the day I visited Fenmarc, a thriving multi-million pound business group which has expanding from its initial focus on food packaging into hotels, IT systems, and renewable energy.  A highly impressive management team, with exciting plans for the future.  This includes their advanced food anaerobic digestion (AD) plant which is expected to produce electricity and heat from potato and other food waste which currently goes to expensive landfill.  Councils have a target of reducing landfill by 50% by 2013, and this plant will help significantly. It will also provide high quality soil conditioner, a dozen new jobs and electicity for 1,500 homes.  AD is a proven technology, with hundreds of such plants already up and running in Germany.  It says much for the gap between Labour’s rhetoric and delivery on climate change and green issues that we have less than 5 such plants in the whole of the UK.

A number of general business themes were also clear from businesses today, in common with others visited recently.  Despite the recession, certain industries such as those in the environmental sector have scope to expand, but transport infastruture needs improving.  Attracting locally educated graduates and apprecenticeships is a challenge.  Government grants are bureacratic and often poorly focussed, for example taking too long to complete or failing to provide the long term commitments sought by banks.  With collective will, these are issues we can tackle. 

A small observation from today is how much grade A fertile agricultural land in Cambridgeshire is being taken out of production and used for environmental schemes, and how much money is being spent on this.  A balance needs to be struck between environmental work and preserving food security.  It will be interesting how discussions on the Common Agriculture Policy develop, especially as the CAP budget is forcast to be cut in 2013 from 53 billion euros to 35 billion, and the pressure from Eastern European countries who will seek a higher share than in their first years after joining the EU.  The UK needs to be doing more to shape this debate.

The photos show a typical internal drainage board water pumping operation, in this case ensuring water goes out into the Ouse, which helps prevent flooding.  Unlike large parts of the West country, North East Cambridgeshire did not support any serious flooding last year.

Posted in Flooding | No Comments »

25/02/2010 by Steve Barclay.

When the Conservatives proposed a freeze in the television licence fee, it was met with strong BBC protests that this would mean cuts to front line programmes.  So it is interesting to read today’s National Audit Office report.

The BBC have spent £1.6 million on a new statue by a Canadian artist, and a further £900,000 on another piece by a Spanish artist. Last time I was in the Cambs Times office, they seemed to manage to report the news well without such artist works.  Perhaps Mr Elworthy should be asking head office to splash out on expensive art as a key job requirement to brighten up his cigarette break?!

The report also reveals that the refurbishment of Broadcasting House is four years behind schedule and £55 million over budget. It will not be competed now until April 2013, costing £1,050,000,000. Likewise the refurbishment of their Scotish HQ is £62 million over budget, at a cost of £188,000,000.   Something to ponder when next paying your licence fee or watching a repeat on tv.

Posted in BBC | No Comments »

24/02/2010 by Steve Barclay.

Many of the play facilities for young children in North East Cambridgeshire are not up to scratch.  We need a step change in the approach to get this sorted out.

Visiting other areas, I have been struck by how much their play facilities have moved on from when I was younger.  Frankly, despite a few exceptions locally, most of our facilities need significant improvement.

I am not alone in this view.  Leverington is desperately in need of support to put in place better facilities and a group has been working on this, and other places like Little Downham and March need better facilities too.  I have discussed this in detail in recent weeks with Cllr Alan Melton as Leader of Fenland District Council, and am delighted by the interest and positive response he has shown. 

I hope the budget that the council is working on will take this on board and drive forward the step change we need.  Funding in particular needs to be made available for facilities in villages, as children cannot always access the nearest town.

By way of contrast, the enclosed photos show the play facilities available elsewhere.  It sets a standard we should be aiming for here. 

Posted in Play Facilities, Fenland District Council | No Comments »