St Neots News and Crier - 04/03/2010 digital edition

St Neots News and Crier - 04/03/2010 digital edition

Where is the justice - The problem in relying on one report is others can give different information. Alan Hart quotes from a short report in The Metro about a girl called Anna Hibben. In his letter he asserts the following:

She was travelling about 70 mph

She fled the scene

According to The Daily Telegraph the 70mph was in fact 57mph to 63 mph. This was bang on the speed limit. Nowhere was it reported Anna Hibben fled the scene. I don't know where this came from?

Neither of Alan Harts' assertions are true.

Anna Hibben was driving her boyfriend's car with her boyfriend sitting next to her. There is culpability on the boyfriends part for allowing an uninsured learner driver to get behind the wheel of his car. Another difference is Anna Hibben pleaded guilty to death by careless driving whilst Katie Hart was convicted at a trial of death by dangerous driving. This is the trouble with trying to compare one conviction with another.

I believe Anna Hibben should have gone to jail as I believe all people who are convicted of killing others should.

Lets debate council staff - Paul Dakers is writing lots in the local papers about HDC. The one thing that is missing is the recognition of the deficit being run by HDC.

Paul Dakers is still a Conservative Councillor says HCCA

According to the Huntingdon Constituency Conservative Association website the Paul Dakers is still listed as the Conservative member for Fenstanton. Not only did Dakers resign his seat in early December 2009, but a by-election has been fought with the Liberal Democrats winning a week ago.

If the Conservatives can't even get their act together over this I expect a pretty bad campaign for them in the run up to 6th May 2010.

Letters in the News and Crier 27/01/10

Rather than doing a separate piece on each letter so I thought I would lump all I want to comment on into one article. Link to the ever excellent News and Crier.

Outrage at candidate's 'offensive remarks' - This blog started this story and the News and Crier picked this up. Bill Sinclair is right. Though whether this is slanderous is a moot point. James Clark should read the original article before firing off a letter.

Community should pay - Malcolm McColl is right to say Tesco should be asked for a contribution. The church pays the rest. As for Helen Cochrane's letter, I will repeat that it if the church wants this car park then the Church should pay. Has it got to be that everytime something is used by "the community" the taxpayer must then pick up the bill? I don't think so. Will Helen support all churches which have or want a car park get these paid for and maintained by the taxpayer? It is very easy to call for taxpayers to pick up the bill because there is no direct relationship. But one of the consequences doing something for the 'community' is in next letter.

Anger at £270k hole - St Ives Town Council is run by Independent Councillors. I think that is worth saying. The trouble is the Corn Exchange. These Independent Councillors were elected to stop the building being sold and set about refurbishing it for the 'community'. When Councils do things for the 'community' it cost money and Council tax goes up.
In answer to the letter, Parish and Town Councils are NOT included in the capping arrangements. In theory they could tax us more and more. My worry is that HDC, with all its financial problems, will look at what a Town/Parish can do and try to shift services and costs to the Towns and Parishes. This is what HDC did with the Public Conveniences.

Did they want a lap dog - A much better letter from Paul Dakers than the one printed in the Hunts Post. I can understand the frustration with the political process when you are at the bottom. The political parties/councillors/councils build up their respective roles. The reality is what Councils can do is restricted by law and many major decisions are taken by Government.
 The trouble with Cllr Monk is he is a political tramp. Started with the Conservatives, went Independent and has ended up in UKIP.  Probably not the end of his journey.

Fewer jobless than in 1992 - Labour Parliamentary candidate is again in the papers. This time with an outright political letter. What Anthea doesn't mention is the Government is likely to borrow in this current financial year at total of £180,000,000,000. That is scary! 

Letters in the Hunts Post 27/01/10

Rather than doing a separate piece on each letter so I thought I would lump all I want to comment on into one article. Link to Hunts Post.

It's time to make a stand - If all these people are using the church, why does the taxpayer have to pick up the bill for a church car park? Something that I feel the letter writer Mrs K Robertson missed.

Web of intrigue - Cllr Andy Monk's letter shows a fundamental misunderstanding of local government. In it he looks at trying to have a go at the Conservative run HDC over spending money on a new website. The Editor's note is good but doesn't go far enough.  When Monk says:

"Could not the extra money spent developing this site have been better used ensuring more roads in the district were gritted, or helping the elderly and others whose needs were great keep warm during this extended cold snap."

The simple answer is NO. As a UKIP District Councillor you should be able to come up with specific costed alternative proposals. But you didn't. This is just a very poor political attack against his former colleagues. Maybe the UKIP group leader should forego the extra £723 he gets for being a minor leader?

No change - Cllr Peter Bucknell has a go at Cllr Monk about becoming a UKIP Councillor. Whilst this wouldn't cost much money as there is an election in 2010 in Ramsey anyway, I have to say Cllr Monk was elected by the people of Ramsey and he is not bound to do so by political convention. Otherwise all those Councillors who defect from other parties to the Conservatives in other parts of the country would have to do the same.

Air of resignation - Paul Dakers has a go at his former colleagues over their response to his resignation. Well DUH! Politics moves on. You have resigned. That is it. I feel your resignation has embarrassed the Conservatives and HDC so they ain't going to send you letters of sympathy.

The trouble with letters to the weekly press is they can be out of date when printed. This is the case. As I reported in an article on this blog dated 21st January 2010 a by-election has been called in Fenstanton.
Obviously the Hunts Post is behind the times.

Whilst HDC has gotten round to editing Dakers out of its website the same can't be said for the Conservatives. As found on the HCCA website today!

Council Tax reduction is a ploy - Cllr Bird reiterates her problems with the Town Council budget for not having enough contingencies. But no proposals on how much these contingencies should be! I agree with Cllr Bird the newly annexed residents are paying for this cut in Council Tax. As for the ECC estimates, I do have a degree of agreement. But the budget is ONE BIG ESTIMATE. Full of small estimates.

Again, Cllr Bird blames the Liberal Democrats for closing the public loos when it is the Conservative run HDC that decided to do this. This is a dreadful misrepresentation.

As for Rodney Bird (her husband) weighing in accusing Hunts Post of being pro Liberal Democrats I feel this is wrong. I feel the Hunts Post is pro Djanogly/pro Conservative newspaper. That is probably why the Hunts Post publishes Cllr Bird's dreadful letter.

Fenstanton Ward HDC by-election 25th February 2010

A by-election is being held for the Fenstanton Ward following the resignation of Mr P Dakers. Nominations close at 12 noon on 29th January 2010. At the last election in 2007 this ward was a Conservative/Liberal Democrat marginal. Even if UKIP don't put up a candidate this could be a good indication of local political feelings towards the national parties. If UKIP do get a candidate up and run a good campaign this would make the result very interesting.

A 2,439 electorate is smaller than most of the wards. Looking at the map of the ward it is a fairly compact ward and should be easy for any party to campaign in.

The reason why this could be very interesting is the result could be a good indication of how the electorate feels about Jonathan Djanogly MP and the Conservative run HDC. 

Is HDC embarrassed by Dakers resignation?

As reported earlier in this blog, Paul Harrison DAKERS resigned as a Conservative Councillor from HDC. Now I would have thought HDC would be informing Fenstanton and Huntingdonshire residents of this resignation. Rather tan informing residents, HDC has taken a different approach of just deleting Dakers from their website.

On the website there is no statement about the resignation or any alternative arrangements for representation as Fenstanton is a single member ward. In my view this only adds weight to Dakers contention that HDC is run by Officers rather than by Councillors.

So having dropped Dakers from their website, HDC cannot go one step further and change the number of Conservative Councillors from 37 to 36. (see picture - left). This of course could be more of a cock-up rather than a deliberate act. The website still has Christopher Beazley as an MEP! He stood down way back in June 2009.

It seems to me that HDC is more interested in governing rather than democracy.