Electors can inspect the accounts

Forget about Freedom of Information, the electors of St Neots (and all other Parish/Town Councils) have the right to inspect the Councils' books. How you can see the books is set out below in the official notice.

Looking at the Town Council website the gusto of the previous year has disappeared. Back to the old ways then!

Put St. Neots in the constituency name!

With constituency sizes looking to get larger across the country, our constituency is already about the right size. Expansion of St Neots could make the boundaries contract. Even if the constituency includes Huntingdon, St Ives and St Neots I feel we should campaign for a name change to the St Neots and Huntingdon Constituency.

Why do we need this campaign? The last thing our politicians will be thinking about is changing the constituency name. Time we did this to reflect the change in the balance of population. Unless the political parties and St Neots Town Council take up the cudgel and are ready for the start of the process, St Neots will be missing from the constituency name.

Car Park Protest Facebook site built on lies and untruths.

The Facebook site is run with a few of our Councillors on the admin team. Cllr Steve van de Kerkhove (District Councillor and Town Councillor) and Julia Hayward (Town Councillor and leader of the majority Liberal Democrats on SNTC).

Whilst I don't mind a good argument, this shouldn't be based on lie and untruths. Yet many of the lies and untruths go unchallenged by the administrators. Lies and untruths such as these:

The highest charge is £1.50 for 4 to 23 hours. Where the £5 comes from I have no idea.

By removing all our facilities - but HDC hasn't. Another lie!

The are a number of calls to send this e-mail from the savestneots.org.uk. Below is the e-mail that you are asked to send.

This e-mail is littered with inaccuracies, untruths and lies. By sending this e-mail it shows you agree with the lies. The same e-mail is sent from the scraphdc.org.uk website - another dubious website.

Our Councillors should know what is going on here. Yet they allow these lies, untruths and inaccuracies to go unchallenged on their Facebook site. They also allow links to these two site of doubtful repute, whilst saying they are NOT responsible for the content. In the end, they still allow links to these sites.

Mary Lee's comments must have been embarrassing to the admin councillors as the bus stop was not provided HDC. At least they informed her that she was wrong.

There are the rants. Here is one:

As ever the rant has less to with fact than just letting out anger. As the estimates say, the installation costs should be recovered within a year. No figures given by Nev Bear. Now calling the people in Pathfinder House tyrants is wrong. They are not tyrants. The real reason for these charges is the £4.7 million budget deficit as  HDC has not been charging the full amount of Council Tax it should do.

All in all this Facebook page is littered with lies, inaccuracies and untruths all seen as true by many of the contributors. What I find bad is Cllrs van de Kerkhove and Hayward, as administrators, aren't countering many of these falsehoods and allow linking to dubious websites. 


All this is a political pantomime. Deep cuts are coming and rather than talk about what should be cut, the Liberal Democrat opposition whines on about the imposition of a 20 pence rise. It seems it is easier to allow lies and untruths to be spread than it is to tell the truth.

As it says on the front of the book "Effective Opposition" - be wicked; - act shamelessly; - stir endlessly and EXAGGERATE.

Neighbourhood forums offer chance to contribute

The Hunts Post St Neots - 30/06/2010 digital edition

According to the headline the Neighbourhood Forums offer chance to contribute. The District Council is obviously embarrassed with the numbers. As I pointed out here only 48 members of the public turned up to the last set of meetings. To bulk up the numbers the members of the public have been added into the total number of attendees. So the actual number of members of the public is unknown. The change in minutes hides the fact these meetings are poorly attended.

The numbers attending each meeting were:

Huntingdon: 52

North West Hunts: 52

Ramsey: 70

St Ives: 44

St Neots: 36

This makes 254. An increase of 54 over the previous set of meetings. But I don't know whether this increase is due to more council employees or members of the public. HDC should publish this information. Even an increase of 54 still makes this a waste of money.

What could the be talked about? Neighbourhood Forums are the perfect opportunity for the District Council to talk to the residents about the forthcoming cuts. HDC says it wants to consult with residents. This is the perfect opportunity. Obviously, this is an opportunity that HDC wants to miss.

Who is in charge of the Town Council

The Hunts Post St Neots - 30/06/2010 digital edition

What is a community drop in centre and does St Neots really need one? The £10,000 gift to help kick-start, which is the vision of Town Mayor, Gordon Thorpe.

Cllr Barry Chapman said: "a clear plan with costings the town council was needed."

To me this is just throwing money at a project without the due diligence needed because the project needs to be "pushed ahead".

I would have thought the Town Council would have learned lessons from the 2 damning audit reports and the ECC.

But who is in charge at the Town Council? The Liberal Democrats having gotten rid of the "Leader". This has left a power vacuum which has been taken up by the Town Mayor. See why I feel he should resign.

Protest march over car park?

St Neots News and Crier - 01/07/2010 digital edition

A protest march over a imposition of a 20 pence an hour (free evenings and on Sundays) on a car park? Cllr Steve van de Kerkhove has also set a Facebook Group to "carry on this protest".

This is just plain silly.

Cllr Bates does make a few points. One I made before. If keeping the car park is so important why hasn't the Town Council stepped in? If the retailers are so worried why don't they take over the car park? The main reason why they won't is "free" car parks are expensive to run and neither wants the cost.

Cllr Bates also points out the costs are currently paid by the Council Taxpayer. I point out that it costs Fenland DC £410,000 to run their "free car parks". The HDC car parks subsidise the Council Tax.

My comments on letters about car parks

St Neots News and Crier - 01/07/2010

In this weeks page there is a page full of letters about car parking charges. These are my comments on most of the letters:

M and S Anderson-Brown - They ask 2 questions. How much is much are they expecting to make? Answer: £100,000 in 3 car parks. How much will be spent in St Neots for the benefit of its citizens? Answer: All of it!

Mrs Moore - Points out that a fund raising event raised £10,000. If the charges had been in force these charges would have had to pay to park. The answer is yes. Also, should charities have these facilities for free? I think not!

R. Wilson - Says "The people of St Neots voted for these people..." Err..we didn't. The whole of Huntingdonshire did.

Like many other people, we will go and shop elsewhere. Long travel times and higher car parking charges.

Gill Smith - Gill goes on about HDC kicking us all a bit harder in the wallet. Obviously what Gill doesn't understand is car parks cost money. The loss of any potential income will either be found in less services or higher council tax. As for all of a sudden the council needs our dosh why not before? Why now? Answer: HDC has always needed your money. It is running out of reserves which has been using to prop up the deficit budget.

M and S Bossom - As you live in Eaton Socon and you find 20 pence an hour expensive (£10.40 a year) why not walk into the Town Centre. I do from Eynesbury.

John M Ruff - Asks why the Fenland DC seems to get by without fleecing the motorist? Answer: Because they fleece the Council taxpayer instead. Car parks cost Fenlands HDC £410,000 whilst HDC has an income of £560,000.