It's got me thinking.

In the last week I have added my letter to a pile objecting to a new planning application in Fellows Rd. I have nothing against the design of the planned house, in fact in many ways I wish all new houses were built this way. It has many environmentally friendly aspects that I greatly admire and would one-day want to incorporate into my own home. The house in built mostly underground, with turf roofs, rainwater collection systems, solar panels and other such features. The thing that I do not like about it however, and this is the base for my letter, is it's site.

Once again I must push the point, this is not some foolish NIMBY'ism, that I like the design principles. The problem is: The design is for a single 5 bedroomed house behind shuttered gates. The area all around it's proposed site is multi-occupational buildings. Mostly built to house three or four homes in a building. Comfortable but not over large homes, living cheek by jowel with their neighbours. A development of this nature would be completely against the ethos of the area.

Following on from the article on the Swiss Cottage Market, this has had me thinking: "What do we want from our communities? How would we like our local areas to be? In the planned site, I would have no problem seeing some infill if it meant there was a little affordable housing for essential workers but of course developers don't want to build those homes. This type of development would greatly benefit the neighbourhood, where as a highly private super-house would, I feel, only detract from the area.

It won't be long until we have to face some hard questions. Are highly increasing house prices a good thing? Is it right that we can buy several houses? Is it right that the people who work in the essential services have to commute for long distances because those of us with some money have bought the nearby homes? How does a family with combined income of £50K get on the housing ladder in London? Is it right that we can have a home in inner London and a home in the countryside? Where do the people who work in the countryside live when cottages in villages sell for as much as city homes? Is it right to sell off council houses, (right to buy) when there is no more space for building new homes and so many people are financially unable to join the housing ladder and are thus reliant on council provided homes? Is it correct to allow new super-houses when there are not enough average sized homes to go round?

..And this links to a greater issue...

People have bought several houses because they have no faith in the state, (or any other) pension system. What is being done by central government to correct this potentially devastating discrepancy? It's only natural for individuals to plan ahead but the lack of central guidance and forethought on this issue worries me. As I've just written, - planning - housing - pensions - it all interweaves. Without real joined-up thinking from the centre, where are we all headed?

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Talking of setting out my stall...

I've been working recently with several constituents on a relaunch for the Swiss Cottage Market at the end of Eton Avenue. This has set the little grey cells working and prompts me to ask what the previous councillors did with their time?

I have been calling stall holders and council officers this week keeping the ball moving gently along. One potential stall holder, after a bit of chat, said that I was the first councillor in 15 years of his trading to call asking him to apply for a pitch.

The market near The School of Speach and Drama has been dwindling for a while now and it really wasn't that hard to pick up the phone and call. Wouldn't it have been good if instead of waiting till the market was down on it's uppers, one of the previous Conservative Belsize councillors had put in some energy and commitment a couple of years ago? Why wait untill something fails to put it right again?

The market at Swiss Cottage was a real community success story and a vibrant market outside Hampstead Theatre would be a boon for the local area. Communities are vital in all areas and to have neglected this market seems especially foolish.

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Art's first Blog Posting (Actually posted in June)

I know, I know. You'd got used to this being an Alexis Rowell personal blog site and now I come along and ruin it all for you. There's more than one of us and you'll just have to keep up. If it's interesting info on how we dynamic LibDems are transforming Belsize and Camden then I'd advise you to go back to Alexis's blogs and ignore mine. If on the other hand you require a window into the very soul of a local councilor, then this is it. I was going to let you know how my week starts. Somewhat more plodding than A's postings, but in its own way just as informative.

So far it's not been great. I've been mugged by all the pollen producing plants in the world. My head feels like it's full of cement. I spent the whole of last night snoring and sniffling and subsequently neither my wife nor I got any decent sleep. Still at least the week hasn't started like the last one, when my introduction to Monday was my mobile going off at 8am with a constituent's enquiry. (A lifetime's working in the catering industry hasn't really set me up as a morning person.)

This morning I applied for another unpaid job. Doh! (As a wee aside, I was at a conference in London at the weekend for new councillors - sounds thrilling already doesn't it - and the point was made that living on either £9k pa or over £50k pa was do-able in London but anything in between would be nearly impossible. That's my salary as a local councilor. The first one, sadly not the second. So I'm set for a lifetime of hedonistic London living then.) Aside over. The job I applied for is the Chair of our LibDem group meetings. It's like herding cats except none of us are that cute. (with the exception of Fred who has a certain something...)

So far that's about it. That and the usual hurly burly of organising meetings to ensure they clash with several others, sending general prompting e-mails to officers within the council, and realising we're out of milk.

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Hot - Wiring the Council.

That's what we do. For you.

I know, seems odd doesn't it. There's a council that you all pay for with large amounts of (a fundamentally unfair style of) taxation. As such, you'd have thought it would run to be as open and accountable as possible for the people who ultimately own it; You. You'd have thought it would be easy to use, easy to access, and easy to find one's way around in?

Somehow it all went very wrong.

Under seemingly endless Labour administrations, our local council has become a by-word for mismanagement, Byzantine practices, and thoughtless decision making.Unresponsive to local wants and needs. Basically, past it's sell-by date.

Well it'll take a while - 35 years of tying knots doesn't untie in an instant - but we are here to untie it for you. I'm not going to write a long list of our manifesto pledges to reinvigorate YOUR council, just go to the Camden LibDems web-site and read it for yourself. I will however say that the work has begun.

As promised, we've got rid of the pointless, nasty, unhelpful, clamping. (For years Camden was the testing ground for Labour Governments projects - you were wondering why it had got so dire weren't you - and this last week we hear that following our lead, central Labour government are now to look at the whole gamut of parking controls. The dog finally wags the tail.)

However the real work has only just begun. Getting the services to the people who own them, FAST. Hence the title, "Hot-Wiring the Council".

YOU elected US. The local and national Labour politicians seem to have forgotten this essential point. WE are here to do YOUR bidding. I wish our society would remember that small yet vital fact a little more often.

To this end, we hold regular local ward surgeries. In Belsize we each hold a surgery once a month. That's three a month, every month, come rain or shine. No matter whether it be the summer holidays (the Conservatives used to stop for August!) or Christmas time (our last for '06 is the 23rd December, our first in '07 is the 1st of Jan). We are here for you and we can get your problems and concerns directly to the people who matter.

Why am I telling you this? Well, so far I've been to all our surgery sessions and the range of issues facing residents of Belsize (and I suspect the rest of Camden also) is huge. To be perfectly honest, when you first elected us, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the thought of representing the needs of 8000+ people, but I am starting to see just how essential and personally satisfying this job will be.

Please don't be shy, and please don't be unsure about contacting YOUR local councilors. Chris Basson, Alexis Rowell and myself are here for you, to represent you, and to help you get the thing you need from your local council.

Vive La Revolution.

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I've always wanted to be a Policeman

Well okay that's not strictly true, but I have always thought I'd be quite good at tracking down missing persons or that type of thing.Obviously this is a completely untried ascertation and thus like all the best ascertations basically has foundations of soup. But still I think I'd be good at it.

Today I went out on patrol with Pc Flashman. I kid ye not. That really is his name! How cool would that be, to be really genuinely called Flashman? Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, out on patrol. It was foolishly hot and so I wore cream coloured trews and a crisp white shirt. The Pc on the other hand had all the gear on: Big hat, Big black vest, Big belt full of big stuff, black trousers, and Big black boots. It's lucky he started off thin, 'cos after that walk he would've been nowt but a puddle.

I digress... We went walkabout in Belsize, looking in all the dark corners and chatting about life as a police-person and life as a councilor. I'm really rather interested in getting into the minds of people who have essentially turned their backs on the material trappings that some careers can bring, and have instead directed their energies towards the community.

This isn't about me, basically I'm a councilor by design but also by a slice or two of really good luck, I am however talking about the police. What a bugger of a job. Doing all those things that nobody else really wants to do, eg: enforce the system that we all like to live by, whilst being a huge support network for anyone and everyone.Do we (you me and everybody - I know a song title - ) really ever show our gratitude? We complain when they're not here, we complain when they are here, and yet they still carry on.

Now I'm not suggesting that everytime you pass a copper in the street you should stop and say thanks, but wouldn't that be nice?

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Punchy yet Humourous Headline Required.

It's tricky, this "being a councillor" thing.

Previously, in the pre-councillor state, when all one had to do was wake up in the morning and find something to complain about, life was pretty easy. I could wander around Belsize until I tripped over a paving slab or met another slightly T'd off local and then Hey Presto! my issue would appear.
Cue a letter to the local paper or the beginnings of a petition or at the very least a few lines in our local Focus mainly asking (in a slightly peeved tone, not shouting but somewhat animated none-the-less) "What is The Council going to do about This"? "Well"? "What"?

Now however it's a wholly new ball game. To all intense purposes, I, am The Council.

If you read my entry above, "Hot Wiring The Council", you will see that I've set out my stall as being the local residents (and business's) conduit to, through and with The Council.
I have to accept however that aside from this, I am also The Council's representative within Belsize. It works both ways. Whilst my main purpose is to represent Belsize there is bound to be a bit of representing in the opposite direction also.This troubles me.

I strove to become elected to get a better deal for the local people yet somehow, on becoming elected I have become a part of the machine that I was battling against. It's a tricky situation, balancing the one with the other.

The most obviously different difference is that this is now a council that I own. Yes that is correct. Whilst I do not own it completely on my own, and whilst we do have a partnership administration running the show, the people of Belsize and right across Camden as a whole comprehensively rejected the Labour model of how the council should be run and equally comprehensively accepted the Liberal Democratic vision of local government.

(The Conservative vote didn't really change. It neither went dramatically up or disastrously (for them!) down. It just stayed the same. As though the same people who had always voted for them did so once again and the wider electorate passed them by). (It's one of those mysteries of the modern age).

Where was I.... "I own the council". It's mine now, so to keep on banging the drum of complaint is effectively knocking myself. Now the really hard work begins. It's all very well carping but now we have the opportunity and the duty to make it happen.
It's not easy to move from a position of eternal opposition to one of leadership. There is a danger that we will for too long remain in the mindset of opposition; us against the world, when actually now it's our world.

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Fool's Gold

For those of you who didn't catch this in the Camden New Journal, here's a re-reading or Cllr Theo Blackwell's little gem: "Labour left the Lib Dem and Conservative administration with a golden legacy. We would be worried if there was any threat to front-line services".

Where to start? It's a politicians wet dream. A quote from a member of a despised administration that was reduced to half it's previous size at the most recent election and comprehensively thrown out of the corridors of power due to it's overbearing, we know best, style of very poor management. Said member trying to suggest that the previous administration left in some kind of a golden halo.

It's as though the previous awful Labour regime were not comprehensively dumped by the electorate, but somehow left of their own volition, because they fancied a rest from all that hurly burly of running a perfect borough.

But don't you young eager Liberal democrats try to do anything while they're gone. After all it would take a long time to remake it in that Labour model again.
If I find ANYONE even thinking of remaking that Labour model again, I will personally slap them.

Of all the piles of old codswallop I have ever heard, "a Golden Legacy" must be the biggest pile.

The only slightly true part is that Labour left, even that stretches the truth though. Seeing as how they were actually kicked out.

Is a Golden Legacy, raising council tax year after year after year? Is it spending over 25% of the public service pensions pot? Is it over 5000 people waiting for permanent/long-term housing? Is it a chronic scarcity of secondary school places in the borough? Is it selling off the last truly large-scale redevelopment site in the borough (Kings Cross) with little or no regard for those urgently needed homes and schools? Is it redeveloping the Swiss Cottage leisure centre, in the process removing a vibrant community market and two large swimming pools and replacing them with yuppy flats, one small pool and a VERY EXPENSIVE FOUNTAIN? Is it pledging to sell off another major pools complex for more yuppy flats and then criticising the incoming administration who will in fact be saving this invaluable public amenity? Is it creating an environment whereby the vast majority of Camden's residents believe the council to be unresponsive, unhelpful, uninformative, over-eager to enforce unfair and at times draconian stealth taxes, higher than thou, and above all else uninterested in their wants and needs? Is it alienating and almost criminalising an entire generation of our youth? Are any of these Theo Blackwell's "Golden Legacies"?

Well, yes. All of them are. None of them are really all that golden though unless it's fools gold? In which case I'm in complete agreement with him.