March 16, 2017 10.09 am
This story is over 57 months old
John Hough: A chance to do things differently
Every four years people in Lincolnshire have a direct opportunity to decide who should run the county council. The election on May 4 this year will decide whether we should continue with the policy of cuts in public services or take a different path. There are many terrific people running services for which the county…
Labour county councillor John Hough (Louth South) Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Every four years people in Lincolnshire have a direct opportunity to decide who should run the county council.
The election on May 4 this year will decide whether we should continue with the policy of cuts in public services or take a different path.
There are many terrific people running services for which the county council has responsibility. From social workers to fire officers, from health visitors to care workers, from teachers to pot hole fillers, they have done a great job despite having less and less money to keep their services going.
Since the Tories took over at Westminster there have been huge cuts in funding for local services. Here in Lincolnshire the Conservative administration has enthusiastically followed the government lead.
Despite having over £150 million in the bank, they have cut, cut and cut again, closing down the youth service, withdrawing help from hundreds of old people and ending support for those in crisis.
Having denied they were going to get rid of libraries prior to the last election the first thing they did once they got into power in 2013 was to propose sacking most of the public library staff and closing most of the libraries in Lincolnshire.
Labour councillors, working with Save Lincolnshire Libraries, campaigned for libraries to be kept and took the council to the High Court which found it had acted unlawfully. The cuts were delayed and a new operator was found which is now running the public library service albeit with smaller libraries having to be run by volunteers or be closed.
Having made a mess of the libraries they then decided they would change the way many back office functions are run and get a new contractor in 2015 – Serco.
Labour councillors warned them that Serco was unlikely to be capable of running such a contract. How right we were. It has been a disaster and two years into the contract, things are still not right.
The problems have not just been for the council but for many schools too, with suppliers not being paid and staff being paid too little or in some cases too much!
In 2016 drastic cuts to the fire and rescue service across the county were announced, including down grading the Lincoln South Fire Station. Labour councillors, working with the community and firefighters, campaigned to secure the future of the Lincoln South Fire Station.
Other threatened cuts to bus services and children’s centres have only been prevented by vigorous campaigning by Labour councillors alongside the community.
And now they are turning off the lights in Lincolnshire. When it was first announced last year they planned to turn them off even earlier at 10pm.
Again a campaign led by Labour councillors and the community forced them to think again and keep the lights on until midnight, though because of the poor technology it could be an hour either side!
In February Labour put forward a costed proposal to turn the lights back on. It was voted down. We will continue to campaign on this and will turn the lights back on as soon as possible after the election.
It’s not just the lights – they are also going to stop cutting the grass all over Lincolnshire. For a county that prides itself on its beauty and its tourism industry this is unbelievable.
Services are being cut while the rates are being increased. While no one is keen to pay a tax rise, people are even less enthusiastic about getting less for their money.
Labour is determined that people should get value for money, which doesn’t always mean the cheapest – look at Serco. Public services are really too important to be only provided by private companies looking for a profit.
And it’s not just the cuts they have already announced that we need to worry about. We already know about the threats to school funding, the funding of our local NHS, the rising cost of adult social care, and the long term funding of the essential Citizens Advice Service in Lincolnshire.
What about other future cuts and increased charging? Parents having to pay more for post 16 school transport, vulnerable adults facing increased charges for their care, more public services disappearing?
We need to do things differently.
John Hough is a Labour councillor at Lincolnshire County Council. He has represented the Louth South division since 2001 and has been the leader of the Labour opposition since September 2013. He also chairs the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee.
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Lincolnshire Police are appealing for witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage following a two-vehicle collision in which a 12-year-old boy sadly died.
Following a call to police at 9.48am today (16 January), officers attended the B1190 at Bardney.
The collision involved two vehicles: a silver Mercedes-Benz A220 and a silver Ford Galaxy.
The 12-year-old boy, a passenger in the Galaxy, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the Mercedes, a man, has been taken to hospital. The status of his injuries is currently unknown.
Update, 6pm: All road closures have now been lifted. No one else involved in the collision is believed to have sustained any life-threatening nor life-altering injuries.
If you saw the collision, or have information, you can contact police in one of the following ways:
Call 101, quoting Incident 141 of 16 January.
Email [email protected] putting “Incident 141 of 16 January” in the subject line.
North East Lincolnshire’s MPs have stood by the Prime Minister after he apologised for breaking rules by attending a lockdown party.
Grimsby MP Lia Nici dismissed calls for him to resign, saying ‘nobody is perfect’, and Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers said it was the wrong time to call a leadership contest.
Boris Johnson admitted this week he went to a ‘bring your own booze’ party in the first Covid lockdown.
He has apologised for the decision, saying he believed it was work related but regretted it in hindsight.
Although opposition MPs have called for him to resign, Lia Nici, Martin Vickers and other Tories have stood by him for now.
However, the Cleethorpes MP said the party was ‘irresponsible and reckless’.
“He was certainly right to apologise, and the party in question shouldn’t have taken place,” Mr Vickers said.
“I share the anger and frustration of my constituents at these events and it does appear that lockdown rules were broken. That is irresponsible, reckless and unacceptable and disciplinary action, and possibly prosecutions should follow.
“It begs the question of how it got to the stage of the events taking place. Senior figures should have realised that this was wrong and the event should never have got off the ground.”
Grimsby MP Lia Nici (Conservative)
Grimsby MP Lia Nici also welcomed his apology for breaking the rules.
“I think it’s a positive thing that he has apologised for being outside in that garden on that day in 2020,” she said.
“He clearly wanted to thank staff who have been working hard under under Covid rules. Was it advisable to thank them that way though?
“It certainly would have been safer than inside, but the email from the civil servant telling employees to ‘Bring Your Own Booze’ is concerning.
“People are quite rightly upset about it. Everyone should have been following rules that the public were abiding by.”
A probe into the parties is now being carried out by civil servant Sue Gray.
Neither MP joined the Labour party in calling for Mr Johnson to quit – but said the report should come out quickly.
Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers (Conservative) | Photo: Steve Smailes for Lincolnshire Reporter
Mr Vickers said: “My colleagues and I need to consider what’s in the best interest of the country. A leadership contest would paralyse the country while we’re managing the pandemic and a volatile international situation.
“The last thing we want is a complete vacuum of power at the centre of government for six weeks.
“We should wait for Sue Gray’s report into the parties that is being prepared.”
Mrs Nici said: “Nobody is perfect. The Prime Minister is a good man who wants to do the right thing for the UK and Grimsby.
“We need to focus on where we’re going – not having the national media fixated on today.
“However, as a manager and a leader myself, I can say we need to see the report sooner rather than later. If people have intentionally been breaking the rules then there should be disciplinary action.”
If the report finds that Johnson broke rules, it could convince Conservative backbenchers to trigger a leadership contest overthrow him.
Mr Johnson said he hadn’t realised he was at a party and “bitterly regrets” that way that it was handled.
Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer said that Mr Johnson’s denials were “so ridiculous it’s actually offensive” to the public at a heated Prime Minister’s Questions.
New CCTV cameras will be installed north of Lincoln city centre after Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner secured an additional £50,000 of funding.
The original £400,000 scheme came after a successful bid by Lincolnshire’s PCC Marc Jones. This involved broadening the CCTV coverage to include the main walking routes out of Lincoln city centre and in three areas.
The funding will extend the new Safer Streets CCTV and will allow for the creation of 360 coverage out of the city centre. It will now allow the cameras to monitor walking routes to and from Bishop Grosseteste University.
The money for the plan – developed in partnership with the City of Lincoln Council – comes from the government’s Safer Streets Fund.
The scheme also includes funding to develop teaching materials which promote women’s rights and challenge attitudes; a Night Safety Charter pledging to design public spaces to make them safe at night; and training for bar, hotel and restaurant staff regarding vulnerability and tackling predators.
All elements of the plan will be co-developed with women and girls and experts in the field.
Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones. | Photo: Daniel Jaines
The Lincoln-based bid is the third successful Safer Streets bid for Lincolnshire. So far the PCC has brought £500.000 in additional funding to the county for projects in the north and east coast.
“I am delighted to be able to secure additional funding to extend the CCTV cameras even further,” said Mr Jones.
“The project was already going to make a significant difference in helping residents feel and be safe and the extra money will ensure that security is extended to even more people.
“It is excellent news and another step forward in protecting our communities.”
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