Marc Jones

By Marc Jones marcjones

Councillor Marc Jones is the Deputy Leader of the Lincoln Conservatives.

— Lincoln Conservatives Deputy Leader Marc Jones comments on the new Community Leadership Scrutiny Committee set up by Labour-led City of Lincoln Council.

Between 2007 and 2011, during the time when the Conservatives were in control at the City of Lincoln Council, some changes were made to the structure of scrutiny committees.

Those changes included the removing of the old Performance Committee, that had naturally run its course due to the deletion of the old Labour Governments massive list of imposed targets that it was set up to report on , and it was replaced by a Value for Money Committee that was set up to be a check on how the council spent taxpayers money and what result we got for that spend.

The two policy Committees were merged to create a more joined up approach to creating and reviewing policy. Labour made no issue with the first change as is clearly made sense, but complained bitterly that the two policy committees should be retained separately.

It was with total surprise that I saw the changes that they were proposing to make once they took over control in May 2011.

The old style Performance Committee was to return, even though there are no longer the government targets for it to check against, and at the very time the council is looking to save £2.7 million from its yearly budget, the committee that checks value for money for taxpayers is being scrapped, leading to there being no clear way of checking how our money is being spent.

The much discussed policy committees are not returning as promised, but we are to see something new. A scrutiny committee that will examine other organisations decisions weeks or months after they have been made, with only some of the information being known that lead to those decisions in the first place, and with no hope of changing the outcome.

The Conservative group feel that this is such a waste of time and more importantly public money that they will not be taking part, and we would dispute Councillor Ric Metcalfe’s view that the running costs will be “almost nothing”, with hundreds of officer hours going to be spent on this white elephant over the year.

The Community Leadership Committee is misleading in its name, as rather than lead the community, it seeks to look at others decisions after the event. We would rather see effort go in to influencing decision makers before they make important decisions about our residents’ lives.

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Marc Jones is a Conservative County Councillor and Executive Member for Finance and Property.

By Marc Jones marcjones

Conservative Councillor Marc Jones is the Deputy Leader of the City of Lincoln Council.

Resident parking is not a new concept in Lincoln.

Over the past few years we have seen it creeping slowly across city streets, covering an ever more patchwork range of locations. For those who want to park near their home and fall inside the permit zone, it’s usually seen as a positive thing.

To those who live on the next street but fall outside the zone, it’s not such good news, as they wake up to find displaced commuters, shoppers and students filling up their street instead. This leads to more requests for resident parking zones and on the relentless spread goes.

I’ve always been a great supporter of residents parking, but know from speaking to people first hand that the current scheme just isn’t enough. To work properly, an urban citywide scheme should be put in place, permits should be free to all residents, paid for by the increase in car park income that would inevitably result from effective enforcement in the side streets.

It may even be possible to lower car park charges to make visiting Lincoln even more attractive if the number of users would rise. The scheme must operate 24 hours a day. It’s no good having a scheme that only operates when you are at work but you can’t park. The key to making a citywide resident scheme work is effective enforcement. Without it, it just won’t work.

Following Lincolnshire Police’s announcement to withdraw traffic wardens from April 2011, they have given the City Council assurances that until 2012, when the County Council take over enforcement, officers and PCSO’s will not let the standard drop and will be issuing tickets to ensure that resident parking is maintained. After that the County Council will have effective enforcement in place.

Of course, there will always be other considerations, such as working to get quality bus services for commuters, shoppers etc., to lower the number of cars entering the city; this means decent bus shelters and bus priority lanes to encourage people on to public transport, as well as clean busses that run to time.

So it’s not just about enforcement but it should in my opinion be about making Lincoln work for those who live here and pay council tax for the privilege first and for most without losing site of the importance of all of those for whom Lincoln is a place of work, rest or play.

Footnotes:

— The City of Lincoln Council received £129,629 in 2009/2010 from 5,034 parking permits;
— £40,000 from residents’ parking charges were paid to Lincolnshire Police for two Lincoln traffic wardens;
— Marc Jones aspires to make urban Lincoln 100% free residents’ parking in about two years.

Marc Jones is a Conservative County Councillor and Executive Member for Finance and Property.