A leading Totton Councillor has called upon Hampshire County Council to “Own up and admit what went wrong” with a scheme to improve Totton’s Rumbridge Street.

It is widely believed that a series of project management blunders led to very long delays completing the works and additional costs to the taxpayer, in excess of £300,000.

Liberal Democrat Councillor David Harrison, represents the Totton South at Town, District and County level. He says “It is very clear that those running Hampshire County Council are seriously embarrassed about what happened in Rumbridge Street. The list of blunders included a failure to sort out drainage problems before investing in street level enhancements, poor co-ordination with other bodies, the wrong sort of soil brought down from Scotland and damage caused to completed works”.

Councillor Harrison adds “We were promised a full review within 6 months of completion of the scheme and that nothing would be swept under the carpet. It is now over 12 months, with no information released about the review.”

Councillor Harrison this week raised the issue at a meeting of the Town Council’s Policy & Resources Committee. Members agreed that a formal letter should be sent to Hampshire County Council expressing concern about the lack of information and asking when results of the review will be shared.

County Councillor, David Harrison visited the Veolia Transport depot, located next to the Marchwood Energy Recovery Facility in order to find out more about future plans for transporting waste in the area.

Councillor Harrison was accompanied by the Interim Chief Executive of the New Forest National Park Authority, Barrie Foley, who shares similar concerns about increases in HGV movements in and around the New Forest.
The visit was hosted by the Veolia Transport Manager, Paul Stocker along with senior officers from Hampshire County Council.

Councillor Harrison says “We were shown details of a satellite tracking system, which allows the company to monitor where all the vehicles go. I was reassured that there are no plans to purchase and use even bigger HGV’s than the current fleet. They are also utilising some very good driver improvement programmes and promise to respond positively to community concerns.

It seems that press reports that waste might be imported from the Isle of Wight and transported by lorry across the forest are wrong. I was promised that the only way waste from the Island would be permitted to enter the site would be by sea. In this respect, some exciting news – Veolia are purchasing a barge and it is hoped that in future, at least some waste materials can be barged to the ERF, to help reduce HGV movements”.

Cllr. Harrison adds “Veolia are one of the more responsible companies operating in the area. Officers attending our meeting accepted that communication about operations and future plans could be improved. I hope that this will indeed be the case”.

I have undertaken a site visit with a local resident and the Head of Parking Operations, New Forest District Council, in The High Street, Totton.

It was a useful meeting. The resident concerned was annoyed about vehicles parking on yellow lines on a regular basis, without being ticketed. We did see examples of this at the time of our visit. Whether by co-incidence or design, a civil enforcement officer did show up and put a ticket on a car parked fully on a pavement, directly in front of us.

We were assured that tickets are issued on a regular basis in the area. A gap that has appeared in double yellow lines, (as a result of resurfacing work), will be shortly attended to.

We felt that it was not necessary that parking restrictions should apply on Sundays, as now. We will therefore have this matter reviewed at the next town traffic management meeting. I would welcome any views on this, especially from local residents, before the meeting takes place.

Bus Services

The Marchwood Bus Services Focus Group met on the 19th February, Chaired by Cllr. Shooter. We dealt with a few issues concerning services to and from the village, with the assistance of County Officers and Mr Alex Hornby from Solent Blueline. Fortunately, Marchwood services have survived the most recent round of reductions in the county as money available becomes ever tighter. I do think former campaigns and the continued existence of the group has helped Hampshire County Council understand the importance of local services.

Waste Matters

I have had a private meeting with Cllr Kendal and a senior officer, Mr Paul Archer, expressing my concerns about the possibility of increasing capacity at the Marchwood ERF. They have not been prepared to release copies of reports commissioned to consider these aspects, even when I lodged a Freedom of Information request.

I have been invited to visit the Veolia transport depot, something I will be doing this Thursday, along with Mr Barrie Foley (Interim Chief Exec. Of the New Forest NPA).

Highways Matters

Still no news, (shared with me), as to exactly what HCC will do with regard to further HGV restrictions in Hythe Road. Cllr Kendal has had a meeting or meetings with local HGV operators. He has been and is being lobbied by myself and residents for a complete ban.

Work is underway, installing the new, safer crossing on the A326 at Twiggs Lane. Initial residents concerns about crossing arrangements whilst the work is underway have been sorted out. There is a temporary ban on right turns out of the junctions, for safety reasons.

I organised a meeting at Sunnyfields Farm, with all interested parties, to discuss and agree safety measures due to be installed at Jacobs Gutter Lane / Bury Road.

The pot holes in Main Road are to be attended to later this month.
Some work to sunken drain covers in Normandy Way will be undertaken.
The County is carrying out a review of issues arising from the severe cold weather we had this winter, to which I have contributed to. I’m confident there will be more salt bins available by next winter.


Railway

I was asked and have joined a new body called the Waterside Community Rail Partnership. This is looking at the possibility of re-introducing a new passenger service along the Waterside, (possibly as far down as Fawley), utilising the existing track. There seems a lot of enthusiasm for this and would be very good for Marchwood. I will keep you posted on how things develop.

Council Tax

Hampshire County Council has set the council tax, resulting in a 1.9% increase for the coming year.

Grant Aid

Since last reporting, I have made a grant of £1,000 to the Minstead Study Centre and a grant of £250 to the Marchwood Twinning Association.
I am not able to make further grants now until June (due to the forthcoming General Election).

I attended the 13th, (but my first), Annual Fire Conference, run by the Local
Government Association today, 9th March 2010.

It is being held at The Hilton, the tallest building in Manchester. Hampshire
Fire and Rescue Service is very well represented, our own Chief Officer playing
a leading role in the first conference session in his capacity as Chairman of
the Chief Fire Officers Association.

The opening event was a very large gathering of all attendees, a mix of
Authority Members like myself and Officers from up and down the country.

The issues that came up included fire control centres. Each fire service
operates its own system of a call centre that handles emergency calls and
deployment of appropriate resources. However, central government decided that
all services should move to a new system of Regional Control Centres. There has always been a range of views as to the wisdom of this. The sceptics have been
proved at least partly right by long delays in getting the new centres
operational and massive cost over-runs.

The mood of the conference seemed to be one of mild depression that money had been wasted, doubts that it will ever work effectively and uncertainty that the new centres will survive a change of government.

Another significant issues raised was the challenges faced by all authorities
of protecting services in the face of expected future public spending cuts.
All members of the panel felt that there would be significantly less fire
authorities in the future.

John Bonney argued in favour of new statutory duties for fire authorities when
it comes to dealing with major flood incidents. Not everyone agreed that new
legislation was necessary.

There was broad consensus on the need for action to be taken on the growing
problem of the use of new building materials that add to the risk of fire,
particularly timber framed buildings. One speaker argued strongly in favour of
building regulations with a requirement to fit sprinkler systems. It was
generally agreed that we all had a role to play in lobbying for change.

In the afternoon I attended a session presented by the Chief Fire Officer for
Manchester on “how to care for the environment and save money”. I thought it quite thought provoking. In common with many other authorities, Manchester has saved money and reduced the carbon footprint by some really good fire prevention work, reducing the number of fires and the need to send fully crewed fire tenders out.

They have saved fuel costs by use of lighter vehicles. They have also undertaken a series of initiatives aimed at recycling, cutting heating costs, use of timers and sensors on lights. He also talked about monitoring water usage and how it might be necessary to treat it as a precious resource in the future.

Following the meeting, I suggested to our own Authority Chairman that we might
look at capturing rain water to reduce the need to take mains water. At present
this water is "free" but it may not be in the future.

We had a very political speech from a conservative MP, outlining what his party
would likely do with the fire service if the Tories form the next government.
It was a speech extremely critical of the current government, especially with
regard to attempts to impose Regional Control Centres. However, when asked what the Tories would do, he didn't give any clear answer. What he did make clear was less commitment towards equality and diversity and an unwillingness on the part of a future Tory government to resource efforts to address social inequalities - even when faced with a startling statistic that a child in a family that is in the lowest social economic class is sixteen times more likely to die in a fire related incident than a middle class child.

The second day of the conference was something of an ant-climax. The Government Minister was due to speak and was expected to get quite a hostile reception, especially over the problems relating to regional control centres. However, news filtered through by mid morning that he was unwell and would not be attending.

A civil servant delivered his speech. It seems that the present government are determined to press ahead with the plans. The Unions are worried about job losses. Authority members are concerned about whether the regional control centres will ever be able to work effectively. Only time will tell…

Representatives from the local police, Hampshire County Council, New Forest District Council, Totton & Eling Town Council and Marchwood Parish Council gathered at Sunnyfield Farm, hosted by Ian Nelson gathered today to discuss proposed improvements to highway safety along Bury Road.

County Councillor David Harrison had organised the meeting so that interested parties could hear directly from Officers what plans they had in mind to improve safety, especially in the area of the junction with Twiggs Lane, (the scene of a fatal accident involving a cyclist in October 2009).

Officers distributed a report that included detailed measures planned for Bury Road. The papers also included survey data relating to speed statistics and use of the junction by cyclists.

It is hoped that the safety enhancements could be implemented before the end of this financial year, probably March. These included improvements to the road surface and new signage.

There was general agreement that the measures would likely improve safety. It was generally agreed by those present that attempts at restricting the speed of traffic along Bury Road from the present 40mph to 30mph would not likely prove successful.

District Councillor Alison Hoare expressed concerns that existing signage was often not cleaned and was sometimes overgrown with vegetation. Assurances were given that this would be attended to.

Dave Taylor, for Hampshire Constabulary, confirmed that the statistics on traffic speed meets the criteria for mobile speed enforcement. It will be a matter for the Safer Roads Partnership to decide if speed enforcement is carried out in the area.

It was agreed that attempts should be made to educate HGV drivers that use this route regularly to understand the safety concerns, possibly through liaison meetings with the operators of the industrial estate.

Officers explained that the effectiveness of the new measures would be monitored for a 5 year period after implementation.

The wasted money spent on Rumbridge Street, Totton has been well and truly swept under the carpet by the Conservative controlled Hampshire County Council.

It is widely believed that the environmental improvements to Rumbridge Street ended up costing taxpayers at least £300,000 more than expected, largely due to a series of blunders including laying paving stones and tarmac before fixing broken drains underneath, contractors ruining recently seeded areas and importing the wrong quality soil from Scotland.

Local traders and shoppers were angry as completed work was dug up more than once, causing delays, frustration and cost over-runs.

Conservatives repeatedly turned down Liberal Democrat calls for an independent inquiry into the bungled scheme, promising that a full review would take place within 6 months of completion of the project which was finished in February 2009. One local Tory Councillor said “This must not be swept under the carpet”.

Liberal Democrat Hampshire County Councillor, David Harrison says “It is now one year since this bungled and costly scheme was completed and it does seem to have been well and truly swept under the carpet. The public, who are picking up the bill do have a right to know what went wrong and the reasons why. I am calling upon the County Council to open up and tell us precisely what went wrong and the reasons why. It might be embarrassing to the conservative party, but lessons must be learnt”.

New Forest Liberal Democrats put forward plans for no increase in council tax.
In a budget that promised that the New Forest would be a greener, fairer and safer place, the Liberal Democrats tried to stop the ruling conservative group from imposing a 2% increase, matching a similar increase on Hampshire County Council.

Councillor David Harrison, Liberal Democrat Leader of the opposition group on New Forest District Council, told fellow councillors that there was no need to increase council tax once again. He was critical of the way the ruling group had wasted over £300,000 on the “slippery floor” legal case, equal to about £5 for every taxpayer in the district.

Cllr. Harrison said “There are many people who struggle to meet increases in council tax every year. It is high time we said enough is enough”. Liberal Democrat plans included disposal of unwanted assets and delaying expenditure. However, the bid was defeated by the ruling conservative group, keen to hold onto reserves, at least until the district elections in 2011.