31/01/2010 by Steve Barclay.

The closure of the Wisbech Driving test centre highlights a problem with our current democracy.  The decision is being taken by expensively paid quango chiefs who have little if any accountability.  They are not elected, do not live in or know this area, and their pay and perks are unaffected by public delivery. 
 
The decision to close the driving test centre here is against the wishes of the local MP, town councillors, district councillors, and county councillors.  The money being saved - just £11,000 a year - is a fraction of what it has now been revealed these same quango chiefs claimed in expenses over the last year.  The result is that learner drivers, often the young and those on modest incomes, will have to pay more in driving lessons.
 
I have blogged before about how little democracy there is in Britain today. Seven of those attending the British Cabinet are unelected, not to mention many of those in Europe making laws here, and those at a regional and national level deciding issues as important as what medicines we can get on the NHS.  The relationship between power and democracy is illustrated by the fact that the elected leader of a local district council often earns around £15,000 when the unelected chief executive can earn ten times more, on £150,000 plus final salary pension.
 
Last summer I was contacted by Wisbech driving instructors.  They had been told by the Driving Standards Agency that opening a new test centre in King’s Lynn did not mean closing the centre in Wisbech, but they feared closure was the hidden agenda. I went along one evening to their meeting to discuss this, and then contacted the Driving Standards Agency.  The Agency refused to give any information other than to say the matter would be reviewed after 12 months (in July of 2009).
 
Malcolm Moss MP tabled a couple of Parliamentary questions to seek more clarity.  The Agency confirmed the low cost of the centre and the review timescale, but made no mention of the criteria on which they now rely for their decision.  When the 12 months came and went, I again contacted the Agency.  Again I was told no decision had been taken for closure.  Given that 12 months had passed, this suggested the review had passed positively.
 
Four months later over the Christmas holiday period, a press release was slipped out by the Agency.  This made the ludicrous claim that closing the driving test centre would “improve the local service” as the test centre in King’s Lynn had disability access.  As this centre was already available, it is difficult to see how closing Wisbech, with the added journey times, would improve service.  Disabled drivers could still use King’s Lynn.
 
The spin on the Agency’s claims sits at odds with the critical response of local driving instructors, residents, and Fenland District Council.  The Council has passed a unanimous resolution condemning the decision, setting out the costs to local people (which directly contradict the Driving Standards Agency claims), and calling for urgent talks on either keeping the centre or setting up a new, disability compliant centre in Fenland.  No response has been received to this letter - again highlighing the lack of accountibility and the sense the review was prejudged.  The Government’s transport minister has refused to intervene.  As so often with Labour, they care little for rural services and want to move these to urban areas.
 
This incompetence and misplaced arrogance is not new for the Driving Standards Agency and its Chief Exec Rosemary Thew.  In 2007 the Driving Standards Agency lost 3 million customer records which had been outsourced to the US and went missing, putting every learner driver (one in ten of all drivers) at risk of identify theft.  Just this summer, Private Eye and Motorcycle News commenting on further problems with the Agency, this time the daft new rules for motorcyclists, saying the following:
 
“Inept DSA chief executive Rosemary Thew boasts that the new test will make the roads safer by making it more difficult to get a full licence. But that seems unlikely. Not only are riders more likely to be killed or injured during the test itself, but there is evidence that more young tearaways and foreign dispatch riders are taking to the roads unlicensed - and therefore uninsured - rather than submit to the rigmarole of passing five tests to get a licence.”
From: Private Eye, No.1242, p.30 (August 2009)
 
With money short in a recession, and faced with higher costs for lessons travelling to and from King’s Lynn, some young people in Fenland may be tempted to take to the road without completing their driving test. This puts every road user at greater risk.  We already have a high fatality rate on Fenland roads.  Those who take their test face higher bills.  The Driving Standards Agency should now meet with Fenland District Council to agree a way forward.  Sadly, it looks unlikely such common sense will prevail.
 
I will be lobbying the new Conservative Government to reverse this short sighted decision and keep a driving test centre in Fenland.  Let’s hope the election comes soon, so it is not too late.

Posted in Fenland District Council, Malcolm Moss MP, Wisbech | No Comments »

17/01/2010 by Steve Barclay.

It is deeply frustrating to hear the news from the Driving Standards Agency that they want to close the Wisbech Driving Centre in March this year.  In response to a parliamentary question last April, they admitted the Wisbech test centre only costs £11K a year to run.  For such a modest saving, they intend that Fenland residents should have to travel to King’s Lynn.  That means paying for two hour lessons instead of one hour in order to practice on the roads where their test will be held.

Wisbech Town Councillor Sam Hoy has been in touch to let me know her constituents, including a local driving instructor, are far from happy about the closure.   Wisbech Town Council will discuss the closure at their forcoming meeting and I hope they, and residents in Fenland, will make their views heard on this issue.

Rural communities face more and more services being taken away from them.  The driving centre is just the latest, nor will it be the last under a Labour government which is based towards big cities.  Given the modest saving, I am sure the Driving Standards Agency could find £11K elsewhere in their budget. Malcolm Moss MP agrees that the DSA have got this badly wrong, and has written to both the Government and Shadow Ministers responsbile calling for a review.  He has tabled a number of parliamentary questions to the DSA to see if their £11K could be found elsewhere.  These are set out below.  Should I become MP I will be taking a very close interest in all aspects of the Driving Standards Agency’s performance.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport…

1. …what the anticipated annual savings will be in 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12 following the decision to relocate the Wisbech Driving Test Centre to Kings Lynn MPTC.
2. …what additional costs have been identified for driving instructors in 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12 as a result of the decision to relocate the Wisbech Driving Test Centre to Kings Lynn MPTC.
3. …how many Driving Test Centres have closed, by location, in each of the last three years.
4. …which Driving Test Centres are due to be relocated in the next three years.
5. …what the anticipated additional travel costs for DSA examiners will be as a result of the relocation of the Wisbech Driving Test Centre to Kings Lynn MPTC.
6. …how many full-time equivalent employees of the Driving Standards Agency are in the following salary bands: a) £150,000 and above; b) £100,000-£149,999; c) £80,000-£99,999; d) £60,000-£79,999; e) £40,000-£59,999; f) £25,000-£39,999; and g) £24,999 and under.
7. …what the total amount claimed in expenses by each member of the management of the Driving Standards Agency was in each of the last three years.
8. …what the total salary expenditure on press officers employed by the Driving Standards Agency was in each of the last three years.
9. …how much the Driving Standards Agency has spent on online communications systems including Twitter in each of the last three years.

Posted in Wisbech | No Comments »

15/01/2010 by Steve Barclay.

Attended a Climate Change and Environment programme yesterday, which was arranged for ten Conservative Parliamentary Candidates. The day was run by the Green Alliance and Ashridge Business School, in conjunction with Conservative HQ.

A particular highlight was a presentation from Professor Brian Hoskins, a fellow of the Royal Society and one of the country’s leading climate scientists. There were also insightful presentations given by David Kennedy, Chief Exec of the Committee on Climate Change, by Ipsos Mori, and by the Green Alliance amongst others.  It prompted a lively discussion, not least given that little impact has been made by the current government on carbon reduction, with the only trend showing improvement resulting from industries where jobs have been exported abroad.  As so often, there are lots of targets for tomorrow but not much has been done so far, for example current targets for loft and cavity wall insulation are not being met. 

I was struck by Professor Hoskins comments that all scientists should be sceptics, and that the debate on climate change should not be discussed for and against in quasi religious terms of believing or not believing.  He discussed the impact of changes in water vapour in the air and how this creates uncertainty in forecasts, the role of methane and other gasses not just carbon dioxide, interesting factual data on trends (for example that aviation becomes 2% more efficient a year but is expanding at 5%), and the importance of tackling deforestation of rainforest and the good progress in Brazil on this and work still to be done in Indonesia.

The day concluded with dinner with Greg Clark, our Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.  Greg is one of the most impressive members of the Shadow Cabinet, with a real intellectual grasp of his policy brief.  During the discussion Greg outlined plans for a pilot for a Conservative government to help people faced with energy poverty.  With energy bills a growing share of families budget, and with the cost of tackling climate change likely to add to these bills moving forward, energy poverty will increasing be a cause of concern and is already a big worry for some.  He is also keen to see local communities benefit from hosting wind farms - at the moment all energy users pay an extra part of their bill towards renewable energy and get no benefit in their bill if their community are providing the renewable energy.  This would be important given the number of windfarms in the Fens.

Having emailed Greg this morning following the dinner, and spoken with new Fenland District Council leader Alan Melton, I am delighted that Fenland District Council will now be one of the councils included in the pilot scheme to tackle energy poverty.  It will place our local issues at the heart of shaping Conservative Government policy, and ensure we are amonst the first to benefit from new proposals.  There are real pockets of deprivation in Fenland - as a district 18 of the 25 most deprived wards in the county are in Fenland - but because the county as a whole is seen as being prosperous we tend to miss out on most national schemes because the aggregate score for the county masks the pockets of deprivation.  It is great news that on this issue our voice will be heard as part of the pilot programme.

Pictured with Greg Clark, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change are representatives of the Green Alliance, Ashbridge Business School, and Conservative Parliamentary Candidates.

Posted in Climate Change | No Comments »

08/01/2010 by Steve Barclay.

A sad event today, attending the funeral of well known Chatteris councillor Ray German, where I was also representing our MP Malcolm Moss.  Ray was a hugely respected and popular senior councillor, working over the years at town, district and county level.

Ray was born in Sawtry and spent his entire life in the Fens, with the only gap being to serve with distinction in the RAF as a rear gunner during the second world war.  Rear gunner was one of the most dangerous jobs of all, with a life expectancy of just four weeks.  Having left school at 14, Ray did extra study in order to be able to sign up and serve his country as soon as he turned 18.

There was a large attendance in church, reflecting the affection and high esteem in which Ray was held locally.  It was a moving service, especially with the presence of the British Legion.  Ray was a real gentleman, and it was fascinating to hear some early stories of Ray’s life on the family farm in the Fens in the 1920s, when Ray’s love of flying was triggered by a airship flying over and an early bi-plane landing on the family farm. 

Another story told was about how as an 8 year old he would ride the huge farm shire house to the blacksmith, being lifted up on to it at one end by his father and off by the blacksmith at the other - what a contrast with health and safety regulations today and quite a responsbility at such a young age. 

At the reception at the Conservative Club, was amazed to hear that the Lib Dems have already put out election literature before Ray’s funeral has been held.  I hope a lesson is learnt.  This has never happened before in my experience and never should again.

Afterwards pop in to the old bakery in Chatteris with my election agent Debbie Clark, then head back to the association office for the afternoon to catch up on recent constituency issues which have been raised over the festive break.

Posted in Cllr Ray German, Chatteris | No Comments »