Campaigning Hard in Gillingham

Cllr Vince Maple and Labour colleagues in the aptly named Maple Avenue

Labour teams were out in Gillingham this weekend are now confident that we are seeing a significant swing away from the Liberal Democrats to Labour.

The independents have yet to make a dent with very few voters identifying them as a distinct alternative.

With polls pointing to a significant number of voters switching directly from Liberal Democrat to Labour and with hard work being undertaken across the ward, we may see the demise of the Liberal Democrats, and former Liberal Democrats in this heart land.

Meanwhile the warfare between the Liberal Democrats continues.

It can be revealed that the Medway Liberal Democrats have written to the Charity Commission to complain about the 'overtly' political tweets from the Medway Citizens Advice Bureau, the chairman of which is standing as an independent.

Commenting on the matter twice, Andy Stamp stated

'Never thought Medway Lib Dem Cllrs would stoop so low to try and close the local Citizens Advice Bureau, just to get at me! Shame on them!

Labour however has no wish to engage in this local Liberal Democrat feud and instead is focused on listening to the residents of Gillingham.

Another win for Common Sense

After more than 48 hours of pressure on the Conservative MP to set a public position on the cuts to NHS blood services in Rochester we have had a response.

This blog has once again been leading the charge locally and will be backing petitions to safeguard this resource.

I do think however a postponement of the cuts is not really an acceptable position but will be backing all attempts to safeguard the facility, and we will also be working on a petition to fully oppose the cuts to the services. We have been taking this petition to residents doorstep this morning.

The online petition does not include a post code or address option so effectively makes submitting this to the Council difficult. Someone should have advised the independent petitioners this.

The Labour petition which is being met with a positive response on the doorstep will have weight in the Council chamber because it will give address and postcode details

It is a welcome sign that Tories locally are now engaging with this issue because we all need to fight to win to keep this resource for the community.

Cllr's Teresa Murray and Nick Bowler met with dozens of residents this morning on a roaving surgery and we had dozens of signatures from residents in the surrounding area of the clinics being threatened

Tories squandering millions on Consultants

The scandal of Tory fat cat perks is put into perspective today as Labour research reveals that Medway Conservatives have spent £1.25m of your Council Tax payers money on consultants.

This at the same time Medway Conservatives are making Council staff, dinner ladies and teaching assistants redundant.

This blog has commented on the extent of incompetence we have seen on the Council for close to three years, but this is a truly staggering sum of money that has been wasted to create, yes ironically, a more 'efficient council'

The Tories talk about spending your money wisely but this shocking revelation shows that underneath we have nothing but hot air on fiscal responsibility locally.

The Labour group has also discovered that £1 million will be paid to PricewaterhouseCoopers which is apparently lending itself to this 'better for less' models.

Consultancies are known in the financial services circuit as being comprised of bright boffins who are great at grand ideas but who quickly leave before they see the results of their actions. Spending such staggering sums also show the Council lacks an ability to manage change itself which is worrying.

Labour Councillor Glyn Griffiths also highlighted the staggering sums paid in salaries to top Medway Council staff including

Chief Executive: Neil Davies - £140,640

Children's Services Director: Rose Collinson - £123,166

Regeneration & Environment Director: £119,155

The Labour Group has also discovered that since April the council has spent £300,000 on 'consultancy support' for teachers and head teachers, about £187,000 on children's services and £117,000 on street work inspections.

Councillor Jarrett may be a chancer but the figures say everything about the fiscal incompetence of his management style. Favouring over expensive consultants instead of spending on front line services is shameful at a time of fiscal austerity.

It is time to kick this long-standing incompetent, inept and utterly incapable administration from office.

Teresa Murray acts on Rochester NHS cuts

Looks like the Medway Conservatives are running scared of the campaign to safeguard the Rochester clinics which have been closed with little notice by the Primary Care Trust.

Some might say we have struck a nerve.

With news of substantial NHS cuts being overseen by the Conservative government it comes as no surprise that services are being rationalised.

Despite the public displays of anger on the matter the only public statement from the Conservatives can be found here

The 'independent' petitions, being heavily advertised by the Conservatives, are of course welcome and this blog would urge people to support as many petitions as possible to safeguard these services. Tory suggestions that support for one petition detracts from another are baseless.

To claim that political parties should not be petitioning people also ignores basic democratic principles. Petitions can be submitted by any interest group.

Labour will campaigning hard over the next month to oppose the Conservative funding cuts to the NHS which we believe has led to this decision.

Cllr Teresa Murray is happy to make public her correspondence on the matter with the Primary Care Trust:

Healthletter

Meanwhile, we have had no website statement from the MP on the closure of the clinics in Rochester, despite requests from this blog to try and allow constituents to see that work has/had been carried out.

Much confusion rained last night as a former Conservative indicated the MP opposed the closure whilst another said he was looking for postponement.

A welcome letter has been sent to this blog which indicates our MP is calling for a full postponement of the decision. Given this could be private correspondence, I may not have permission to see or indeed publish this document but am happy to publish in full if given permission.

To get to this stage required much tenacity on the part of this blogger. When pressed on the matter the office aide to Mark Reckless stated that:

'Do you think an MP is going to broadcast every single issue that he's working on?'

This blog then clarified how people were supposed to know what our MPs position was on such a public and pressing issue, if he had not advertised a position;

The reply;

'A simple call to Mark's would have confirmed the matter was in hand.'

A helpful aide then but the public expect better. I work office hours.

Rochester Clinic Cut Concerns

There is much concern tonight that we are on the cusp of cuts to our local NHS services as a result of forced cuts being imposed on the Medway Primary Care Trust.

Labour councillors in Rochester East ward and colleagues across Medway will be launching a petition against the closure of blood testing facilities at Rochester Healthy Living Centre in Delce Road

The Conservative MP has remained totally silent, which is quite frankly a major concern, given this is a key service to local Rochester residents, and indeed he remains the serving Councillor for Rochester West.

We need all our local and national politicians to be 100% engaged in the saving of the facility. Leaving it to a few local Councillors and getting a few friendly pharmacists to do the leg work is lazy politics.

Labour and the former Parliamentary candidate are ready to fight these cuts. Where is Cllr Mark Reckless?

The petition will be launched at the surgery of Cllr Teresa Murray and Cllr Nick Bowler and will be held at 10.30 to 12 noon on Saturday 12th March at St Peter’s parish centre in Delce Road

Cllr Murray said

“I have written to the chief executives of NHS Medway and the Medway Maritime Trust to complain about this disgraceful cut in local services which affects people across the whole of Rochester. To date I have received no reply. It’s part of a hidden Tory agenda of NHS cuts and there has been no public consultation. The healthy living centre in the Delce is very popular with excellent new facilities and people have been able to get blood tests done there on demand for years.”

Cllr Nick Bowler said

” People in our ward are being disadvantaged, they will now be much more restricted when they want a blood test and will have to travel further and wait longer causing extra expense and inconvenience.”

Time for Free Swimming

Welcome news tonight that Medway Labour will be re-introducing free swimming for pensioners and under elevens that was cut by the Conservatives if elected in May 2011, and will back moves to increase exercise amongst young and old across the towns.

In what was one of the most regresssive and vindictive moves by the Conservatives, they scrapped the Free swimming initiative in June 2010. (see right)

Many Conservative Councillors locally stood up in full council to declare the scheme was too expensive and unnecessary. A snub to thousands of parents and pensioners who felt the scheme, promoted in the Labour manifesto in 2005, was a success. Many felt the Medway Conservatives had left them high and dry

They were right to feel angry.

Whilst Medway Tories were idly sitting by with the scissors it was reported that 121,000 people had benefited from the Policy with an increase of 180% in free swimming amongst the under 16s. A policy which aimed to challenge the rising obesity rates across Medway.

Given Medway has one of the strongest records for encouraging swimming in the UK and the fact we have the worst obesity indicators in the South East of England it is surely a no brainer to support the re-introduction of the scheme.

The Tories have flip-flopped on free swimming over the last 12 months and can not be trusted to introduce the scheme.

More widely then this, Medway Labour is looking for a culture shift in how the Council works with sport clubs and groups. Labour are looking to promote amateur sport and rugby teams as part of its attempt to re-engage and promote sport in the community. Many local sports teams lack the organisation to advertise and promote events and Labour wants to help these teams get ahead.

In addition, there is the potential for closer working partnerships with local independent providers. Many individuals use independent gyms who in other areas of the country sponser community sports events and fun days.

We all need to accept that Medway has a terrible obesity rate which poses a significant health time bomb on our community and simply sitting on the blue couches in gun wharf or even in our own homes, will not help us or others.

We need to act to change the mindset around promoting sport and community engagement around sport.

Barnsley win sends warning to Lib Dems

A predicted win for Labour in the Barnsley Central by-election on Thursday night, with some interesting vote swings which supports previous polling that voters are deserting the Liberal Democrats en-masse since May.

Local Tories jumped on it by saying a 'donkey in a red rosette' could have won the seat which given the winning candidate, Dan Jarvis (pictured left), is a former soldier who fought for our country, highlights a total lack of respect and actually professional courtesy for our former servicemen. Other Tories have smeared the area instead of accepting that people may have had reason to vote against the coalition.

Its all part of the online negativity and actual nastiness that is on public display from Medway Conservatives, and those who effectively speak for them. It shows clearly the Tories are running scared in May.

The ICM and YouGov breakdowns all now show a clear loss of support for Nick Clegg with 30-50% of their former vote directly transferring to Labour. This will have a significant impact in areas in Medway where the Liberal Democrats traditionally poll well.

I do not think you can translate from one by-election what will happen in Medway, but supported with polling from all major pollsters, we can now predict the Liberals will probably loose significant vote share. They are threatened in both Gillingham seats by Labour and the Tories in Watling.

Given we have seen a decline in Liberal Democrat activity across the whole of Medway since the late 1980s/1990s this blog is highlighting the fact that the party is now at risk of being seen as a real bit-part player for not only the short term but the long term as well. They simply failed to use the good times (2004-2010) to build and attract new talent. Look at Labour, who despite the defeat in May 2010 have bounced back with a new bench of talent and you can see the stark difference.

There are also rumours that there could be a deal in consideration in the Gillingham central seats, that the Tories may not field candidates in Gillingham so effectively pitching a coalition candidate against Labour. At this stage, no concrete evidence of such a backroom deal though we will know in less than a month! This hearsay evidence supported by the fact that the Medway Liberal Democrat leader appears happy to support the Conservative cuts budget, and is happy to be pictured alongside the Tory MP for the area in the local press.

We will know in less than a month; but never trust the Liberal Democrats. As the Andy Stamp revelations reveal, they are certainly not open and transparent.