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Amongst the various comments I’ve had about the new bus passes scheme, one of the most common was confusion about what is allowed when a bus is late (or early) around the start time of 0930.

The situation has been clarified in a letter to me and is very straightforward. If it arrives before 9:30, you pay, if after you don’t. It makes no difference what time it is due, the test is what time it actually arrives.

I have scanned in a copy of the letter in JPEG or PDF. By all means print a copy off if you have an elderely relative who may need it.

You may have read a little about this in the papers. Basically SODC and Vale forced through a vote to adopt a programme for so-called Shared Services. It actually means combining and thinning down the senior management of both Councils to try to run the departments of both. There will only be one chief executive, the other will be made redundant. Some other senior managers will be made redundant.

The vote was forced through on a party whip on the Liberal side. Not a big deal usually, but this is a huge project that carries a number of yet unidentified risks and has real question marks around accountability. Many of the speakers in favour of it saw it as a ‘brave and ambitious’ step, but seemed content it went through with little support.

Basically it went through 24 to 17 votes. 16 Tories were present at the meeting, we were all opposed and we were joined by Lib Dem Andrew Crawford. All other against were Libs. Only 26 out of 33 Libs turned up, Joyce Hutchinson wasn’t around for the vote, choosing instead to get some fresh air rather than vote for it, but was aorund for rest of meeting. Clearly many people had been told to stay away rather than vote against it or be recorded as abstaining. One wonders how many people came along to support it to stay in favour with their party leadership. Lib Dem Richard Webber springs to mind as he wanted support for his work on Abits.

The Council is 52, so with less than half supporting this measure even considering some of them did so against their better judgement, there could well be problems..

So why did we oppose it? Primarily because it is being rushed through. The plans presented on Wednesday are woefully inadequate. This is a huge change that will put the management team in charge of the biggest District Council in England, it has not been fully proven. There has been no consideration of the risk or planning for the whole thing collapsing and the plans having to be reversed. SODC is in a much better financial position and more able to withstand the financial shock of having to unwind the thing in a couple of years if it doesn’t work. But the Vale….

In addition, will it really work anyway? If one Council wishes to campaign against what another is doing on its boundary, how could a shared management team realistically campaign against itself? More than likely SODC will be the dominant partner here, so will Councillors elected onto the Vale really be able to do what they promised their electorate? Democratically it doesn’t make sense.

Its always handy to know which way people vote in the Council I say. You could for instance check what your Councillor did and then see what they’ve got to say about it next election time. However Councillor names do not get recorded for every vote. But here’s a few where we forced a so-called named vote, for the issue under discussion. Two are listed here about fornightly bin collections and the free bus passes starting at 9:30 not 9am.

These relate to the Council meeting on Wed 21st May 2008.

First motion, Conservatives called for the Council to retain unchanged the weekly collections of black bin bags for the foreseeable future. (You may have seen some of the other news on this). We were defeated, the following voting to keep weekly collections (all Conservative)

• Matthew Barber - Faringdon
• Yvonne Constance - Craven (Sparsholt sort area I think)
• Roger Cox - Faringdon
• Terry Cox - Hanneys
• Anthony Hayward - longworth
• James McGee - Grove
• Bill Melotti - Wantage Charlton
• John Morgan - Wantage Charlton
• Mike Murray - Steventon
• Peter Saunders - Shrivenham
• Robert Sharp - Stanford
• Alison Thomson - Faringdon
• Melinda Tilley - Southmoor
• Reg Waite - Harwell
• Elaine Ware - Shrivenham

Those against (e.g. want to see fortnightly collections) were all Lib Dems

• Paul Burton - Abingdon Caldicott
• Sam Bowring - Abingdon Ock Meadow
• Andrew Crawford - Greendown (Letcombes Childrey area)
• Tony de Vere - Abingdon Abbey Barton
• Richard Farrell - Blewbury and Upton
• Beth Fleming - Abingdon Ock Meadow
• Richard Gibson - Abingdon Fitzharris
• Jim Halliday - Abingdon Fitzharris
• Jane Hanna - Marcham
• Jenny Hannaby - Wantage Segsbury
• Dudley Hinnicott - Appleton & Cumnor
• Joyce hutchinson - Wantage Segsbury
• Bob johnston - Radley
• Angela Lawrence - Abingdon Northcourt
• Julie Mayhew-Archer - Abingdon Abbey Barton
• Janet Morgan - Abingdon Dunmore
• Jerry Patterson - Kennington
• Terry Quinlan - North Hinksey
• Judy Roberts - Appleton & Cumonr
• Val Shaw - Sunnignwell & Wootton
• Tim Smith - Abingdon Dunmore
• Laurel Symons - Abingdon Northcourt
• Richard Webber - Drayton
• John Woodford - Appleton & Cumnor

Abstentions were all Lib Dem, the first is Chairman which is normal

• Alison Rooke - Abingdon Peachcroft
• Zoe Patrick - Grove
• Julia Reynolds - Wantage Charlton

Second motion called on the Council to discuss with bus companies what could be done about the 9:30 start for concessionary fares. The vote was exactly the same, except for:-

• Julia Reynolds (Lib Dem Wantage Charlton) voted ‘For’ with Conservatives rather than abstain
• Zoe Patrick (Lib Dem Grove) voted against rather than abstain
• Judy Roberts (Lib Dem Appleton) abstained rather than against

You might wish to keep a note of this for election time when your Councillor comes knocking…

I was privileged yesterday to joint the Vale Youth Forum on a visit to Parliament. What is the forum ? Well as far as I can tell a group of intelligent, articulate and well informed youngsters who take an interest in politics, their local area and what they can contribute to improve things. I was hugely impressed. Whoever has put this together deserves great credit and I think two key people are Karen Tolley and Cllr Joyce Hutchinson, however I could be doing a number of other people a disservice, simply because I don’t know.

The group consisted of about 35 youngsters from ages of probably 14 - 18, mostly in the upper age bracket. In the little group of 5 I was looking after with James McGee, we discussed a number of the big issues of the day, including the 42 day detention, abortion, consitution reform and surprisingly (for me at least) American politics.

If this is truly representative of the future then it is hugely encouraging, and the vast majority of the people were young ladies, I think there were three chaps in the whole coach. If that is to be representative, then we will have a huge growth in the number of women involving themselves in politics in the future.

At a recent Council by-election campaign we revealed how Vale Lib Dems are looking to review the provision of halls, such as Guildhall in Abingdon and Civic Hall in Wantage. Whilst the story was picked up in the press, it was not denied at all by the Lib Dem leader, but their candidate Jenny Hannaby desparate not to lose votes went further. In fact their last election leaflet they included a story ‘Ugly Rumours’ where they asked voters to let them know of any late rumours being spread by the Conservative election team such as the LDs plan to shut the Civic, or ’slaughter the first born’ of every family.

At a recent executive meeting at the Vale, of which Jenny Hannaby is a member, they had to consider whether they put the Civic Hall bar contract back out to tender. They decided not to. The reason: If they’re about the sell the hall, having a contract in place means they may not get best price. The proof they are serious about this is out there in the public domain for anyone to see, its just most people don’t look. And they don’t wish to believe Lib Dems are destroying this area.

My prediction is that the three halls, Guildhall, Civic and Corn Exchange will be sold before this term is up in 2011. Why? They need the cash because they’ve messed up the finances so bad.