Hull and East Riding Taxpayers' Alliance

Important Notice

2011-04-13T20:43:00.000+01:00

Thank you for visiting the Hull & East Riding branch of the TPA. All blog posts from the branch can now be found on the main TaxPayers' Alliance website. To view them click here.

Council tax summonses hit a new high

2010-11-07T22:02:00.001Z

We all have to pay our council tax, and we know we can be imprisoned for non-payment. The thought of appearing before the magistrates’ court is enough for the vast majority of us to pay up on time, even though we know so much of our hard earned cash is being wasted in town halls across the country.

A story emerged last week that both Hull City Council and East Riding Council have being issuing summonses for late payment as if they are going out of fashion. If you wish to pay your council tax each month by payment methods other than direct debit, East Riding Council insists you pay on the 1st of the month, and Hull insists you pay by the 7th of the month.

There are many reasons why some people do not choose the direct debit option. Some pensioners don’t trust it. Some people may have been declared bankrupt and cannot open a bank account. Many people are struggling to make ends meet in the current economic climate and cannot be certain to have the cash available at the set time. Surely, it would not be too much to expect councils to show some consideration? If a payment for November is paid in November, does it matter if it’s paid on the 7th of the month, or the 15th? Councils think differently and are making sure those who can least afford it get the nasty letters and demands.

I will give you an example. Someone who I know contacted me recently. He has just had to find over £600 to pay off his council tax bill in full for the rest of the year. His crime was being just two days late on his payments on three occasions in the past seven months. His business is not doing very well at the moment and life for him is a struggle. Like many people in Britain he is having to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’. He has never been more than a couple of days in arrears, but is Hull City Council bothered? Not in the least. No offers of help and certainly no notification of what will happen if you pay your bill late for a third month.

People who chose to pay by direct debit are also falling foul of the rules too. If a bank pays the council a day late because the due date falls on a weekend, that triggers off a nasty letter. Think about it. If your bank pays your direct debit a day late three times in a year, you will be told you have forfeited your right to pay in instalments, and will receive a demand for the full amount. If you don’t pay, you will be taken to court.

We are only seven months into the current financial year, and already summonses have been issued to more than 10% of households in Hull. At this rate, around 1 in 5 households will receive a summons by the end of March. If a private company treated people in this way councillors across the country would be up in arms. When councils treat people badly, councillors stay quiet.

Council tax bills have doubled over the last decade. All of us have witnessed councils wasting our cash in variety of different ways, and despite public opposition, councillors have not listened. They expect us to pick up the bill. If they hadn’t wasted so much money, council tax bills would be lower and those struggling to make ends meet would find it easier to pay.

If you want to know how your council treats people with financial difficulties, and how many summonses they have issued this year, contact me (andrew.allison@taxpayersalliance.com), and I will send you a ready made Freedom of Information Request for you to send off.

Council leaders need to ‘think out of the box’

2010-10-27T14:56:00.001+01:00

Below is an article I wrote for the Hull & East Riding Mail, published on Tuesday 26 October.

Last week, George Osborne announced details of the long-awaited comprehensive spending review. Over the next four years, the government will make over £80 billion of spending cuts, and although this is a huge amount of money, it is important to put these figures into perspective.

Today the government spent £120 million to pay off the interest on its debts. This equates to over £43 billion a year. In September, the government borrowed £16.2 billion, simply to pay its bills. There is no doubt cuts have to be made, and councils across the country will have to make savings of over 7% every year for the next four years.

Many will think this is impossible and are dreading the worst, but there are councils in the UK who have achieved significant savings in recent years, and importantly, frontline services have not been affected. Necessity is the mother of invention, and these cuts bring both challenges and opportunities.

The Nobel prize-winning economist, Milton Friedman, once said, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.” Or as Ronald Reagan once said, “Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.” Government isn’t good at running things. It invariably makes a hash of anything it gets its hands on. Most capital projects come in way over time and way over budget, so my advice to council leaders is to ‘think out of the box.’

What they should do is come up with a list of services they currently provide and ask themselves if these services could be provided cheaper and more effectively by an outside organisation. For example, what do councils know about running arts centres? Not much, but arts charities do, and can run arts centres in a better and more cost effective way.

Windsor and Maidenhead Council recently installed smart meters in its buildings and the result was a 15% reduction in energy consumption. The London boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Kensington & Chelsea have proposed to merge all their services, from schools and refuse collection to child protection, under the direction of a single chief executive. They estimate they can collectively save £100 million. Although there will be job losses, many workers will jump at the opportunity to retire early or take voluntary redundancy. Perhaps this is something Hull and East Riding councils should think about? Is there a reason why two neighbouring councils should have two chief executives, over a dozen directors, and management teams duplicating the work of each other? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to pool resources?

No doubt Carl Minns and Stephen Parnaby have their own ideas, but what they must do is preserve frontline services. I think they can do that, improve some services, and deliver a reduction in costs. Time will tell how successful they are.

I’m sure many readers will have ideas how their councils can save money. Council leaders are currently looking for ideas, before they start finalising their budgets. Why not contact your council and make your suggestions?

Car Parking in Hull and Sheffield

2010-10-08T20:41:00.000+01:00

Last week, I wrote about a campaign organised by businesses in Hull City Centre. They are tired of over-zealous parking wardens driving away potential customers, and are appealing to Hull City Council to show some leadership and rein in the wardens.

This story in the Yorkshire Post today highlights the difference between two Yorkshire councils. In Sheffield, the council has listened to traders' concerns and introduced free parking in three of the city's busiest shopping areas. People who just want to 'pop' into a couple of shops and then get on their way can now park for 15 minutes without incurring a charge. An excellent idea that will help boost trade.

In Hull, free parking in council car parks - apart from a Sunday - is not available. You cannot park on a city centre street with incurring a charge - even on a Sunday - and the parking wardens patrol the city's streets determined to raise as much revenue as possible.

The government is encouraging us all to be part of the 'big society.' For this to work, local councils need to remember they exist is serve the public. People who want to shop and businesses who want to trade need to be able to do so with councils helping them; not working against them.

So, top marks to councillors in Sheffield who have listened. As for Hull City Council -it must do better, and with important elections taking place in the city next year, now is a good time to tell the leader, Cllr Carl Minns (councillor.minns@hullcc.gov.uk) and the cabinet member responsible for parking, Mike Ross (councillor.ross@hullcc.gov.uk) you want an end to high parking charges and over-zealous parking wardens. The prospect of people not voting for you and your party usually has the effect of changing politicians' minds.

The parking nightmare in Hull

2010-10-01T12:27:00.001+01:00

I’m starting to think about the old-fashioned traffic wardens in a nostalgic way. They were the scourge of every motorist, but – in Hull at least – they generally used some common sense before issuing a parking ticket.

Five years ago, Hull City Council took over the responsibility of parking enforcement and awarded a contract to a private company, Vinci Park. I have no idea if their parking wardens are on commission, but judging by their behaviour, they may as well be.

If your car is parked in a space, but a small portion is hanging over a yellow line, you’ll get a ticket. One lady couldn’t get into a parking space, so decided to abandon her attempt and move into a larger space that had just been vacated. The parking warden issued a ticket because she moved out of the space and should not have used another space until an hour had elapsed. One 89 year-old lady received a fine for displaying her disabled badge upside down.

The behaviour of the wardens has prompted businesses in the city centre to organise a campaign against them. Needless to say the TPA is right behind them. In the current economic climate it is hard to earn a living. The last thing you want is customers driven away by petty jobsworths who have nothing better to do than inflict pain on unsuspecting members of the public who are, at best, guilty of minor infringements.

Hull City Council has said it will listen to the concerns and take them into account when its contract with Vinci Park is up for renewal. This is where all of us can get involved. The cabinet member responsible for parking is Councillor Mike Ross (councillor.ross@hullcc.gov.uk). Write to him and tell him how dissatisfied you are with Vinci Park and how tired you are of being treated like a cash cow. If enough people bombard his inbox, he will be forced to take this into account when the new contract is awarded.

In the meantime, I am in the process of contacting people to see how this campaign can be accelerated and given the prominence it deserves. I will – as ever – keep you informed of the progress made.

Bridlington Renaissance Parnership

2010-09-22T12:25:00.001+01:00

If you want an example of how not to regenerate a town, Bridlington is a prime example. These are not just my words; speak to residents of the town, and they will tell you the same. Millions of pounds has been spent on controversial projects and despite local opposition, the appointed guardians of regeneration, the Bridlington Renaissance Partnership (BRP), has ploughed on regardless. One councillor told me many residents have contacted him with complaints, but because the BRP is not under the control of East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) he was unable to put a stop to the excesses.

Yorkshire Forward – along with all Regional Development Agencies – is soon to be confined to the dustbin of history, therefore ERYC has now decided to fund the BRP itself. There isn’t going to be a review into how the regeneration will continue. The same people will be employed to do the same things – the very same things people have been complaining about. Here is a quote from Cllr Geoff Pickering who represents the Bridlington South Ward:

"The cabinet has approved a number of notable extensions to the lifetime of the Bridlington Renaissance Project, but without reassessment of the delivery needs and mechanisms.

"Despite the cabinet's continued support, the council's aims for the town's economy have not been realised. In any other environment, this would trigger a thorough investigation, not another extension.

"There has not even been a basic skills assessment of the posts involved to ensure we have the right job descriptions and right capacity to move forward, instead, an unquestioned extension of all contracts.

"This does not represent best practice and is not a financially responsible position. This report is authored by officers who have a vested interest in maintaining their jobs."

Cllr Pickering sums it up. If public money is going to be placed into the regeneration pot, there must be careful consideration of the needs and views of local people. In private business, aims and objectives would have to be met, otherwise you wouldn’t be in business for very long. Carrying on regardless – which appears to be the policy of ERYC – not only continues to waste public money, but is a ‘kick in the teeth’ for hard pressed taxpayers paying for it.

Senior ERYC councillors must take political control and do the job they were elected to do. They must no longer give the BRP a free hand. They must listen and act on the views of local councillors and residents. There needs to be a clear business case put forward before a penny more is spent, and those responsible for previous failures need to be told to look for alternative employment.

Put in place the right tax and regulatory regimes, work hand-in-hand with the private sector, and solutions will be found that will create jobs and prosperity. As for the grandiose nonsense no-one wants; confine it - just like Yorkshire Forward - to the dustbin of history.

Augmented pensions at East Riding of Yorkshire Council

2010-09-20T15:50:00.001+01:00

The headline in the East Riding Mail this morning read: Staff Pension cutbacks ‘would save council £255,000 over five years’. It sounds good, but when you read the detail, you realise it’s still very much ‘business as usual’ at County Hall, in Beverley.

Many will remember Sue Lockwood, the former Corporate Resources Director of East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC). The TPA held two protests outside County Hall, protesting against a discretionary payment made to her pension fund of £364,205. She received this outrageous sum because she wanted to take early retirement. This was at a time when councillors were also saying the council could no longer afford to fund some community projects. Where charities lost out, senior council employees won.

ERYC is now proposing a change. As it stands, when employees wish to take early retirement their pensions can be enhanced by 5 years; as was the case with Ms Lockwood. Under new proposals, this enhancement will decrease to a maximum of 2 years, hence the headline in the East Riding Mail. By my calculations, instead of receiving £364K, Ms Lockwood would have received over £145K. Still a sizeable sum by anyone’s standards.

I made my views very clear in the press a couple of weeks ago. Council employees already receive generous, taxpayer funded pensions. If you work for 30 years, you should receive a pension based on 30 years service; not 35 or 32 years. This should be the message coming out of County Hall. Instead Cllr Cross, chairman of the review panel, said these proposals were fair to taxpayers and staff. No, Cllr Cross, they are generous to staff and unfair to taxpayers.

These proposals have yet to be discussed by the cabinet and full council. I will be writing to all cabinet members, and making the TPA’s case that council employees should not receive any enhancements in their pensions. If that doesn’t work, I can feel another protest coming on. Watch this space.

Councillors’ allowances and taxpayer funding of unions

2010-09-12T10:04:00.001+01:00

Below is a short article I wrote for the Hull Daily Mail, published on Saturday 11 September.

At this time of year, we learn how much our local councillors have been paid in allowances and expenses, and the perennial debate commences on whether or not they provide value for money. During the course of my work, I speak to many councillors and there are those who are extremely hardworking and, as in any other profession or walk of life, there are those who are not.

This year, though, the leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Stephen Parnaby, announced councillors in his authority will not receive a rise next year and Carl Minns, leader of Hull City Council, has announced cabinet members will take a pay cut of 5% from January next year. We in the Taxpayers’ Alliance welcome these moves, as it shows councillors are prepared to lead by example as the inevitable cuts to public services start to bite. My only is question to Mr Parnaby is: Why has it taken so long? Hull City councillors have been on a pay freeze for the last four years. Nevertheless, his decision is welcome news.

What has annoyed me – and many others on the Mail’s website – are the comments from Dave Mathieson, the convenor of the UNITE union in Hull. He has called for all councillors in the city to take a pay cut. This is not a reasonable option – considering they have not received an increase in four years – and his comments prove the old adage, people in glass houses should not throw stones.

Mr Mathieson is not paid by his union; he is paid by the taxpayer. He has received salary increases over the past four years and as far as I’m aware, he has not volunteered to take a 5% pay cut himself. I am not ideologically opposed to trades’ unions. If people wish to join one, it is up to them. I think my views are in tune with the majority of the British people, however, it is wrong that every taxpayer in the country indirectly funds them. If UNITE wants a full-time convenor in Hull, it should pay for it themselves.

I have seen the income from my business fall by around a third in the past couple of years. If only my outgoings had done the same. If Mr Mathieson wants to lead by example, perhaps he should resign from his job at Hull City Council, become a full-time employee on his union’s payroll, and relieve taxpayers of the expense of his salary. If he does this voluntarily, I will be the first person to congratulate him.

Senior councillors take a pay cut

2010-09-03T07:46:00.001+01:00

It was announced this morning that Hull City Council cabinet members are taking a 5% pay cut. There are those who will say this is gesture politics, and the net savings to taxpayers will be very small. In comparison to the overall council budget, we are talking about small change, however, what this decision does is send a clear message to council workers and council taxpayers that the cabinet is prepared to lead by example. This also comes on the back of a four-year pay freeze for the city’s councillors, and a decision to reduce the pay of the chief executive when the post was advertised last year.

Today’s announcement is very welcome news and something we in the TPA have been campaigning for. We hope other councils around the country will follow Hull’s example.

East Riding councillors’ allowances rise by 25% in four years

2010-08-24T15:38:00.001+01:00

This is the time of year when we learn how much councillors have been paid in allowances and expenses. It was reported in the Hull Daily Mail that a total of £1.2 million was paid to East Riding councillors for 2009/10; an increase of £100,000 on the previous year. Although the council leader, Stephen Parnaby has said there will be a freeze on allowances next year (an election year), this compares very badly to Hull City Council where councillors have been on a pay freeze for the last four years.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. In 2005/6, at total of £946, 208 was paid to Hull City councillors. In 2009/10, this increased to £955,409; a rise of 1%. In the East Riding, councillors were paid £906,000 in 2005/6. In just four years, councillors have seen their allowances and expenses rise by almost 25%. In the past year, when the rest of us have been struggling to make ends meet, East Riding councillors have enjoyed an increase of almost 10%.

The usual excuses will no doubt be reeled out, saying that councillors give excellent value for money, and they are only implementing the decisions of the Independent Review Panel. This is cold comfort for taxpayers who have seen their council tax bills rise, and have had to pay huge sums of money into the pension funds of senior staff who have applied for early retirement.

The gravy train has not hit the buffers, but perhaps, if we are lucky, we can say it has hit an uphill gradient. Time will tell.

Local Enterprise Partnerships

2010-08-10T17:51:00.001+01:00

When the government announced the abolition of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) I was asked by a local journalist if I was already dancing on the bonfire. It was a little premature as, unfortunately, RDAs will still be with us until April 2012. I had hoped they were going to be abolished next year, as leaving them there until 2012 is rather like letting an animal die a slow death, but at least they are on the way out. Three cheers to that!

When the government then announced RDAs would be replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), my heart sank. This sounded like another excuse to form many local quangos around the country. Unfortunately, this is still a possibility, and it all depends on who is your local council leader.

It was reported in the Hull Daily Mail yesterday, Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council are going to form a LEP, rather than have a body covering both banks of the Humber. After speaking to the leader of Hull City Council, Carl Minns, I am reassured to hear the proposed LEP will not have a set budget, will not have additional staff, will not have new offices (existing space will be utilised), and above all will be fully accountable to both councils. He reminded me, as if I didn’t need reminding, there was no money for all of these ‘extras’, although it is good to have these assurances on the record.

This is the good news, but unfortunately not all council leaders believe in prudence and accountability. The following is from the official news feed of Leeds City Council, and you will see how the Leeds City Region LEP is going to take shape:

Leeds City Region Partnership brings together the 11 local authorities of Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby, Wakefield, York and North Yorkshire to work across administrative boundaries to promote economic growth and a better quality of life for our communities. With close to 3m people, a resident workforce of 1.3m, over 100,000 businesses and an economy worth over £50bn each year, Leeds City Region is the largest city region outside London.

Isn’t the point of LEPs in the title; local? Doesn’t this rather sound like an RDA with a different source for funding it? It does to me, and I have heard on the grapevine it will have its own staff and offices, and I would bet the shirt off my back that accountability to local businesses and residents will take a back seat to the bureaucracy this LEP will create. When it comes to attracting investment to the area, how will smaller council areas fare, compared to places like Leeds and Bradford? Those two councils will no doubt contribute larger amounts of cash than their smaller partners.

Two of the biggest criticisms I have heard about Yorkshire Forward is its bureaucracy and its failings in helping small businesses. How is this going to change? It’s not, and that is the problem. At least with the proposed LEP in East Yorkshire, there is a chance of bringing inward investment benefitting Hull and surrounding areas, with the minimum of red tape. This is a model I had hoped other councils would take a lead from, rather than more grandiose schemes, which we thought were going to be a thing of the past.

Proposed Academies in Hull – Update

2010-08-08T21:39:00.001+01:00

On Saturday 7 August, I had the following letter published in the Hull Daily Mail:

Dear Editor,

The news that Hull City Council intends to go ahead and attempt to build a new school academy in West Hull, defies all logic. Although Endeavour High School has been beset with problems almost from the start, its buildings are only a few years old and could easily accommodate a new academy. Instead, the council - through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme - is intent on getting its hands on millions of pounds of our money to build a new school when other services will be facing cuts.

Elsewhere in the city, despite huge public opposition, BSF intends to rob residents of the Princess Elizabeth Playing Fields by building the new Northern Academy. Other sites were available, but thanks to bureaucratic red tape and sheer belligerence, they have been bypassed. It does make you wonder when our elected representatives will listen to the people who elect them? We all want the best education possible for our children, but this does not necessarily mean we need new buildings. It is what goes on in the classroom that matters. Instead of throwing money at the problem, why don't we start getting the basics right? Angering the public and building schools that aren't needed is not the way forward.

A fresh campaign has already started in North Hull. Residents are once again collecting signatures and writing letters in an attempt to get the council and the government to see sense, and build the academy in a better location. If you agree with them, please write to the press and voice your concerns. Outline planning permission has already been granted, but a strong campaign can still halt the building work.

The same goes for the building of the proposed new academy in West Hull. Write to the Hull Daily Mail or the Yorkshire Post, and voice your concerns. You can also write to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, and tell him what you think. If the government really does believe in listening to us, this is a good way to test the water.

The West Hull Academy can easily be housed in existing buildings. The Northern Academy can easily be built in places other than playing fields that are well used by local people. We can’t do it alone. Please help in the campaign.

Welfare Reform

2010-07-23T18:30:00.001+01:00

This is the new video from the TPA, highlighting our new report on welfare reform. The full report can be found here.

I find it amazing that many who are on benefits will only be 26p an hour better off going out to work. Is it any wonder there are too many people claiming state benefits who should be in work?

Millions to be spent on another new academy in Hull

2010-07-23T16:54:00.001+01:00

The education system in Hull has taken more than its fair share of knocks over the years. In all fairness to the teachers, Hull is a city where education is regarded as unimportant. Until parents realise their children’s future lies with a good education, very little will change. Today though one school is celebrating. St Mary’s School has received an outstanding OFSTED report and it is the first school in the city to ever receive such a commendation. Well done to the pupils and staff who have worked very hard to achieve this.

Unfortunately, elsewhere in the city our money is being wasted through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Seven years ago, a new school opened on Beverley Road, called Endeavour High School. It was an amalgamation of William Gee and Amy Johnson Schools. It was beset with problems as soon as it opened its doors. Hull City Council wants to close this school and build a new academy in the west of the city. The academy’s new home could be the Boulevard, the former home of Hull FC Rugby League Club. The council states Endeavour was built in the wrong location! So what? Why should taxpayers have to shell out millions of pounds, especially with the current cuts starting to bite, because Hull City Council wants to relocate after less than 10 years? The last government approved the relocation, and it looks like nothing is going to change. Once a site can be found, building work will take place. All of this is on top of the costs of acquiring land to build the new Northern Academy to replace Sir Henry Cooper School. Whilst none of us want our children to be educated in falling down schools, surely it is what goes on in the classroom that matters.

Schools in the area have been told there is no extra money available to them. So why is it Michael Gove thinks is it appropriate to spend money on a new academy, when the school it is replacing has buildings less than 10 years old?

This nonsense is complete waste of money and I hope the government has a rethink and decides to shelve this ridiculous plan.

Boston Tea Party

2010-07-14T21:38:00.001+01:00

On Sunday 11 July, I attended the Boston Tea Party. No, I am not Dr Who on a time travelling adventure. This tea party took place in the original Boston in Lincolnshire and was organised by the Freedom Association.

The tea party movement in the United States has taken the country by storm. Ordinary citizens who are sick and tired of high taxes and government waste, have come together to voice their opposition to the ruling elite. This is what we did a few days ago. As well as dumping tea into the river, we also heard short speeches from Roger Helmer MEP (Conservative), Derek Clark MEP (UKIP), and Robin Tilbrook, the leader of the English Democrats.

We British are not good at taking to the streets and protesting. We tend to complain to our friends and relatives, maybe write the odd letter to the press, and sign a petition or two, but usually that’s as far as it goes. Remember, if you want change, you have to campaign for it. How about setting up a TPA branch in your area? If this interests you, Grassroots Manger, Fiona McEvoy will happily hear from you.

No more handouts in the East Riding

2010-06-28T17:05:00.001+01:00

Last Wednesday, the Hull & East Riding TPA protested again outside County Hall in Beverley. For the reasons why we were protesting, click HERE. The protest was also covered by the Politics Show. To see the footage, click HERE, and scroll in 54 minutes.

I am pleased to report three Conservative councillors voted to disagree with the decision to award Ms Lockwood her discretionary payment, and three others abstained. If a few others had the guts to stand up to the leadership, rather than be bullied, the vote could easily have gone against Cllr Parnaby and his cabinet.

I would urge all members and supporters who are tired of seeing their money thrown down the drain, to stand up and be counted. Ms Lockwood may have her money, but payments like this will not take place again, and this is largely through the pressure we have put on the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. In this respect we have won a major victory, and the council knows the TPA will be looking over its shoulder, scrutinising the decisions it makes.

Many thanks to all our supporters who have sent me messages of support. They are appreciated. I cannot do my work representing the TPA without you.

New TPA Video: £20.8 million paid to the EU every day

2010-06-18T14:12:00.001+01:00

Yorkshire Forward

2010-06-18T12:00:00.001+01:00

Last week I wrote about the abolition of one of the local regeneration quangos, Hull Forward. Since then, Hull Forward has been winning the PR war, and there is a popular misconception in the city that regeneration work will now stop. It wasn’t helped by Cllr Rick Welton, the cabinet portfolio holder responsible for regeneration, who was interviewed by Peter Levy on BBC Look North. He stated Hull City Council would not be able to do as good a job as Hull Forward, which is complete nonsense, and thankfully his views are not shared by all of his colleagues.

Today, Yorkshire Forward is in the spotlight as it battles for its own survival. The TPA has long campaigned for the abolition of Regional Development Agencies (RDAS). To read a report we published in 2008, click here. There are two main reasons why I would like to see Yorkshire Forward abolished. It is unaccountable to the people it is supposed to serve and it has not been a driver for economic change, and has therefore been a waste of money.

Yorkshire Forward – in common with all RDAs – is only accountable to ministers who fund it. Getting a grant approved involves a hugely burdonsome bureaucratic process and if you look at the accounts of, for example, Hull Forward and the Bridlington Renaissance Partnership, you will find out huge sums of money are paid to those unelected and largely unaccountable local quangos. From what people tell me, the partnership is far from popular in Bridlington. Local small businesses are unhappy that our money is being spent on consultants and architects telling them what is good for them. If they want to complain, their councillors cannot help them in any way, as the ‘renaissance’ is not under local authority control. This has to stop and any future regeneration projects must become fully accountable.

The UK’s recovery must be lead by the private sector. One thing we have learned over the past decade is we cannot afford a huge public sector. Small businesses are the life-blood of the British economy, and it is essential they get the support they need. A reduction in the rate of corporation tax small businesses pay will allow them to invest in their companies. An increase in the threshold small businesses have to pay corporation tax would also help them enormously. This can be achieved if RDAs are abolished, and the money saved put in this area.

We can no longer afford to pump money into ineffective quangos, and handing control of the regeneration purse strings to local authorities will allow you and I to question how our money is being spent. The more accountability there is, the less scope there is to waste our taxes.

I will discussing Yorkshire Forward with Peter Levy tonight on BBC Look North in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at 6.30pm.

Hull Forward to be abolished

2010-06-09T14:19:00.003+01:00

The news buzzing around Hull today is one of the local Quangos, Hull Forward, will close-down in September. I naturally feel for the 34 staff who will lose their jobs, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy Hull Forward is going to be abolished.

Some local businesses are expressing regret over the decision, however it is important to note regeneration work in the city will still continue. It can be done by existing staff in Hull City Council, and if the council wishes to employ more people, no doubt some of those who are losing their jobs will be under consideration. It simply doesn't need an additional Quango to do this work. It is an expense the taxpayer can do without, along with another chief executive on a six-figure salary, and after September money spent on attracting businesses and on regeneration projects will become fully accountable. This is a positive move.

Now that Hull Forward has been despatched, how about some of the other non-accountable bodies such as the Bridlington Renaissance Partnership? More about this local Quango later this week.

Protest Rally, 23 June

2010-06-08T15:29:00.001+01:00

The Yorkshire Post reports today that many voluntary and community groups in the East Riding of Yorkshire will miss out on grants awarded by the council which has received applications totalling £134,445. Only £73,000 is in the pot, which the East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) cabinet is unlikely to change.

Money is tight and it is the responsibility of councillors to spend our money wisely and I am sure many voluntary groups will be disappointed. I’m sure though those groups will look at some of the recent decisions of ERYC and feel they are being short changed. In 2008, councillors approved large inflation busting pay rises to retain the services of senior staff. Any responsible authority would have attached strings to these deals; such as not allowing them to leave their jobs for 5 years. It didn’t and as a result three senior officers have left (with an enhanced final salary pension) and large discretionary payments have been made to their pension funds. The most recent – and arguably the most notorious – has been the discretionary payment of £364,205 made to Sue Lockwood.

At the beginning of May we protested outside County Hall in Beverley, and on 23 June – the day after the emergency budget – a meeting of the full council will take place. We will be there again on a day when councillors will be able to ‘note with regret’ that the payment to Ms Lockwood has been authorised. We will be also be protesting against the removal of Cllr Gary Shores from two scrutiny committees. Cllr Shores joined us at the last rally, and the leadership has shown if you are a Conservative councillor, you cannot publicly disagree with them without consequences. What is the point of having a scrutiny process if anyone who disagrees with the cabinet is barred from serving on a scrutiny committee? What’s the point of having scrutiny committees? This proves once again that democracy is dead in County Hall.

We British are notoriously bad at complaining and protesting. We tend to accept our lot and moan to friends and family privately. Unless we publicly protest and make our views known, nothing will change. We protested in May, and we need to keep on protesting until they realise we are not going away. Please join us on 23 June, at 1.00pm. The full council meets at 2.00pm, so if you want to, you can sit in the public viewing area and watch your elected representatives in action.

Thank you.

Promote tourism and don’t waste our money on gimmicks

2010-06-07T12:41:00.001+01:00

Back in February, I campaigned for lower car parking charges in Beverley. Traders were complaining high parking charges were spoiling the cafe culture in the town, as shoppers were thinking about getting back to their cars, rather than relaxing with some coffee and cake. Thankfully, some parking charges have been reduced. This is a way of attracting visitors and not rushing them out of the town as quickly as they came in.

Last week, the cost of the Beverley Town trail was revealed, thanks to a Freedom of Information request from the Hull Daily Mail. Here is a picture of one of the sculptures that some people say will attract visitors.

There are 39 sculptures, and they range in cost from £1,500 to £43,500. The estimated cost in 2002 was £110,000. The actual cost is £350,000. More than half of this has been met with public money.

Beverley is a beautiful town, attracting many visitors. Making the town look clean and tidy is the right thing to do. Expensive gimmicks are not needed, and although this trail was planned during the years of plenty, Visit Hull & East Yorkshire (VHEY) are planning to waste more of our cash, this time installing sculptures along the Wolds Way. From the Hull Daily Mail:

Regional tourist board Visit Hull and East Yorkshire (VHEY) plans to install ten sculptures and six benches along the 79-mile route to attract tourists.

Despite being one of the country's most charming landscapes, the Wolds Way is the most under-walked national trail in England.

The "landmark" artworks will appear at locations including the Humber Bridge, Fridaythorpe, Millington and the dramatic Filey Brigg headland.

So far, £150,000 of funding has been secured from Leader, a European Community scheme managed by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

VHEY says it is hoping to secure money from the Arts Council England, local authorities, grant-giving trusts and private sponsorship.

It is a very beautiful part of Yorkshire, and once again doesn’t need any gimmicks. It’s needs better promotion. I want as many visitors as possible to experience what we have to offer. Promote what we have, and don’t waste our money in the process.

LibDem councillor in Hull defects to Labour

2010-06-07T11:58:00.001+01:00

On a personal note, I have always thought a by-election should be automatically triggered when an MP or councillor defects to another party in between elections. Voters have elected a candidate under a party manifesto, and are clearly not getting what they thought when they placed their ‘X’ on the ballot paper. It’s not a common event, but it did happen in Hull last week.

Cllr Maureen Bristow, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Hull, defected to the Labour Party. This does not change the overall balance of the council, as the Liberal Democrats still hold an overall majority. Cllr Bristow is up for re-election next year.

£600K wasted by Doncaster Council

2010-06-03T15:12:00.001+01:00

A quick factoid for you: If I was to stand up and talk about each Quango for just one minute, I would sit down after a marathon speech of 19 hours and 8 minutes. With over a thousand Quangos in the UK, I’m sure you’ll forgive me for not remembering all of them, although occasionally some of the more obscure ones raise their ugly heads above the parapet. This week it is the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), and taxpayers have certainly paid a price for its ideas.

Like many of you, the Internet is my first port of call when I need some information. It doesn’t seem to matter what information you need, somewhere, somehow you will find it on the web. Thanks to advances in technology, I can also access anything I want on my mobile phone. I can send e-mails, check the latest news reports and access information about council services. If I’m having problems, instead of using my phone as a computer, I can dial a number and speak to someone. This is what the majority of people do, and those who do not have access to the Internet can pop down to their local library or use a friend’s computer. In short, it has never been easier for us to get the information we need.

In 2005 – with the encouragement of IDeA - Doncaster Council announced it would be installing 38 public information kiosks in public buildings and on street corners. It is only five years ago and at the time many people were using computers with Internet connections at home, and the next generation of mobile phones were about to be launched. Why then would you find the need to access information about council services on a street corner? The people of Doncaster answered the question very well; they didn’t and unsurprisingly many of these kiosks were vandalised. There was also - unsurprisingly when it comes to government IT projects – a series of technical problems which added to the costs. Now, five years later, the scheme is being quietly scrapped, with the taxpayer picking up a bill of over £600,000.

There are two morals to this story. When too many people think it isn’t their money, they will waste it, and when our money is spent in a largely unaccountable way, more will be wasted in hair-brained schemes like this one. Doncaster Council should have known better, although IDeA, in an attempt to justify its existence, pushed council officers in this direction. How many other councils around the country fell for it and how much of our money has been wasted on similar schemes? When the Bonfire of the Quangos starts to burn, I will happily place IDeA on it.

Introducing Direct Democracy – better government for Hull & the East Riding

2010-05-28T13:13:00.001+01:00

In 2008, I heard Douglas Carswell speak about ‘The Plan’, a book he co-authored with Daniel Hannan. I immediately bought a copy and after reading it thought this would never become government policy. It didn’t make any difference which party was in power (I didn’t think at the time we would have a coalition at the next election), self interest would always override the idealism leaders have in opposition. Giving away the power you now hold – and have been waiting years to hold – generally never happens.

The new government has made a good start, although I am disappointed I will not be asked in a referendum if I want an elected mayor for Hull. I do. I also think people in the East Riding should have the chance to decide if they want an elected mayor too. I would campaign with vigour for a yes vote in a referendum, but the whole point of direct democracy is letting people decide how they want to be governed. If they want an elected Mayor; let them have one. If they do not; then they won’t.

The plans set out on the Direct Democracy website would make a huge difference to a city like Hull, and would engage more residents in the political process. In local elections, only around a third of registered voters bother to visit the polling stations. Apathy in the political process in rife. So many think if they vote nothing will change, and who can blame them? The top-heavy, one-size-fits-all system of government we have in this country is largely responsible for this apathy.

Take a look at the website and read how these plans will positively affect you and the communities in which you live; and sign-up for the newsletter too. This is the best way we can join together and campaign for better government.

How long do you work for the tax man?

2010-05-28T12:39:00.000+01:00

All for one and one for all

2010-05-20T15:31:00.001+01:00

This is from Big Brother Watch. Spend a minute or so to find out how the Ghanaian government is promoting ID cards. I haven’t laughed as much in a long time.

Costs rise for new Police Divisional HQ in Hull

2010-05-20T13:48:00.001+01:00

Earlier this week I reported how Humberside Police were going to spend £25,000 on artwork outside their new – yet to be built – divisional headquarters in Hull. The good news today is the authority has backed down. Unfortunately, along with the good news there is some bad news.

It has also been announced the cost of building this new police station has risen from £26 million to £33 million. I thought the first figure was excessive, but a £7 million hike really is unacceptable. The question on everyone’s lips is: how are they planning to spend this money? The answer is: we don’t know. Humberside Police are very tight lipped on this subject, but hopefully we will be better informed next week, however, looking at the plans it appears the new police station will have beautiful landscaped gardens. It wouldn’t surprise me if a fountain isn’t built to make us feel good when we go in to report a crime.

What really disappoints me is at a time when police resources are stretched, and nationally there are more civilians working for police authorities than warranted officers, the Humberside Police Authority feels it is appropriate to allow costs to rise on capital projects. One wonders when some public bodies will get it. We are trying to reduce costs and bring down the huge government debt that will soon pass the £800 billion mark.

As I said earlier, I should have more information on the breakdown of costs for the new HQ next week. I will report back when I have the figures to hand.

Humberside Police to spend £25K on artwork

2010-05-18T17:22:00.001+01:00

Humberside Police are planning to build a new divisional headquarters in Hull, at an estimated cost of £26 million. The existing HQ in Queens Gardens is apparently no longer fit for service. The Taxpayers’ Alliance will be keeping on a close eye on the plans for the new HQ, for we all know major building projects involving public money are regularly completed over-budget, with our money wasted in a variety of ways.

The Hull Daily Mail reports today that the police authority intends to set aside £25,000 to commission a piece of public art to stand in the plaza leading up to the main entrance. I am not an aficionado of modern sculpture, so I don’t know what £25K buys you these days, however, I do know placing a sculpture outside the main entrance to a police station is not necessary expenditure. I was talking to two police officers last year and they told me how stretched they were on manpower, so instead of wasting money, why doesn’t Humberside Police use it to recruit an additional police officer? Instead of spending £26 million on a state-of-the-art HQ, why doesn’t it scale back its plans and use the money saved to assist in fighting crime? Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but isn’t fighting crime the main reason we have a police force?

East Riding Council to freeze council tax in 2011/12

2010-05-14T14:33:00.001+01:00

In February, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council announced a 1.5% increase in council tax for 2010/11, saying it couldn’t find anymore efficiency savings and that it was dipping into reserve funds to limit the rise. Today it is reported the council leader, Stephen Parnaby, has announced a freeze in council tax for 2011/12. He said freezing the amount people pay would be achieved through savings being made across the authority, including £10 million over the last financial year.

The last financial year was 2009/10, the year in which he said he couldn’t make anymore savings. My response is to ask if it this easy to save money, why isn’t there going to be a reduction in council tax? I have previously stated that the council is overstaffed with managers, and the scope for efficiency savings, year on year, is great. If the council didn’t waste public money by making discretionary payments to senior officers’ pension funds, then there would be more scope to reduce council tax.

I was trying to work out why these savings were not passed in the current financial year, then I realised in May 2011 the full council is up for re-election. I’m not saying this is the reason, but it doesn’t do the Tory cause any harm going into local elections on the back of a council tax freeze – or possible reduction. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

A message from Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance

2010-05-12T16:09:00.001+01:00

Tax policy under the coalition

Britain has a new Government - and the first true coalition Government in over half a century. Whilst the ink is barely dry on the deal, and the full Cabinet and policy platform is yet to be announced, the first bits of information are surfacing about the tax policies they are likely to pursue.

On public spending, where many absolutely crucial decisions must be taken to battle the deficit and then reduce the national debt, we have yet to hear anything (other than an encouraging rumour about removing the Tory ringfence on NHS spending). We, of course, will be lobbying and campaigning hard to see the ideas for spending cuts contained in the TPA Manifesto and How to Cut Public Spending (and still win an election) adopted - but we won't really know more until the emergency budget in around 6 weeks.

So what do we know on the tax side so far?

There were three key tax policy issues at stake going into the coalition negotiations, one of them Lib Dem and two Conservative. They are: the £10,000 income tax threshold (Lib Dem policy); scrapping Brown's National Insurance Rise (Conservative policy); raising the inheritance tax threshold (Conservative).

Each of these has been the subject of detailed negotiations, and here is the current state of play as we understand it:

£10,000 income tax threshold

This has survived the coalition deal, and has been taken up by both parties, widely being reported as a "priority". This is excellent news - it was among the most radical tax policies put forward during the campaign, and the Conservatives really missed a trick by not making it their own in the first place. It is both simple and sizeable, allowing the existing workforce to keep more of their own money - to the tune of £700 for the average worker - and providing a meaningful incentive for people to leave benefits and move into employment.

Scrapping Brown's National Insurance Rise

This has been a big rallying call - rightly - for the Conservatives. It's a tax on jobs, which is the last thing the country needs at the moment. Sadly, this proposal has only half-survived the negotiations, with the plan now apparently being to scrap the rise in the employers' national insurance but not the employees' share. So now it's just a tax rise on working, rather than a tax rise on employing someone, which is only a little better than Brown's original decision. The new Government are apparently saying that this is "offset" by their plan to increase the income tax threshold, but that means it is blunting the impact of that threshold change.

Raising the Inheritance Tax threshold

This has been a massive issue for the TPA, for the public, for the media and, latterly, for the Conservative Party. It's never been a fringe issue, and the Conservatives seem to have forgotten very quickly that when George Osborne announced it, the overwhelming popularity of the policy produced a surge in their poll rating, and prevented Brown calling an election which he may well have otherwise won. Indeed, you could say that the Inheritance Tax pledge was crucial to the Tories reaching Downing Street this week. It is dismaying, therefore, that it has been "put on the back burner" by the coalition with apparently no intention to propose it in the next five years. The millions who oppose this Death Tax will be disappointed, and the message of cutting taxes to encourage aspiration is taking a big hit. We will continue campaigning for Inheritance Tax to be abolished outright.

What next?

It's good news that the Liberal Democrats have forced the Conservatives to take up their Income Tax policy, but a great shame that the Tories have watered down the plans on National Insurance and booted Inheritance Tax into the long grass.

Perhaps this is down to a nervousness about the state of the public finances. Undoubtedly close scrutiny over the next few days and weeks could turn up some hidden nasties. However, the run up to the emergency budget will offer plenty of opportunities to identify new, larger spending cuts. The coalition must pursue the Google Government transparency agenda, which will bring the public into the process of identifying waste. Furthermore, they must listen to and absorb the proposals coming from ourselves and others. If they do that, I believe they could deliver all three of the above tax cuts - and taxpayers would thank them for it.

Together we’re keeping the pressure on East Riding of Yorkshire Council

2010-05-09T21:19:00.001+01:00

A big thank you to all supporters who attended the protest rally outside County Hall, Beverley, last Monday. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. As some of you will be aware, I was unexpectedly admitted to hospital for the holiday weekend, and a big thank you goes to Matthew Elliott and Sara Rainwater for coming up from London and filling my shoes. A big thank you also goes to my better half, Becky, for making the placards that looked great on the television, and I’m sure they looked as great for those of you there in person.

It is fair to say I am not the most popular person in County Hall. Many councillors regard the TPA as a nuisance, preventing them for spending our money in any way they see fit. The leadership and cabinet have also become accustomed to making decisions in secret, and they are not used to proper scrutiny. Staring at the disinfectant of light, many of them are shielding their faces, hoping the light will once again turn to darkness so they can return to business as usual.

The leader of the council, Stephen Parnaby, has promised a review into discretionary payments. This is welcome news and we in the Hull & East Riding TPA will make sure no more discretionary payments are made in the future. If any member of staff wishes to take early retirement, I wish them well, but they have to realise the taxpayer is no longer prepared to top-up their pension pots.

We will also be keeping the pressure on the council to ensure senior officers never again receive large inflation busting pay rises and we will be campaigning for a reduction in pay too. If the leadership say it can’t be done, they only need to glance in the direction of Hull. Over the last few years, Hull City Council has reduced the number of managers and senior officers, resulting in a reduction in the salary bill and this year a freeze in council tax. It can be done and decisions can and should me made in a spirit of openness and transparency.

On a final note, all East Riding Conservative councillors received an e-mail from the secretary of the Tory group, Cllr Felicity Temple. She told them if they attended the rally it would be seen as an act of disloyalty to the leader and the group. Anyone attending would also lose any additional responsibilities they currently hold, such as the chairmanship of a scrutiny committee. As a result, none of the Conservative councillors who had planned to attend the rally turned up, with the exception of Cllr Gary Shores. Many of them were terrified they would be hauled in front of the standards board for simply voicing their opposition to the discretionary award. If you need any evidence that something needs to change in County Hall, then you have it in this e-mail from Cllr Temple.

I will be contacting supporters in Yorkshire this week and discussing with them the practical ways they can help us move forward. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council may want the TPA to go away. We are, of course, going nowhere.

It’s time to take to the streets and protest

2010-04-15T19:29:00.001+01:00

I have posted here and here about East Riding Council’s decision to award Sue Lockwood’s pension fund a discretionary payment of £364,205. On Tuesday 13 April the cabinet made a final decision to go ahead with the award. Ms Lockwood will take early retirement from the council with the taxpayer over a third of a million pounds worse off. Only one cabinet member, Matthew Grove, had the good sense and courage to speak out and vote against this decision. For this he deserves our admiration.

Apart from Cllr Grove, cabinet members have showed how out of touch they are with their constituents. I challenge those members of the cabinet who agreed to this payment to stand on the doorstep and explain this away. They can’t. Everyone knows you can’t justify the unjustifiable, and all they want is for this to go away. Well, I have news for them; it won’t.

Although we have lost this battle and Ms Lockwood will receive her cash, Cllr Parnaby and his cabinet will realise very soon what the public think of them. A few years ago people marched through the streets of Beverley in protest against an excessive pay rise awarded to the then chief executive, Daryl Stephenson, who is also the husband of Sue Lockwood. On May Day, Monday 3 May, at 2.00pm, you can join us for a protest rally outside County Hall in Beverley. This is not a personal campaign against Sue Lockwood. That would be wrong. We are protesting against the policy of offering discretionary payments to already well paid staff on very generous pension plans paid for by us. We are protesting against the secrecy in County Hall. The leadership never wanted us to know about this payment. If the story hadn’t been leaked to the Yorkshire Post, would we have found out? We are protesting against the £1.4 million already paid out in 2008/9 to those seeking early retirement. All of these payments were made on a discretionary basis, and we are protesting against excessive pay rises and excessive salaries for senior officers, particularly at this time when the government is borrowing over £5000 for every second that ticks by.

If you can join us in our protest, then please drop me a line at beverleyprotest@mail.com. If you are a Facebook user, join the Hull & East Riding Group and click here to confirm you are attending. We need to send a message to the ruling elite we are not prepared to be treated as though we don’t matter. We elect them and pay their wages. We can also vote them out and send them packing.

One question voters should ask at this election

2010-04-06T19:02:00.001+01:00

The starting gun has been sounded and now we have a month of politicians dashing around the country, trying to secure our votes. This is the season when politicians will promise you the earth, but at this election there is one question everyone needs to ask: How are you going to pay for it?

Public spending is not spiralling out of control; public spending has spiralled out of control, and if action is not taken immediately, whoever resides in Downing Street after May 6 is going to preside over the effective bankruptcy of UK PLC. Over the last decade or so, almost one million more people now work in the public sector. Not only can we not afford a civil service of this size, we can’t afford the gold-plated pensions they will eventually receive. The public sector has too many workers either doing very little or duplicating the work of others. Every week the Taxpayers’ Alliance publishes its non-job of the week, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Public spending can be cut, and it does not require drastic cuts in essential public services.

In the East Riding of Yorkshire, residents were told the council couldn’t cut back any further and it levied a 1.5% rise in council tax. I said at the time there are savings to be made by cutting the amount of managers in County Hall. Just a few weeks later, the cabinet agreed a discretionary payment of £364,205 to the pension fund of a senior manager. This is precisely the type of payment we cannot afford, but once again the many pay for the excesses of the ruling elite who spend our money as it if was confetti.

We have published our manifesto, detailing how the deficit can be reduced by – to give one example – reducing the number of Quangos. There are many other practical, common sense measures that the new government can implement. One thing is for certain, if we sit back and do nothing, things are not going to get better, they are going to get worse.

Town Hall Rich List: A view from Hull & East Riding

2010-04-01T00:01:00.000+01:00

Today sees the publication of the TPA’s new Town Hall Rich List. When you look at the list, you will see that although many of us are having to endure pay freezes and pay reductions, some senior council officers are living in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Here in Hull and the East Riding, it is a tale of two councils. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Hull City Council has reduced the number of senior officers and mangers at the Guildhall. In 2009/10 (not covered in our report), a new chief executive was hired on a salary 25% lower than the previous incumbent, and the post of deputy chief executive was axed too. There is still more work to do, but Hull City Council is heading in the right direction, cutting costs and getting a better deal for the taxpayer.

In the East Riding of Yorkshire, life is very much different. Recession? What recession? As previously reported, some senior officers received massive, inflation busting pay rises in 2008/9 in order to retain their services. Two have since taken early retirement, with the enhanced pensions the pay rises gave them. A third, Sue Lockwood, will probably have a whopping £364K paid into her pension fund because she wishes to take early retirement too. Her total remuneration for 2008/9 was £135,646; a 17.2% increase on the previous year. The chief executive, Nigel Pearson, also saw his pay increase by 10% to £176,374.

There has also been a knock-on effect. Some employees immediately below director level have seen their pay move into six figures. I fully expect more to reach this ‘milestone’ in 2009/10.

When a chief executive is paid not far short of the prime minister’s salary, and council directors are getting what a cabinet minister earns, something is deeply wrong. Hull City Council has shown it is possible to reduce senior officers’ pay. East Riding of Yorkshire Council doesn’t seem to care, but the voters do and they are sick and tired of seeing their hard earned cash subsidising high salaries and gold-plated pensions for senior council employees. The local elections next year could be very interesting indeed.

ERYC cabinet to think again about £364k payment

2010-03-26T12:21:00.001Z

Last week, I wrote about the decision made by the cabinet of East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) to approve a discretionary payment of £364, 205 to the pension pot of outgoing Corporate Services Director, Sue Lockwood. This decision was called-in by opposition councillors, and yesterday the Corporate Issues Scrutiny Committee agreed to refer this decision back to the cabinet, and have asked them to think again. The scrutiny committee voted almost unanimously for this decision, with the exception of the chairman, Cllr Felicity Temple.

The Leader of the Council, Stephen Parnaby, rules the Conservative group with a rod of iron. If you dare to disagree with him, and show some independent thought, instead of being in the Tory fold, you will be left out in the cold. Cllr Mark Preston can testify to this, after the debacle over the fire service cuts a couple of years ago.

As a result of this rule, Cllr Parnaby only allows two Tory councillors to call-in any requests for scrutiny. They are Cllrs Brian Pearson and the aforementioned Cllr Temple. When at least twelve Conservative councillors wanted to call this in, both of them refused. So much for democracy. Readers will also remember it was Felicity Temple who chaired the Car Parking Review Panel who decided to do nothing after a very lengthy review into parking charges. I wonder how many free or subsidised hours £364K would pay for?

This story is far from over. I’ll give you more news when it happens.

Non-Jobs throw our money down the drain

2010-03-21T23:05:00.001Z

I don’t remember much of 1979. At the time of the general election I was eight years old, but I do remember the images of rubbish piled up in the street, and I remember Margaret Thatcher on the steps of 10 Downing Street. That’s about it. The rest of my knowledge of the 1970s has come from reading and watching documentaries.

It seems as if in 2010, the 1970s are starting to repeat themselves. There are public sector strikes and the reckless strike against British Airways by the UNITE union. The country’s finances are in an even more parlous state than they were in the 70s, and instead of being prudent with our cash and making each pound go further, there are many in the public sector who throw our tax pounds down the drain.

Every council across the country advertises non-jobs every month. If it’s not Equality and Diversity Officers, it’s Sustainable Communities Officers or a recent one highlighted by the TPA, a Head of Behaviour Change Programmes. Most members of the public haven’t a clue what the job titles mean, but they are aware it comes at a cost to them when they see how much these n0n-jobs pay.

Last week I highlighted how Sue Lockwood, the outgoing corporate resources director at the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, had a £364,205 payment to her pension fund approved by the cabinet. No-one has come up with a satisfactory reason for having a corporate resources director, but I do know it comes with a six-figure salary; plus employer national insurance contributions; plus very generous employer contributions to her council pension. Is it any wonder our council tax bills are so high?

A letter was printed last Saturday in the Hull and East Riding Mail which nicely sums it up:

East Riding Council would appear to be awash with money and confident of its financial future

I glean this from the March edition of East Riding New, in which 38 council jobs were advertised.

These include a Safe Communities Operational Strategy Officer with an annual salary of £26,276 and a Rural Partnership Support Officer on £19,126.

Need I say more

East Riding Council approves £364K payout

2010-03-16T20:26:00.001Z

Just over a year ago, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council awarded large inflation busting rises for senior staff. The rationale was it would encourage those officers to stay with the council and encourage others to join the merry-go-round and move to East Yorkshire.

Just over a year later, two senior officers, Huw Roberts and Barry Adams, have opted to take early retirement and received much higher pensions as a result of their pay rises. Now a third wishes to leave the authority.

Sue Lockwood, Director of Corporate Resources, has applied for early retirement, and today, in a behind-closed-doors meeting, the East Riding Council cabinet approved an outrageous payment of £364,205 to her pension fund. Naturally, the public anger at this impending payment is great, and yesterday I wrote to all members of the cabinet urging them not to agree to this move. Predictably, the silence was deafening.

Instead of being ashamed, the council leadership are not happy with the councillor who leaked this story to the Yorkshire Post last week, and are making clear if anything like this happens again, they will be in front of the standards board. So it seems as if taxpayers in the East Riding do not have a right to know how their money is being spent. The political elite feel they know what’s best for the rest of us and the little we know, the better.

If you live in the East Riding and are struggling to pay your council tax bills and are struggling to pay appropriate payments to your private pension fund, write to the leader, Cllr Stephen Parnaby and tell him what you think of this decision. Also, come and join us in the Taxpayers’ Alliance. We are one organisation who will not take you for granted and will welcome you to our campaign for better government and lower taxes.

In 2002, people marched through the streets of Beverley, protesting against the salary increase of the then chief executive, Darryl Stephenson, the husband of Sue Lockwood. Perhaps the only way East Riding Council will take our concerns seriously is if we march again. Watch this space.

The Toads of Hull

2010-03-13T12:10:00.001Z

Here’s another one in the ‘you couldn’t make it up’ category.

This year is the 25th anniversary of Philip Larkin’s death. Why we want to celebrate someone’s death is something that has always puzzled me, but leaving this aside, Hull and the Philip Larkin Society want to do something ‘Larkin-esque’ this year, as Larkin was Librarian at the University of Hull.

What do you do though? Leaving people who have too much time on their hands to decide these matters can be dangerous, and unfortunately for the taxpayers of Hull, it is going to be very costly.

Two of Larkin’s famous poems are called Toads and Toads Revisited. Therefore one hundred fibreglass toads are going to be manufactured and placed around the city. If you desire, you can have a wander and try and find every one of them. No doubt the prize will be a toad in the hole in one of the city’s many watering holes.

The cost of all of this is £290,000; and £200,000 of this is coming from a grant from Hull City Council. This news has been revealed in a week when the council is asking the government for more money to repair Hull’s crumbling roads. Indeed the Hull Daily Mail has worked out 3,500 potholes could be repaired for this money.

Just when you think you have come across all the ways taxpayers’ money can be wasted, someone comes up with something new. Not that Hull City Council is repentant.

Councillor Rick Welton, Liberal Democrat cabinet member for regeneration, said the toads would attract visitors and publicity to the city during the Larkin festival, bringing in extra investment. He also said they would be used in schools as curriculum projects promoting poetry and literature. "Instead of looking at the negatives, I believe there are going to be a lot of positives from this," he said.

So next time you drive in Hull and you think the roads resemble those in Eastern Europe in former communist days, remember in the battle between toads and roads, the toads have won.

UPDATE: This decision has been reversed by Cllr Carl Minns, leader of Hull City Council. He told me on the phone that a council officer approved this grant without his knowledge. He was away at the weekend, attending the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, and this morning was the first chance he had to review this decision. He couldn’t justify spending £200k of our money on such a project.

Well done, Cllr Minns. You have made the right decision. It’s good to see taxpayers’ money will not be wasted.

Follow Hull & East Riding TPA on Twitter

2010-03-06T21:32:00.001Z

When I joined Twitter about two years ago, I did so out of curiosity. It was a new medium and as someone who is always willing to embrace something new, I think I was keen not to miss out. When I followed some of my friends and saw messages along the lines of ‘Going to the pub. See you all later’, I thought it would never take off and I didn’t bother logging into my account for months. Gradually I heard more about Twitter in the media and started following higher profile figures and news outlets. Suddenly, I realised its power. As someone who is naturally verbose, trying to convey a message in 140 characters was not an easy task, but what you can do is include links to news stories (including blogs) and these stories can be spread around the world very easily. I also learned a lesson in brevity! If it wasn’t for Twitter, I wouldn’t be as well informed.

With this in mind, I have set-up a Twitter account for the Hull & East Riding Taxpayers’ Alliance, to inform as many people as possible of stories that are breaking in this beautiful part of our great country. If you use Twitter, click here to follow.

Hull City Council will not use microchips in bins

2010-03-06T19:20:00.001Z

‘Lifting the Lid’ – the excellent new report from Big Brother Watch – has exposed the many councils throughout the UK who have installed microchips in the bins of residents.

Not only does this pave the way for ‘pay as you throw’ charges, it is also an unwarranted intrusion into the private lives of citizens. I contacted Cllr Carl Minns, leader of Hull City Council, and asked him for assurances he had no plans to introduce this technology in the city. He replied with this statement.

“As the Big Brother Watch Website shows, the Council does not have microchips in all of its bins. Although increasingly many bins do come with these chips pre-installed, it is our policy not to turn them on and we have no plans, and neither will we develop any, that will involve charging for such a basic service as bin collections. Furthermore I would not authorise council staff (or their agents) to spy on the waste habits of individual households as this would be a gross intrusion of privacy.”

Good news for those of us who live in the city; Big Brother is not about to spy on us through our bins, and the council is to be congratulated on this policy.

I have also contacted the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, and I will publish their response as soon as they get back to me.

UPDATE: I have received a reply from East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Cllr Symon Fraser made this comment.

“The East Riding of Yorkshire Council remains committed to its published waste strategy, this strategy does not consider microchipping or any other identification of individual householders bins and there are no plans to install or develop the use of this technology in the East Riding of Yorkshire Council's operations.

Our efforts are clearly focussed on continuing to successfully develop the range of recycling facilities available to our residents.”

Just like Hull City Council, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council is to be congratulated on this policy. Everyone living in East Yorkshire can dispose of their rubbish without Big Brother looking over their shoulders.

ERYC to look again at car parking charges in Beverley

2010-03-04T21:25:00.001Z

Last week I reported the car parking review panel of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council decided to defer making a decision on parking charges for two years. I criticised this as it has not addressed the problem of high parking charges in towns like Beverley. Traders there have complained their businesses are suffering because shoppers are constantly thinking about getting back to their cars, rather than spending more time browsing and taking a break in one of the town’s many bars, pubs and coffee shops.

I criticised the council on BBC Radio Humberside last week, and as a result some councillors have said I do not know my facts. This is untrue, as the main thrust of my argument came from traders in Beverley and I was merely voicing their concerns.

I can now report the scrutiny committee has met and has asked officers to look at the cumulative effect of parking charges in Beverley. The cogs of government – be it national or local - tend to grind along at a monotonously slow speed. I will make sure councillors know this is unacceptable. Traders need action now, not in six months when some of them may be forced out of business.

A classic fudge worthy of the finest confectioners

2010-02-24T15:36:00.002Z

The long awaited review into car parking charges in the East Riding has been published. You may guess from the title of this post I am far from impressed.

Traders in Beverley have been complaining high parking charges are damaging their businesses. If you want to park in Saturday Market, the minimum fee is 80p which gives you 30 minutes. So if you just want to go to the bank and then get on your way, you have to pay 80p, even though you may only need to be in the parking space for 10 minutes.

If you have ever tried parking in Tesco on a Saturday morning, you will know you have to get there before 9.00 am, otherwise you will find yourself driving around the car park desperately looking for a space. The reason for this is you can park free for 3 hours at Tesco. Park in one of the council run car parks for 3 hours and you will be charged £3.

So what has the review panel done to help those who trade in Beverley? Virtually nothing. The proposals are for a reduction in charges in Butcher Row and North Bar Within. It will hardly make a difference.

Moving on from Beverley, car parks in places like Anlaby and Cottingham will not see any charges introduced until at least 2012. The official reason is because of the recession. I’m sure the impending council elections next year had no bearing on this decision!

Car parking will always be a thorny issue. No-one wants to pay, and the last thing we want to see is parking problems developing in side roads causing residents problems, but surely with some imagination the members of the review panel could have thought up something better.

If you allow free parking all day, there is every chance many people will stay there all day. If you give free parking for a set period, this will encourage shoppers to go about their business, move on, and free up a space for others.

Another way is to introduce a nominal charge of, for example, 20p an hour to cover the costs of parking machines and attendants. This would also help free up spaces so others can use them.

The review panel has failed to make important decisions. We know East Riding of Yorkshire Council will introduce charges in all car parks, but not until 2012 at the earliest, but I can imagine we will have yet another round of arguments then, no doubt wasting more taxpayers’ money in the process. These councillors were charged with making recommendations and used up council resources in roadshows, issuing and processing questionnaires, and endless meetings. The result is hardly anything has changed this side of 2012. A poor show all round.

UPDATE: I gave my views on air to Peter Levy on BBC Radio Humberside on Friday 26 February. It is available on iPlayer until Thursday 4 March. Click here to listen. It is 50 minutes 45 seconds in.

Check out the new-look website

2010-02-22T19:23:00.001Z

The main Taxpayers’ Alliance website has been given a makeover and the result is a great looking site, colourful, attractive and easy to navigate. Be sure to take a look.

Audit Commission is forcing fortnightly bin collections

2010-02-20T20:09:00.001Z

One of the many problems with Quangos is they constantly come up with wheezes to justify their existence. Many chief executives know they may be for the chop if the Conservatives win the next election, so they find new and inventive ways of keeping themselves in work. The Audit Commission is a prime example of a Quango determined to remain in the public eye.

Last year it published a new system of rating councils by either giving them red or green flags. It told us little, but it made the Audit Commission look like it was doing something to improve the standards of local government. Now it is interfering once again in decisions we should be making locally.

Hull City Council rolled out a new recycling system about six months ago. It made it easier to recycle by scheduling collection dates on the same day as existing refuge collections and increased the amount of waste products that can be collected from your home. What it did not do is impose mandatory fortnightly bin collections for non-recyclable waste. This was sensible. Personally, I put out my black, non-recyclable waste bin about once a month and my recyclable waste bin is full every fortnight. I will be perfectly happy to have fortnightly collections, as will the majority of my neighbours, judging by the frequency they put out their bins for collection. If we do move to fortnightly collections it will be as a result of council taxpayers wanting it; not because it has been imposed.

The Audit Commission however are trying to impose fortnightly collections on councils regardless of local, public opinion. Not only is this wrong, as it stinks of the big brother state imposing its will on the rest of us, it also puts another nail in the coffin of local democracy. What’s the point of voting in local elections if the representatives you elect have their hands tied behind their backs at every turn?

If anyone needed a reason of why there needs to be a bonfire of the Quangos and their powers diminished, this is yet another example. The Audit Commission is not interested in what’s best for the taxpayer. It is only interested in gaining more power for itself.

Humberside Police Authority propose a 2.5% rise in council tax precept

2010-02-18T17:39:00.001Z

Not the news I was wanting to hear. Click HERE for a report in the Yorkshire Post, which includes a quote from me.

NHS Smoking Advert - Update

2010-02-15T14:29:00.001Z

Last week, I wrote about a bullying advertisement from the NHS published in the Hull Daily Mail. I have been doing some digging since then, and informed sources are almost certain this advert was placed from a central source; not NHS Hull, although I will file a Freedom of Information request if necessary to be 100% certain.

I will keep you up-to-date as soon as I have more news.

MPs fail to pay for their cheap food and booze

2010-02-15T14:22:00.001Z

One of the perks of being an MP is cheap food and drink. Okay, many companies offer a subsidised canteen, but I don’t see them offering their employees gin and tonics at knock-down prices.

If I was lucky enough to have this perk, I would happily pay-up when I received the bill; wouldn’t you? It seems though 329 MPs want to avoid paying anything at all. Those MPs have run-up a collective bill of £138,046 and being such ‘honourable’ members they don’t want us to know about it. To read more, click HERE.

One can only hope the next batch of MPs will be nothing like their predecessors. The current batch give pigs a bad name.

Council tax in the East Riding

2010-02-12T13:39:00.001Z

For coverage from the Yorkshire Post, click HERE. It contains a quote from me.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council increases council tax by 1.5%

2010-02-11T18:38:00.001Z

From the Hull Daily Mail:

Households in the East Riding are set to face an increase of at least 1.5 per cent in their council tax bills from April.

The increase in the authority's element of the council tax was agreed at a meeting in Beverley this afternoon.

It means the average Band D household will pay an extra £17 for council services, bringing the bill up to £1,212.

The final amount will be fixed once the police and fire authorities have agreed their precepts.

East Riding Council leader Councillor Stephen Parnaby said the ruling Conservative group had decided against implementing a three per cent tax increase, as recommended by senior officers because of the impact of the recession.

He said: "There is no doubt the economic downturn has affected everyone in some form or other and I believe a very modest increase, together with planning for the future throughout the year, is in everyone's best interests."

Cllr Parnaby said the council would use money from its reserves to subsidise the 1.5 per cent increase and ruled out any prospect of redundancies at the authority.

The planned increase was due to be 3%, and the council has only managed to limit the size of the increase by dipping into its reserves. If the council had taken my advice and the advice of some of its councillors, it would have looked at reducing the number of senior managers it employs and the pay packets they receive. This is one way Hull City Council has managed not to increase its share of the council tax.

Cllr Parnaby may think 1.5% is a ‘very modest increase’, but tell that to those who are experiencing pay cuts, or at best no pay increases at all. Tell that to those with struggling businesses. ERYC definitely could and should do better.

Some answers on the use of biometrics

2010-02-11T15:57:00.001Z

The following is an article by Andrew Clymer, senior identity management security expert (more than 8 years with Cisco Systems). It answers many questions I have been asked about the use of biometrics in schools, pubs and shops.

Do Biometrics have a role for school registration?

Abstract

Biometrics is very much still in its infancy, still not a publicly accepted technology. The country as a whole is divided on its use with particular reference to their role with national identity cards. This paper outlines my key objections for the use of this technology for the purposes of school registration. Which are:- Children from a young age see giving up their finger print as a natural day to day occurrence without understanding the potential consequences.I would query the effectiveness of this new system, on accuracy and timely delivery of attendance records in the event of a school emergency evacuation. No system can guaranteed the security of information against future technology. Attempting to protect life time relevant information is extremely tricky and potentially costly. There is a great possibility that within ten years time the present Chip and Pin will be replaced by perhaps Chip and Print. Our thumbprint becomes the pin, but unlike the pin it can’t be changed it’s with you for life.

My Credentials

I’ve worked in the computing security field for the last eight years, working for the likes of Cisco Systems as a Lead Architect for their network access control solution, protecting 99% of the fortune one hundred companies from network attack. This has given me the opportunity to work with the likes of Visa, Fidelity, and Meryl-lynch to implement security systems that are both secure and workable.

The Case

One of the key benefits I get by sending my children to school, is they learn social interaction and key life skills such as discipline and responsibility. Everyday they take responsibility of their snack money, remembering their PE kits, home work etc such learning is key to later life. The patterns of activity we develop during your early years clearly set the tone for how we evolve and behave in later life. By encouraging our children on a daily basis to give out their thumbprints leads them to think this is a natural activity. Who else will they give their biometrics too, without consulting their parents and asking questions like why, and what will it be used for?

As a parent I make decisions for my child on a daily basis some will affect their lives for the next few minutes others will potentially affect the rest of their lives. A decision to allow my child’s biometric information to be taken is a life long decision; they after all can’t change it. Technology advances in leaps and bounds it is impossible to imagine all future possibilities and thus when making a decision that has implications far into the future you can’t make them based on what can be achieved with today’s technology. For me it comes down to the whether the benefit outweighs the implications.

When replacing any existing system it is often easier to see how a new system fixes the short comings in the existing system, but often its the case that any new system also comes with its own set of weaknesses some of which were not immediately evident.

For instance with proposed system, each child is expected to place their thumbprint on the machine daily. There is no carrot to make them do this, and equally there is no guarantee that the scanner will read the print. Scanners fail to read prints when they are dirty or that the child themselves has perhaps damaged their thumb print via a scratch or other abrasion. So such a system needs a backup strategy, the one currently being proposed is that the Admin staff at some point will print the role call and then confirm by visiting each non fully attended class room that the print out is in fact an accurate record. What’s interesting here is when is registration deemed over ?

This then leads to the question how long will the overall registration process will now take. Currently each teacher takes his/her own register, this is happening in parallel. The proposed

backstop is a largely a sequential process. This obviously means it will take longer to provide full clarity of who is present in school. Not a problem for issuing attendance certificates at the end of term, but perhaps a big deal for emergency evacuation.

Issues that will effect this time are

· Admin staff busy dealing with another task

· Printer jams, or out of toner/paper

· Computer crashes

· Power loss in the building

· Network failure

· Scanner fails in classroom

These risks are in stark contrast to the traditional method, where the risk is limited to a pen not working…

So an evacuation at the start of the day might not provide clarity of who is in the building. Whilst in the existing system it may be possible for one teacher not to provide clarity it is hard to see a scenario where all teachers do not have complete clarity. This is the key facet behind the success of any fault tolerant solution, distribution. The system being proposed is heavily centralisation and thus opens the possibility for single point of failure, something that is avoided in all critical systems.

The school has a legal obligation for duty of care; it therefore seems right that any new system is as robust as any previous systems. It is highly possible that in less than ten years time Chip and Pin will be replaced by perhaps Chip and thumbprint. We will see the use biometrics to protect the things we most need to protect. Like all forms of password protection we are encouraged to keep this information private, in fact we are told to destroy any paper copies. Obviously banks keep this information in some form in order to validate our identity at the point of transaction, this information as you can imagine needs to be kept extremely securely. However we all know that what ever measures are taken this information can still be potentially hacked or stolen, a banks database is too much of a temptation to a would be hacker. In the case of a compromise in security the bank has to spend a lot of money issuing new cards and pins, but the problem can be fixed. Now imagine the case where the burden of proof is your thumb print, hmmm not an easy thing to change…..

Now imagine that hackers did not have to crack a banks computer they could hack small businesses, local library or even a schools computer and obtain information such as

“Name” , “DOB” , “Thumb print” , Parents names , perhaps in some cases even Mothers maiden name….

Whilst some of this information is already stored on a schools computer, there is some valid

justification to why it is kept. In fact the Data protection act requires organizations to only keep

information that is deemed necessary, other information can be removed on the request of the individual or guardian in question.

Currently there is little to no reason to hack a schools computer, but in the future the trade of

biometric information may be as common as spam or mailing lists today.

Identity theft is on the increase only recently credit reference agencies are selling services to inform you when a credit check is made against you, thus alerting you to the possibility that perhaps it is being made not from you but by a person impersonating your identity. Information about a person’s identity is seen to be highly valuable, especially in the wrong hands.

Now bio companies will tell you that the print is not stored as an image, and that’s true. However the data that is stored is sufficient to compare it against a print received when the child registers every morning. The information is therefore sufficient to determine what the print looks like, and thus is not beyond the bounds of possibility for some one to extract the key factors used to identify the print. From this information it is possible to produce a gelatin based print to lay over a persons existing print. Hackers have already demonstrated they can make a home made print, using basic household technology, (not so Mission Impossible…)

They will then tell you that it’s still ok because it’s encrypted with a 128bit key, and that will take millions of years to crack. Again to some degree this is true, but all it really means is that if you were to try every key combination it would take that long. Hackers don’t approach the problem in this way, for example the German Enigma machine used in World War II boasted similar levels of security but what they failed to consider was the fact that the number of keys to try could be greatly reduced once you have some understanding of what is being encrypted and how it is being used, this then provides a means to greatly reduce the number of keys to try. Another way in is the fact at some point in time the information that is encrypted becomes unencrypted in order to perform the finger print match, it is therefore possible to extract the data at that point.

IBM is currently investing heavily in trying to secure biometric information for this very reason; they know it is just a matter of time before it is broken. The term “matter of time” is important, as sometimes is the case by the time the information has been hacked it is possibly redundant or easily made redundant by changing E.g. a PIN, but in the case of biometrics they are with you for life.

I therefore feel that there is an element of risk storing thumbprints on a school computer. Again consider the risk/benefit, from a parent perspective I see no benefit. My child is registered in school, he and she has been registered in school for the last 2-4 years perfectly satisfactory so Im not getting anything extra, for exposing my child’s identity to some level of risk

Whilst this paper only scratches the surface of the issues behind biometrics in schools for registration, I hope it raises enough concerns to come to the conclusion that their role should be rejected, since they create a whole host of new risks and problems with no obvious parental gain. In fact when considering how much it would cost to build a fully fault tolerant solution it may cost the school a substantial amount of capital investment.

For me the take away thought has to be does the benefit justify the risk, to date I have not seen any substantial evidence to suggest that to be true. I would also think it would be reasonable to know that other solutions have been explored.

Do you feel alienated?

2010-02-11T14:11:00.001Z

This is a copy of an advertisement printed in yesterday’s Hull Daily Mail, paid for by the NHS.

IF YOU are somebody who regularly lights up a cigarette, you may feel alienated.

It is habit that may cause you to be shunned or avoided by friends, family and colleagues and leave you feeling left-out. The smoking ban has made you change your ways, while everybody else has been unaffected and free to enjoy their social lives as before.

A new Government strategy called A Smokefree Future has been published and it could lead to a ban of cigarettes in vending machines and increase the number of smoke-free areas to include doorways, adding to your sense of seclusion.

It is just the latest development in a long line of initiatives that make you feel like you are being harshly treated and that everybody is against you.

But there's one thing you must ask yourself: Are you really the victim? Consider the issue from a non-smoker's point of view. When they enter a bar, restaurant or even a hospital, there may be a smoker standing in the doorway, meaning the non-smoker has to walk through a cloud of noxious smoke to enter.
And when you throw your your cigarette ends out of car window do you stop to consider pedestrians, cyclists or even a person in a convertible car?

Cigarette ends also litter the streets - about 40 per cent of litter is tobacco related - which doesn't give a good impression to visitors to the city and each cigarette butt takes about 12 years to decompose, so smoking is not environmentally-friendly either.

There is also the criminality issue that surrounds smoking. That cheap packet of fags you purchased illegally could be a part of a world-wide illicit cigarette trade that brings misery to people around the world. And the knock-on effect brings crime into Hull.

With two sides to every story, it is perhaps time to stop alienating yourself and start to protect the people and city around you.

It’s not too late to act and switch sides. If you want to quit smoking, free support is available with your local NHS Stop Smoking Service.

Research shows people are four times more likely to quit smoking with support from the service than willpower alone and it offers a method of quitting to suit you.

For more details, free phone 0800 915 5959; visit www.readytostop smoking.co.uk or text QUIT to 81800.

Smokers know smoking is bad for their health. They also know it is more addictive than heroin. Would heroin addicts be insulted in the same way? It will also not succeed in its aim of getting people to quit. If someone spoke to me like that, it would make me more likely to light-up a cigarette. Yet the NHS adopts this appalling Big Brother stance and wastes taxpayers’ cash in the process.

Next time you hear of someone denied life enhancing drugs on cost grounds, remember this advert. The person who wrote it should hang their head in shame; and get fired too.

Bridlington Off-Licence introduces fingerprint scanners

2010-02-09T14:47:00.001Z

The improper use of biometrics is a little known, but very worrying growth industry. When organisations such as Microsoft and Cisco are concerned, we should all be.

An off-licence in Bridlington has installed a fingerprint scanning machine to ascertain the age of customers who wish to purchase alcohol and cigarettes. First you go in, with either your passport or driving licence to verify your age. Then, if you want to, you can have your thumbprint taken and stored on the shop’s database.

Any hacker who knows what they are doing (and unfortunately there are too many of them around) will be able to steal this information. Your collar may be felt by the police for a crime you didn’t commit, simply because someone has your thumbprint on their computer which they can reproduce and leave at the scene of a crime.

Couple this with the fact a criminal will also have sensitive personal information about you, the scope for fraud is immense. All of these risks to stop a 17 year-old from buying a can of lager. It’s simply not worth it.

I have recorded an interview which will be broadcast on BBC Look North tonight explaining some of the dangers. My advise to anyone thinking of handing over their biometric details voluntarily is: DON’T! Use your passport instead. It is a recognised form of identification and it displays the minimum amount of personal information about you.

I will keep you all updated on this story when there are more developments.

UPDATE: Here is the full report on BBC Look North, ending with an interview from Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch.

Harman scuppers Commons reform. My response and the response from a TPA branch member

2010-01-29T20:40:00.001Z

There is something very undemocratic about the way the executive holds sway in our legislature. Surely the elected representatives of the people should have more power to hold the executive to account? Yes it should, but in reality, this seldom happens.

If anything remotely contentious is wending its way through parliament, you can guarantee the government will at some stage use a guillotine motion to stifle debate and therefore scrutiny. The power of the whips remains supreme in appointing members of select committees. You have to be a good boy or girl if you want to get on and hold any position of influence. If you are a maverick, life will be very hard for you.

Ben Farrugia highlights in this article how once again reform of the House of Commons is going to be blocked by the government. Changes that could and would have made a difference to democracy in this country will not happen in the lifetime of this parliament because of a procedural trick played by Harriet Harman.

Ben describes this as a complete and utter disgrace. He is right. One day this country will become a democracy again, instead of an elected dictatorship.

TPA member, Julie Fisk, has written to both Harriet Harman and Labour chief whip, Nick Brown. She is hopping mad, as you will be able to see, and this letter expresses the frustration of many people I have spoken to. When will the so-called ‘elite’ ever learn?

Dear Madam and Sir

You are both a disgrace. I have just read about your disgraceful intentions in The Times, i.e.

“The Government has decided to table an “unamendable order” — which will mean that an objection from a single MP will prevent any of the measures from being introduced. This is almost certain to happen since there is a hardcore minority against the proposals.”

How dare you! You are both SERVANTS of the British People – you are NOT Masters.

Please understand that. – The public were appalled by the MP’s Expenses Scandal and all parties agreed that there was a need for reform.

What does it take to get through to you that the British public are sick and tired of your pathetic excuses? Wake up! Do we need a revolution to get through to you just how you are viewed by the majority of us?

I have never marched or held a protest banner in my life – but I can tell you now that I will be on of the first people in queue to rid our parliament of unscrupulous people like you.

You disgust me.

Julie Fisk

Virtual Farewell Booths

2010-01-26T19:48:00.003Z

I was interviewed by Peter Levy on BBC Radio Humberside yesterday about funding for proposed Virtual Farewell Booths at airports. For more about this ridiculous waste of taxpayers' money, read this report from the Daily Mail.

Outraged by Albert's removal from his round? Contact the council and tell them what you think

2010-01-08T18:17:00.001Z

From Big Brother Watch:

Yesterday, Dylan wrote about the disgraceful way binman Albert Stewart has been treated by Ormskirk Council - moved from his route for picking up rubbish left beside bins, i.e. exercising a bit of common sense and doing his job well.

I've just written to the relevant Council Officer to express my displeasure, and I thought that you might wish to do so too:

Pat Burgess
Refuse and Recycling Manager
Tel: 01695 577177 ext.5432

pat.burgess@westlancs.gov.uk

I know this is not in our area, but I think it is a case worth highlighting and taking action on.

Apologise, Cllr Inglis, it was all your fault

2010-01-08T10:41:00.001Z

The Big Screen debate in Hull still continues to rage, according to the Hull Daily Mail. I have been debating with Cllr Colin Inglis, although he doesn’t regard it as debating. He regards it as banging his head against a brick wall, as he tries to (as far as I’m concerned) defend the indefensible.

Click HERE to read my latest letter published in the Hull Daily Mail. It was published on Monday January 4.

IPSA waters down Kelly’s recommendations

2010-01-07T20:29:00.001Z

Last November, Sir Christopher Kelly published his report into reforming MPs’ expenses and allowances. The main party leaders agreed to implement Sir Christopher’s recommendations in full. You could be forgiven for thinking this was the end of the matter. Not so.

A consultation exercise starts today by the new quango set-up to regulate MPs. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is asking for your views, even though you have given them already. You have made it clear you want tighter regulation of the allowances and expenses MPs get. You have made it clear you want MPs to sell their second homes and if they make a capital gain, it should be returned to the taxpayer. It seems though you will have to make your views known again.

Please go to IPSA’s website and fill out the questionnaire and give your MPs a clear message (again).

Taxpayers to fork out over £10 million in redundancy payments to MPs

2009-12-28T13:44:00.001Z

Sky News is reporting up to one in four MPs may quit over the expenses scandal. The bad news for taxpayers is this may result in £10.8 million worth of redundancy payments.

In our area, this means John Prescott will receive bumper payout, as will maybe hundreds of MPs across the country. Read the story HERE.

How many council snoopers can enter you home?

2009-12-28T12:43:00.001Z

Big Brother Watch recently sent out Freedom of Information requests to every council in the country to find out how many of their employees have the right to enter your home. For our region, the results are alarming.

According to the Hull Daily/East Riding Mail today, 115 council employees from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council can enter your home using 1043 different powers. In Hull, the picture is better, but there are still 33 employees who can use these powers.

To give some perspective, the national average is 47 officials per local authority. This places Hull below the national average and the East Riding almost two and a half times above the national average.

If anyone needs evidence of how the bully state is entering our lives in ways very few people are aware of, this is it. One of the questions on the lips of many people in the East Riding is why County Hall in Beverley needs to give so many of its officials such sweeping powers. Another question is why parliament has allowed councils to have these powers in the first place. The council’s reply will make interesting reading and all of this needs to be addressed by a future government.

Thoughts on Hull’s World Cup Bid

2009-12-17T13:47:00.001Z

The headline in the Hull Daily Mail said it all today, ‘We Was Robbed!’ The bid to attract World Cup football to Hull has cost somewhere in the region of £125,000, but this is something that doesn’t bother me. If Hull had been included in England’s bid and then England had gone on to host the 2018 tournament, an estimated £64 million worth of investment was likely to come to the city. As they say on National Lottery advertisments, you have to be in it to win it. Hull was in it and why it was passed over for somewhere like Milton Keynes is confusing to say the least.

If we are to take something positive from this, it is that Hull is rapidly getting a reputation as a player. People from around the country are beginning to see Hull is not a backwater, no-one in their right minds would want to visit. Hull City’s elevation to the premier league has hugely helped with the positive image Hull is projecting and visitors to the city are positive in their feedback.

Hopefully, we will win our bid to become the City of Culture and help raise Hull’s profile more. This – along with lower taxes and less regulation – is the main way investment is going to pour into the city.

ERYC Car Parking Review Panel

2009-12-15T16:14:00.001Z

Almost 6 months ago I wrote about the car parking charges review panel set-up by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC). This has been a long running saga. Some councillors feel it is not fair that people have to pay to park in places like Beverley and Bridlington, but not in other places, such as Cottingham and Anlaby. A lengthy review has taken place, culminating in roadshows in June, gathering residents’ views on whether they want to pay to park their vehicles in car parks that are currently free.

Six months on, and we still await a decision for the parking review panel. A report in the Hull Daily/East Riding Mail today has highlighted how frustrated traders are across the East Riding. They want a decision, which is the least they can expect after such a long time. I wish they had just made a decision, right or wrong. You can always come back and review your decision at a further date. This procrastination and inertia only serves to give the impression ERYC cannot make a decision. Hopefully, a decision will be made early next year, but I am not holding my breath!

Hull City Council

2009-12-09T19:25:00.001Z

The news Hull City Council will not increase residents’ council tax bills next year is very welcome. The Taxpayers’ Alliance has been supportive of the economies the council has made and will encourage it to continue to do the same. The council has proved it is possible to give council taxpayers a good deal by both giving a real terms decrease and increase spending on essential council services. The pressure has now been raised on other local authorities in our region to do the same.

The Big Screen in Hull

2009-12-01T20:56:00.001Z

Readers who live in the Hull and East Riding area will no doubt be aware of Hull City Council’s decision to ‘pull the plug’ on the Big Screen in the city’s Queen Victoria Square. The news broke last Thursday and the first I heard about it was a call from the Hull Daily Mail. I was then asked if I would do an interview on BBC Radio Humberside last Friday.

The power was switched off today and the story is still rumbling as the former Labour leader of the council, Colin Inglis, entered the fray to defend his decision five years ago to buy the screen at a cost of £650,000. I think some clarification is required.

Cllr Inglis wrote the following on the Hull Daily Mail website earlier today:

For the record, we wanted a screen for the 2004 Olympics when the BBC offered us a deal, which given their then recent multi-million pound investment in Hull (not popular at the HDM, I know) and our desire to keep them sweet, it was hard to refuse. We had a limited window of opportunity to say yes hence the decision route used in the Council's Recess period. The project was meant to be part of a wider refurbishment of Victoria Square, untouched for twenty years, not removing Queen Victoria, or her toilets, which later administrations never finished, as seems so often to be the case in Hull. The money for it had been raised as part of the KC share sale, ie not Council Tax or government grant, it was capital, not revenue funding so could only be spent on building or refurbishing something or buying some large item and had already been earmarked for work in the city centre.

Firstly, I would like to remind Cllr Inglis money raised from the sale of shares of Kingston Communications is still public money and it still needs to be spent wisely. All too often our elected representatives act like children in a candy store with money like this. What he should have done is explore other possibilities. There is an alternative to buying, such as leasing. The location of the screen should have been given great thought. It could have been part of a wider plan of redevelopment. Rushing into a decision, without consulting other councillors, was wrong. A business plan should have been drawn up and advertisers and sponsors found. This is what any responsible leader would have done. Unfortunately, this was not done and the screen has been a controversial addition to the city since its installation.

With thought and planning this project could have been a success. The screen could have been an asset and revenue could have been generated for the council. As it stands, I fully support Hull City Council’s decision to remove the screen and look for a buyer. It would cost £250,000 to keep the screen going for another three years. It would cost £100,000 to remove and screen and place it in a different location. The taxpayers of Hull quite rightly want their money spent wisely and want lower council tax bills and better council services. Spending huge sums of money on a giant television set that hardly anyone looks at and the majority have never wanted, can not be justified. I am not opposed to Hull having a big screen, however, it has to be properly thought through, unlike the decision made behind closed doors in 2004.

Speaking to East Yorkshire Conservatives

2009-11-21T14:34:00.001Z

Last night I was the speaker at a supper club meeting of East Yorkshire Conservatives in Bridlington, on the subject of Quangos. Most people there were genuinely shocked at the amount of money being spent by Quangos and how much our membership of the European Union costs us each year. I quoted the following from Dr Lee Rotherham’s book, Ten Years On: Britain without the European Union.

While you were watching the last Harry Potter, £1,891,998 was transferred to Brussels.

During the England footy match, £1,113,000 left the British bank account for good.

In the time that it took you to boil an egg, £37,098 was surrendered to the EU.

£12,366 in one minute.

£206.11 in the heart pump of a second.

Another £206.11.

And then another.

It made no sense at all. It was like forming a human chain to pass gold bullion down Blackpool pier and to dump a brick off the end every hundred seconds.

Every hour was a new Angel of the North being built by British taxpayers in another country.

The bill for just two days paid for the whole Royal Family.

Three days would have kept your local community hospital running for a year.

Five days of EU membership would have covered all the repairs needed to every cathedral in England, or paid for a new Kew Gardens.

Ten days would have bought a new Belmarsh prison.

Why not just cut out the middle man? Instead of handing over three and a half weeks of net payments, you could have simulated the financial loss by cutting down all the trees in England looked after by the Forestry Commission and ploughing salt into the soil.

For the equivalent value effect of five months of fees, you could have just burned every picture and every painting in the National Gallery. Or the Treasury could have taken revenge on international bankers, and paid the annual deficit by just handing over all the revenue of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

Food for thought? The statistics are breathtaking when stated in a way we can all relate to. I would like to thank East Yorkshire Conservatives for their very warm welcome and excellent hospitality. I had a very enjoyable time in Bridlington and look forward to returning.

Dr Lee Rotherham in conversation

2009-11-17T13:01:00.000Z

Dr Lee Rotherham, author of 'Ten Years On: Britain without the European Union' discusses the ideas in his book.

New TPA advertisement coming to a cinema near you

2009-11-16T12:29:00.003Z

Below you can see an advertisement that will be showing in cinemas the length and breadth of the country. It promotes the book, 'Ten Years On: Britain without the European Union' and enables the TPA to reach out to a much wider audience.

In a light hearted way, it gets the message across just how much the EU costs British taxpayers and British businesses. Tell me what you think.

Complaint against Diana Johnson MP - Update

2009-11-01T15:37:00.002Z

I informed you in September that I have reported Diana Johnson MP to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Read more HERE.

The commissioner has decided to investigate further with reference to Ms Johnson using a House of Commons franked envelope for what appears to be party political purposes. I will report again when I hear from him.

Bridlington Renaissance Partnership

2009-10-25T15:55:00.001Z

On the Politics Show today in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, one of the topics for discussion were Quangos. I recorded a piece on Wednesday and had a 30 second slot on the programme.

In the studio, one of the guests was Martyn Coltman, from the Bridlington Renaissance Partnership. If only I can have a ten-minute slot with him on either television or radio. If you want a prime example of how not to use public money, then take a look at Bridlington.

Grandiose schemes abound such as planting trees that won't grow. Spending £100K on welcome signs. Spending £6.5 million on paving around the Spa Complex with an amazing half a million pounds being swallowed up in consultants fees. They are just three of a catalogue of examples of how public money is being wasted by a largely unaccountable body supposedly regenerating the seaside town.

I'm not saying public money should not be spent in Bridlington, but it should be given to the council who can then allocate it to projects it feels are worthy. If the public disagrees then they can always show their dissatisfaction at the ballot box. This way there is accountability.

What Quangocrats like Mr Coltman fail to realise is the only way to get business booming is to lower taxes and reduce regulation. High taxes and increased regulation are the main drivers against economic success. Their disincentivising effects can been seen throughout the country.

Meanwhile Quangos continue to dole out public money in the hope trade will be increased by grandiose projects. They may have some effect, but they will never be the solution. Successful economies are low tax and low regulation economies and when public money is being spent, the public have a right to hold those responsible to account. It's called democracy. In Quango-run Britain, this is something sorely lacking.

What's a QUANGO?

2009-10-22T21:08:00.000+01:00

That's the question I have been asked all day. It surprised me how many people had not heard of these unaccountable bodies that drink taxpayers' cash. They can spend our money - acting on behalf of the government - at will, with virtually no accountability. I want to focus on Regional Development Agencies, and Yorkshire Forward in particular. The TPA has an excellent report on these agencies. To read it click HERE. You may be surprised at the scale of their failure.

Complaint against Diana Johnson, MP for Hull North

2009-09-19T14:01:00.000+01:00

Every Member of Parliament receives £10,000 of public money in the form of a communications allowance. It is basically used by MPs to inform their constituents of how wonderful they are and what a great job they are doing. Naturally, the Taxpayers' Alliance is opposed to this allowance.

Diana Johnson, MP for Hull North, recently used this allowance to issue a traffic and transport survey to residents in Kingswood. As she is not informing us of her work and is trying to gather information to help her in her general election fight, this survey should have been paid for by Hull North Constituency Labour Party.

I have therefore written to John Lyon, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, as a private individual and constituent of Ms Johnson, and have asked him to investigate the matter. I will post his response here when I receive it. I have also written a letter to the Hull Daily Mail to inform readers of the newspaper of my actions.

Taxpayers' Alliance proves how we have all been fleeced by Gordon Brown

2009-09-14T19:21:00.000+01:00

Taxpayers' Alliance research has revealed Gordon Brown's disastrous mishandling of the economy has cost £3 trillion. This works out at £50,000 for every man, woman and child in Britain. To find out more, click HERE, and to order the book 'Fleeced', click HERE.

The Mayor of Doncaster

2009-08-09T22:19:00.002+01:00

This link has been sent to me regarding Peter Davies, the new elected mayor of Doncaster. We need people like him in every town hall around the country. He is my kind of mayor.

The Quango War

2009-08-09T20:44:00.000+01:00

Every Leader of the Opposition promises to cut the number of Quangos. When they become prime minister, they usually forget this promise and by the time they are out of office, the number of Quangos has increased. Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair, all promised a decrease, so why should we believe David Cameron when he promises a war on Quangos?

You may be skeptical, as I am too, however, those who fears their jobs are for the axe are taking Cameron's warning seriously. The TPA campaign director, Mark Wallace, has written an article for Conservative Home detailing how the heads of some Quangos are publicly sharpening their knives and pointing them in the direction of other Quangos. This is becoming a Quango war, and I for one am looking forward to the spectacle of them all trying to justify their existence.

High Taxes impede entrepreneurial flair

2009-08-01T19:55:00.002+01:00

The Taxpayers' Alliance Research Director, Matthew Sinclair and Dr Jonathan Scott, have co-authored a report showing how high taxes impede entrepreneurial flair. Read it here.

The 50% tax rate for high earners is the politics of envy and should not have a place in Britain today. Not only will it be useless - as those affected will use every means at their disposal to legally avoid paying the higher tax rate - it will also stifle aspiration. What is the point of taking risks and building up your own company from scratch, when all the government wants to do is tax you to death?

Especially in this time of recession, we need to keep taxes as low as possible. We need to be able to hit the ground running when the economy starts to recover. We want to be ahead of our competitors. High taxes and mountains of red tape will not assist our recovery; they will impede it.

Chief Executive of Hull City Council

2009-07-29T14:57:00.005+01:00

The news broke yesterday in the Hull Daily Mail that Kim Ryley, the chief executive of Hull City Council is departing to take up a post as chief executive of the newly formed unitary authority in Shropshire. During the last financial year, he earned in excess of £200,000 working in Hull. He would not be leaving for the same money, or less, so we can safely assume his new salary will be approaching a quarter of a million.

What we are concerned about in this branch is how much the new chief executive - who is yet to be appointed - will receive. Now is the time for action. I urge you all to write to Cllr Carl Minns, Leader of Hull City Council, and express your views. Ask him what he regards as a fair salary for the top officer at the Guildhall. Tell him salaries of £200,000 cannot be justified, even when the economy is not in a recession.

You can also write a letter to the Hull Daily Mail and express your opinion. We need to keep up the pressure on Hull City Council and we can only do this with your help.

Cllr Minns' e-mail address is: councillor.minns@hullcc.gov.uk.

Do MPs give value for money?

2009-07-23T21:57:00.001+01:00

Today, the people of Hull and the East Riding welcomed home our troops from the Yorkshire Regiment as they marched through the streets of Hull and Beverley. Those young men risk their lives for the security of their country, many of them for under £20,000 a year.

Our elected representatives in the House of Commons on the other hand are now off on their holidays. They have 12 weeks to recharge their batteries after their exhausting parliamentary year where they spent 143 days in Westminster. Although parliamentary work is only one part of an MP's job, for the next 12 weeks they can do as little or as much as they want to. Instead of holding the government to account - especially whilst our troops are risking their lives in Afghanistan and the country braces itself for a pandemic of swine flu - they are pleasing themselves and 'earning' over £15,000 in the process. This is just a little less than some of our soldiers, risking their lives for Queen and country, will earn in a year.

Who do you think gives value for money? Come and join us in our fight for better government.

NHS Yacht, Yes. Tamiflu, No

2009-07-17T17:09:00.000+01:00

NHS Hull can find £500,000 to fund a yacht, however, they cannot find the cash to give everyone in the City 'Tamiflu' if they develop Swine Flu symptoms. Yet another example of the misuse of public money.

This is the story reported in the Hull Daily Mail yesterday.

East Riding Councillors' Allowances in the Hull Daily Mail

2009-07-15T08:44:00.001+01:00

We have more coverage in the Hull Daily Mail today regarding the expenses and allowances of East Riding Councillors. Read the story HERE.

Letter in the Hull Daily Mail - July 14

2009-07-14T18:51:00.001+01:00

I had a letter on behalf of the TPA published in the Hull Daily Mail today. As the Mail does not publish letters on its website, here is the letter in full:

Dear Editor

The news that Hull City Council chief executive, Kim Ryley, earns more than £200,000, may be a shock to many, however, I am not surprised.

Hull is not an isolated case. Peter Gilroy, the chief executive of Kent County Council, earned £255,000 in 2007-08, having received an 8.5 per cent increase on the previous year.

This pattern is being repeated around the country. While the rest of us are told to tighten our belts, the pay of senior council employees has risen well above inflation.

What annoys voters in equal measure is that My Ryley received an extra £10,815 for his role as returning officer in last year's city council elections. Surely this is part of the chief executive's job description. When you are earning a salary like his, extra work is not only justified, it should be expected.

There are thousands of pensioners across the city having to make ends meet on less than Mr Ryley's bonus who are angry at this revelation. It will interesting to see if My Ryley is willing to speak to the Mail and justify his pay package. I am sure the taxpayers of Hull would be interested to hear his response.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Allison

Organiser, Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire Branch, Taxpayers' Alliance

A response from East Riding Council on Councillors Allowances and Expenses

2009-07-09T17:08:00.000+01:00

I have received a reply from ERYC. As I have previously mentioned, there are 48 councillors out of a total of 67, who receive extra pay, officially known as a Special Responsibility Allowance. See below for all the details of that and much more. It seems as if some councillors are certainly not tightening their belts during the recession. Indeed, some are loosening their belts after enjoying a free lunch at the taxpayers' expense.

MEMBERS’ ALLOWANCES AT 1 APRIL 2008

£ £

1. Basic Allowance

(a) All Members (per annum) 10,574

(b) IT Initial 700

2. Special Responsibility Allowances (per annum)

(a)

Leader of the Council and

Leader of the Conservative Group 34,130

Deputy Leader of the Council and Deputy

Leader of the Conservative Group 25,597

Other Cabinet Members 13,719

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group 13,719

Leader of the Labour Group 3,430

Leader of the Independent Group 3,430

Planning Committee Chairman 11,157

(b) Overview and Scrutiny and Overview & Management Committee -

Chairman 9,147

Vice Chairman 2,287

(d) Area Planning Sub, Licensing, Licensing Act 2003, Pensions,

Staff Terms and Conditions Committees -

Chairman 3,430

3. Group Officer Supplements (per annum)*

(e) Conservative Group – (47)

Secretary - 4,572

Whip - 3,656

Assistant Secretary - 2,284

Assistant Group Whip – 2,284

Unallocated 994

-------- 16,074

(f) Liberal Democrat Group – (12)

Deputy Leader - 1,232 Secretary - 2,052

Whip - 410

Chair - 410

------- 4,104

* £342 per capita allocated by the Groups to Members holding Group Offices.

4. Co-optees Allowance

(a) Up to 4 hours duration 45.00

(b) Over 4 hours duration 75.00

5. Dependent Carers’ Allowances (per hour)

(a) Childcare 5.73

(b) Dependent Carer 10.00

6. Travelling Allowances

(a) Essential Car User -

Up to 999 cc (per mile) 0.340*

(plus per annum) (753)

Over 999 cc (per mile) 0.369 *

(plus per annum) (849)

(b) Casual Car User -

Up to 999 cc (per mile) 0.429 *

Over 999 cc (per mile) 0.469 *

(d) Public Transport -

Actual cost

* Up to 6,000 miles per annum, £0.17 thereafter

7. Subsistence Allowances

(a) Actual cost not exceeding

Breakfast - more than 4 hours before 11 am 6.29

Lunch - more than 4 hours including 12 noon to 2 pm 8.58

Tea - more than 4 hours including 3 pm to 6 pm 3.42

Dinner - more than 4 hours ending after 7 pm 17.14

Overnight (covering 24 hours) - Inner London 160.00

- Elsewhere 120.04

(b) Out of pocket expenses (per night) 4.57

NB The basic, special responsibility, group officer supplements, co-optees, bicycle and subsistence allowances have been increased automatically in line with the NJC officers’ national pay award.

Action Day - 11 July

2009-07-05T17:03:00.002+01:00

A quick reminder to everyone that we are having an action day in Beverley on Saturday 11 July. We will be meeting outside the old cinema in Saturday Market at 11.30 am. We will then be door-to-door leafleting for around an hour and a half.

New members are more than welcome. Please contact me if you would like more details.

East Riding Council publishes councillors' expenses

2009-07-05T12:15:00.003+01:00

The East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) has published councillors' expenses and allowances for 2008/9.

An amazing 48 councillors out of 67 claim a Special Responsibility Allowance. What the council does not say in its publication 'East Riding News', is how councillors come to be able to claim these extra sums. With some digging around, I can find this information out, however, once again we find public money being spent without any transparency.

I contacted Cllr Stephen Parnaby, Leader of ERYC, a week ago and asked him if he would consider publishing councillors' expenses and their attendance record at committee meetings on a regular basis, so we the public can find out who claims what and if they deserve the extras they are getting. One week later, Cllr Parnaby has not got back to me. I can't say I am surprised.

I am going to write to him today, repeating my request. I will keep you informed as and when he replies to me.

Cllr Paul Robinson publishes his expenses

2009-06-27T20:01:00.000+01:00

MPs fought tooth and nail to prevent their expenses being revealed. Now we can see why. Many of our elected representatives have been milking the taxpayer for years. Now they apologise because they have been caught out and desperately want to keep their jobs at the next general election.

As a result of the MPs' expenses revelations the BBC decided to come clean and publish the expenses of its senior executives. Many of those expenses were questionable, but at least the BBC has come clean without being forced to do so.

East Riding of Yorkshire Councillor Paul Robinson believes in transparency in local government and last month published his expenses claims for the last financial year. He is right in doing so and I wish there were many more like him. Now his constituents can decide whether he is good value for money and they now see how he spends their money.

I ask all councillors to follow Cllr Robinson's lead. We need more transparency. Come on councillors, let the light in.

Action Day - 11 July

2009-06-26T18:04:00.002+01:00

Come and join us for an action day in Beverley on 11 July. We will be door-to-door leafleting for around one and a half hours and then meeting up for a chat afterwards in a suitable hostelry. If you are free, we would love to see you. E-mail me for more details.

FOI Request

2009-06-26T18:01:00.002+01:00

I have received a reply back from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Just the usual. They will get back to me by 22 July - the standard 20 working days time limit for FOI requests. I will keep you informed when the information arrives.

Car Parking Charges in the East Riding

2009-06-23T16:43:00.004+01:00

When the East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) set-up a review panel into car parking charges, you didn't have to be a genius to work out that recommending car parking charges in car parks that are currently free, was not going to be popular.

Still the council went on, despite widespread public anger at the charges. ERYC then held roadshows, getting feedback from the public. Surprise, surprise; the vast majority were against charges being introduced.

This scheme is a dead duck. I know that, you know that and so does the council, but they are still going to plough on and sift through all the questionnaires, log the results and the review group will meet a few more times before they give in to the inevitable.

Today, I have issued a Freedom of Information request to ERYC. I have asked them to inform me of the total cost to date of this review panel, including all the administrative costs and expenses. It will be fascinating to read their reply.

NEW Hull and East Riding Branch

2009-06-23T12:31:00.002+01:00

The Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire Branch of the Taxpayers' Alliance was launched on Saturday 13 June. We held a very successful action day in Beverley, finding much support from local people.

Here you will be able to find out what we are up to and how you can get involved. If you want more information, please e-mail me on the address in the sidebar.

Hull and East Riding Taxpayers' Alliance

Important Notice

Council tax summonses hit a new high

Council leaders need to ‘think out of the box’

Car Parking in Hull and Sheffield

The parking nightmare in Hull

Bridlington Renaissance Parnership

Augmented pensions at East Riding of Yorkshire Council

Councillors’ allowances and taxpayer funding of unions

Senior councillors take a pay cut

East Riding councillors’ allowances rise by 25% in four years

Local Enterprise Partnerships

Proposed Academies in Hull – Update

Welfare Reform

Millions to be spent on another new academy in Hull

Boston Tea Party

No more handouts in the East Riding

New TPA Video: £20.8 million paid to the EU every day

Yorkshire Forward

Hull Forward to be abolished

Protest Rally, 23 June

Promote tourism and don’t waste our money on gimmicks

LibDem councillor in Hull defects to Labour

£600K wasted by Doncaster Council

Introducing Direct Democracy – better government for Hull & the East Riding

How long do you work for the tax man?

All for one and one for all

Costs rise for new Police Divisional HQ in Hull

Humberside Police to spend £25K on artwork

East Riding Council to freeze council tax in 2011/12

A message from Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance

Tax policy under the coalition

Together we’re keeping the pressure on East Riding of Yorkshire Council

It’s time to take to the streets and protest

One question voters should ask at this election

Town Hall Rich List: A view from Hull & East Riding

ERYC cabinet to think again about £364k payment

Non-Jobs throw our money down the drain

East Riding Council approves £364K payout

The Toads of Hull

Follow Hull & East Riding TPA on Twitter

Hull City Council will not use microchips in bins

ERYC to look again at car parking charges in Beverley

A classic fudge worthy of the finest confectioners

Check out the new-look website

Audit Commission is forcing fortnightly bin collections

Humberside Police Authority propose a 2.5% rise in council tax precept

NHS Smoking Advert - Update

MPs fail to pay for their cheap food and booze

Council tax in the East Riding

East Riding of Yorkshire Council increases council tax by 1.5%

Some answers on the use of biometrics

Do you feel alienated?

Bridlington Off-Licence introduces fingerprint scanners

Harman scuppers Commons reform. My response and the response from a TPA branch member

Virtual Farewell Booths

Outraged by Albert's removal from his round? Contact the council and tell them what you think

Apologise, Cllr Inglis, it was all your fault

IPSA waters down Kelly’s recommendations

Taxpayers to fork out over £10 million in redundancy payments to MPs

How many council snoopers can enter you home?

Thoughts on Hull’s World Cup Bid

ERYC Car Parking Review Panel

Hull City Council

The Big Screen in Hull

Speaking to East Yorkshire Conservatives

Dr Lee Rotherham in conversation

New TPA advertisement coming to a cinema near you

Complaint against Diana Johnson MP - Update

Bridlington Renaissance Partnership

What's a QUANGO?

Complaint against Diana Johnson, MP for Hull North

Taxpayers' Alliance proves how we have all been fleeced by Gordon Brown

The Mayor of Doncaster

The Quango War

High Taxes impede entrepreneurial flair

Chief Executive of Hull City Council

Do MPs give value for money?

More publicity in the Yorkshire Post

NHS Yacht, Yes. Tamiflu, No