Council Affairs

Waste Management Strategy

There is great government pressure on councils to increase the proportion of rubbish recycled, and reduce the amount of biodegradable rubbish going to landfill. The targets and penalties for councils are both high.

Biodegradable waste in landfills accounts for 40% of all UK methane emissions, methane being one of the most potent of Greenhouse gasses. The aim is to cut out completely all of this type of waste going to landfill

North East Lincs is favourably placed to meet its targets, as the incinerator, or as it is now called CHP - combined heat and power plant - planned under a Labour administration, and in operation since 2004, takes care of much waste. The preferred Council strategy is to encourage a higher rate of recycling, increase the number of households from which garden waste is collected, and build a second CHP. This should enable the Council to meet its targets for the next few years.

The Labour Government's support for North East Lincs

Labour have been keen to emphasise the amount of money from the government coming to North East Lincs to improve conditions here. Sure Start and Children's Centres are an obvious example. True enough, but surely any government would be providing such money?

The important point is that there have been a number of special projects, which have only applied to N E Lincs because we are a relatively poor and deprived authority. There are serious inequalities within our society. These are well known, a major one is the differences in health between different parts of the community. We ought to be aware that Labour has given priority to correct these inequalities.

An Efficient Council - is not a subject that has figured much in this election; no doubt because it is complicated and unglamorous. Yet anyone following the aborted efforts to form a partnership with Capita, must have been amazed at the sheer size of the savings they anticipated making, as well as major improvements in the standards of service.

A series of reports by expert outside bodies showed how much needed to be done. Council services have improved somewhat; so they should have done, but there is great potential for more improvements. This is a common theme of recent Audit Commission reports.

You would have thought that either the Tories or the Lib/Dems would have ambitious plans of their own. But no; it's just a case of continuing the same non policies.

The Buses - the Council's climb down over bus passes was a victory for Labour. It was a symbol of how the Lib/Dems and Tories were prepared to sacrifice the interests of some less well-off people for the sake of perhaps saving a relatively little money. What applies to the bus service applies in many other Council areas as well.

Housing is a major concern for local authorities. Council houses were, and in some places still are, a direct council responsibility. Austin Mitchell has taken a leading part in calling for many more houses to be available for those who cannot afford to buy. At a time when house prices are sky high, and an insufficient number are not being built, it is surely right to allow councils to build.

Speaking on 31st March in a debate on the Housing and Regeneration Bill in the House of Commons he also pressed for ballots that Councils organise to be conducted more fairly than they have been in some areas. He instanced this area as an example, as the final voting date was brought forward before some of those opposing the privatisation had time to develop their case.

Havelok Homes have been here since 1970, and have done a good job. The council houses in North East Lincs were transferred to Shoreline Housing in 2005. Their record cannot be said to have been brilliant, and it would have been much easier for the council to develop its housing policies had they been still their direct responsibility

Budget for 2008/2009

The largest proportion of the Council's income is from government grants, the main one of which is the Revenue Support Grant. This showed an increase of 15.4%, but for several reasons had to be netted down to an increase of 6.8%. This was still a very good outturn for North East Lincs.

Given that the anticipated increase in wages is 2.5%, and that fees charged by the Council are increased by about 3%, it was not too difficult to limit the council tax increase to 2.8%. The Labour Party thought the council tax rise could even have been slightly lower but for some money wasted (e.g. on preparations for the aborted Capita project). At the very least, however, some cuts that were made should not have been. The main one was the cutting out, for those who presently qualify, of free bus travel before 9.30 in the morning.

CPA 2008

Following the annual inspection of our council, the Audit Commission make
two judgements. The main one is of the overall performance of the council,
which this year was two stars, indicating that performance was adequate but only at minimum requirements.

Their other judgement was of the "direction of travel", which is an indication of current performance. North East Lincs is "improving well", which puts us on a level with 63% of other councils. This was the same as last year.

Unfortunately North East Lincs suffers from many deep seated problems. For example, there are major health inequalities, relatively high unemployment, much poor quality housing, and a well above average amount of crime and anti social behaviour. Such problems cannot be put right overnight, and in the past have not been fully recognised. We wonder whether, even now, many councillors fully understand the position and give it the necessary priority.

We suspect that the extent of our problems is one factor making it difficult to make real progress and therefore to bring us more stars.

Capita - the Council's Transformation Partner

It was due to begin on November 1st 2007, but alas is now no more. It would have been an opportunity to bring the North East lincs council up to a high standard in a relatively short time. Most of us who are used to our present standards cannot appreciate how much needs to be done. Now alternatives should be worked out.

The Cost of Arson
In a recent report to the "Safer and Stronger Communities" scrutiny panel, there are some interesting statistics about arson. In the last full year there were over 1730 cases of arson in this area. Two thirds of them were fairly minor, such as bin fires.

In 2006 there were 321 cars deliberately set alight. The estimated cost of dealing with these was over one and three quarter million pounds. The cost of arson of occupied dwellings was almost two million pounds. Even the cost of the less serious fires mounted up, with an approximate cost of £200 each.

The overall cost for the year is not given but probably amounted to well over £7 million. An exceptionally large fire, such as that of the Bird's Eye factory in Ladysmith road, would be enough to raise this figure significantly.

Corporate Assessment - the real test is still to come

The Corporate assessment gives us, in effect, the Audit Commission's judgements on the North East Lincs Council's strong and weak points. We have chosen to quote some of their unfavourable comments, not to demonstrate what a terrible local authority we are, but rather to show what must be done to bring us up to an average, and hopefully above average, local authority.
For two pages of these criticisms click here and here

The Corporate Assessment scorecard

Key to scores

May 2007 Local Elections in North East Lincs

The overal result was little change, but it wasn't a question of all parties holding their existing seats. Labour lost Sidney Sussex, but gained Croft Baker. The Tories lost Freshney, but gained Humberston and New Waltham from Independent. The Lib/Dems gained Freshney, Sidney Sussex, and Yarborough (though they won it four years ago with Tattersdale who later went Independent), but lost Croft Baker.

Because of the end of the Tory/Lib Dem pact and because of the number of candidates in all wards, it would be meaningless to calculate swings or compare with previous years the totals of votes cast for the various parties. Only to note that the seats won are not in proportion to the number of votes cast - the LibDems being the gainers.

The Future is Looking Up for North East Lincs

It has taken a long time, but at last there are signs that North East Lincs may have a promising future. The following sequence of events shows how slow it has been. (CPA stands for "Comprehensive Performance Assessment" which is the judgement of the Audit Commission after making a full inspection)

This latest CPA judgement is very welcome , but as can be seen when our results are compared to other councils, North East Lincs is still amongst the bottom fifth of councils.

The next stage with anti-social behaviour

The government has chosen 40 areas "to lead the Respect programme". What's it all about, and why is North East Lincs not one of them ?

Austin Mitchell questioned Home Office civil servants in a select committee about their objectives, and their replies provide interesting background information. There is a fair chance we will be able to join in due course. For further discussion click here,

Projects that help North East Lincs
North East Lincs was one of 27 pilot authorities for the Labour Government's "Liveability" initiative. It was launched in 2003, and N E Lincs was then awarded £2.4 million. It has helped to improve many parks in N E lincs. For a full description on the IDeA website click here.

A larger and more important initiative is for Neighbourhood Renewal, mainly to help to improve deprived areas .Although North East Lincs was late in bidding for their share, they now have £9.1 million to spend in two years (as a start), and the project is in full swing. For more details click here.

More recently we have succeeded in our second round bid for LEGI funding. LEGI stands for Local Enterprise Growth Initiative. The project is based on a ten year time span, with £18.7 million for an initial three years. For more detail click here.

Making the best use of all this money detailed above will be a real challenge for North East Lincs. We need permanent and significant improvements.

Council FAQ

Like many other organisations, you don't have to read or hear much in local government, before coming across sets of initials and lots of names and phrases that at first sight have little meaning. In an effort to make some of these clearer we have drawn up a FAQ (frequently asked questions), Hopefully a particular question can be quickly answered, without having to read them all. Click here

Corporate Plan

The Tory/LibDem council was extremely slow to take actions to correct the weaknesses elaborated in the December 2002 CPA report, as is clear from the CPA report in December 2005. The Corporate Plan, "Progressing with Pride", is part of an ongoing process to meet the government's policy demands and to correct those weaknesses. It sets out both short term and long term aims and priorities.

To read it click here It is not a particularly long document, though to obtain its full meaning it has to be read in conjunction with the Council's strategies and more detailed plans.

The aims are ambitious and comprehensive. The test of its success will come in the way it is implemented. We can already see that the priorities of this Tory/LibDem council are not the same as would be those of a Labour council. The poor and the disadvantaged, for example, do not receive as much help and attention as they ought to get So these documents warrant careful attention.

2006 Local Elections

The state of the Parties on North East Lincs council is now:
Tories 15
Lib/Dem 17
Labour 6
Independents 4

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"An Independent is a person who wants to take politics out of politics"

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The Comprehensive Performance Assessment in December 2005 was a real horror. The Tory coalition said that it was not fair or up to date. That was nonsense, and for evidence click here.

There is an urgent need for Labour to gain a greater influence in North East Lincs.

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