My political legacy lives on

During the last two years I have done very little direct political campaigning. For many people who will have met me over the years, this would seem very odd considering how driven I was about fighting and winning elections. But for me, my overriding priority in the last two years has been my family and my job. So it is something of a relief to know that you can step back from something and, if you have done the right amount of preparation and laid the foundations correctly, things will not collapse as soon as you leave someone else to do the things you used to do.

So it was a real pleasure last night to get a phone call from Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, to tell me that my legacy lives on in Fakenham and to thank me for getting Fakenham in to such a good state for the Lib Dems. I was, for four years, a district councillor in Fakenham, and during the period of my political involvement in the town we swept the board politically. So naturally yesterday my first reaction was to check the result from Fakenham, and it was really pleasing to see David Callaby re-elected as County Councillor with an increased share of the vote and an increased majority.

As for the County elections, I naturally looked at North Norfolk (I was Vice Chairman of North Norfolk Lib Dems) and it was great to see in North Norfolk a net gain for the Lib Dems of one seat (and a net loss for the Tories) and also an increase in the Lib Dem vote of about 4% to nearly 46%. Across Norfolk, mixed results. Norwich pretty much reflected what the Lib Dems did last year. I hyad a little smile when I saw Labour had held university ward. The Labour Councillor there is a friend of mine and despite my political allegiances it is nice to see that good people can buck the national trend.

As for South Norfolk, it is a real wake up call for the Lib Dems there. They have some wonderful campaigners and activists there, but they urgently need to reassess their strategy and perhaps take on board lessons of other Lib Dem constituencies in similar demographic areas (South Suffolk and South Cambridgeshire stand out as similar seats but in those seats the Lib Dems had really good County results).

So overall, wearing my North Norfolk hat, a good day. Thinking about Broadland, bigger majorities in their held seats and a near miss, Elsewhere though, mixed. But the Lib Dems started with 13 councillors and finish with the same amount. At the very highest water line for the Tories, it certainly provides lots of scope for the Lib Dems to make progress in four years time.

The immigrant myth

The story today about a survey of just 43 people who mistakenly believe that immigrants are given better benefits, access to housing and basically an easy time compared to white British people.

Of course these are myths, but more must be done to dispel the fact that benefits are not piled up high in to wheelbarrows for every immigrant who visits the DSS, but likewise, people ought to know better than to believe every rumour they hear.

I remember when I was a councillor in Fakenham (North Norfolk) that a new social housing scheme was the subject of some criticism from a few local people who went around town telling everyone that the local council was filling the houses with Portuguese immigrant workers.

The fact that this scheme was actually filled with British people off the council housing list, and I was unaware of a single Portuguese family living in town (being a local teacher also meant I knew there were no Portuguese kids at our school), but it did not stop a small number of people spreading utterly false rumours.

The fact is that if people are told the truth, they don't want to know anyway, and I cannot see why that would be any different in the case reported today.

It's nice to know that I helped do some good when I was a councillor

I often wondered when I was on the council in North Norfolk, what have I actually achieved ? Perhaps I was naive, but like most people who get involved in politics, I did so for positive reasons, wanting to see change, put right things that didn't work, and essentially make a difference.

The problem is that local councillors, in the main, end up debating and implementing things that central government have told us to do, usually using up a great chunk of the council budget doings so, whilst local initiatives are effectively starved of cash.

I remember one full council meeting which lasted nearly three hours. At the end of the meeting, the councillor sat next to me (Cllr Virginia Gay, now leader of the council) pointed out to me that we were sat in a council chamber where there were no elected Labout councillors yet we had spent 90% of the meeting discussing dictats and matters from the Labour government whilst local matters were almost brushed aside.

As a political (and ruling) group on the council, we knew that we had to make local matters more of a priority, and so we made a conscious effort to ensure that local, low cost and easily implemented initiatives were given a real priority by the council.

So I was delighted, when visiting my old political stomping ground today in Fakenham to do some bargain shopping in Woolworths and other shops in the town, to find that one of the schemes we championed when I was a councillor is still in place.

Way back in 2004 councillors in Fakenham made representations to the excellent Peter Moore (a Lib Dem councillor in North Walsham and the man who knows North Norfolk's finances inside out) about how we could help boost the Christmas trade in Fakenham and other towns by reducing car parking charges in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Somehow, I had forgotten this as I rushed to stick my £1.20 in to the ticket machine this morning, and only when the machine refused to take my money did I see the sign saying the council was giving two hours free parking each Saturday in the run up to Christmas.

So I had a very cheap morning in Fakenham, bagged some great bargains in the chocolate factory, in Boots, in Woolworths and also in the excellent independent card shop in the precinct (I don't use the cheap "Card Factory shop next door - full of rubbish in my opinion), and I would heartily recommend a visit to Fakenham for all your Christmas shopping needs.

Another reason why Fakenham is still a great place

I used to live, teach and do my politics in Fakenham for a number of years and despite moving away from the North Norfolk town, still go there to shop regularly.

Now I know I am biased because the people of Fakenham once elected me with 66% of the vote, but I think Fakenham is a cracking place to live. Sadly I was cut up by a Tesco delivery lorry whilst I was there travelling along a road that Tesco promised they wouldn't use, but otherwise its a safe place to live with all the shops you would need.

So why eulogise ? Well I have been trying all week to get hold of Wii Fit, the latest offering from Nintendo, and it appears that there is a shortage of them right across the country. You cannot even order them of the internet. So it is another feather in the cap of Fakenham that I should go in to Woolworths today and be able to buy Wii Fit when you cannot get it anywhere else in the country.

Time for people to put their money where there mouth is and support independent shops

The local paper in Norfolk, the Eastern Daily Press is running a campaign to support shops in small towns, which I support, but it also requires more than just simply shopping in a town. It requires you to look carefully at where you are shopping too.

I still regularly go shopping where I used to live and where I was local councillor, in Fakenham. Although we live 20 miles from Fakenhan and just 5 miles from Norwich, it is far easier to travel there (it take 30 minutes), there is plenty of parking and despite what some people say, it is extremely cheap to park in Fakenham, with it costing about a third of the cost of Norwich parking. The other advantage of North Norfolk's parking scheme and charges is that it does not mean that people hog parking spaces for a whole day, which is what Breckland's free parking leads to.

When we go to Fakenham, we don't simply think that we have been good to the town by shopping in Boots, Argos or Woolworths. We deliberately make a point of using independent shops and avoid chain stores if at all possible. In Millers Walk (a small arcade in Fakenham) there is a lovely independent card shop which has been there for years, and a new chain store card shop has opened up. What is the result ? The chain store is packed whilst the shop next door is empty. This has nothing to do with price, sadly it is a case of people shopping with "brand names" in mind. The result might be that the independent shop will close, if people don't use it.

There are numerous other examples. An excellent local baker or the chain store high street bakers, the Tesco meat counter of the two excellent butchers. or you can have supermarket vegetables (and all the wasteful packinging that goes with that) or the excellent greengrocers called "Benbow's" who serves you fruit and veg the proper way, in paper bags.

In short, shopping in small towns is not enough in itself. People need to realise what makes there small town unique or special and cherish that. People think it will cost more, but very often it doesn't. People are just seduced in to thinking it is more expensive if you don't use a supermarket, even when it isn't. But one thing you are guaranteed in an independent shop is better service, better quality and usually better freshness too.

Fakenham bomb leads to most obvious police advice of the year

The local news is full of today's events in Fakenham, my old council area, and the bomb incident in town.

It appears that a man who lives in Field Dalling, five miles from Fakenham in the countryside, heard an explosion in his garden last night and this morning found a device that looked like a large grenade. Upon finding this device, he put it in his van and took it to the police station in Fakenham.

Upon seeing what he had in his van, an exclusion zone was set up in Fakenham and a bomb disposal team was called. After several hours, the device was declared safe.

The day's events led to the police to make the following statement

"If you find an explosive device in your garden, please call the police rather than putting it in your car and bringing it to a busy town centre"

Well it seems obvious to me.

A visit to my old council ward

I went to Fakenham after work today to go to the dentists. Having taught in Fakenham a few years ago and been councillor there until last Thursday I am always inundated with people wanting to speak to me, which is lovely, but when you are in a hurry, like I was today, it can get a bit awkward.

So I arrived, parked, quickly dashed across the road and thought I'd got away with it when suddenly a car tooted its horn at me and the driver quickly pulled over clearly wanting to speak to me. "Don't they know I am not their councillor anymore" part of my brain screamed.

Anyway, the car pulls up, the window winds down, and I am confronted by Sean Mears, one of the new Liberal Democrat councillors for my old ward of Fakenham North.

"It's all your fault" he said, pointing at me with a grin on his face. And so Sean has learnt his first lesson, as soon as you volunteer to do anything for a political party, you get dragged in to it more and more until eventually you get elected to something. Still, Sean was very excited about his new role and the council work as well. He'll learn !

A "thank you" from a constituent

I was phone at teatime today by a constituent who I had helped out with three different pieces of case work over the last four years.

The very pleasant thing was that he phoned merely to thank me for all I had done in my role of councillor and to say that he believed that I, along with my Fakenham Lib Dem colleagues Simon, Simon and Jacky (who are all standing down for various reasons) would be missed.

I've been looking forward enormously to getting my life back and no longer being a councillor, but occasionally some things, like tonight's call, really can be enormously touching.

I feel enormously proud to have represented Fakenham, and hope whoever succeeds me (and I've a good idea who it will be) really can take the same pride in it that I have.

How much crap can one person gather after four years on a council ?

I decided today, having put up a load of new shelves and painted another room, too clear out all the council related stuff I have managed to acquire over the last four years.

Christ alone knows how much rubbish my father, a councillor of sixteen years, must have, but I had enough rubbish, and let me be quite clear about this, it was rubbish, to fill nearly two bin bags.

I feel I am purging myself of mt North Norfolk responsibilities, although if anyone in Fakenham has a problem, they still have three and a half weeks to contact me and I'll be happy to do what I can to help.

Final Lap - Fakenham CAB

With less than two months to go until I am no longer a councillor, I am now on my final lap of meetings.

Today at 4pm it was the Trustee Board of the Fakenham Citizens Advice Bureau. I think for the first 18 months of meetings I sat there wondering what I was doing, what I could contribute, and basically felt like a bit of a spare part. However, the Citizens Advice Bureau in Fakenham had problem eighteen months ago, but under the stewardship of its indomitable and industrious manager, Jim Wallace, it has become a centre of excellence, both in terms of it's advice and its forward looking nature.

I have also learnt a lot in this period, and for the last two and a half year have really felt that I could make useful contributions to meetings with my District Council insight.

So it was with some sadness that I left at the end of the meeting today. Fakenham Citizens Advice Bureau, its staff and many volunteers, just like so many other CAB's do a wonderful job providing invaluable advice that helps people and changes lives. However, whilst I value it, it is clear the government do not. So it is sad to note that nationally the CAB is to receive £4 million less in grants from the DTI this year.

There's another thing to put down as your legacy Mr Blair !

No traffic wardens in North Norfolk

The EDP reports that North Norfolk will have no traffic wardens operating for the next few weeks.

I'd love to report that this is a new problem, but we have not had a traffic warden Fakenham for several months, and Norfolk Constabulary do not see it as a priority to employ one, neither will they allow Police Community Support Officers to issue traffic tickets for parking offences.

It seems that Norfolk Constabulary seem disinterested in the traffic problems in North Norfolk towns. However, they are still keen to collect the money from speed cameras between Fakenham and Holt. Double standards ? You be the judge.

Norfolk Lib Dems rally to support cottage hospitals.

Norfolk Lib Dems today handed in an 8,000-name "Hands Off Our Hospitals" petition to Downing Street in response to plans to close community hospitals across Norfolk.

Newly selected target seat candidates April Pond from Broadland, and Simon Wright from Norwich South were joined by North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, who is also the Lib Dems shadow health secretary.

Broadland campaigner April Pond made clear that if these closures went ahead they would leave a “gaping hole in health care in Norfolk. The financial reasons for closures do not stack-up unless a much poorer, patchy service is the alternative, and we do not want this for Norfolk."

Norman Lamb stressed that it was unlikely the government would change its mind but the rally and petition at the very least highlighted the growing state of anxiety, across the country and not just the county, about the possible closures.“The brutal truth is that there are threatened closures all over the place,” he added.

Norfolk Liberal Democrats have been campaigning across North Norfolk, the worst affected constituency affected by the cuts, but also in South Norfolk, Norwich South and Broadland. This also affects the council wards covering Fakenham, currently represented by Simon Wright and Nich Starling (aka Norfolk Blogger), because cuts are proposed to Cranmer House in Fakenham.

Trouble in Fakenham - New Year

I was sorry to read in the EDP about an attack in Fakenham in the early hours of New Year's Day.

There was, in Fakenham a few years ago, often trouble on a Friday or Saturday night with some fights at closing time. Thankfully, the police have really made great strides in tackling this. I went out with the police about two years ago on a Friday night with Norman Lamb, the local MP, and saw at first hand just how hard the police and the "specials" work to stop trouble and make use of the CCTV to nip any problems in the bud.

I know the police thought it amusing that each time they wanted to have a word with some troublesome teenagers, the kids spoke more politely to me than they did the police, for the simple reason that I had taught virtually every one of them. The police did ask if I could go out with them every week !

It also has to be said that Fakenham has really turned itself around in recent years. The pubs have have got much smarter, and the atmosphere is so much more pleasant in town in the evenings, in a way that it never was before.

Major blow to Norfolk success story

Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council have turned down a request to build a campus on the site of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB). The CITB are the largest training provider for the Construction Industry in the UK and it is a real success story. Read more about it HERE.

To my mind, it is a shame that Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council (KLWNBC) have turned down the application as this would have cemented (no pun intended) the position of the CITB nationally, just at a time when the newspapers are full of stories about us having to impoirt construction workers from Eastern Europe. The CITB provides lots of employment in West Norfolk, and also in my council ward in Fakenham.

I hope that KLWNBC will look at this again more favourably if a revised application is sent in.

Brilliant Christmas event in Wells

Friends of mine in Wells (North Norfolk) have drawn my attention to an event happening in 10 days time, and I am happy to plug this event on my blog.

On Saturday December 16 festive celebrations will be happening most of the day. Click THIS LINK to find out more.

A unique Christmas experience is promised with many fabulous events too numerous to mention, but I would in particular point out that Fakenham Town Band are playing and they are superb.

So for all those people in Fakenham who read this blog, cannot I suggest you go to Wells and support this event.

Co-op managers attempt to "pass the buck" over store closure

More news on the Rainbow store closure in Fakenham in today's EDP. Read it HERE.

The Co-op is trying to blame North Norfolk District Council for the closure of the Rainbow store in town. They claim that the council has prevented re-development of the site.

Strange really because they have been granted permission to re-develop the store and they have never once contacted me as a local councillor to speak about further expansion or redevelopment.

For all my criticism of Tesco, at least they tried to contact me when they wanted to move in to the town. If Rainbow can't be bothered to even contact the local councillors or the council regarding their so called "planning problems", whose fault is it they are closing, the Council or the Co-Op ?

It will be interesting to see what response Norman Lamb gets from them.

Fakenham PCT Meeting - Update

Having got back from the meeting earlier, I can say I learnt something of the predicament they are in. it is clear if the government had not cut PCT funding last year in favour of transferring funds to PCT's in the north (Labour areas ?), they would not be in the position they are in now.

Interestingly, they (the PCT) are also suffering from debt they did not incur, but were instead lumbered with a share of costs towards the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital PFI (Labour's first flagship PFI).

Despite the fact that they said nothing had been decided, I still feel that they have made their minds up. The general feeling from the meeting from people in attendance was they if we lose any community hospitals, they will never re-open and the plans they have to reduce costs will result in more pressure on the voluntary sector and on carers who are often family members.

Fakenham PCT meeting tonight - Real consultation or an exercise in PR ?

I am attending the Primary Care Trust meeting in Fakenham this evening to hear about the cuts there are going to have to make to services across North Norfolk, but I go with a particular interest in cuts to be made at Cranmer House, Fakenham.

The question for me is whether this is real consultation from the PCT and are they going to listen ?

I know the PCT finds itself in a very awkward position. It's funds were cut last year, and since merging with neighbouring PCT's, its budget has been cut again, meaning that they have to make some awkward decisions which will not be popular.

I know I wouldn't want to be the one making such awful decisions, but these people on the PCT have chosen to be there and wanted to be PCT board members, so they have got to face the music.

Personally, I'd like to see the resign "en-masse", to put pressure on the government and to cause as much embarrassment as possible in oder to get this issue further up the political agenda.

I won't be doing the political bandstanding that can rather spoil such meetings, but I do hope there will be some listening on both sides as a three hour meeting to tell us what they are going to do which does not involve them listening too will be a waste of time for everyone and will cause much anger.

I'll report back

Iain Dale's Diary picks up Tesco issue

Iain Dale's Diary has a link to my story yesterday about Tesco, Fakenham and the closure of shops in the town.

He points out the irony of the piece in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday saying that despite her pocketing of £1million in fees for ads she did for Tesco, Prunella Scales wants now to support independent small shops !

Another supermarket closes in Fakenham - Thank you Tesco !

The EDP reports on its website today that Rainbow supermarket in Fakenham will close in two weeks. This is the second supermarket to close in Fakenham since Tesco came to town.

I openly and vocally opposed the opening of the new Tesco, not just because I feared for the economy of Fakenham, but also becaues of its ludicrous location and the unwillingness of Tesco to build a bridge so that it could be accessed from the by-pass. At the time I got a lot of stick from people. One or two said they wouldn't vote for me again, others, even though they disagreed with me were pleased to have a councillor who actually stated an opinion for a change.

Tesco at the time along with their supporters claimed that they would provide more choice, and with that could come lower prices. Now, with the closure of Budgens in the centre of town (only the budgens local is left) and Rainbow, closing in two weeks, the people without cars and those who shop in Fakenham town centre now really have no choice at all, and Tesco are in a monopoly position in the centre of town, which is, after all, what they wanted and knew would happen. This is, however, the opposite of the "choice" they offered the town.

The great shame is that Rainbow (part of the Co-op) had permission to extend and rebuild, but have chosen to sell out to Lidl. Yes Lidl will provide an alternative, but they are not a mainstream supermarket like Tesco, Rainbow, Sainsburys, Waitrose, Asda or Morrisons, and they will not be open for more than six months.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Morrisons on the edge of town will go ahead with the extension they talked about so that Tesco will really have to fight for customers.

I'm not at all pleased to be proved right about the affect Tesco has had on Fakenham. Budgens gone (and with it the Post Office), Rainbow gone, Curry's gone, and talk of others who are re-thinking their position. It happened in Stalham where rivals closed and smaller independent shops went to the wall, and it's starting to happen in Fakenham too.