News from County Councillor Marianne Overton MBE
Wishing you all the very best!
This is my personal newsletter to let you know what I am doing on your behalf and to keep in touch with you. Let me know if I can help with anything.
Invitation
Please join me for a coffee at our public event in Hammond Hall Bassingham
Tuesday 9th April 5-6.30pm
Devo Deals, Solar Panels & Highways
Improving our local roads
I have called for more funding locally and our Council agreed extra this year, with some improved local roads. Lincolnshire Independents are working hard to make sure we get our share locally and tackle heavy traffic through villages. Please keep reporting on www.fixmystreet.com or 01522 782070 and let me know.
Facing up to Big Solar Industry
The huge scale of industrial developments continues to be a significant battle with unlimited applications coming in – thousands of acres of farmland in Lincolnshire right now with many new pylons. We have 7,000 acres in the two applications of Springwell and Fosse Green, below and above the cliff edge, all connecting to a new electricity substation at Navenby. More land could be added once the power connection is in place.
Lincolnshire Independents are calling for limits, rather than the free for all we see at the moment, making Lincolnshire the dumping ground for the country and profits abroad. The District Council has written, but we need the MPs and ministers on board too.
Welcome on Tuesday 9th April 5pm at Bassingham Hall.
Emperor’s New Clothes – “Devo Deal”
In a classic case of the Emperor’s new clothes, this so-called “devolution deal” for Lincolnshire takes power away from people and guarantees nothing. Our MP’s could stop it now. Please write to them, to the Minister and to the Prime Minister.
The Devo-deal with a tax-raising Mayor, adds bureaucracy and more costs, that we will need to pay on our council tax bills. Money should come to our Councils as they are.
Moving the transport plan from our County Council to very few hands of the Mayoral authority, takes power further away from residents, the opposite of devolution. The £262m from the failed HS2 extension should come to our Council to serve all of us.
The money is not guaranteed – the new authority would still have to submit a bid, a business plan for the £24m to show “growth”, a return in increased tax that the Government would get for their investment. That’s why their objectives may not be the same as ours. Money that should have come to services in Lincolnshire could be drawn into the Free Port and failed industries on the North and North-East areas. The money is not up to the job. The amount is much less than the £360m we are currently spending on new roads and transport, supported by Central Government, based on submitted business plans. The motherhood and apple pie objectives are already in our Council plans, and it takes the budgets of our ten Councils to do them. The County Council alone, needs to spend £1,540 million next year, just to run our services. The new area is larger still, with power and money in very few hands, making it harder still to get your voice heard.
In every District of Lincolnshire, people voted against this new combined authority with a Mayor. Of people who voted one way or the other in Lincolnshire, 62% were against the new combined authority, including 45% were strongly against the plans.
The three upper tier Council leaders have already agreed to set up a new combined authority with themselves as the key decision-makers. Only the MP’s can stop it now. Please write to your MP, using the links below. Please copy to me and come along to our event on Tuesday! marianne.overton@biosearch.org.uk Thank you!
Dr Caroline Johnson Sleaford and North Hykeham
01529 306721 caroline.johnson.mp@parliament.uk
Jacob.young.mp@parliament.uk; rishi.sunak@parliament.uk Petition here.
Insulating Our Homes
I have been pushing the Council hard on energy efficiency in our 3,800 Council homes. We have secured £2m from Government in grants and allocated £21m from the housing budget. The Council has improved the energy efficiency of 85 homes sinc last August. in the past year, including 24 in Aubourn, Brant Broughton, Carlton le Moorland, Leadenham, Norton Disney and Welbourn. The legislation in privately rented homes still requires a minimum of efficiency grade E. NKDC still has 1,087 homes that are below grade C.
I am also pushing to get the grants to improve energy efficiency of private housing. Moving from a D to a B would save around £500 a year. NKDC has about half our homes graded A-C.
21 per cent of total carbon emissions in the UK come from our 20m homes, according to the Energy Saving Trust, much could be remedied with improved insulation so heat is not paid for and lost unnecessarily.
How green is our Council?
I signed the foreword of the new document from the charity Climate Emergency on what councils are doing to reach their targets. Do Councils have the necessary processes in place? NKDC was at 49%, and the average for District Councils was 30%. The best in our group was 60%. Lancaster City, led by my Deputy on the Independent Group at the Local Government Association. They offer an interesting dashboard to monitor progress, something like ours in NKDC.
We have agreed to tackle the climate emergency by reaching net zero for our whole district by 2030, with milestones along the way. Our District itself is not meeting those targets, and hardly started on supporting the District. A recent report on all Councils showed that 2/3 of Councils are not confident of meeting their targets. They also depend on the grid being net zero, with reducing waste and offshore wind being achieved.
Supporting the local economy
Sleaford has just one hotel, the Carre Arms, an important asset to Sleaford. We councillors unanimously agreed that it was important for North Kesteven District Council to step in and secure its future as a hotel. It is running well and funds will be spent locally.
50th Anniversary of Local Government
On the 1st April, Councils across England hit the big 5-0. You elect councillors to represent you to ensure Councils use our pooled funds to provide essential services and to make the best decisions in governing. However, the 1974 reforms were also dramatic and removed 1,000 local authorities, including six metropolitan Counties, leaving 377. That made us one of the most centralised decision-making countries in Europe.
The Minister at the time, now 90, said it stemmed from a London centric approach to the money and a “lack of faith” in Local Government. Councils that generated loyalty and a sense of affinity were lost.
This was also the first time that Councillors were required to say which political group they were in, to make the politics of decision-making more transparent. However, that also made no provision for lone Independents, forcing Independents into groups, even to earn a seat on a committee! To get a level playing field, the Lincolnshire Independents are set up as a party to work together to support Lincolnshire. As Independents, we speak and vote Independently and work together to get the best for our local areas.
Elections
Lincoln City Council has a third of their seats up for election. We have a great candidate in Carholme Ward, Ashley Delaney. Would you like to help?
The whole country is to vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner on Thursday 2nd May 7am to 10pm at all the polling stations. The huge area for Lincolnshire 7xMP areas and the £5,000 deposit means there are five parties, but no Independents this time. (A mayoral area is bigger!)
English Democrat, David Dickason, Peter Escreet of Reform UK, Mike Horder Labour, Marc Jones Conservative, Lesley Rollings, Lib Dem
Are you on the registered at your current address? Want to check? Want to vote by post?
Ring 01529 308352 or email elections@n-kesteven.gov.uk.
Register before midnight on April 16th directly using your NI number.
For a postal vote, print forms off from the website. www.n-kesteven.gov.uk and return it to your District or City Council. If you need someone to vote on your behalf, called a “proxy” vote, there is a form for that too.
A huge thank you to our local volunteers
Thank you for all you continue to do in our communities and your kind support. Good luck in all you do. Wellingore is calling for Village Volunteers. Please contact Richard Jenkins chewy.watford@btinternet.com
Marianne
Marianne Overton MBE
Working together for people and planet