A Big Thank You

Dear All,

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for re-electing me as your Borough Councillor on Thursday, 3rd May. I am naturally honoured and delighted to have been given the chance to act as your voice at the Town Hall for the next four years.

The election was tough and competitive. Despite this, the contest was fought amicably, never once descending into personal attacks or mudslinging. I thank all of my fellow candidates for fighting fair campaigns. I believe the last few weeks have been a good example of democracy in action.

Election campaigns are never fought alone. I was fortunate enough to have help at this election from generous members of our community. There are too many of them to list here, but they know who they are, and they should also know just how grateful I am for their contribution. I also must thank my wife, Deepah, who has been unwavering in her support as I have spent the last few weeks working around the clock on my campaign.

The benefit of an election campaign is that I get to meet more of you than I would do normally. Many of you raised important local problems and I will now be using my re-election to address your concerns. I will report back on my progress with my regular UPDATE newsletters.     

Remember, I am your Councillor, elected to represent your interests. If you have any issues that you would like to discuss then please feel free to email or telephone me on the contact details given below.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr. Howard Roberts

Independent Councillor for Dunsmore Ward

Election Result - Dunsmore Ward

Dunsmore Ward - Declared

• COX Doreen - Labour Party Candidate - 460
• DAVIES Suzanne Louise - Liberal Democrats - 324
• FRANCIS Graham Lawrence - The Conservative Party Candidate - 1058 - ELECTED
• LOWE Ian Stanley - The Conservative Party Candidate - 1033 - ELECTED
• O`DWYER Beatrice Josephine - Liberal Democrats - 304
• ROBERTS Howard David - Independent - 1281 - ELECTED
• SPIERS Ian - The Conservative Party Candidate - 868

Turnout - 39.48%

A letter to my electorate.

Dear Elector,

Since you elected me four years ago to represent Dunchurch and Knightlow, I have done my very best to deserve the trust you placed in me, by working hard and reporting back to you regularly with newsletters. I have very much enjoyed doing battle on your behalf, whether in minor skirmishes: like fighting to retain post offices in Dunchurch and Stretton; pushing to have brownfield sites built on before Greenfield ones; developing an award scheme to honour the unsung heroes of our villages; or major campaigns like fighting to save services at St. Cross Hospital or the battle to stop a national change in the planning meaning a presumption in favour of development

None of these issues have been even remotely party political. In fact, as most of you know, party is an irrelevance in Local Government. You elect someone who takes the job seriously and can do it effectively and I can fairly claim to have dealt promptly and positively with every general and individual case brought to me. So I hope to have repaid the trust that many of you placed in me.

Being a Borough Councillor is not about waving a party flag. It carries serious responsibilities and requires sustained hard work, because the quality of the lives we lead in our beautiful villages depends on pro-active, determined representation. In addition, being your voice is impossible in practice, unless I tell you what I am doing and give you means to contact me. For that reason I  personally deliver every newsletter to over 2,500 homes in 8 villages.

Please note that there are three seats up for grabs in this election. You can exercise party preference whilst also electing an effective Independent Councillor who will ensure rural power and influence remains within the community.

Naturally, I should be very honoured and delighted if you chose to re-elect me, because I very much enjoy the job, but my chances are 50-50 and so it really boils down to a case of “Choose me or lose me” and on May 3rd that choice is yours.

Yours sincerely,

Howard Roberts

The election campaign so far...

It's been a hectic few weeks as I have written and produced my literature, delivered leaflets, knocked on doors and dealt with the inevitable casework that comes from a campaign.

The response has been very positive. Voters in this ward know me; again and again I have been told, "you're the only one who does anything around here" which is always great to hear.

The fact I am an Independent candidate has also gone down very well. There is an appetite for non-party representation in order to give the rural areas a strong voice at the Town Hall.

Whether I am successful on May 3rd depends on transferring the positive noises I am hearing into real votes. It's always difficult to guess an outcome at this stage, but I'll keep working hard and see what happens.

A CONTRACT WITH MY ELECTORATE

Trust in politics is often described as being at an all time low. In order to try and combat this "trust deficit" I am offering the people of Dunsmore a contract as a basis for my re-election. This contract sets out six promises that I will keep if the voters stand by me on May 3rd. If I do not keep to my promises then I invite the electorate to pass judgement at the next election.

Sometimes it isn't a dog's life in Rugby

At the beginning of Crufts week, the biggest event in the canine calendar, I called for action after it was revealed Rugby Borough Council is euthanasing many more dogs this year than it did last.

Rugby Borough Council has a statutory duty to euthanase stray dogs if they are unclaimed for over 7 days, not adopted or are deemed dangerous or ill. In the municipal year 2009/2010 the Council paid for the destruction of 7 dogs, in 2010/2011 it was 8 dogs but this year the number if projected to be nearer 20.

On unearthing the figures I thought it was such a desperately sad situation to see healthy dogs put down purely because the owners have decided they do not want them anymore. As a dog lover I feel that the system is broken if we reach a stage where the only solution is to destroy healthy animals.

The economic downturn has seen animal charities like the Dogs Trust and RSPCA faced with an avalanche of dumped dogs. Whereas before, dogs seized by the Council may have found new homes, due to the sheer number of dogs being released by their owners supply is vastly outstripping demand. In 2011 6,000 healthy dogs were put down in the UK.

One of the other worrying facts I found is the predominance of one breed in the list of those put to sleep: the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. As of March, over 60% of the dogs destroyed by the Council were Staffordshire Bull Terriers (also known as “Staffies”).

I recently lost my own dog that I took on from the Dogs Trust. I have been looking around rehoming kennels for a new dog and the sheer number of Staffordshire Bull Terriers is astounding. I know that these dogs can be brilliant pets. Unfortunately they seem to have become a status symbol for some, and people are taking them on and sometimes, once the novelty has worn off, they then decide to dump then. It’s so sad.

I have written to Sean Lawson, Head of Environmental Services at Rugby Borough Council, to ask that for a trial period dogs are kept for 1 week longer than the statutory week if they are considered suitable for rehoming. If this trial period enables more dogs to be saved then I would like the Council’s standard time for holding dogs to be 2 weeks.

Microchipping is an excellent way for the identity of dog’s owner to be verified and the dog to be reunited. It can also allow the authorities to ascertain any reason why a dog has been dumped – potentially finding a solution to the causal factor. I have written to the Minister responsible, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, to add my voice to the call for compulsory chipping.

I would add finally that there are no such things as bad dogs, only bad owners.

Anger at Crafty Councillor Allowances awarded by Warwickshire County Council

As a Borough Councillor and someone who also works full-time I rarely have time to hold the Conservative-led Warwickshire County Council to account. After all, I expect my own County Councillor to be doing that for me. However I have been so incensed after discovering their devious and crafty methods to increase the allowances paid to members that I have decided to speak out.

The figure that the County Council publicises as being the standard County Councillor Allowance is £8,975. This isn’t a bad figure when you consider that the Council’s constitution notes that there is ‘a voluntary element to the work undertaken by elected members and therefore [the basic allowance] does not set out to fully recompense all work undertaken’. However I can reveal that approximately 87% of County Councillors also receive a Special Responsibilities Allowance (some of up to £22,500 p.a.). On unearthing this figure I did wonder whether an allowance could be described as “special” if nearly 9 in 10 Councillors enjoy one?

Central to my anger is that twenty-eight of these Special Responsibility Allowances can be awarded by political parties directly for being party “spokespersons”. These individuals have no executive function and do not hold ranking positions on any committee. The approximate total cost to the County Council for these spokespersons is £36,000 p.a.

The three political groupings on WCC each have a pot of money to allocate to their Councillors for being spokespeople. The Conservatives have £14,000, while Labour and the Liberal Democrats have £11,000 each. There is no formal job description for what these spokespeople do and they are not accountable to the Council.

I don’t want to condemn all of these Special Responsibility Allowances, of course some Councillors have important executive functions or committees to chair and they should be compensated accordingly. However when around 87% of Councillors receive the so-called Special Responsibility Allowance it would seem to undermine the whole system.

From what I can gather, the spokespeople perform no real task other than what they should be doing anyway as Councillors. The chosen Councillors do not have to fulfil any criteria to receive this money and the Council would not fall apart if they were not paid this expensive top-up to their allowance. Every politician is a spokesperson, that’s the whole point of our existence: to speak up for the people we represent.

This crafty and devious method for increasing Councillors’ allowances is a good example of why politicians are generally held in such low regard. At a time when the County Council is cutting bus and library services to the people I represent, they shouldn’t be engineering ways to slip Councillors thousands of pounds. If the County Council is serious about trimming the fat from their operation, distinctly wasteful expenditure like this should be first on the cuts list rather than starting with libraries and buses.

I think with budget-setting on the horizon, the County Council should move quickly to end the “spokesperson” role and use the savings to protect frontline services. I don’t want to engage in hyperbole here, but watching the County Council withdraw my Village’s library funding while discovering they are giving County Councillors a sly bonus for being spokespeople makes my blood boil.