Ten minutes to stop tool thefts

I saw a tweet from our MP this morning that made me very, very happy. You can see my reaction to it below:

The Express article which Greg's tweet links to is here. 

This story began with a discussion on the social media group that I founded six years ago (Buckingham: What Matters to You) where a woman put forward an idea that people selling power tools on FB market places should have to show the serial number. When I saw this, the back of my neck tingled. I knew this was a cracking idea that could make a real positive difference to closing down the market in stolen goods. And so I wrote to our MP, Greg Smith on 3/11/20:

Dear Greg, You will have noticed how many tool thefts have happened from vans in recent times in our constituency. This is a national problem, of course. As I am sure you are aware from your past involvement in community safety and crime prevention, there are many ways to stop or reduce crime. The other day, a member of the social media group I help to look after, suggested what I considered to be a rather clever way of reducing this kind of theft. 

See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BuckinghamMatters/permalink/1617314731783434 for the full discussion. 

Her idea was that FB marketplace should demand that people selling second hand tools must be required to show the serial numbers of such items. Brilliant I thought! This would potentially close down ways for people to turn their stolen goods into money - because it would facilitate crime victims, the police and insurance companies being able to track down stolen items. Building on her idea, may I ask that you consider sponsoring a ten minute rule bill or some other motion that would push government towards: making it a legal requirement that all online selling adverts for expensive items such as power tools, TVs, phones etc must show their serial number and record that number in the searchable text of those adverts. I look forward to your thoughts on this matter. Thank you.

Greg wrote back enthusiastically, promising to take the idea forward. He was not able to get a positive reply from the minister concerned so, with determination, he has taken this matter forward to a 10 minute rule bill. Hopefully, it will gain support. In due course, it should (it really should!) become law - hopefully!

I want to pay tribute to the woman who first had the idea and I am sorry that I cannot name her as the *link is broken for an unknown reason. She started this particular ball rolling and deserves credit for her ingenious piece of creative thinking. 

Also, of course, I want to thank Greg Smith MP for not giving up on this idea and taking it to this point. This is great use of political power. Whilst Greg and I disagree on many things, we both agreed on this, as we are both resolutely in support of all action that prevents and reduces crime. This shows what can be achieved when politicians of all hues and none come together in a spirit of joint problem solving. This is another example of the kind of joined up community politics I have already blogged about below: bringing together ideas, leaders and shared purpose to add to the well-being of our communities.

Finally, I would add, that this story for me, is yet more reason why I started the local social media group in the first place: as a place for local people to come together to share and debate ideas about how to improve our communities. There is just so much creativity, energy, commitment and purpose in all of our communities! We just need to find more and more ways to tap into all of this. And I think that takes a different kind of politics: one that sees the public not merely as consumers or users (and occasional voters) but one that sees the public as a deep well of the energy we all need to build a better, fairer, wealthier and healthier society - in which everyone has dreams and ambitions - and the wherewithal to achieve them... 

If you want that kind of politics too, please use one your votes for me on May 6 in a few days time. Thanks. 

It is all about the outcomes

 I have just started a new book called: Rekindling Democracy by Cormac Russell: 

Finally, a book that offers a practical yet well researched guide for practitioners seeking to hone the way they show up in citizen space. Rekindling Democracy, A Professional’s Guide To Working In Citizen Space, convincingly argues that industrialized countries are suffering through a democratic inversion; where the doctor is assumed to be the primary producer of health; the teacher of education; the police officer of safety, and the politician of democracy.

Through just the right blend of storytelling, research and original ideas Russell asserts instead that in a functioning democracy, the role of the professionals ought to be defined as that which happens after the important work of citizens is done. The primary role of the 21st century practitioner therefore is not a deliverer of top-down services, but a precipitator of more active citizenship and community building. And then he goes about showing us how to do so effectively.

I particularly like this remark: The primary role of the 21st century practitioner therefore is not a deliverer of top-down services, but a precipitator of more active citizenship and community building. 

In other words, the job of local politicians & the professional officers of local councils is to nurture community action and good citizenship rather than be the all knowing deliverer of services. What matters ultimately are the outcomes for people and our communities, not a list of activities (or spurious unmeasurable promises) ...

Take this for example (and it is just one example - I could have done much the same to any other political leaflet from one of the local political parties) from the local Conservative Party campaign. 

Looking at the 'record of progress' first:

• good and outstanding schools: this is positive but this says very little about the achievements of the students. Are more pupils getting good qualifications? Have numbers of excluded pupils gone down? Is the gap between the less able and more able narrowing or widening? What do the students and their parents say about how the schools are? What about the mental and physical health of young people - is there nothing to say about this? 
• community boards: some committees have been set up. Wow. What have they achieved? Do communities know about these boards? Do more communities feel empowerd to take action on matters that need investment?
• mitigation funding: again, it sounds good, but what will (has?) this £60 million be spent on? Who gets to decide? What does it include? How much of this is compensation for the homes being destroyed by the HS2 construction? How will communities benefit, exactly?
• spending on social care: is this a success? If more is needing to be spent, does this mean that needs have risen? Why and what could have been done to prevent those needs rising? How much of the spend has gone up because central government subsidies have gone down? Again, how are people, families and communities being assisted to prevent such needs rising?
• vfm: sounds good but it is pretty short on detail. And again, where is the community benefit? Where are the beneficial outcomes that people can experience?
• eliminating rough sleeping: this is a positive and obviously supported by extra funds made available from central government during the pandemic crisis. Of the six, this is a palpable and positive outcome and I hope it continues long past the end of the pandemic. 

Now let's turn to the plans for the future:

• protecting the environment: planting trees is always good of course! How will this be done and how will communities get involved? The other points sound good but I am wondering whether Buckinghamshire Council has the power to increase environmental standards alone, or is this a central government initiative? Doubling EV charging points is good. But again, where are the measures of outcomes? What percentage of the Bucks population currently own an electric vehicle? How will this be increased? 
• further reducing crime: much of what is mentioned is outside the scope of what BC can do (for example it is the PCC and Chief Constable who are recruiting police officers). Where are the outcome measures? Has crime been reducing in the county over the last few years? I think it is rather the reverse: violent crime has been going up by 20% and overall crime (according to the Office for National Statistics) has increased by 1% in the last year. And what about the fear of crime (especially amongst women on streets at night) which can be as disabling as actual crime. No mention of fear and also no mention of how to help the public and communities take action to reduce crime. These are the outcomes that matter...
• safeguarding: all good things but note the terminology of 'supporting' not 'enabling' or 'empowering' vulnerable people shape and achieve dreams and ambitions.  
• supporting job creation: again note the 'supporting' way of thinking. And the desired objective is... (small fanfare...) a plan! And it is remarkably short on detail and what outcomes need to be achieved. For example if the leaflet said something like '60% of our villages do not have fast broadband and our target is to enable those communities to reduce that figure to 30% over the next four years' would be much, much more impressive.
• investing in roads and pavements: investment is good but it isn't an outcome! How will this money be spent, where will it be spent? How will overall 'road health' increase? How many fewer tyres and wheels will the Buckinghamshire public have to replace over the next four years? Measurement of ourcomes is key here and this is spectacularly absent. 
• mitigating HS2: leading an unsuccessful campaign to stop HS2 is not something I would have mentioned! But putting that aside, aiming to reduce the disruption connected to HS2 and East West Rail is something worthwhile and feels closer to an outcome for the people and communities directly affected. How will this be measured? And saying something more positive like 'we will ensure that lives of the people most affected by these large construction projects are improved through better logistical planning of groundwork and community engagement' or some such would have been so much better. 

As I say, I could have done a similar analysis of another party's leaflet. The Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates seem to locked in a battle over who has been and will be the best opposition. I have chosen this leaflet to analyse as Buckingham East is a Conservative held ward. In all honesty if I am going to win a place on Buckinghamshire Council, I am going to have to earn more votes than at least one of the Conservative candidates. 

My plan is to bring positive and fresh ideas to a council that I think has become complacent and out of touch with our local communities. I want to persude the council to invest more in community building and becoming an enabling and empowering authority - with a real focus on outcomes. 

That is my pitch! I hope I can earn one of your three votes to help make this happen. Thank you. 

Campaign Video: answering people's questions

A few days ago, I requested for people to submit questions they would like me to answer. This video records my answers. 

Thanks again to all who asked the questions. And if anyone has any more - please email me at JonSHarvey@Ymail.Com. Thank you. 

Here is the link to the video

Oliver Twist - Part Two (Do we want a councillor led planning process?)

The other day, I documented my concerns about the proposed changes in the Buckinghamshire Council constitution with regards to planning matters. 

On Monday 19 April, we had a meeting of the planning committee of the Town Council (agenda papers here - see page 42 - Appendix E) when I was able to explain my deep concerns to fellow councillors and the Buckingham public. 

You can watch what I said here at the recorded broadcast of the meeting - it is at 1:17:38 into the tape. (My contribution goes on to 1:28:26)

Protecting (and enhancing) the Green stuff!

This morning I recieved a letter in the post from the Chair of CPRE Buckinghamshire asking me a series of questions as a candidate. They were great questions! Here are my answers. 

Dear Paula

Many thanks for your letter and the packet of wildflower seeds!

I am very happy to answer your questions:

1) How will you support the development of a new Local Plan - to prioritise brownfield development, protect the green belt, support the rural economy and challenge Government dictated housing assumptions?

• Short answer - in every way possible!
• Increasingly the draft Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan is being found to be lacking. Any plan which can insist upon the massive and disproportionate expansion of a rural village (Maids Moreton), which blithely seeks to overturn the need for large numbers of affordable housing (25% as opposed to the 35% in the Buckingham Neighbourhood Development Plan) and which ignores the need for local infrastructure to sustain housing developments (Buckingham Western bypass) is not a good plan. 
• And if, if elected I will do my utmost to ensure that the new Buckinghamshire wide local plan is one that does all the points you mention and more! For example, I regard the beautiful countryside around Buckingham to be Green too. It also deserves protection just as much as the Green Belt in the south of the county! 

2) How will you challenge the OxCam arc development numbers to ensure they are focused on meeting local needs?

• To begin with the OxCam Arc should be renamed the 'Buckingham Bow' to emphasise that it is our area that is going to be most impacted by the proposals being discussed to develop industry and housing etc between the two famous university cities. And we have our own famous University here in Buckingham which should be at the centre of helping to ensure that local needs are met
• It is vitally important that any developments are created in tune with our local communities and countryside. Public engagement is key.
• Indeed, should I be elected, I will be using my influence to site any agency tasked with the job of planning for these developments (should they proceed) to be based in Buckingham. Indeed, it is something I would hope that the University would be able to partner with so that together we can create a Centre for Sustainable Development Excellence in our town.

3) How will you improve the county's transport networks and support access to transport for rural communities? 

• I have been campaigning for a fast north/south coach service linking Northampton, Towcester, Silverstone, Buckingham, Winslow, Aylesbury, Chesham and High Wycombe since 2013 (https://ajustfuture.blogspot.com/2013/03/x444-bucks-northants-economic-express.html) in order bring people, jobs and low carbon together. As a Buckinghamshire Councillor I hope to be able to make this happen.
• I have been an active member of Aylesbury Vale Transport Users Group which aims to develop and problem solve issues around local public transport for several years
• Thinking of the future, we need to find bold and imaginative ways to subsidise and support public transport and low/no carbon travel. This means more charging points and partnership with industries keen to bring workers to their locations. It also means investing in local workspaces so that people can gain from the camaraderie of an office without travelling half way across the country to do so. 
• And we need to reframe how the council funds (for example) school transport which can mean more damage to the environment rather than less by encouraging, albeit probably unwittingly, a growth of car ownership amongst sixthform students and more car journeys to transport children to and from schools. 

4) How will you protect our farmers and farmland? These provide jobs, skills, biodiversity and land stewardship.

• The Council needs to review its policies for sourcing locally to begin with. When it comes to buying food for school and care home meals for example, are the products bought locally to help sustain the county's and country's farms? 
• What more can be done to support apprenticeships in rural communities and specifically on farms? Perhaps the Council can enable farmers to work together to develop such ideas?
• But the first thing I would do is listen, lots, to the needs of farmers and farmworkers and discover what ideas they have.

5) What support for the county's rural areas will you give, to provide affordable housing and better broadband?

• Short answer - lots and lots!! 
• As I say above, we need to ensure that the County wide local plan ensures adequate and fair distribution of affordable housing.
• When new developments are built, unlike in Lace Hill, Buckingham for example, fast, optic fibre broadband, needs to be built in from the outset. This will probably necessitate involving parish and town councils far more in the creation of 106 agreements as it is evident that the planning authorities have, shall we say, not quite been as much 'on the ball' as local parish/town councillors are!
• Getting fast BB to remote rural areas is undoubtedly a challenge but solutions have been found for villages through imagination and industry support. We need some fresh thinking in this area

6) What action will you take to promote local, sustainable, affordable produce?

• See above about local procurement using the County's purse as it were.
• I think the Council could do more to inform consumers about what is grown in the county and what is imported by working with local food growing associations and food retailers. 
• There are some very successful farmers' markets and some that have nor survived. I would hope to explore what are the differences that make the difference between success and failure and help local farmers and towns establish and expand such markets.

7) What action will you take to prevent further destruction to our countryside environment - from over-development, deforestation and the degradation of our rivers?

• Measurement is key here. As a local town councillor in Buckingham, I have worked with colleagues to monitor and count the number of trees lost over the last few years in the town. It is a creeping problem which might otherwise go unnoticed. Hence we need something like this countywide. By measuring we can raise the topic up the political agenda and spot any patterns which might be either enhanced (if they are good ones) or disrupted (if they are bad). 
• Much of this comes through assessing the applications to develop housing and other other infrastructures. We need a planning system that is much more tuned towards protecting and enhancing the green stuff in our environment rather than focusing on concrete and tarmac. 
• I am surprised that you have not mentioned flooding as an issue which is crying out for more imagination, investment, and radical action 
• And where is HS2 in your questions? Although it is going ahead - the development of which needs urgent mitigation to ensure that trees and countryside are not destroyed any more than absolutely necessary. 

Please do publish my answers. I will be doing so on my campaign blog as well (https://votejonharvey.blogspot.com) 

Thanks for your letter. Some great questions to get my teeth into and which has helped me to do some more thinking about all these matters!

Oliver Twist?

On Wednesday morning, Cllr Warren Whyte, who currentlys holds the Buckinghamshire Cabinet portfolio for planning tweeted this: 

Below are the two pics of quotes he has highlighted (a little larger): 

I responded with a series of tweets (to which at the time of writing, Cllr Whyte has yet to reply):

(Please forgive the density of this debate - but please trust me - this is really important to the future of housing and other developments in the towns and parishes of Buckingham and the rest of the county)

For the last year, Buckingham Town Council, along with other parish and town councils, has been battling with the new Buckinghamshire Council (uBC) to be properly heard on planning matters. When AVDC existed, the Town Council could require that a planning application be 'called in'. This meant that the application would have to go to committee with a full report from the planning officers of the then district council. And importantly a member of the Town (or Parish) Council then had some committee time to explain the reason for objecting to an application. This has not been the case since the new Buckinghamshire Council came into being. 

The situation now is that if the Town Council Planning Committee decides, after careful advice from the TC's very experienced planning officer, to object to an application, the committee has to plead with a local uBC councillor to 'call it in'. The automatic right to have the application considered by the shire council planning committee was removed. 

This has meant that several contentious applications have simply been approved by planning officers with no decision being taken by the uBC members. When the TC has written to some local uBC councillors asking them to call in an application, these requests are often simply ignored. Or indeed in one case, the uBC councillor decided that, in his opinion, there were no grounds to object to the application and refused to call it in. Later, that same application was rejected by the planning officers - on planning grounds...

And now, having made promises to sort this matter out, Cllr Whyte seems proud of the proposals going to Buckinghamshire Council. In fact, if these changes are instituted in the constitution, this situation will be far, far worse! 

• Parish and Town Councils still have no automatic right to require that a planning application, after due consideration by them, is called in to committee
• Instead, the local (independent, elected and legally advised) parish/town councils will have to go begging, like Oliver Twist, to be granted that the application is called in
• Whereas currently any one of the local uBC councillors can call it in, this new arrangement will mean that only ONE councillor (the Chair of the local uBC planning committee) has that decision to consider. Everything will have to funnel through them as the other local uBC councillors will have had their democratic wings severely clipped. 
• Moreover, the chief planning officer is to be given the prime decision making role in deciding whether a planning application is to be called in or not. This means that the council will no longer be member led when it comes to local planning decisions. Is this democracy?
• All this makes a complete mockery of parish, town and county wide councils working together in partnership since this is a further erosion of local accountability and democracy. 

And frankly, I do not understand how such a major change can happen during purdah, when major political decisions should not be made. And moreover, this means that the outgoing uBC council (in its dying days) will be deciding the constitutional groundrules for the incoming council. This is not democracy. 

What we are seeing is a power grab by the executive and senior officers of Buckinghamshire Council. I hope these changes are thrown out by uBC councillors on 21st April. I hope we can expect these councillors to be most concerned that local people and local councils should have a proper say in local planning decisions. 

I am not writing any further about the strategic sites committee changes - as this blog is probably long enough already! Please note my tweets above. These are not good changes either! 

Leadership, creativity and teamwork

In this coming election for the Buckinghamshire Council you will have THREE VOTES to cast in Buckingham East (and in all other wards too). 

So you have a choice: do you accept the decision that has been taken for you by each of the political parties (Conservative, Labour and LibDem) and simply put your crosses against the three candidates that they have chosen...?

Or do you want to take full control of whom you vote for, and make sure that you decide which candidates are the three that you believe will make the best team to work for the people of Buckingham East? 

I hope I will earn one of your three votes. Here are some reasons why:

For me, being a councillor over the last ten years has been all about these three things: 

• Leadership
• listening to people
• spotting the social patterns and economic trends 
• thinking about the future
• deciding the best course of action on a particular issue
• taking a stand and promoting the chosen path
• Creativity
• looking around for good practice elsewhere
• benchmarking ideas from one realm to another
• asking petinent questions
• using one's imagination
• experimenting, testing, trialling...
• Teamwork
• having conversations with many fellow councillors and officers
• understanding others' perspectives
• seeking consensus, building bridges and finding common ground
• supporting others' ideas 
• recognising that not only was Rome not built in a day, but nor was it done by one person alone!

I intend to take this forwards if I am fortunate to become one of the three councillors for the Buckingham West ward of the Buckinghamshire Council. 

Here's an example of what I mean. 

Two years ago (stealing a LibDem councillor's idea from Winslow Town Council) I proposed that Buckingham Town Council makes its annual grant to Citizens Advice based on the number of households in the town - £1 per household. This was agreed. 

Then this morning, I posted this on Buckingham: What Matters to You Facebook group with the comment...

As I gazed at the notice for parish council elections outside Dadford village hall the other day - I got to wondering - whether all parish councils do that... should do that...?

There are many parish and town councils in the northern half of Bucks (see below). And if each parish played their part, the Citizen's Advice Service would be far better funded. And so I tagged Jane Mordue (wife of Conservative candidate, Howard Mordue) who importantly now chairs the county wide Citizens Advice service (recently merged) and asked her this question. 

I was delighted with Jane's response. THIS is teamwork, creativity and leadership in action! 

If I am elected as one of your shire councillors, I look forward to many more examples of this - bringing together ideas, leaders and shared purpose to add to the well-being of our communities. I promise I will do everything I can to make more of this happen. 

*NB For Buckingham Town Council, most people will have several votes to cast. In Buckingham North, you will have seven votes unless you live in the 'anomalous' (due to old AVDC boundary changes a couple of years ago) ward of Highlands &Watchcroft. In this case you will only have one vote to cast. Whatever is your maximum - you can of course cast as many votes up to that number. You are not obliged to vote for seven or three - you can just one or two etc

For information - here is the list of all the (old) Aylesbury Vale parish and town councils. Quite a few! If they all contributed £1 per household to the coffers of Citizens Advice, that service would be helped enormously.