Gawain Towler, the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North Dorset supports the Save the Vale Campaign and slams Ecotricity for milking public subsidies.

Vote Yellow, Go Brown, Part 2

The Lib Dem controlled Bournemouth council have completed the sale of over 4 acres of allotment space off Priestley road in Wallisdown to developers who have now moved in with the bulldozers. This area could have been an ideal 'green lung' as a park or wildlife refuge. The local council have proved yet again to be short-sighted in their decision making and show they may talk 'green' but in the end they walk 'brown'. Lib Dems show their true colours in their actions and are putting a short term gain in finances ahead of the Bournemouth environment. They spin this as 'sustainable development and 'regeneration' but fail to tell the public that they must do this to comply with the 'spatial plan' imposed by the unelected regional assembly if they are to get funding.

This of course will lead to further congestion in Bournemouth as the infrastructure can't cope but dovetails neatly with the governments plans to ration car travel through the proposed road charging plans.

Lost in the post - A Christmas Delivery

Every year, in December, the Royal Mail intercepts hundreds of items addressed to Father Christmas. At one Sorting Office the manager found a letter written by an old man who lived alone, asking Santa for five pounds to give himself a festive treat. The supervisor was very touched by this, so he pinned the letter to a notice board alongside a small collection tin. By the end of the shift the contributions amounted to £3.43p, so he made it up to £4.00 from his own pocket and sent off four pound notes to the old chap, with the compliments of Father Christmas. By return of post he received a reply: “Dear Santa, thank you very much for the £4.00 – but I reckon those thieving gits at the Post Office must have nicked one of the notes”.
Well, I’m afraid the European Union has gone one better, and stolen our entire postal system. Before the EU came along, the Post Office was that rare and unique thing: a State-owned monopoly that actually made a profit, even contributing cash to the Treasury. The service even had elements of a social service by maintaining some post offices and collections/deliveries where (in all honesty) they might not be profitable. But overall, a benefit was continued to the community as a whole. A letter delivered in London helped subsidise one delivered to the Orkneys.
As a result of EU laws (splitting it up into Parcelforce, Counters, and Royal Mail Letters) the entire industry was “modernised”, and “liberalised” and firms like DHL, TNT, and the heavily-subsidised German Post Office, all moved in and cherry-picked the profitable areas in cities or on good travel networks, leaving the poor old Post Office with the scrag-end. And when you’re left with the unprofitable parts, you have to get rid of the most expensive elements or you go totally bust, which is why hundreds of rural and urban post offices have already drawn down the shutters, leaving thousands of people - many of them elderly or infirm - with no local service.
True, the rise of e-mail, fax, and texting on mobile phones means that fewer letters are being posted. But many sub-post office closures are a direct result of our membership of the European Union, and of having to comply with the rules of the Single Market. EU Directive 97/67/EC is doing to our whole postal system what Directive 91/440 did to our railways. (Please don’t believe that the railways were privatised because the Tories thought it would be a good thing…they were obliged to separate track from train, on orders from Brussels).
We now learn that another 7,000 post offices are to be axed. This followed more “discussions” (namely EU Directive 2002/39/EC) and a flurry of paperwork between Brussels and then-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, which resulted in a 20-page document landing in his lap with a dull thump. Sorry about this (tedious, I know) but for the record it was “C(2003)1652 fin State Aid N784/2002”. The decision to axe 3,000 outlets resulted in Sub-Post Offices Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, saying that she is now happy to endorse a new agreement to run until March 2008. It can hardly be called The Royal Mail anymore, can it?
Even stranger, the EU destroys our Post Office due to its bone-headed laws, yet the Postal Unions support the Labour Party, who behave like rabbits trapped in the headlights. Even the Liberal Democrats (who in fairness seem genuinely appalled at what is happening) still haven’t grasped that this is a direct consequence of our membership of the EU. Yet they are even more pro-Brussels than Tony Blair. Quote from the Lib-Dems: “We can’t have Europe on the cheap. We must pay up”.
It’s probably too late now for the Post Office, unless we leave the EU and start again. But the ultimate insult has to be when Labour politicians stand on the pavement protesting against Post Office closures, when the final nail in the coffin was their own Government’s decision to withdraw pensions and TV licences from post offices. To my mind, given Labour’s unswerving loyalty to the disastrous Grand European Project, such hypocrisy is utterly unforgivable.
David Challice - UK Independence Party

Does the European Union (EU) affect local issues in Bournemouth?

You bet it does! And nearly all local issues, because the EU now make the laws on most issues affecting Local Government.
The European Union will ultimately run Britain by directives to Local Government. In fact it's happening already but the Government doesn't want you to know, and the other parties, being pro-EU, have kept remarkably quiet. The EU's full title is the European Union of Regions and Cities. Fancy most people not knowing that - not surprising because it's all being done 'quietly'. It is intended that Regional Assemblies like the unelected Exeter Assembly, sub-Regional Groups centred on cities like Bristol, and sub-sub-Regional Groups centred on Towns like Devizes carry out the EU instructions. There are already such bodies in place called Strategic Partnerships and Community Planning Partnerships.
Britain's public services are being regionalised and reorganised. The Regional Assembly deals with the Regional Spatial Strategy which affects all local planning issues. The strategy covers policy matters like waste incinerators, windmills, and housing. The interesting point is that the Government has awarded itself the right to overrule all local objections. The Primary Care Trusts are centralising hospital treatment on large hospitals. The Courts Service has been reorganised, as has the Probation Service, the Police and the Fire and Ambulance services. Local objection to the cutting out of smaller hospitals has been ignored and only Police Regionalisation has been stalled. The EU working Time Directive is having a massive effect on hospital services because Doctors and Surgeons can only work limited hours. People like lorry drivers have had their hours cut and consequently their take-home pay. You may think that electing a Councillor will make a difference and that they will stop all the nonsense? Wrong. If your council is run by Liberal-Democrats, Conservatives or Labour they can make a difference? Wrong. They have to obey Government targets based on EU directives. They must set Council Tax within a Government limit and spend it on Government priorities. The worst point about Regionalised Local Government is that your vote doesn't make a difference. It doesn't matter who you vote for, the scope for local decision-making is almost negligible. Your local councillors will barely have any power to change things. A slight change of emphasis here and there. The EU directives, as followed by the Government and being implemented through Regional Local Government leave virtually no scope for change. The paid Officers drive through the Government's EU agenda with 'pretendy consultations' to paraphrase Billy Connolly. This is why you have bugs in your wheelie bins, your mail is now priced by size and weight and older youngsters who are short in stature must sit in child car seats.
And what about Council Tax?
Councils receive about two-thirds of their budget allocation from Government taxes like VAT, Income Tax, Corporation Tax and Inheritance Tax. The trouble is that they give £41m every day to the EU and are forced to implement costly EU directives plus Regionalisation. Not much left for local services!
So why vote for UKIP?
Because the other parties want to be in the EU, which means that things can only get worse. More Council Tax, local democracy replaced by government by bureaucrat - the EU way, with the 25 unelected Commissioners in Brussels like Peter Mandelson making the Directives which the Local Council Officers have to implement. Sounds a bit like the Soviet Union doesn't it? A vote for UKIP is a signal to government and the other parties that you want local democracy restored so that your local councillors do what you want, not what the EU wants. And that you want your taxes spent here, not on EU follies.

Alan Wood (A UKIP Local Councillor)

2007 Poll Review

What a load of expensive Rubbish!

The disposal of household waste used to be a simple affair. But once the bureaucrats and the EU got their hands on it, it became an ugly turf war between councils with the ratepayers suffering as usual. What was meant to help the environment and be cheaper has almost certainly achieved the opposite on both counts. Wheelie bins (see opposite) have been recruited to spy on your waste. Fly tipping will certainly increase and the costs of cleaning up the countryside will outweigh any savings that might have been made, with the customer (that's you!) being inconvenienced for no good reason. If it ain't broke - don't fix it!

Purple scissors and red tape

A survey has revealed the extent that red tape has hit employment levels in small firms throughout Dorset. Because of excessive bureaucracy 16 per cent have made job cuts, 39 per cent of these firms are not employing more people due to employee regulations and 45 per cent of sole traders with no workers decide not to become employers to avoid red tape altogether.

The Winter of our discontent

Saving the Winter Gardens was an electoral promise that the Lib Dems made to win power on Bournemouth Council. Fast forward to the present day and they are now making plans for it to be demolished and replaced by a white elephant. One of the councillors promised to resign if the Winter Gardens were ever demolished and some even said they would lie down in front of the bulldozers if that was what it would take to save them. No resignations in sight and no horizontal councillors as yet, but if you know different please inform us. Update - The Winter Gardens have now been demolished but the councillors are still in business.

The Climax of IMAX?

White Elephants have a long memory and in the case of IMAX despite the furious whitewashing on who was to blame for this elephant, the trumpeting gets louder with every day. Bournemouth Councillors past and present must share collective responsibility and learn to curb their desire for these grand projects. Bournemouth locals are stuck with this ugly monument to bad decision making.

If by some chance Channel Four succeeds in getting this building demolished, how soon will this folly be forgotten? Perhaps it would be better that it remained, as a constant reminder to the ratepayers, like a rather sad and seedy end of pier show called the Town Hall follies.

The Scandal of High Council Tax

Betty Pavey is just one of the many pensioners in Bournemouth who are struggling over their council tax. Betty who donates her time helping out at Age Concern has just £150 a week from her old age pension. Out of this she puts aside £50 pounds a week to pay her council tax bill. Bournemouth council can no longer play the blame game for this state of affairs and must reign in and prioritise their spending. The buck literally stops with them.

Butterfill Blues

Did you vote for local MP John Butterfill in Bournemouth West on May the 5th? Do you remember his vague and woolly promises in his leaflet about the European Union? Find out the true feelings of Mr. Butterfill on this subject. Perhaps if you spot him between now and the next election when he emerges from Hampshire for a photo opportunity you can ask him some awkward questions?

We will fight them on the beaches

Malcolm Bell, the SW Tourism Chief, wants us to pay twice for the 'privilege' of enjoying the golden sands of Bournemouth. He says that 'consumers' should pay for the services provided. Here is a prime example of the lack of joined up thinking by the bureaucrats. The beach is a public place and is not owned by the SW Tourism office. We already pay for the 'facilities' through our taxes. Council tax has gone through the roof, and this apparently isn't enough, so we are suddenly being changed from taxpayers to consumers to end up paying more money into these fiscal empires. The Lib Dems approved the charged car parking along the cliff-top, which is already bringing in more cash. Do they have enough money of taxpayers money already and should they be tightening their belts? The council must be weaned off its fat cat diet, and practise financial responsibility. This isn't about the economy stupid, it's more like the Stupid Economy!