What a state! What an update…..

2 members of Ashford Resistance went down to the state of the Borough debate at Ashford Borough Council last week.  We have been provided with written versions of the council’s responses and include them in this post.  We submitted the questions that were first put up on this blog in this post.

How large is the drop in ABC’s income due to the economic downturn, exactly?

In what ways has Ashford not been affected by the recession?

A.           Cllr Paul Clokie

 “Our investments have been hit by lower interest rates – the amount we have allowed in our budget for interest earnings has reduced from £1.2m to £0.6m – a drop of £600,000.  Income expected from Car Parking has been reduced by £60,000 in the budget for the current year and we have recently forecast a further potential drop of £120,000 in the current year giving a total expected drop of £180,000.

 Income from our Planning Service is forecast to be down this year by £162,000. That is on top of the original expected reduction for the year of £155,000 – a total of £317,000.

 We are also showing a reduction of £50,000 in income from the Industrial Estates we own.

 The main areas in the budget show an expected loss of  £1,147,000.

 In addition to this there have been reductions in the value and number of assets being sold.  The sale of Council houses is showing less activity with only 6 completions last year and a total of 6 this year (in 2007/08 there were 18 and 34 the year before).  We also had a number of purchases of land that had been agreed before the credit crunch fall through and now we are not assuming income in this area in our forecasts.

Moving onto the second question Ashford has been affected like any other Council with reduced income from parking fees, property searches and planning application fees for example.  As the recession has deepened so have people’s need for support increased – for example, the number of people claiming benefit and some additional pressures on the housing service.

 But it is not all gloom and doom for our borough – in fact the introduction of High Speed Trains is a huge addition to the town’s attractiveness.  Patronage has been very strong, rising from 6,000 in the first week, to over 20,000 people now using the service each week.  Still on the theme of excellent train services – but with a continental dimension – Eurostar have reintroduced their services to Brussels and recently added an additional early morning service to Lille.

 Major new investments bringing new jobs have continued to be attracted to the town – the recent opening of Waitrose brought 154 new jobs, and the conversion of the old Police Training College by Education Travel Group to provide educational holidays for young people are just two examples.

 All this suggests that Ashford’s prospects remain good and that when the recession ends the town is very well placed to benefit.”

So, not a massive drop in revenue actually, just £1,147,000.  It appears that the positive developments are those not in the control of the council, but that is par for the course in these neo-liberal times.  Interestingly, ABC identify both a  greater pressure on housing and a drop in revenue from the sale of council housing.  I’ll leave you to square the circle on that one.

What cuts have been made to arts and cultural services and what alternatives were considered in this process?

A.     Cllr Gerry Clarkson

 “As portfolio holder for Culture & Arts I am pleased to confirm that developing the Councils support for the arts is a priority. Arts are not a soft target as far as we are concerned, we  will do all that we can, given the economic realities, to safeguard current resources for the Arts as well as identify additional external sources of support & funding. I am also pleased to confirm that the budget for the Create Festival has been maintained and that there have not been any cuts to the arts services. I do not intend to suggest any reductions for the foreseeable future nor do I intend to allow the arts budget to suffer disproportionately this is not the council’s intention either.”

We like this.  Further investigation is needed to find out what ‘disproportionately’ means in this context, and recent newspaper reports seem to contradict this statement. Still, a positive answer.

Recently, a councillor quoted a Nazi politician’s views on culture, as a joke – is this acceptable?

 (For context, this is in reference to an article published in the Kentish Express, June 24 2009, Page 8. Article title: “Meaningless Art is a Waste of Public Money” quote by Cllr Claughton: “When some people hear the word culture they automatically reach for their revolver”)

A.           Cllr Michael Claughton 

 “As a professional playwright I sometimes, unashamedly, make verbal reference to quotes from well respected writers which is precisely what I was doing in this instance. It is a well known, and frequently used quote and one which I have always attributed to the great  American writer Ernest Hemmingway. However, I am led to understand it is also mistakenly attributed to the former nazi officers Goebbels and Goering and possibly Lenin, something of which I had absolutely no previous knowledge. 

For the record ‘When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun’ originally came from the pen of the playwright Hans Jorst in his play Schlagter and has also been used in the award winning film Maphisto. Also, in the 1970’s, when it was quoted in an episode of the sit com Rising Damp and if it’s good enough for the writer of that brilliant series Eric Chappell then it’s good enough for me.”

In the meeting, the councillor apologised, which is a good thing.

For the record, let’s be clear.  This line appears  in Hans Jorst’s play Schlageter, which was performed for the fist time in April 1933, in honor of Adolf Hitler’s birthday.    Baldur von Schirach, head of the Hitlerjugend, used this quotation in a public speech. A footage of the scene, with von Schirach actually drawing his gun, appears in Frederic Rossif’s documentary “from Nurnberg to Nurnberg”.   This quotation was regularly used by fascist politicians in this period and, if it has since been used ‘ironically’, that does not legitimise it for use by an elected politician in 2009.  Bearing in mind the continuing problems with racism in the borough and the disciplinary action taken against councillors in this respect, we would expect councillors to be a little more cautious.

What other options for cuts were considered when you decided not to extend the blue box recycling scheme?

A.        Cllr Neil Bell,

 “The current blue box recycling scheme run by the council was conceived in 1999/2000 and introduced in 2001.  The scheme was intended to cover the main residential areas within the borough, namely Ashford and Tenterden. But due to varying take up rates the scheme was extended into several rural areas.  The scheme is currently at full capacity serving approximately 29,000 homes. It is also worth noting that the scheme was introduced before Ashford was designated as a growth area.  This fact,  as well as the rapid pace of growth in recycling technologies,  means that the scheme now needs to be reviewed.  Unfortunately due to budget pressures further expansion at this time has had to be deferred.

 The council ran a green waste collection service until early this year when, due to budget pressures, it was decided to cease provision of this service.

… In 2010 the Council will begin a comprehensive review of its Waste Strategy.  As part of this review we will be reviewing our waste and recycling arrangements with the aim of delivering improvements to recycling rates while maintaining a value for money service. This review will consider all elements of waste management including arrangements for waste collection such as the use of wheelie bins and alternate week collection through to the development of local recycling facilities.  Once the review is completed councillors will consider the various options that come forward and decide on how they wish to proceed.”
This has not actually answered our question. We will submit a FOI request so that you don’t feel short-changed.

You say “we all” produce too much waste. How much waste does ABC produce and what is the cost of this?

A: Cllr Paul Bartlett

“I am please to say that Ashford Borough Council recycles all its waste paper which is baled and sent for recycling into news print and has reduced its waste by three quarters over the past ten years.

 We currently have just one 1100 litre bin of rubbish emptied per day at the Civic Centre which is the equivalent of four and half domestic wheelie bins. The rubbish is mainly made up of food wrappers/waste generated by the 550 ABC staff and other tenants of the Civic Centre and other items which cannot currently be recycled. The cost of disposing of this waste is currently £2,405 per year.”

There is good intention in this answer, no doubt, but this answer betrays a very narrow conception of waste.  We assume that ABC have a much more thorough measurement system in place for acknowledging waste in terms of energy, heating, water and so on.  We will submit an FOI request on this matter too – just so you don’t feel we’ve let you down.  Recycling paper, for instance, is still a cost to the local taxpayer, unless the recycled paper produced actually comes back to ABC for use and the costs of the process are accounted for in this.  That’s not splitting hairs – we’re just saying that if you’re serious about this ABC, and you claim to be, you’ll have to prove it.

What a state!

On 26th November, Ashford Borough Council are holding a ‘state of the borough’ debate.  You might be surprised to hear this as the council does not have a long tradition of debate with local people in Ashford, or because you just hadn’t heard about it and find it suprising that an important event like this hasn’t been more widely publicised!  Either way, the resistance can give you the information you need to participate in this important debate.

There is a statement from Paul Clokie, the leader of the council here.  Have a read.  For those of you pressed for time, here are the highlights:

• “For the most part our borough has managed to defy the economic downturn”

But…..

• “Like everybody else the council is affected by the recession with reduced income from services it charges for such as property searches, car parking, building control and planning fees. It is therefore a challenge for us to deliver services within the budgets we have to provide them.

And…

• ” Given the economic climate, reduction in income and resources at many of our facilities and a growing reliance on support from external partners, it is a big challenge to maintain and develop services to meet the needs of a growing population. “

For example….

• ” We are all still producing too much rubbish. A growing population, too much packaging and a general increase in how much we all throw away, places added pressures on our waste and recycling budgets. We aim to increase our recycling levels by 10% over the next three to four years. The current financial pressures mean we are unable to expand our blue box recycling scheme and have had to suspend our successful separate green waste collection service for the foreseeable future.”

Now, it’s not all bad – the council rightly highlight some of the good initiatives and projects they have been involved in:

• Singleton Environment Centre, which received more than 100,000 visitors last year.
• The refurbishments to the Stour centre (although services there have been cut, haven’t they?)
• Proposals to refurbish the Parish church as a community cultural facility
• A “vibrant local arts programme” (hang on, hasn’t this had a cut to its funding too?)

So…a mixed bag in this statement which does its best to present a rosy picture where the impacts of central (Labour) government funding for infrastructure developments, housing and other initiatives are attributed to our (Conservative) council, whilst all the problems and potential cutbacks are blamed on the economic crisis which, by the way, Ashford has “managed to defy”.

The state of the borough debate will be a public meeting that you can submit questions to (in advance) and attend in person.  As they say on the ABC website, “Even if you don’t have a question, why not come along on the night when the council’s Executive and senior managers will not only answer pre-submitted questions but also take follow up questions.”

As you might expect, the Ashford Resistance plans to submit some questions and also to be there for the “follow up” on the night.  If you want to submit a question to the council yourself, there is an online form here.  All questions have to be submitted by 18th November – so you have 5 days!

We want to make sure that, when we ask questions, they are questions that you want answered so we’re using the poll below to collect your feedback on some potential topics – let us know your thoughts by participating in the poll and / or leaving us a comment!