Greg White's News

Dodgey Lib Dem Candidate (Letter to the Press)

2011-10-17T18:18:00.006Z

Dear Sir

It has been drawn to my attention that a quote from me features in campaign material, for the forthcoming County Council By-election in the Thornton Dales and Wolds Division, apparently endorsing the candidature of a Liberal Democrat.

I am really dissapointed that this individual has sought to cynically misrepresent my views in such an outrageous way. I do not support this man and would urge people to put their faith in Janet Sanderson, a candidate with integrity, when they vote on the 27th October.

Thank you, for allowing me to set the record straight.

Yours sincerely

Greg White
former County Counillor for the Pickering Division)

North Yorkshire Police (Letter to the Press)

2011-05-11T19:07:00.016Z

Dear Editor

As a former member of North Yorkshire Police Authority, who played a small part in the selection of Grahame Maxwell as Chief Constable, I feel compelled to comment on the recent Gross Misconduct verdict.

Whilst Mr Maxwell has clearly let himself down, in trying to give a family member an unfair advantage and, most especially, in his apparent attempts to discredit the investigation against him and so evade any sanction, I believe the system has also been found wanting.

Mr Maxwell, his former Deputy Adam Briggs and his immediate predecessor Della Cannings were all recruited and, supposedly, held to account by The North Yorkshire Police Authority. Each of these appointments has led to controversial and embarrassing press stories of excessive expenditure and/or rules broken and, as a former insider, I can state that there were plenty of other potential stories which never made the papers.

In my opinion these problems stem from a lack of effective local accountability. Chief Constables are theoretically accountable to their police authorities, made up of local councillors and independent members, which are supposed to represent the interests of local people and ensure value for the money they raise as part of our Council Tax. Unfortunately they are not fit for this purpose.

The Home Office rules for hiring chief and deputy chiefs undermine the recruitment role of police authorities, by preventing all but a select handful of approved police officers from being considered. In essence, the police authorities get to choose from a very small number of very similar candidates.

Once recruited, some Chief Constables seem to treat the Police Authority as a problem to be managed. To this end, they can exploit rules on operational independence, intended to prevent political interference in policing, to control the flow of some management information, in order to avoid the proper scrutiny which is the legitimate role of their Police Authority.

During my time on the North Yorkshire Police Authority, we certainly did manage to uncover some truly eye-watering examples of waste and mismanagement, but I was convinced that we were only scratching the surface.

The Government apparently plans to abolish police authorities and replace them with much stronger, directly elected, police commissioners. Surely, for North Yorkshire, this change cannot come soon enough.

Yours

Greg White

Lending to Ireland

2010-11-24T09:39:00.006Z

The fundamental point, that some people seem to be missing, on the debate over cuts in UK expenditure versus loans to Ireland, is that they are not interchangeable. A pot of money can be loaned and repaid many times, but it can only be spent once.

If the Government borrows money from the market, at a low interest rate, to lend to the Irish Government at a higher rate, it is an investment which will be paid back with interest. If the Government borrows money for its own use, it is expenditure, which can only be repaid by higher taxation or cuts to services in the future.

As far as I can tell...

If the Public Sector spends a million pounds, which has been raised through new taxes, it could employ around 30 to 40 extra people for one year. The net effect would, however, be zero new jobs, as a similar number would be lost from the private sector which had to stump up the tax.

If the Public Sector spends a million pounds, that has been borrowed, it could create around 30 to 40 jobs for a year from spending its debt. Unfortunately if the debt is repaid the following year, through the making of savings or higher taxation, 60 to 80 jobs will be lost (ie all the new jobs funded from the previous year’s one off borrowing, plus a similar number as a consequence of funds being diverted to loan repayment). So, once again, the net effect, over two years, would be zero.

So, governments can't really create jobs through expenditure. At best they can smooth out employment troughs, through judicial borrowing and expenditure on the downward part of an economic cycle, when times are hard, provided they take care to reduce borrowings at the top of the cycle. It is this last bit which both Blair and Brown’s Labour Governments apparently failed to do – the old fixing the roof cliché. Since the Country has already borrowed to the limit, that its creditors believe is sustainable, painful cuts in expenditure must now be made on the downward part of the economic cycle.

The only way to sustain an increase in overall employment is from economic growth, where the private sector is able to produce more saleable goods and services. Unfortunately, excessive taxation and government borrowing both tend to inhibit economic growth.

Kipper Williams cartoon borrowed from The Guardian, copyright acknowledged

NIMBY Councillors?

2010-10-21T17:20:00.003Z

A letter to the Malton & Pickering Mercury....

Sir

I read, with interest, your report on Cllr John Savage's decision to join the left-wing Liberal Party.

Whilst it is possible that he has the "deep misgivings about the financial cuts nationally", that he aired when leaving the Conservative Group last August, I am not convinced that this was the real reason for his departure.

Your readers may like to consider that Cllr Savage's home is only two miles from the County Council's proposed new waste treatment facility near Knaresborough and that his new best friends are among the principal opponents of that plant. It is my opinion that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the 'not in my back yard' objections of the NIMBY, after all almost no one would want an incinerator (or even a sour gas plant) on their doorstep, but it is patently dishonest for a politician to claim a less selfish motivation for their protests.

Incidentally Ryedale residents may like to know that Liberal Party policy on the treatment of waste clearly states that they "would welcome a nation-wide programme for the construction of small scale incineration plants." So presumably, if Cllrs. Savage and Clark manage to stop the Knaresborough facility going ahead, all of us can look forward to having waste incinerators built in our back yards.

Kind Regards

Where will the Coalition Axe cut deepest?

2010-09-14T13:36:00.003Z

As the Goverment plans to cut public services, by reducing the expenditure on which they rely, I find there is a new and unexpected advantage of living in rural North Yorkshire. Relatively speaking, the last Government did not spend much here in the first place so, using the principle of half nowt is nowt, the impact of any cuts should be less significant than in other areas.

For example, once you exclude the ring fenced money, which is mostly for schools, the Government picks up roughly two thirds of the cost of Policing and Council Services in Middlesbrough, but only one third of their costs in North Yorkshire.

As a result a 30 per cent cut in Government support, for police and council budgets, would translate into an overall 10 per cent cut here, whilst it would be 20 per cent in Middlesbrough.

Don't feel too guilty about this, as in North Yorkshire we benefit from neither the high levels of services nor the low levels of Council Tax that our urban neighbours enjoy.

Cars and Christmas

2010-09-08T10:26:00.004Z

When I was an aspiring PPC I needed to have an answer for what law I would seek to enact, if successful in the ballot for Private Members' Bills.

My original suggestion was a bill to reform vehicle taxation, making it cheaper to own but more expensive to use a car.

Currently around a third of the cost of owning a car relates to the miles driven, with the other two thirds being the fixed cost of ownership. So, once you have committed to owning a car, the marginal cost per mile is rarely high enough to offer any financial incentive to use another form of transport.

My idea was to shift the balance, to around fifty/fifty, by eliminating as many of the mandatory fixed charges and taxes for owning cars as possible (including those for Tax Discs, MOT testing, Initial Registration, the Uninsured Driver Levy and VAT on insurance, vehicles, parts and servicing) then increasing fuel duty to make up the difference.

The measure would:

Be revenue neutral overall, although costs for high mileage drivers would increase whilst those of low mileage drivers would reduce.
Improve both sides of the cost/benefit analysis for any fuel efficiency technology.
Encourage people to use a greater mix of transport options, appropriate to their specific journey.
Justify the keeping of a task specific second vehicle (such as a motorcycle, caravanette or 4WD) without encouraging its inappropriate use.

I thought this was a great idea, but then I learnt that Private Members' Bills have to stay clear of taxation and be revenue neutral for the Government, so it was back to the drawing board.

Then someone reminded me of an old joke:

Q: How can you tell its Christmas?
A: There's Easter Eggs in Woolworths.

and I resolved to advocate what, for me, was the somewhat illiberal measure of:

"A bill to outlaw the advertising or promotion of Christmas, in any retail or leisure business, until after Remembrance Sunday".

My reasoning was that the Christmas and New Year period is being undermined, both as a religous festival and as a time to party, by "seasonal lines" appearing in shops during August and Christmas shopping proper being well underway by October. The overall effect seems to be that many people, instead of enjoying their Christmas holiday, are heartily sick of it all before the end of December.

If enacted, my bill would have eliminated the relentless Christmas creep, moving its celebration back into December. There may be some for whom 15 per cent of the year (the equivalent of one day a week) is insufficent time to indulge in their Winter Orgy of Consumption, but I believe that for most people the contraction would prove popular.

Stage Two could be the even more radical measure of starting the January Sales in January.

Happy so far?

2010-05-24T12:24:00.000Z

I had a note from Mauvais Garçon asking: "So, are you happy with the progress thus far?" I replied....

What progress?

I'm relatively unimpressed with the token paperclips stuff. I believe that it will sometimes be appropriate for senior Civil Servants and even MPs to travel first class and they should be trusted not to when there is no need. In any case, much greater savings would probably be made by smarter rather than meaner procurement. As for the "I'm not flash, call me Dave" stuff, cutting his bodyguards and walking to the Palace of Westminster, one suspects that a car will always be 20 seconds away, whilst any cost reduction in overt protection might be surpassed by a coresponding increase for covert work.

I suspect that David Cameron has always viewed the Party, both grassroots and Parliamentary, as a problem to be managed. Although, to be fair, few of the free world democratic leaders seem enthusiastic about freedom or democracy in their own parties. If I were an MP, I would have voted against Ministers taking part in elections to the 1922 Committee Executive and would not support the 55per cent requirement for Dissolution.

As to the Queen's Speech. Personally I can probably wait a little longer for a free vote on the repeal of the fox hunting ban, provided they get on with cutting the deficit, repealing some other anti-liberal laws and stopping all those expensive preachy campaigns telling us how to live our lives.

When it comes to inheritance tax I am completely off message anyway, as I believe it to be entirely avoidable. It is my humble opinion that people should shove any important assets, which they 'steward for future generations', into a family trust, with the rest being spent and given away whilst they are living, or bequeathed to charities when they die.

Regards

Greg

There are risks in the current strategy

2010-05-24T11:39:00.005Z

This post replies to the letter, published as the previous post...

10th May 2010

Hi Mauvais Garçon

Put simply, I think you are wrong.

Whilst I agree with much (though certainly not all) of your policy aspirations, I do not believe it would have been possible to win an outright victory by fighting a campaign on this basis. I also think it unlikely that your strategy for handling the post-electoral reality would have worked, in fact I believe it would have led to the worse form of electoral reform (removal of all the unelected but wise counsel from the upper house and introduction of the transferable vote, a negative nonsense that reduces everything to the lowest common denominator and permanently ends any hope of a proper right of centre administration).

There are risks in the current strategy. By far the biggest of these is the mismatch, between what the electorate perceive to be the likely impact of fixing the economy and the pain which will actually be needed. (Whilst the Country knows that it is poorly, because it has a few symptoms and has been to see the doctor, for the most part it still feels quite perky and expects a course of antibiotics will soon put things right. It has no comprehension of the full blown chemotherapy, with all the associated discomfort, weight loss and fatigue, that it actually needs to undergo. The Government that administers such an unpleasant prescription is unlikely to be thanked for its efforts.) I believe that a desire to tie the Lib-Dems into shared responsibility for the coming austerity programme has motivated Cameron to offer Coalition and will ultimately cause Clegg (if he is as bright and venal as I suspect) to favour a more arms length approach.

Expecting a Conservative landslide was always somewhat counter intuitive. The two right of centre campaigns, in 2001 and 2005, gained us just 1 and 32 seats respectively, leaving us with a target of 127 net gains this time. Its true that Blair managed 147 however Brown's Government, whilst clearly unpopular, never attracted the level of opprobrium Major's administration endured in the couple of years prior to the 1997 ballot.

As for your stastistic on lost voters, I suspect that the natural churn of the electorate through mortality (half a million deaths a year gives nine million in the eighteen years you quote) and our failure to recruit new young voters, is a better explanation for the decline than disaffected right-wingers taking their bats home.

Cheers

Greg

Hague & Howard had the decency to resign

2010-05-24T11:01:00.008Z

Mauvais Garçon, an old colleague, exchanged e-mails with me throughout the Election campaign. He is not impressed with the result. I suggested it was not so bad before enquiring what he thought should happen and, on the 9th May, before the coalition was settled, he replied with the following polemic:

"You, as is in deed he, are in denial, this result was a disaster: at least Hague and Howard had the decency to resign following their failure to secure an election win, even though both of them managed to increase the vote and the number of seats.

This time with the aid of millions of pounds, and against the most loathed PM and discredited administration he cannot even manage to secure enough seats to form a workable government! Why is no one looking at this and calling it as it is a failure? In 1992 just over 14 million voted Tory, in 2010 just under 11 million, I am one of the missing 3.3 million, who refused to vote for this Marxist led party, and while you may feel it ludicrous to call Cameron a Marxist, just take a look at his progressive agenda and the authors of this agenda. From 1979 to 1992 the Conservative Party never polled less than 13 million votes in a General Election, then it drop off a cliff; people like me are effectively disenfranchised. This 3% vote for UKIP which, depending on your view of linking the BNP vote to UKIP, could have denied between 17 to 21 seats to the Conservatives.

So, down to what I want, I would firstly have liked the Conservative Party to say nothing and let Brown, with his much discussed constitutional right, thrash around trying to form a government, this would have been doomed to fail and even if Brown had managed to cobble up an agreement with the unprincipled LibDems, it would have ended in a complete disaster, leaving the Conservative Party untainted. Then ideally, Cameron would have been forced to leave or to accept there was a need to bring into the party those excluded for holding centre right to right wing views, ditch the nonsense of the progressive A list system, aimed to foist ethnically and sexually alternative candidates on to the constituency regardless of their wishes. [Were you helping to elect just such a candidate? PR will make this all common place].

I want to have a mainstream party to vote for, though I doubt I will ever have the opportunity again in my lifetime. Like Blair, who forced the Labour Party to give up their socialist beliefs in a craven dash for power, Cameron has tried to do the same with the Conservative Party and now places his owner personal craving for power over that of the party or the country. It is at this point I struggle with people like you, who know this but, for some reason, think it better to have this, thus altering forever, the very party they are trying to protect, than to let this nonsense run its course to oblivion?

No where in the letter from Cameron is any sign of contrition that the campaign may have been wrong! That he may need to be more inclusive of natural Tories! Not move so far left and not pander to the PC agenda.

He [Cameron] is a failure like Hague and Howard, but with much less integrity, someone so desperate to be in power that he abandons all principles to pursue this one goal.

Ideally, now Clegg will not get the backing of the grass routes and he will then get the deal on PR from the Labour Party and off they go, before there was a chance to have the referendum the government would fall, due to the financial mess we would be in by then."

My reply to Mauvais Garçon follows in my next post

There may be trouble ahead…

2010-04-30T00:56:00.009Z

The third leadership debate, earlier this evening, was supposed to be about the economy, yet none of the candidates seemed willing to explain what really does lay in store for us, once the electoral dust has settled and the ballot papers have all gone off for recycling.

The necessary and substantial reduction in public expenditure, which will come sooner with the Conservatives or a bit later and much longer under the Liberals and Labour, will inevitably mean significant public sector job cuts. The problem seems to be that, as people will not vote for politicians who threaten their jobs, all the Parties are being somewhat coy on the detail of achieving a balanced budget. Of course, ignoring the “elephant in the room” will not stop it doing a “Blue Peter” on your sofa.

When I served on the North Yorkshire Police Authority, the budget debates would often centre on efficiency gains, through better use of technology and more efficient ways of purchasing uniforms and cars. However, with over 80 per cent of the force budget being spent on the people it employs, no meaningful budget reduction could ever be made without cuting the overall number of staff and/or police officers.

As a rule of thumb, for every million pounds that is cut from the North Yorkshire Police budget around thirty job losses would result. I believe the same equation would probably work for most public services, which means that for each hundred million we cut from public spending, three thousand jobs would go.

Whoever wins this election may find it a pyrrhic victory, as things are certainly going to get much worse before they get any better.

Irvin Berlin sums it up for me...

Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill
And while we still
Have the chance
Let's face the music and dance

Opting Out of NHS National Database

2010-02-18T18:15:00.002Z

Many people in Ryedale have recently had letters about Summary Care Records.

The NHS are reluctantly giving people a very limited opportunity to opt out of their central database of patient's records. However, they have made opting out as difficult as possible. This may be because they don't have much concept of customer service, but is more likely to be because they don't want people to have a real choice.

The NHS have been required, by the Information Commissioner, to write to every patient to tell them about the system and the individual's right to opt out by filling out a form. You might think that the form would be included with the letter, but instead you have to write back or telephone and ask the NHS to send you a leaflet. Once you get the leaflet, which is primarily designed to persuade you to change your mind, you would need to fill in the form on the back page and send it to your local GP Practice.

Unlike the NHS, I am happy for individuals to choose whether they want to be on the database (or smoke, or drink, or eat cream cakes) although, personally, I have decided to opt out. Anyone who does not opt out now should be aware that their consent will be assumed, with a permanent record being created on the system that can never be deleted.

The opt out form is available on line, although it is difficult to find through normal searches. If you would like a copy please click here.

Life in the Freezer

2010-01-15T20:37:00.003Z

Now the three weeks of severe winter weather seems to be abating, local people may want to consider any lessons that might be learnt from the experience.

North Yorkshire County Council has announced that a further 300 miles of rural roads will no longer be grittted, during the current winter, as an emergency measure to help conserve national stocks of salt. Whilst many will understand and accept the need to react to such an unusually long and widespread period of ice and snow, the people of Ryedale must be vigilant if they are to ensure the change really is temporary and that the Winter Maintenance Policy, agreed after much consultation less than two years ago, is fully reinstated.

NYCC has also decided to reduce the number of salt heaps and grit bins it replenishes and that all new grit bins, usually provided at the request of parish and town councils, must be paid for by those requesting them together with an annual charge for filling each bin with salt. Whilst the initial charge could perhaps be defended, as a way to moderate the number of requests, the annual charge seems to be a bureaucratic nonsense, with NYCC sending out lots of invoices simply to move the cost of grit to a different line on our council tax bills.

A further concern, with the reduction in the number of salt heaps, is the real risk that those remaining will be plundered for use elsewhere. Indeed, just this week, I witnessed a chap shovelling salt from a grit bin on Cropton Bank into the back of his silver Vauxhall, presumably for use at or near his home. Whilst understandable, his actions will leave other road users very vulnerable when Cropton Bank next freezes.

All that said I believe we Ryedale residents owe a real debt of thanks to two groups of workers. First the NYCC Highways staff, emergency services and contractors who, together with the many volunteers that pitched in, have worked long and hard hours to keep Ryedale moving and safe over recent weeks. But also, all those involved with the provision of social services, who have managed to continue providing vital assistance, in very difficult conditions, to our most vulnerable neighbours.

Links to my previous musings on gritting can be found here and here.

Photograph of The Blacksmiths Arms at Lastingham is courtesy of Heather White

Old blog eyes is back

2010-01-15T11:56:00.005Z

After six months of self-imposed exile from local political debate, to help distance myself from the disappointment of losing the Pickering seat on NYCC, I am returning to the fray. My first proper post will appear later today.

Close, but no cigar...

2009-06-06T05:34:00.022Z

The votes are counted, the result is in and I regret to report that I lost.

I am of course philosophical about the result, as I have always known that elections are really just beauty contests, although it was a revelation to discover that I was less attractive than Mr Clark.

Going into the election I had hoped that my record would be sufficient to see me returned, but in truth the maths were always against me, particularly once the Lib-Dems had been 'persuaded' by the Liberal candidate not to contest the seat. Apparently Mr Clark threatened to stand a candidate against David Lloyd Williams in Norton unless he was guaranteed a free run in Pickering, ironically Mr Lloyd Williams still lost his seat to the Conservative.

I guess the press coverage of MPs expenses, particularly that carried by local papers the day before the election, will not have helped my cause. I was not alone in this as, across North Yorkshire, all the major parties faced independent candidates able to capitalise on the debacle of Westminster's creative accounting saga. In total an additional eight independents were elected, making them the second largest group at County Hall.

In the end I fell short by just 58 votes (or 2 per cent) which makes Pickering the fourth most marginal of the 72 council divisions in North Yorkshire. (Commiserations to the other three, David Fagan at Selby Barlby -31 votes, Richard Cooper at Harrogate Central - 26 votes and Peter Southward at Scarborough Woodlands - just 4 votes!)

It was a huge honor to represent Pickering for the past four years and I hope that my period at County Hall was effective for the town and surrounding villages. I want to thank everyone at NYCC, Pickering Town Council and all those working on the boards and partnerships in which I was involved, for making it such a pleasure. I would also like to thank the Green candidate, Chris Newsam and the Labour candidate, Doreen Davies, for running fair and honest campaigns and wish Cty Cllr Clark the best of luck, as he seeks to make his mark at Northallerton.

Now, I need to go and find a proper job.

Credit Union Launch

2009-05-19T11:46:00.008Z

As a voluntary director of the North Yorkshire Credit Union I am pleased to announce that, after more than five years of hard graft, it is finally here and open for business. If you live or work in North Yorkshire you can now join this mutual (not for profit) organisation, which allows people to save and borrow relatively small amounts of money at reasonable rates of interest.

The new North Yorkshire Credit Union has been created, with the help of North Yorkshire County Council, through a major investment in the existing York Credit Union.

This was the first project I worked on when I joined North Yorkshire County Council and supporting its launch now fits within my responsibilities on the Council's Executive. I quickly became convinced that this kind of organisation, with government guaranteed savings and modest but affordable short term loans, available to most people, could play a vital part to people's economic well being. I was so keen to see it succeed that I got myself elected onto its Board of Directors and I would urge all residents of North Yorkshire to support and make use of this worthy venture.

The rebranded and fully interactive North Yorkshire Credit Union web site launches soon, but you can find out more and join now on the current York Credit Union site:

http://www.ycu.org.uk/

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Oh dear, one can't do right for...

2009-05-15T11:39:00.008Z

Apparently my idea, to allow people to politely decline to be canvassed by displaying a card, has not been universally popular. It seems that some people are accusing me of stifling debate, yet this could not be further from the truth, I just wanted to give people a choice.

The turnout in the last County Council Elections was over sixty five per cent, which was significantly above both the local and national average. Over the last four years I have found civic engagement and political debate to be alive and well in Pickering, with an effective town council, a civic society, an events group and several active single issue organisations, covering everything from flooding to flowers. At both the public meetings, which I chaired, about the disputed right of way at Wells Walk the attendance was well into the hundreds.

It is precisely because many people in Pickering, particularly those who put themselves up as candidates, are so enthusiastic about local politics that I considered these cards to be needed. In the past, whilst canvassing, I have heard numerous complaints that some candidates and their canvassers will call back to the same house persistently, often quite late at night. Whilst such dedication to a campaign may be admired, we politicians need to accept that not everybody wants to talk to us at their door, including some who will inevitably be frail or getting on in years, and we have no right to oblige them to do so. Instead we should move on to the next house, after all there are more than three thousand front doors in Pickering that do not have a card.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

County Council Manifesto

2009-05-15T11:31:00.003Z

The following link will take you to a news item on The North Yorkshire Conservatives manifesto launch, where you can also download or view a copy of our manifesto.

http://yorkshireconservatives.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/conservative-campaign-for-north-yorkshire-county-council-elections-is-launched/

We believe that we are doing a good job here in North Yorkshire and hope you will re-elect us for a further term.

The Reluctant Canvasser...

2009-05-02T14:41:00.007Z

It’s election time again and that means politicians like me calling at elector’s homes to canvass their votes.

Although it is always great to talk to electors, I do not particularly enjoy canvassing. The reason for this is simple enough, I don’t like being cold-called myself and can fully empathise with those who object, both to being disturbed in the first place and then being asked how they are going to vote in what is, after all, a secret ballot. The problem for us candidates is that if we do not call, some electors may think that we don’t care or we are taking them for granted.

This time I am trying out a new idea. When I distribute leaflets, suggesting people might consider voting me back in, I am also attaching a card like the one in the above picture. So, if people do not want me or any other electoral candidate to call on them, all they need to do is put the card where we will see it. I will respect people's preference and will not call where notices are displayed, although I cannot vouch for any other candidate.

If you live in the Pickering division you should get a card delivered in due course, but anyone can make their own, by simply saving and then printing the above picture.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Full Steam Ahead? (Press Release)

2009-04-28T21:55:00.008Z

North Yorkshire County Council's Executive have today agreed to contribute £300,000 towards the replacement of Bridge-30 on the North York Moors Railway. Greg White, Pickering's County Councillor and the Executive Member responsible for tourism, welcomed the decision saying:

"The North York Moors Railway makes a massive contribution to the tourism offer of the North York Moors and I am pleased we have been able, on this occasion, to help fund the renewal of this vital bridge. Taken together with contributions from other agencies and private donors, this allocation should be sufficient to ensure that the bridge is fixed quickly and the threat to the continued operation of full sized locomotives is lifted. Of course the railway is also keen to return locomotive number 80135 to steam, in order to reduce their reliance on borrowed and hired in engines, so I am sure their appeal is still very much in need of further donations."

At the same meeting, the Executive also approved a million pounds to realign the Vivis Lane/Ropery junction in Pickering. Councillors stopped short of authorising compulsory purchase of the required land, in the hope that a consensual deal could be brokered with the land owner Lidl. Speaking at the meeting Cllr. Greg White said:

"The people of Pickering desperately want another supermarket in their town, but they also want the junction improved. Highways and Lidl are now talking to each other but they need to start listening as well. A workable compromise which satisfies all parties is surely achievable and is what the town needs and deserves."

ENDS

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Justice for Pickering Lady (Press Release)

2009-04-22T16:53:00.006Z

County Councillor Greg White has applauded the actions of a Pickering lady targeted by cowboy builders.

The 73 year old had agreed to pay £180 to a father and son building firm, for her driveway, paving, fascias and guttering to be pressure-washed but the pair, who are both called Edward Orchard, continued to work at the house for several days persuading the lady to agree to additional work as they went along.

At the end of the job they asked for £5000 and, although stunned by the amount, the lady paid up to avoid any unpleasantness. She then contacted the County Council’s Trading Standards department, cancelling her cheque on their advice. A subsequent surveyor’s report showed that work charged for had not been carried out.

The builders, who had also massively overcharged an 84 year old Harrogate man, appeared at York Crown Court yesterday in a prosecution brought by Trading Standards. Both men admitted offences under the Trade Descriptions and Consumer Protection Acts. Edward Orchard senior will be sentenced at a later date following a probation report, whilst his son received 6 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, 150 hours community punishment and a fine of £500.

Commenting on the case Cllr White, who represents Pickering on North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“It is outrageous that these charlatans sought to prey on our older residents in this way, presumably believing them to be easy pickings. It is heartening that both victims proved more than a match for their tormentors, by calling Trading Standards and stopping payment. It is right and proper that North Yorkshire County Council does not tolerate this sort of sharp practice on vulnerable householders and uses consumer law to run these latter day cowboys out of town.”

ENDS

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member. Cowboy image borrowed from and copyright of Fotosearch.

Prove It! Message Gets Through(Press Release)

2009-04-22T12:30:00.003Z

Pickering’s County Councillor, Greg White, has applauded the multi-agency effort to cut under age drinking in Ryedale:

“Since January, when we launched the Alcohol Respect Campaign in Pickering, officers from Trading Standards, the police and the Ryedale Safety Partnership have worked with local pubs and off licences to ensure that young people, who appear under 21 years old, have proper identification.

Licenced Retailers across Ryedale, who are on the front line in tackling underage sales, have fully supported our campaign. Any teenager considering obtaining a Fake ID from the internet, which frankly fool no one, should think again. Ryedale retailers fully understand that, when it comes to proof of age, only a passport, photo-driving licence or an ID Card with a PASS hologram will do.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

The Alcohol Respect Campaign in Ryedale was launched, in Pickering, just after Christmas.

Trading Standards Officers, Police and Ryedale Safety Partnership representatives have been working with licensees and retailers to ensure that people who look under the age of 21 are asked for ID before being able to buy alcohol.

North Yorkshire County Council Trading Standards officers have been in the stores on busy evenings, helping staff to explain the need for tougher controls on the supply of alcohol if the towns are to rid themselves of the anti social behaviour which arises from a small band of youngsters drinking underage. Meanwhile, neighbourhood police have been on hand, to deal with incidents of anti social behaviour in the streets outside.

This approach, to what is an increasing problem for communities across the country, has been so successful in other areas that many of the major supermarkets and national off licence chains have decided to go one step further and introduce ‘Challenge 25’.

One local retailer sounded a warning to youngsters, to think twice about the consequences of their actions, saying, “I don’t think young people realise the consequences of what they are doing if they try to buy alcohol when they are not old enough. I work on the checkout and it would be me and my family that would suffer if I was caught selling alcohol to youngsters. I would be facing a £5000 fine, having to go through the stress of going to court and seeing my name in the papers. I won’t hesitate to say no, if I don’t believe the person is old enough and hasn’t got any ID.”

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Cash Boost for North Yorkshire Citizens Advice Bureaux (NYCC Press Release)

2009-04-08T10:25:00.003Z

A major cash boost is on the way for Citizens’ Advice Bureaux across North Yorkshire as part of the County Council’s fight to protect people from the worst effects of the recession.

Members of the Council’s Executive, at their meeting yesterday, agreed to invest an additional £150,000 in CABs for the recruitment of additional case workers to meet the growing demand for help and advice from victims of the downturn.

“The recession is now starting to have a real and tangible impact on our communities,” said County Councillor Greg White, Executive Member for Economic Development.

“An increasing number of people are turning to the CABs for help with a variety of serious issues including debt, unemployment, and benefits. We expect that these demands will become even greater as the downturn bites harder.

“The council has already implemented a number of strategies for helping businesses and communities to deal with these difficult times.

“This major investment in CABs will add significantly to the support mechanisms we have already put in place, and will hopefully enable North Yorkshire to weather the economic storms ahead.”

The council already provides some £300,000 to help fund the CABs in Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ripon, Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby. Earlier this year, the Government announced a £10m support package for CABs across the country, and today’s decision by North Yorkshire County Council’s Executive matches the share of the Government aid which will be available locally.

Research by the county council shows that the recession is having a severe impact on employment across North Yorkshire. The number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowances has almost doubled, from 5,148 in February 2008 to 9,791 in February 2009. In the three months between November 2008 and February 2009, the number went up by more than 3,000. At the same time, the number of job vacancies has fallen by nearly 2,000.

Five of the seven districts within North Yorkshire have seen increases of more than 100% in the number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowances.

“These are difficult times indeed for many people in our county, and we are working hard to put into place measures which will help them,” added Councillor White.

“However, we must not lose sight of the fact that North Yorkshire’s unemployment rate remains well below that of the wider region and the UK as a whole, and also that the regional development board, Yorkshire Forward, believes that the forecasts for future employment suggest that North Yorkshire may see a quicker recovery than elsewhere in the region.”

ENDS

New Phone Number (Correction)

2009-04-07T22:16:00.001Z

With immediate effect Greg White's mobile number has changed to: 07816 647059.

(An earlier version of this note ommitted the last digit, my appolgies for any inconvenience this may have caused - Greg)

Stop arguing and work together (Press Release)

2009-03-04T21:45:00.014Z

Pickering’s County Councillor, Greg White, has called for retailer Lidl, Ryedale District Council, and the Highways Authority to get together and sort out a workable solution, which gives the town both an improved junction and a new supermarket at Vivis Lane.

In a letter to the planning department, Cllr White says that a new supermarket is likely to have a significant beneficial effect for the local community, providing greater choice, lower prices and a reduced need to travel. However he also argues that the current proposal, which risks further congestion and a blight on future development in the town’s centre, is too much of a gamble.

Cllr White believes that the Highways Authority could use some of the additional eighteen million pounds it expects to receive for highway improvements, along with a contribution from Ryedale District Council, to straighten the junction. "The supermarket could then be built just fifty yards further down Vivis Lane, where there are two adjacent plots belonging to Ryedale and the County Council which, taken together, provide a larger area than is currently owned by Lidl and would surely make a better site for their supermarket."

Use this link for an aerial view of the area:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=vivis+pickering+north+yorkshire&sll=54.245243,-0.780587&sspn=0.006131,0.013733&ie=UTF8&ll=54.244021,-0.781467&spn=0.003066,0.006866&t=h&z=17

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member. The photograph is copyright of Phil Catterall and borrowed from: http://www.geograph.org.uk/

Fishing for Sharks

2009-02-23T19:34:00.008Z

On Saturday I attended the AGM of the York Credit Union. The meeting voted to extend its common bond (boundary), from just the city of York to the whole of North Yorkshire. It also elected yours truly to serve on its board.

For many of their borrowing members credit unions are the only alternative to the very high interest 'door knocker loans' or the usury of unlicenced and illegal money lenders (loan sharks). Ever since I joined the County Council, back in 2005, I have been involved in its effort to create a credit union for North Yorkshire. Saturday's vote means that, once the expected nod is received from the regulators, the whole county will have access to affordable credit.

Credit unions are mutual, not for profit, organisations which provide an alternative way of saving and borrowing relatively small amounts of money, at realistic interest rates. The membership of a credit union share a common bond, usually the area in which they live, their profession or their employer. Most members save regular small amounts and the money deposited is then made available to other members as modest interest bearing loans. Although savers do not, technically, earn interest on their money they do receive an annual dividend, based on what the credit union can afford, which amounts to the same thing. Like banks and building societies, credit unions are tightly regulated and saver's deposits are fully guaranteed by the Government.

I hope that as many North Yorkshire people as possible will take up the opportunity to join the newly expanded York and North Yorkshire Credit Union, when it launches this Spring, helping themselves and their neighbours as they save.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Quarterly Meeting of Full Council

2009-02-18T23:17:00.011Z

I was at County Hall earlier today (Wednesday), for the quarterly meeting of full Council, where we set the budget and council tax for 2009/10. The County Council, which is independently inspected and audited, is considered to be both a low taxing and high performing authority. Even so, given that the country has slipped into recession, councillors were very keen to set the smallest increase possible, without risking front line service delivery. The meeting resolved to increase the County Council's share of this year's council tax bills by 3.9 per cent, rather the 4.8 per cent anticipated in the medium term financial plan. This will mean an increase of £38.94 a year (or 75p a week) for the typical band D taxpayer.

The opposition argued that the council tax should be even lower but, as they offered no sustainable way to finance their alternative budget, their sums simply did not add up. After loosing the vote they almost immediately went on to demand a bigger budget to subsidise post-16 home to school transport, clearly demonstrating that their thinking is almost entirely directed towards their leaflets for the coming elections, rather than the long term strategic needs of North Yorkshire residents.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member

The Blog is Back

2009-01-28T10:02:00.003Z

I am pleased to say that, after an absence of new posts since September of last year, Greg White's News is back in action. I have had technical problems which, I regret to confess, turned out to be entirely due to my own limitations when it comes to IT, rather than Google's system. Going forward, my intention is to publish a new post at least once a week and, assuming I can master the technology, to introduce video clips where appropriate. So watch this space!

School Grit

2008-09-25T16:09:00.004Z

Following my post 'True Grit', back in March of this year, I am pleased to anounce that more Pickering roads have been given Priority-1 status for gritting.

Each day, that freezing conditions are forecast, North Yorkshire's roads are treated in a strict order of priority, with major routes being done first, followed by secondary routes (if they are not already starting to thaw), whilst other routes are only treated if the freeze looks set to continue for three days or more.

In the Pickering area, the Priority-1 roads were previously limited to the A170 and A169. However, following a major review, North Yorkshire County Council have now agreed to upgrade the Market Place, Bridge Street, Potter Hill, Middleton Road and Swainsea Lane from Priority-2 to Priority-1. This means that in freezing conditions all these roads will now be treated very early in the morning, before the school traffic starts to arrive.

Here comes the rain again...

2008-09-06T20:03:00.008Z

Residents of Pickering have had to endure an anxious 24 hours, as once again Pickering beck threatened to burst its banks.

Householders waited to see if their makeshift sandbag barricades, constructed after DEFRA and the Environment Agency abandoned plans for proper flood defences, would protect their homes from the rising waters. On this occasion the water level paused at the brink before dropping back, but it seems the town was little more than a heavy shower away from a repeat of last Summer's disastrous floods. Meanwhile, the saturated ground and high level of the water table has left the area extremely vulnerable to any further rain over the next few days.

If disaster was averted today, it was no thanks to either DEFRA or the Environment Agency who, despite acknowledging the serious threat to the town, have apparently decided at a national level that Pickering is not worth defending.

The emergency services and local authorities, including the Pickering Town, Ryedale District and North Yorkshire County Councils, have all done their bit, setting up systems to warn people of impending floods and to help deal with the consequences. The County and District Councils have also indicated that they might be willing to contribute significant sums to the cost of a credible flood defence scheme. Unfortunately, despite these unprecedented offers of help, DEFRA and the Environment Agency, who have full statutory responsibility for providing flood defences, are unwilling to invest any meaningful amount of money in Pickering and so the town is left to its fate.

The only way to get Pickering proper flood defences is to change the criteria for funding the work. Such a change is entirely in the hands of the Government, so if you believe Pickering needs flood defences you should write to your MP today.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member. The photograph is of the 2007 flood and is borrowed from http://moblog.net/view/258704/

Have a seat....

2008-09-02T20:06:00.006Z

One task of a County Councillor is to consider and, if appropriate, endorse small grant applications from local worthy causes. Applications which have been endorsed by the local member are almost invariably approved by the Area Committee. The amount of money available each year is modest, at around £5,000 for each councillor's area, but anyone can apply for a share.

When considering applications I always look for evidence of local involvement and commitment to a project. If local people are supporting something it seems appropriate for the County Council to give them a hand. Unusually, the two most recent applications to pass through my hands have both been for chairs.

The first was from the Pickering Musical Society who, having recently raised the £25,000 needed to replace their worn out seating, suffered some bad luck when their chosen supplier banked their deposit and promptly went bust. The society have identified a new supplier, but now need to raise a further £9,000, to cover both the lost deposit and a higher price. Given the popularity of productions at the Kirk Theatre, for performers and audiences alike, I was happy to endorse a contribution of £2,000 in their hour of need.

The second was from the local WRVS, who wanted £1,269 to pad their existing seats and to provide a number of armchairs, for those less mobile who need the leverage an armchair provides. The Hungate Centre is used by around 400, often older, people each week and so I was pleased to support the WRVS application.

Both grants were approved by last week's meeting of the Ryedale Area Committee, so very soon Pickering folk should be sitting in a bit more comfort.

Details of how to apply for a grant can be obtained from County Hall or by sending an e-mail to me at: cllr.g.white@northyorks.gov.uk

Market Place

2008-09-01T10:01:00.005Z

I had to get up bright and early this morning to appear on Radio York's breakfast show, live from Pickering Market Place.

This follows the decision made by last week's meeting of the Ryedale Area Committee, in response to another positive survey of Pickering residents, to restrict the traffic on the Market Place between 10am and 4pm each Monday. The Committee considered objections from some business owners and a district councillor, but decided that the will of local people as expressed in three separate surveys could not be over ridden. The meeting also resolved that improvements should be made to the implementation of the Order, particularly the signage, so as to present its positive aspects and to ask Ryedale District Council to Review and improve the operation of the Monday Market.

Meanwhile, I understand that the Town Council is investigating the possibility of making Bridge Street, The Ropery and The Market Place into something called 'Shared Space'. In its most extreme form this idea, developed by a chap called Hans Monderman, envisages the end of separate pavements and roads altogether, pedestrians would instead wonder freely over the whole area and whilst motorised traffic would be permitted its speed would be reduced to a walking pace as it gives way to other road users. See Hans Monderman's Times Obituary for more at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3167372.ece

Back on the Blog

2008-08-29T22:54:00.002Z

This is just a short note to announce that I am back on-line following a six week break. The intermission was partly due to having a two week family holiday in and around Scarborough (The highlight for me was 'discovering' Le Chat Noir on Eastborough, highly recommended for a lunch time crêpe or an unpretentious evening meal) but mostly through struggling to operate the technology once we got back.

This does mean that I am a little behind with my posts, something I hope to rectify over the next few days.

A170/Ropery Junction-update

2008-07-14T23:50:00.004Z

Last Friday I was at a meeting with senior highways officers, to discuss the A170's junction with the Ropery and Vivis Lane, inclding the potential impact of the current planning application for a Lidl supermarket. I am happy to report that, in my opinion, they fully understand the issues and want to deliver a workable solution that will meet Pickering's needs.

Although it is likely that the current Lidl proposal will have an adverse traffic impact, particularly at certain key times, the scale is something that will have to be objectively assessed by independent expert consultants. Highways can only comment on a planning application on its individual merits (ie the direct effect it will have, if built, rather than its relative desirability against any other theoretical uses of the land) overstating the case would simply result in an appeal which the Council would lose. The decision whether to grant or refuse planning permission will, of course, be a matter for the Ryedale District Council Planning Committee.

Whatever happens with the current planning application, finding a way to mitigate congestion on this junction remains firmly on the agenda.

Vote and win a car?

2008-07-09T23:14:00.011Z

The Government is concerned about participation in local elections and is considering introducing a package of new measures to encourage more people to get involved. (You can read about it here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/886224)

One of their wackiest ideas, reminiscent of Tony Blair's plan for drunken revellers to be marched to cash points to pay instant fines, is for local authorities to enter all those who vote at elections in a prize draw. They are also suggesting that any petition of over 250 signatures should entitle the petitioners to a full debate and response, whilst referendums to introduce elected mayors could be triggered by a petition from just two per cent of electors (its currently 5 per cent) and that they could 'sign' on line.

All of this misses the point somewhat. Democracy needs to be accessible, so that unnecessary barriers to taking part are eliminated, but introducing prize draws, or allowing people who could easily get to a polling station to vote by post or on-line, undermines a serious and important part of our constitution. Rather than making voting ever easier to do (and in the process, ever easier to fiddle) or offering inducements to get us to turn out, we should instead be making the role of the local councillor more relevant to local people.

The reality is that most of local government's activities and budget, whatever the colour of the party supposedly in charge, is concentrated on delivering the central government's agenda. Local district and county councils are all judged and awarded stars for their efficiency at delivering against a set of central government priorities, if they go their own way they risk being marked down and getting less resources with even tighter controls. Effectively local authorities are forced to become sub-contractors to Whitehall, with little room for maneuver.

It can be no surprise, therefore, that many potential electors are not motivated to turn out and vote, when the councillors they return have so little power to vary the taxes they pay, the services they receive, or even determine planning applications that are made.

The answer to low turnouts is not to be found in tinkering with the election system, it is to increase the relevance of the election result to the potential voter's life. Where councillors are active and effective advocates of their wards and divisions, they usually attract significant personal support. If the job of all councillors was made more meaningful, so they had greater potential to make a difference, both the number of people wanting to stand and the number wanting to vote would increase.

To be fair to the Government they are also suggesting that some responsibilities should be devolved down, from central to local government and also from local government to community groups. I believe that this could be a good thing but suspect that, once the press conferences are over, these initiatives will not amount to much beyond what already happens.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

New Job...

2008-06-29T21:31:00.003Z

I have just had to update the ‘about me’ section of this blog, due to a change in my role.

From this week I am stepping down from the North Yorkshire Police Authority (NYPA) and will be joining the Executive of North Yorkshire County Council. I have been asked to take on responsibility for the ‘Community’ portfolio, which includes Public Protection; Community Safety; Community Planning; Cultural Services; Life Long Learning and Economic Development.

Whilst I am very pleased to accept this promotion and look forward to taking on the challenges of the wide ranging brief, I am very aware that working for and representing the residents of Pickering and the surrounding villages of the Cropton Ward is, and must remain, both my most important responsibility and my number one priority.

It will be a wrench to leave the NYPA, which I joined in June 2005 shortly after my election as a councillor, but I would not be able to do justice to both these roles and my full time job. During my involvement we have managed to improve the financial controls of the police, providing them with the tools and leadership team needed to become an open, efficent and sustainable organisation. I do regret that I was unable to persuade my authority colleagues to keep increases to the police precept (council tax bill), which is already the highest in England and Wales, at or below the rate of inflation, but I will keep encouraging them to do so. I will, in any case, continue to have some involvement with the police, as public protection and community safety form part of my new brief.

A170-Ropery/Vivis Lane Junction (Letter to Press)

2008-06-25T21:31:00.001Z

Dear Sir

Discount supermarket chain Lidl have applied for permission to build a new store at Pickering, on the site of the old coal yard.

Whilst I believe that many residents will welcome the additional choice such a store would bring, I have real concerns about the impact on, the already congestion prone, A170-Ropery/Vivis Lane junction. In 2005, when local residents were consulted on the town’s transport infrastructure, North Yorkshire County Council promised that the junction would be improved, but said that this could not be afforded until a contribution from developers, seeking to exploit land along Vivis Lane, became available.

The pending sale of the former NYCC Highways Office and Lidl’s current plan for their supermarket, would apparently put an end to any prospect of improving the junction, either now or in the future. I have asked NYCC officers to urgently review their strategy for this junction and to meet with Lidl to see if a plan more beneficial to the community, utilising both plots and the existing road, can be worked out for the site.

I would urge your readers to write to both Lidl and NYCC, either directly or via myself, and make their views known on this subject.

Kind Regards

Cty Cllr Greg White
Member for Pickering Division

Top Cops

2008-06-21T23:04:00.009Z

I was at Ox Pasture Lane Hotel, in the Forge Valley, yesterday for the North Yorkshire Community Police Awards. It was a great night, organised by the North Yorkshire Police Authority and sponsored by BT, which celebrated the achievements of police officers and staff who have gone 'the extra mile' to deliver excellent local policing.

Congratulations to all those who were nominated for an award especially Johanne Abbott (pictured above) , the Police Community Support Officer in Pickering, who was named as the force Police Community Support Officer of the year. Johanne, who was presented with her prize by Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell, will go forward with Police Officer of the year PC Lailah Nijaila (from York) to the national awards to be held in November.

During the evening, the career of Assistant Chief Constable Peter Bagshaw (also pictured above), who served as North Yorkshire's temporary Chief Constable for several months following the early retirement of Della Cannings, was recognised with a special 'Lifetime Acievement Award'.

Market Place Update

2008-06-04T22:48:00.003Z

At their meeting earlier today, the Ryedale Area Committee decided that the experimental closure to traffic, of Pickering Market Place on Mondays, should be reviewed at their August meeting. Membes also asked their Officers to carry out a further comprehensive survey of local residents and ensure that, over the comming weeks, a greater emphasis was put on enforcing the terms of the Experimental Order.

Let Pickering Decide (Press Release)

2008-06-01T23:14:00.007Z

Pickering's County Councillor, Greg White, has called for the residents of Pickering to be allowed to decide whether the experimental closure to traffic of the town's Market Place on Mondays should continue.

A report from North Yorkshire County Council Officers, for this week's meeting of its Ryedale Area Committee, suggests that as the trial has not been enforced by the police and remains unpopular with some local shopkeepers, consideration should be given to ending it early.

Commenting on the report Councillor White said:

"This should be a decision for the people who live in Pickering. The Market Place is very important to the town and this experimental scheme was put in place following an overwhelming favourable response from local residents and representative bodies, in the Transport Plan consultation of 2005. Before any decision is taken on whether to end the trial, I believe, there should be another survey to again gauge public opinion.

This would of course only be an opinion survey, rather than a binding referendum, but at least it would continue the principal of it being Pickering's rather than the County Council's trial. Hopefully there would be time for some informed debate in the local press, before people got their surveys. The Council would then be able to take note of the results, as well as any other evidence, when it considers what should happen next."

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Wells Walk Result

2008-05-23T20:58:00.004Z

I have today received written notice, from the Planning Inspectorate, that the order making Wells Walk a Byway Open to All Traffic has been confirmed as originally made. This means that the route is now an official right of way.

At last Wednesday's meeting of the North Yorkshire County Council, I raised the issue of how quickly, once the Planning Inspectorate had confirmed its status, that the Council's officers would be able to enforce the reopening of Wells Walk. In my question, I urged the Council's Executive to ensure that no further period of procrastination took place, even if the decision becomes the subject of a procedural appeal in the High Court.

I have now received a written answer from Cllr Clare Wood, who is the Executive member with responsibility for Rights of Way, which includes the following opinion from a senior officer:

"Any "appeal" would be in the form of a High Court Challenge on limited legal grounds only. The Order is however now effective, and pending any appeal the route will effectively be public highway and so capable of being the subject of action to remove an obstruction. The Rights of Way team have been advised of the outcome and will now be able to take appropriate steps to remove the obstruction."

I hope and trust that the long suffering residents of Pickering will contain their enthusiasm, for a few days more, and allow the landowner and/or the Highway Authority to remove the 'barricades'. It would be a shame to risk any public order incidents, at this late stage and having just been vindicated by the legal process.

Congratulations to all those who have laboured so hard, over several years, to secure this public right of way for current and future generations.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Wells Walk Inquiry

2008-04-30T08:02:00.009Z

The long awaited Public Inquiry, which will decide whether the disputed footpath at Wells Walk should be a public right of way, is about to commence. The Inquiry is taking place at the Memorial Hall in Pickering, from 10am on Tuesday 6th May and I will certainly be there.

Since being elected in 2005, I have been involved in many private and public meetings on this issue. Although I came to the subject with no strong views, over time I have become convinced that the case in favour of a right of way is strong, that the landowner is intransigent and, despite the excellent work of some officers, the procedures of the County Council on rights of way issues are far too slow, bureaucratic and risk averse, to truly serve the interests of local people.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Praise for Highways on Footways

2008-04-20T21:58:00.004Z

Its good to hear a bit of praise when something goes right, so I was pleased to be copied in on the following message. It was sent to the local NYCC highways manager - who had been asked to sort out some very wet footpaths around Beacon Park and Swainsea Lane in Pickering:

"On behalf of some 400 students who regularly use the above footpath, the staff, local residents and of course, the Headteacher and Governors, many, many thanks for your assistance in sorting out the drainage problem on the path. The land drain really has had an immediate impact and the absence of 'ponding' water has certainly not gone unnoticed.

You are very much deserving of a Gold star!"

So well done to Richard and his team, who still try their best to squeeze a quart from the standard issue pint pot.

True Grit....

2008-03-19T22:10:00.005Z

Today I was at the Ryedale Area Committee, where most of our time was spent talking about grit.

What NYCC Officers refer to as Winter Maintenance and everyone else calls Gritting, is currently under review. NYCC currently spends much more than other authorities, treating ice and snow on its roads, which is a deliberate policy designed to keep all communities accessible during the winter months.

Each day, that freezing conditions are forecast, the roads are treated in a strict order of priority, with major routes being done first, followed by secondary routes (if they are not already starting to thaw), whilst other routes are only treated if the freeze looks set to continue for three days or more. Most pavements are not currently gritted early in the morning but in future some of the main paths, predominantly in town centres, will be treated before 9am.

In the Pickering area the Priority-1 roads include the A170 and A169. Once these are clear Priority-2 routes would be done in the surrounding area, ensuring local villages all have access to the A-roads, although this may often be limited to just one route.

I today called for Middleton Road and Swainsea Lane in Pickering to be upgraded to Priority-1 every Monday to Friday during term time. I believe that the substantial early morning traffic, generated by the three schools in this area, make its early treatment essential.

If you have any thoughts on gritting, snow ploughing or the location of salt bins, please do give me a call.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Do you know an exceptional police officer?

2008-03-18T22:08:00.007Z

Nominations have opened for the North Yorkshire Neighbourhood Police Officer of the Year awards.

The awards scheme gives members of the public and local organisations the chance to nominate individual local Police Officers or Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) for the committed, dedicated and invaluable hard work they have given to improve the quality of life in a neighbourhood.

Last year's Ryedale winner was PC Jane Jones, who lives and works in Malton. Very much a part of the local community, her help and advice is often sought even when she is off duty. She organised regular police surgeries in the Market Place, using the mobile police station, which are always well attended and provide a focal point for local residents. Jane received particular praise for her efforts in tackling a long-term problem of anti-social behaviour in a car park, where young drivers were racing their vehicles and causing problems with noise and litter. She brought together the drivers and local residents with members of the council and the fire service, to agree a code of conduct suitable to all parties. Her “Nip a Dipper” campaign in shops and supermarkets, tackling thefts of purses and mobile phones from shopping bags, saw the number of reported offences fall by 25 per cent.

As the District winner, Jane was able to nominate a local charity to receive a £250 donation from the Police Property Fund. She has chosen the League of Friends of Malton Hospital and can be seen above presenting a somewhat implausible cheque to Jez Kiplin from the charity, watched by Stephen Noblett (one of my colleagues from the Police Authority) and Mari-Anne Jackson from Safer Ryedale.

So if you feel that you know a local Police Officer or PCSO who has gone that extra mile in Ryedale, to help provide a safer neighbourhood for you and your family, then please do nominate them so that they know they are appreciated.

To nominate a Ryedale officer you just need to download a form from the new section of the NYPA web site (http://www.nypa.org.uk/) and then send it to Inspector Helen Taylor at Malton Police Station. Nomination forms must be completed and returned by 28 April 2008.

“The public are the police and the police are the public”

2008-03-07T00:25:00.007Z

A review body set up by the Conservative Party is looking at how policing should be governed in the UK, so that forces can be more closely associated with and accountable to the communities they serve.

They believe that the current system, a three way split for each force (except the Met’) between the Home Secretary, a part appointed/part indirectly elected local Police Authority and an ‘operationally independent’ Chief Constable, has shifted too much power to the Government of the day and is not locally accountable. They are advocating that each local force should instead be headed by a directly elected individual (a bit like Sheriffs in the USA). Although this could work I suspect their plan, of keeping the existing number and size of forces and having appointed police boards headed by elected Commissioners, will prove disappointing in practice.

In the past, when policing was a local authority function, forces would often be starved of resources by councillors seeking to meet other competing needs. The current system, of independent partially elected authorities, leads to the opposite extreme. Members identify so closely with policing and police needs that they can 'go native', raising taxes above inflation to finance whatever the latest technological scheme or newly identified threat is advocated by the Chief Constable. Although making Commissioners directly elected will make them more visible and so more accountable, the size of the area they would be responsible for would inevitably keep them fairly remote.

A genuine connection between communities and their police chiefs could be achieved, if the size of individual forces was dramatically reduced. This could only be afforded if the smaller forces were mandated to hive off their protective and specialist services into regional units, running them as 'coppers co-operatives'. Local chiefs would agree joint provision on some core services and back office functions (eg: anti-terrorism, organised crime, scenes of crime, procurement, finance) funded by member forces through a mixture of fixed subscriptions and charges based on their service use. With the specialist, protective and back office services secured in this way, local policing (which is the bit most people get worked up about) could be delivered by autonomous, town-sized units. We could go back to every city, large town and rural district having its own independent and locally accountable police force.

At first glance this may look similar to the Government's own agenda for local policing through town sized basic command units (BCUs), but a key difference would be that all policing decisions and strategies would come bottom up, through elected local chiefs operating a system of effective co-operation, rather than going with the Government’s preference for top down centralised control.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Short term gain or long term pain?

2008-02-20T22:55:00.007Z

We set the budget for 2008/9 at today's North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) meeting. It will mean that NYCC's part of council tax bills will increase by 4.75 per cent in April, with similar increases envisaged for each of the next two years.

These above inflation increases are essential if NYCC is to meet increased demands for adult social services and prepare to meet the new legislation on waste management, which requires us to stop using landfill (tips) in favour of more expensive alternatives, such as incineration.

It would have been much easier to court popularity with a below inflation increase, but this would have been an abdication of our responsibility. The cost of dealing with waste alone will rise from sixteen to forty million pounds over the next few years. Ignoring the problem now would mean either double digit increases in council tax or swinging cuts in services for the elderly and vulnerable in a few years time.

Opposition councillors were predictably unbalanced and dissapointing, in both their contributions to the debate and their grasp of budgeting. Without a trace of irony, they proposed the easy option of a lower increase in council tax at 10:30am and then spent the next two hours asking the Executive to spend more money on various works and services.

Of course the system itself is crazy, with central government calling the shots on how much is spent and on what, but leaving hapless local councillors to work out a way of picking up the bill.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Let there be light...

2008-02-19T21:32:00.004Z

I am a happy to report another small triumph for a local resident on my patch. Earlier this month I received a request from someone, living on Ruffa Lane in Pickering, to improve the street lighting outside their home and along their road. I immediately raised the matter with the Highways Department and have just received their reply:

"Having looked at the lantern and the rest of the lighting in Ruffa Lane we have decided to bring it up to the standard of the rest of the newly installed lighting in Pickering.

The offending lantern will be removed and replaced in April along with the rest of the lanterns in Ruffa Lane. The new lighting scheme will meet the levels required by the new British and European standards."

Thanks chaps, I do like it when the Council is able to give such a timely and satisfactory response to its taxpayers. I also like it that our people communicate by e-mail and yet still use the word lantern, the traditional name for a street light.

Call to Limit Police Tax Increase Rejected (Press Release)

2008-02-04T16:41:00.000Z

The police share of Council Tax bills is set to rise by more than inflation, despite the efforts of some police authority members to limit the increase.

At today’s meeting of the North Yorkshire Police Authority, a resolution was proposed by York City Cllr Ruth Potter and seconded by Cty Cllr Greg White, to set an increase of 3 per cent. Following a lively debate an amendment, from Cty Cllr David Lloyd Williams, setting the precept increase at 4.3 per cent was approved by the authority. This equates to an extra £7.97 for a Band D property

Commenting after the debate Cty Cllr White said:

“North Yorkshire police is an effective organisation, delivering a high quality service. Even so, I am disappointed that the local people they serve will have to pay for yet another above inflation increase, to what is already the highest police council tax precept in the land. Since 1997 inflation, as measured by the retail price index, has totalled 39 per cent whilst the police precept has risen by an incredible 269 per cent.

That said this was a democratic decision, made without reference to party politics, indeed there were councillors from all three parties on both sides of the vote.

I will continue to work, with police authority and force colleagues, to secure further improvements in service and ever better value for council tax payers.”

ENDS

Note to Editors

Inflation has several measures, as at Dec 2007 RPI was 4 per cent, RPIX (excluding mortgages) was 3.1 per cent, and the CPI (the Government’s preferred measure) was 2.1 per cent. The North Yorkshire Police Authority Treasurer has used a figure of 2.9 per cent in the budgets she prepared for today’s meeting.

This press release contains my own views, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Road Cameras (Letter to the Press)

2008-01-31T13:12:00.000Z

Dear Editor

Recently there has been extensive coverage of roads policing in the local press. This has included calls from some district councillors for the introduction of fixed speed cameras, reports of the three new mobile speed cameras procured for the use of police in Ryedale and articles about the success of Operation Helical in tackling anti social driving across North Yorkshire, particularly by those who use excessive speed.

Personally I have yet to be entirely convinced that unmanned fixed speed cameras, which can only detect speeding offences and then only those committed by drivers of cars which are properly registered with DVLA, are as effective as mobile cameras operated by police officers, who can stop and talk to motorists and so often detect other offences as well. The initial results of Operation Helical illustrate my point. Of the 5,046 motorists who were stopped, 945 received tickets or were reported and a further 616 received warnings for speeding. It is right and proper that these offenders were caught and penalised, but the advantage of using real officers on the spot can be seen in the rest of the figures. 104 motorists were caught without insurance, 153 vehicles were found to have defects requiring formal rectification notices and 88 vehicles were confiscated by the police. Put simply, fixed speed cameras can not provide evidence that drivers are uninsured or drunk, or that their cars are in dangerous condition, but police officers can.

In North Yorkshire resources have been spent on a different kind of camera system, which can recognise a cars’ number plate and instantly check whether it is associated with known criminals, has been used in a crime, or is not properly registered with DVLA. Vehicles which the system flags up are immediately stopped and checked by police officers. To me, investing in a system which seeks to deny the use of North Yorkshire’s roads to criminals and persistently negligent drivers, seems like the intelligent use of technology to support modern local policing.

As both a County Councillor and Police Authority Member, who may at some time be asked to approve or reject proposals for fixed speed cameras, I would be very interested to know the opinion of your readers on this issue.

Kind Regards

Greg White

Back to School

2008-01-22T21:53:00.000Z

My County Council colleague Ron Haigh and myself were at Lady Lumley's school today, discussing local politics with sixth formers. During an animated but disciplined debate, which lasted for the best part of an hour, we faced mature and considered questioning on a range of subjects. We got a bit of a kicking for the Council's policy of charging sixth formers for home to school transport, which several students clearly felt was unfair, but on the whole it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. In our answers we tried to get across the idea that politics is mostly about choosing between competing priorities when raising and allocating resources (taxing and spending) and that participation and in particular voting by young people is the most effective way for them to get their priorities up the political agenda. The vote is the currency of democratic politics and, regrettably, older people are more likely than the young to exercise this democratic right.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Is Police Funding Fair? (Press Release)

2008-01-18T16:03:00.000Z

Statement from County Councillor Greg White:

“We are approaching the time when the North Yorkshire Police Authority must set its budget for the next financial year and declare how much it will need to take in Council Tax from householders across the county. The authority, of which I am a member, is currently consulting local people on the appropriate level of funding for the force and the amount local people are willing to contribute.

Although more than average is spent, per head of population, on policing in North Yorkshire than for other similar forces across the country, the proportion of that cost paid for by the Council Tax is much higher. Last year, compared to the average for the other seven forces considered most similar, North Yorkshire Police cost £7 more per resident to run, but local people had to pay out £18 more per head, because Central Government contributes significantly less of the total cost from general taxation than it does for other forces.

Proposals, currently under consideration by the North Yorkshire Police Authority may lead to further rises in the policing element of this April’s Council Tax bills, which would be significantly higher than inflation and much greater than any rise in Government grant.

In North Yorkshire, we pay the highest Council Tax precept for policing, whilst receiving the lowest proportion in Government grants, in the country. Local residents might like to consider whether this is fair and equitable.

Anyone with views on the police element of the coming year’s Council Tax should make them known to members of North Yorkshire Police Authority as soon as possible.”

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Data quoted in this release is extrapolated from an MS Excel spreadsheet, originally prepared for me by North Yorkshire Police Authority staff.

The most similar force groups are determined by the Home Office. North Yorkshire is grouped with Warwickshire, Devon & Cornwall, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Suffolk and Norfolk.

NB My media releases include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Bus Stop Celebration (Press Release)

2008-01-18T11:58:00.000Z

Residents of Pike Road in Pickering have marked the completion of their new bus shelter with a champagne and mince pie celebration. Watched by Mrs Frances Taylor who had led the campaign for a shelter and County Councillor Greg White who helped make it happen Town Mayor, Cllr. Julie Hepworth, cut a ceremonial ribbon and declared the shelter open and in use, saying:

“This is an excellent facility which will be much appreciated by users of the town bus service.”

Afterwards Councillor White said:

“The provision of this shelter is a great example of people power and I am pleased that, after a few technical delays, the County Council has been able to install it in time for the worst of the winter weather.”

ENDS

Pictured above (from right to left) Councillor Greg White, Town Mayor Cllr. Julie Hepworth, Mrs Frances Taylor and other Pike Road residents at the celebration.

NB My media releases include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Christmas Lights (Letter to the Press)

2007-12-22T11:25:00.000Z

Dear Editor.

I was disappointed to read that Cllr. Natalie Warriner's efforts, to provide Christmas lights in Pickering Market Place, had been criticised. I know that Cllr Warriner, who has more calls on her time than most, only agreed to take on this year's lights when no one else came forward. She raised the necessary cash from a number of public bodies, including the County and Town Councils, sorted out the insurance, persuaded Highways to install permanent junction boxes, sourced energy efficient lights and then arranged their erection. For all of this she deserves our thanks and praise.

The Christmas lights in Middleton and Thornton le Dale are, of course, on a completely different scale to those of Pickering, but that is because whole communities have worked together to contribute the time, effort and resources needed to deliver first class festive displays.

I hope you and your readers all enjoy a great Christmas and a jolly New Year.

Greg White

Speed Camera Vote (Press Release)

2007-12-19T22:16:00.000Z

The County Councillor for Pickering, Greg White, has welcomed confirmation that a debate and vote in full council would be needed before fixed traffic cameras could be introduced on North Yorkshire’s roads.

The commitment was given by the Council Executive Member John Fort, in reply to a question from Councillor White, at today’s Council Meeting.

Councillor White told the Council that there had been press speculation about fixed cameras coming to North Yorkshire and, although he did not propose to debate the pros and cons of their use today, he felt it was fair to say that such cameras were controversial. He asked for confirmation that:

“The strategic decision to introduce these cameras would require approval of full council and is not a decision which would be delegated to Officers.”

In his reply, Councillor Fort stated that the policy was under review, following the arrival of a new Chief Constable, but that any decision to introduce cameras would require a vote in Full Council.

Speaking after the meeting Councillor White said:

“This is excellent news for road safety in North Yorkshire. I am not convinced that unmanned cameras contribute as much to road safety as trained police officers, who can use context, discretion and advice when enforcing the law.

Many vehicles on our roads are not properly registered, taxed or insured and their drivers, who are the greatest menace on our roads, are less likely to be caught if enforcement is mostly left to cameras and a computer database.”

ENDS

NB My media releases include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Police Officers Robbed

2007-12-10T23:34:00.000Z

The Home Secretary has anounced that she is delaying the implementation of the independently assessed police pay review, which should have been backdated to the 1st September, until the 1st December 2007. I agree with the many police officers, who have described this decision as a breach of trust, or even legalised robbery.

The action to delay a pay increase for English police officers, which is to be paid immediately to those in Scotland, is a cynical and unjustifiable move to save money, which could have a disastrous effect on police morale. For nearly thirty years different governments have all respected a covenant with our police men and women, acknowledging that they are prevented by law from taking effective industrial action and so always implementing the recommendations of their independent pay review body.

Whilst the one off saving to the North Yorkshire Police Authority, estimated at approximately half a million pounds, would be significant, this was expenditure that had already been budgeted for. We always need to seek out savings and to get smarter and more efficient at what we do, but the Home Secretary needs to realise that this can not be achieved by simply refusing to pay people what she knows and accepts they are worth.

NB My posts include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Personal Police Cars Challenged (Press Release)

2007-12-05T23:04:00.000Z

Pickering County Councillor and Police Authority Member, Greg White, has called for North Yorkshire Police to stop providing personal cars to its superintendents, unless they can demonstrate that providing a personal car is critical to delivering effective policing in the county.

For the past three years the Force’s twenty-seven superintendents and chief superintendents have been provided with Volvo V70’s or Land Rover Discoverys. These vehicles were intended to be both operational and available for the officer’s private use.

The Police Authority asked its Auditors to review the scheme and in particular to report on whether there was still an operational need and whether the scheme still represents value for money.

Speaking at a meeting of the Police Authority’s Performance, Audit & Scrutiny Board, on Wednesday 4th December 2007, Greg White said:

“No police officer, whatever their rank, should be provided with a personal police car unless there is a robust business reason for doing so. It is clear from the reports in front of us today that, before such a case could be made, the whole strategy for the force's vehicle fleet would need to be reviewed. I ask that the Chief Constable does not purchase any new vehicles for senior officers until a full fleet review has been completed.”

In the report to the Police Authority’s Performance, Audit & Scrutiny Board the Auditors said that on average the Force would save up to £2,843 per year per vehicle if those officers used their own vehicles and claimed a mileage allowance. The report also concluded that whilst providing ‘command platforms’ to senior ranks offered some operational benefits to the Force, these no longer justified the costs.

ENDS

NB This media release includes my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Emergency Planning (Press Release)

2007-11-14T00:31:00.000Z

A debriefing meeting, on the emergency response to the summer floods in Pickering and Sinnington, was held on Tuesday 13th November at Ryedale House.

Town, District and County Councillors, from the areas affected, were briefed by the Police, Fire, Local Authority and Environment Agency officers on how they and other agencies worked together, to provide a co-ordinated response, as soon as they received flood warnings and the lessons learnt for any future emergencies.

Pickering County Councillor, Greg White, welcomed the opportunity to learn more about the emergency planning process and to exchange views with officers on how things had worked out on the day.

Cllr. White said:

“Although the ideal would be to have proper flood defences, it is important to plan for any further flooding incidents which may occur before a permanent solution can be achieved. I am very keen to ensure that local people have a proper say on what the planned response should be in their towns and villages.

It was clear from the meeting that a lot of effort had gone into planning a multi-agency emergency response, well in advance of this year’s floods. The Environment Agency have monitoring equipment which can give a ten hour warning of likely flooding in Pickering and this gives the police and other agencies time to warn people, identify the vulnerable, move in resources and set up relief centres.

Of course nature does not always follow man made plans. The floods were more extensive than predicted and future planning will need to take more account of floodwater cutting the town in two.”

ENDS

NB My media releases include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Tonight's Wells Walk Meeting (Seat Flyer)

2007-10-24T16:01:00.000Z

What’s your County Councillor been doing?
-a report by Cty. Cllr. Greg White

Since May 2005, when I was elected as the County Councillor for Pickering, I have been very involved in trying to get a satisfactory conclusion to the disputed right of way at Wells Walk.

In August 2005 I chaired a public meeting at the Memorial Hall, organised by Joy Andrews, which was attended by several hundred residents. That meeting informally resolved that the footpath, which had been blocked, should be reopened and that the County Council officers should be urged to negotiate with the landowner to bring this about.

Shortly after this meeting, I visited the landowners at their home and discussed their concerns. The route was eventually reopened following the removal of a tree.

In early 2006, in the absence of any progress in the negotiation, I urged the Rights of Way Department of the County Council to start the formal procedure which would settle the matter. This is known as Making a Definitive Map Modification Order or a DMMO.

In April 2006 I, along with the other local members of the County Council’s Ryedale Area Committee sitting in a Quasi-judicial role, considered the evidence of use which had been presented to the County Council. Based on the recommendation of the Rights of Way department and the evidence available, the Committee unanimously voted in favour of making a DMMO, classifying Wells Walk a byway open to all traffic or BOAT. A BOAT is sometimes known as a green lane and means a route can be used by pedestrians, horse riders and motor vehicles.

In April 2007 I became concerned that the DMMO had not been actioned by the County Council. I asked that a progress report be made to the next meeting of the Ryedale Area Committee. Following this intervention, the DMMO was published in June 2007, immediately before the next meeting of the Ryedale Area Committee.

In September 2007 I became concerned that, although the period for objections to the making of a DMMO had expired in July, objections had been made and the route had been closed by the landowner, no submission had been sent to the Planning Inspectorate to determine the matter. Following an extended correspondence with the County Council’s legal department, I managed to get them to get on with this process; the submission was finally made on the 19th October.

I am also trying to get the County Council to apply for an order to prevent motor vehicles, except for access, from using Wells Walk, if and when its status as a BOAT is confirmed. This is a separate process which would take place in the Magistrates Court.

I hope you have found this report useful. If you have any questions on this or any other County Council matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I keep a web diary of my County Council and Police Authority work which you can access at: www.gregwhitesnews.blogspot.com

Kind Regards

New Bus Stop for Christmas (Press Release)

2007-10-15T22:54:00.001Z

North Yorkshire County Council are arranging an early Christmas present for some of Pickering’s senior citizens. Following a campaign from the residents, led by Mrs F Taylor, the Council has agreed to install a shiny new bus stop outside the sheltered housing in Pike Road, before the end of the year.

Pickering County Councillor, Greg White, who helped get the residents’ request on to the County’s work programme, has welcomed the news.

Cllr. White said:

“Mrs Taylor called me back in April and it was clear that a bus stop was needed. I got in touch with County Hall and officers were quick to meet us on site. Now they tell me that they have sorted out the finance, are well on with the design work and intend the new stop to be in place before the worst of the winter weather sets in. It is great to see the County Council providing such a positive response to people that it serves.”

ENDS

NB My media releases include my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Making Progress

2007-10-09T10:24:00.000Z

Following my slightly grumpy post of the 18th September, where I despaired of the difficulty in getting anything useful done in local government, I am happy to report some progress on two of the issues mentioned.

Although I am still awaiting final confirmation from the local highways office, it now looks likely that the trial closure of Pickering Market Place, between 10am and 4pm each Monday, will commence on 22nd October 2007. Although the scheme remains controversial, particularly with some business owners, I am pleased that the people of Pickering, who have consistently supported this trial, are finally getting a meaningful say in what happens on their town’s roads.

Meanwhile the stand off at Wells Walk has motivated the local action committee, which is committed to protecting the route, to call another meeting at which people can both demonstrate their support for the disputed right of way and find out what is being done. I have entered the fray, by insisting that a senior officer from the North Yorkshire County Council attends the meeting and accounts for what they have done so far and, perhaps more importantly, explains what they will be doing from now on to secure the route. The meeting is scheduled to take place at Lady Lumley's School on 24th October, starting at 7pm.

I regret that I am still unable to report much progress on flood protection for Pickering, although I am continuing to lobby North Yorkshire County Council to give a firm commitment that it will contribute a substantial capital sum to the proposed scheme. I am also pushing for more information on the immediate response to this summer’s floods, from the emergency services and the district and county councils, to ensure that lessons have been learnt for future incidents.

NB This diary entry includes my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Police Funding Threat (Press Release)

2007-09-24T23:21:00.000Z

North Yorkshire Police could lose ten million pounds a year, if proposed changes to the Government’s Police Funding Formula are implemented. The changes, currently being consulted on by the Home Office, would see North Yorkshire loosing out because of the relatively low level of crime in the county.

Pickering County Councillor and Police Authority Member, Greg White, is urging the Government to think again.

Cllr. White said:

“Ten million pounds equates to around 250 police offices or staff, so with cuts of this magnitude it would be very difficult to deliver the existing service.

Crime reductions in the County stem from sharp increases in the police element of North Yorkshire council tax bills introduced a few years ago. It would be both unfair and non-sensical if all that good work, paid for by local people, was undermined by swinging budget cuts from the Home Office.

The proposed cuts would be in addition to an existing shortfall of over five million pounds in budgeted income versus expenditure, which is to be balanced by a number of major efficiency savings identified by a recent capacity and capability review.”

ENDS

NB This media release includes my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Business as usual

2007-09-18T21:40:00.000Z

Politics traditionally takes a holiday in August and then slowly warms up through September as the parties hold their annual conferences at various seaside locations.

Having taken full advantage of the Summer break, I was less than happy to discover that a number of issues, which had apparently been making steady progress, seem to have gone backwards.

We are not, after all, going to amalgamate the county and district councils. The trial closure to traffic of Pickering Market Place on Mondays still has not begun. Scarborough Hospital has been spared swinging short term cuts, but only if the twice saved Malton Maternity Unit is finally sacrificed. Following the recent flooding in Pickering the Environment Agency have controversially announced that, under their new prioritisation criteria, the town is less rather than more likely to get flood defences. Wells Walk, subject of an Order to definitively record it as a right of way, has been closed and blocked by the landowner, who is now in a bad tempered stand off with locals used to walking the route.

I have been a County Councillor for just over two years and must confess to finding this one step forward two steps back method of working to be somewhat frustrating. I am not to be deterred however and will be striving to do what I can to get all these issues (with the exception of local government reorganisation) back on track.

Let me know what you think, e-mail me at cllr.g.white@northyorks.gov.uk

NB This diary entry includes my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member

County Council Flood Cash (Press Release)

2007-07-16T23:16:00.000Z

Pickering County Councillor, Greg White, is confident that North Yorkshire County Council will make money available for a flood alleviation scheme in the town.

Cllr. White is supporting an ammended motion to council, which urges the Government to work with all the apropriate agencies to plan and fund flood defences in vunerable areas of North Yorkshire.

Commenting on the motion, Cllr. White will say:

“Time and again we see the plight of rural communities such as Pickering being ignored, as funding is channelled into metropolitan areas like Hull. It is clear that the Government will never fully fund the flood schemes needed to keep the people of North Yorkshire safe, so the County urgently needs to look at alternative ways of protecting life and property. I am confident that the leadership of North Yorkshire County Council, working with partner agencies, will find a way to jointly design, fund and deliver sustainable flood defences for towns like Pickering.”

Cllr. White will also urge a period of reflection, on what would be the most appropriate methods of flood defence, saying:

“The existing scheme for Pickering, which involves building up the banks of the beck, is very expensive and visually intrusive. We need to ensure that flood alleviation measures are appropriate to the needs of our towns and villages. In Pickering’s case, it has been suggested that this might involve some sort of water storage area further upstream, which could be used to moderate the beck’s flow at peak times. Of course, we also need to be sure that by protecting some towns, we do not simply move the problem to other settlements elsewhere on our streams. “

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The North Yorkshire County Council quarterly meeting takes place on Wednesday 18th July 2007 and an urgent motion on flooding is likely to be debated.

To contribute to the funding of capital schemes for flood alleviation the NYCC would have to borrow money which, including repayment of the sum borrowed, would cost around seven per cent of the amount borrowed per annum to finance. For example, £10 Million would cost £700,000 pa in repayments. To avoid council tax rises, the loan repayments would need to be funded through savings from current spending.

Emergency Response

2007-06-27T10:55:00.000Z

It was impressive to see the substantial number of personnel and equipment that the emergency services and other agencies were able to deploy to Pickering, in response to the flooding that followed the beck bursting its banks in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

As the County Councillor for Pickering, I would like to thank all the police officers, fire crews, local authority and school staff and workers from other agencies, who all did their very best to support and protect Pickering residents.

Of course, however much communities and agencies plan for these eventualities, lessons can always be learnt about how things could be done better. With this in mind, I would like to invite those who were directly or indirectly affected by the floods to send me any constructive comments and suggestions they might have, which could help the agencies involved improve their planning for and response to any future incidents. I will pass on all the responses I receive to the appropriate agencies.

The very thin blue line

2007-06-24T20:41:00.000Z

I spent nine hours out on patrol in Pickering and Malton with North Yorkshire police officers last night, up until 3:30am this morning to be precise. I was getting some first hand experience, as a member of the North Yorkshire Police Authority (NYPA), of the problems facing police in rural areas like Ryedale.

(In case you didn’t know, the NYPA is accountable to the people of the North Yorkshire and York area for maintaining an efficient and effective police service in the county. We do this by appointing the Chief and Deputy Chief Constables on fixed term contracts, setting policing objectives for the Chief Constable, based on public and other priorities, holding the Chief Constable to account for his/her delivery of those objectives and exercising overall governance over the police’s use of resources in the county, which includes setting the level for the police bit of council tax. If you would like to know more, you could click on the link from this blog to the NYPA website.)

The evening was a real contrast, leaving aside a concert in the Dalby forest, nothing very much happened between 6:30pm and 10:30pm, but between 10:30pm and 3:30am the two officer response unit that I tagged along with was constantly occupied. They dealt with someone at risk of self harm, an incident of criminal damage (detected and then sorted with an £80 fixed penalty), checked someone was observing their bail conditions (curfew), intervened to prevent public order problems and then arrested someone on suspicion of driving whilst impaired by drugs. I left them as they headed off with their prisoner to Scarborough, the nearest custody facility, with half of their shift still to do.

This flex in demand for response policing, in a large, low crime and sparsely populated area like Ryedale, is a major headache for North Yorkshire Police. At times the officers on shift may be under utilised and at others they are stretched to the point where all local resources are committed to jobs and further calls must be dealt with from the next area, possibly 40 plus minutes away. The force do, of course, try to profile and predict demand, but it is not an exact science and officers inevitably have to take account of the effect that decisions they make might have on available police strength at that time. For example, dealing with criminal damage (where the offender admits the offence) by fixed penalty takes only a few minutes but will limit the outcome to the £80 penalty with no criminal record. Arresting, transporting, processing and charging the offender for a court trial could tie up the officers for many hours, possibly leaving their area without police cover.

It is great that Ryedale is, for the most part, a safe place in which to live and work. Police resources inevitably reflect the low levels of criminality we have to suffer, but it is good to know that the force and individual officers are willing and able to manage those resources to ensure the maximum possible cover.

NB This diary entry, along with most of my posts, includes my personal opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the organisations of which I am a member.

Wells Walk Order (Press Release)

2007-06-04T10:30:00.000Z

The North Yorkshire County Council Legal Services Department intends to publish a Modification Order, adding the footpath known as Wells Walk to the Definitive Map as a public right of way, this week.

Pickering County Councillor Greg White, who has been publicly urging the Council to make such an Order for some time, has welcomed the news.

Cllr. White said:

“It is great to hear that a further step is being taken to resolve the issue of Wells Walk, which has been an issue I have worked on since being elected as a County Councillor more than two years ago. Although the County Council is making an Order to modify the Definitive Map, this may not be the end of the matter. The landowner will still have a right of appeal to the Secretary of State and the legal process may drag on for an extended period of time. Clearly it would have been preferable if an agreement could have been reached with the landowner, but I do believe the time is right to move things on to the next stage.”

The Ryedale Area Committee of North Yorkshire County Council had considered the issue of Wells Walk on the 19 April 2006 and the proposal to make a Definitive Map modification order was minuted on the 12th July 2006. Once published, any objectors will have six weeks to make formal representations to the County Council’s Legal Services Department.

ENDS

Unitary Council Debate

2007-05-15T21:22:00.000Z

I was invited to a meeting at Ryedale House last night, where the possible creation of a single unitary authority for North Yorkshire was discussed with local parish council representatives. The event began with an unashamedly partisan presentation on why, in Ryedale District Council’s view, this was a bad idea. Put simply, they believe that the estimated net savings to council tax payers have been exagerated and that North Yorkshire is simply too big to be properly represented by one council.

I do not agree with their analysis. Whilst I understand their scepticism, the figures in the County Council proposals have been produced by exerienced, professional and naturally cautious officers and will be subject to close scrutiny by Government accountants. As to their concerns about North Yorkshire’s size, I believe they have misunderstood how a unitary authority would work. It would be for the new council to decide how to organise itself and, as councillors are generally most interested in their own local area, it seems likely that the majority of the work would be done by area committees. This could include highway matters, planning, car parking and leisure charges, rights of way, distribution of grants to local organisations and the scrutiny of all council services in the area. So the majority of decisions about what happens in Ryedale would continue to be taken by local Ryedale councillors, meeting in Ryedale.

Whether the proposed merger of councils goes ahead will now be decided by the Government. The consultation finishes in June, with a decision due in July. As we will have a new Prime Minister by then, I would not be surprised if this timetable slips considerably. Such a delay would be unfortunate, as prolonged periods of uncertainty inevitably hamper the work of the existing councils.

Market Place Survey Result (Press Release)

2007-04-15T23:58:00.000Z

County Councillor Greg White has published the result of his supplementary survey on whether a trial closure of Pickering Market Place to traffic each Monday should go ahead.

The result showed sixty two per cent of respondents in favour of the trial, with thirty eight per cent against the idea, despite the well publicised misgivings of local business owners.

There were a total of 185 responses, equating to nearly half of the surveys which had been posted out to a random sample of Pickering households. The opening and counting of the replies was carried out jointly by Cllr White and Matthew Wilkinson, of electrical retailer Television House, who had organised a petition of local traders against the trial.

Commenting on the survey result Cllr White said:

“I agreed to do this additional survey, when some traders raised concerns about the planned scheme and cast doubt on the validity of the comprehensive consultation exercise, carried out by North Yorkshire County Council in 2005, which had indicated that a large majority of local people favoured a trial closure. I regret that this issue has become so controversial, with such sincere and strongly held views on both sides, however following such a clear result in favour I believe the County Council has no other option than to get on with the trial, so that we can all see whether it actually does benefit the town.”

ENDS

Call for Action on Wells Walk (Press Release)

2007-04-11T21:57:00.000Z

County Councillor, Greg White, is calling for the Rights of Way Department at Northallerton to take action on the disputed footpath and bridleway at Wells Walk in Pickering.

Addressing a meeting of the Ryedale Area Committee, Councillor White reminded his fellow councillors that they had formallly resolved that an order be made, designating the route as a byway open to all traffic, a year before but to date this had not happened.

Commenting on the delay, Cllr White said:

“I know that the Rights of Way Department have been busy behind the scenes, trying to facilitate a negotiated deal which meets everyone’s needs and that is to be applauded. However, there comes a time when it is right to let the formal process run its course and I believe we have now reached that point.

Making the Order now will ensure that affected landowners get an opportunity to raise objections. It would still be possible for a compromise solution to emerge, even if the formal process is already underway.”

The Committee Secretary assured the meeting that, if the formal Order was not made before their next meeting, the Rights of Way Department would be invited to explain the reasons for any further delay.

Time to say thank you

2007-03-28T21:39:00.000Z

Della Cannings will shortly retire as Chief Constable of North Yorkshire and I believe our community should give heartfelt thanks for what she has achieved.

During her tenure she has radically modernised and re-equipped the force, ensuring that it has the systems and tools needed for policing in the twenty first century. Proud to wear her own uniform, Della has championed the visible police presence that the public wants. Keen to face her public, she has tirelessly attended countless groups, events and clubs throughout the County. Committed to delivery, she has cut crime and been at the forefront of introducing neighbourhood policing teams, which will provide the sort of high profile and accessible local policing that people really appreciate.

Of course, even when justified, shaking up an organisation so vigorously will inevitably leave some staff feeling a little battered and bruised. It may be that Della’s successor will need a slightly different skill set, to maximise the return on her reforms and investments, but he will certainly have much more to be grateful for than his washing facilities.

Support for bus stop campaign (Press Release)

2007-03-25T23:35:00.000Z

Pickering County Councillor,Greg White, is supporting calls for the building of a new bus shelter to be considered in Pike Road Pickering.

After being shown a petition from regular users of the town bus service, which called for the building of a new shelter close to Ryedale Housing’s older persons accommodation on Pike Road, Councillor White pledged his support for the idea to be looked at seriously by the County Council.

Following his meeting with the petition organiser, Mrs F Taylor, Cllr White has arranged a site meeting for the relevant council officers, a housing association representative and himself, to check whether the proposed site would be justified, practical and safe.

Cllr White said:
“This bus stop is used extensively by older people, but in windy or wet weather the wait can be both cold and miserable. The County is committed to improving facilities for people who rely on public transport and, whilst there are still a number of administrative hurdles to clear, I think this bus shelter is exactly the sort of project we should be doing.”

ENDS

Response to “A future for maternity services”

2007-03-13T01:47:00.000Z

What follows is my submission to the local NHS Trust consultation on maternity services in Scarborough and Ryedale, including the proposed closure of the maternity units at Malton, Bridlington and Whitby...

As well as being the County Councillor for Pickering, I am the father of three children under five. The first two were delivered at Malton, in 2002 and 2003, at a time when the maternity unit was continually staffed and mothers could stay there for a day or two after the birth, getting some rest and assistance with things like breast feeding. My third child was born at Northallerton in 2006, by then Malton had been downgraded to a drive-thru service which did not meet my wife’s needs.

I am not convinced by the proposals of the Trust, which I think are based on making the service easier to manage and less expensive, rather than delivering optimum choice and care for expectant mothers, babies and their families.

I think the Trust's reference to home births is disingenuous. Home births will never be more than a small minority of deliveries and for many (if not most) people it will simply not be an option. GPs often discourage home births, even when no complications are expected, whilst for many mothers their housing or family circumstances will make them impractical. I believe the Trust knows this and fully expect and intend that the majority of births would transfer to Scarborough and other hospitals

I do support the maternity unit at Scarborough Hospital becoming mid-wife led, but do not understand why it is so important for Scarborough Hospital to have a Special Care Baby Unit and consultant obstetricians immediately available. If my wife had been expecting a difficult or complicated birth we would not have chosen to go to Scarborough, as (even after the changes proposed bt the Trust) it would never be able to offer the same level of expertise and availability of clinicians, or the specialist equipment, that York, Middlesbrough and Leeds can provide.

In my opinion the Trust should make Scarborough, Malton, Bridlington and Whitby into continuously staffed mid-wife led units. I guess Scarborough would deliver around 700 babies a year, with the three smaller units delivering between 150 and 200 each. The difficult births would be done at the region’s large teaching hospitals, with mothers and babies given the option of transferring back to their local unit if all is well.

It would be important to have robust ways of getting births, which become unexpectedly difficult, transferred quickly to a large teaching hospital. Given that the advice given to mothers, who used Malton in 2003, was that “in the event of it being necessary, an ambulance journey to York would not delay the start of an emergency caesarean, as clinicians always need time to prepare themselves and the theatre” I see no reason why these transfers would present any real problem.

New Survey on Pickering Market Place Plan (Press Release)

2007-03-12T21:59:00.000Z

Over the next few days, approximately ten per cent of Pickering households will receive a survey form and a personal letter from County Councillor Greg White, asking them to give their opinion on a controversial traffic plan.

In 2005 a comprehensive survey of Pickering residents showed a large majority of respondents in support of a trial scheme, which would prevent all traffic using Pickering Market Place between 10am and 4pm on Mondays. More recently, just as the scheme was about to be implemented, a number of permanent business owners raised concerns that the proposals would have a detrimental effect on their trade.

Cllr. White has therefore agreed to carry out a supplementary random survey, in advance of the final decision to proceed with the trial, to check whether residents still favour the scheme.

Cllr. White said:
“It is vital that people return their survey forms. The scheme was proposed by the County Council as a possible way to improve life in Pickering, but it is not going to be imposed. The trial will only go ahead if it is supported by local residents”

ENDS

Disabling the English Language

2007-02-25T23:12:00.000Z

At the end of January the NYCC Safe and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, of which I am a member, had a training session on the "Social Model of Disability and Inclusion". I was not entirely convinced.

The basic thesis seemed to be that people are not disabled by their personal medical condition, but instead are disabled by Society's response to that impairment. So a wheelchair user is not disabled by having legs that don't work, but is disabled by not being able to get accessible hotel accommodation on the same terms as facilities for able bodied customers. Disability is not caused by fate or bad luck, but by the wilful discrimination of the service providers, employers and wider society who do not offer or insist upon equal access to services and jobs.

Personally I think this is changing the established meaning of the word disability, simply to serve a particular political view.

Don't get me wrong, I do have a lot of sympathy with the idea that business and public sector service providers should make reasonable adjustment for people with disabilities. It is the reasonable bit that I particularly like, as it seeks to balance a duty not to discriminate with the need not to load business or Society with disproportionate cost.

I am not however convinced by the Social Model, which takes things further and feels to me like political correctness gone mad. Surely, if you follow the model to its logical conclusion, anyone with any impairment, large or small, would be entitled to demand its effect is entirely neutralised by the State. Such equality of outcome as a right, where everyone gets roughly the same based on the lowest common denominator, sounds to me like socialism.

Each of us is born with a range of attributes and abilities, both physical and mental. Some will be able to exploit these to achieve much whilst others of us, perhaps dealt a poorer hand or having a poor run of luck or just not successfully deploying all our talents, will do less well. Society could and, to give us all our due, does try to ensure that none are left too far behind and that all have an opportunity to reach their potential. This is not the same as saying that everyone has a right to exactly the same outcome.

Podcasts and 0845 Numbers at NYCC

2007-02-21T22:47:00.000Z

Today I was at the quarterly meeting of full Council, at County Hall in Northallerton. It was a bit different to normal as the full proceedings were being recorded and later this week will be available as a download from the NYCC website. Quite why anyone would want to listen to a load of local politicians score points off each other escapes me.

Whilst colleagues of every colour criticised and taunted each other for blatant electioneering, I restricted myself to a technical question about the new NYCC Call Centre, which is due to be launched soon. NYCC would like people to phone in on a new 'non geographic' number which will cost 3p a minute to call. Whilst not exactly a premium rate, many people have packages with free calls which exclude 'non geographic' calls and I was keen to ensure that they would still be able to call the old number. I was able to get a commitment from the Executive that this alternative would be available for the foreseeable future.

Oh and we set this year's Council Tax precept, raising it by 4.9 per cent.

Have a Free Coffee With Local Heroes

2007-02-20T08:38:00.000Z

I was at Pickering Town Council last night, watching entirely voluntary local councillors, ably assisted by their part time but extremely professional clerk, debate, make comment on and decisions about, a huge range of local issues. The agenda covered planning, transport, environmental and cultural issues, including a debate over the protocol for deciding who might take up permanent residence in the town cemetry (not as permanent as one might think, it transpires).

I had gone along, because the issue of a unitary authorities was also on the agenda. The County Council has recommended, to the Government, that it and all the seven North Yorkshire district councils (like Ryedale) should be abolished and a single new council put in its place. One consequence of the change would be to save money, but another would be to enhance local democracy through allowing local town and parish councils to develop their role, if they want to, by taking on more devolved powers.

One discussion last night illustrates the point. Pickering residents and councillors are concerned about the proliferation of A Boards outside shops in the town. The town clerk explained that Ryedale Council was responsible for controlling the appearance of these signs, whilst the County Council was responsible for ensuring that the highway (and pavements) were safe and unobstructed. The Town Council could (and indeed did) refer the problem to these other agencies, but at that point councillors transfered control of the debate, about the number and type of these signs that is appropriate for their town, to other bodies in Malton and Northallerton. Under a new unitary authority the Town Council would be able to take a lead on this issue the strong presumption would be that, as an issue that specifically affected Pickering, it should be Pickering's view that prevails.

So what has all this to do with free coffee or local heros? The heros are, of course, the unpaid and hard working citizens of Pickering who volunteer to serve on the Town Council. The free coffee is what is on offer, if you too are interested in joining the council and would like to chat with some existing town councillors about the work that is involved. The session is being held on Saturday 10th March 2007, between 10am and 12 noon at Pickering Memorial Hall. Why not go along? You too could help make a difference in Pickering.

New role for old court?

2007-02-18T23:33:00.000Z

The court in Pickering has been living on borrowed time for over a year, since the Government (in the form of HM Court Services) decided that they could no longer be bothered to provide a local service to the people of Ryedale and that witnesses and criminals would just have to travel to the expensively refurbished Scarborough court instead. Unfortunately for them the Scarborough Court was taking a long time to fix, so they have had to keep Pickering open until it was finished.

Going through the 120 e-mail messages, that awaited me on my return from a few days at Centre Parcs, there were a number concerning the future of the Pickering Courthouse. One asked me if I wanted to object to a revised closure date, this would seem somewhat futile given that no cases are still heard there. Another told me that the building was redundant and asked if I had any alternative use in mind for it. A third told me that a planning application had been made for change of use from a court to a youth club. It certainly seems that a decision had already been made and all the rest was just officials going through procedural motions.

Still, I think the idea of a courthouse becoming a youth club has a certain positive irony to it. A significant proportion of the petty crime that blights Pickering is attributable to anti social behaviour from disaffected youth, disadvantaged or delinquent according to your point of view. There is a real chance that, as a youth club, the courthouse building will do more to reduce offending in Pickering than its courts ever did.

Congratulations to Pickering's Outstanding Infants

2007-02-09T12:43:00.000Z

Two words which seems to cause major angst and fear, for headteachers across this nation, are "Ofsted" and "Inspection". A couple of weeks ago it was the turn of Lynette Duggleby, the head at Pickering Community Infants School to have the (roughly three yearly) audit of how children are taught and how much they learn. The school had recently been through a period of leadership instability, with Mrs Duggleby only having been in post for a year and her Deputy being appointed just last Summer, so everyone at the school was understandably anxious about what the Ofsted people would think.

They need not have worried, the inspectors were clearly impressed with what they found. In their report, published this week, they gave Mrs Duggleby and her team a grading of "Good" for almost every part of their inspection. In their self assessment, the school had given themselves some lower scores, but the inspectors described these as too modest giving the school an overall rating of "Good".

As a school governor, one part of the inspector's report that I felt was particularly justified was their praise of the children's behaviour, which they considered to be "Outstanding". On my occasional visits to the school I have always been struck by the exemplary way the children conduct themselves. The inspectors wrote to the children after their visit, describing it as a pleasure and saying:
"Thank you very much for being so polite and helpful. We were impressed by how well you behaved..."

So congratulations to Peter Bowley (Chairman) and the other governors, Mrs Duggleby and all her staff, and particularly to the outstanding children of Pickering Infants School, for securing this well deserved result.

Police Authority member wants more policing for less council tax (Press Release)

2007-02-09T11:21:00.000Z

Pickering County Councillor,Greg White,today told a meeting of the North Yorkshire Police Authority that the main challenge for the new Chief and Deputy would be to build on the success of the investments made under Della Cannings, continuing to improve the performance of the force but with a reduced budget. In short they would need to deliver more for less.

Police spending plans for the next five years show expenditure outstripping income by around five million pounds, or seven per cent, in each year. Although the deficit could be funded by use of reserves for two or three years, Cllr White wants the Police to plan to spend less money in subsequent years.

Cllr White stressed that:
“This does not mean cutting front line staff, it means accepting that all investment on projects must produce a real financial return. It also means that the police should look afresh at each non-public facing position, assessing what contribution the roles make to their core objectives and whether they can really still be justified in a time of austerity.”

Cllr White continued:
“We do not have a financial crisis at the moment so gently reducing expenditure, over the next year or two, should be achievable. But, if we fail to manage the budget now, we will be in crisis in a few years time and would then be faced with unpalatable decisions on tax and service levels.

The alternative, which I could not support, would be to allow the police budget to remain above our current income, meeting the deficit by making residents pay increases in their council tax which are substantially greater that the level of inflation.”

After the debate the Police Authority overwhelmingly rejected a motion, proposed by Norton County Councillor, David Lloyd Williams, for an above inflation increase in the Council Tax Precept of four per cent. They instead agreed a rise of three per cent.

ENDS

5th February 2007

County Councillor gets the hump (Press Release)

2007-02-09T11:09:00.000Z

County Councillor for Pickering, Greg White, will call on North Yorkshire County Council to review its policy on traffic calming measures (road humps) at their meeting on Wednesday 17th May 2006.

The current policy requires that, whenever reduced speed limits are introduced, road humps or other physical measures designed to force speeds down must be installed.

Cllr. White will tell the meeting:
“Many people in Pickering are content to see reduced speed limits in appropriate areas, such as those around schools, but see no reason why they should be forced to accept humps and chicanes as part of the deal.

Apart from being unpopular, these measures do not seem to improve road safety and may actually cost lives.

Ambulance authorities have attributed unnecessary deaths to ambulances having to negotiate speed humps, whilst the London Borough of Barnet has apparently managed to reduce accident numbers by removing such physical measures.

Of course, lower speed limits do need to be flagged to approaching drivers but newer technology, such as speed activated signs, would be a better way of doing it. ”

ENDS

Act now on Market Place (Press Release)

2007-02-09T11:07:00.000Z

County Councillor for Pickering, Greg White, is calling for early introduction of the trial scheme to pedestranise Pickering Market Place on Mondays.

In their report to next week’s Ryedale Area Committee, County Council Officers have recommended delaying implementation until 2008, but Cllr. White believes that the scheme should go ahead this year.

Cllr. White will tell the Committee:
“Previous schemes tried for the market place have been, to say the least, controversial. Although not universally endorsed, the idea of trying partial pedestranisation on a Monday, when the market is in operation, received strong backing in last year’s survey of Pickering residents. It seems sensible to get on with it now, whilst we have a strong mandate, rather than just putting it on the back burner.”

Cllr. White will suggest that officers should ensure that, once made, the closure order does not allow the market place to become a car park for stall holders. He will also call on Ryedale Council to upgrade the appearance of the stalls.

ENDS

12 April 2006

Footpath should be a priority (Press Release)

2007-02-09T10:59:00.000Z

County Councillor for Pickering, Greg White, is urging highway officials to reinstate a footpath between Wrelton and Sinnington.

Cllr. White is concerned that a scheme to reinstate the path, which was lost several years ago following road improvements, has received a low score under the Highways Department’s prioritisation scheme. At next Wednesday’s meeting of the County Council Ryedale Area Committee, he will call for the route to be moved up the priority list.

The original path was alongside the busy A170, although any new route would probably be separated from motorised vehicles. Cllr. White believes that a safe route, for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders, would be a positive benefit to village residents.

Cllr. White will tell the Committee:
“These villages are less than two miles apart, many children from Wrelton attend the school and playschool at Sinnington, yet it is almost impossible to get between them safely without a car. The A170 is a very busy road with numerous serious road traffic accidents in recent years, including the tragic death of a schoolgirl just a few months ago. In the interests of both access and safety it is imperative that this scheme is moved up the list of priorities.”

13 April 2006