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All posts for the month June, 2010

CCTV and the costs

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 20:08 Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Posted in: CCTV, Cornwall Council, Cuts. 3 comments

The other day I attended an inquiry day set-up by Cornwall Council. This was on the cost and effectiveness of CCTV in Cornwall. To be honest, I have got accustomed to seeing these cameras in various locations around our towns. I thought overall they are a good thing if they reduce crime and make people feel more safe. I am not one of those who believes its a infringement on our civil liberties being watched by these cameras.

In Cornwall there are 4 CCTV systems covering 14 towns with 161 cameras in total. Two of the systems are operated in-house with the other two are outsourced. The four systems are run and controlled at Truro, Liskeard (in house) and Hayle and Newquay (outsourced).

Currently these systems cost £984,000 to run and operate. This is broken down by the following. Maintenance £147,000, Monitoring £600,000, Transmission £163,000, Other £74,000 .

This is funded via £833,000 by Cornwall Council, £151,000 by various Town Councils. The most surprising aspect of this is that the Police make no financial contribution to the running cost  except that they allow two of the systems to use the Police Stations rent free.

Now to the point of the Police funding, or lack of it. This raised everyone’s eyebrows to say the least. Surely the main beneficiaries to this system are the police. In fact, an independent report by Deloittee Consulting said that the use of CCTV equated to having another 29 Officers on the beat. The answer from the Police representative said we had no statutory duties to fund CCTV.  A question later to the consultant about do the Police fund CCTV schemes in other Authorities was answered yes, either fully, partly or as in Cornwall’s case, not at all.

As for why we are having the inquiry on CCTV is party due to the cost, including the value of money to Cornwall Council. There is also a claim from various investigations that there is limited, if any, evidence of public realm CCTV actually reducing crime based on national evidence. Now this is not to say it does not, or it can be used to prevent crime as in stopping incidents escalating because it’s been caught early and dealt with. Not to mention that it gives the public a peace of mind.

We are also at a point that capital investment is required to replace ageing equipment estimated at £500k plus £100k per annum. Could this and the running costs more effectively used funding other crime prevention and reduction schemes? What must also be looked at is if the Police and/or other parties will agree to fund revenue and capital costs. If not, one of the proposals on the table is to simply flick the switch to off.

What is going to happen now is various avenues and questions raised at this first day will be brought back to be thrashed out before the findings and recommendations are presented to the OSC, who will then report to Cabinet for a final decision.

I got the feeling from the Police that they were unhappy/unlikely to agree to fund CCTV fully or partly. The question is, can the Council afford to pay for this service?

The Mayor’s charities

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 9:36 Sunday, June 27, 2010
Posted in: Porthleven Town Council. Leave a Comment

The Mayor of Porthleven has picked his charities for this years term of office.  Whilst these groups are not strictly charities they are very important to Porthleven.  Last year Age Concern was the charity, and just over £1500 was raised.

This year its the turn of the youth to benefit.  Also, it wont be just one group that’s supported. in fact, four groups will benefit.  These groups are Portheven Guides and Brownies, Porthleven Youth Football team, Porthleven Youth Gig team, Porthleven Youth Cricket.

I think the Mayor has made some great choices again this year. Even better is that more than one group will benefit.

The Cuts at Cornwall Council

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 8:41 Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Posted in: Cornwall Council, Cuts. 3 comments

Yesterday we had our first Budget under the new Coalition Government. Depending on your political view point you agree, disagree, or you just want to know how much money you might lose once you made sense of all the figures.

Cornwall Council has already been informed by the Government of further cuts.  These amount to £13.668 million in Government grants, and include both capitol and revenue grants. That’s quite a chunk of money to lose in anyone’s books

It could get worse. We could expect a further 20%-25%  in grant cuts as announced yesterday in the Budget.  That’s not to mention the spending reviews taking place by the Government of  Isle of Scilly Link, Building Schools for Future and road improvements over at Camborne/Pool. It is worrying to say the least.

Tough times are indeed ahead.

What I cost you, the tax payer

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 10:55 Thursday, June 17, 2010
Posted in: Me. 9 comments

Much has been made (and rightly so) of MPs and Councillors expenses. No one was impressed with the excuses a lot of MPs came out with to defend their claims. I thought I would dispel a certain myth or misunderstanding that people think all Councillors are paid £30k plus.

The following figures I list are what I cost the Tax Payer in Allowances last financial year. This is recorded on my P60 if anyone doubts the figures. These figures are from 6th June 2009 (when I took up Office) and the 31st March 2010

Total Allowance  £11,834.19 (Gross).

I paid the following:
£1334.60 Income Tax
£811.95 Nat Insurance
£944.84 Nat Insurance Emergency Rate

Total £3,091.39

I received £8,742.80 (Net) of that. This includes all Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA)

On top of that Cornwall Council paid £811.95 in Employers Contributions

I also claimed 3916 miles. The cost of that is £1566.40 on the 40p per mile rate.

The total cost to the Tax Payer in my role as a Cornwall Councillor is £14,212.54

From 6th June 2009 till 31st March 2010 I attended  45 out of 46 meeting that I should attend due I am a member of that Committee. I also attended 33 other Committee meetings that I was not a member of, but attend to find information that could effect my area.

Here is the Link to my details.

This does not include all the Town and Parish meetings, meetings with the public or other meeting I attend in my role. I receive no mileage payments for these meetings and the costs are met by my Allowance.

I am not saying I am good value or anything like that, but I wanted to be honest in what I cost you, the tax payer.

The second webcast meeting

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 16:24 Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Posted in: Webcasting. Leave a Comment

On Tuesday Council Council full meeting was broadcast live on the web for the second time. The Councillors present seemed more relaxed about it after last month.

The live viewing figures were not as good as the previous meeting, but its the archived meeting views that really count due to people working might not be able to watch, and so will wait till they have the time. Another good point to the archived file is that you don’t have to watch all the meeting, but can click on the “Index Points” to go to an Agenda item, or click on “Speakers” to see what a Councillor had to say.

Anyway, here is the link to the Archived File for you to watch.

Here are the comments from the BBC reporter Graham Smith on how he sees the web-cast.

Re-Elected

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 16:08 Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Posted in: Elections, Parking. Leave a Comment

Today I was re-elected as the Chairman of the Parking Panel. Its a difficult job, but is made easier because of the commitment from the  Panel Members.

On the Agenda today was the groupings of certain car parks and the charging periods. A lot of work had gone into trying to place each car park in the correct grouping. That’s not an easy task. On the whole there was not too many changes to what was proposed.

As for the charging periods, this was deferred till the next meeting on the 8th July. The reason was because the Panel felt that the charging periods should be decided when we discuss the pricing structures and prices for these groups. They might all be different, or all the same. That is the discussion for the next meeting.

I have always promised that I would try and make parking charges as cheap and fair as possible. I still aim to do this, but this process cannot be done over night.

Waste Panel

Posted by Andrew Wallis on 15:11 Monday, June 14, 2010
Posted in: Waste/Rubbish. 4 comments

The more I attend these meetings the more I realise how complex the issue of waste is. Its truly mind boggling. It’s compounded that we are trying to make one clear workable and understood policy post the recent massive changes to local Government in Cornwall.

This is made more difficult with National and European targets. For example the Government Waste Strategy 2007 for recycling of Municipal, Commercial  and Industrial Waste requires that Cornwall Council to have a household recycling rate of 40% by 2010, 45% by 2015 and 50% by 2020. Currently Cornwall Council achieves a rate of 37% (rising to 38% this year).

Due to different contracts that Cornwall Council can’t get out of we wont be able to have a fully integrated kerbside waste collection until 2012.  The work for this has to start now and be ready for adoption then. The aim of any policy is to reduce the amount we stick in the ground as landfill. This is done by Recycling. At present we are not bad at it with a 37% rate, but there is still room for improvement.

In 2008/2009 725kg of waste (black bag) was produced per household. This has reduced for 2009/2010 down to 700kg per household. In anyone’s book this is still to much to simply stick in the ground.  Garden waste equates to 33,426 tonnes of waste produced (2009/2010).  Luckily, 27,306 tonnes of this has been diverted from landfill in the way of composting methods.  That still leaves 6,120 tonnes that end up in a hole.  Of course garden waste will degrade, but its costs £48 per tonnes to place it in the ground. Worse, is if you go over your allowed limits this figure raises to £150 per tonne. This money could and should be saved.

The Council in the past has sold at cost certain types of Composters. Between 1996-2010 some 54,000 of these have been sold. This has resulted in 71,000 tonnes being diverted for that period. Current estimates predict that 8,000 tonnes per year is being diverted using this method. When you start to add up these figures you take a large gulp of air and realise just how much money would have been wasted if this practice was not in operation. We can still improve on this by more people using composters.

Another way of reducing waste is to re-use the items. The old saying of ones mans junk is anothers treasure. It was a very handy practice of allowing people to take away items at the Recycling Centres. This stopped because of Heath and Safety rules. Cornwall Council is looking into ways of adopting a scheme that would not breach Health and Safety rules. That in its self is never an easy task, but that’s not to say it should not be attempted.  In 2009/2010 roughly 241 tonnes of material was re-used via the Council managed channels. Its estimated that another 2% - 5% of municipal waste could be re-used.

I think we all have a duty to recycle better. Not just because it will save help the planet, but to better use the public’s money better. Always willing to hear other peoples views.