15/04/2012 Sunday Politics South

In the south, critics claim that the new proposed when far more of

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1735 seconds

the Dorset coastline is a blot on Welcome to Sunday Politics. Until

they show, now that the public consultation is over on the

proposed wind farm of the Dorset coast, we are asking whether they

are a blot on the landscape or whether they could become a tourist

attraction. More on that shortly. First let's meet the two

politicians that will be with me. Keith House it is with Liberal

Democrat and John Denham is then Labour MP. Thank you for being with

us. During this Easter recess, three weeks the MPs got off, we

would like that, wouldn't we? luxury. John, you have been

campaigning hard? Not just working hard, but working on constituency

issues. There is a real problem here, actually. Although MPs have

not all been on holiday, when Parliament is not sitting, our job

as the opposition, asking questions, we can't do it. The whole function

of Parliament which is to hold ministers to account and asked why

things are going wrong, is impossible if Parliament is not

sitting. The way in which things are being handled with Parliament

being sent away and not able to do our job is not acceptable. You get

to hear what is going on in the constituency and Ed Miliband has

been on a visit here during holidays. How do you feel about the

Budget? Is it being lost after Easter or do you think Labour are

capitalising? The detail fades, but this Budget has changed the public

view of the government. It is a Budget that cuts taxes for

millionaires and increases taxes and cut benefits for ordinary

people. People no longer think it is a government doing its best for

the country, they see it as a group of people out of touch and to have

the wrong priorities. That impression, real impression of the

government, will last longer over the details of personal allowances.

Those details are fading now. We see David Cameron on the national

stage. What about Liberal Democrats? We are pleased that we

were able to have strong influence on some aspects of the Budget. 25

million people are paying less income tax and over a million

people have been taken out of income tax altogether. That was on

the front page of the Liberal Democrat manifesto. That was not a

Conservative priority, that as the Liberal Democrats. We can't get

everything we want, that is the way coalitions work. There are things

we are less than enthusiastic stick about including the 50 p tax.

People are saying Ed Miliband should have made more on this.

the polls we have opened up a 10 point lead over the Conservatives.

The problem for you, Keith, is you have raised personal answers but

the Institute of Fiscal Studies says the average family's �500

worse off this year when all of the tax changes come into place. Your

MPs will go through the lobbies in a few weeks' time and vote for that

tax cut for millionaires. They will vote for the cut in pensions and

income has because of the personal allowance is being frozen. The

truth is, you say you have made a difference, you have not. Your MPs

are going to go through the lobby and vote for those things. He will

be held to account. Not as simple as that. Let's be clear on pensions,

the changes are redistributed in that we have seen the biggest

change in pension this year. Because inflation was 5%. It is

giving people no extra money to spend. Prices went up so many --

pension went up. The Labour record on pensions was not very good. They

could have indexed pensions, but did not. The because of the tax

increase. Labour delivered the biggest-ever rise in pension, no

matter how much you try to wriggle out of it, everyone is paying the

price of the Labour government. We are still clearing up the mess so

everyone is worse off. You took a decision after the last election

when the economy was growing and people were getting back into work,

to back the Conservatives in cutting public spending. As a

result, the economy has not grown since your party decided to support

the Conservatives. Unemployment has rocketed, the Government is

borrowing �158 billion more than they said. It has not worked. Your

claims to influence this government do not stack up. You have signed up

with a series of disastrous decisions. Wind back to where we

were when that coalition inherited government. Everyone has gone

through a really tough time as a result of things that have had to

happen. We know the reality is that if the Labour Party had been in

power, most changes would have been made in the same way. If it is as

tough as all of that for everyone, why were joined MPs vote for a cut

in the taxation of millionaires. The top rate, which is only paid by

people who own more than �150 per year. The government used to say we

all in it together. Actually, if you are very rich you will get your

tax cut. Elsewhere in society, overall your tax and benefit

changes will make you worse off. What in fact -- impact will this

may come a local elections. That Budget has aspects talked-about,

but Labour have to do a lot better in May. Places like Southampton and

Crawley and Reading, in the south generally labour has faded away so

much. We have been here before and we will work hard to come back. We

were here in the early Nineties and Labour fought back to win key seats

in places you talked about. In north Kent, Brighton, places like

that. That is what we will do. We are working very hard. They are not

huge places of Labour target seats, but in Reading, Crawley,

Basingstoke and Southampton, these are places where we want to take

seats of the Tories and Liberal Democrats. Do you expect to take

control? We are working hard. I would not make predictions. We had

a good result last year and we are working hard to repeat that result.

That would be good for us. If you repeat that he will take control?

Yes, but I do not take a single vote for granted. We are working as

hard as we can to do as well as we can. What about the backlash

against Liberal Democrats? Labour are in a difficult place. In

Eastleigh, with the coalition, the Liberal Democrats won the last seat.

Labour have zero councillors, there is no realistic chance that they

will win any seats in Eastleah. That pattern is typical a lost --

across large parts of Southampton. Local elections are fascinating set

of situations. They play out in different ways in different places

based on experience. In Eastleah we are going to the electorate having

kept residents with no council tax. That has won the respect of the

electorate. We made gains last year that we expect to make this year.

People say in Eastleigh, it is a bit like the Boris and Ken

situation in London. It is all about Keith. Because there is no

Labour representative. Who are the full-time council up -- council

leaders? We have a very strong internal democracy in Eastleah. We

have robust roles with each other, with local councillors in different

ward setting up charities. It achieves results. What about the

decision to put so much money into the Rose Bowl project? That money

is risking an awful lot of taxpayers' money. That is an

example of the sort of project we have been able to run that is

protected. Good, strategic investments that generate income

for the council, protecting the public purse so we have not had to

make headline cuts that we have seen across the country. That is a

sort of record that gets us re- elected year after year.

reality is that across Hampshire, where you are part of the

opposition, services are being cut dramatically. Sure Start has been

stripped down to almost nothing. As a result to the cuts that your

party is supporting. I don't agree with that. The cuts are from

Hampshire Conservative are not ones that I would have put in place if I

were leader. The Conservatives cut to the bone and put money to save

up for elections. The it will take up their area the

size of Glasgow and according to opponents will ruin the view of the

coastline. According to his supporters, the proposed wind farm

will be able to supply electricity to more than 800,000 homes. There

are plenty of arguments going on about the pros and cons of wind

power, but is it possible that those turbine is, instead of being

a blot on the landscape, could This is what brings millions of

visitors to the south coast every year, mile upon mile of golden

sandy beaches. Iconic Pierres, Dorset's coastline with its World

Heritage Ket -- status, yet it is part to stage three for green

energy and could soon see the biggest development of its kind

anywhere in the world. Slap-bang in the middle of this picture-perfect

sea view. Opponents of the scheme fear it

will look like this, up to 300 turbine is dominating the horizon

and spoiling the region's greatest natural resource. We have to areas

of outstanding natural beauty, internationally important areas of

Heathland, there are sites of scientific interest. We have so

many environmental designations around here. This area is a

national asset as it stands and it would be a shame to see that

degraded. Some UK offshore wind farms are

fairly easy on the eye, this is Whitstable in Kent, a seaside town

world famous for its shellfish and oysters which have been collected

here since Roman times. These days, Whitstable is as famous for its

turbine is as oysters. This is the Kentish collapsed offshore wind

farms seven miles out from a north Kent coast. Up Close And Personal

like this, these structures are hugely impressive and graceful, but

the truth is, even on a clear day like today, the impact from the

shore is a minimum. I think people are mostly for them. It means

employment and I think they look quite nice. I think they are fine.

They could feel it all up as far as I am concerned. They don't

interfere with anybody, they are quite pleasing to look at. To be

quite honest, you don't notice them most of the time.

The local authority say that Whitstable turbine support both

interest and economic benefits to the area. It has not put people off

coming to Whitstable coastline, in fact, it has created another thing

for them to look at. Local businesses have started running

boat trips to the wind farm so people can have a look and it has

created new businesses and new jobs for us. They love it as a wind farm

propose for the self case could be 10 times larger than the ones here.

That has led to serious concerns from campaigners and tourism chiefs.

Tourism to Dorset is worth over 600 million per year and 20,000 jobs

rely upon that. If we lost 2-8% of the numbers as a result of having a

project like this, that would mean over 400 jobs and �12 million loss

to the local economy. The company behind the scheme say visitors

won't be put off coming to the area. The West Coast of England and East

Coast have had at wind farms built over the last five years and I

think, pretty much, the reaction has been that they are not as bad

as we thought they were going to be. Opponents say not enough has been

made known about the wind farm. Will still in design phase so, I

think, anything new is obviously something that people will look at

and say, we did not have it before so what will it look like? That is

the piece of information we need to get across. There has also been

criticism of the plans for many of their regions Conservative MPs.

have a lot of coastline, we have places that have spectacular

coastline where a lot of jobs depend on tourism so it is not

nimbly to say that we want to protect the coastline and the jobs

that go with it. That is the duty of a Member of Parliament

representing a place like Bournemouth.

From the Isle of Wight to Swanage, people say they want more

information about the proposal. Bournemouth Tourism say they won't

rule out a possible legal challenge to halt the scheme.

You heard, Burns comments and 100 Conservatives have signed a posing

onshore wind farms particularly because of the inefficient and

intermittent energy they say that can come from them. It is not

proven technology, is it? If you look at the climate change

Commission those dismiss -- those objections have been dismissed.

They were sufficient the efficiently and often to be a

necessary part of our energy strategy for the future. Partly

because we need energy supply from different sources and secondly, if

we want to have to deal with the climate change issue, we have to

move toward renewables. Frankly we need to do it now or if we want

this to be an industry where we need the world instead of so often

developing technologies and other people making money. But public

opinion is against it. Conservatives are picking up on the

plot and the landscape in particular. Also, the government is

changing the rules because they are going to have to be 13 kilometres

off and now they are seven miles off the Bournemouth coast. There is

a problem with the visual appearance, isn't there? There is

also an opportunity with the appearance. I took the point in the

film that these can be a tourist attraction. I have sinned turbine

is offshore where they are very attractive and they draw people to

visit. John's point is right and we have to it diversify our renewables.

The me to get our fixation of oil. We don't know, 20 years down the

line, how much it will cost to maintain these things. Surely they

cost a lot to produce? A lot of this technology is not that new any

more. They have been wind turbine as for many years. We have seen

them in other parts of the world for some time. This is not new or

radical, but it is an important way to make sure we get a good mix of

energy into the country and improve our energy security.

Our regular round-up in 60 seconds. Wokingham council are now offering

points for rubbish. The recycle bank's scheme extended to reward

more people in Berkshire with money off in local stores. Meanwhile,

Reading Borough Council is planning a crackdown on trolley dumping by

fining supermarket �15 for every one of the Weald menaces they find

abandoned. In Oxford, big supermarkets face

competition from a people supermarket. The ideal came from

Chris Wright's mobile grocery. Great value food cheaper than

supermarkets but all locally sourced.

250 people have volunteered to man the checkout to return for a

discount. The people were in charge at a

local elections debating events in Southampton. They had five minutes

to make their case. Three weeks to will the going --

vote, will free tickets to the Titanic museum make a difference or

will Labour sink Conservative hopes. It is a titanic struggle, just a

reminder that we have a special programme this afternoon. Titanic -

Southampton Remembers he on BBC One at 4:50pm.

Interesting in the local elections, but one thing that will make a

difference of the smaller parties. We have to think about the George

Galloway effect. Trade union Socialists in Southampton. And also

UKIP. We are happy to see anyone contest elections. UKIP have been

contesting in Eastleah for a number of years and in some places they

have a number of votes. They took a lot of Conservative seats. D things

more parties will make a difference, John? They can do. If you want to

change of council and you want to get rid of the Conservatives or

Liberal Democrats, vote Labour. Voting for the minor parties is not

going to help you get rid of the people you really want to get rebel.

A lot more greens in Southampton this time. The Green Party is doing

well on the national stage. simple stages that after of May,

Southampton will either have a Labour council or Conservative

council. That is the big choice and Southampton and I hope people will

vote for change. The trade union councillors, people are looking for

changes to cuts. They may take that view, but most wards and councils

ultimately come down to a struggle between two political parties. In

Eastleigh that struggle has been traditionally between Liberal

Democrat and Conservative. As is the case across most parts of

Hampshire, Portsmouth for example. If people want to vote for small

parties, they can. That is their choice and a welcome competition.

Both of you, thank you very much for being here. That is Sunday

Politics in the south. Thank you to both of our guests. Don't forget,