Browse content similar to 28/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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using the localism thanks to decide where development is going. They | :01:26. | :01:36. | |
:01:36. | :01:36. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2288 seconds | :01:36. | :39:44. | |
have got the plan but will they get my name is Peter Henley. Coming up - | :39:44. | :39:50. | |
The town that is hoping to take planning into its own hands. Thame | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
in Oxfordshire is holding a referendum on its neighbourhood plan | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
that will set the framework for planning in the community - and it | :39:56. | :40:05. | |
is all their own work. More on that shortly. First, we will meet the | :40:05. | :40:11. | |
politicians joining me for the next 20 minutes. The Conservative leader | :40:11. | :40:18. | |
of the... We have got a local authority hats on. Southampton | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
Council, the Labour leader Richard Williams resigned suddenly at the | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
end of the week. It is tough being a councillor and some of it is to do | :40:27. | :40:31. | |
with the report and differences within his party. It is difficult | :40:31. | :40:38. | |
work, is it not? It is not recognised by the public. For | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
somebody that wants to become a counsellor they have got to the | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
intelligent and articulate and wants to do that. That can be quite | :40:44. | :40:48. | |
difficult, especially if you are used to being heard and councillors | :40:49. | :40:56. | |
are not used to that. And running a large organisation with the counties | :40:56. | :41:04. | |
that we will be voting on next week. They are employed to do a lot of the | :41:04. | :41:07. | |
work but large authorities like ourselves require a lot of clinical | :41:07. | :41:12. | |
direction and that is what local democracy is all about. I know | :41:12. | :41:17. | |
Richard very well. It is sad that he has stood down. As a counsellor as | :41:17. | :41:25. | |
well as everything else. It is a sad loss to local government, regardless | :41:25. | :41:31. | |
of the circumstances surrounding the immediate resignation. | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
Bournemouth and Poole, with this campaign, they have targeted | :41:35. | :41:38. | |
individual houses and millionaires, as they have said, describing them | :41:38. | :41:45. | |
as a crime scene with things posted through the letterbox. It is an | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
awful attack on local democracy. Councillors are ordinary people | :41:48. | :41:53. | |
giving up their time to do their job to help local communities. And | :41:53. | :41:57. | |
frankly Bournemouth uncut, they are intelligent and articulate and | :41:57. | :42:07. | |
:42:07. | :42:09. | ||
Minister was giving his almost weekly round of praise to the work | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
done by food banks. It came on the same day as the Salisbury-based | :42:12. | :42:15. | |
Trussell Trust revealed that the number of people using its food | :42:15. | :42:25. | |
banks over the last year had tripled banks are increasingly being used by | :42:25. | :42:27. | |
councils rather than handing out emergency cash loans when benefits | :42:27. | :42:34. | |
payments are delayed. I am joined by Mark Ward from company-macro. The | :42:34. | :42:41. | |
end of crisis loans and community care grants. -- the trust will | :42:41. | :42:51. | |
:42:51. | :42:52. | ||
trust. Is this going to work? Is it something you approve of? This is a | :42:52. | :42:58. | |
problem and it is going to vary. Food banks are going to have two | :42:58. | :43:04. | |
work with different authorities and work out what to do. It is a variety | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
of different approaches, is it? not think we have got a complete set | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
of approaches yet which is probably more worrying, that every councillor | :43:13. | :43:15. | |
has got themselves into a position where they know where they are going | :43:15. | :43:22. | |
to the. We are already getting calls from people that expect us to the | :43:22. | :43:27. | |
dealing with their crisis loan payments. And that is an issue that | :43:27. | :43:31. | |
we are having to deal with and say to people that is not what we do. We | :43:31. | :43:36. | |
deal with food. We can possibly help stop but we are not here to resolve | :43:36. | :43:40. | |
that problem. With all of these things we are going to have a | :43:40. | :43:47. | |
transition period. But within that, we are going to have more people | :43:47. | :43:52. | |
that are falling foul of regulations. You are expanding | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
because demand is growing and it has in fact outstripped supply in some | :43:55. | :44:01. | |
places. This week we have learned Stoke on Trent are having to | :44:01. | :44:05. | |
restrict the people that they are helping to families with children | :44:05. | :44:10. | |
because they do not have sufficient supplies. Can they not get it from | :44:10. | :44:16. | |
other places? I am sure we can deal with that but it is the first time | :44:16. | :44:23. | |
we have had a crisis like that. general public are immensely helpful | :44:23. | :44:30. | |
and generous to local communities. But there comes a point with | :44:30. | :44:35. | |
everything that is happening in terms of their own incomes, that | :44:35. | :44:41. | |
maybe we have got a point where people say that it is not going to | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
sort out the deficit. That is an interesting situation we will try to | :44:45. | :44:51. | |
resolve but I hope it does not happen in too many places. Is it | :44:51. | :44:54. | |
partly that you are creating some of this demand because people are | :44:54. | :44:57. | |
knowing about food banks? Or are people needing it more than they | :44:57. | :45:07. | |
:45:07. | :45:10. | ||
used to Western Mark I do not believe we have --? I do not believe | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
that is the case. We have got to have the right professional people | :45:14. | :45:20. | |
in the loop to make that referral. You cannot turn up and say, " I need | :45:20. | :45:26. | |
some food and I have not got any money. " the numbers are bound to | :45:26. | :45:33. | |
rise up to a point because they are opening in more places. But the | :45:33. | :45:37. | |
members in places where we have been for a number of years continued to | :45:37. | :45:43. | |
rise year upon year. We will turn to our politicians. GDP figures suggest | :45:43. | :45:50. | |
things are getting better. Somewhere like pool and Redding is pretty | :45:50. | :45:57. | |
prosperous but yet we have got these problems. -- Poole in Dorset and | :45:57. | :46:07. | |
:46:07. | :46:08. | ||
reading macro. The people that turn up by and in employment. We would | :46:08. | :46:14. | |
like to try and get people to think about this. Many people are in | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
full-time and many in part-time employment. Wages have been held | :46:18. | :46:22. | |
down and cost of living has increased and real pressure. We are | :46:22. | :46:28. | |
working closely with agencies like this trust and the voluntary sector | :46:28. | :46:31. | |
and faith organisations to make the most out of the money that we have | :46:31. | :46:37. | |
been given. But it is not ring fenced all stop the way we played | :46:37. | :46:47. | |
:46:47. | :46:47. | ||
locally is how we will have two look at in the next few months. | :46:47. | :46:54. | |
demand is growing. And everything connected with welfare is being | :46:54. | :47:01. | |
refined and cut down. We have actually meant taint social funding. | :47:01. | :47:10. | |
Despite the cut in social funding. -- retained social funding. We tend | :47:10. | :47:16. | |
to know local situations. If somebody has got a house that has | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
flooded we are likely to know about that well and we can respond | :47:19. | :47:28. | |
quickly. As a Conservative, how do you defend that reduction? Because | :47:28. | :47:34. | |
it has gone up and up. The social funding is a crisis fund for | :47:34. | :47:41. | |
somebody actually in a crisis. It is not all about food banks and | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
furniture reclamation. It is about helping people through the crisis. | :47:46. | :47:53. | |
It does not help people on welfare. Change it so that you have got less | :47:53. | :47:58. | |
of a dependency but surely do not cut money at the same time. | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
Everybody has got to face up to austerity and where we need to the | :48:01. | :48:09. | |
going. The millionaires are getting a big handout. That is a choice the | :48:09. | :48:15. | |
governance need not have taken. That could have maintained funding. | :48:15. | :48:25. | |
not agree. We will come back to that, I am sure. Polling day on | :48:25. | :48:28. | |
Thursday of course and many of us will be choosing our county | :48:28. | :48:31. | |
councillors. But one Oxfordshire town has another item on the ballot | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
paper - a referendum on its neighbourhood plan. It is only the | :48:34. | :48:37. | |
second time one of these has been held - and as Tristan Pascoe | :48:37. | :48:43. | |
reports, it is all about local planning for local folk. This is an | :48:43. | :48:48. | |
ancient and historic market town. Notable residents include the Irish | :48:48. | :48:57. | |
poet WB Yeats and the late Robin Gibb from the Bee Gees. For many | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
years, planning in village-macro has been the responsibility of the South | :49:01. | :49:11. | |
:49:11. | :49:15. | ||
Oxfordshire district Council. -- Mac came in Oxford. -- tame in Oxford. | :49:15. | :49:19. | |
Under the district council core strategy, the bulk of 775 homes | :49:19. | :49:24. | |
required would go here, the Greenfield on the edge of town. But | :49:24. | :49:29. | |
the council have said that is too many new homes concentrated on one | :49:29. | :49:33. | |
greenfield site. They are using localism powers to trigger a | :49:33. | :49:39. | |
referendum to have a greater say on where the homes will be cited. The | :49:39. | :49:46. | |
campaign said it is what localism is all about. It is an opportunity for | :49:46. | :49:50. | |
asked to determine our future. We get the opportunity to look at sites | :49:50. | :49:52. | |
in the community. The whole community will be involved in | :49:52. | :50:00. | |
consultation. Self-determination? Absolutely. It should be taken as | :50:00. | :50:06. | |
closely as possible to the people affected. The number of houses | :50:06. | :50:11. | |
needed was dictated by the South East of England development agency, | :50:11. | :50:17. | |
now-defunct. Opponents say the strategy should be examined again. | :50:17. | :50:22. | |
The figures that came out of the organisation were predicated on the | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
assumption of things which are against government policy. They said | :50:26. | :50:31. | |
that they are going to reduce immigration. Why have the figures | :50:31. | :50:36. | |
which have been put in train by this organisation still been used? | :50:36. | :50:41. | |
might say forcing a referendum is just legitimised not in my backyard | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
approaches. By engaging in the process we can say no to | :50:46. | :50:52. | |
development. But we did not want houses in our backyard. The whole | :50:52. | :50:57. | |
community is sharing the load and taking it on board. They have got | :50:57. | :51:00. | |
together and looked at the good of the town has a whole and we think it | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
is easier to integrate newcomers if they are in the smaller pockets of | :51:04. | :51:10. | |
new developments instead of one big estate. At a similar referendum in | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
Cumbria last month, 90% were in favour of a plan drawn up by parish | :51:14. | :51:21. | |
council. Will people go with the South Oxfordshire district Council | :51:21. | :51:26. | |
strategy, or should local people have the final say? People in the | :51:26. | :51:32. | |
local area must have a say. They are not going to the living here forever | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
perhaps but of course they should have a say. I think they should in | :51:36. | :51:41. | |
time. Will you support the referendum? Yes, I think so, in | :51:41. | :51:48. | |
time. I think they take more notice of what people say in the town but | :51:48. | :51:55. | |
what people have two say is not always sensible. I would rather that | :51:55. | :52:05. | |
:52:05. | :52:06. | ||
the council decided. You would be voting no? Yes.If approved in the | :52:06. | :52:08. | |
referendum, the district council will be legally obliged to accept | :52:08. | :52:14. | |
the town 's neighbourhood plan has policy. Remember that although it | :52:14. | :52:20. | |
has been called a plan it is not a plan but a series of objectives. | :52:20. | :52:25. | |
They are often very vague. We have said it is punching above its | :52:25. | :52:31. | |
weight. Community groups up and down the country will be watching this | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
vote very closely indeed. One Dorset Parish confirms it is considering a | :52:36. | :52:41. | |
referendum and the battle against new housing on greenbelt land will | :52:41. | :52:51. | |
:52:51. | :52:54. | ||
the blue skies. We will talk about the Oxfordshire town punching its | :52:54. | :53:02. | |
weight. It is a charter of not in my backyard in its way. What are you | :53:02. | :53:09. | |
doing here and what are you doing next door? Have we started? !Are | :53:09. | :53:15. | |
they punching above their weight? What they are doing is using The | :53:15. | :53:20. | |
Localism Act and they are changing the details of where development | :53:20. | :53:25. | |
should be in the borough. But what they cannot do is actually address | :53:25. | :53:31. | |
the strategic issues about what is happening in that borough. But I | :53:31. | :53:35. | |
think the Green party has always favoured giving people a greater | :53:35. | :53:45. | |
:53:45. | :53:45. | ||
local say. But if everybody has their say, does it not become | :53:45. | :53:55. | |
:53:55. | :54:01. | ||
panicky? Well, heaven forbid. -- an archaic. -- anarchy. It is looking | :54:01. | :54:07. | |
at economic growth as the holy Grail. And if you have got a | :54:07. | :54:10. | |
planning application, that is growth and that is good and you must give | :54:10. | :54:14. | |
it permission. That is the reality of the planning system the | :54:14. | :54:20. | |
Government wants. If we have got a chance to give the communities some | :54:20. | :54:28. | |
voice back, I think we should take it. But please, do not let the | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
thought go that it is going to the everything that the community once. | :54:31. | :54:36. | |
Because the Government and the developers will actually be calling | :54:36. | :54:43. | |
the shots. That is the issue, isn't it? We are going to get a lot of | :54:43. | :54:47. | |
development and we are likely to get a knot of house-building. We have | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
got to see Morehouse holding and it has got to the affordable housing. | :54:52. | :55:02. | |
:55:02. | :55:03. | ||
Not the latest gimmick. -- more house building. There will always be | :55:03. | :55:06. | |
a need for central government to have a role in planning the | :55:06. | :55:11. | |
development of a very compacted and densely populated area. This is what | :55:11. | :55:19. | |
you call a gimmick... The important thing is transparency. The final -- | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
the final point that he did not make is for the Secretary of State to | :55:24. | :55:27. | |
impose his or her wheel is down to the planning Inspectorate. That is | :55:27. | :55:34. | |
behind all of this. At the end of the day it does not matter what | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
South oxygen district Council one. The will of national government will | :55:38. | :55:47. | |
be enforced. -- South Oxfordshire Council want. That has not been made | :55:47. | :55:54. | |
clear to local communities. I think it is important that people have a | :55:54. | :56:00. | |
local voice and that they can say what they want. If we are ever to | :56:00. | :56:09. | |
get out of this recession, we need growth. We have got local | :56:09. | :56:15. | |
Conservatives saying, yes, but not here. I am not saying that. I am | :56:15. | :56:19. | |
saying bring it on in Poole in Dorset. We have got a massive | :56:19. | :56:27. | |
regeneration site and we want better jobs and homes for our children. | :56:27. | :56:33. | |
am not sure about bring it on as a headline for the Green party! | :56:33. | :56:40. | |
is a loss. If we look at these housing figures which Eric pickles | :56:40. | :56:45. | |
has said do not exist, by the time it gets to the planning | :56:45. | :56:50. | |
Inspectorate, they will say that they are the last regional housing | :56:50. | :56:57. | |
statistics we have got. That is what they are going to work on. Really, | :56:57. | :57:05. | |
you can ask for... You can ask for more housing but you cannot ask for | :57:05. | :57:13. | |
less. You cannot, and why should you when we know what the figures are? I | :57:13. | :57:17. | |
have got a son and I want him to have somewhere to live and to have | :57:17. | :57:22. | |
an affordable home and I want him to stay living close to me and where he | :57:22. | :57:30. | |
can afford to do a job. We have talked about this idea of being a | :57:30. | :57:35. | |
figleaf. What they are actually doing is preventing house-building. | :57:35. | :57:42. | |
It is not the planning inspector. The community do not say that. They | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
have said that he will have a say and you can influence but they do | :57:46. | :57:54. | |
not say that you cannot have it. It is not a charter. It cannot be | :57:54. | :57:58. | |
dismissed. It is a well researched and well constructive document and I | :57:58. | :58:04. | |
congratulate them on their work. But the important thing will be, will | :58:04. | :58:08. | |
developers take it seriously and work with their community? Is the | :58:08. | :58:18. | |
:58:18. | :58:20. | ||
plan commends it? Not mean every detail... They will go straight to | :58:20. | :58:28. | |
the inspector... What about the Green party buying houses for Elaine | :58:28. | :58:37. | |
's macro children? We want more money allocated to affordable | :58:37. | :58:43. | |
housing but on a slightly different point, the Green party are looking | :58:43. | :58:51. | |
to see how this message of supermarkets in village centres, how | :58:51. | :58:55. | |
that is actually received. Will we get Sainsbury's and Tesco is | :58:55. | :59:05. | |
:59:05. | :59:07. | ||
contesting it? Thank you very much. Now, the regular round-up of the | :59:07. | :59:17. | |
:59:17. | :59:21. | ||
political week in the South in 60 all of the newspapers at the start | :59:21. | :59:24. | |
of the week apologising for racist comments about inner-city pupils | :59:24. | :59:28. | |
coming to a controversial boarding school in the South Downs. He | :59:28. | :59:32. | |
resigned from the Conservative party but is still on the ballot paper. A | :59:32. | :59:39. | |
second row with David laws, accusing councils in affluent parts of the | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
South for wasting the pupil premium. Wokingham say they are trying to | :59:43. | :59:48. | |
reduce the attainment gap. We are talking about housing and what the | :59:48. | :59:53. | |
children are accessing. Wednesday, veterans from Redding | :59:53. | :59:57. | |
protesting at Westminster and hunger strikes in a fight for better | :59:57. | :00:07. | |
:00:07. | :00:07. | ||
pensions. Why can we not provide for ourselves? And Ed Miliband made what | :00:07. | :00:14. | |
some people called a daring raid to the Prime Minister's constituency. | :00:14. | :00:20. | |
Rising living costs, even in wealthier parts of the country. They | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
will come a stage where a lot of these things, we are talking about | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
hidden poverty and we have talked about the trust, that even in the | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
Prime Minister's constituency, we have got a Labour district | :00:33. | :00:40. | |
councillor. And while the Gurkhas are wealthy in their own country, in | :00:40. | :00:46. | |
this country, they are poor. Is it about the gap between rich and poor? | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
I tend not to look at gaps. We have two make sure that everybody can men | :00:51. | :00:58. | |
train a lifestyle. If you are affluent, you are talking about a | :00:58. | :01:02. | |
wealthy councillor that has said that all housing is affordable and I | :01:02. | :01:06. | |
can afford mind that actually know that the else could. We have got to | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
make sure we have got a safety net. Whether that is the Gurkhas, or | :01:11. | :01:16. | |
somebody that is sleeping rough. We have got to have something in | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
society to help and support them. But I cannot differentiate between | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
affluent and not. But that is not to say we have not got deprivation in | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
affluent areas. I am trying to get that message to the Minister. | :01:31. | :01:39. | |
have you failed? I think I got a good hearing. You are still trying. | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
I support the message of the Gurkhas. They have been organised | :01:42. | :01:47. | |
and they have got a case. But they are better off than many people in | :01:47. | :01:53. | |
Nepal and they knew that when they joined out. They have been given | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
rights in Britain and they think that they are entitled to parity. | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
And I think the majority of people support that as well. The judgement | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
about poverty and affluence, that is much more subjective and we have got | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
a lot of stereotyping happening. But living costs in any area must be | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
assessed. It is not just a case of how much you earn but what you have | :02:17. | :02:22. | |
got to support. Housing costs in the South are much higher. Both of you, | :02:22. | :02:28. | |
thank you for coming in and being my guests today. We will see you after | :02:28. | :02:32. |