18/03/2012 Sunday Politics South West

In the south-west, Cornwall is on course to get another seven years

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1714 seconds

of European funding, but is that Hello, I'm Lucie Fisher - coming up

on the Sunday Politics in the South West. The warning that a pothole

pandemic will mean 20 percent of our roads are unusable within five

years. And for the next 20 minutes, I'm

joined by the Labour peer Tony Berkeley, who's also Harbour

Commissioner for the Port of Fowey, and Conservative MEP for the South

West, Julie Girling. Welcome both of you to the programme. This week,

we've heard Cornwall is likely to get another seven years of the

highest level of European grant funding worth hundreds of millions

of pounds. Is this good news or bad news in the sense that it is

hundreds of millions of pounds, but it means that Cornwall is still a

failing economy? It is a curate's egg issue, it is based

disappointing that Cornwall hasn't reached the level to reach

transitional funding, which would have been a success, however, we

don't want to get too depressed, because we all know that the last

few years have been extremely difficult across the country, so it

is no surprise that Cornwall spite the moved off the trajectory and

didn't quite make it -- slightly moved off. I don't think it is a

sign of favour -- failure, I think it is an opportunity to see how we

deliver that assistants, and another note local economic

partnerships are looking at that close to, but we need to move

forward to the next stage. You live in Cornwall, has this come as a

surprise to you, as somebody who lives and works around the region?

Some people would be surprised that this level of funding, when you see

across the news that places like Portugal and Greece are in dire

trouble, to be put alongside the poorest parts, Bulgaria, Romania,

might be a surprise? In some ways it is surprising, but you're

looking at the figures, and the Commission take these figures very

seriously, we haven't quite reached the 75% of the bridge, which is the

criterion in Cornwall. -- 75% of the average. I go to Romania quite

often, actually come on business, and yes, there is a lot of poverty

there, but you can't balance them all, and in the same way. Even

though we have grown, we do need this money in Cornwall. Stay with

us for the rest of the programme, we will come back to you.

The legislation which will bring about a national benefits cap was

passed last week. Labour says if the government was serious about

making people better off in work than on welfare, it would have

introduced a local benefits cap. Ministers aren't ruling out some

form of localised welfare system in the future, but this week one of

the South West's Liberal Democrat MPs said the idea was "absolute

nonsense". Tamsin Melville reports. Volunteering for 16 hours a week at

a Camborne church dropping is a lifeline at a four rows. At 60

years old, she is a single mother and is struggling to find any paid

work that will make it worth her while to come off benefits. I have

been to the Jobcentres, and work is very hard to get. I have got an 18-

year-old son, he can't find a job. So woodworking not make financial

sense for you? No. Ministers are hoping their welfare shake-up will

help make work pay for people like crows in places like Camborne. But

there is an ongoing debate about how they should be achieved. As

part of the government's welfare reforms, there is now our national

benefit cap of a �26,000 a year. But it is the possibility of a

localised rate could still be on the agenda. Here is what the man at

the top had to say last week. don't regionalised benefits, that

is a debate to be had, and it may be something we need to look at.

The national cap will be felt most in London and the south-east, where

housing benefit levels are highest. In somewhere like Camborne, it is

unlikely to make much difference. Labour have been proposing local

benefits caps. The issue is that working should pay more than been

on benefits overrule. Within that, you have got to have some sort of

benefit cap also what we are saying is that cap should take account of

local circumstances and specifically local housing costs,

because they are the big variables across the country. But critics say

Labour's idea would have to mean regionalised in all of the benefits.

This could lead to people in welfare dependent part of the

south-west were like Torbay, getting less. There are big

differences between the economy in Bristol and the economy in South

Devon. Is this going to be linked to wages? Maybe that is a good

thing. Maybe that would put benefits up in South Devon. But the

government is not going to be putting up benefits, it is only

going to be looking at areas where they can cut benefits. Whether in

Torbay or Bristol, it is a no-no. Those in favour of ritualised and

welfare state it could shake up the system, where there is currently a

less incentive to get jobs in areas like Camborne. At the church, this

gets short shrift. It is a lovely idea in principle, and all these

ideas and grit in London to stop and then you going to the counties

and see the reality, where are the jobs we are going to put these

people into? There are no jobs out there. With the welfare reform but

only just passed into law, any further changes are unlikely to

happen in the near future, but with an announcement expected soon on

whether public sector workers will be paid different amounts depending

on where they live, some are worried about the direction of

government thinking. You are supporting this as a

proposition. Can you tell us why it? And supporting the concept of

regional differences. -- I am supporting. At the south-west is an

enormous region, and what is good in Gloucestershire it is

inappropriate for Cornwall. I think the better way to do it would be to

do it on the basis of a travel-to- work area. That is where people

live there can get work and at what rate call or cannot, rather than

having a great big area of the south-west, which is much too big

to even think of as one rate, for example. But you do think there

should be original cap, and make it clear there is a difference outside

London? Would you make of this idea? I understand the attraction,

but I think in practice, it would be very complicated. I think an

overall regional issue is crazy. The south-west is just a political

construct, not a place. If you were to look at it committee would have

to look at it by GDP, individual councillors, Torbay, parts of

Bristol, and Iraq even parts of the Cotswolds which got on extremely

low income levels -- there are even part of the Cotswolds. A if housing

is cheaper in the South West than in central London, you should make

sure the benefits reflect that? There is totally a huge difference

between central London and parts of the south-west, but not all a bit,

by any means. So you would have to be a very targeted. You would have

to make work pay, that is the issue? Are that is the popular idea

across the board, that people are better off working than on benefit.

Of course. The National Cup is the start of that. As Iain Duncan Smith

says that a maybe there is a debate to be had, but it will be something

to jump into straight away, may be a refinement of the system at a

later point, but at the moment, think we should stick with the

26,000 National. Liam Byrne said he couldn't run out the possibility

that a regional cabin tested and may end up meaning that in London,

when you look at the cap in place on benefits could go up, at the

cost of the regions. What would you make of that, would you still

support that? I would, because if London needs people on low paid

jobs to keep it going... �26,000 is a lot of benefit, which

is why there has been at Cap. at national cap, K collided at that

level, and the cost of housing and transport in London is so much

higher, there is a logic to saying it should go up in London to

reflect that, otherwise there is not much point in having a

variation. You mention that Iain Duncan Smith has been talking about

the fact that this could happen. Do you think it is likely that the

Conservatives, the coalition government, it would introduce

this? As I understand it it is not an idea that is anything more than

an idea at the moment. Of course, it is a possibility that can be

explored, because this is not an ill-thought through policy, it has

been on the table for a long time. But I don't think it is there in

the front row, waiting to be... have to stop you there.

There's a warning that one in five of the region's roads could be

unusable within five years, unless councils spend millions more on

pothole repair. The alarm's been raised by the industry that helps

resurface roads, but it is based on a survey of more than one hundred

highway engineers. We told John Henderson to hit the road.

Holes in the road, no laughing matter. They infuriate drivers and

residents. Two years ago, fed up people blocked a road in Tibberton

to get something done. What is it going to do to a child? In the last

few years, but Hulse had reached epidemic levels. Three bad winters

haven't helped. Snow, ice and rain have all done the roads in. What we

are battling in is an ageing network which is being starved of

funding, and it means that we have got bits of the highway that will,

from time to time, start to break up. Local authorities in the region

have been forced to respond, many have done so in the tried and

tested way. Just before we put the tarmac in, and that will give it a

longer life, hopefully, stops the water getting underneath. Last year,

1.7 million potholes were filled across England and Wales. In Devon,

it was 120,000 being repaired, the year before, it was 180,000.

Cornwall has plucked far fewer, but its budget last year was still

�600,000. Despite all the work, it seems there is still much to do. A

new report claims it will take English councils 11 years to clear

the maintenance backlog. We have reached the stage where the

highways engineers are telling us that one of five Ridge will fail

completely in the next few years. - - one in five roads. Filling

potholes is an expensive sticking- plaster. 20 times more costly than

long-term measures like preventive resurfacing -- resurfacing.

Operation upgrade its April �0.1 billion programme in a while,

halfway through its two-year cycle. Similar numbers have been going on

in Torbay and Exeter. Few would dispute a long-term fix is the best

solution, but it all comes down to one thing - money. It is all down

to investment or lack of it, over 15 to 20 years. We just simply

haven't been investing enough money in the road to keep pace and make

sure they are maintained properly to stop it needs long-term, planned,

preventative maintenance programmes. Labour says it savage cuts to road

budgets need to be reversed. The government argues it the last two

years it has given �300 million. Emergency funding for road repairs

across England and Wales. The pressures are still there. Only

this week, Devon's cabinet approved a �3 million cut to its highways

budget, with the warning that this and any further reductions will

severely affect the condition of the county's road network.

Potholes, the bane of some people's lives in the south-west. Car repair

bills going up. On your side, you say that one of the few things that

would improve the area you live in is pure pot holes. Would you stand

by that? Of course. Pot holes are a sign of failure. If roads are

properly maintained, enough money is spent, you don't get them. We

are talking about the county are was a cad a councillor for 10 years,

the backlog was millions. This issue has been with us for decades,

we never address it. We never have enough money to address it can we

are always ticking a Band Aid on. So does the government need to

address this's it does, it does mean more money. But we have to

make decisions. It is a great pace of localism. When councils do their

consultations on budgets, people want more money spent on roads, but

they want more spent on elderly care, we had an important report on

that. Sometimes if the infrastructure is there, a good

economy can be built on it. Absolutely, that is why the

Plymouth programme sounds great. Because they are concentrating on

the infrastructure. You are a cyclist, a keen cyclist, do you

come across but holds much, are they any issue? Coming up to hear

today, a lot of new servicing has gone on in Plymouth. -- surfacing.

Elsewhere, there are problems. Iraq, but the asphalt industry

would say this, wouldn't they? It is a question of localism what do

you spend the money on a. It is of be decided not to give more. One

answer is for people to drive a bit slow, then they wouldn't have the

car so much. Unless you are a cyclist. What about the tourists

coming to the region? Does it put tourists of? I am not sure any

region -- our region is any worse than anywhere else. If you go to

Brussels, where I live half the time, the holes in the road are

phenomenal. There is nothing like those. I am not saying that makes

ours good, but I don't think we want to be too self-critical about

it. We have to make those decisions locally. I am all for local

councils deciding... You have to make sure you have the money in the

first place. As you know, the government, in the very bad winter

the before last, �300 million extra was put into repairing the right.

It is not that they don't react. There is a massive not that need to

be put in. -- amount. Moving on to our regular round-up of the

A coroner criticised the South West Water Authority for gambling with

people's lives following the poisoning of 1988. The victims need

compensation. The government has a moral and political responsibility

to the people so badly affected. A Devon woman prepared to take her

fight to wear a cross to the European Court of Human Rights.

Former leader of Devon County Council has been fined for drink

driving. Chris Dean Tennant resigned her Cabinet role but will

carry -- stay on as counsellor. Community would be to carry on

helping them. The man in charge of parking in

Torbay was caught and a double yellow. He says he stuck to the

rules, which has made some people angry. For him to come along an

incident at -- Park insensitively is not playing the game. I will be

Let's look at this issue of Christians wanting to wear a cross

to work. A Devon woman taking her fight to wear a cross to the

European Court of Human Rights. What is your view on this? Should

people be allowed to wear across? think if they wanted, they should

be free to do that. But they also believe that when we get to

Parliament, the House of Lords and we shouldn't have bishops, we

should have separate religion, politics and government. A bit more

like they do in France, maybe. What is your view on this? In France,

they do have a secular state, but they also banned the wearing of

things, the hijab, in schools, which I don't agree with. I think

that within a region of discretion, you should be allowed to display

your religious beliefs in that way. You should be free to do so. Do you

think we need a Bill of Rights to clarify that? Attic eventually that

it what we are going to have. -- I think eventually. It needs to be

set out to people what their rights are, because everyone is currently

claiming human rights on everything. It has gone completely bonkers, we

need to get down to... All this week, there has been support for

her right to wear a cross, if they should lose the case in the

European Court, it could be a bit of a contentious one, because they

have said they might do something about it. It will be another layer

of doubt heaped on the right of the European Court to make these

judgments for us, and it will be more pressure on her pink a British