Browse content similar to 03/03/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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$:/STARTFEED. In the sweths will the decision to freeze Council Tax | :01:30. | :01:37. | |
affect public services 5 farmers urge ministers to ends their | :01:37. | :01:47. | |
:01:47. | :01:47. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2186 seconds | :01:47. | :38:14. | |
Hello, I'm Martyn Oates, coming up on the Sunday Politics in the South | :38:14. | :38:19. | |
West... Desperate farmers say the government must act now to stop | :38:19. | :38:25. | |
floods destroying their livelihoods. And for the next 20 minutes, I'm | :38:25. | :38:27. | |
joined by the UKIP MEP William Dartmouth and Oliver Colvile, | :38:27. | :38:37. | |
:38:37. | :38:39. | ||
Conservative MP for Plymouth and Sutton and Devonport. Now wam is | :38:39. | :38:44. | |
smiling more than usual, -- William is smiling more than usual, because | :38:44. | :38:49. | |
UKIP beat the Tories into second place in Eastleigh. The Tories had | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
hoped they would take the seat from the Liberal Democrats after the | :38:53. | :38:57. | |
resignation of Chris Huhne. You want to take this forwards. Have | :38:57. | :39:04. | |
you got the organisation to build on this? I don't think that is the | :39:04. | :39:10. | |
point. This is a sensational... Organisation has been an issue. | :39:10. | :39:17. | |
is a sensational result in a constituency in which we polled | :39:17. | :39:23. | |
over 28%. And the key issue was unlimited imtkpraigs and permanent | :39:23. | :39:28. | |
settlement from the EU. -- immigration. And people are | :39:28. | :39:34. | |
concerned by the rules that permit this. To make matters worse, the | :39:34. | :39:39. | |
Prime Minister David Cameron is a supporter of Turkey becoming a | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
member of the EU, which would compound all of these problems and | :39:44. | :39:50. | |
make all of this much worse. This is a massive wake up call to the | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
Conservatives, to the Liberal Democrats and to Labour on their | :39:54. | :39:59. | |
policies on the EU and what they're doing in the rest of the country. | :39:59. | :40:03. | |
You have had a go at the Conservatives, euro sceptic | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
Conservatives are saying this divides the right-wing vote and in | :40:07. | :40:12. | |
this case in the Liberal Democrats in a general election it would let | :40:12. | :40:15. | |
Labour in? I mentioned Labour and the Liberal Democrats as well. It | :40:15. | :40:19. | |
should be a concern for Labour, the Labour Party and Ed Miliband want | :40:19. | :40:24. | |
to deny the British people a referendum on the EU and as a | :40:24. | :40:30. | |
result in a seat where they will aboved 20% at an ideal time they | :40:30. | :40:38. | |
pold less than 10%. -- pold less than 10%. It is a make up call for | :40:38. | :40:44. | |
all the establishment parties. must be worried, if this result was | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
projected on your seat, you won't go back as an MP. Well, we have to | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
calm down. This is an area, which has happened, I think, because | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
people who are Conservative-minded have got frustrated that we are | :40:58. | :41:02. | |
part of a coalition. They're more Conservative than you. Isn't that | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
worrying? One thing that igs clear, if people want a referendum on | :41:07. | :41:11. | |
Europe the only way to do it after the general election is by | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
returning a Conservative Government. As you say, both Labour and the | :41:15. | :41:19. | |
Liberal Democrats are against it and we are the only party which is | :41:19. | :41:25. | |
actually, who will have a real chabs of - chance of forming a | :41:25. | :41:28. | |
Government who would do it. What about the argument from your MPs | :41:28. | :41:34. | |
who say you need to do a deal with UKIP to unite the right-wing vote | :41:34. | :41:40. | |
to get back in as that Government. I think that we are, David Cameron | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
has made it clear we are going renegotiate our position with the | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
EU and then offer that as a referendum to the country and that | :41:48. | :41:54. | |
is the right way to approach it and you know, I don't think UKIP has | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
got very much further. Their aim was always to have a referendum. We | :41:58. | :42:04. | |
have said we will do that. So we should get on with it. And we must | :42:04. | :42:12. | |
get on with the programme. The season for setting council tax has | :42:12. | :42:16. | |
drawn to a dramatic conclusion. A freeze in Devon and up by nearly 2% | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
in Plymouth. In Cornwall, though, the leadership's plans for a rise | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
were unexpectedly thrown out after an acrimonious meeting of the whole | :42:21. | :42:24. | |
council. Fierce disagreement continues as to whether this puts | :42:24. | :42:28. | |
vital public services at risk. Ben Woolvin reports. Cornwall | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
councillors are up for election in May. This week they voted for a | :42:32. | :42:37. | |
budget which might make some eye- catching campaign leaflets. More | :42:37. | :42:43. | |
money to repair potholes. Cheaper car parking. Extra cash to tackle | :42:43. | :42:48. | |
anti-social behaviour. And Council Tax has been frozen for another | :42:48. | :42:53. | |
year. So you, dear, hard-pressed voter, won't have to pay more. But | :42:53. | :42:59. | |
that last bit is controversial. take money from adult care and | :42:59. | :43:07. | |
children to give it so you can have 20 p less parking is ludicrous. It | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
is shameful and it is madness. Council Tax freeze means the adult | :43:12. | :43:20. | |
care budget is being cut by �850,000. Children's services by | :43:20. | :43:25. | |
�700,000. The Chief Executive said 130 staff could lose their jobs. | :43:25. | :43:29. | |
Council cabinet members warn some services will be cut. Others may be | :43:29. | :43:37. | |
closed. Those people on the front facing services like libraries, | :43:37. | :43:41. | |
one-stop shops, the telephone centre, will all be restricted in | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
some way. People will have to realise that by taking these | :43:46. | :43:51. | |
figures out of specially social care, it will impact on the | :43:51. | :43:57. | |
delivery of services. Few council pupblgts have caused as much -- | :43:57. | :44:06. | |
budgets have caused as much cross party concern. The Conservative | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
party had planned a Council Tax rise. But in a last minute twist, | :44:10. | :44:14. | |
some Conservatives backed a Liberal Democrat alternative budget with | :44:14. | :44:19. | |
the Council Tax freeze. Five months we have been preparing this budget | :44:19. | :44:23. | |
and then they come up with this on the back of a fag packet sort of | :44:23. | :44:32. | |
budget. It is worse. It is an insult to a fag packet. Members, | :44:32. | :44:39. | |
across party, what I call the good, sound, honourable members, who | :44:39. | :44:43. | |
think about people and not themselves, were beside themselves. | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
The Liberal Democrats say they have come up with big efficiencies, | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
reducing the council dependence on agency workers. But the | :44:51. | :44:56. | |
Conservative councillor in charge of adult says staff sickness means | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
it won't be that simple. You may say agency staff, why have you got | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
them? The trouble with thing like social care, you need to have | :45:05. | :45:10. | |
somebody there to do the job day in, day out. Sometimes seven days a | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
week and sometimes 4 hours a day. The Liberal Democrat councillor who | :45:14. | :45:18. | |
proposed the tax freeze said such talk is scaremongering. Other says | :45:18. | :45:27. | |
the situation in Cornwall is so bad Alex Folks himself realised | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
concerned when he realised his plan was going through. He was looking | :45:31. | :45:35. | |
uncomfortable, because perhaps he realised they were playing a game | :45:35. | :45:44. | |
which they didn't mean to win. Alex is with us now. Hopefully | :45:44. | :45:49. | |
feeling comfort kpwrabl us with in the studio. Is this a budget which | :45:49. | :45:54. | |
is ill thought out and an insult to a fag packet? No we have been | :45:54. | :45:57. | |
working on our amendment for about three months. We think it is | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
properly worked out and will make savings and deliver a huge range of | :46:01. | :46:04. | |
extra services that the people in Cornwall tell us they wants. If you | :46:05. | :46:11. | |
look at the areas it is favouring, reducing car parking charges, | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
mending potholes and the areas it is taking from, adult and | :46:15. | :46:20. | |
children's services, that does look like a strange set of prior pis. -- | :46:20. | :46:25. | |
priorities. Well not a single adult care package or child care package | :46:25. | :46:31. | |
will need to be cut. We have said the council is relying too much on | :46:31. | :46:36. | |
consultants, some of whom are getting over �1,000 a day and on | :46:36. | :46:41. | |
agency staff which cost double the amount that a contract staff member | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
would cost. What we are saying is we shouldn't be relying on agency | :46:44. | :46:49. | |
staff. We shouldn't rely on agency staff to do the day-to-day work of | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
the authority. Let's take a social worker emploipd as an agency staff | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
member costing �36,000 a year to the council. Move them on to | :46:58. | :47:04. | |
contract and when they get the same pay and they get better benefit and | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
cost the council �22,000 a year. The same staff, the same service | :47:08. | :47:14. | |
and massive savings. So the flexible of agency staff that the | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
cabinet talks about, that is nonsense? They do offer flexibility. | :47:18. | :47:23. | |
But there is no flexibility if you need the same people day in day out. | :47:23. | :47:28. | |
The flexibility comes in emergencies, at the margins. It is | :47:28. | :47:32. | |
sensible to have that flexibility. But there is no sense in having | :47:32. | :47:39. | |
expensive stpaf for every day work. -- staff. That is where we can make | :47:39. | :47:44. | |
the huge savings. It is worth remembering that children's | :47:44. | :47:50. | |
services were a problem for Cornwall council. Badly criticised | :47:50. | :47:55. | |
by Ofsted and one criticism was there was too staff. This is a | :47:55. | :47:58. | |
sensitive area? Yes that is we can't afford to do without the work | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
that is being done. This isn't a budget that can be implemented | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
overnight. But it will take a year or so to implement. That is why | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
there is a contingency fund there to make sure that we don't lose out | :48:10. | :48:16. | |
as we implement it. But we have seen this culture that has grown up | :48:16. | :48:18. | |
under the Conservative and independent administration of using | :48:18. | :48:23. | |
agency staff and costing this council too much. This is the | :48:23. | :48:27. | |
council that spent �50,000 trying to bring the word cup to Plymouth | :48:27. | :48:33. | |
and wastes money left, right and centre. We are saying let eat's get | :48:33. | :48:39. | |
rid of that spending and freeze the Council Tax and invest in services | :48:39. | :48:46. | |
and to repair the holes in road and it is �1.2 million to fix the holes. | :48:46. | :48:50. | |
That wis the Government money as well. No, this a extra. This is all | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
new money that we are getting, because yes, yes the Government is | :48:54. | :48:58. | |
giving us the Council Tax bribe to freeze it. We have managed to | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
freeze it any way. That gives us money to put into fixing the holes | :49:02. | :49:07. | |
in the road, bringing down parking charges and finding money to tackle | :49:07. | :49:10. | |
anti-social behaviour and using the money that we are getting as fines | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
from our waste contractor to put into Cornwall's string clean. These | :49:14. | :49:20. | |
are things that matter and whip sull port jobs. Oliver, should the | :49:20. | :49:26. | |
issue of Council Tax be such an article of faith? Saving people | :49:26. | :49:31. | |
whatever it is 42 parks week, against the other issues. Certainly | :49:31. | :49:34. | |
the stake which the Labour- controlled council in Plymouth have | :49:34. | :49:39. | |
made to do, who decided to increase the Council Tax. I'm a Conservative. | :49:39. | :49:42. | |
I believe in low tax. I think we should, they should have delivered | :49:42. | :49:46. | |
that and given that the Government have said they will stands beside | :49:46. | :49:51. | |
them as far as giving them money to make sure they didn't have tonds up | :49:51. | :49:55. | |
doing it. Labour decided they were going to put it up. We should do | :49:55. | :50:00. | |
everything we can especially hen people are finding it hard to live | :50:00. | :50:04. | |
and make ends meet. We should make sure their Council Tax remains down. | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
These are the people who will be hit won't only be the poorest, but | :50:08. | :50:13. | |
they will be the elderly and I think it is atrocious that the | :50:13. | :50:19. | |
Labour-controlled council has put up the Council Tax. | :50:19. | :50:21. | |
Conservative leader says this is storing up trouble and there will | :50:21. | :50:27. | |
be serious cuts in the future. There is an argue thament we need | :50:27. | :50:31. | |
to go back to Government and say we expect too much of local | :50:31. | :50:35. | |
authorities. I think they should concentrating upon education and | :50:35. | :50:39. | |
looking after the elderly, but also that we are going to be emptying | :50:39. | :50:44. | |
the dustbins and sorting out the potholes. We need to concentrate on | :50:44. | :50:47. | |
the fundamentals. All the things that your Conservative-led council | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
has failed to do for the last three and a half years. They couldn't | :50:51. | :50:59. | |
emthe the bins, they don't fill the potholes. People are desperate for | :50:59. | :51:03. | |
a change. William, the Conservative Government, the coalition, say it | :51:03. | :51:10. | |
is keen on localism and yet it has told councils -- councils they | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
should freeze Council Tax. Would you have a separate body telling | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
councils what to do with their powers? There has been a move to | :51:18. | :51:24. | |
centralisation and it is probably not a good thing. I have a specific | :51:24. | :51:30. | |
point and a general point. I looked up the accounts and when the | :51:30. | :51:34. | |
Cornwall unitary council was put together they owed about �500 | :51:34. | :51:41. | |
million. Their debt is now �6 28 million. It has bloonds up by �28 | :51:41. | :51:45. | |
million in three years. And somewhere along the line the | :51:45. | :51:49. | |
Council Tax payers have to take care of that debt. I applaud the | :51:49. | :51:56. | |
concept of there being value for money in expenditure of a Cornwall | :51:56. | :52:01. | |
County Council. This a more general point if I may, which is that the | :52:01. | :52:05. | |
way in which local government and local authorities unitary councils | :52:05. | :52:12. | |
is funded is very far from transparent and in the long-term it | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
should be simplified so people at least understand what it is their | :52:16. | :52:22. | |
Council Tax is paying for. course Conservatives hoped there | :52:22. | :52:27. | |
would be a better deal for places like the rural South West. Twov | :52:27. | :52:34. | |
remember why we are in this position. We inherited an appalling | :52:34. | :52:40. | |
state as far as the public finances is concerned. We have got to get | :52:40. | :52:47. | |
that right. And Labour is like a dog which ba, and Labour put up | :52:47. | :52:53. | |
taxes. -- which bark. Thank you. Farmers on the Somerset Levels are | :52:53. | :52:55. | |
apparently on suicide watch after seeing their livelihoods devastated | :52:55. | :52:59. | |
by months of severe flooding. They say the only solution is for the | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
government to stump up �3 million to dredge two local rivers which | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
are causing the problem. Jenny Kumah reports. It's month since | :53:06. | :53:11. | |
Barry's been able to move the bales on this land. Half the farm's been | :53:11. | :53:15. | |
under water and it's only just beginning to recover. He's been in | :53:15. | :53:18. | |
farming for decades, but he's worried about the impact the recent | :53:18. | :53:24. | |
devastation is having on the community. I have said publicly | :53:25. | :53:30. | |
that I feel that lives are at risk. I spoke to Owen Patterson at a | :53:30. | :53:34. | |
meeting in Tiverton three weeks ago and he said there that lives are a | :53:34. | :53:43. | |
priority. But they were looking at flooding causing loss of life. I | :53:43. | :53:52. | |
would say that anxiety and stress is another possibility. The Sunday | :53:52. | :53:55. | |
Politics understands around five farmers are on suicide watch as | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
they struggle with the impact of the floods. Well it's just stress | :53:59. | :54:04. | |
all the way. You know, not knowing from one day to the next whether | :54:04. | :54:07. | |
the actual water is going to creep up to their farms and whether they | :54:07. | :54:11. | |
will have to move their animals out. To the fact that they haven't got | :54:11. | :54:18. | |
any income. The floods reached their peak in November, during one | :54:18. | :54:23. | |
of the country's wettest ever years. Two big rivers flow through the | :54:23. | :54:28. | |
Somerset Levels. For months the Environment Agency has been pumping | :54:28. | :54:38. | |
:54:38. | :54:41. | ||
water into them. The rivers just couldn't cope. We have got 250 | :54:41. | :54:44. | |
acres here that has been under water for over two months. It's | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
killed off all the grass. We are going to have to reseed. James | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
farms around a thousand acres and says the cost of flooding is | :54:50. | :54:53. | |
running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. How do you cope? | :54:53. | :54:57. | |
have just got to keep going and say, we have been saying it all year, it | :54:57. | :55:00. | |
can't keep raining. We had to move out of the house because of the | :55:01. | :55:08. | |
flooding. It flooded my parents' house as well. We are trying to | :55:08. | :55:13. | |
sort all of that out. For years people have been saying that you | :55:13. | :55:16. | |
need to clear the silt clogging up the rivers if you want to stop | :55:16. | :55:19. | |
flooding that we have seen recently from happening again. The | :55:19. | :55:21. | |
Environment Agency has now agreed that desilting or dredging will | :55:21. | :55:30. | |
help. But the scheme would cost �3 million and it doesn't meet the | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
right criteria to get funding. Campaigners say the current funding | :55:34. | :55:36. | |
formula focuses cash on schemes that bring benefits to bigger | :55:36. | :55:43. | |
population areas. So Exeter's flood defence scheme will cost �26 | :55:43. | :55:45. | |
million, but the Government estimates it will bring more than | :55:45. | :55:53. | |
�200 million in benefits to the local economy. Such funding | :55:53. | :55:56. | |
criteria means rural areas tend to lose out, because fewer people live | :55:56. | :56:02. | |
there. There's been a large amount spent within the area on a managed | :56:02. | :56:08. | |
salt marsh retreat, something upwards of �18 million. If a small | :56:08. | :56:11. | |
portion of that had been spent on dredging the rivers, we probably | :56:11. | :56:13. | |
wouldn't be stood here today talking about the problems, because | :56:14. | :56:23. | |
:56:24. | :56:28. | ||
the problems wouldn't have been as great. This week a local MP called | :56:28. | :56:34. | |
on the Government to find the cash, but there was no instant answer. | :56:34. | :56:37. | |
Rivers have a nasty habit of silting up. That's why you dredge | :56:37. | :56:40. | |
them. But the Environment Agency no longer dredges rivers in my | :56:40. | :56:50. | |
:56:50. | :56:53. | ||
constituency. Because they say they can't afford it. There is something | :56:53. | :56:55. | |
that needs urgent forensic scrutiny by my honourable friend's | :56:55. | :56:58. | |
department. I have to make sure every penny we spend on flood | :56:58. | :57:01. | |
defences and protection is spent as professionally, with as much value | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
for money, because it is not my money, it is our constituents' | :57:04. | :57:10. | |
money. All interested party now to have to wait until April when they | :57:10. | :57:20. | |
:57:20. | :57:23. | ||
will see if the level can be declared a special case for funding. | :57:23. | :57:28. | |
Oliver the you agree the Government should find this money. | :57:28. | :57:32. | |
understand Richard Benyon has ruled that out. But it is a big issue. | :57:32. | :57:39. | |
You just have to look at the impact it had on the transport system here. | :57:39. | :57:42. | |
But sticking to the farmers they have a specific problem. But there | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
are other people affected by this. We need to Mike sure that we do as | :57:46. | :57:51. | |
much as we do to pick sure -- make sure that we do as much as we can | :57:51. | :57:56. | |
to make sure there are safeguards put in place. It is very important. | :57:56. | :58:03. | |
Plays like Exeter have got money, should the farmers get money? | :58:03. | :58:08. | |
would endorse the gentleman in the film who advocated that the money | :58:08. | :58:14. | |
that is being spent on creating artificial flooding in the area, | :58:14. | :58:24. | |
because of an EU directive, should be... Should be allocated towards | :58:24. | :58:30. | |
dredging these two rivers. One of which is the river Tone. That is | :58:30. | :58:36. | |
logical and Governments hardly ever do logical things fpts but perhaps | :58:36. | :58:40. | |
Oliver can can use his good offices with the coalition for once to do | :58:40. | :58:45. | |
something logical. I may raise the whole issue to do with this on | :58:45. | :58:51. | |
Friday. I ended up going to a meeting where �167 million is what | :58:51. | :58:56. | |
it has cost in the local economies. Now our regular round-up of the | :58:56. | :59:03. | |
political week in 60 seconds. The Cornwall councillor who said | :59:03. | :59:08. | |
disabled children should be put down eventually resigned. While | :59:08. | :59:11. | |
claiming several of his colleagues urged him not to. All the | :59:12. | :59:15. | |
councillors that's rung me - and there must be a good you know at | :59:15. | :59:19. | |
least half a dozen - has asked me not to resign, to stick in there, | :59:19. | :59:24. | |
because they know what I am. They know what I'm like and they find it | :59:25. | :59:34. | |
:59:35. | :59:35. | ||
strange that I've made this remark. The Government is asked to protect | :59:35. | :59:40. | |
direct rail services between Torbay and London. This is certainly an | :59:40. | :59:43. | |
issue that can be considered when any future franchise bid is being | :59:43. | :59:49. | |
prepared. And it's confirmed pilot badger cull will go ahead this | :59:49. | :59:51. | |
summer in Somerset and Gloucestershire and the lavish | :59:51. | :59:53. | |
compensation given to Dorset MP Richard Drax's ancestors when | :59:53. | :00:03. | |
:00:03. | :00:10. | ||
Parliament freed the slaves they owned in Barbados. Oliver, some | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
people may say you're lobbying to get better services between | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
Plymouth and London on the train is like will mean Torbay is worse | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
offer? Well, I think it is important that Plymouth does have a | :00:23. | :00:28. | |
fast service. And we have more three hour train vournys and get | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
trains here before 9 in the morning. That is important. Because we are | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
if economic motor for what happens in the rest of the area. So I think | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
it is very important that happens. But I know the minister is coming | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
to the South West and we will have the opportunity to talk to the | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
Secretary of State himself. William? There is over �10 billion | :00:49. | :00:55. |