Cllr Philip Bibby is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Stevenage Borough Council.
Looking to the May local elections, canvassing continues, and, it is fair to say, that we are receiving a mixed response against the backdrop of what has been happening within the national party. It is clear that some core voters will not vote Conservative this time round. However, we are confident in retaining the seats of sitting councillors up for election. We recently lost a by-election by a significant majority, but this was to be expected, given the area involved, and our poor poll ratings.
In general, service levels are not as good as they should be, particularly in call centre response times and housing repairs, including damp and mould. It takes too long for residents to contact Council officers and receive the service they are entitled to expect. Response times to housing faults are often poor, with instances of contractors cancelling appointments, or just not turning up. Tight budgets have a detrimental effect, and we need to free up resources to improve these areas.
The Labour administration is, at last, looking more realistically at their budgeting, and we have been putting pressure on them to do so, particularly looking at more shared services in crucial service areas. Resources could be released by the Council getting to grips with their IT failings – they have been trying to do this for some time with expensive consultants but, so far, have failed to produce the promised efficiencies. On the question of shared services, hundreds, if not millions, could have been saved if the administration had not, for years, refused to entertain a joint waste authority in Hertfordshire – at least they are now talking to other Districts about this.
It has also become necessary to re-think how the much-needed regeneration is progressed, given the present economic pressures on development.
As well as being prominent in the aerospace industry, Stevenage is receiving a lot of inward investment into Life Sciences and will become almost as important as Cambridge in this field, so we need to encourage good quality regeneration to match this.
There is too much emphasis on flats, rather than houses in the plans, and we should not be spending a fortune on shiny new Council offices, to the detriment of more important matters. Whilst the Council has been designated a Sustainable Travel Town, and should be encouraging active and sustainable travel, it needs to also consider the parking needs of all the families moving into the new homes.
As far as future ambitions go, we are looking to the 2024 all-out elections, following the forthcoming boundary review, and are busily trying to recruit members and potential candidates, which is a struggle. Our success will very much depend on the national picture at the time. We need all Government ministers to act honestly and with integrity, as well as working in unity with each other, convincing the voting public that they are on top of the important issues affecting them, either directly or indirectly. They need to also hold the opposition to account for some of the false claims they are making, particularly on the economy.