The Great Western Festival 2007 - Saturday July 28th.

This posting is an unashamed plug for a great event in aid of a great cause at the Great Western Inn, Coventry Road, Warwick.

The GW Fest is an all day music festival featuring a wide range of some of the best acts from this area. I was incredibly impressed last year with the standard of organisation and quality of the acts. Last year the festival raised over £4000 for Myton Hospice a local charity that relies on fundraising and voluntary donation to continue its fantastic work.If you do come along, come over and say hello, I will be somewhere near the sound desk making the recordings for the 'official bootleg'.

Ealing Southall - You really could not make it up !

This has got to be the most interesting by-Election in recent memory. We have had mass defections of local councillors, Tory MP's getting caught posting spurious messages on websites and a Conservative candiate that joined the party some minutes before being delcared as the candidate.

It transpires only days before Tony Lit's road to Jerusalem conversion to the Conservatives he was photographed at a Labour (!) fundraiser where it is alleged he donated £4,800 to the party. As far as we can tell he was not offered a Labour Peerage.

Parking Spaces halved in Warwick Parking shakeup.

Yesterday morning I went to have a look at the new road marking in Guy Street in Warwick. This is in preparation for the new Decriminalised Parking that will come into force next month.

Now the streets in this area, Guy Street, Cherry Street and Broad Street are popular residential streets of Victorian terraced houses. Each house is about the width of the length of a car. So it does not take a genius to work out that if each household has one car, there will be only just be enough spaces for all the cars.

Local residents have told me that plans were for double yellow lines to be painted along one side, and that is what I found when I arrived. This halves the parking spaces for these roads with no realistic alternative as to where people can park.

Now the roads here are narrow, yet for as long as I have lived in the area residents have managed quite well by parking on both sides, part on the pavement (that appears to be allowed in other local streets where marked) and still have space for service and emergency vehicles.

One proposal residents would like considered is to make each of the roads one way and for careful marking of parking bays on each side of the road part on the pavement to allow enough room for pushchairs. It will be tight of course, yet residents would be happy with this.

This was discussed at the Warwick Area Committee on Tuesday night and I hope that changes can be made before it is too late.

There is one glimmer of hope if changes cannot be made before it comes into force. There will be a review of the impact following the start of the changes and there may be an opportunity to rethink the parking in these roads then.

Of course in the short term this will not help residents who will simply have no where to park.

If you are affected by these changes in these streets or anywhere else in Warwick & Leamington please email me.



Details of the changes can be found on the Warwickshire County Website.

Lib-Dem Shadow Health Secretary Praises Warwick Hospital Turnaround.

Alan Beddow (second from right) and Norman Lamb MP (Right) talking to staff at Warwick Hospital.

I visited Warwick Hospital on Tuesday with Norman Lamb MP who is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary. We had the opportunity to talk to Chief Executive, Glen Burley and Trust Chairman Graham Murrell to discuss the recent challenges the hospital has faced following its record £13.8M debt last year and the hospitals plans for the future.

Now there was a media storm some months ago along with some wild statements made by some of my political opponents which I can only describe as scaremongering.

Of course the hospital has faced serious challenges many created by the constant reorganisations and changes in government policy. There has been cost cutting and the hospital should never have been put in the position it has been.

I know from talking to people who work in the hospital that they have faced a very stressful time. I have the utmost respect for our local health professionals and it is largely due to them that the hospital has managed to turn this situation around.

So I was encouraged by our meeting with the hospital bosses on Tuesday, the debt has not gone away, rather has been refinanced which does spread the problem a little and the finances of the hospital are in a far better state.

More encouraging are the exciting plans in place that will secure the hospitals future on the Lakin Road site. Warwick Hospital plans to develop an ambulatory cancer unit, which will make treatments more convenient for patients in the area. The new centre is set to become the first in the country to receive the Macmillan Charter Mark for Cancer care. The hospital also plans to provide a new paediatrics unit on the site.

Norman Lamb agreed that the hospital has had a difficult year managing its debt and coping with constant government reorganisations. He agreed that the hospital must be commended for turning around the financial situation. Norman recognised that this required some tough decisions and it has been a difficult time for its staff. He was especially interested in some of the new plans for the hospital and agreed that the future now looked more secure and will deliver quality services to patients from the Hospital.

There are still issues with healthcare locally and I will be spending some time over the coming months talking to people across Warwick & Leamington to understand the full range of their concerns.

The hot issue at the moment is that many doctors’ surgeries are no longer taking blood samples and some patients now have to travel to the hospital for this service.

On the whole though the picture is encouraging and I am happy to report that Warwick Hospital is not going to close, A&E will remain as will Maternity and a full range of services.

If you have concerns about healthcare or the hospital please email me

Mail Me about this issue.

Sedgefield Labour Shame.

I have just been watching YouTube footage from the Launch of the Lib-Dem by-election campaign in Sedgefield. The footage shows a disgraceful attempt by a mob of Labour activists to disrupt the event. [See Report from the Northern Echo]

I cannot see how this helps the Labour campaign at all, there were Labour councillors in the mob who should know better and show a bit of respect rather than to be part of such a disgraceful display. They were behaving more like football hooligans than serious politicians. It is this sort of thing that switches people off from politics.

I am happy to say that my experiences in Warwick & Leamington are very different and on the whole limited to attacking each other only on policy and of course a little friendly rivalry.

Taking Liberties

I got home from the by-election in time to meet some friends from our local party at Warwick Arts Centre to see Taking Liberties. This film takes a humourous look at the serious subject of the erosion of our civil liberties and freedoms under Blair's Government.

Two things struck me about this film.

Firstly how many of our rights and freedoms have been taken from us, its all to easy to forget in the constant stream of media. These freedoms have been fought for since Magna Carta (did she die in vain) almost 800 years ago and are vital to the health of our democracy, yet in just 10 years of New Labour many of these foundation stones have been removed.

The second thing that struck me about this film was that the hero's of today's Britain are the ordinary people who have stood up and been counted, people who have found imaginative and intrinsically British ways of peaceful protest. I have massive respect for these men, women, young people & fearless old ladies who have risked much to stand up for our rights. In some ways I feel encouraged, it is people like this that has made Britain Great!

The Freedoms that are essential to a civilised democracy covered in the film include:

• Right to protest
• Right to Free speech
• Right to Privacy
• No Detention without Trial
• No Extradition without evidence
• No Torture

I hope Gordon Brown will repair the damage done to our freedom & democracy by doing the following.

1. Restore our right to protest outside Parliament, he might not like what they are saying but should rejoice that we live in a country where they can say it.
2. Clear the names of those who have been falsely accused of crimes, found innocent and yet are still being treated like terrorists.
3. Scrap the one sided extradition treaty with the US that allows us, any of us to be sent to America to face trial without a scrap of evidence being seen.
4. Stop turning a blind eye to extraordinary rendition flights being refueled in British airports and thereby being complicit in torture.

That's just for starters.

I shall climb off my soap box now, but do go and see this film!

Campaigning in Ealing Southall.

Nigel Bakhai the Lib-Dem Candidate for Ealing Southall.

On Wednesday I headed down the M40 to lend a hand in the Ealing and Southall by-election. Every time a by-election is called recently I cant stop remembering 'the only gay in the village' Dafid's line in Little Britain. "Its not just a by-election, us gays and straights can stand as well you know!"

Heartened by this and the news that the wheels had come off the Tory campaign so early in the contest, (having selected a candidate who had joined the party milliseconds before, thus alienating many of the local activists.) and ignoring my sat-nav as it tried to funnel me onto the M4 (yea right!) I trundled down to Southall.

My earliest memory of Southall was in the 70's aged about 7 sitting in the back of my parents car. I remember passing a large park that was packed full of Indians with turbans. Coming from a small village in Worcestershire where the nearest thing we got to an ethnic mix was my friend at school who had been on holiday to Spain that summer, I was fascinated by the colourful sight.

Southall had not changed much and I passed rows of interesting looking shops many with piles of fresh fruit and veg lining the pavement. A Tory radio car passed, I have not seen one of these for years. It announced a simple message, Vote Conservative for Family Values, Vote Conservative for Lower Crime. How they were going to achieve this was unclear.

My sat-nav, having recovered from my ignoring its instructions earlier had caught up and led me to the campaign HQ on a small industrial estate near the station. Like all Lib-Dem by-elections it all seemed incredibly well organised. I teamed up with three people from Simon Hughes office and armed with a huge pile of newspapers and a map we headed out to deliver.

We dodged the rain throughout the afternoon and managed to deliver seven rounds. The problem with delivering newspapers is that your hands get covered in print.

I really think we can win in Ealing and Southall, we have an excellent candidate in Nigel Bakhai and hope to help out again before the end of the campaign.
Oh, this Blog is worth a read Ealing Southall Watch.

Ridgeway School Rebuild Madness.

I attended a Governors meeting last night at Ridgeway School which caters for children with special needs from across the area. The hot topic on tonight's agenda was the rebuild of the school. Ridgeway is currently housed in old buildings that are considered 'not fit for purpose'.

The plan was that Ridgeway would move to the old Round Oak buildings in Lillington while the school was being rebuilt around it. Recently though we have learned of a decision to rebuild the school while it is open.

Have they gone totally mad!

The school is on a small site and most of the school would need to relocate to temporary classrooms while the building is demolished and rebuilt in stages. I can think of so many reasons not to do this, here are my top 3. (Politicians can only think upto 3. Look out for this when listening to them on TV and you will see what I mean.)

1. It will cost far more, temporary classrooms will have to be built with toilet facilities, access ramps, etc. Estimates suggest the build will take 60% longer, which of course means more labour costs.
2. There will be significant disruption, half the site will be closed off to the builders, half the school will be knocked down and rebuilt and then we assume the other half, so there will be a lot of moving around. Many of these children do not cope well with disruption and need a good routine.
3. Health & Safety. Some children have complex health issues. There will be dust and noise from the build. A classroom was shut this week due to asbestos. Some of the children are severely disabled.

It is unthinkable that children, many with a range of disabilities some of them severe, should attend school on a building site. I have discussed this with some of my colleagues on the County Council and the matter being raised at the Warwick Area Committee on July 10th. Members of the public can attend the meeting that will be held at 6:00pm at Shire Hall.

I am hoping that common sense will prevail.

Leamington Peace Festival

I had a great time strolling round the Leamington Peace Festival this afternoon. This is a fantastic event often hot and sunny each year and today we were very lucky with the weather. I was able to mix two different worlds, Music & Politics.

When I arrived Souler Rhythm were playing on the main stage. I did sound engineering with this band some years ago and we had some great times travelling around the country, doing gig’s in very different places. It was good to catch up with some of them briefly afterwards backstage.

I then did a tour of some of the stalls and was struck by how many campaigns we are involved with in Warwick & Leamington. We seem to have a great sense of political conscience here and play leading roles in so many issues. So it was good to talk to some of these grass roots campaigners and learn a little about the issues they are working on.

The message of the Peace Festival really is that we can make a difference by standing up and being counted, whether by signing petitions or getting involved in campaign groups. It may seem that we individually have a very small voice, yet lots of small voices make one huge one and that really does make a difference.

I then met up with some friends at the main stage to see Satin Dolls, they are playing at the ‘GW Fest’ at my local, the Great Western in Warwick on the 28th July to raise money for Myton Hospice.

Freedom of Information - We have won!

Great news, I have just heard that your lobbying of Lib-Dem peers has paid off. Despite reports a few weeks ago that Conservative peer Lord Trefgarne would take on the bill, no member of the House of Lords has come forward to sponsor it, effectively killing the bill off.

We mustn't be complacent: the Labour Government has shown little commitment to its own Freedom of Information Act and ministers are still muttering about watering it down. The Liberal Democrats will continue to support the principle of open government, and we will be monitoring for any future attempts to weaken the law - including any moves to resurrect David Maclean's bill.

Why I believe Freedom of Information is important.

There has been an exchange of letters in the Courier over the past few weeks between our Labour MP, James Plaskitt, me. I don’t usually like 'letters page debates' though in this case I feel the issue is important, let me explain why.

The freedom of information act means that we have the right to ask for information about how our government is running our country. Now the government is there to take decisions and spend our taxes on our behalf to provide the services we need. It is important to remember that our government is there to serve us.

So the fact that we can hold our government to account is a very important part of democracy. I believe that this should include our MP's who we elect to represent us in our government.

Some people think that the vote to make MP's except from the Freedom of Information Act is all about MP's being able to hide how much they spend on expenses. I believe the issue is wider than that. I believe it is about accountability of Government including the role our elected MP's play in it.

Now of course there needs to be safeguards in this, to stop personal information being disclosed. I believe that there are already enough safeguards in place to protect this.

This question was raised to Baroness Ashton at the Ministry of Justice last week. The minister was asked whether the government propose to amend either the Freedom Of Information Act or the Data Protection Act to provide greater protection for information supplied by MPs to public authorities and replied that, ‘there are provisions within the Acts to protect such information where appropriate’ and that ‘the Government has not been notified of any improper disclosure of personal or confidential information communicated to public authorities by MPs’. (Lords Hansard 4 Jun 2007: Column WA157 & 158)

Even if the Information Commissioner had evidence of improper disclosure of correspondence, surely a better course of action would be to tighten up the provisions in Sections 40 and 41 rather than to significantly weaken the Act by exempting the elected representatives of that government?

That is why I am campaigning to make sure the Freedom of Information Act stays as it is.

The second reading in the Lords will be later this month and Lib Dem peers have promised to do all they can to stop this Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill becoming law. People are very concerned about how this weakens the accountability of our government.

You can help by following this link and write to members of the house of lords to ask them to vote against the change to the Freedom of Information Act.


More information can be found in these websites.


Campaign for Freedom of Information. - Lots of useful information.
Richard Allan's Blog.
Open Secrets Blog.

Visit to European Parliament and NATO

Wednesday and Thursday this week I visited the European Parliament and NATO as part of a delegation from the Liberal Democrat European Group. I had the chance to chat to many of our MEP's including Liz Lynne from Stratford who is the MEP for the West Midlands.

This was an extremely valuable couple of days, which informed me about a lot of the issues we face right across the European region and the leading role Britain plays.

On Wednesday we met a number of our MEPs and were able to have some very open and frank discussions with them. Key discussions include;

Andrew Duff who outlined the political backdrop across member states to the renegotiation of the European Constitution. Andrew was speaking in the debate on the constitution later that afternoon and he invited us to sit in the diplomatic gallery and listen to some of the debate.

Bill Newton Dunn discussed the scale and scope of international organised crime. This issue alone outlines how Europe is a vital part of addressing many of the issues we now face in the 21st Century. If we did not have an EU we would have to create one. One thing is sure, the international criminal gangs are working in an integrated way and our national and international governments need to be doing the same in order to keep up. Bill outlined some frightening facts related to Electronic crime, laptops are now stolen for personal data rather than hardware. Child Porn, The serious issue of Illegal Immigration, People Trafficking with 1/3 of Africans coming to Canary lsles drowning at sea. Bill also outlined the frustrations faced with getting member governmental organisations to work together, often it is the EU that get blamed in the media when it seems to me that one of the challenges Europe faces is that the National Governments of member states not taking them seriously. If they did Europe could achieve so much more.

Diana Wallis - A Vice President of the European Parliament opened up a lively debate on Single Seat issue, or the move of the parliament to Strasbourg each month, Diana also explained how MEP's have always had the sort of transparency our Westminster MP's are trying to avoid with the amendment to the Freedom of Information act.

Thursday we visited NATO where a member of the NATO staff briefed us on how NATO’s role has evolved to meet the changing political challenges over recent decades. NATO 1 was a response to the cold war, which then evolved into NATO 2 in the early 1990’s expanding and embracing former enemies, including Russia who is now a partner. NATO 3 is now responding to a post 9/11 world.

We had a fascinating briefing from a member of the Royal Marines, who explained the challenges faced in Afghanistan. He told us that morale of our forces over there is high, not least because public opinion at home is more in favour of that war than our actions in Iraq. There are massive challenges ahead in Afghanistan. Regardless of the morality of the war in Afghanistan, I am convinced that not only is Britain playing a key role, we are also leading the thinking and in my opinion are adopting a sensible approach to many of the sensitive issues, an approach that might not be adopted if it were left to some of our other leading partners.

A representative from the Home Office and the MOD also briefed us. I asked how Russia’s response to American stationing of their missile defense system in Poland and the Czech republic, in threatening to target European Cities fitted with their role as a partner of NATO. I sensed the question was being evaded and phrased the question again and they admitted that the Russian response was ‘not helpful’.

The past few days have been of immense value in helping us understand the reality of many of the situations we face and how important our role within Europe is to the UK and why we should not dismiss it as being a political sideshow that has little relevance to the security and prosperity of our country.

Leamington to be Concreted Over.

Well that's how it seems after reading the stories hitting the news over the past few weeks.

First we heard that a developer (George Wimpy) had been in discussion with the Cricket Club in Arlington Road and also the Tennis Club in Guys Cliffe Avenue with a proposal to build on their grounds.

Then we heard how the Binswood allotments could be under threat from development from the very same developer.

I attended the public meeting held at the Cricket Club a couple of weeks ago and heard both sides of the story. I can see that the offer being made to the club is very attractive, yet I share the concerns of many residents that we simply cannot carry on building inside the town, using up the open spaces that add to the quality of the town. As we build more houses we add pressure to the already overcrowded roads inside the town.

Of course there is also a desperate shortage of houses in this area, especially affordable, so this is a difficult balance to get right.

For anyone wishing to object to applications should they be made to build on these lands, the first port of call will be the Town Council and then the District. I will post on here if any of these plans get to the application stage so you get plenty of time to make your views known.

Freedom of Information - Except for our MP's - James Plaskitt Agrees.

Warwick & Leamington MP, James Plaskitt joined Labour and Conservative front benches in the Commons to vote for a special exemption for MPs from the Freedom of Information Act. This brings Parliament into disrepute.

How can we have one law for everyone, except for those responsible for making our laws.

Follow this link to see how you can help.

More interesting links on this subject.

Watch the progress of this bill through the house of commons.

• Excellent Blog by Martin Rosenbaum all about this issue.
• Richard Allen, onetime MP has an excellent Blog on this subject and explains why he thinks this is a Trogan Horse.
• Taxpayers Alliance Hall of Fame - List's MP's who voted for this bill (Including our very own James Plaskitt)

Let me know what you think... Email me at Alan_Beddow@yahoo.co.uk

Planning White Paper - Nice Words, No Content.

The 2007 Government Planning White Paper was published yesterday. Of particular concern to me was the impact that tinkering with the planning system may have on our environment, town centre economies and not to mention the architecture of our country.

I found the paper lacking in any real content, it includes a lot of nice words about sustainable communities and involving communities, yet fails to outline exactly how this will work. Of major concern to me is the replacement of the 'Supermarket Needs Test' with an impact test, yet I can find no detail of exactly what this is.

I feel we will need to keep a close eye on this one and fear that a quest for faster decisions may result in the wrong decisions at the detriment of local communities and the character of our towns.

I will be involved in the consultation process on this and if you would like to tell me about concerns you have please email me alan_beddow@yahoo.co.uk and mark the email 'Planning White Paper Consultation'.

In the mean time you may like to look at these websites.

The White Paper.
Royal Town Planning Institute (discussion on the paper)

Target Culture

I spotted this on the BBC Website this morning. Police Condemn Target Culture. This is Blair's Legacy, too many public services driven purely by targets.

This is not just an issue for the police, people I have spoken to in Education and Healthcare have also told me of a target driven culture that distracts them from doing what we, the public actually want them to do, educating our children each acording to their ability, treating us when we get ill or keeping our streets safe.

Now I am not totally against performance measures, from my experience in commerce and industry I know the value of being able measure how you are doing against a plan or the industry. I also know that when you have organisations incented purely on meeting targets, often with their pay at stake that is exactly what they will do.

I have personally experienced this in organisations I have worked with and seen some appalling decisions that are completely in the worst interests of the business.

This is an example of 'New Labour' style of chasing headlines, lets hope the new political climate on June 27th will put an end to this.

Keep the Supermarket Needs Test.

I learned today that the governments planning white paper due to be published either tomorrow or Wednesday will abolish the 'Supermarket Needs Test'.

These are a set of guidelines that our local council can use to see whether there is a need for a new supermarket. This is important because too many supermarkets in an area can destroy town centre or high street trade. I have personally seen this in the town near where my mother lives, out of town supermarkets and some bad planning decisions have created a ghost town, even the pound shops are closing.

We have a vibrant town centre in Leamington and in Warwick we have a diverse range of specialist shops and traditional stores which are already under pressure.

If our council cannot say ‘No’ to supermarkets when they are not needed, how will they ever be able to stop them undermining our high streets.

I’m calling on the government not to scrap the ‘supermarket needs test’ and to give power back to our local community so we can save our town centre and help it grow into the hub of our sustainable, vibrant community.

Sign my petition. - Keep the Supermarket Needs Test.

Lib-Dem's make net gains in District & Town Council Elections.

At the third attempt at conducting a count of the votes from last Thursdays election we have held each of our previously held wards in Leamington.

In one of their target wards, Clarendon where I was standing, we managed to elect 2 new Lib-Dem town councillors and narrowly missed electing a Lib-Dem district councillor by just 6 votes. This puts the Lib-Dem's in control of Leamington Town Council.

This has been a good result for us here. We have held onto our current seats because we have a track record of working hard and getting things done, people have recognised that and have reelected their Lib-Dem teams with very high majorities.

We have elected two excellent Town Councillors in Clarendon and now control the Town Council, we have an exciting program of things we want to achieve in Leamington which will enable us to continue to improve the quality of life in the town.

Well done to all the candidates, some of them elected for the first time in our Town and District. We have an excellent team here born out by this afternoons results.

Warwick District Count Postponed until Tuesday.

So after a disturbing night last night and late night I get up and head into Warwick town square for a cooked breakfast at one of the local cafes. I had been running on adrenaline and then shear exhaustion yesterday and really needed the boost.

I then headed back to Leamington Town hall for the next attempt at the count. I was dismayed to find the machines still in place and after being assured the technical difficulties had been resolved were told that the electronic count would proceed again.

I spent two hours verifying rejected votes with one of my opponents, an activity that usually only takes a few minutes. I started to have serious concerns as to the nature of the rejections and the system as a whole, informed by my understanding of IT and the logic of how these things work. I expressed these concerns to my agent who had a discussion with the Electoral Commission representative. It seems I was not the only one with similar feelings of discomfort. This election is likely to be close in many wards and this is simply not acceptable.

The decision was made therefore to perform a full recount using the traditional method on Tuesday.

This is frustrating for all concerned, however all agree that there must be a count we all have confidence in.

Warwick District Count Chaos

Last night was a bit of an anti climax. Warwick District were trialling a new electronic counting system. Chaos did not ensue as many had predicted, chaos would at least created some excitement. There was nothing to see for hours and the whole thing seemed to be progressing very slowly. Many people were starting to get bored and after the excitement of the day the adrenaline was wearing off.
When the system eventually failed at around 2:30 with no results declared there was a noticeable lowering of the mood. I sensed a cross party rebellion forming. Credit to Chris Elliott the Warwick District Council Chief Executive who called all the election agents into a back room and after a short while they made the decision we all wanted. Go home to bed and start again with a manual count tomorrow at 1PM.
I was open minded about this system, working in IT I am usually in favour of technology, however having experienced last night I do feel we should stick to the traditional method of counting for the following reasons.

• The electronic system cant be cheaper than employing counting staff, as the cost of the equipment and vast army of Tekkies to keep the thing running must run into large sums.
• I am not convinced the electronic system is more accurate and as there is little to see provides the candidates and agents with no visible way of actually seeing what is going on. The beauty of the traditional system is that real votes are counted in front of all interested parties who have the power to call out mistakes. People have faith in this as they have an involvement.
• The count is part of the excitement of an election. Candidates and supporters go through the campaign, months of planning and work, leading upto the final week, election day itself which is immensely busy, then there is the count. It is an exciting time, watching the end of a hard run race, speculation, celebration and commiseration. Only those that have been involved will know what I mean, imagine watching three important world cup matches in one afternoon and compare that to just finding out the result later on in the news headlines.

On reflection the old system is part of the tradition in politics with which everyone has confidence and has evolved over time. The system we tried is so dull as to put people off politics for life at a time when we need to encourage more involvement.

If we are to make changes, which I am sure we need to, lets make sure there is visibility to all concerned which provides the confidence in the result, lets make sure the system is properly tested and finally lets make sure we keep the fun and excitement.