Actionable potholes

While not usually keen on directing you to Labour Councillors' blogs, if you haven't yet caught up with Ian Hazeldine's masterpiece of homespun philosphy, I urge you to read this post on potholes. From the first sentence to the last, it is truely a masterpiece of the genre.

Ian shows a healthy willingness to point up the absurdities of local and national government administration. Read and enjoy. Sadly, Ian's blog lacks one thing: a photo of him on his haunches pointing at said pothole.

Letter printed

I don't often venture onto the "Hear All Sides" page of the Northern Echo, but Gill Cartwright's letter last week claiming that the Lib Dems' perceived "silence" about BSF "speaks volumes" provoked me to put pen to paper.

My letter has been published today, and here it is in its original form, which is slightly different to the printed version, once the sub-editor got his hands on it:

Sir,

I can assure Councillor Gill Cartwright that, unlike the Conservative Party, who are committed to slashing investment in new school buildings, the Liberal Democrat policy is for an extra £2.5 billion to be invested in our schools.

We will do this by cutting wasteful and unnecessary government programmes such as the proposed replacement of the Trident nuclear weapon system, the controversial ID cards scheme, the Eurofighter project, the Child Trust Fund and hugely-expensive Government IT schemes.

As I said at the recent Full Council meeting, although the Building Schools for the Future programme, like so many Labour schemes, is wasteful and bureaucratic, we fully supported the Council’s bid for £57m of BSF money to rebuild Hurworth, Longfield and Branksome. We won that money and we want that money for Darlington!

A Conservative Government would mean that pupils at those three schools – one of which is in Cllr Cartwright’s ward - will continue to be educated in outdated buildings that are no longer fit for purpose.

The Conservatives are, understandably, keeping quiet about the true nature of many of their policies. When they do let slip the truth, however, we see them in their true colours: tax cuts for their rich friends, chronic under-investment in our children’s futures and no commitment to closing the achievement gap between rich and poor children.

Yours sincerely
Cllr Mike Barker
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Darlington

Sticking out of the letterboxes in Park East...

Yet another Cashcroft glossy Tory leaflet hits the doormats in Darlington. From it I learn that I am "tainted by town hall politics," and have "not served my country with distinction." Strangely, Capt Legard completely fails to mention that he too is a local councillor, albeit in North Yorkshire.

His military career does, as usual, get extensive coverage. Capt Legard appears to believe that the only way one can serve is by joining the army.


The leaflet also uses a bar chart to illustrate an article about election results in Darlington. The problem is, though they don't actually tell us this, the bar chart shows the election result for the Euro elections last year for whole of the UK! What relevance is that to Darlington?

Oh, and "If you vote Yellow, you will get Brown." Actually, if you vote Yellow, you'll get ...ME!!!

Time for a name change?

Most people, including one of the Darlington Labour Party bloggers, think PACT in Darlington stands for Police and Communities Together, which, since PACT meetings are all about local residents meeting the police and agreeing priorities in their local ward or neighbourhood, would seem to be logical.

In fact, however, it stands for Partners and Communities Together (not Partnerships either, Nick!). This is, as one would expect from a Council which embraces local government jargon speak to a degree which borders on the obsessive, typically obscure. How many ordinary citizens know what "Partners" in this context means anyway?

So, always keen to be at the forefront of new ideas and proposals, I suggest that PACT from now on should stand for Police and Communities Together: logical, understandable and sensible. Ah, so that's why it won't change.

New kid on the block

Councillor Ian Haszeldine, the combative and respected Labour Councillor for Lingfield ward, former mayor and proud lifelong citizen of Darlington, has started a blog. It's called Lingfield Matters and promises to be a ward-based blog dealing with local community matters. Check it out.

Tory axe hangs over £57m BSF money

As I said in Full Council last night: Darlington's hard won £57m from the Building Schools for the Future programme has an axe hanging over it if the Conservatives win the next General Election. Unless final contracts have been signed by May 6th, the Conservatives have made it clear that these schemes cannot be guaranteed.

We know the Conservatives intend to divert money away from capital investment programmes in education to fund the surplus places it needs to kick start its free school movement. Now, through the Times Education Supplement, we hear from the Conservative Party's Shadow Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, that in the event of a Conservative Government being formed after the next General Election, the completion of new BSF schemes will only be guaranteed if "Financial Close" has been reached.

If the final contracts aren't signed by the time of the election, there is no guarantee that the Conservatives will honour the existing arrangements. Now, Darlington's acceptance into the most recent wave of BSF funding streams happened last November. I understand from officers, and it was confirmed in Council last night, that the time scale from there to final contracts being signed will typically be about one year, which clearly takes us past the date of the next General Election.

The BSF programme has been hugely bureaucratic and inefficient, but the fact remains that Darlington has succeeded in winning £57m from it - and we want that money. We have three schools in desperate need of rebuilding or renovation: Hurworth, Branksome and Longfield. Parents of children at, or soon to start at, one of these three schools should be aware that there is a Conservative axe hanging over theses plans. If they, quite understandably, want to show their opposition to what the Labour Government has been doing, but at the same time want to protect the redevelopment of these local schools, there is only one choice: they have to vote Liberal Democrat.

Cycling Campaign Meeting

This Friday night at 7.30 in the Media Centre at Darlington Arts Centre, the Darlington Cycling Campaign have an open meeting with leading cycling campaigner Karl McCracken as the guest speaker.

Go here for more details.

Chair of GOLD quits Tories, joins Lib Dems

Brian Jefferson, former Conservative Borough Councillor and currently Chair of GOLD (Growing Old, Living in Darlington) has quit the Conservative Party and joined the Liberal Democrats. He has pledged his support to me as the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Darlington.

Brian writes, "I decided to leave the Conservative Party because the local association imported a candidate to be the town's MP. I firmly believe that MPs should have lived in the town they seek to represent for at least two years before an election. Local needs can best be represented by a local person.

"Mike Barker meets that criteria. His local knowledge, backed by his business involvements, typifies those who, in the nineteenth century, built a thriving Darlington.

"Nationally I believe Nick Clegg has a superior support team who are not influenced by "big business" nor puppets of the trade unions. After long, careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the Lib Dems would be good for Darlington and good for Great Britain."

Naturally, I am delighted to receive this endorsement from Brian. We are already working together in Cockerton West ward, where Brian lives. Brian has a deep knowledge of Darlington and is involved in many groups in the town, particularly GOLD. He is a well-known and well respected member of the community. He shares the Lib Dem commitment to grass-roots politics and will be a formidable member of our local team.

The Five Pound Note Bridge

Here's a view of the Five Pound Note Bridge, Darlington's iconic bridge over which Locomotion 1 travelled, a sketch of which appeared on one version of the £5 note, that you don't often see. No, not because I'm in the picture! It's because the archway to the left of the photo is usually bricked up, so it's normally a tortuous scramble to get to this point.

For my cycling readers, by the way, that's the arch through which the proposed cycle path running parallel to North Road right into the town centre will pass, if the Council ever manage to purchase a strip of land owned by Magnet, which is 100 metres further on downstream.

Fred and I were there because we'd been told that the wall across the archway had been removed and a temporary metal gate erected to replace the brick wall had been thrown into the river. And indeed it has. We have yet to find out why the wall was removed.

The main gas pumping station for the town is away to my left and two huge gas pipes cross the river at this point, while other smaller pipes carry the gas north and south along the riverside. You can hear the gas wooshing along the pipes.

This is a little corner of Darlington that most people don't see. Sadly, evidence of serious drug taking lies spread across the ground. It'll take a lot of effort to turn this stretch into a cycle path, but, if the money's there, it'll certainly be worth it.

What's their excuse this time?

In today's Echo the Conservative agent in Darlington said the failure to include an imprint on the recently delivered Tory leaflet was a mistake made by the printer. So what's their excuse this time? The Advertiser has a wrap-around four page advert for the Tory candidate (Ashcroft's money being to put to good use, it seems). Yet again, there's no imprint. No "printed by...", no "published by...".

I wonder which laws of the realm I can get away with? Ah, no...I'm not a Conservative in Darlington, so I'm not above the law.