Julian Sturdy

I am extremely disappointed that the Government has left our region in complete confusion over its eco-town proposals. Its lack of ability to make decisions seems to be spreading down from the Prime Minister to his cabinet colleagues as this complete farce continues.

If none of the short listed developments are to be on green belt land as Housing Minister Caroline Flint has stated, then the Clifton Gate proposal should have been ruled out straight away as it falls at the first hurdle, yet we are left in limbo.

The Clifton Gate scheme should be dropped immediately. I strongly believe it is completely inappropriate for the area and would have disastrous consequences for the local community, the infrastructure is already at breaking point through lack of investment and long term planning in York. Any further local development on this scale would be madness and indefensible.

We must fight to protect our green belt and vigorously protect the identity of our rural communities like Skelton which would be lost by this proposal.

The Government has ordered the Post Office to close more than 2,500 branches across the country as part of a national review, in addition to the 4,000 post offices already closed since 1999. They are conducting the review in tranche’s across the Country and today it is the turn of North Yorkshire to hear its fate. Actually the York Press broke the story on Saturday however Tuesday the 27th of November is the day that the 50 post offices due for closure across our region (Yes 50) are officially announced. In the City of York four post offices have been ear marked for closure Clifton, Haxby Road, Micklegate and Fulford.     

I have to say I am appalled at these announced closures, there has sadly been a gradual erosion of the sub-post office network and the Government is ignoring the vital social role they play in our local communities. The truth is that the Government has pulled business out of the Post Office network and undermined its finances. It doesn?t seem to understand the social value of Post Offices to our communities, particularly the disabled, the elderly, those on low incomes, without transport and those in rural areas. We need to protect and support our local post offices as they provide a vital service to our communities, especially in the villages surrounding York. By reducing the services they provide, the Government is making it incredibly difficult for postmasters to make a living, putting vital community services under threat and ripping the heart out of village life.

It is vital that we respond strongly and in numbers to show the strength of public anger and frustration at these latest proposals. There will now be a standard six week consultation period closing on the 17th January (Extended due to the Christmas break by 10 days). This is our opportunity to convince the Government that our post offices must be saved. More information can be found at Post Watch or at your individual post office.  

I visited Fullford post office which has been earmarked for closure yesterday morning, and saw first hand the steady stream of people using this vital community facility, and speaking to local residents they told me how outraged they were about the proposed closure. 

I will be campaigning to keep Fulford post office open, as well as the other post offices earmarked for closure across York. The York Press are running a campaign that I am supporting, fighting the closures across North Yorkshire. Link to the petition.

Sorry I have not entered a post for some time, I have been having a few problems with my  broadband service however eventually BT have managed to solve the problem after a number of telephone conversations. I hadn’t realised how reliant I have become on the internet until the last few weeks without it.

They say a week in politics is a long time, well Mr Brown must certainly be thinking this as he looks back on the election that never was, in fact if Gordon had not bottled it we could have been going to the polls today. The question he will be asking himself is will there be a better opportunity?    

The Daily Telegraph is reporting today that Gordon Brown is under pressure to suspend rises in fuel duty as the threat of another fuel protest draws ever closer. The paper is saying that the Treasury is expected to pick up an unexpected £3 billion tax windfall from soaring oil prices.

With petrol prices set to pass through the £1 litre barrier Gordon Brown could be heading for a Winter of discontent if the fuel blockades go ahead.

The road haulage industry has every right to be furious at the soaring price of diesel and the impact it is having on their businesses. This Government has to realise that it can’t just keep using the industry as a cash cow, something will have to give at some point. However is the run up to Christmas a good time for more fuel blockades, given the impact it could have on businesses as stock deliveries dry up and they struggle to meet retail demand across the country in what is their busiest time of the year.

It would certainly give Gordon Brown and the Labour Government a big headache, however public sympathy for the the blockades that has been there in the past could soon disappear when Christmas becomes disrupted.        

Back on the home front even without a General Election things are very busy, I held a surgery in Dringhouses last Saturday which was very successful, there were plenty of people wanting to come and meet their Conservative Parlimentary Candidate and share with me their views on this Labour Government all very encouraging. A big thank you to Matthew Litten who held the surgery with me, Matthew is the next Conservative Councillor for Dringhouses & Woodthorpe in York. 

Posted by Ellee Seymour

I had an excellent fringe meeting yesterday at the Conservative Party conference to highlight the urgent need to dual York’s northern ring road. We were very fortunate to have MEP Timothy Kirkhope on the platform, and a large number of North Yorkshire county councillors who attended pledged their support.

I was able to meet up with Shadow Roads Minister Robert Goodwill who is visiting York on Friday and he has endorsed the dualling campaign. This is a great bonus, he fully understands how important it is to support these issues and to help our business communities, as well as commuters.
I am planning to meet Shadow Home Secretary David Davis at a meeting later today to discuss the totally unacceptable proposed cuts to our already fully stretched and dedicated police force which could see 300 police fewer officers in North Yorkshire if the Home Office gets its way.

I have been proud to promote these vital issues on behalf of the citizens of York Outer to ensure that we get the fair deal we deserve and that our views known by those who can make a difference.

Here is a a short video about me and the issues in the York Outer seat. It shows me at home and on my farm, out in the community and discussing my campaign to dual York’s northern ring road which I am highlighting at a fringe meeting on Monday at the Conservative party conference.

Thank you for watching.

The Political Party Conference season is upon us once again. First up are the Liberal Democrats who are holding their conference in Brighton this week where Ming Campbell is trying to convince his party that he is the right man to lead them into the next General Election.

One interesting development that has come out in the small print of the Lib Dem’s latest tax plans is their support for European-style house price taxes. Such a new house price tax system was introduced in Northern Ireland in April by Labour Ministers and  a 1% house price tax was also recommended by the Lib-Lab Scottish Executive in a report on town hall taxes last year. If introduced this system could mean typical bills of over 2,000 a year on families in York with the potential for regular revaluations to top it up. Ouch!  

Back on the home front, I attended Elvington village Parish Council meeting last night. They have done a fantastic job in securing a vital local flood defence scheme for the village that without their hard work and the support of their current MP John Grogan would not have been achieved. I believe Parish Councils play a very important role in our local communities and should be supported by local Politicians as Mr Grogan has done in Elvington and if elected I certainly intend to carry on that work.       

After Six weeks of hard work the Heworth Without by-election which was brought about by the sad death of Councillor Bill Bennett came to a close on Thursday night. I predicted the final result would be very close again after the Conservatives won the seat from the Liberal Democrats by 35 votes in May, well unfortunately it wasn’t as close as I thought it might have been.

Following a hard fought campaign on all sides  and with a greatly increased turnout of 62% which I think is very impressive for a local authority by-election Nigel Ayre (Lib Dem) won the seat with 914 votes against Adam Sinclair (Conservative) 703 votes giving a majority of 211. There were three other candidates standing and you can see the full result by clicking on the by-election link above.   

The Liberal Democrats managed to deliver seventeen leaflets (Yes 17!) during the campaign and despite receiving a number of complaints from residents about the excessive amount of leaflets their tactics obviously paid dividends for them.   

I have just got back from delivering the dawn raid leaflet out to all our pledges, followed by a more relaxing stint telling on one of the polling stations, so I thought I would just give you a brief update before the knock up campaign gets started.

The Liberal Democrats are up to their usual tricks, to put it into a football term “they are playing the man rather than playing the ball” however I think it is going to be very close tonight. We have run a very positive campaign talking about the local issues and our candidate Adam Sinclair has worked exceptionally hard and all will be reveled later on tonight at the count.

I will post the result of the by-election in the morning.