Richard Kemp 0801

End of bird flu restrictions

Suffolk County Council has welcomed the lifting of the final bird flu restrictions across the county, signalling the 'all clear' for chicken keepers.

The announcement made by DEFRA (The Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs) in December saw the lifting of the last disease control zone. This wider Surveillance Zone, which was placed on the county in November following the outbreak of bird flu in at Redgrave, meant that for six weeks poultry keepers in Suffolk had to house their birds away from wild birds.

This announcement means that poultry and keepers no longer need to keep their birds indoors.

2008-2009 Budget – Update: Extra Government funding

Suffolk County Council has received £7 million more in Government grant than it was expecting.

In December it was announced that the County Council had received a better than expected settlement from the Government which will lead to an extra £7 million in 2008/2009. A shortfall of £16 million was originally expected and cuts to services of this amount were proposed. The Cabinet will be receiving a paper when it meets on 14th January which discusses what to do with the extra money.

I think the fairest way to respond to this extra money, is to ask the public where they feel it should be spent. There needs to be consultation with taxpayers, Parish Councils voluntary organisations and partner organisations to make sure the cash has the best possible impact, I’d welcome your views on this.

The Cabinet paper can be found here:
http://apps2.suffolk.gov.uk/cgi-bin/committee_xml.cgi?p=doc&id=1_10552&format=doc

Success over Real Nappy Network

Suffolk Real Nappy Network will continue to promote the advantages of reusable nappies thanks to the Conservative Administration at Suffolk County Council’s u-turn decision on funding, agreeing to fund the organisation for the next three years. We have been campaigning to have funding reinstated since it was withdrawn in the Conservative’s first Budget.

The Suffolk Real Nappy Network (SRNN) is a community focused voluntary organisation, which aims to raise awareness of the environmental impact of nappies and informs parents of the advantages of cloth nappies. A baby will use around 5,000 nappies over their nappy-wearing life, which produces a mountain of waste equivalent to 130 black bin-bags full. In the UK nearly 8 million nappies are thrown away every day – amounting to an incredible 3 billion a year. Disposable nappies cost the County Council around £600,000 a year to dispose of, so any projects which cut their use is welcome!

The Suffolk Real Nappy Network has a shop on Westgate House, Museum Street, Ipswich IP1 1HQ. Their telephone number is 0870 005 3985. For more information on the network please visit: www.suffolkrealnappynetwork.org.uk

Unitary Ipswich/Suffolk

On 5th December 2007, the Government announced that only 5 of the 9 unitary bids had met all criteria: Cornwall County Council, Durham County Council, Northumberland County Council, Shropshire County Council and Wiltshire County Council. Bedford Borough Council’s bid may still be accepted – they have been postponed in order to give the remaining authorities in the county a chance to put together proposals for a unitary covering the rest of the county.

In the case of the unitary proposals for Cheshire, the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has received a very large volume of detailed information and representations about these proposals. They are still considering this material and so have deferred any decisions about these proposals.

With regard to both Ipswich and Exeter bids, the DCLG has studied the additional material it received since the July announcement and judged that they are not reasonably likely to achieve the outcomes specified by the affordability criterion. The Secretary of State did acknowledge however that there were strengths in the proposals and has therefore asked the Boundary Committee to look into whether “there could be alternative unitary proposals covering the whole or part of their wider county area which would achieve those outcomes”.

This means that there will now be a review of local government boundaries covering all Suffolk. I do not have any further information than this at the moment as the Boundary Committee has yet to publish its terms of reference. The review is likely to take around a year however. The Boundary Committee are expected to publish their plans within the next few months.

Further information will appear on their website (http://www.boundarycommittee.org.uk) and I will keep you up to date as the process moves along.