JULIAN BRAY PROSPECTIVE CANDIDATE FOR STANGROUND SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION 3RD MAY 2018:




Julian Bray Prospective Candidate South Stanground
Peterborough City Council
Local Government Election May 3rd 2018

We confirm that concerned local resident and broadcaster Julian Bray is a prospective candidate for the vacant Stanground South Peterborough City Council seat. The Local Government Election is to be held on Thursday May 3rd 2018.  He is not affiliated to any political party and not bound by party restrictive dogma. 

Julian Bray edits the popular Peterborough Tribune blog home to the very active and independently run Park Farm Neighbourhood Watch.

Julian Bray writes: Having looked at some other candidates sorry efforts at producing an election manifesto specifically for Stanground South, you would have thought they would have credited us voters with at least an ounce of commonsense, and actually listened and understood the local issues and not just swallowed the generic 'one size fits all' party line?  

With the meltdown in both Tory and Labour ranks, it became increasingly clear to me and those I love and support, that residents of Stanground South (Cardea and Park Farm) are now really financially suffering along with many others in this divided civic debt ridden City. A mounting debt running seriously out of control under the conservatives.

National political party sponsored candidates are now more 'under the thumb' of both extreme left and right wing political zealots and ideological factions.

A question remaining unanswered by the local Tory candidate. Do we really want to import old style Northern Ireland RUC weaponised police tactics into our ward? Even the PSNI has very publicly distanced itself from legacy RUC activity.  

Westminster based political dogma and internal party squabbles, take precedence over tackling important hyper-local issues in their own back yard. Why?

Serious pressing local issues, such as greatly increasing homelessness, ever skyrocketing rents, tenants thrown out as the failed Universal Credit [UC] System is rolled out nationally later this month, and we see vulnerable people increasing lose their rented homes as the UC payments are not being made quickly enough by the DWP [DSS]. Cherished dogs and cats dumped as private and public landlords impose heart-breaking prohibitions on pet ownership.

Or marked down vulnerable claimants, many with disabilities, unfairly sanctioned by ASOS and Capita as crooked and made up falsified personal assessments are seeing motability rented cars abruptly removed and awards slashed. 

Stressed parents being targeted by schools demanding parents contribute ever more cash and resources. Other Academy schools accused of channelling public funding away from education in order to pay out £150,000 salary packages for some teachers.  

Social disorder erupting, crime prevention lacking, violent knife and gang crime on the increase, illegal minimotos, a lack of local policing as front line budgets cut, now we hear that murderers and rapists left free to roam without restrictions on unconditional police bail even! 

Councillors unwilling to hold regular consultations or surgeries (as they are mandated to do)  all these factors pushing other pressing local issues moved to the bottom of the pile.

But seemingly all the current crop of local South Stanground councillors worry about is counting out their increased allowances or complaining about dog owners and dogs!

Some have even taken to adding to the mess by spray painting graffiti notices on pavements or putting up endless banal notices on vandalised playgrounds, few children ever use the one in Park Farm as its unpoliced, no supervision or CCTV, and a regular home to winos and drug dealers.. when will they ever learn?

Public funding increasingly channelled away from Stanground and Park Farm into garish ill thought out and planned personal vanity and failing public realm projects.  Bridge Street is a rash of chain takeaways and formulaic restaurants.

*Cyclists being fined by enforcement officers 'working on commission' hired through a Wales based security outfit! How daft and brainless is that?

Meanwhile Sure Start centres axed, old folks homes vacated, libraries reduced hours and some closed and even the one functioning civic Key Theatre reduced  by the money pit Vivacity outfit to running cinema films, or if any funding  left funnelled into local councillors pet legacy projects.

Even the BBC is to give up on Peterborough and vacate their building and the Queensgate Cinema now seems to have been put on hold. Millions poured into the 40 year old pipedream of a lower tier University.

Julian Bray already has a very clear and simple mandate to call out those councillors who are putting themselves and their business interests first. Even Comedian Jason Manford avoided the City Centre and delivered act-as-known at the out of town arena, allegedly to get a laugh, citing the lack of City centre facilities.  

We seemingly elect party controlled councillors who even lack basic keyboard skills, have little or know business experience and unable to control and manage the wilder excesses of past and present council officers, some who have arguably wasted millions of public funding on hair-brained schemes, the dead trees (only this week high viz and rusty steel plates along Bourges Boulevard are typical of poor planning and decision making.

Long-term lucrative contracts handed out  like 'sweeties' then rapidly cancelled. These excesses all cost money and you end up paying more in council tax.

Deadbeat committee members quick to trouser the self-awarded enhanced allowances but slow to act. Many have been asleep at the wheel. Others who have become too self important to carry out even basic public duties.

All these are factors I will try and distil into an election leaflet  but don't expect me to knock on your door, or like some labour activists stuff leaflet through letterbox then  'knock and run' Unlike some other candidates in this election, you have my direct telephone number 01733 345581.

I welcome your call and will be 'on the stump' out and about in your locality. You and I already know what is wrong in our wards and it will not be resolved by the major political parties parachuting in candidates or rapidly replacing some who have clearly half a brain, the sad individuals allegedly behind the gross and vulgar anti-Semitic rants that are becoming all to strident, and the increasing cat calling and character assassination that sadly seems to be blighting local and national politics.

It is a sad day when the Leader of H.M.Opposition has to have the front of his modest London house substantially boarded up. Today March 30th 2018 was that day....

 

COUNCIL TARGETS POSTAL VOTE ABUSE

POSTAL VOTES NOW NEED ORIGINAL SIGNATURES TO COMBAT POSTAL VOTE FRAUD

THINKING OF A POSTAL VOTE?

Applying to vote by post

Download the form to apply to vote by post (PDF)

In England, Scotland and Wales, only electors who are (or will be) registered individually are entitled to apply to vote by post.

 

To check if you are correctly registered, you should contact your local electoral registration office.

To find the contact details for your local electoral registration office, enter your postcode in the 'Your local area' section of our homepage. 


THE PETERBOROUGH ELECTORAL SERVICES TEAM IS HERE: https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/council/elections/postal-votes/

Once you are registered you will need to complete a postal vote application form.

Download the form to apply to vote by post (PDF)

After completing the form, you'll need to print it, sign it, and send it back to your local electoral registration office.

Why do I need to sign my form?

Download the form to apply to vote by post (PDF)
You need to sign your application form personally because the electoral registration office needs a copy of your signature for voting security reasons. We know it's slightly less convenient than submitting it online, but it helps to ensure the security of your vote and is used to tackle electoral fraud.

DONT LET ANYONE ELSE SIGN YOUR FORM!


 

SHOCK HORROR THE STANGROUND TORY KABAL DID LITTLE TO STOP THE MASSIVE SEWAGE DIGESTION PLANT being built near CARDEA, STANGROUND & PARK FARM

PETERBOROUGH TELEGRAPH NOTICE
PUBLISHED MARCH 30th 2016




PLANNING REF 16/00080/MMFUL  PARK FARM & CARDEA POO & EXCREMENT FARM.

Welcome to the Tory approved Poo Farm ..........

The Stanground Conservative Councillors clearly sat on their hands as the huge Fengate plant near the Cinema multiplex (CLICK THIS LINK) was waved through Planning,  and its pretty clear not a lot was being actively done to halt the progress of yet another FOUR TANK STRONG Anaerobic Digestion Plant,  and a permanent gas flare pipe to light up the surrounding residential developments.

You might also like to consider that the current Chair of the Planning Committee Stanground South Tory Cllr Harper, appears to have facilitated the Fengate Poo Farm scheme!  But for some strange reason their South Stanground candidate, a retired Irish RUC armed policeman is claiming they stopped the Cardea Industrial Halal Chicken Slaughter house, when its just not true! 

The Peterborough Conservatives  (including Janet Wilkinson Stanground East (as Park Farm)  voted a few years back for a huge Arab backed 'Dubai World' Stanground rail and road freight interchange, to be built over our floodplain 'Drysides' It would have operated around the clock seven days a week. 

The outgoing Cabinet then rushed though the Fletton Quays riverside disaster and with the inbuilt Conservative majority defeated the call in. But they HUGELY MISCALCULATED and punted another £15 million of public money (your money) which could have been used to boost the childrens services budget but virtually gifted to an unknown newly set-up Irish firm to build this latest monumental folly seemingly supported by Stanground Conservatives (true some may mildly publicly protest, but if that's correct how on earth did FENGATE POO FARM ever get through? CLUE: Who really owns the land?

They had the whole of the unpopulated Fens to locate this latest sewage gobbling, gas flarepipe monstrosity but it had to be placed in the middle of a high density residential zone, with a high proportion of young families. Endless Tanker loads of this toxic stuff destined to pass by your door....  

But the halal chicken slaughter house project trundled through the Huntingdon planning process; the price of nearby properties tumbled, and house sales halted. But the landbanking prices soared!, especially the new build this side of Morrisons on a reclaimed brownfield site...just don't double spit deep dig over your garden folks!  Who know what lies beneath!  GIVES A WHOLE NEW MEANING TO BROWNFIELD!

The outgoing local councillor is excited about dog poo and not so friendly we surmise about dog owners, and taken to painting stencils on the footway, but they published contact data which if Stanground South candidate and Peterborough Tribune Editor Julian Bray, and the 4000 membership of PETA hadn't crowdbombed the Huntingdon planning site withg mulktiple properlky formatted objections you could well have the prospect of tanker loads of both excrement and chicken by products being trundled past St Michaels and Heritage Park Primary Schools or motorists meeting the sewage tankers on the road during the twice daily school run?  All bottlenecked by the Kings Dyke....Cushty!

The smell will be on a par with the regular end of month rubbish burn by the brickworks (latest burn was today Goode Friday 30th March 2018...), we have to endure but instead of monthly poo smells, also expect the smell of digesting burnt off excrement, sewage silage smells, on a daily basis. It'll be easy to spot at night... just look for the gas flare pipe!

The best we can hope for is strong winds over the Fens, and then the  regular daily 'pong' will hit Hampton Hargate, which is in direct line of fire, and on higher ground.........     


 

CLLR TURNIP TO LOSE LGA GOVENOR STATUS AS HERITAGE PARK BECOMES SELECTIVE ACADEMY?

THE Conservatives intend to take all schools out of local authority care and control and turn them into Academies, this will certainly include Heritage Park Primary School in Park Farm and St Michaels in Cardea brutally taken out of local authority hands and gifted to Academy business groups.

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2016/03/ambushed-tory-minister-faces-death-by-graph-when-asked-about-the-impact-of-tory-policies-on-newsnight/

The good news is that Cllr Turnip will lose his much vaunted School Governor  expenses (he's in charge of raised vegetable beds having spent over £1K of public funds on them).  Meanwhile how are the Tories doing on education? This is what the teachers think.....    

Teachers vote for strike action over Conservatives Academy directive for all schools

NASUWT comments on the white paper

      

Commenting on the White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:

“The best that can be said of this White Paper is that it represents a veiled admission by the Government of the failure of its school reforms since 2010, with a raft of measures clearly intended to ensure that schools are no longer left to do their own thing.

“It is clear that the sun has set on the Government’s vision of headteachers as “captains of their ship”, to be replaced by a mantra of “supported autonomy” that will have profound implications for how schools are led and managed over the next period.

“Despite the breadth of topics covered, the White Paper fails to address some of the most pressing issues affecting schools and teachers, not least low morale, a recruitment and retention crisis, and the continuing impact of real terms erosion of teachers’ pay and cuts to school budgets.

“The White Paper also proposes to increase the layers of accountability to which schools are subject, which will do little to assuage the fears of many schools or make the jobs of teaching and school leadership any more attractive or deliverable.

This is a White Paper which yet again focuses on futile and wasteful structural reform at the expense of ensuring that all children and young people, including pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, are guaranteed to receive the help and support they need to be able to succeed.

“Every pupil should be entitled to be taught by a qualified teacher. However, the proposal to replace the internationally recognised Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) standard with a highly discretionary system of accreditation will rightly provoke serious concerns amongst teachers, parents and the general public.

“Whilst the White Paper belatedly acknowledges that all teachers should be either accredited or on a path to accreditation, Ministers do not appear to have grasped the need to ensure that all teachers are guaranteed access to high quality teacher training and continuing professional development (CPD), which are the hallmarks of high performing education systems around the world.

“The White Paper contains a mix of policy commitments, including on matters previously announced by the Government in respect of school funding and the academisation of all schools by 2022.

“All of the proposals contained in the White Paper will need to be carefully examined and teachers will expect the Government to avoid rushing into implementation of ill-considered or poor policy ideas which will fail to deliver excellence for all pupils.”

BEDROOM & ESA TAX BUST UP: ROS ALTMANN BROADSIDE IN FULL: AS SHAILESH VARA JOINS IN: DUNCAN-SMITH QUITS OVER 3 BILLION CUT IN DISABILITY BENEFITS ENDORSED BY STANGROUND SOUTH, CARDEA TORY CANDIDATES

+++ BREAKING NEWS
+++ IAIN DUNCAN-SMITH RESIGNS

+++ IAIN DUNCAN-SMITH LETTER

+++ SHALESH VARA LETTER

+++ BARONESS ALTMANN PRESS RELEASE

+++ DAVID CAMERON LETTER


http://stangroundsouth.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/13-billion-cut-in-disability-benefits.html

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has resigned, citing pressure to make cuts to disability benefits. Here is the full text of his letter :

DEAR PRIME MINISTER...

"I am incredibly proud of the welfare reforms that the government has delivered over the last five years. Those reforms have helped to generate record rates of employment and in particular a substantial reduction in workless households.

As you know, the advancement of social justice was my driving reason for becoming part of your ministerial team and I continue to be grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to serve. You have appointed good colleagues to my department who I have enjoyed working with. It has been a particular privilege to work with with excellent civil servants and the outstanding Lord Freud and other ministers including my present team, throughout all of my time at the Department of Work and Pensions.

I truly believe that we have made changes that will greatly improve the life chances of the most disadvantaged people in this country and increase their opportunities to thrive. A nation's commitment to the least advantaged should include the provision of a generous safety-net but it should also include incentive structures and practical assistance programmes to help them live independently of the state. Together, we've made enormous strides towards building a system of social security that gets the balance right between state help and self help.

Throughout these years, because of the perilous public finances we inherited from the last Labour administration, difficult cuts have been necessary. I have found some of these cuts easier to justify than others but aware of the economic situation and determined to be a team player I have accepted their necessity.

You are aware that I believe the cuts would have been even fairer to younger families and people of working age if we had been willing to reduce some of the benefits given to better-off pensioners but I have attempted to work within the constraints that you and the chancellor set.

I have for some time and rather reluctantly come to believe that the latest changes to benefits to the disabled and the context in which they've been made are, a compromise too far. While they are defensible in narrow terms, given the continuing deficit, they are not defensible in the way they were placed within a Budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers. They should have instead been part of a wider process to engage others in finding the best way to better focus resources on those most in need.

I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.

Too often my team and I have been pressured in the immediate run up to a budget or fiscal event to deliver yet more reductions to the working age benefit bill. There has been too much emphasis on money saving exercises and not enough awareness from the Treasury, in particular, that the government's vision of a new welfare-to-work system could not be repeatedly salami-sliced.

It is therefore with enormous regret that I have decided to resign. You should be very proud of what this government has done on deficit reduction, corporate competitiveness, education reforms and devolution of power. I hope as the government goes forward you can look again, however, at the balance of the cuts you have insisted upon and wonder if enough has been done to ensure "we are all in this together".

Yours ever
Iain Duncan-Smith

___________________________________________________

.....and the Prime Minister (through gritted teeth - note its signed Yours not Yours ever) responds:

Meanwhile Baroness Ros Altmann wades in with this barnstorming missive:

Personal Statement by Pensions Minister, Ros Altmann 19 March 2016

I am extremely shocked by the news of Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation and the way he has behaved.

Having worked alongside him as a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, I have seen that he championed the very package of reforms to disability benefits he now says is the reason he has resigned.

I simply cannot understand why he suddenly chose to quit like this when it was clear that Number 10 and the Treasury had told him they were going to pause and rethink these measures. I’m particularly saddened that this really seems to be about the European referendum campaign rather than about DWP policy. 

 
From a personal perspective, for months I have been silenced by him and what I have said has been strictly controlled.  I have had to accept that this is part of being in Government, but am therefore horrified to see him abuse the freedom to take sides the Prime Minister has generously offered to ministers. 

In particular, I was astonished that he attacked his own government for producing what he called "dodgy dossiers" on the EU situation, which simply sought to set out the facts about this vital issue for our country’s future.

He seems to want to do maximum damage to the party leadership in order to further his campaign to try to get Britain to leave the EU.

As far as I could tell, he appeared to spend much of the last few months plotting over Europe and against the leadership of the party and it seemed to me he had been planning to find a reason to resign for a long time.

I have found him exceptionally difficult to work for.  It has been a hugely challenging time for me as he was preventing me from speaking to the public and has often been obstructive to my efforts to resolve important pension policy issues such as on women's pensions. 

I am looking forward to working with new Secretary of State, Stephen Crabb.

Pensions Minister, Ros Altmann  

Not to be outdone...Baroness Altmann's recollection of being closed down by Duncan Smith is this morning contradicted by the other junior pensions minister, the MP Shailesh Vara.

In a message to Duncan Smith that Shailesh Vara has authorised to be published, Vara says:

"I have to say I'm surprised by Ros's comments. The fact is that I recall Ros attending all the meetings at which we openly discussed government policy and then we both went out to defend the policy in the Commons and Lords, which as you know wasn't always easy to do.

"Ros's recollection does not accord with mine and I'm sorry this has happened".

This back and forth between serving ministers of the government is a nightmare for the prime minister.

If Downing Street authorised Baroness Altmann to speak out last night, its officials may be regretting giving her that licence this morning

Conservative Ministers face intense pressure to perform a U-turn over plans for a £1.3 billion a year cut in disability benefits as a few Tory MPs have threatened to revolt over the measure. The exceptions being Shailesh Vara MP and Stewart Jackson MP who are all for the cuts...

The Stanground  South Local Tory Candidate hopefuls under the control of former Care Home owner Cllr Sheila Scott, who made such a 'horlicks' of Peterborough Childrens Services.  Tories are also thought to be in favour of the cuts to Personal Independence Payments. The local MP Shailesh Vara Justice Minister has already  endorsed cuts to disability payments, as has back bencher Stewart Jackson MP

Courtesy Imperial War Museum

THE LULL BEFORE THE IDS STORM : 
The Government is committed to pushing ahead with a controversial £1.3 billion cut to disability benefits despite the threat of a Tory backbench rebellion, Downing Street has said.

Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokeswoman said reform of personal independence payments (PIP) was essential in order to curb the "ballooning" welfare bill.

However she said ministers would be "engaging" with MPs and disability rights groups over the coming months before tabling legislation.

"The Government's position hasn't changed. We remain committed to making these much- needed reforms," the spokeswoman said.
"We have got the time now, with the proposals out there before we bring forward the legislative proposals, to be explaining it to colleagues across the House, to be engaging with disability groups, and that's what we will do."



PA REPORTS: Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith wrote to Tory MPs to insist that consultations were continuing while Cabinet colleague Nicky Morgan said the proposed cut was merely a "suggestion".

Chancellor George Osborne has been warned that the restrictions on the personal independence payment (PIP) would be defeated in a Commons vote as there would be enough Tory rebels to wipe out the Government's slender majority.

In an effort to prevent a revolt which could wipe out the Government's slender Commons majority, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith later wrote to Tory MPs to insist that consultations were continuing, while Cabinet colleague Nicky Morgan said the proposed cut was merely a "suggestion".

But Mr Corbyn told BBC Radio 5 Live the Government was planning to take £4 billion out of the benefit over the course of the Parliament at the same time that George Osborne's Budget was "giving tax relief to the biggest companies in cutting corporation tax".
"It is utterly appalling what they are proposing," he said. "We will be forcing a vote in Parliament on this. I hope and believe all opposition parties will join with us in that.
"I believe a number of Conservative MPs are so upset about this they too will vote against the Government."

Conservative backbencher Andrew Percy, who has organised a letter to the Chancellor calling for a rethink, warned that the Government would be defeated in the Commons if it tried to push the changes through.

Backbencher William Wragg became the latest Conservative to register his concern about the plan, putting his name to Mr Percy's letter and saying the "PIP changes need a rethink".

The squeeze on PIPs will see up to 640,000 people affected by tighter criteria, brought forward after a review by health professionals found people were being awarded points for aids and appliances already in homes or provided by the NHS and councils.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3497991/Ministers-intense-pressure-1-3bn-annual-cut-disability-benefits.html#ixzz43Fhz8RA8
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

The squeeze on PIPs will see up to 640,000 people affected by tighter criteria, brought forward after a review by health professionals found people were being awarded points for aids and appliances already in homes or provided by the NHS and councils.

The Budget documents made clear that the proposals would save more than £4 billion by 2020-21.

Education Secretary Mrs Morgan appeared to indicate that the plans could be watered down in the face of a backbench revolt.

She told BBC1's Question Time: "This is a measure that is still being discussed in Government."

- Advertisement -

x

Mrs Morgan added: "It is something that has been put forward, there has been a review, there has been a suggestion, we are not ready to bring the legislation forward."

She insisted: "We want there to be control of the welfare budget. We also made it very clear that we are not going to balance the books on the back of the poor and the disabled and we absolutely hold to that promise."

Conservative backbencher Andrew Percy, who has organised a letter to Mr Osborne calling for a rethink, warned the Government would be defeated in the Commons if it tried to push the changes through.

Ministers insist that overall spending on disability benefits is going up and the changes are needed to make sure the cash is better targeted to those in most need.

But Mr Percy said it was clear the shift was aimed at hitting spending targets, not improving support, and that the Government was on course to suffer defeat in the Commons if it sought to push the change through.

He told Channel 4 News: "There is no measure that has been put before the House of Commons yet. If a measure is put before the House of Commons I think it is fair to say that it is unlikely to get the support of the House of Commons given how much concern there is on this matter.
"But this is a consultation, we are not there yet."

The Brigg and Goole MP wrote on Twitter: "If I can be honest, I'd rather have a penny or two on fuel if it protects PIP."

Conservative MP Johnny Mercer also expressed reservations about the plans, saying on Twitter: "Concerned by proposed changes to PIP. Not sure right direction."

Fellow Tory David Burrowes said the proposals were a "backward step" and urged ministers to "press pause on it".

He told BBC2's Newsnight: "There's lots that we are doing so much better but this puts us on the back foot."

Ministers are trying to win over MPs, stressing that the planned changes followed a consultation with disability organisations and the proposals were set out before the Budget.

Mr Osborne told the BBC he was "always happy to listen to proposals about how to improve on that".
"But we have got to control our disability budget and make sure help goes to the people who need it most."

In his letter, Mr Duncan Smith told MPs: "Last week, we published our response setting out our thoughts on how we should continue to take into account the use of aids and appliances.
"As the Chancellor said this morning, we will now take this response forward, continuing our discussions with disability groups and colleagues."

Justin Tomlinson, minister for disabled people, has been speaking to Tory colleagues to reassure them about the planned changes.

He told the BBC that although hundreds of thousands of people would be hit by the cut in 2020-21, many would not lose out completely: "A significant chunk of that 640,000 will continue to receive the benefit."