How we define poverty

Whilst reading today’s Independent I was struck by the definition of poverty used by government statisticians. According to the article by Jonathan Owen the poverty line for a family of four is £357 a week after housing costs which translates to £18,564 a year. That got me thinking as I, like most people I suspect, assumed that poverty meant hungry children in rags and begging on the streets. OK so we are talking about relative poverty in the UK but just the use of the term poverty seems really over the top for a person earning £18,564 a year and has his housing costs paid for. Is this really a definition of poverty? Well the government measure used to define poverty is those living in a household with an income of less than 60% of the national average which currently means £357 a week for a family of four and excludes housing costs. It cannot be all sweetness and light for a family of four living on this level of income but it also does not seem like real poverty.

What strikes me about this definition of poverty is that it is totally distorted by the huge gap that opened up between rich and poor in this country since the days of Mrs Thatcher and the acceptance of ‘greed is good’ by successive Tory and Labour governments. The average income figure is skewed by the presence of a relatively few astronomically wealthy individuals. That gap has actually been narrowed a bit by the Coalition since 2010 with measures such as raising the personal income tax allowance, the pupil premium and now the expansion of free school meals but there is still a huge difference between rich and poor in our country.

The government needs a different measure of poverty in this country, one that can provide a useful measure of those in dire straits without reference to the filthy rich. That will help future governments target their efforts at those in really desperate need.

Why you should support the Lib Dems in Reading

Ricky face shot 6
We are proud of this government’s record in closing the gap between rich and poor in our society. It was the Lib Dems that proposed both the Pupil Premium and the sharp rises in income tax allowances that now give 25 million workwers an extra £700 in their pay packets. 1.5 million new apprenticeships are playing a key role in giving our youngsters the best starts in their chosen careers, a Green Investment Bank is now providing funds to develop our green businesses. And all this has been achieved whilst turning round our economy which the last Labour government left in a shambles.

We are also proud of this nation’s welcoming attitude to those from other parts of the world who want to contribute to our growing economy. Immigration plays a vital part in our country’s life, providing both simple labour and some of the best entrepreneurs. We want to see a Greater Britain, not a little England that disengages from the rest of the world. We want to work with our counterparts in Europe not set up barriers with our largest trading partners.

Reading has a booming economy and a fantastic kaleidoscope of a population from all four corners of the world. Our ambition is to make sure that all residents share in the rewards and that the less well off are also cared for.

Locally I am leading the campaign for 20 mph limits on all residential streets across Reading. I also want to see a much bigger emphasis on building affordable homes on any new developments in Reading.

Specifically in Tilehurst I am working with local people to oppose the ban on residents of Mayfair from parking on their own driveways, on opposing the landowners plans to sell off the allotments on Chapel Hill, supporting the road safety improvements in School Road and pushing for a much wider 20 mph zone as far as possible across Tilehurst. I also want to see much more use being made of mobile speed guns by the local police team given that one of their priorities is speeding cars.

Lessons from the Euro Debates

Like many people I have sat through both Euro debates and my gut feeling is that they did more to cement pre-existing views than sway anybody to vote one way or another.

What was hugely disappointing was the non-appearance of the other two major party leaders. If this is the leadership of David Cameron and Ed Milliband, then it is difficult to be positive about the future of Britain. They say they are both convinced Europeans but neither had the guts to defend their positions in a public debate. Neither was prepared to face down the populist groundswell behind UKIP that blames all our country’s ills on immigration and Europe.

The conclusion is simple. If you believe in Great Britain rather than Little England, if you want a strong Britain within Europe rather than a Billy-no-mates Britain with no jobs and no influence, if you want to see a future vision of Britain taking its rightful place in Europe rather than hoping to return Britain to the isolation of the fifties and sixties, then you need to vote for the Lib Dems, the party of IN, on May 22nd.

New crossings for School Road

Council officers have revised the plans for School Road that I reported on in December. The plans now call for 4 new pedestrian refuges along School Road instead of the 5 in the original plan and the bus stop in The Triangle is staying put. The plans can be seen here:

TTMS 004

Even better news is that the works are due to start next week (from Monday 24 February) after the Transport Management Team re-arranged their works schedules in the light of recent flooding.

School Road will soon have 4 new crossing points making crossing the road much easier and safer along with a new 20mph speed limit and a new guard rail outside the library (thanks to my colleague Meri O’Connell who led a campaign for the guard rail). All in all this is a good response to a number of accidents along School Road involving pedestrians. It also means that parents with children in tow and elderly residents can use the new crossings to avoid the particularly dangerous crossing of Westwood Road at its junction with School Road.

We welcome the new crossings and look forward to a safer Tilehurst. We will continue to campaign for 20mph zones across the whole town to make our residential streets safer for all users.

People Power in Mayfair

One of the nice things about being a councillor is being able to help people and for me the really special times are when you help people to take action for themselves. A great example of this has been the protest by residents of Mayfair about the bizarre actions of traffic wardens to ticket residents for parking on their own drives.
Mayfair parking
I was first approached by a resident after one of his neighbours visitors was ticketed. I queried this with the council but officers took the view that the land in question was public highway and even thought the ban was aimed at cars parking on grass verges or blocking public footpaths and the Mayfair residents did neither of these things, just parked on the long driveways in front of their houses, traffic wardens took no notice of protests and gave out tickets to cars parked on the driveways. This seemed a bit of nonsense so I queried it with Tony Page, the Lead Councillor for Transport, but he also declined to do anything. So we took the story to the press and, after asking for a meeting between Cllr Page and the residents, we were invited to put our case to a meeting of the Traffic Management Committee.

Mayfair residents then organised themselves, called a meeting, appointed a spokesperson, gathered over 50 signatures from other residents of Mayfair. Dave Penn was the man who presented the case and was given some rousing applause by the 8 or 9 other residents who attended the meeting to support him. I have been able to work with residents all along the way but for me the key thing was to see people doing things for themselves and standing up to the council. It has been great to see and to be involved with. So well done to Wayne, Dave, Pat and Ray and all the others who have given their support.

The result of pressure press and a strong presentation of their case has been a promise to respond to the issue at the next Transport Management meeting.

Affordable Housing in Reading

I almost got a shock whilst reading the papers for this week’s Planning Committee. On two major developments the council appears to have negotiated 30% affordable housing. Not withstanding the fact that these were probably negotiated while the council was supposedly working to a 50% target for affordable homes on new developments, this is a very healthy improvement from the 20% and less that I have seen consistently approved by the Planning Committee over the last 18 months I have had the pleasure of being a member of the committee.

On both occasions (Station Hill and Kenavon Drive) Cllr Page pointedly mentioned the affordable housing levels in his comments, a clear sign that he has woken up to my calls for action to get more affordable housing from new developments in Reading. He knows that his record is poor on this matter and I have constantly hammered away at affordable housing at every opportunity in committee.

However, the council recently dropped its affordable housing target from 50% down to 30%. So if we can get 30% when against a target of 50% I worry that future agreements will be a lot less than the target of 30%. If that proves to be the case then I will, of course, have a lot more to say to Cllr Page.

The government has allowed some of the income from council house sales to be used for new affordable housing and with the economy now moving up the gears we should see more developments coming to Planning Committee. We need to ensure that they include higher levels of affordable homes than in in the last 18 months.

New plans for School Road

School Road at The Triangle

Traffic managers at the council have come up with new plans to improve road safety along School Road in Tilehurst, in part due to a number of incidents involving pedestrians in recent years. The plans call for:

1. A number of traffic islands along School Road to make it safer for pedestrians to cross.
2. Removal of the bus lay-by in The Triangle.
3. Creation of a new bus lay-by in Corwen Road.
4. A new 20 mph limit along School Road, Walnut Way and the closes off them.
5. A safety barrier (guard railing) in front of the library.

The lay-by in The Triangle is used by the 33 buses as a timing point so buses may be parked there for several minutes. Moving the lay-by to Corwen Road will allow pedestrians to cross using a new island in front of Barclays Bank without the buses holding up traffic. The 17 will continue to use the bus stop which will move slightly closer to the traffic lights, but on the road and it does not use this stop as a timing point. The lay-by outside the Plough will not be changed.

Pedestrians can use the new islands to cross over School Road and also to avoid the tricky crossing of Westwood Road where mums, schoolchildren and elderly folk currently have to walk in between cars.

All in all the plans are welcome although we would have preferred a much wider 20 mph zone incorporating a lot more of Tilehurst’s residential roads.

You can see the plans here on the main Reading Lib Dems website.

Feel free to send any comments in to the ouncil, in fact the more comments you send in the better. And do not forget to mention the need for a safety barrier outside the library to stop very young children from running out into the street.

Potholes, potholes and more potholes

Walnut Way 20130414b
This is clearly a subject that concerns a lot of folk in Tilehurst according to our recent residents’ surveys. We also get a number of pothole reports coming to our monthly surgeries. Since the council has put in considerbly more effort to fix potholes over the last few months I thought I would share with you some figures that were presented to the recent Traffic Management committee in November.

Since 29 July the council has fixed 540 out of 885 potholes reported, which is 61%. This includes all those on major (A and B class) roads. Having fixed the major roads they are are working down the list of priorities and should complete the vast bulk before Xmas and the inevitable bout of colder weather that will, no doubt, open up another load of potholes.

Do spare a thought for the gangs who spend their time out on the roads fixing potholes, its a job that never ends.

Why we need blanket 20mph zones across Reading

I am often accused by the Labour Administration in Reading of wanting to impose 20 mph zones on the whole population where they want to achieve something similar area by area. Well let’s get the democracy question sorted first. Yes I want to see 20 mph zones across all residential areas of Reading but only after we have made the case to residents and got their support. I believe that the case for reclaiming our streets with blanket 20 mph zones is overwhelming both in terms of reducing traffic casualties and of encouraging more people to walk and cycle.

20mphRoundel100x100

Labour’s slowly slowly approach has meant that only the one area, in Newtown (where they hope to take the seat off the Greens next May), is currently being targeted for a 20 mph zone. Other councils have taken a much more proactive stance and gone ahead to consult with residents over whole towns and cities. These include Portsmouth, Brighton, Islington, Warrington, Liverpool, Wirral, Lancashire, Oxford, York, Cambridge, Waltham Forest, Newcastle, Hackney, Bristol, Middlesborough, Bath, Camden and Darlington.

For years Tony Page and his Labour colleagues have prevaricated on the issue of 20 mph zones whilst all these other places have grasped the nettle. We need action now over the whole of Reading and we need to make the case to Reading’s population about the need to reduce car speeds in residential areas. Actually I am sure that most Reading residents will take little convincing as whenever I have asked people about it there is almost total agreement.

So stop shilly-shallying and let’s have 20 mph zones across Reading