June 2nd, 2009
In todays Coventry Telegraph
“WARWICKSHIRE MP Bill Olner made wrong expenses claims for Council Tax for his London flat – and once claimed about £120 for a trouser press, we can reveal.”
The item goes on to tell us he tried to climed £23,682 last year which is more than the £23,083 allowed. His rent has shot up from £875 a month to a shocking £1,408 a month when he moved flats.
The full the text is now on the Cov telegraphs website.
cov telegraph
June 2nd, 2009
A poll to be published the day before the European elections suggests the battle for third place will be between the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP.
In the new poll, conducted by ComRes (1), the Greens have overtaken the Lib Dems for the first time since 1989. The poll suggests the Greens may be about to match their historic 1989 Euro-election vote of 15%.
The poll shows support for the different parties as follows:
Conservative: 24%
Labour: 22%
UKIP: 17%
Green: 15%
Lib Dems: 14%
BNP 2%
If the poll proves accurate, the Greens will probably win seats in the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, East Midlands, South West and Eastern regions plus Scotland, as well as holding existing seats in London and the South East. The Greens may even scoop up a second seat in the South East, with Brighton councillor Keith Taylor joining party leader Caroline Lucas, who was first elected in 1999.
Last Sunday’s Telegraph/ICM poll showed the Greens on 11%, ahead of UKIP nationally for the first time in the campaign. The Sunday Telegraph suggested that “the resurgent Greens” might win eight seats.
And in an earlier Green Party/YouGov poll, 34% of respondents said they would either definitely vote Green or consider voting Green if they knew more about the party.
Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, said: “It’s not all protest vote. I think our manifesto for a million jobs, aimed at tackling the recession and the climate crisis at the same time, has probably struck a chord with a lot of people.”
“In the last few days of the campaign we need to work hard to mobilise the Green vote, because in a proportional election every vote counts. A 15% Green vote would mean a half-dozen or more extra Green MEPs to go and fight for those million jobs in the Green New Deal.”
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Note to editors:
1. Commissioned by the Green Party. Fieldwork carried out 29-31 May 2009. Sample size 1,005 GB adults, polled by telephone.
June 2nd, 2009
Most people are not going to bother to vote on Thursday. This is both a shame and a very risky protest. If few people vote then the wrong people can get elected. Vote to clean up politics and make positive changes by voting Green in both the local and County Council elections.
Well before the current scandals broke we made a freedom of information request to get the details of the county councillor travel expenses. We now know the 62 charged over £91,000 in mileage allowances. We asked for details of the most costly councillors trips and have been told that this is being counted as a 2nd Freedom of Information request. When we find out how Cllr Heatley spent over £8,500 on travel we will make it very public.
When we started planning for the election our hope was to win a seat in each town in Warwickshire. We are now a serious threat to the old parties in many wards. UKIP are not standing in local elections in Nuneaton & Bedworth. The Lib Dems have vanished in the area with just 3 standing in the Borough. The one Lib Dem who is standing in the Abbey ward is trying to use the trick of “only the Lib Dems can beet the BNP”. In the Abbey ward the BNP do not have a chance. The paper candidate for the BNP is from Bedworth and has done no leafleting. If he is like the BNP candidate last year he will not even show up for the count.
We are also expecting to do especially well in the Whitestone ward.
Green party candidate for whitestone, Laurel Brindley said
“You may have read in recent news that the Tory Councillor for Whitestone claimed more than £8,500 in travel expenses, which came out of our taxes. That‘s enough fuel to take him nearly all the way around the world! Considering that he is the environmental leader for Warwickshire County Council, I think that we can all agree that this extensive claim is unacceptable.”
May 24th, 2009
Few people are aware that after the local elections there will be a consultation over which green spaces will be lost to build 10,700 new homes.
We will not have a chance to change the numbers because they will not ask us how many is needed. The 8 options will just set one community against another as to where they go. One option is show below but every bit of green space is at risk in one of the 8 options. If the downturn ends we are going to lose a big amount of our space and have one massive traffic problem.
see report at NBBC cabinet