Making a difference to the people of Medway
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Improving schools are boosting pupils' prospects
Article posted on Friday, 3 September 2010
There will be a great big sigh of relief from parents this week as their children return to school after their long summer break. Other Medway students will soon be jetting off to start college and University.
Although the holidays can sometimes seem as if they go on forever, there was a great deal to celebrate over the summer when it comes to schools in Medway. It was another year of record GCSE and A-Level results, with students getting the grades that they have worked hard to achieve and rightly deserved. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: City status will bring wider recognition and financial benefits
Article posted on Friday, 6 August 2010
How do we best describe Medway? With its Norman castle, fine cathedral, military history, and iconic river and associated fortifications. With its huge regeneration programme, the universities, growing population and ground-breaking sports facilities.
Rich heritage, great future. That is how we at Medway Council are describing Medway as we move forward. High amongst current priorities is preparing to bid for formal city status in 2012, when The Queen has her Diamond Jubilee. That is one of the reasons why we have branded ourselves The City Of Medway - Rich Heritage, Great Future. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Despite making do with less, shows will still go on
Article posted on Friday, 9 July 2010
How do we measure quality of life in Medway? A matter of perspective, but if residents have somewhere to go and things to do they are likely to feel better all round.
With more than £6 million of spending reductions announced last week, including 50 jobs being lost in the council, the need for reassurance is high. Medway council has to strike a balance with the services it provides, and spend available money in a way that will benefit most of the community it serves. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: The new government knows the value of prudence
Article posted on Friday, 11 June 2010
How nice to see that the incoming government has learnt a thing or two from Medway Council. At the moment this relates to the high-pressure financial problems faced by the country.
In tackling the huge scale of government spending two initial steps have been announced. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Election elation as Towns decide blue is the colour
Article posted on Friday, 14 May 2010
At Last! We have a new government, after 13 years of seeing our country and its economy being decimated by an inept Labour party.
The list of things to have gone wrong is a long and painful one, but surely now is the time to look to the future and hope that things will improve. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Keeping tax as lowest in the county
Article posted on Friday, 19 March 2010
Budget setting is over for another year, and it is pleasing to report that the Conservatives in Medway have set a budget that will benefit everybody.
It was a difficult juggling act with limited resources, and involved the use of almost £1.7 million of new investment. Our concern was to spread the money across Medway where it would do the most good. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Face up to reality of the price of worthiness
Article posted on Friday, 19 February 2010
The complexities of budget setting will – understandably – pass most people by, but over the next few weeks Medway Council will be deciding how best to juggle its finances over the next year.
The task gets more difficult with each passing year, but is one your elected representatives have to get to grips with. This has to be done against a rising tide of expectations from the public, mostly because this current government continues to give the impression that we can have more and more and continue to pay less and less. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Opponents would slash spending for passes
Article posted on Friday, 22 January 2010
Last month I wrote about the shortage of money that afflicts Medway Council. Yet to listen to opposition parties during the last council debate, you could be forgiven for thinking we are loaded.
The subject up for debate was a Labour proposal to introduce a Freedom Pass giving free bus travel for children. A laudable enough idea, if only it were affordable – with a projected cost of at least £3 million a year. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: For efficiency savings, read job losses
Article posted on Friday, 18 December 2009
So another pre-budget statement has come and gone, and most of us are going to be worse off again.
National Insurance is going up again, but there are a host of other measures that will see people suffering financially as never before. Everything points to a bleak 2010. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Car park charges freeze with warm wishes
Article posted on Friday, 20 November 2009
Difficult times call for difficult decisions to be made, and in the budget for 2009/2010 that is exactly what the Conservatives decided to do.
In constructing the budget we had to decide how to help the hard-pressed people of Medway in the face of Labour's devastating economic policies that have taken Britain into the deepest recession in living memory. Read more...
No to estuary airport
Article posted on Tuesday, 17 November 2009
The Mayor of London has a grim vision for Kent and Medway. Seemingly, he wants to blight the area with 24-hour flights, increased noise and air pollution and by destroying some of the UK's most important wildlife reserves. It is a vision I want to ensure doesn't become a reality. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: All aspects of our culture prove popular
Article posted on Friday, 23 October 2009
Medway Council strategy documents are often cumbersome and dull to read, and sometimes it is even difficult to relate them to delivering services across Medway. Not so the recently published Cultural Strategy.
It was packed with information and it is not until all this information is assembled in one document that there is a clear understanding of just what Medway Council provides. Read more...
Holding Scrutiny Meetings in Public
Article posted on Tuesday, 29 September 2009
One of the long-standing debates in local government is how to engage the public in the work we, as councillors, are doing. Recently you considered whether elected members should be holding public meetings in their wards and the mixed reaction, and attendance, they received. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: School budget cuts should fill us with dread
Article posted on Friday, 25 September 2009
The central theme of recent debates, with accusation and counter-accusation flying, has been education.
Medway Council is being forced by government to reorganise education in a variety of areas, even though those opposed to the Conservative administration have said otherwise. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Election excitement rather unexpected
Article posted on Friday, 28 August 2009
Happily for me, in Medway we have a Conservative majority. Whatever your politics this has advantages over the days when no party had a majority.
There is the certainty that once leading politicians have decided on a course of action then it can be followed through. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Underfunded - but still bossed around
Article posted on Friday, 31 July 2009
One of the things the Conservative administration did some years ago was to reduce the amount we spend on attending national conferences and seminars. This was done purely on the basis of ensuring we get value for council taxpayers’ money.
Now, a mere handful of conferences are funded each year, and one of the most important and valuable is the Local Government Conference. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Investment will benefit all who live here
Article posted on Friday, 3 July 2009
Medway Council has been working for several years on how to Put Medway On The Map. There are big benefits to be gained from this wider recognition of Medway as a place, and these are often on a scale that would not be easily achieved by one of five towns.
Big companies expect to invest in and around major cities - cities which can cater for all their needs. Here in Medway we can provide the infrastructure and facilities, both physical and social, that are necessary to attract big investors. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Government policy drives our decisions
Article posted on Friday, 5 June 2009
Change is one of the challenges with which politicians are faced. The Conservative administration in Medway has been confronted by difficult options many times since 2000, but on each occasion the promised benefits have been realised.
Three of the most difficult challenges that come to mind are the changes we have made to how our care homes have been set up and managed, the introduction of academy schools and, most recently, the consultation on primary strategy for change. Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: Government's lack of joined-up thinking
Article posted on Friday, 8 May 2009
Government policies seem contradictory. Two that come to mind are education and housing.
Remember that Labour came to power promising "education, education, education" as its three priorities, it becomes hard to reconcile that with what is happening here in Medway. Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: Busy summer of festivals, despite downturn
Article posted on Friday, 10 April 2009
Once the clocks have gone forward and the evenings begin to become lighter, we all want to start to get out of the house and enjoy ourselves.
One of the big challenges for the Conservative administration here in Medway has been how to maintain the big programme of events we have historically held. Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: How could anyone oppose budget plans?
Article posted on Friday, 13 March 2009
Two big words came to the fore at the recent council meeting taht determined Medway's budget for the coming year. Those words were "against" and "abstain" and were sadly used by opposition politicans in an attempt to derail the Conservative budget.
Perhaps all is fair in love, war and politics, but in proposing a budget that was so good for Medway in all respects I was understandably shocked at the reaction of opposition politicians. Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: Council tax payers not bitten by the crunch
Article posted on Friday, 13 February 2009
This week Medway Council published its budget proposals, and despite the current economic downturn it represents good news all round. Top of the list is the fact that Medway retains the cheapest council tax in Kent by an average of £130 a year.
This is no mean achievement when we consider that under the government settlement we have lost £4.8 million in the so-called damping. Our increase in council tax will yield £4.4 million - so we are going backwards. Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: Don't despair - we have an exciting future
Article posted on Friday, 16 January 2009
The Medway Messenger editorial on January 2 summed up what many of us believe about Medway when it said: "The economy may be in freefall but the future is bright in Medway." How very true that is.
That was written in the context of the successful regeneration that is changing the face of Medway for ever. But there are many other examples of change for the better. Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: Our 6-point pledge to help businesses through the Credit Crunch
Article posted on Friday, 12 December 2008
The Conservative administration on Medway Council are occupied on a daily basis with making improvements in Medway, and this has never been more important than it is in the current economic climate. We are particularly concerned to do all we can to improve prospects for local businesses.
That is why we have launched our 6-point pledge to help businesses beat the Credit Crunch. To help them grow and prosper even in difficult times. Our commitment to local firms is to: Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: The Future is Bright Despite the Gloom
Article posted on Friday, 14 November 2008
In difficult times it is for politicians to set out a vision for the future, and to reassure people that things will eventually get better. The current economic downturn has slowed the rate of growth and improvement in Medway – but it has not brought things to a halt.
We are in the fortunate position of having a Conservative administration that is driving forward our regeneration programme with determination and enthusiasm. The next phase of that regeneration programme is to provide the infrastructure around which the revitalisation of Medway will continue. Read more...
Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Medway's Regeneration Projects Will Survive the Credit Crunch
Article posted on Thursday, 30 October 2008
At a time of economic slowdown, people may ask what the future holds for regeneration in Medway. Despite the official measure of recession, many of us think we are in a recession now.
Spiralling prices of food and fuel, ever-rising taxes, and massive jobs losses throughout the country are all signs that a recession is truly underway. The nuances of a few decimal points are immaterial to most of us in the real world. Read more...
Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Jarrett: Challenges Ahead for Gillingham’s MP
Article posted on Monday, 20 October 2008
There is an old saying: “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.
So you would think that knowing and working with local MPs would be a benefit to Medway Council. The problem is, Medway is Conservative run and we are dealing with Labour MPs. Read more...
Leader Cllr Rodney Chambers: Medway Council's 10th Anniversary
Article posted on Friday, 11 April 2008
It is fitting that Medway Council’s tenth anniversary coincides with its move into Gun Wharf, finally uniting all council activities under one roof.
Since the council’s inception we have worked together to overcome new challenges and have laid the foundations to transform the area. We are now seeing the results of these changes. Read more...