A few days as Prospective MP!

Sometimes people ask me what a Prospective MP does, so I thought I would give you a small illustration!

Thursday -

Such a good day! After spending hours doing constituency correspondence, with my long suffering volunteer assistant, Ann Russell-Day, I then went to the Harvey Centre to meet a determined Harlow student, who is a real go-getter and offering to help on my campaign. He is currently studying in London, but comes back regularly. I am sure he will be a great asset. It is a great feeling when someone pro-actively offers assistance, especially someone like this chap, who is clearly going places. Later I have a long meeting with my Constituency Chairman, Cllr Lee Dangerfield. His home is like the Pentagon, with every manner of computer and serious hi-tech gear.He downloads Twitter on my Blackberry (telling me Facebook is so yesterday), and at last I feel I have joined the Twenty First Century. Over delicious Bolognese (without spaghetti for me - diet), we discuss our campaign plan. The Campaign Team arrive a while later and we go through a check-list of various activities. We have so much to do and like every anxious PPC, I always feel I am not doing enough. Everyone else tells me I am doing too much and to pace things a little! I am lucky to have such a great team of volunteers, who have spent days, months and years, doing everything they can to turn Harlow blue. After the meeting, I rush home to watch Margaret on BBC2. As I settle down to a glass of whisky, I feel like such a Tory!! In the end, the programme was disappointing and ended rather flat.

Friday -

I put on my nice dry-cleaned suit (from M&S – I am still a fan) and get ready for a day of constituency activities. Fridays are always packed as I visit a range of community organisations and meet local residents with problems. First, off to Epping Forest District Council, with some Hastingwood residents to meet with officials. For years, the residents have had to put up with a waste contractor in the village. Their homes and cars have been covered in dirt and dust, there is constant noise, a rat infestation and the grass verges have been ruined. What amazes me is the confusing plethora of agencies there are to approach to deal with the problem. The residents have been campaigning for years to little avail, so this meeting – which lasts for two hours – is with some of the agencies concerned, to get things moving. To be fair, the officials were reasonable and understand the problem, and a follow up meeting is scheduled. But how much will really be done to improve the lives of residents?
After this it was back to Harlow to Nandos - to meet an amazing woman, Anne Wafula Strike. On the way, I got a call from my local paper about a donation Lord Ashcroft gave us back in 2005 – have Labour got nothing better to do?

I park my car in the Water Gardens, and as I put money in the parking machine, it keeps spewing it out. A kind pigeon then decides to make a deposit on my formerly very clean suit. The pleasures of being a PPC.

Anyway, back to Anne. She is a disabled Olympic Athlete, and expected to compete in 2012, having participated in Athens (she was injured for Beijing). Anne is a true hero and I am proud she is in Harlow. I was amazed to learn that Anne has had her grant funding cut by sporting organisations.

After another party meeting, I rush off to meet David Gauke. He has come to meet a very successful small business, Top Form Clothing (which supplies school uniforms and equipment to parents and children). Top Form is run by an inspirational lady, Claire Harrison, who is a real entrepreneur. What struck me in our discussions with David, Claire and her partner Kath, was the disillusionment felt with all politicians. Nevertheless, I feel that with the right policies - and if we convey a sense of trust - these voters will choose us next time. I doubt they will be voting Labour.

At a superb dinner later with Harlow Conservative Women’s Committee, David gives a first class speech and is just so personable and friendly to everyone. I, of course, overdo it with the cheese. Will I ever learn?!

Saturday -

A Campaigning day! Our Association is out in full force to deliver leaflets and canvass. I do a stall in Staple Tye with my best Canvasser, Clive Souter, who has done his back in – thanks to canvassing. Despite some difficult issues going on locally, we get a fantastic reception, and are fortified by some McDonald's cappuccinos. Then I go home, watch some Gavin and Stacey on DVD and get ready to meet my mother. It’s her birthday and I promised to take her to dinner (being a good boy, present was already bought). The diet goes down the pan (in this case Italian), yet again...




Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon & Sheering.

Government force local residents to foot Tax Bill for Travellers Sites Consultation

It is incredible that the Government has landed Epping Forest District Council with a potential £100,000 bill after insisting it carried out a stand-alone public consultation exercise on gypsy and traveller sites in the district.
The district council has already revealed it is spending £50,000 on a consultant who is dealing solely with the issue of where in the district additional pitches should go so there was no need for this massive spend if the Government had let Epping Forest District Council plan for the future needs of travellers in our district as had always been their intention.
The council had said it would include the accommodation needs of the travelling community in its wider consultation arising from the more general targets for housing and employment set out in the East of England Plan.

Despite this the Government issued a directive to the council requiring it to deal separately with the gypsy and traveller issues by publishing a stand-alone plan last September.
While £50,000 is being spent on the council's consultant, the final bill is set to be much more. I reckon that the final cost could reach six figures when staffing costs and the cost of printing the consultation document are included.

The council ruled out sending a copy of the consultation document to every household in the areas where sites were being considered on the grounds of cost. Just how much would it have cost us if they had done that?

The council announced last week that its forward planning team had been highly commended in the authority's Dealing with the Public staff awards. While the team are to be praised for helping people and answering what must have been hundreds of inquiries, just how much officer time has been spent on this issue?

The Government has forced our local district council into spending tens of thousands of pounds unnecessarily. Thankfully this Conservative-led council is well-managed and despite the additional cost has been able to limit its council tax increase to the second lowest in Essex, but even so this £100,000, or whatever the final figure is, did not have to be spent if the Government had not waded in with unnecessary directives. That would have meant our council tax payers could have seen a lower increase in their council tax bills.

Praise for “community focused" council over council tax rise

A proposed 2.5 per cent increase in Epping Forest District Council's share of council tax bills for the next financial year should be welcomed.
The Conservative-led authority is set to approve a 2.5 per cent rise - one of the lowest district council increases in Essex.
During these times of economic hardship I know that local council tax payers will be relieved that Epping Forest District Council is able to control its budgets and spending levels so that council tax payers can stomach a relatively small increase in their council tax bills for the next financial year.
It would have been easy for the authority to have increased its fees and charges, and added a few more pounds to council tax bills to make life easier for the budget-setters, but this has not been the case.
We have already seen the district council freeze pay-and-display parking charges, and it is welcoming to see it continuing to be community-focused and putting its residents at the forefront of its decision-making when it comes to next year's council tax.
“It remains true that Conservative councils cost you less.