Eric Neal
County Councillor For Aldershot East
County Councillor For Aldershot East
May 2009 photo of Hampshire County Council's new headquarters building nearing completion.
The one thing as your County Councillor I hate the most is the dishonesty of the opposition both Lib/Dem and Labour.
Misleading statements and articles, which are circulated to residents bring our Democracy into disrepute. It is not scoring points, it's nothing more than pure dishonesty.
As an example the Hampshire Lib/Dems and Labour claim:-
The Conservatives at Hampshire Council have wasted 40 million pounds on a new HQ.
Fact:- This is not a new building, it is the refurbishment of an old building that within 2 years would have been condemned as unsafe for occupancy by the County's staff.
The Lib Dem Leader and Deputy both APPROVED THIS REFURBISHMENT IN COMMITTEE!
The choice was a new building outside Winchester costing £70M or refurbishing the existing HQ at £40M.
This will not cost the Council Taxpayer a penny as it is being funded by the sales of unwanted land and buildings. The refurbished HQ building will house double the number of staff and halve the HQ buildings carbon footprint. The County Council will sell 3 office buildings and relinquish the lease of another. The refurbished HQ will absorb twice the number of staff than previously because of its open plan offices.
Another Claim:- Conservatives have spent £12,000 on 6 taps at Hampshire County Council on the above HQ.
Fact:- These are 6 complete water systems including boilers, trunking, electrics and circuitry to serve 1200 staff with hot and cold water.
Claim:-
Conservatives at Hampshire County Council waste £4.5M on spin and publicity
Fact:-
About 50% of this money is spent recruiting teachers and staff in our 550 schools to replace leavers. Recently Rushmoor Borough Council joined this recruitment portal for their own staff, and to date they have saved approximately £9000. 10 of
the 11 Borough Councils in Hampshire are using this recruitment portal.
25% is spent on HCC staff to answer over 3000 press enquiries received each year.
The remaining 25% is spent producing information leaflets for our service users and keeping the genral public informed of
the councils activities, which in many cases is a requirement under Central Government directive.
HCC Spends some £7 million annually on subsidising bus services in Hampshire, this means approximately 26% of all bus services operating on our roads are subsidised.
Some services have been reduced at off peak times because they were costing the Council Tax payer £10 per passenger, per trip!
Currently the present Conservative policy in the county is to try not to subsidise each passenger per trip by no more than £2.50
I voted for this policy, I am not in the business of wasting your tax pounds. As stated above on some bus routes we have been subsidising each passenger per trip of up to £10. RIDICULOUS!
Yet the local labour party and Lib/Dems want me to obtain further subsidised bus services.
Stagecoach and other bus companies are in the business of making a profit, if they thought any route was viable they would be running a bus on it.
You and I still see buses running around with 1 or 2 passengers on, particularly in the evenings and weekends because these bus services are subsidised. As an example Route 1 in the Rushmoor area is subsidised by Surrey and Hampshire County Councils to the tune of £140,000 per year, once again to provide the evening and weekend service.
The great thing about the labour party and the Lib/Dems they never tell you where the money is coming from. The answer? Out of your pocket!
