New Nettleham Sunday Bus Service Begins

Stagecoach in Lincolnshrie, the company who operates the number 11 and number 3 bus services through Nettleham, have announced, following countless months of lobbying, that from Sunday, 1st Febraury 2009 a new bus service will connect Nettleham with Lincoln (southbound) and Grimsby (northbound) on the number 3 route.

Giles McNeill said:

"This is the sort of public transport improvement I have been lobbying for over the past three years. I welcome this development by Stagecoach in Lincolnshire who have adopted one om my two main points - namely the introduction of a Sunday Service and secondly, great Evening and Late Night Provision."

Services will run into Lincoln from Nettleham Green from 10:19 and then every hour thereafter until 18:19.

Services will run to Grimsby from Nettleham Green from 08:57 then at 11:57 and 14:57 and in between, hourly, to as far as Dunholme. The full timetable can be downloaded (pdf format) here.

Government to hike business taxes on local firms at time of recession

Average business rates bill in West Lindsey may hit £5,932 thanks to Gordon Brown

Labour Ministers in Whitehall were today accused of kicking local firms “in the teeth” as it emerged that the Government is pushing ahead with plans to increase business rates on local firms at a time of economic recession.

The Government is introducing a new law - the Business Rates Supplements Bill - which will allow town halls to increase business rates on local firms by leving a ‘supplementary’ rate on top of current bills. This comes at a time that business rates are already due to rise by a painful 5% in April.

• There are 2,572 premises in West Lindsey which currently pay business rates. The average bill in West Lindsey in 2008-09 was £5,417 raising a total of £13.9 million a year in tax in total from local firms, which is handed over to Whitehall.

• Due to the impending 5% rise, business rate bills in West Lindsey will hit an average of £5,688 from April. If a supplementary business rate were imposed on top, this could push the average bill on local firms to a record £5,932 a year.

• Supplementary business rates are likely to be used to fund local authorities’ current expenditure, rather than new infrastructure. Councils will be pressured into levying supplementary business rates to make up for funding pressures. Firms will not be given a proper vote on whether or not they support the new charge. According to the Government, supplementary business rates could increase taxes by up to £600 million a year if levied by every local authority.

• There will also be a business rates revaluation in 2010, which may increase the bills even more for many firms – especially shops, since retail property rents have risen sharply in recent years. Higher rateable values will worsen the impact of supplementary rates.

Giles McNeill said:

“I fear that supplementary business rates will be yet another backdoor way for Gordon Brown to hike taxes by stealth. At a time when local firms are struggling for their very survival, even higher business rates are a kick in the teeth from the Government.”

Giles McNeill on the Start of Nettleham & Saxilby Division Campaign

Whilst for many the County Council and European Parliamentary Elections, to be held on Thursday 4th June, may seem a long way off; nothing of substance was ever achieved without hard work and to that end the Conservative’s campaign in Saxilby kicked off today with myself and Rupert Matthews, Conservative Prospective European Parliamentary Candidate for the East Midlands, out and about in Saxilby.

A good number of volunteers turned out to deliver leaflets to the majority of households in Saxilby, and for those of you who haven’t yet had a ‘Saxilby Matters’ it will be dropping on your doormat any day now.

Giles and Rupert inspect a 'Saxilby Matters' at the start of Milbeck Drive.

I was very pleased to have the opportunity to show Rupert around Saxilby. Rupert was curious about the Library and I was sorry to inform him that the hours had been reduced, but that, in my view, had Saxilby had a Conservative County Councillor – who would be listened to by the Council’s leadership – then the hours may not have been reduced.

It was really good weather to be out and about and meeting local people and chatting to them about the issues that affect them. Naturally the economy is at the top of everyone's minds and so I was please to outline what Conservative are doing at West Lindsey, County and National Level to help people.

After the morning session we went for a tour of a number of sites in the Nettleham & saxilby Division. We went to Odder, Burton Waters, Riseholme and to finally to Nettleham before heading into the City of Lincoln to meet with a local business owner who is having a particular problem with European Union regulation.

All in all a full day of activities and I am personally very grateful to Rupert for coming and visiting, campaigning and generally helping out for the day.

Defence Information Infrastructure

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The Ministry of Defence’s ambitious new £7 billion IT system, designed to replace hundreds of ageing existing systems, was badly planned in important respects. No proper pilot for this highly complex programme was carried out and entirely inadequate research led to a major miscalculation of the condition of the Department’s buildings in which the new system would be installed.

“In addition, the ATLAS consortium implementing the project - led by EDS, a company whose track record of delivering government IT projects has not been exemplary - underestimated the complexity of the software it had agreed to create. For over two years, it was unable to deliver a system that could safely handle Secret material.

“All of these factors contributed towards major delays to the project. There has been recent progress but the rate at which terminals are being rolled-out must improve rapidly if the Department’s latest deadlines are to be realistic.

“Given the scale of delay, the Department must head off the risk that existing IT systems, upon which MoD staff and military personnel rely, will fail. Detailed plans on the cost and timing of work to keep existing systems going must be developed, this planning to be funded from the management fee paid to ATLAS. And if the number of errors in the initial software design increases again, the Department must increase its scrutiny and not hesitate to turn down any claims from ATLAS for higher costs as a result.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 1st Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Defence, examined the difficulties experienced on the DII Programme in the past and the measures put in place to deliver improvement in future.

The Ministry of Defence (the Department) needs high quality information technology to achieve its goals, both on operations and in the United Kingdom. It is currently replacing hundreds of existing computer systems with a single new system, called the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII). The Programme to design, install and run this is being led by the ATLAS consortium. Ultimately, the Department intends to have some 150,000 terminals supporting 300,000 users at more than 2,000 sites, with additional capability on deployed operations and Royal Navy ships. DII must be able to handle material classified as Restricted, Secret and Top Secret. The Programme began in March 2005 and will cost an estimated £7.1 billion by 2015, if fully implemented.

The implementation of DII has suffered from major delays. Whereas 62,800 terminals should have been installed by the end of July 2007, only 45,600 were in place at the end of September 2008. The main causes of delay were the Programme’s over-optimistic assumptions about the condition of the buildings into which DII would be fitted, and the consequent selection of an inappropriate and unresponsive methodology for installing terminals.

The DII Programme also provides a range of core software such as word processing, email, internet access and security to run on the new system. This should all have been available in June 2006, but less than half of the requirement had been delivered two years later in June 2008. The slow pace of software design has been caused primarily by the ATLAS consortium’s inability to meet the Department’s requirements.

As a result of these problems, the Department’s existing computer systems have had to be used for longer than intended, with the increased risk that one or more of them will fail. The forecast cost of the DII Programme has also increased by an estimated £182 million. The Department has been able to protect benefits of the Programme, totalling an estimated £1.5 billion in due course, although some benefits will materialise later than planned.

In recent months, the performance of the DII Programme has improved somewhat, with some new software having been tested and 3,400 terminals being rolled out on average each month. However, rapid improvement to 4,300 terminals a month will be needed if the Department’s latest deadlines are to be met.

The Department has had a number of significant security breaches of personal data in recent years. An independent review of its data handling was held in early 2008 and the Department is in the process of implementing the recommendations.

Labour's Debt Crisis Campaign Launched

The Conservatives have today launched a nationwide advertising campaign to highlight the human consequences of Labour’s Debt Crisis.

The campaign includes a poster and an online film and shows a four week old baby alongside the slogan ‘Dad’s Nose. Mum’s Eyes. Gordon Brown’s Debt’.

Gordon Brown’s answer to the crisis has been to borrow even more money, taking our national debt to record levels. As a result a new born baby will come in the world saddled with a debt of £17,000.

Speaking at the launch, David Cameron said:

“We’ve got to stop this Government before they bankrupt our economy and bankrupt our children’s future.”

And he added:

“In the Spring, they will have another budget. And I’m really worried they’re going to do it all over again.”

Download Labour's Debt Crisis Report.

Next generation broadband could create next generation business

Jeremy Hunt MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, has promised a Conservative Government will focus on ensuring the majority of the population have access to the next generation of high speed broadband networks within 5 years.

The Shadow Culture Secretary argued that next generation broadband offers a great commercial opportunity to the UK, because of the strength of our creative industries. He announced that the Conservative Party would be launching a wide-ranging review of the UK’s creative and creative knowledge industries this Spring in order to inform our thinking:

"There is no question about our talent for creating digital content, content that can be traded and exchanged in Bill Gates’ global village square. The question is whether we seize the opportunity presented by that talent to build the next generation of global businesses based on the new technology platforms that are emerging."

Giles meets with Jeremy Hunt in Lincoln, discussing various points including the knowledge economy.

Jeremy stressed that the key issue in the provision of next generation broadband is creating a framework which allows private sector investors to get the returns necessary to make the huge investment required.

"This means creating a regulatory environment that stimulates investment both by large incumbent players like BT, or where they are slow or unwilling to do so, by more nimble newcomers. To do this we should oversee wholesale deregulation of the current broadband infrastructure."

Giles McNeill said:

"This is exactly the right sort of proposal for an economy in recession, it not only makes sense for companies & business but for local people and communities."