Making a difference while freezing Council Tax View this email in your browser My e newsletters usually come to you from my parliamentary address. They're not party political - partly because I'm not a great tribalist and also because there are strict rules on parliamentary addresses and political campaigning.
So this mail comes from my personal email, because I want to explain why I think Paul James and the Conservatives are the best people to go on running Gloucester's city council, and so deserve my constituents' votes in the local elections next Thursday. When I moved from Cirencester to Gloucester in 2007, most residents were pretty downbeat. Manufacturing and construction were entering a Great Recession. In sum the financial crisis of 2008 saw 6,000 people in our city's businesses lose their jobs by 2010. Youth unemployment rose especially sharply. The public sector was battered in a different way. A profitable Post Office was closed. A key mental health unit, Holly House, was closed and we were all told it would be used for something else: it wasn't. The Gloucestershire Constabulary had to fight my predecessor (a Labour MP) to prevent them being gobbled up in a regional force. He also tried to regionalise the Fire Control Centre away to Taunton and tried to get rid of the city council - the one public organisation with the good of the city as its only focus. Tourism meanwhile wasn't going anywhere. The Regional Development Agency acquired Heritage assets with taxpayer funds but did nothing with them, and Blackfriars was never open. There were very few applications for Heritage Lottery Funding. Nor was the sports situation much better. The Blackbridge running track deteriorated and was eventually abandoned: there was no Inspired Facilities Fund for a new Rowing Club and no progress on Gloucester City Football Club coming back from Cheltenham. And our infrastructure continued to decline. The bus station got older. The toilets in Kings Square were a disgrace. The numbers of trains at our station declined and nothing was done about lifts to platform 4. My predecessor did nothing to resolve the residual waste problem, or the growing traffic issues for workers and residents alike on Eastern Avenue. Confidence was low and the Railway Triangle a mess.
Nor is this at all surprising. Because when a city MP tries to abolish the city council investors see political warfare and stay away. They did. Few established businesses came: and few new businesses were started up. Huge amounts of money were pumped into Gloucester - the Matson Neighbourhood Project employed 40 people at one point: but what was there to show for it? Against that backdrop, the beleagured city council stuck to its guns and today, although not everything is rosy, progress has been made on most fronts. There is still masses to be done - not least getting GCAFC back to Gloucester. But things ARE better. Everyone from the man who ran coast to coast across Canada - the extraordinary Jamie Mcdonald - tells me that Gloucester is on the up, and they want to see that continue. So we need to go on attracting investment that provides jobs and makes the city look better (like the Railway Triangle and next the prison), go on increasing the numbers and quality of shops and restaurants/cafes (at Gloucester Quays and the city centre), and go on encouraging more people to live in the city centre (new Greyfriars housing for sale now). It is really encouraging that as a result unemployment is down about 20% and youth unemployment down 27%. That in turn has helped improve our crime rates sharply too. Gloucester is now rated one of the fastest growing cities for new businesses by Duport and one of the most improved cities in the country on a whole series of criteria, including education and innovation, by the Centre for Cities. In all of this Paul James and the Conservative leadership of the city council has been vital. They've boosted tourism through the Tall Ships Festivals and by winning the right to host next year's Rugby World Cup. They've doubled recycling rates since Labour ran the council. And one reason our city came through the 2013 floods lightly was because the council put
in place over 100 schemes to deal with flooding after 2007. Now the city council is making real progress on difficult city centre issues. They've demolished the Golden Egg and secured investment for a much needed new bus station. An improved plan for a new Kings Quarter is close to a major planning application. Meanwhile the government's agreement to write off 50m of housing debt means plans for the first new social housing on the city council estate for almost 30 years will be voted on by tenants this summer. The good news is that the city council has done that while freezing council tax for four successive years (it doubled in the ten years before we had control). Now they have teamed up with the County Council to master plan and implement the regeneration of the Greater Blackfriars area and the Prison, in line with a vision I put out a while back. This is critical to the regeneration of our city centre. I've worked closely with Council Leader Paul James for the last four years. I know how committed he is to our city and how hard he works for Gloucester. We've done pitches together to businesses in Gloucester and London and I'm convinced that he and his colleagues are the right people to run the council, and to keep this momentum going. There is every chance of further exciting successes soon. Their aim is simple: keep making Gloucester better - while controlling the cost of living by freezing council tax for the fourth year running. I believe that is right, that they're on the right track and should continue. So I'm encouraging all my constituents to judge who are the best councillors and team to run our Council - and then vote Conservative on May 22nd.
To see our full manifesto, visit www.gloucesterconservatives.com. Best regards PS On Monday I'll write about why the European elections matter so much. Copyright 2014 Richard Graham MP, All rights reserved. unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences