On Thursday I managed to hold my county seat by the massive majority of 15 votes!! I’d hoped for a bit more breathing room after winning by 56 votes four years ago, but it wasn’t to be. Kenilworth Abbey has always been like this ….

Anyway, I’m extremely grateful to everyone who voted for me, and I look forward to an interesting four more years on what will be a very different County Council. The Conservatives now have overall control with 39 of the 62 seats, and two net Liberal Democrat gains put us on 12 seats ahead of Labour’s 10 - so we are now the official opposition.

The new Lib Dem county group has an initial meeting tomorrow, and then the first full council meeting on 23rd June will establish the shape and structure of the new council. Will the Tories rejig the committees, and will they grab all the chair positions? We’ll have to wait and see …..

I helped to launch the Children In Care Council at Warwickshire County Council yesterday, and to sign the ‘Warwickshire Pledge’ which sets out our promises and commitments to looked after children and young people. It was a great event compered by ‘Dreadlockalien’ (aka poet Richard Grant),, and with graffiti artist Richard Inwood helping the young people create their new logo in a giant graffiti mural.

Coincidently, the launch happened on the same day as the publication of the MPs’ Select Committee report into children in care, which highlighted the extent to which our society is still failing so many of these vulnerable children and young people. The Warwickshire Pledge is a good set of words backed by a lot of good intentions, but it will be actions and results by which it will be judged in the end.

Yesterday I went to collect the nomination forms for the County Council elections on 4th June and to receive a briefing from the local Electoral Services officers. Although the formal notice of poll is not until 28th April, getting the forms in my hands made it all seem suddenly very real!

This year’s county campaign is a month later than usual, and of longer duration, due to the Euro elections being held at the same time. In recent years the County elections have coincided with parliamentary elections, so it will be interesting to see how things are different this time.

Yesterday I met the Cycleways K2L action group, who are trying to raise the profile again of this long-running campaign for improvements for cyclists on the route between Kenilworth and Leamington. The route has a number of major obstacles and hazards for cyclists, including the Thickthorn Island over the A46, the Chesford cross roads and the narrow bridge over the Avon. The whole route lacks any cycle lane provision (on or off road) over its entire length.

The key problem is that while K2L is included in Warwickshire’s Local Transport Plan, it is an “aspiration” rather than a firm commitment. Funds are concentrated in the main on developing cycle routes in towns rather than between towns, unless they form part of the Sustrans Nation Cycle Network - which K2L doesn’t at present.

And yet, there is plenty of evidence as to how popular a safe K2L route would be. Petitions and surveys have been held in the past, plus rallies and mass cycle events on the route.

I’ve agreed to help the K2L group all I can, both as a local county councillor and also in my role as Warwick District cycle champion. Already I’ve got commitments from county council officers that the planned traffic signalisation of the Thickthorn Island (to meet increased traffic flows from Stoneleigh Park) will be adapted to help cyclists traverse in safety.

At the weekend I went to a very interesting meeting organised by Action21’s Renewable Energy Club in conjunction with KICC (Kenilworth Initiative for Climate Change). Two Kenilworth residents, David Searle and George Martin, gave talks about their recent experiences of building zero or low carbon homes.

David’s house was a new build, and he has succeeded in achieving the ultimate goal of a zero carbon home, through the use of the right materials and equipment and meticulous attention to detail. George’s project was the conversion of a Grade2-listed part 17th century cottage, and while it was impossible to get to a zero carbon home with this he succeeded in getting a very long way towards this.

Common to both their experiences was the difficulty in finding UK manufacturers of the materials or equipment needed for their projects, from insulation materials through to biomass boilers and rainwater harvesting equipment. Also they both found a general lack of knowledge in the building trade of the specialist techniques needed to construct zero or low carbon homes, although in both cases they found builders willing to learn with them.

What a massive opportunity for UK manufacturing is being thrown away at present! The materials and equipment required are not having to be imported from cheap sources in the Far East, but from hi-tech manufacturers in European countries such as Germany, Austria and Denmark. Why doesn’t the British government invest heavily in promoting UK manufacturing of products for the ‘green revolution’, as the Liberal Democrats have proposed? Far better than the temporary small VAT cut, which has cost billions and achieved very little.

I was delighted to win the backing of the Cabinet today for the County Council to commission an external study of the feasibility and costs of introducing a concessionary travel scheme for young people in Warwickshire. The work will now be done in time to inform decision making at the time of the next County Council budget next year.

Over the last year or so I have led a cross-party group looking at this subject, and we did a lot of work with officers and with young people, and also looked at experience in other part of the country. This matter has been a major campaign issue for the UK Youth Parliament over the past couple of years, and it was important that Warwickshire responded positively and constructively.

The changing patterns of education for 14-19 year old young people are putting increasing strain on existing transport provision to and from school and college, which are becoming less fit for purpose. Also we want to encourage young people to particpiate in sport and other leisure activities, but the costs of public transport are often a barrier to this.

Introducing such a scheme will not be cheap or easy, so it’s vital that we have the best possible data on which to make informed decisions. Today’s decision to commission the work necessary to achieve this is an important step.

Yesterday we held the last meeting of the County Council’s Children & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee before the elections on the 4th June. I have been a member of the Committee for the last 4 years, the Lib Dem spokesperson for the last 3, and the vice-chairman of the Committee for the last 2 years.

As always it was a full and interesting meeting, with an agenda ranging over a wide range of important issues - future Early Years funding (of nurseries, nursery classes and private/voluntary providers); inclusion strategy (how to keep “problem” children in schol and reduce exclusions); the anti-bulling strategy; child poverty; demand for school meals.

I have greatly enjoyed this aspect of my work as a county councillor, and if re-elected on the 4th June would hope to be able to continue in my current role. The Committee is unusual in that includes not only councillors but also school representatives, so that the knowledge of subject matter is good and the quality of debate usually high.

As all residents will have realised by now, the major programme of works in Kenilworth by the Gas Alliance was not completed by the end of March as originally planned! There are still lots of unfilled holes across the town, and the traffic disruption caused by the traffic light controls at Abbey Hill has been horrendous. Although I recognise that unforeseen delays can always occur with this sort of work, the whole programme has been badly handled by the contractors.

On Tuesday I and other local councillors met senior Gas Alliance managers, who accepted fully the problems that the town has suffered and committed to put things right as soon as possible. A new manager will take over the Kenilworth project from next week, and I and a few others will work with him to thrash out a programme to complete the current works as soon as possible, and then to come back in the quieter period of the summer holidays to tackle the rest of the original project.

We also were given preliminary details of another major project to replace the gas mains between Leamington and Kenilworth, which is already in progress at the Leamington end and will impact on the southern end of our town later in the year. At least we’re being given advance warning this time! Watch this space …..

Now that it has been reported in the local press yesterday, I can comment on a major police drugs raid on a house in Burton Green last Friday morning. Police were alerted by neighbours who became suspicious of activity at the rented house ove the past few months. Inside they found hundreds of cannabis plants and a substantial production operation complete with specialist lighting and irrigation equipment. The mains electrical supply had been diverted to provide free power for the illegal operation, and specialist electrical engineers had to be called in to dismantle the lighting and heating and to make the property safe.

This sort of thing does not normally happen in Burton Green! It was quite a shock when I was alerted by the local police. It just goes to show that nowhere can ever be totally immune. I congratulate the sharp-eyed neighbours who had the confidence to report their concerns to the Police.

The first day of British Summer Time and the sun shining, so what better way for my wife and I to spend the afternoon than walking along the Kenilworth to Berkeswell Greenway, part of the Connect2 Kenilworth walking and cycling route?

It was great to see so many people out enjoying themselves, including lots of children on bikes with their parents. This is exactly what safe off-road cycling is all about. I can’t wait to see the whole of the rest of the route completed.

Up towards Burton Green we looked out over the fields towards the boundary of Coventry, and saw all the new houses along Westwood Heath Road massed like an army poised to invade our precious green belt. Warwick District Council is soon to publish its “Core Strategy” as part of its Local Development Framework, and I am very fearful that this area will be identified as a key target for future housing growth.