My grateful thanks to the 1,120 Kenilworth Abbey voters who supported me in the County Council election on Thursday, enabling me to be re-elected as their county councillor for another four years with a greatly increased majority.

The results in full were:-

I feel immensely honoured to have received such strong support from so many voters across all parts of the electoral division, and relieved that the goodwill I got from talking with many, many people over the last few weeks actually translated into real votes on the day.

Whether or not they voted for me, I will continue to serve all Kenilworth Abbey residents over the next four years to the very best of my ability.

I was one of four candidates for Kenilworth Abbey Division interviewed on BBC CWR today. The fifth candidate, the Green, was absent. The interviews took place in Burton Green, at exactly the place where the planned HS2 route will bisect the village if it ever goes ahead.

As the county councillor for the last eight years, I explained how I had been fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Burton Green community for the last three years to stop HS2 if we could, or to gain the best possible mitigation measures and compensation if the government presses on with building it. Although I’m a big fan of railways, I believe that HS2 is fundamentally the wrong project for the UK – no business case, no environmental case, no sttrategic case, and no money to pay for it! However, I’m realistic enough to recognise that the only place the project can be stopped is in Parliament. Similarly, the only way that Burton Green will gain the mitigation measure it deserves and needs, i.e. a deep bore tunnel under the village, will be from a political decision by ministers, and I’m still lobbying hard to achieve this.

The pre-recorded interviews can be heard via Listen Again on the BBC CWR web site http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017jf7v, starting at 25 mins through the 3 hour programme.

Subsequently, BBC CWR rang me up later in the morning to do a live interview as part of the same programme , giving a local Liberal Democrat response to the UKIP “nazi salute” story that had broken in today’s Daily Mirror. This piece is also on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017jf7v, starting at 2 hrs 36 mins through the programme.

The first two weeks of election campaigning have gone pretty well, with a good reception generally from voters on the doorstep. It’s been perishingly cold, but somehow both I and my fellow canvassers have managed to stay well! With the weather having turned slightly milder over the weekend, let’s hope the trend continues …

We’re finding that voters mostly want to talk about local issues rather than national politics.They know how hard the Lib Dem Focus Team works round here, and our regular Focus newsletters throughout the year are generally much appreciated as an informative source of local news.

Literature delivery is going well, thanks to plenty of enthusiastic helpers. I don’t plan to bombard voters with bits of paper, but rather to meet as many as possible on a face-to-face basis. However, given today’s busy lifestyles, it can be hard to catch a lot of people ever at home, whenever we call! Hence we continue to need bits of paper to get our message across.

For the first time that I can remember, Kenilworth Abbey voters will have a choice of five candidates this time. However, with due respect to the other three, all the indications are that it will be a two-horse race again between myself and the Conservative candidate – as it always is round here!

With the Notice of Election published last Friday, and the launch of the Lib Dem manifesto over the weekend, the race for  the County Council elections has well and truly started.

I’m standing for re-election in Kenilworth Abbey, having served as county councillor for the last eight years. While I feel I’ve achieved a lot in that time, there’s plenty more that I hope to do if re-elected.

I plan to talk with as many electors as possible over the coming few weeks, to listen to their concerns and aspirations, and to help shape my priorities should I be privileged enough to be re-elected on 2nd May.

To read about the Lib Dem manifesto, use this link: http://kandslibdems.org.uk/a9Bfr

I’ve just completed and sent off my response to the government’s consultation on the proposed HS2 Property Compensation Scheme. The deadline for getting responses in is 31st January, so there is just over a week left to do so!

The scheme as currently proposed would be grossly unfair for 98% of the many thousands of people affected by HS2. Whatever your view of the rights and wrongs of HS2, and I remain resolutely against it, it cannot be right that individuals should be expected to bear a major financial burden because of a project which is allegedly for the national good.

If you haven’t already done so, I would urge all fair-minded people to respond to the consultation, and tell the government that the Property Compensation Scheme currently on offer is totally inadequate. Full details are on the Department of transport web site at http://highspeedrail.dft.gov.uk/consultations/property-compensation-london-to-west-midlands.

The HS2 Action Alliance web site http://hs2aa.org/ provides a full explanation of the case against the current compensation proposals, together with a downloadable response letter template and advice on how to complete the consultation questionnaire.

In the House of Commons on 15th January an Early Day Motion (EDM 922: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/early-day-motions/edm-detail1/?session=2012-13&edmnumber=922) was tabled, asking the government to reconsider the proposed HS2 Property Compensation scheme, but to date only nine MPs (seven Labour, two Liberal Democrat) have signed it, which I think is scandalous! Clearly MPs who hold government positions are not able to sign EDMs, but why have none of the other Conservative MPs with constituencies affected by the HS2 route not done so yet? If you live in one of these areas, please contact your local MP and urge him to sign EDM 922 immediately.

A few days ago I described as a ‘shambles’ the introduction of the new part-night street lighting arrangements in Warwick District. Now, after yet more policy changes announced ‘on the hoof’, the situation undoubtedly deserves the full title of  ’omnishambles‘ (as in ‘The Thick of It).

Why? Well, the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of their “word of the year 2012′ is “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations.” This describes the current situation pretty well I think!

In the latest twist to the story today, Warwickshire County Council has told some journalists (but not the rest of the press yet, nor elected councillors!) that the policy is changing again from this weekend. The switch-off will now be from midnight to 5.30 am for 5 nights of the week, and 1.00 am to 6.30 am on Friday and Saturday nights. This arrangement will continue until the clocks go forward in March, when they will think again.

Irrespective of whether or not you think the latest timings make sense, they can’t go on like this! This is the fourth version of the policy in five weeks since it was launched. The Conservative Cabinet member responsible calls it “listening to the public’s concerns”, but doesn’t that remind you of George Osborne when he kept changing last year’s budget decisions? That was dubbed an omnishambles by the media as well!

I was very pleased to see this article in the Independent today: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-20mph-revolution-millions-of-drivers-face-lower-speed-limits-as-new-laws-sweep-the-country-8434292.html.

Support for appropriate use of 20 mph speed limits is growing rapidly across the country. Sadly here in Warwickshire the ruling Conservative administration continues to drag its collective feet. Warwickshire Liberal Democrats have campaigned consistently on this issue, and will continue to do so.