With a number of high profile data loss stories very much in the news recently, the spotlight has fallen on the vast quantities of personal information being routinely collected by central Government on children young people and families. Most of the data is collected and transmitted to central government by local councils, who however have no discretion in the matter - the data requirements are enshrined in law.

County councillors reviewed the full extent of central government’s data requirements this week in our Scrutiny Committee - see the committee papers at:

www.warwickshire.gov.uk/AgendaManagementSheet26-2-08

Although I accept the need for central government decision making to be based on statistically sound data, what they ask for today is already overkill and yet still growing. For school children in particular, there can be no justification for the data to identify names and addresses. Each pupil is already allocated a UPN (unique pupil number) when they enter the school system, which should be quite enough.

I think our concerns about this whole system are entirely justified, and I shall be supporting strongly all efforts to get central government to change course. 

On Monday we had yet another Government initiative on ‘failing schools’, with Ed Balls threatening to put hit-squads into any school not achieving at least 30% of students with 5+ A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths.

As chance would have it, the very next day the WCC Childrens Young People & Families Overview & Scrutiny Committee was reviewing the Key Stage 4 (i.e. GCSE) performance of Warwickshire schools. We are fortunate to have very few schools at around the 30% achievement level or less, but those that are serve some of the most deprived communities in the county.

Has Ed Balls not heard of the ‘Contextual Value Added’ (CVA) measure of achievement, which is the main yardstick used by Ofsted and most people who understand education? Why do he and his civil servants persist in looking at raw attainment scores? CVA is the best measure we have of the real impact a school has on its pupils - i.e. is the quality of pupil they turn out better than what they take in.

The irony is that at least one Warwickshire school that might be on Ed Balls’ hit list is nearly the top-performing school in the county in terms of CVA, with an inspirational head and excellent leadership team.

I wish national goverment would just set the ground rules and leave local people to get on with the job. Some hope …… !

Last week I attended a SACRE meeting held in the Chapter House at Coventry Cathedral. The venue was wonderful of course, especially as we were given a guided tour of the cathedral before the meeting. What an inspiring place it is.

SACRE is a most interesting body, with representation from all the faith groups represented in Warwickshire schools, including Humanists and most recently Pagans. It has a number of statutory duties, advising the local authority on matters connected with religious worship and education in schools

Yesterday I took part in a large demonstration of support for the High Street Post Office in Kenilworth, which is potentially threatened with closure. My Lib Dem councillor colleagues Ann Blacklock and Pat Ryan were there as well, plus the local (Tory) M.P. and over 100 local residents. There was good press and local TV coverage of the event.

The previous week we had brought our Lib Dem West Midlands MEP Liz Lynne, plus Nigel Rock our local prospective parliamentary candidate, to meet Anne Williams the post mistress and to sign her petition.

The Post Office themselves are saying that nothing is decided yet, and in fact public consultation has been put back to June - so we must stay on our guard. I’m quite clear that all the five remaining post offices in Kenilworth provide an important service to their local communities, and we must fight attempts to close any of them.

I visited the Kenilworth Greenway yesterday to see how the works were progressing on the stretch between the Coventry Road and Hollis Lane. All of the encroaching undergrowth has been cleared and the track levelled, on which is to be constructed a 2.5 metre wide walking and cycling path with a grass verge alongside for horse riders.

This work is being funded by the County Council as part of its contribution to the overall Connect2 Kenilworth scheme, and is going ahead now while we wait for the release of the new funding from the Big Lottery Fund.

Right now it looks a bit of a mess, of course, but I am assured by the Countryside Rangers that it will soon regain its natural charm much loved of local people, but with the new path offering all year round and all-weather access.

I attended the Kenilworth Town Council meeting on Thursday evening, something I do only occasionally - partly because their meetings sometimes clash with other commitments, but also because curiously I have no real role to perform there anyway.

When I attend meetings of the parish council that covers part of my electoral division - i.e. Burton Green and the University - I have a regular slot on the agenda and the opportunity to speak and contribute on any item under discussion. At town council meetings, however, I am effectively a member of the public. This can be frustrating when the town council is discussing a subject that I know a lot about, and where a shortage of real facts is apparent!

The problem is that county and district councillors are usually also town councillors, and the town council doesn’t really know how to interface with them if (like me) they are not. This issue is not unique to Kenilworth - county councillor colleagues from other towns in Warwickshire tell me they experience similar issues.

I think there’s often too much formality surrounding council proceedings anyway. At our Area Committee meetings at the County Council we’ve managed to strip away most of this, to good effect I think, and made ourselves more accessible to the general public as a result.

Spotted in Burton Green during my ‘Focus’ delivery round today - lots of brand new green bins being delivered to householders ahead of the new recycling service which commences in April. This helps to address a long standing grievance of Burton Green residents, that they were left out when the original green bin scheme was rolled out to Kenilworth and other areas some years ago.

It will also help alleviate the problems experienced by a number of Burton Green residents who have contacted me, that they are banned from taking garden waste to the Kenilworth recycling centre because they drive the wrong sort of vehicle - namely a pick-up. In a quite arbitrary ruling, these are treated as “vans” (and therefore carrying chargeable trade waste), while a large closed-in 4×4 is treated as a car! I have tried my best to get this ruling overturned by the County Council, but officers and the Conservative Cabinet member for the Environment have refused to budge.

Today I attended the Youth Parliament Election Results event at Kenilworth’s De Montfort Hotel. 29 young people from across Warwickshire had put themselves forward for election for 8 positions - 4 members and 4 substitutes. After a record number of votes, up 19% on last year, the winning candidates were chosen. I congratulated the new members personally and gave certificates and thank you gifts to the outgoing members.

An early task for the new members will be to meet the Young People’s Concessionary Travel review panel next month, and to give us their perspective on the needs of young people in Warwickshire. The Youth Parliament has been campaigning on this issue for three years now, so I was delighted that we could announce a major step forward for them today.

One of the key objectives of the Kenilworth Town Centre Partnership is to improve the pedestrian links between the castle and the town centre. Kenilworth Castle is a major tourist attraction, with visitor numbers likely to grow this year as the wonderful Elizabethan garden project nears completion. We want to encourage visitors to the castle to also visit the town, its shops, restaurants and other facilities.

Yesterday I met with two county officers at the castle to explore all the possible options for better pedestrian access, and in particular how to cross the busy Castle Road. It’s not easy, otherwise it would have been done a long time ago! However, we’re working closely with English Heritage on this, and I’m hopeful that between us we can come up with an acceptable and affordable solution.

Last year the Liberal Democrat group on the County Council won all-party support for a motion backing the importance of concessionary travel schemes for young people and urging action at national and local level.

I have been asked to chair an all-party panel of councillors to review this subject in depth, and to report our recommendations back to the Council. The panel held its first meeting yesterday to scope the work and establish our work plan.

An important input to our work will be the voices of young people themselves. Members of the Youth Parliament have already been campaigning on this issues nationally and locally, so we shall certainly want to hear from them, plus as wide a cross-section of other young people’s views as possible.

Yesterday brought new developments in the campaign to win a pelican crossing on Beehive Hill, Kenilworth on behalf of pupils and parents of St. Augustine’s School and Beehive Nursery and local residents.

I arranged a meeting between county officers and representatives of the School Crossing Action Group, with the opportunity for the officers to witness at first hand the problems and dangers for pedestrians - in this case at school finishing time. I feel that the meeting went some considerable way to convincing officers of the need for action.

We agreed a number of next steps, with the objective of bringing matters to a conclusion within the next month. This is a fight which I am determined to win!

Although Warwickshire didn’t suffer as badly as our neighbours Gloucestershire in last Summer’s catastrophic floods, we had it pretty bad in parts of the county. Since then, a lot of effort has gone into analying what happened and why, what measures should be taken to prevent or mitigate flooding, and how the various agencies involved can work better together.

As part of this effort, the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee has been looking at the subject in depth, and yesterday I met with Severn Trent and county officers to understand in particular the issues around surface water and drainage.

Good news is that in Tuesday’s budget debate the County council voted for an extra £1 million spending over 2 years on highway drainage - the Liberal Democrats voted with the Conservatives to get this agreed in the face of Labour opposition. The additional funding is a big increase on current spending levels, and should both tackle the backlog of regular maintenance activities (gulley flushing etc) plus new measures to deal with known “hot spots” around the county.

It was also clear to me how much scope there is for better co-ordination of activities and communications between agencies. This was highlighted in the interim Pitt Report (commissioned by the government), and will be a major focus of the final report due this Summer.

Well, the County Council has today agreed its budget for 2008/09, but not without a few surprises along the way!

For reasons only known to themselves, the Labour group chose not to release its proposals until 25 minutes before the start of the budget debate! This forced an unnecessary first adjournment to give time to take in the details. However, it was soon clear that Labour did not intend to compromise with anyone, so the rest of the day was spent with the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives hammering out a revised budget that both parties were willing to support - with Labour voting against.

Next year’s council tax increase will be 3.9%, but more importantly the Liberal Democrats succeeded in getting every single one of our budget proposals into the final agreement, albeit with some adjustments to amounts allocated in some cases.

An excellent day for the Lib Dem group, who demonstrated that we know how to play grown-up politics in a “hung council” situation even if Labour don’t!

The local Steering Group, set up as a result of a public meeting last month, held its first meeting this evening, to discuss the wide range of issues raised during that meeting and to start to formulate a local action plan.

We agreed on a snappy name - KICC - and some immediate tasks to pursue. We will meet again in three weeks time to push things along further.

One of my personal highlights last year was the opportunity to lead the Kenilworth Connect2 Steering Group, as we campaigned locally for public support and helped Sustrans Connect2 win an amazing £50 million prize from the Big Lottery Fund. The result was announced just before Christmas.

Today I met with Stuart Ikeringill (the county officer who will manage the local Connect2 project implementation) and Edward Healey of Sustrans to discuss next steps and the ongoing role of the Steering Group.

There’s a lot to be done, some of which will take some time to bring about, but some things can be started quite quickly. In fact, work to upgrade part of the existing Kenilworth Greenway started today!

I attended a regular management committee meeting of Warwickshire’s Pupil Reintegration Unit yesterday evening. The “PRU” operates county-wide as a single entity, out of five centres, and is there to help and educate pupils who have been excluded from school, with the objective of reintegrating them back into mainstream education as rapidly as possible. The PRU staff are a skilled and dedicated team, working with some often very troubled young people and achieving fantastic results.

In the past it has sometimes proved hard to get excluded pupils accepted back into mainstream schools, but much closer working with school heads under the county’s overall Behaviour Strategy is starting to break down these barriers. The objective for the PRU must be to see it as a “revolving door” - with the great majority of its pupils getting back into mainstream schooling as quickly as possible.

It’s Budget time again at the County Council! Yesterday we received the details of the budget proposed by the Conservative administration, and put the finishing touches to the budget proposals of the Liberal Democrat group. The full Council debate on the Budget is next Tuesday.

Because Warwickshire is a “hung” council with no overall majority for any political group, the reality of the budget process is usually that some form of agreement has to be hammered out between at least two of the parties. Last year’s budget was jointly agreed between Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour, but I think that the same is  unlikely to happen again this time.

As usual, it will probably be a long day next Tuesday ….. !