Tuition fees debate

Just got around to blogging about the tuition fees debate at Reading University. I was on the panel with the other East Reading Parliamentary candidates. We each had five minutes to talk on this subject. I put forward the Green Party argument for good quality, well funded public services, and argued that tuition fees should be scrapped as they are a barrier to higher education.

To summarise the rest of the debate Gareth Epps from the Liberal Democrats also argued against fees but acknowledged he was campaigning against his leader. Annelise Dodds from Labour agreed that the fees should not be increased -- unfortunately this is not the Labour position which is to wait for the conclusion of a review conveniently timed after the general election. Rob Wilson from the Tories managed to fill his five minutes without saying much other than he too would also be waiting for the conclusion of the review.

Everyone apart from Rob Wilson agreed to sign the pledge against any increase in fees and in favour of a fairer alternative.

There was one surreal point towards the end of the debate when Rob Wilson went off on a tangent complaining about constituents asking him to sign Early Day Motions and generally contacting him. I got a good laugh when I pointed out to Rob Wilson that that is democracy. One of the NUS campaigners informed me later in the evening that I scored double marks for this comment because apparently "that's democracy" is one of their often used catchphrases around the office at work.

What have Park Ward councillors been up to recently?

What have the councillors in Park Ward been up to in recent months? Not much judging by the system -- Front Office -- they use to ask questions of officers and request repairs on behalf of residents. My Freedom of information request reveals the following activity for the three Park Ward councillors from this system between July and October inclusive.

Wazir Hussain (Conservative) -- 16
Shirley Merriot (Labour) -- 0
Jon Hartley (Labour) -- 0

Considering some councillors have submitted around 50 items of work over this period the results for Park Ward especially from Labour are rubbish! Have the Labour councillors both thrown in the towel already? I know Shirley is stepping down but not until the elections in May?

For some statporn see Glenn's blog.

West Berks Brewery ends negotiations to reopen the Jolly Anglers

It is a real shame that the positive negotiations to get the Jolly Anglers reopened involving West Berks Brewery have come to a premature end. I hope that this will put a stop to the irresponsible press releases from the likes of Rob Wilson!

Despite this setback, the campaign goes on and I think we need a get together to regroup and assess the situation.

Reading Young Greens Society launched

We now have a Reading Young Greens Society at Reading University.

We are currently campaigning to make the campus safer and against tuition fees.

LVAG defeated over Sandford Farm site

Sorry to see that the Loddon Valley Action Group have lost their campaign to prevent development at the Sandford Farm site.

Parking in Newtown -- plans move forward

I thought people would be interested in the developments on the issue of parking in Newtown.

To summarise following on from pressure from residents of eastern Newtown who have real problems parking in the unrestricted roads the Council has been looking into introducing residents' parking across the whole of the Newtown area. The latest report going to the Traffic Management Advisory Panel considers the implications of making Liverpool Road residents' parking -- it would need to be made one-way.

If you want to read the whole report it is item 7 on the agenda for the Traffic Management Advisory Panel.

As the report says we will have to wait for the Reading wide residents' parking scheme review to finish before we get any further with this.

Anyone can attend the meeting if they want but be warned you may have to wait a long time before the relevant item is discussed and you only get speaking rights by contacting the chair in advance.

Jolly Anglers

I have just seen the second irresponsible press release on the reopening of the Jolly Anglers in as many days. Positive negotiations are going on but this sort of publicity jeopardises them. To all journalists out there, please put a lid on this story until the contracts have been signed!