 Good morning all. It is the 12th of January 2022 and we are back with all things Hartlepool. To start with I want to wish everyone a happy new year and I want to thank volunteers who've been helping me deliver leaflets to local residents wishing them a happy new year and telling them that we're thanking them for the support in last year's elections and telling them that I will be standing again this year as we have local elections again in Hartlepool this May and I will be standing again so thank you to everyone who's helped me deliver those leaflets more will be going out in the coming days. I also want to thank and let you know what I did with the donations I received in December. I had started a GoFundMe campaign to provide Christmas dinner to families in need here in Hartlepool. I want to tell you that on the 23rd of December, yes it was the 23rd of December, I delivered Christmas dinner to a group of families around Hartlepool. It included turkey and veg and some treats, drinks, a game, a set of a package of games for families to play. I delivered these to families in Hartlepool on the 23rd of December and I want to sincerely thank everyone who donated for that. I know some of these families and I know how grateful they are and that they need our help so I want to thank you for that. I'm going to go through a couple of stories, local stories this morning but I'm going to start with a national story and the big national story at the moment is the party that apparently took place in Downing Street while the rest of us were under lockdown. Hartlepool mail this morning is running a feature which I will read some of it to you of what people here were doing on the day that this apparent party took place in Downing Street. So let me first tell you what the rules were on the day, on the very day of this party. The government was issuing guidelines saying that you can meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor public place provided you stay two meters apart. It said people could not leave their homes or be outside the place they live without a reasonable excuse. And for people who broke these rules the police in England could find them 100 pounds for the forest offence which had got double for each further offence up to a maximum of 3,200 even. Even that is some mixed messaging and that was what was announced from the government on the day it's in itself it's confusing but we were told we're certainly told not one thing that isn't confusing is we were certainly told we couldn't be having parties that was with the guidance from the government on the day. So let me take you through this feature that is in the mail this morning the Hartlepool mail this morning which I think is actually quite a great feature and it's telling us what people in this town were doing on the day that Downing Street was apparently having a party having been told having told the rest was not to have a party I get it it's it's it's about as clear as mud the whole thing is as clear as mud. So here's what was what people were doing in this town on that day one lady says it was my 48th wedding anniversary and my husband was in hospital very ill and I couldn't see him he died later another lady I was home alone unable to visit my husband in his nursing home as it was incomplete lockdown another person I was at home shielding after I had my cancer operation done on May 12th it was all right for some to have a party when I could not see anyone at all another lady as my daughter's 8th birthday we tried our best to make the best of a bad situation by having one person in our garden to see her another person home alone not being able to see my husband in a care home or my family or grandchildren another lady said I was holding a funeral for my 25 year old son another person 34th birthday in lockdown window visits from family and finally Kevin says I was stuck in my house as I was told to be it's not a minor matter that this has happened it is actually quite shocking and it tells us once again that we are not represented by those in power we are dictated to by those in power we are talked down to by those in power they are moving us around they're making decisions important decisions about our lives while doing something entirely different themselves there's a complete lack of concern a complete lack of empathy they're moving us around like pieces on a chessboard it isn't what democracy is supposed to be like we are supposed to elect people to act in our interests we're supposed to be as the saying goes in this together but we're not and this is further evidence of that fact we're not in this together we have a hierarchy an elite which sits at the top and talks downwards treats us like children maneuvers us controls our lives and does whatever it wants itself that should be known anyway you can see decisions that are made about the economy immigration a variety of decisions that are made not with our well-being in mind but with whatever suits the political elite we need a political revolution in this country we need the world in many respects needs it power must be brought back to the people but it will only be brought back it will only return to the people when the people rise up and demand it now when I stand for election again this year I will remind people of this I don't come from any elitist background I don't have this privilege of living in wealth that allows people to think that they are somehow superior I don't have that I am coming from the people I am the people that's the point and more and more stand up with me at the ballot box and demand access to the power structures elected chambers in this country we must demand that if we are to have representation real representation not by elites and not by people who are so detached from the everyday lives of the people they govern this has gone on for too long now the two main parties are irredeemably corrupt they must be replaced we have to take each opportunity to learn and to understand that we are not governed in our best interests and we have to demand absolutely demand access to decision making because those decisions are applied to us they affect our lives in so many profound ways we've got to stand and reclaim our power and that is what I intend to do coming up this May okay let me go through some stories from this morning one of them is about taxis if you live in Hartlepool as I do you will know that getting a taxi can be a very difficult affair there is a distinct lack of taxis in this town and one of the effects that this has is it impacts the night time economy the night time economy here can be a stack and you'll see bars and restaurants barely occupied many many nights of the week and I sometimes wonder to myself how I don't walk down on the marina last night for example with the dogs and you do you look at them and you think how do they make a living genuine you'd have one or two people in a bar or one or two people in a restaurant no really as it was Tuesday night but still and you do wonder to yourself how do they make a live in but one of one of the one of the things that impacts on the night time economy here and in similar towns across the country is a lack of taxis so let me read to you a story on this from the mail today it's good news counselors have unanimously backed proposals from a group of Hartlepool Hackney carriage drivers to increase taxi fares to help ensure they can make a decent live in the rise will see the cost of an average two mile journey in town rise by 60p during the day and one pound 40 on a night Hartlepool borough council's license licensing committee has unanimous unanimously approved the increase ruling the rise is key to ensure drivers can make a reasonable live in now while price is going up immediately but look just as I wondered how some bars and restaurants can actually make a live in I often wonder also how taxi drivers can make a live in and you'll see sometimes that you will have a line of taxis and you'll have I wonder to myself the guy at the back will be waiting there for god knows how long sometimes and then get a fare for three or four pound and then have to go back to the back of the queue people deserve the ability to make a live in and a decent standard of living so this to me can only be good news it has I've been reading driven people out of the taxi trade because they're not able to make a live in with this it is estimated that more people will come in to the taxi trade with the label to make a reasonable living if a more taxis available more people will use them and this will have an impact on the nighttime economy a one pound 40 extra is not ideal but if you're planning a night out perhaps one pound 40 is not enough of an increase to stop you going on your night out maybe you can have a half a drink less but I think on the whole this is a positive development and I hope that it will bring more people back into the trade that it will allow taxi drivers to make a better living and will make more taxis available which will have an impact on the nighttime economy helping everyone for the price of one pound 40 extra for a night out I think that's a positive development and I'm pleased to see it happening another story that I was I mentioned to you late last year was about the council here making moves to all out elections every four years now hardly pool is unusual in that it has elections almost every year and you will have a councillor so if you every ward has three councillors so when they have an all out election the councillor who gets the most votes will get a three year term the person in second place together two year term and the person in third place will get a one year term what they plan to do is bring the council in line with most of the councils around the country and have all out elections every four years now it's said at the time when I spoke about this last year that I had mixed feelings about it in some respects I want greater accountability to the public that's the upside of having frequent elections there is more accountability to the public the public gets to have a say more often on the other end of the scale though it having a year for example often won't give a good councillor enough time to establish themselves um to get some of their campaigns going things that they have met election promises that they've made to the electorate often a year will not give them enough time to do that and to to prove themselves and there are some good people uh who deserve a shot and who deserve a chance to to prove themselves the other issue of course is expense it's not free to run an election and this is actually the the main reason being put forward for changing the election cycle to every four years so just update you on that on the mail this morning currently elections are scheduled for a third of all councillors on the borough council each year except every fourth year when there's no election so last month Hartlepool borough council constitution committee backed looking at altering this to all out elections every four years starting in 2024 which received support at the latest full council meeting the council will now this is at the latest and council council will now carry out a consultation which with such persons they think appropriate i don't know which persons that is with good practice guidance suggesting a 12 week period of consultation once consultation has been completed a special meeting of full council is required to be convened for a motion which must then be approved by a two-thirds majority council officers previously estimated and here's where the the cost element comes in that the move would provide an annual budget saving of at least 35 000 and potentially 50 000 or even higher okay so a saving of 35 to 50 000 for the council is obviously good news however that 35 to 50 000 must be spent on improving services to local people and not on six figure salaries for unelected council chiefs i'll be keeping a very close eye on how that money is spent that is a guarantee i'll be keeping a very close eye on that one something else that has come up is cleaning the town and i have last year when i stood for election here and i spoke to several people on the doorstep and one of the main concerns was keeping the town clean and that's an issue that is coming up again i'll have it i'll give you uh i'll read to you a little bit about that uh issue so there's been a review in the town about improving street cleanliness and the mail says leading heartly pool borough council representative stressed they are continuing to work with other areas to adopt best practice and look for further improvements with working groups already set up to tackle issues such as fly tipping it comes after an amended motion was passed in september to look at new ways to ensure the maintenance upkeep and cleanliness of heartly pool a review went before the neighborhood services committee earlier this month which praised last month the tireless work of staff following years of cuts and the impact of the pandemic the chair of the committee in updating the last full council meeting said recommendations from the review included greater education on fly tipping and advertising the household waste recycling center telephone number for bookings improvements included looking at providing an estimated time frame for residents reporting issues on the council's online system and periodic checks to ensure jobs are completed labor have said that this doesn't go far enough and that the recommendations were uninspiring um for a change i have to agree with a labor counselor there they are uninspiring here are just some of the policies that i proposed last year and which were popular my most popular policies on the doorstep but which don't seem to be considered by the council these are simple simple things the first thing is the waste center borne road for local people will know exactly what i'm talking about when i say borne road waste center that center is a great resource and you used to be able to drive in whenever you liked and drop off rubbish of all of a of various different kinds it is a great resource so it has a massive it's a to drive you drive through around in a circle and across in the middle of this circle is a variety of massive skips for various different types of waste and then you have a separate section where you can put electrical appliances for example it's it's actually a brilliant resource when covid happened they changed it so that you have to go online and used to be able to just drive in anytime you liked throw away your rubbish and drive back out again now you have to go online go on to the heartly pool website which you have to have an account and you have to sign in and sometimes you can't sign in because it doesn't work that's another issue and you have to book a 10 minute slot to drop off your rubbish makes no sense whatsoever and by the way to book this 10 minute slot do you have to give your life story i have spoken to people you just give your car registration and what size car you have and what you're dropping how many bags of absolute nonsense now i spoke to people when i was campaigning last year who said that they now go elsewhere other towns across the northeast who still have open waste centers because either they don't have these accounts that you have to sign in with and it's just they're not online and it's just too much of a faff open up that waste center again why are you making it more and more difficult for people to throw away the rubbish and then you wonder why you have these problems something else i also proposed was quite simple and quite cheap there is a fly tip in problem and no one has ever seems to be punished for it i'm not one for putting cctv everywhere but where it's appropriate yes and that is appropriate you can get cheap cctv for fly tipping problem sites and actually have apply consequences for those who do it it's not rocket science there are also very few dog muck bins have started to disappear replay put them back but one thing is rubbish collection this is something if the people of harley pool and like me and may this is something i will fight for is double rubbish collection it'll cost yes and i know that the tories are cutting and i've got and will continue to cut funds for local councils and i also know that our local mp won't say anything about this because these are tories that are doing this and she's a tory so there'll be no objection to for their funding cuts but there are two sides to this for their funding cuts are a problem but our tory mp won't do anything about it because she's a tory and these are coming from the tories but it's also how the money is being spent that's the responsibility of the council and until someone stands up and says we must have a complete review and audit of how this money is being spent how much of it is being wasted how much of it is going in astronomical salaries to the unelected until that happens you are the councils all over this country are showing that they do not prioritize issues like this like keeping the place clean like giving business as a chance to get off the ground these should be the priorities and they are my priorities this is a fantastic town it has so much potential what it needs are new ideas and people in the council who are not afraid to speak up and say how is an ask on behalf of the people exactly how is our money being spent and you can why aren't you taking simple steps to help clean up this town why isn't money being allocated to priority matters like employment like the most vulnerable like cleaning up the town where's the money going and why isn't our MP fighting against further reduction in funds for our council i'll tell you why because she's a tory because the two big parties are the same their concern is their party and not local people always that's what happens when you become irredeemably corrupt i'm not suggesting that these don't have a duty to their parties parties are elected on a national manifesto and they have a duty to bring that manifesto to life but they must fight for the people that elect them that has to be their priority MP being an MP is a balancing act but number one priority has always got to be the people and the town they represent always and they find themselves in conflict they must always put the people first always that's that's their that's their democratic job but it's not what's happening and the same applies to the council put the town first and organize the finances for priorities that's what needs to happen and someone needs to go into this council and say so without fear or apology or cronyism or some sort of an attempt at being part of a clique no no you're not in there to be in a clique you're not in there to further your own career you're in there to represent the people and to give them the best town you can give them that's your job that's your job okay final thing i want to say this morning two final things actually there's something quite interesting now the one of my favorite things in Hartlepool is the national museum of the royal navy if you haven't been go it is an absolutely fantastic fantastic museum and it you may be when i first it was surprised i was surprised by how fantastic it was it's it's almost like a little town in itself absolutely wonderful this year it will be welcoming an exhibition on pirates pirates through the years and i'm really really looking forward to it i'm definitely going to to be there the horrible histories pirates exhibition will be coming to the national museum of the royal navy over the Easter holidays and promises a string of fun events um the acclaimed exhibition on the acclaimed exhibition will open in Hartlepool this Easter after proving a major draw at Portsmouth historic dockyard i will definitely be going along to that um and and if you haven't again if you haven't been if you're not even in Hartlepool anywhere in the region come along to the national museum of the royal navy it really is fantastic okay very very finally i want to wish a happy birthday to Vicki um Vicki i i hope you know how much i understand what you do for me and for the party and how grateful i am happy birthday i have a fantastic day and sincerely thank you for everything you do for me and for our party okay everyone i shall see you back here next Wednesday join me on rumble tonight at eight o'clock when we're having a look at the latest on covid something we're not as you know allowed to speak about on youtube so tonight eight o'clock on rumble we'll have a review of where we are with covid i'll be back on monday my monday night livestream at eight o'clock on youtube and i'll be back here next wednesday thank you as always for joining me look after yourselves i shall see you very soon take care