Pope Calls For Captain Chaos Councillor Keogh To Be Sacked - Yet Labour's Leader of the Council Defends Him

 

Captain of Chaos Councillor Eamonn Keogh
Photo: Southampton City Council

In mid-February, founder of Southampton Independents and former Independent Councillor Andrew Pope called in a letter published by the Daily Echo for Councillor Eamonn Keogh to be sacked by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Lorna Fielker.

This call from outside the Council sparked calls from so-called "opposition" councillors to actually provide some opposition, and have called for Keogh to resign.

Incredibly, as a result of the pressure from outside the Council and inside it, Lorna Fielker has defended Eamonn Keogh and the disastrous Portswood Broadway changes, saying:

Councillor Lorna Fielker
Leader of Southampton City Council
Photo: Southampton City Council

"We understand that change can be challenging, which is why the bus gate project is a trial. 

The council is closely monitoring its impact by collecting data, actively listening to the community, and making adjustments to ease congestion and improve road safety where concerns arise.

"Throughout the trial, Councillor Keogh has been regularly visiting the area, holding formal meetings with residents and the local school to hear concerns firsthand, and he will continue to do this.

"These insights will help inform decisions as the trial progresses."

Andrew Pope responds:

"I am pleased that Conservative councillors have finally provided some opposition. When I too was in opposition on the Council as an Independent, their opposition was regularly supine. And even now, they regularly agree with Labour.

Labour or Tory, same old story, Southampton people say.

Whether sacked or resigned, it doesn't really matter how he goes, Councillor Keogh must go, for the good of our City, its residents and businesses.

Remember that Councillor Lorna Fielker as Leader of the Council decides who is in her Cabinet, and it is Labour Councillors who decided that she should be Leader, when Satvir Kaur resigned having brought the Council to its knees with her Labour councillors supporting her.

The public did not elect Keogh to his disastrous tenure, and what is in fact a dangerous tenure. 

It's the Labour Party and Cllr Fielker that has put him as Cabinet Member for Transport, and which is keeping him there. 

That is how undemocratic the Cabinet and Leader system is. It prioritises party over people. Other cities like Bristol and Sheffield have brought in a Modern Committee System, that priorities people over parties. Ward councillors have more of a say, instead of political parties. That is how democracy is supposed to work, but Labour don't want that. They didn't want it in Bristol or Sheffield, either.

Labour's Eamonn Keogh has caused chaos across the City, especially in Portswood. He has failed to listen to residents of Shirley and Freemantle over the 20mph signs, and to remove them.

Cllr Keogh has created chaos in the City Centre, and shown his incompetence at the basics, as reported by the Echo, Keogh couldn't even ensure spare parts were in stock to fix our roads, leading to even more delays.

So it is very worrying that Lorna Fielker lacks the authority as Leader to make a decision for the benefit of our City, to sack Eamonn Keogh from the Cabinet.

Surely she realises that she might salvage some credibility for the Council, which Labour has led to bankruptcy and a shameful reputation amongst local government officers in Hampshire.

Or perhaps it is too late for Labour and they are hanging on by their finger nails, losing by-election after by-election until their inevitable demise under a Labour Government.

There will be elections in May 2026, and the residents of Southampton might decide that it's time for Lorna Fielker, and her Labour failures, to go from the Council." 

 

Southampton FC Fans On Away Days - We Have Safe Standing, But Not All Clubs Have It Though...

 

Southampton Independents Andrew Pope
In the New Safe Standing Northam Stand Pre-Season 2024/25

Leader of the Southampton safe standing campaign Andrew Pope says:

Andrew Pope at St Marys in 2018

"As I said in the Daily Echo, the safe standing at St Marys Stadium has been a resounding success, despite the abject performances on the pitch this season. It benefits 7,000 fans in the Northam stand. And it benefits 3,000 away fans. When Saints fans travel to away matches, they do not always have safe standing. Because even now, not all grounds have it.

Throughout the seven-year campaign, I regularly said to people that things only change if you stand up and fight. If you just whinge, roll your eyes and say it's terrible, and do nothing, and it won't change, surely things won't change. Fans of other clubs are having their own battles with their own clubs over safe standing.

Campaigns are hard and take a lot of work. The safe standing campaign took seven years and involved me working with Saints fans locally and nationally, and fans of other clubs, manufacturers, officials, directors, councillors, members of Parliament and members of Government.

This campaign was very difficult but I believed it was badly needed, and nobody else was providing the leadership in Southampton. Not the directors and chairmen, and no fans that I was aware of. So I did.

The law had to be changed. Southampton FC chairmen, owners and directors in the past tried to ignore the fans and the campaign. And they are doing it again now with my new campaign for better hand rails at SMS.

But in the end, they had to listen to my campaign, and they called me in and asked me what I thought of their plans. And they did listen to my answers and act on them.

It was a fight, which I won. Still, even now, fans of other clubs are still having their own fights with their own clubs.

Fans of other clubs have got in touch with me, to ask for some tips on how to make it happen. One of them has been Stand United, the campaign for safe standing at Bramall Lane, home of Sheffield United. They are still waiting for safe standing, and fighting to make it happen.

They've produced an excellent "Safe Standing Tracker" website, which they maintain. It shows which clubs have it, and which clubs do not. Things are changing because fans are making it happen. It's only when football fans work together that change happens.

The Plymouth Argyle Fans Forum on Thursday gave a firm commitment to safe standing, but no timeline. A Plymouth fan who is a close friend, told me about it. It's there on their video.

Safe standing talk, but not enough action or firm dates, was what I was faced with many times. Things only happen when the pressure is increased, which I did, using experience.

Why keep track of what is happening elsewhere?

Because Saints fans will benefit when they cross our great country to follow Southampton, whether in the Premier League or Championship. Away sections are changing to safe standing, so it is in our interests that I am in touch with their local campaigners and help them to bring it in. So if asked, I will continue to do that.

Meanwhile I continue the campaign for better hand rails and better safety at St Marys Stadium. If you want to help, get in touch. I already have some quotes from fans, but welcome more."

 

Former Councillor Andrew Pope
speaking to BBC South Today

The Southampton Independents Logo

We Listened to Portswood Residents Who Saw The Portswood Broadway Disaster Coming and Acted to Oppose It

 

Southampton Independents Letter in Daily Echo 13th February 2025

Labour pretended to listen, ... then Labour's Councillor Eamonn Keogh went ahead with it anyway!

Councillor Eamonn Keogh
Photo: Southampton City Council

Captain of chaos Councillor Keogh needs to go, Southampton people say. The Leader of the Council should sack him, we say.

The full text of Andrew Pope's letter that was printed in yesterday's Daily Echo is below.

We asked for people to stand up in 2022 and in 2023. as reported by the Echo then and in the letters we printed and volunteered to deliver. We contacted the residents associations, and businesses, too.

Portswood people need to stand for Council as Independent candidates, because the political parties let you down - Labour, Green, Tory, Lib Dem - they all put themselves first,  instead of the people of Southampton.

Once again, we will be looking for those people to stand in next year's Southampton City Council elections. And we need people to help contact residents in Portswood.

Get in touch if you want to do it. We will give you advice and support.

 

Former Independent Councillor Andrew Pope

"Disturbed but not surprised

I am disturbed, but not surprised to hear of the unfolding disaster at the Council's Portswood Broadway changes.

It was foreseen by residents and businesses that I spoke to back in 2022 and 2023, and reported by the Echo.

The Council has already tried to paper over the cracks and the out-of-control Cabinet Member for Transport, Labour Councillor Eamonn Keogh, is deaf to the dangers.

Keogh has already caused chaos across Shirley and in the City Centre, making promises to remove 20mph signs, but they are still there.

Keogh needs to be removed from his position by the Leader of the Council Councillor Lorna Fielker, but the talent pool within the Labour Group is very limited, if not non-existent.

The bankruptcy of the Council and crackpot policies in the City prove Labour's inadequacy.

Labour already lost one Portswood seat on the Council after our campaign with Portswood residents against their crazy proposals.

Labour lost the by-election in Shirley too, with residents unhappy about transport policies. I know because I listened to them on their doorsteps.

Do Labour want to lose more Council seats because of their greenie fanatics and ignorance of the vast majority of residents and businesses in the area?

If they do, they are going the right way about it.

Andrew Pope
Southampton Independents"

Did You Know That Your Council Leaders Are Doing Deals About How You Are Governed?

 

"Devolution" the vampire coming out of the coffin
Image: Giphy.com

And cancelling elections, claiming all of it as "democracy"?

We do. And we've been acting to challenge them. Like a vampire, it's come out of the coffin...

And it threatens to bleed you dry, of your money and your voice. 

Since last year, Southampton Independents campaigner Andrew Pope has been contacting the leaders of Southampton, Portsmouth, Hampshire and Isle of Wight councils, plus others, to ask them their positions on so-called "devolution" as being promoted by the Labour Government.

Their answers have been highly disappointing. Instead of standing up to the Labour Government, they are giving in. 

If this all seems familiar, that's because it is. The vampire is rising.

Back in 2016, Southampton Independents defeated previous proposals, called "devolution", to change how Hampshire is governed, and we called for a Referendum. We achieved this by working with any and all political parties and those of no political party.

We stood up for residents who were being ignored by the Southampton Labour and Southampton Conservative MPs and councillors. Our councillor Andrew Pope was the only Southampton councillor opposing it, but others across the Region also opposed it.

Former Leader of Hampshire County Council Roy Perry said that a stake needed to be driven into the heart of the Solent Devolution Deal.

It appeared to be dead. Yet we hear that like a vampire, it it rising out of the coffin. 

The Council leaders of Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight councils are having conversations behind closed doors about a new devolution deal in the Solent area.

And by rolling over to the Labour diktats, they are complicit in cancelling elections, as decided by the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner this week.

Our position has not changed. Andrew Pope says:

"We demand a Referendum for Southampton residents, before any change to how we are governed.

Thet is true democracy, not deals done behind closed doors with elections benig cancelled." 

In response to the announcement of cancelling elections in May for a large portion of the country, six County areas will lose the right to vote on the performance of their Councillors at a time when both Conservative and Labour are at a low ebb, Councillor Marianne Overton MBE, Leader of the Independent Network of Councillors across England and Wales, said:

“Cancelling elections is denying residents the democratic opportunity to vote. And the excuse? Local Government Re-organisation for which there is no mandate!

“These actions were not on the general election manifestoes and no resident referendum.

“There is still no clarity on how the cost of reorganisation will be met beyond asset stripping existing councils. This will move democracy further away from residents, putting power into the hands of the few, not the many.

“In making these announcements the Government are disregarding the views of local people – both residents and the district councillors who have been elected to represent their residents.“

If you want to find out more and to get involved and to help fight back, please get in touch.here.

 

 

Labour Goes Ahead with Portswood Broadway Disaster - Despite Massive Resident and Business Opposition

 

Listening to Southampton residents

The Labour-run City Council is ploughing ahead with its disastrous Portswood Broadway plan, despite massive resident and business opposition. 

Back in 2022, former Southampton Independents City councillor Andrew Pope listened to residents and businesses, after speaking to them on their doorsteps and in their shops.

And it is proving to be the disaster that was feared. Bluestar, the bus company, has supported the bus gate.

The Daily Echo is reporting:

"A Southampton mum has told of the terrifying moments her five-month-old baby was nearly crushed by a driver who mounted the pavement on the way to school."

During the "trial" (read: fait accomplit), drivers would not be fined, say the Council, who are in denial about the safety of it all:

"Drivers who ignore a newly implemented bus gate will not be hit with a fine, the council has confirmed."

The knock-on effects that worried residents and businesses, and were foreseen, are happening.

And then the Council has changed its mind already. The Council's warning is in full below*:

"Drivers who ignore a controversial road closure will be fined from next week – two weeks after the scheme was introduced."

Andrew says: 

Former Councillor Andrew Pope at the Civic Centre

"The Council has already u-turned and the out-of-control Cabinet Member for Transport, Labour Councillor Eamonn Keogh, is deaf to the dangers.

Keogh has already caused chaos across Shirley and in the City Centre, making promises to remove 20mph signs, but they are still there.

Keogh needs to be removed from his position by the Leader of the Council Councillor Lorna Fielker, but the talent pool within the Labour Group is very limited, if not non-existent.

The bankruptcy of the Council and crackpot policies in the City prove Labour's inadequacy.

Labour already lost one seat on the Council after our campaign with Portswood residents against their crazy proposals.

Labour lost the by-election in Shirley too, with residents unhappy about transport policies. I know because I listened to them on their doorsteps.

Do Labour want to lose more Council seats because of their greenie fanatics and ignorance of the vast majority of residents and businesses in the area?

If they do, they are going the right way about it."

*Southampton City Council:

" Camera enforcement of the bus/taxi/cycle only section on Portswood Road will begin on Monday 10 February 2025 📢
While the restriction is in operation only authorised vehicles are allowed, including:
Buses 🚌
Taxis 🚕
Cyclists, legal E-scooters and E-bikes 🚴‍♂️
Emergency vehicles 🚑
Any other service vehicle carrying out a statutory duty e.g. gritting, refuse collection 🚛
Other vehicles that drive through the restriction will receive a Warning Notice, and on their second contravention they will receive a Penalty Charge Notice 🚗
Warning Letters and PCN’s will be sent through the post to the Registered Keeper of the vehicle.  To allow enough time between a Warning Notice being processed and received by the driver, there will be period of approximately two weeks after a Warning Notice being sent and a PCN being issued"

EXCLUSIVE: Bankrupt Southampton Labour-run Council Appoints Its Own Councillors To Committees To Cover Up Its Failures

 

Bankrupt Southampton Labour Council
Using Your Money To Cover Up Their Failures

The Councillor Chair of the new Audit Committee at Southampton City Council is from the same Southampton Labour Party that has bankrupted the Council. But it's even worse than that...

As reported by Southampton Independents in early 2023, the Labour-run Southampton City Council was warned that it was on the brink of bankruptcy by the Chief Financial Officer, who then resigned and did not attend the budget meeting of the Council.

The Labour Party's Leader of the Council at the time is now Southampton Test MP Satvir Kaur. She led the Council to the precipice, and then quit at the end of 2023. 

The Captain who sunk the Council's ship then abandoned it - not the done thing really in a maritime City. And then once elected as an MP, Kaur quit the Council completely.

Satvir Kaur left a trail of destruction in the Council finances, in Council transparency and amongst the Council officers. She also chose the members of her Cabinet, including the Cabinet Member of Finance, who we shall come to in a moment.

The Chief Executive Officer Mike Harris also quit late in 2023 / early 2024, citing health difficulties relating to the job and the financial crisis.

So to sum up, who had quit in just one year? 

1. The Leader of the Council, who had only been Leader for eighteen months before resigning.
   
2. The Chief Financial Officer
3. The Chief Executive Officer

This is a spectacular failure of leadership by Satvir Kaur, chosen by Labour councillors - and Labour councillors only - to be Leader of the Council.

And the Cabinet Member for Finance during all of was Labour Councillor Steve Leggett, and to emphasise, the Cabinet including him were all chosen by Satvir Kaur.

Labour Councillor Steve Leggett
Former Cabinet Member for Finance

 

When the full horror of the Council finances that she presided over was realised - even by Satvir Kaur - Councillor Steve Leggett was then sacked from the Cabinet by Kaur around July 2023, as can be seen in the Council's agenda and minutes. The minutes of Full Council record that Leggett had "stood down" after "five years" as Cabinet member:

"The Leader formally announced changes to Cabinet...

Councillor Leggett had stood down from Finance and Change and been replaced by Councillor Letts who had previous held office as the Cabinet Member for Finance as well as Leader of the Council, and that Waste would be moving to Environment and Transport."

Kaur had also falsely claimed to the media in 2023 that it was a "lie" that the Council was bankrupt, contradicting her own finance officer, the chief executive, the facts of the Council finances that showed the glaring black hole between income and expenditure, and the many media reports of the crisis.

Just a few months later in December 2023, Kaur resigned as Leader.

A year later, the Council is still struggling to balance its budget.

It has been given permission to sell off its assets by Government to pay the daily bills - a so-called "capitalisation direction". Normally councils are not allowed to do this. It is the equivalent of selling off your family silver to pay your bills.

And the Labour-run Council also tried to hide its dirty secret that it had asked the Government to put our Council Tax up by 15%. It all came out during a public meeting. We reported it in May 2024.

And Southampton Independents had predicted Southampton Labour would do it, over a year before in March 2023, because we saw what Labour did in Croydon (bankrupted the Council and then denied it) and had warned Southampton residents about it by reporting on it and informing local media.

So has the Council turned over a new leaf? No, it is looking to cover up its failures to protect the Labour Party, instead of confessing to its failings.

In July 2024, which amazingly is the anniversary that Steve Leggett had left the Cabinet as Member for Finance, a new "Audit Committee" was created at the Council.

You may say that this was too late. You would be right. The ship's bow was already teetering on the brink of the water a year before. having been sunk by Kaur and her Labour cronies.

How seriously should we take this "Audit Committee"? Not very, we suggest...

Let's play a game shall we?

Question: Well... can you guess who the Chair of the Audit Committee is... 

Labour Councillor Steve Leggett
Chair of the New Audit Committee

A quick check of the agenda and minutes of the Committee and you can see that it is...

Answer: The one and only... Labour Councillor Steve Leggett!

Talk about Southampton Labour councillors marking their own homework!

Residents ask us what can we do when Labour has a majority of councillors? We say that we work together with residents to expose and challenge the Council, and to work to reduce the number of Labour councillors. And as you can see above, we have done that. Already, the number of Labour councillors is reducing. They lost the Shirley by-election, for example.

Our founder Andrew Pope has written to the Council officer in charge of governance, the "Director of Legal and Governance and Monitoring Officer", whose name is Richard Ivory. Mr Ivory is the only officer of the three statutory senior officers who is still with the Council after all of the above changes to Leader, Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer.

They will only steady the ship with proper scrutiny and challenge. But of course Southampton Labour councillors do not want that. They prefer to appoint Labour people to cover up their failings.

Former Councillor Pope suggested to Mr Ivory that the Constitution of the Council should state that the Chair of the Audit Committee should not be from the same party. Perhaps it should be an independently-minded councillor, instead of the same councillor who took the Council to the brink, from the same political party.

The Director of Legal stated that it was councillors that decide who the Chair is, and that:

"ordinarily and by convention the Chair would be from the Administration"

So the Chair of "Audit" is a stitch-up by the councillors on the Audit Committee, the majority of whom are Labour! And the Committee was only created a year after Councillor Leggett "stood down" (or was sacked) from the Cabinet.

Labour To Allow Council Tax To Go Up... Despite Keir Starmer Promising To Freeze It

 

Yet Another Labour Robbery of Your Money

Keir Starmer's Labour Government has confirmed in Parliament this week that it will allow councils to put up council tax. But as recently as last year, it promised to freeze council tax if in Government.

Last year, in March 2023, as reported by the BBC, Keir Starmer promised to freeze council tax if Labour was in Government. It is now in Government.

"In a speech in Swindon, Wiltshire, Sir Keir said freezing council tax was 'a tax cut for the 99% of working people, compared with the tax cut for the richest 1% that we get under the Tories'."

This is yet another lie by Keir Starmer's Labour Government and another robbery of Southampton residents' money.

Let's not forget that as reported by Southampton Independents, the Southampton Labour Council asked Government whether it could put up Southampton council tax by 15%.

And Southampton Labour councillors tried to hide their request to Government from residents.

Where is the Southampton Park and Ride? Our Campaign Goes On...

 

Another Southampton Independents Campaign

Unlike Portsmouth and Winchester, Southampton does not have a park and ride for the general public to use.

Southampton Independents has been campaigning for one for years, but the City Council has failed to deliver it.

There is one for staff of Southampton General Hospital. It was built after we met with hospital management years ago, after we had called for a park and ride, and after an inquiry into hospital travel.

And there is something calling itself Southampton Park and Ride, but this is for cruise passengers only.

So despite our long-running campaign, there is still not a Park and Ride for the general public to use.

An ideal site would be at the north-western edge of the City, near to the M271 and not far from the M27. This is where the Hospital staff Park and Ride is located, on Brownhill Way, near the Lidl warehouse and Lidl store.

In 2018, campaigner and former Independent Councillor Andrew Pope called for Lidl to pay for a park and ride, as they were building a store to add to the large warehouse in the same area. He told the Daily Echo:

Andrew Pope

"I want to see what Lidl is going to do for local residents, because Lidl will be making lots of money, so they have to deliver benefits such as improved transport links, a new park and ride, and finally deliver on the promise of sustainability including solar panels on top of the huge local warehouse.

The Labour Council has to make Lidl do this.

Residents and the local area must benefit from the new store, if it goes ahead.”

Lidl on Brownhill Way, Southampton

Councillor Pope also wrote to the Daily Echo about the lack of a Southampton park and ride, and his letter was published. It is copied below.

And in 2013, Councillor Pope led an inquiry into "Public and Sustainable Transport Provision to Southampton General Hospital". This inquiry considered the problem of the volume of car traffic caused by staff at the hospital and its impact on local residents and local streets. It found the huge impact that the hospital has on travel within and around the City of Southampton:

"The Hospital has up to a total of 7500 staff, a number of these work shifts or

are on call. In addition there are University employees and students who

regularly have needed to visit the SGH site. By the size and nature of the

Hospital and its activities, the Trust is one of the major employers in

Southampton. In addition there are in the region of 600,000 patient visits

per annum."

Pope's Inquiry called in local bus companies and hospital staff to give evidence, and recommended that the hospital fully reviewed its Travel Plan. Recommendations were made to the Council and the Cabinet Member for Transport accepted all of the recommendations.

Yet eleven years later, there is still no Park and Ride.

Andrew says: 

"We've listened to residents and businesses who are fed up with the constant road chaos caused by Councillor Eamonn Keogh and the Labour-run Council failing to take the action that works. In fact, Keogh has constantly caused chaos instead of reducing it. 

Southampton Independents will carry on our campaign for a Park and Ride for Southampton. Get in touch to give us your support and your views on it."

READER LETTER: Cllr Andrew Pope: 'No park-and-ride, no clean air and no leadership at city council'

RESIDENTS are fed up with the lack of action on clean air from successive administrations of both Southampton City Council and the government.

All we hear about are task forces, networks and strategies.

As your editorial rightly points out, it seems that drastic action is now needed. Why? Because over so many years – decades residents tell us – all they've offered is talk and delay. And they are only talking about drastic measures now because the courts are forcing them to.

No park-and-ride like other local cities. No clean air. No leadership. And the council approves more warehouses and HGVs and brings more pollution from the sea, from the land and from the air.

All their pathetic measures have delivered thus far are more illness and death.

This is proven by the council's own reports, including one that went to cabinet on Tuesday when it considered the Clean Air Zone. It states that parts of Southampton, and Redbridge in particular, have respiratory illnesses above the average for Southampton, including for children at our local schools that are next to major roads.

Once again, it is Labour or Tory, same old story. It is no wonder, then, that both the Labour and Tory leaders were both voted out at the council elections last month.

Labour almost lost the Redbridge seat to Southampton independents and control of the council. There were only 199 votes that prevented both from happening.

Nobody cares really who pays for the measures, but it should not be those who can least afford it.

Don't residents and businesses pay enough council tax and business rates already?

Councillor Andrew Pope

Southampton independent councillor for Redbridge Ward

EXCLUSIVE: EIGHT Years Later, Bad Landlord Southampton City Council STILL Failing on Damp and Mould

Campaigning for A Better Council

 

Southampton Independents began its campaign on fire safety in early 2017. During that campaign, we uncovered a whole raft of issues across Southampton on housing more generally. Many of these problems had been around for a while, and Council tenants were increasingly frustrated.

When we took BBC Radio 5 Live's investigative reporter Adrian Goldberg to the tower blocks in International Way in Weston, he was shocked. He filed this video, with Andrew Pope showing him around. 

As well as the fire safety issues, we observed damp and mould. This had previously been reported by tenants of Canberra House in International Way. As the Daily Echo reported, the Council had "vowed" to address the damp and mould, and the fire safety issues.

Yet eight years later, the Council's own report still shows "high risk" issues on damp and mould.

Southampton City Council's own Director of Housing has admitted that the Council is a bad landlord, quoted in writing in the Council's own report:

"Over the last few years, our performance relating to our housing landlord function has fallen below an acceptable standard. We must and will do better."

We have written to the Cabinet Member for Housing, Labour Councillor Andy Frampton, on several issues. We still have not received any response.

So now we are revealing more shameful information, from the Council's own reports that we have obtained, about damp and mould, to add to:

• the huge cost of empty properties and delays to fill the properties with tenants
• the Council's failure to deal with high risk fire safety failures, and 
• the change to Council policy to allow non-Southampton residents to go on the waiting list.

We quote directly from the Council's own report:

"The high risk exception was raised in relation to sample testing of 25 damp and mould cases establishing 8/25 did not include photographs alongside the surveyor’s findings, 6/25 did not have a surveyor report on file and for 10/25, testing was unable to evidence the authority contacting tenants to follow up on damp and mould issues."

To interpret this:

• 32% of damp and mould cases did not provide photographic evidence
• 24% had no surveyor report to provide evidence
• 40% had no evidence that the Council as landlord had even followed up with tenants on damp and mould issues
  

Campaigner Andrew Pope says: 

 

Daily Echo early 2017
on our fire safety campaign
quoting Andrew Pope

"We will try again to get answers from Councillor Andy Frampton, and have contacted the BBC and other media to ask that they cover this, as they have covered private sector damp and mould issues following the terrible deaths and illnesses caused by bad landlords.

It is also nauseating to see Southampton Labour MPs like Darren Paffey, who himself was approving housing spending in the Council Cabinet for years, focus in a recent BBC report by Emily Hudson on BBC South Today only on private sector blocks when his own Labour Council is still failing as a landlord.

It's selective representation and party political myopia when his job is to protect all his constituents from all bad landlords, including the Council."

 

Standing Up For Sotonians

EXCLUSIVE: Ten Years Later - Still Protecting Citizens' Rights To Vote From Tory Threats

 

The Refurbished St George's Hall, Calshot

Ten years ago, co-founder of Southampton Independents Andrew Pope led a campaign to protect the right to vote of residents of Calshot, when Tory councillors and officers at New Forest District Council had resolved to close a remote polling station.

Once again, ten years later, there is another review of polling stations by the local Council and again, the local Conservative councillors are failing to protect the right to vote for local people.

Calshot is a remote community at the end of the A326, which runs from Southampton and along the Waterfront at Southampton Water. Closing that polling station would have meant a long journey for voters to Fawley. Bus services there were rare. And the walk would be long and hazardous along an unlit main road.

Despite this, the Conservative-run Council's General Purposes Committee had resolved to close St George's Hall as a polling station. So when Labour's 2015 Parliamentary Candidate for New Forest East, Pope started a petition of people who lived in the area and presented it to the Council.

Chris Yandell of the Daily Echo covered the story.

The campaign was victorious in causing a u-turn, despite local Tory councillor Alexis McEvoy claiming that we were "scaremongering". As reported by the Echo, the Council had resolved and minuted via the General Purposes Committee to close the polling station.

St George's Hall was being run down, and being talked down by officers of the Council and councillors.

Now, it has been refurbished and control will be passed to Fawley Parish Council. More photos are below. Perhaps this was a sign of a new commitment to the facility from local councillors and the Council?

 

The refurbished Main Hall

The refurbished kitchen

Andrew contacted both local New Forest District councillors, who are both Conservatives, to ask them to pledge to protect St George's Hall as a polling station.

Despite chasing, no such reassurance has been received from Councillor Alan Alvey or Councillor Matthew Hartmann.

What happened to Alexis McEvoy, you may ask?

She is no longer a district councillor, following her 'racist' attack via Twitter on much-loved footballer and pundit Ian Wright.

McEvoy was placed under investigation and had the Conservative whip removed from her. She was also removed from the New Forest National Park Authority.

McEvoy remains as a County Councillor until the elections in May 2025. Some call her "independent" but really she is just a disgraced Conservative.

So have the current local councillors turned over a new leaf? No.

Below is the far-from-delightful and far-from-helpful response from Conservative councillor Alan Alvey, who was given two opportunities to state his commitment to St George's Hall.

"Dear Mr Pope

 

Your original message did not require a response as I am not responsible to you for how I act. You are not one of my constituents and, so far as I am aware, have no connection to the Calshot Ward.

 

Regards

Alan Alvey

Fawley, Blackfield & Langley,

New Forest District Council"

It seems that the standard of Conservative councillor has not improved despite the removal of Alexis McEvoy!

And the people of Calshot need to know that the Tories have not learned any lesson.

Independent councillors of New Forest District Council did reply via their Group Leader Peter Armstrong. And their reply was very helpful in describing the plight of Calshot residents, including more cuts to the buses.

Let us hope that all Conservative councillors for the area will be removed by the people of the area in any future and upcoming elections, and that the polling station is retained.