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Welcome to our Blog

Welcome to our blog, featuring an archive of Matthew's regular "Roundhay Review" articles

Advice on the environment? Let’s ask the Americans

My wife, Amy, and I (!) thought we’d honeymoon in the States and departed a couple of days after the “big day”, and what a fantastic day it was!

During our time in Florida I realised we Brits could learn a thing or two about the environment from the Americans, or the Floridians more accurately. The Disney Parks were immaculate, not a dropped piece of chewing gum in sight, not a word etched anywhere it shouldn’t have been. Having said that we did see a British man with “Mum” tattooed on one side of his neck and “Dad” on the other side… But no other graffiti.

Crucially it wasn’t just the parks. Along the motorways there was none of litter and filth we associate with a journey in this country. On a four-hour drive from Cape Canaveral and Palm Beach, I spotted one piece of litter. That’s right, one piece. Palm Beach? Immaculate. Miami South Beach? Squeaky clean. Key West? Pristine. Naples? Flawless. I could go on but I’d need a superior thesaurus.

The people we met told us that they care about their local environment and want it to be “nice for the kids”. They said dropping litter would be obvious as it is so clean, and that fines could be incurred for littering. Well, people can be fined over here but it has made little difference.

So what can we do? I’m convinced bigger fines will not work. People are sick of being spied upon and no matter how many enforcement officers the Council employed it wouldn’t change the fundamental attitude. My feeling is that if we made our environment spotless, littering would be so obvious that people will challenge the offenders. We’d all become enforcement the officers.

In Oakwood centre, my colleagues and I are battling to get funding to pilot our idea of a “Village Lengthsman”. For those wondering what this is, it’s someone who doesn’t just pick litter, they mend the damaged verge, sweep up gravel, clean the street signs and wash the bins. They would also report out graffiti problems, broken flagstones and generally care for the area. If we can prove the results, we could roll the idea out further. We’re at the early stages and things work slowly in the Council, but with effort we might be able to employ a committed person who knows the area and who will take the job seriously.

Again, though, if the underlying physical environment is shabby, what can we do? The Council is suffering the budget pressures we all face with high inflation on the materials it buys. We know from all the awful tarmac patches the Council can’t afford the manpower plus materials to properly re-lay all the pavement flagstones. The Council won’t get round to levelling overgrown grass verges so they can be neatly mowed. All of this falls into the ‘nice to have category’.

We need some outside help and some cheap labour. I recently met with the co-ordinator for the Probation Service in Leeds. It seems that they are desperately keen for significant projects so that they can ensure people work their full community service. It seems, unbeknown to me, that they have already worked across our area on numerous projects with no associated increase in crime in those areas and with positive testimonials on the work from locals. They are closely monitored at all times, in small groups, and have to wear bright bibs. Like a chain-gang without the chains. , I’m assured they are also sensitive about the ‘type’ of criminal they work in a built up area.

So along with the Councillors from Chapel Allerton and Moortown, we are seeking a pilot to guarantee us a certain level of manpower across North Leeds and we’ll see how it goes. We’ll consult with local residents before we start in an area and monitor the results. If the overall local feeling is that people don’t want this service, that’s fine, we’ll ask in another area. With luck we can ensure these probationers pay their debt to society as well as lifting our area to a level where people want to care for it.

If you have any suggestions for projects you’d like to see completed which require few costly resources and would use unskilled or semi-skilled labour, please do get in touch.

All the best

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

Prisons these days… they’re like, well, prisons

Rising blood pressure limits me to no more than two Daily Mails a week. It’s an entertaining read but there’s always something in there to get your blood boiling.

I thought it was high time I investigated the oft-repeated claims that prisons are like holiday camps, so I contacted the Governor of Armley prison and asked if I could meet him for a chat and to have a tour of the prison.

Governor Rob Kellett is a no nonsense sort of man. He seemed to relish the questions I threw at him.

“Why are prisoners paid more to peel spuds than to study for a qualification which could help them get a job?”

“How can you possibly have drug addicts getting fixes in a secure prison?”

“Are prisoners allowed mobile phones?”

“Do you make drug addicted prisoners go cold turkey and if you do, can they then sue you?”

“Why do prisoners have TV sets in their cells?”

I suspect he’d answered these questions a thousand times and his answers were in the main reassuring.

I then received a tour around the prison from an operational manager, Mark Hudson. Mark was clearly very well respected by the prisoners and mused that in 22 years he and his family hadn’t ever been threatened, whilst his wife often had to handle far more violent and aggressive situations. She was, after all, a school teacher.

So what of the usual claims in the press? “Prison cells are the lap of luxury with all mod cons”. The reality is a little different. Imagine your bathroom. Make it a bit smaller and scruffier. Add in a bunk bed where the bath would be and a tiny window. Add 2 prisoners and lock the door for up to 23 hours a day. Prisoners eat in their cell, go to the toilet in front of each other in the cell. They do have a small travel kettle to stop requests to leave cells for a drink. They also have a tiny TV with channels 1-5. Why the TV? Well it’s the one privilege which focuses prisoners’ minds. Misbehave and the TV goes, leaving them with 23 hours in their cell with no distraction. TVs keep order in the prison.

Armley has a constant challenge in cracking down on drugs. Relatives of criminals find ever more ingenious ways to smuggle in drugs and mobile phones – methods which are, frankly, unprintable. This year the prison is suffering a budget cut of £900,000 whilst simultaneously preparing to re-open a wing. The effect stretches staff thinner, especially as Armley will be running at maximum capacity for the foreseeable future. The density of prisoners in wings is higher now than when the prison was opened in 1847.

So what of rehabilitation? Well some prisoners I talked to implied the experience had made them want to go straight, but others had been back in several times – they had low life expectations and accepted prison as a way of life. At least whilst ever those people are in Armley they aren’t outside ruining law abiding people’s lives. There are opportunities to study and there are numerous charities and organisations trying to help rehabilitate prisoners who wish to be helped. Some never will though, and re-offending rates are high.

So is Armley a holiday camp? No. Any regular person finding themselves there would fall to pieces. It’s a tough place and it is punishment. Reassuring for those of us who feel that prison shouldn’t be a holiday camp.

All the best

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay ward Conservative Councillor

Statistics or people?

I recently spent an evening helping out at St George’s Crypt, which has been supporting homeless people in Leeds for around 80 years. Leeds has, of late, built a good reputation for reducing homelessness and the Council was even given the ‘Homeless Champion’ award by the Government in 2005 for its part in this. It was interesting seeing the range of people coming through the doors in the evening. There was a gentleman who looked like a retired accountant in smart trousers and a shirt, people with addiction problems and many with noticeable mental illness. Most were very polite and grateful for the food but some, quite amazingly, seemed utterly ungrateful. From the 1950’s onwards successive governments aimed to reform mental health care to stop people becoming institutionalised in asylums and to get them to live as normal a life as possible. It was the 1950’s when ‘community care’ came into common parlance. The number of beds in mental institutions halved between the mid-1950s and 1975. Of course the thing everyone remembers is the 1983 Mental Health Act which gave rights to people admitted to mental hospitals to appeal against committal. This led to the closures of more institutions, more ‘care in the community’ and a couple of high-profile, terrible events and bad press that followed. That Thursday evening at St George’s Crypt I saw a number of people who seemed desperately in need of support owing to their mental health problems. They lived a chaotic existence involving rough sleeping and fending for themselves through whatever means they could. It brought it home that whilst statistically the proportion of rough sleepers in Leeds may be around 0.002% of our population, these are still individual people and not statistics. There is another side to this to consider, though. Years ago my fiancée, Amy, used to work in Thornton’s when she was a student and was regularly abused by a number drug addicts who were living on the street. She was even spat at when she challenged their shoplifting and once had to lock herself in a back room for protection, which is utterly despicable. These particular individuals were on a revolving door of crime and in pure financial terms were a huge burden to the police, court system and prisons. That’s before you even take into account how threatening those individuals were to law abiding people and the cost of theft to the businesses. Before I receive letters of complaint, I must clearly stress that this is not the behaviour of all homeless people. I can’t help but think that even in financial terms it must be better to have intense and possibly compulsory programs which cover end-to-end drug rehabilitation, settling people into accommodation and work experience. In the USA there are studies showing the cost to the state of people living on the street is up to $60,000 per person, per year. If it is anything like this cost over here we should take stock of how we deal with the problem. I want to make it clear, I do not know the answer. However, in 21st century Britain we need a fresh look at how as a society we can support these people in getting out of chaotic, dangerous and in some cases criminal existences, into lives where they can contribute positively to society. All the best Matthew Lobley Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor PS: If you wish to support the excellent work of St George’s Crypt you can donate via their website or send cheques payable to “St Georges Crypt”, Great George St, LS1 3BR

Back to Blighty

Sometimes it takes a holiday to appreciate home.

It had been 18 months since I’d taken a week off work. Like many people, my holidays often involve dealing with work related e-mails and calls, or worse still, DIY.

So Amy and I decided that it was the right time to book a week away from home. A few weeks prior to making this decision we’d seen a clip on TV about Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. The resort was a vision of paradise and so we booked into the same hotel we saw on TV.

It all started so well. The hotel made us gasp: seven swimming pools; camel rides on a private beach with coral reef and tropical shoals swimming around your feet.

So what could possibly go wrong? Well, without wishing to sound in any way melodramatic… I did enjoy my holiday once I had regaining my eyesight and come off the drip. I was very ill. Please note, this was without drinking the local water which is the usual killer. At one point I did wonder if I could be the first person in history whose tombstone would read “Killed by an Egyptian salad”.

On returning home we were met with a cool, overcast English evening and reports of drab weather whilst we were away. My goodness, it was wonderful.

The whole holiday set me thinking about my vision of paradise. I picture endless sun, shopping for local goods, lounging on the beach and new culinary experiences. At the risk of sounding like a bit of a misery – I’m just not cut out for it.

After a few days I’ve had enough of the searing heat. It makes even the most leisurely of tasks seem like hard work and the endless application of sun cream is a pain for the pasty among us. Somehow hot summer days in Britain don’t have the same energy sapping effect on me. I think the reason is that the temperature usually drops off in the evening, as anyone who has ever planned a BBQ will confirm.

Bartering always seems charming on holiday but my goodness, I’d be moved to commit murder if we had to do this every time we bought something in the UK.  I never thought I’d appreciate price labels and bar codes. I’m also pleased the manager from Somerfield doesn’t come out shake my hand, call me ‘friend’ repeatedly and try to drag me in his store. Charming on holiday, less so in Oakwood. Mind you Mike at Somerfield is a nice chap and I think I’d be happy enough for him to call me ‘friend’. I also never need persuasion to go into that brilliant little supermarket, if you don’t use it you should try it out.

Why is it also that if you stay in a hotel abroad the caterers feel compelled to emulate British food, and often not well? Let us try some of your local specialities please! Having said that the best roast beef and Yorkshire puddings I can remember having was in the Caribbean, cooked by a Turkish chef. Very odd.

And finally, what about lounging on the beach? Tragic as this is, after 20 minutes of sitting still, you’ll find me yearning to do something… anything… but not DIY.

Don’t get me wrong, I love going on holiday. It’s just that I also love coming home. Britain’s not so bad is it?

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

Park life

"No matter how small your garden is, you should always set aside a couple of acres for woodland"- Quote from Lord Rothschild

You know, I think Lord Rothschild was onto something.

Until recently this tit-bit of advice has been of little use to me but now I feel it comes into its own having, as I do, 700 acres of beautifully kept garden and woodland in front of my house. Granted, I do share this garden with 715,000 other joint tenants.

This summer I am determined to get out from behind my keyboard and start taking some time to enjoy Roundhay Park. I’m keen to challenge the adage that people never visit places on their doorsteps, and as I type this article I can think of nowhere more pleasant I’d rather go for a stroll on these light evenings.

Keeping the park in its current condition is no small task and behind the scenes there is a completely dedicated team of staff. The type of people who I’ve seen on their days off coming in to clear snow from paths and generally going that extra mile. In addition to this we are lucky to have the Friends of Roundhay Park, an active organisation made up of volunteers who lobby hard for improvements in the park and regularly roll up their sleeves to do their bit, even creating their own garden. Well worth supporting, if fancy becoming a member.

If you heard a loud sound like a rush of wind recently it was most likely the collective sigh of relief from three Roundhay Ward Councillors when the Lakeside Café re-opened. We have also seen the re-launch of the Tropical World Café now refurbished (with decent, permanent toilets) and re-named as “Explorer’s Café”. The Visitor Centre has been open for a little while and if you haven’t been already, I’d say it is well worth a visit.

But there is one piece of the jigsaw missing. The Mansion. I cannot think of another subject on which I am more often grilled. This isn’t surprising considering the length of time since Gilpins left and the doors shut. Since then a new roof has been fitted, the exterior has been renovated, the Visitor Centre has been created, the education rooms built…. But the thing everyone wants to know is when an operator will open the doors for food and drinks.

The Council is now nearing the end of its second full round of tendering to award the lease. This time round we have several serious operators who have put in bids to run the Mansion and we have secured financial assistance to improve the interior, which was previously putting off potential operators. There has been a month of slip but a decision will be taken on 27^th August and that has now been publicly announced in the Evening Post. After this it is full steam ahead for the winning operator to restore the interior to a standard befitting this listed building and to get the doors open.

I’m looking look forward to the day when we hear the collective sigh of 715,000 people as the doors open and we get back to business as usual at the Mansion, only this time with the building beautifully restored.

All the best

Cllr Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

I have a vision –a Eurovision

On Saturday night I sat with my beloved and watched the Eurovision Song Contest. Not through choice you understand, but Saturday evening I promise myself I won’t do any work and, as we have only one TV set in the house, I had little choice. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it

I have not sat through this Euro-spectacle before but was pleasantly surprised by some of the songs, bemused that most were sung in English and frankly scared by Spain’s entry

What struck me though was how political it all is. This may be no shock to seasoned viewers but I very much got the impression that Europe does not see itself as a united entity, but as a series of immediate neighbours who will look out for each other

I have no particular issue with such an approach but for Britain, stuck in the sea on the outskirts, it would be fair to say we seem a bit isolated. Andy Abrahams performed our song which seemed pretty good and easily up to the standard of most others, but this didn’t stop us coming last

So is Eurovision a window into how we view Europe and Europe views us? Are we an irrelevance, stuck on the side of Europe when it comes to politics, funding this European project but being left behind?

People who know me well will tell you I’m no fan of the Europe we have. I’m quite happy to categorise myself European, but this comes a few steps after categorising myself British, then English, then a Yorkshire-man and then a few other things

The argument by many is that European integration is a given. It’s inevitable. It cannot be knocked off course. I beg to differ. I think there is a growing resentment at the way things work and not just in the UK. Anyone who’s ever owned a “one size fits all” T-shirt generally knows the only person it fits is usually the most bloated. And so in Europe our distant leaders try to apply one size fits all policies that don’t suit the once-economically-lithe UK, just those countries with their snouts in the trough

There have long been talks about universal tax rates across Europe and this is coming next. These would, of course, have to be set at the highest rate found in any European country for each tax so as to be ‘affordable’ for that country’s government. This would kill the UK. Tax levels are one of the few controls we have left and we’re already incredibly heavily taxed

I cannot foresee Britain ever being at the heart of Europe and leading the way. With each treaty/constitution we become increasingly powerless to refuse legislation foisted upon us so surely now is the time to say enough is enough and negotiate a new deal with Europe. We might even like to look at a ‘Europe-lite’ deal such as joining the European Free Trade Association (current members Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein)

The European big players may not be keen on us doing this but what will they do? If they dared to refuse to trade with the UK every factory in Germany and France would understand very quickly how much they export to the UK. We have a large trade deficit with Europe meaning they rely on us more than we on them (£105.8billion deficit in 2005)

And the down sides? Well, we may always get awarded ‘nul points’ in Eurovision forever more, but we will control our own laws, our own borders and rule ourselves once more. Many of you reading this may say it’s impossible. I say we have no choice and we must start acting now

Cllr Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

Taking credit for the problem

Everyone knows one of these guys…. the chap who told you he was buying dotcom shares the week before the crash. He’s the man who only ever pays the minimum monthly payment on his credit cards

Anyone who has the misfortune of watching daytime TV will see the vultures are circling for our man. Adverts offer him debt consolidation loans or cash to buy his property and let him rent it back. These firms don’t advertise unless there’s serious money in it for them. Either way, it’s the end of the party if he needs to call one of these firms

Without going into any detail, Amy and I have had some problems with a (former) friend who has ended up owing us money and we’ve had to take them to the small claims court. We have a feeling there may be several credit card firms chasing our ‘friend’ and I’d not be surprised if this person ends up with serious problems in ever buying a house, taking out a loan, getting a job when classed as bankrupt or even opening a bank account. Life almost over

You can’t stop someone being gullible or stupid but I do wonder if we could reduce the number of people bingeing on credit and waking up with a hangover that no amount of Anadin will clear. I think the problem two-fold. A perceived right by some to have what everyone else seems to have regardless of one’s income, and a lack of education about borrowing. The paying it off part specifically

A work colleague of mine told me with a voice of resignation that his 18 year old daughter had maxxed-out her credit card and he’d have to pay it off. Again. I couldn’t believe it. His daughter’s attitude was that she was almost a victim and couldn’t help it. The fact was, her dad hadn’t prepared her for using credit and had inadvertently encouraged some terrible habits. He had no plans to cut up the card in case she’d complain

I’m lucky to be the son of a (now retired) bank manager. As a boy I saved my pocket money, did a paper round from the age of 13 and even bought shares during the privatisation of gas and electricity. One thing was for sure though, I was always told that if I lost my money, it was my problem. No reward without risk. Probably the most useful lesson in life

Politicians spend a great deal of time telling teachers what should be taught in schools, a good example being the recent nonsense of citizenship classes (wouldn’t lessons on Britain’s proud history and heritage be more useful?). So should a politician such as me campaign for lessons on finance and credit in schools? Possibly not as part of the curriculum, but I remember my school had a school bank. It taught children to save money, but not about credit and here lies problem. I’m not sure what the legalities are but it would be useful if children could experience the joy of borrowing a small amount of money to buy something… and the misery of paying it off, perhaps by having to earn it by doing jobs around the school, such as gardening or litter picking

Ultimately parents need to teach kids about living within their means and saving money for a rainy day, assuming they’re proficient at this themselves. Financial institutions also need to take more responsibility to make sure they don’t make problems worse by offering too much credit to individuals who can’t cope

Nobody’s perfect and we all make mistakes, often circumstances change which are out of our control. I suspect that in the coming years many people will learn about the downsides of spending on credit whilst times are good and having to save when times are tight. I do think, however, that it’s time we think about how we can equip a future generation to cope in a tempting world of credit

All the best

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

Ban the bag!

Forget Al Qaeda, it seems those mad-men are no threat to our way of life in comparison to free plastic carriers bags handed out at ASDA it seems

These bags really have become the issue of the moment.  The Independent newspaper took up the campaign a couple of years ago. Unfortunately as hardly anyone reads the Independent it fell to The Daily Mail to wade in before the UK’s collective ears pricked up, after which Marks and Spencer decided to charge people for carrier bags. For the environment you understand. Not to boost profits. Oh no. Latterly, sprinting after the bandwagon, the Government announced a plan to have a plan if someone didn’t do something this heinous crime

Doesn’t banning-the-bag all make good sense though? I don’t know about you but I’m almost obsessive about recycling. I’ve even been found fishing things out of the kitchen bin, rinsing them and putting them in the recycling. So please don’t think this is an anti-recycling rant – it’s more of a call for some rational discussion

Nowadays, if you question banning-the-bags you will be castigated in the same way as you would if you disputed Global Warming. Or drove a Range Rover

But I do want to discuss some of the suggestions which people say will solve the problem

Should we replace plastic carriers with brown paper bags? Paper bags take up a lot more space and weigh more than plastic bags. That means more truckloads of bags on the roads, more pollution and they’re also hopeless when you try to carry more than one of the things full of shopping. You’ve also got to manufacture them, which uses huge amounts of energy and water, even if they’re made from recycled paper

Should we ban carrier bags and make people use a re-usable plastic bag? Two issues with this. Firstly, in Ireland where a bag-tax cut carrier bag use by 90%, they saw an increase in sales of heavy-duty plastic carriers and plastic bin bags. Total weight of plastic bags used? Up 80% on when carriers were free. Issue two is that a lot of us use these things for bin bags, a form of recycling itself. Well, re-use anyway

I decided to do a little investigation, with the aid of my ever-tolerant investigative assistant, Amy, and a set of Salter kitchen scales. Bear with me here metric-martyrs, I was brought up on grams and kilograms but it’s the relative weights that count. A plastic carrier bag is 7 grams of plastic. The black bin bag I will now have to buy to use as a liner for my waste bin is 25 grams of plastic. More interestingly, the tub some stir-fry veg came in, for a single meal, was also 25 grams of plastic. Where is the campaign about that?

So what should we do? Well, reusing bags does make sense.  What I’d really like to see is for any bags handed out (or sold for 5 pence) to be made of a compostable ‘plastic’ material (readily available). That way they will at least rot down quickly and if we want to use them as bin bags, so they are an environmentally friendly way of containing any rubbish going to landfill

What I would really love to see is the UK’s collective ‘bag-rage’ aimed at all the supermarket packaging which contains far more plastic than the carrier bags and is often of a non-recyclable type. Only then will we minimise waste going to landfill and really make a difference to the environment for future generations

All the best

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

Art? You crack me up!

The Angel of the North turns 10 years old this year

I remember reading in the Daily Mail at the time of construction about what an appalling waste of money it was by the National Lottery. They were, according to The Mail, proving beyond all shadow of a doubt that they were clueless about spending other people’s money

I then moved on and forgot all about the Angel of the North until I had reason to drive to Newcastle on business a few years after this. What I saw horrified me. Here was a landmark, the scale and magnitude of which almost took my breath away. Quite literally in fact, as on seeing it I nearly drove off the road, which would have rendered me permanently breathless I fear. It horrified me though. It horrified me about how wrong I had been. This is surely a modern masterpiece. I don’t know or care what it ‘means’, but to me it looks sensational

I tried hard after that to take a positive view of things knowing full well that I am somewhat predisposed to an attitude some might consider a little ‘traditional’. So it was with the experience of my mistake 10 years ago and a positive mental attitude (PMA) that I visited the Tate Modern with Amy and two friends

The building, a former power station on the banks of the Thames, is gargantuan and very imposing. Walking inside one can’t help but gasp at the size of the open space. It is a magnificent building. But what of the exhibits?

Please remember I was working hard on the ‘PMA’ when I saw Exhibit 1: The Crack. Is a 500 foot long crack in the floor interesting to look at? Debatable. Was it Art? You have to be joking. It’s a crack in the floor for goodness sake, and not a very realistic looking one either

Someone once said to me “It’s art if is provokes discussion”. Well, in that case most of the exhibits at The Tate were indeed art. The discussion I had over and over again was “How have they managed to get away with this?” But I felt somewhat in a minority. There was a great deal of chin scratching going on and people sitting looking at, well, I’m not sure what most of it was. I worried I was being ignorant, that I was of a tiny minority who didn’t ‘get it’ and I explained my fears to our hosts

“Don’t worry” said Paul and pointed to the wall. “Last time we came here, my father stood staring at that fire exit scratching his chin. After 5 minutes he was flanked either side by other ‘critics’ admiring this piece of fine art.” True story. Sad, but true. Don’t get me wrong, there were some great works there such at Monet’s Waterlillies, but these were lost amongst the general debris on display

So what is the relevance to Leeds? I always want what’s best for the city as most of us do. Our art gallery is fantastic and is well worth a visit for any of you who haven’t been since the revamp. The exhibits beat The Tate hands down, especially the modern art. We are opening the Leeds Museum this year which I hope will be a big draw and we have The Armouries but we don’t yet have that ‘must see’ feature

We have two opportunities coming up in Leeds and I prey we get two hits. Rumour has it on the site of the former International Pool we may get a building designed by Foster and Partners. These people designed the spectacular ‘Gherkin’ building in London. The idea for Leeds was a tower in the shape of a stack of giant poppadums. The artist’s impressions look amazing and would certainly court controversy. The other opportunity is the Leeds Arena. We need something as original as the Chinese ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium, the Guggenheim in Bilboa or the Sydney Opera House but not, I might add, the 10 times over budget Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh, the entrance of which looks like a Caribbean airport after a hurricane

If we got a landmark building it would be sure to provoke discussion. But in this case, I hope that might just make it art

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

Don’t worry inflation’s only 2%...

 I always have a little chuckle to myself, shortly before weeping, when I see the statistics on inflation. Apparently it’s running at 2.1% at the moment which sounds pretty good. There’s a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that all is not quite as it seems. I have a feeling the ‘basket of goods’ on which inflation is calculated seems to be missing a few items which some might consider reasonably important

I’m looking to buy a bigger house in the autumn into which my new wife and I will move once we get married. The only problem is that a 2 bed-with-box-room-semi in Roundhay can cost at least £270,000. House price inflation over the last ten years has been 180%. So on a 3x loan, your average buyer needs to be earning £90,000 a year to borrow enough money to get a 2½ bedroom house. Perhaps the Bank of England ‘forgot’ to pop houses in the inflation basket. It would, in all fairness, have to be a very large basket to fit in a house

Anyway, don’t listen to me moaning, perhaps the way around this is to jump in the car and do a bit of shopping around for low prices on groceries. The only problem here is that petrol seems to have gone up 10% in the last year and an extra 2p per litre tax is on its way in April

So what about the things we buy each week when we do get to the shops? Well, these seem to be going up a bit too. Has a loaf of bread gone up? I’m not talking about foccaia bread with sun-dried tomatoes and raisins. No, I’m talking about our finest supermarket tastes-like-rubber loaf. Research shows in the last year there has been a 12 percent price increase at the three major supermarkets for bread and similar basic food items. Presumably ‘food’ is missing from the basket also. After all, who’d put food in a shopping basket?

I think I’m going to stick at home and ride all this out and wait until my cynicism abates. I won’t be in a hurry to pop on the fire though. I’m wondering if the 13% gas price increase in the last year is included in our basket. Presumably logic would dictate that you can’t carry gas in a basket. At least no basket I’ve ever seen

And why is it that when pensions and most wages go up by 2% a year are Council Tax increases always more than this?

Only around one quarter of the money the Council spends is raised from Council Tax. The rest comes from Business Rates (just over one quarter) and our taxes paid to the Government, returned to us in a Settlement Grant (just under a half). The Council spends over £800 million each year in Leeds and to give you an idea, an increase in Council tax of 4% increase would take in £8million extra

The Council’s second largest outgoing is Social Care costs (over £235 million last year), which increases each year at many times inflation as our population ages. Running other services involves dealing with the sort of real inflation we all experience on fuel and goods, so trying to keep Council Tax increases down to 2.1% a year is a bit of an issue. This year we have an additional serious problem. The Government is chopping a massive £8million the settlement they provide this year in the worst settlement in living memory. This means the Council needs to plug a gap of £8million plus the normal inflation in costs across all our services

So what will the Council Tax increase be this year? We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out but rest assured, we’ll make sure it won’t be 8%, but I’m sorry, much as I’d love it to be, it won’t be 2% either

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

When will technology make my life easier?

30+ years ago we were told on Tomorrow’s World that robots and computers in our houses would render us useless and desperately in search of hobbies to fill the empty hours of our days

From time to time technology does come along which is truly helpful. Anyone who’s used a Tom Tom to navigate will confirm that these devices are fantastic. Much safer than driving with a map book between your knees. Which I’ve never done

And what about PDA’s - the hand held computers where they advertise that you can access your e-mails on the beach? I know what my fiancée would say if I pulled out my PDA on the beach. I think I’d be buying a snorkel to recover it. These things are OK but ultimately they tempt you into working every waking hour and in my case they succeed. That has to be a step backward

Home broadband is a good idea though. I’m not one of those people who spends hours surfing the web but when you realise you can connect to the work computer network from home, avoid the time and cost of commuting and actually be in when Parcel Force push those cards through your door purporting to have missed you, you know it’s a winner

Mobile phones are a phenomenal piece of technology and no matter how hard I try to resist it, I am very tempted by one of those Apple iPhones. But ultimately, do they really move the game forward or are they just doing what has been before, only a bit better? And mobile phones are another device which can ‘help’ you to work longer hours

So where will technology take us next?

Here’s my prediction for technology in 2018, ten years from now

In the near future all products in the supermarket are to be fitted with tiny radio ID tags rather than bar codes. With a tag reader in the kitchen cupboards, we should be able to see at a glance from our living room TV screen not only a stock-check of everything in the cupboards, but also every conceivable recipe for what you could make with it.  You could set your home network to automatically order anything that had run out for home-delivery. That would be useful for the less imaginative cooks amongst us. No more traipsing back to the supermarket when you’ve forgotten the After Eight’s

What else will we see? In the States the new Honda FCX hydrogen fuel cell car is now available, running on hydrogen and emitting only water from its exhaust. All we need now is a way to get an affordable source of hydrogen

I suspect new houses will be built with photo-electric solar roof tiles (available now) which will drop in price to become a worthwhile proposition for all of us. These could assist in heating the house, the water and…could potentially fuel a unit making hydrogen out of water for the car. This is of course if I remember a science experiment from my youth on ‘electrolysis’ correctly – something to do with electrodes, currents and a beaker of water if my mind serves me correctly. Can you imagine free fuel for your emission free car?

But will any future technology development actually help us to work fewer hours and enjoy more leisure time? I doubt it very much. Ultimately we British are our own worst enemy. Short of the Government mandating a compulsory siesta every day, I suspect we’ll continue working longer hours to pay our mortgages, and continue to complain about the injustice of it all… but secretly not want to give it up

Happy New Year

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor

Hug a hoodie?

Much as people often take Margaret Thatcher’s ‘There is no such thing as society’ out of context, so now people quote me David Cameron’s ‘Hug a hoodie’ line somewhat incorrectly.

The former, unlike the latter was a genuine quote, but with the context missing. The latter was never said at all but somehow it seems to have stuck.

So why the confusion? Well, Mrs Thatcher followed her famous quote with:

“There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour”

Of course there is such a thing as ‘society’, but we cannot blame society for our collective ills, we need to take responsibility individually to help ourselves and our neighbours

But what on earth was Mr Cameron talking about? Well he actually said that youngsters need love. This seems a fair point to me, who is going to grow up stable without people around them who care for them?

I was talking a few months back to a police officer who told me about a very young criminal who had admitted to a string of burglaries and who had been running riot in a council estate in our constituency. After a brief spell in a youth offending institute (aged 12) he was released and residents feared the one-boy-crime-wave would continue. His mother doesn’t care for him and spends her days drinking and smoking drugs. Father? Who knows, but he’s nowhere to be seen

A difference has come about though. This lad has been taken under the wing of a local police officer and now an adult is showing an interest in him, he is transforming. He’s desperate for acceptance and praise from an adult and is trying hard now to transform into being a decent member of society. He has much ground to make up

So do I think we should hug hoodies? No, I’ve not gone all soft. We have to remember that some of these young thugs have left vulnerable elderly people petrified, even inside their own homes. But what we do need to do is to get to these kids preferably before they run off the rails and encourage them to take part in society. Join a football team, join a club, do something useful in the community and belong. Even if their parents show no interest in them

There is a wonderful scheme in Leeds called Mentoring Leeds. Many teenagers are bright, good kids, but are starting to trail off at school and are at risk of achieving nothing in their lives. This scheme matches professional people with a teenager so they can provide the advice and support a parent might normally give. This could be a word of advice on dealing with an issue and giving the teenager someone to tell when they got an award or a good grade on an assignment. Someone who cares even if no one does at home

If you feel you could give up an hour or two every couple of weeks to help someone make a good life for themselves, please e-mail mentoring@educationleeds.co.uk, call 0113 214 4080 or go to http://www.leedsmentoring.co.uk/. There’s lots of support on offer from Education Leeds if you think you can help

All the best and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Councillor