Having made several trips to the South Staffordshire district over the past fortnight, I thought it would be sensible to provide some follow-up on the various issues that I’ve discussed with local residents, businesses and Cllrs.
1 - On the i54 development and the location of the main access junction, I recently spoke with Steve Holland who is Head of Asset Management for Advantage West Midlands (AWM). Steve explained that the i54 scheme had received outline planning permission for the 235,000m² site and AWM were now applying to develop the first phase of the project (15,000m²). Although the estimated £20 million cost of the M54 access junction scheme was unlikely to be met by central government given the current pressures on the Dept for Transport’s budget, AWM was able to secure additional funding from DfT to match its own spending towards the Wobaston Rd and Vine Island upgrades.
We discussed the option of securing funding through the EU Regional Development Funds (RDF) or the European Investment Bank (EIB) – Steve mentioned that AWM were exploring the former, but that the EIB were seeking a higher rate of return than the scheme could currently offer. He also expected the first tenants to sign-up in the near future – as market forces dictated the scale of return on the initial investment, this should in turn influence the availability of funding for the transport component of the project. Steve kindly agreed to agree to continue our dialogue and I’ll also be consulting some colleagues who are currently involved in similar infrastructure projects.
2 - On local farming and agriculture, I spoke with Clare Greener in the NFU’s West Midlands office (find out more here). Clare is the regional policy officer and we discussed the state of the agricultural industry across South Staffs and the West Mids. She explained that the NFU would soon be surveying its membership on priorities for the next CAP control period, which would begin in 2014. The NFU was focusing on three main areas: improving markets for local farmers; maintaining some form of direct support through the SFP regime; and improving the effectiveness of the Rural Development Fund (which is administered in the West Mids by Advantage West Midlands).
On the issue of a fair market price, the NFU had been calling for a Supermarket Ombudsman for the past four years, and Lord Mandelson was due to make a decision on this issue. Regarding the improvement of farm marketing and management, the NFU was working on this agenda through its network of Rural Hubs in the West Mids (including one in Staffordshire) and Clare also pointed to the work of English Farming & Food Partnerships, which serves famers in a consulting capacity (find out more here). It certainly seemed from our conversation that the system of support needed to be simplified and made more efficient from the farmer's perspective.
I also managed to speak with Andrew Porteous who until recently served as the NFU’s Chairman of the Wolverhampton & Stourbridge branch, and whose family had ran Leyfields dairy farm for the last forty years. Andrew explained that there were 12-13 local dairy producers left in the South Staffs district, reflecting the wider decline in the UK dairy industry in the face of downward pressures on price per litre. The silver lining on the cloud was the entry of new firms such as Robert Wiseman Dairies from Scotland and Nom yoghurt manufacturers based in Telford, which offered local dairy farmers a way of exiting unprofitable contracts with existing milk purchasers.
3 - On contested development, I’ve spoken with the offices of Dominic Grieve MP (Shadow Sec of State for Justice) and Bob Neill MP (Shadow Local Government Minister), regarding the trend in gypsy developments in South Staffs and the surrounding areas. There are two concerns here – the use of privacy clauses to cover ‘minority’ groups under the existing Human Rights Act and the lack of local authority discretion over planning applications. On the former, the Conservatives will replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights that will iron out this inconsistency. On planning policy, the Conservatives will provide more flexibility to local authorities, to ensure that they are not second-guessed by the planning inspectorate or appeals process – I provided policy advice for the Conservatives Green Paper on local government, which can be accessed here. I’ll be speaking further with both MPs, regarding how our general approach would engage with the specific circumstances in the South Staffordshire district.
4 - On the rural economy and local transport, I’m arranging to speak to Nick Herbert MP (Shadow Sec of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) and Stephen Hammond MP (Shadow Transport Minister) in the New Year, to discuss the relevance of Conservative policy for the South Staffordshire district. I worked on our police reform policy alongside Nick’s team, in his previous role as Shadow Sec of State for Justice. Nick is also the Chair of the Conservative Rural Action, which campaigns for our broader rural policy (find out more here). I’ve also supported our Transport team - the Conservatives thinking on local transport policy can be accessed here. Tobias Ellwood MP (Shadow Tourism Minister, whom I worked alongside in Rwanda) will be forwarding some guidance on our policy towards rural tourism, which is so important to the South Staffs local economy.
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