Waste campaigners are back in Court

At 10.30 today, campaigners against the incinerator planed for St Dennis are back in the High Court.

Eric Pickles, the man who gave the go-ahead to incineration without even bothering to read the biased inspector’s report, is challenging the decision of the High Court to quash the planning consent in October.

The case is being heard in Court 72, before Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice Carnwath and Lord Justice Moore-Bick.

Let us hope that justice will be done. I will blog again when I have more news.

UPDATE

I am afraid that the local community now has to wait. The Court did not give a ruling on the day, but reserved its decision. It is understood that the decision will be posted online within a month of the date of the hearing.

Banks, bonuses and hypocrisy

82% of the Royal Bank of Scotland is owned by the state, following the £45.5 billion bailout in 2008. For the fourth year running, the bank has reported financial losses. For 2011, the loss totalled £2 billion, up from a loss of £1.1bn in 2010.

Part of the reason for the loss was that RBS had to set aside £850m to compensate people who were mis-sold payment protection insurance.

And the bank has also announced that its investment bankers will share a bonus pool of £390m, which they are attempting to justify by stating it is “less than half the amount awarded last year.”

It seems to me that senior and investment bankers are still living in an unsustainable bubble, and are continuing to profit while the majority of people are suffering swingeing cuts.

More action needed on tax avoidance and tax evasion

In my column in the Cornish Guardian this week, I have addressed the failure of the Government to live up to its promise to take action to stop certain wealthy people and corporations not paying thier fair share of tax. It is as follows:

In the United Kingdom, the “tax gap” is currently estimated to stand at £120 billion. This represents the difference between the amount of revenue that would have been collected if all taxpayers paid their correct amount of tax and the total actually received by the Treasury.

It is a disgrace that a range of billionaires, millionaires and large companies can get away with not paying their fair share of tax. Surely it must be a priority for the Government to reduce the tax gap, so that our vital public services are not starved of adequate funding and ordinary people do not suffer as a consequence.

It is to be welcomed that David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both pledged to do more to tackle tax avoidance (reducing payments by legal means) and tax evasion (illegal non-payment).

The Prime Minister has promised a "tougher approach" towards large firms with "fancy corporate lawyers." His Deputy has made a similar comment, saying people were "rightly angered" by a "wealthy elite" who paid "an army of accountants" to avoid tax.

As yet, these fine words do not relate to any meaningful action. The banking giant Goldman Sachs last year brokered a deal with the Government to dodge paying over £10 million in charges, while MPs on the Public Accounts Committee identified a further £25 billion of outstanding tax that has not been paid by a range of big companies.

The PM’s response has been to simply reject the claims of "unduly cosy" relationships between the Government and large corporations.

But perhaps most shocking of all has been the revelation that the Government brokered deals with the head of the Student Loans Company and its own senior staff in the Department of Health, agreeing to pay their salaries direct to limited companies in order to reduce their individual tax bills.

Worryingly, the Government is also failing to properly resource HM Revenue and Customs. It is cutting thousands of jobs and closing offices, and allowing billions in uncollected tax revenues to be written off due to a lack of resources.

It is time that the Prime Minister and his Deputy lived up to their promises to be tough on tax evasion and tax avoidance and to do so much more.

They need to properly fund HM Revenue and Customs, to make tax avoidance illegal, to make the tax and allowance system fairer (for example, ending tax relief on pensions for the mega-rich) and to work with other countries to introduce a “transaction” tax on financial transactions in the City and to abolish tax havens.

The Cornwall Council budget

Yesterday’s debate on the budget was remarkably muted. The Council voted by 94 votes to twelve to take a one-off grant from Eric Pickles / the Coalition and freeze council rates for one year. There were six absentions.

MK members at the meeting voted against the budget and voted not to accept Pickles’ “bribe” offer.

My statement on behalf of the Mebyon Kernow group was short, as the arguments had been rehearsed at the November Council meeting when a provisional budget was set.

I reaffirmed MK’s criticism of how this Council approaches the setting of its budget, and how there had not been adequate scrutiny of the individual parts of the budget. It remains our view that, in many areas, the budgets are too tight and services under unacceptable pressure.

We did welcome the fact the Cabinet has made some changes, including finding more resources for concessionary fares and, in the short-term, public conveniences. But I expressed our anger that, when similar suggestions had been promoted by non-Cabinet members in recent months, such arguments had been squashed by the administration.

The MK members voted against the so-called “grant” to freeze council tax. This is not because we want to put council tax up for our local residents, but because the so-called “grant” is not a gift.

In fact, it is a cynical ploy. Pickles has slashed funding to local government, and is deliberately stifling our ability to fund local services by, in effect, forcing Councils not to raise council tax this year. This reduces the “base budget” for future years and will also create a massive blackhole for next year, and future years, which could lead to a massive future council tax increase or yet more cuts.

This part of yesterday’s meeting descended into farce, with both the Conservatives trying to claim credit for the freeze, while the report expressed concern at the Council’s ability to balance its finances in future.

It was our view that the “grant” for 2012-2013 represents a false economy – unless, of course, the Government pledges increased funding in future years, to bridge any funding gaps. And that is the message that should have been going to central government.

MK did however welcome the proposed four-year investment programme for housing, which would specifically deliver affordable housing, including council housing, support for the improvement of housing for the vulnerable, including park homes.

We have many questions about the detail of the proposals, and could not reconcile all the targets within the present document; there remains uncertainty about some of the implications, for example, but it is a step forward. It could also have a positive impact on other areas such as the emerging Core Strategy (more comment on this to follow in the future).

Well done to John Gillingham

MK member John Gillingham (see right) has just been co-opted onto Carn Brea Parish Council, where he joins fellow party members Chris Lawrence, John Rowe and David Tellam.

John is dedicated campaigner for a better deal for Cornwall and I know he has a great future ahead of him.

Congratulations John.