John Baron

Conservative Party | Billericay and District

Points of View

London Bombings

Following the horrendous acts of terrorism last Thursday, our thoughts and prayers are with the many victims and their families and friends.  The terrorists will not win. They may want to disrupt our lives and make us fearful, but we will not be cowed by these atrocious acts. We have a proud history of standing up to aggressors and we will prevail.

Meanwhile, our emergency services, including those involved locally, deserve praise. They were steadfast, calm and organised – and served London with distinction.

London 2012

By way of contrast, congratulations to Lord Coe and his team for securing the Olympics for London. Hosting the 2012 Games is a tremendous coup and will hasten regeneration in the East of London, boost the economy in the South East and help sport throughout the UK.  We hope it will leave a lasting legacy in terms of sporting facilities, infrastructure and transport links.

The Government should now, in support of the Games, reverse its current policy to tax the Olympic Lottery at 12%, and so release the £340 million this will raise for the Treasury and instead put it towards the Games.

Travellers

Immediately following Basildon Council’s correct decision on 21st June to evict those travellers from the illegal sites at Crays Hill, I wrote to Tony Blair asking that the Government now financially assist the Council with the increased eviction costs.

These have risen because John Prescott over-ruled Basildon Council in 2003 and gave the travellers a further 2 years to move-on. But during this time, the number of caravans have instead risen from 20 to around 86. If there is no help with the £2m costs (this representing 15% of one years Council Tax), then local taxpayers will be unfairly penalised.

I raised the issue again at PMQ’s last week with John Prescott but unfortunately he showed his ignorance of the situation.  However, whilst liaising with Basildon Council, I have also managed to secure a debate later this week in Parliament regarding the eviction at Crays Hill, where a Government Minister will have to come to the despatch box and respond to my questions.

As regular readers will know, this sad situation is I believe of the government’s own making. We must do what we can to both ensure that local taxpayers are not penalised for the present situation at Crays Hill, and that this situation is avoided elsewhere in the future.