Brigg and Goole's Labour MP, Ian Cawsey, claimed £12,130 in travel expenses last year (April 2005 - March 2006) . The highest of any of the North Lincs MPs. The Labour Cleethorpes MP had a total claim of £5,012.

The figure breaks down to -

• £5,195 on car mileage
• £6,935 on rail travel

I will leave it to you to decide whether or not you think these figures are justified. I certainly think that the figures should be public.

As I believe the public has a right to know how much their elected representatives are costing, here are my Councillor travel expenses for comparison. Of course our expenses have been public for years, MPs were quite happy to make our expenses public yet it took a Freedom of Information request for their expenses to become public.

• 2005-06 £0
• 2006-07 £200 or there abouts, yet to be finalised

Oh dear, yet again the Humberside Police Precept is on the rise! I don't blame the Police Authority Members for this rise, they are after all only having to raise the precept so that they can pay for the additional 100 or so Police Community Support Officers recently cut by the Government.

Labour promised our area 310 PCSOs but then reduced this figure to 220. The local Labour MPs said they were going to lobby the Government on this reduction! Hmmmm, forgive me for thinking this, but aren't those three Labour MPs also a part of the Government? They certainly seem to be receiving thousands of pounds in additional salaries as government ministers and whips etc. Consequently, it is THEY who agreed the cut! Labour's spin machine locally knows to bounds.

These shameless cuts have led to yet another increase in our precept but at least we know that the extra £6.1 million raised by the Humberside Police Authority will be used to provide the additional PCSOs Labour promised us but refused to deliver.

What all of this proves is the need for more local accountability, that's why I support creating elected Police Chiefs of Police Boards which would have real power over local policing, taking powers away from the Home Office and in so doing, ensuring that local people can hold to account more effectively our police force.