Prospective MP Andrew Percy joined with local residents in attending the planning committee meeting this Wednesday which dealt with the proposal for a wind farm at Flixborough Grange. The Planning Committee rejected the proposal by 7 votes to 6. Of the 7 who opposed the application, 5 were Conservatives and 2 were Labour. In support were 5 Labour and 1 Independent Councillor.

Andrew Percy says, "I have worked closely with local residents on this issue and have kept them updated throughout by way of my local newsletters. Personally, I think the location of this wind farm was wrong and I therefore welcome the fact that it was rejected.

It is more than likely that this will now go to appeal and it could well be very difficult to fight this at appeal. The Labour Government has granted many appeals recently and have actually criticised local Councils for daring to refuse renewable energy projects. However, we must try our best and I pay tribute to the work local residents have done on this issue, they deserve credit for their persistence.

Locally, Labour gave permission to the Keadby wind farm, despite the decision by local Councillors to reject it! They then have the audacity locally to pretend to be concerned about the effects on local residents of construction traffic caused by their very decision to approve the application!! You couldn't make it up!"

We had a Parish Council by-election here in Brigg and Goole today for a seat on Gunness Parish Council. It is fair to say that in recent years Labour have treated the Gunness Parish as one of their safest areas in the constituency. They have taken it for granted and insulted the intelligence of local people.

Labour threw everything at the by-election in Gunness today but in the end were absolutely humiliated, losing by over a hundred votes to Andrew Singleton. They had a big team of their Councillors and the MP running around fighting this election very hard. It must be hugely embarrassment for my opponent that, despite his personal involvement, Labour have been trounced. I have long believed that my opponent has an opinion of himself which is much higher than that shared by most local people. This was certainly proved on the doorsteps of Gunness where nobody seemed to have the faintest idea who the MP was. In fact, a fair few people seem to think it's me!!!!

Andrew Singleton is a good egg and it has been a pleasure working with him. The important thing is that the Parish Council remains non-political and I am delighted that Labour's attempt to politicise the Parish has been so roundly rejected. In fairness to the Labour candidate, he was quite young and tried very hard. I hope his interest in politics continues and I wish him well for the future.

I have to hand it to my opponent, Mr Cawsey, he has certainly learned the dark arts of Labour spin well over the past 12 years. I attended a public meeting in Ealand last night where residents are facing hundreds of abnormal loads disrupting the village in the coming months. The loads will be carrying the turbine sections and blades for the Keadby wind farm. 

Mr Cawsey turned in a stellar performance looking and acting all concerned without even an ounce of embarrassment at the fact that the only reason Ealand residents are facing such a threat is because his Labour chums gave the windfarm permission!!! The original application was thrown out by the Conservative Council who had their decision overturned by the Labour Secretary of State. The point was not lost on one or two of the people I spoke to last night.

One of the people I spoke to actually said he felt that the MP had only got involved because he knows he is probably going to lose his seat at the next election and thanked me for forcing him into actually coming off the fence on the issue of the wind farm.

Anyway, Labour hypocrisy aside, I am pleased that he has finally joined our campaign. We put leaflets out weeks ago warning residents about this issue which will also threatens residents in Swinefleet, Old Goole, Eastoft and Luddington with some 14,000 construction vehicles.

As we seem to be on every issue, we were well ahead of the almost dead local Labour Party. We spent the weekend delivering leaflets and letters to residents about the issue and even did some door knocking in some of the most threatened areas to alert people to the issue.

We have also got round every house in Ealand today to make them aware of how they can make their views known. We have got to stop this traffic disrupting local residents lives for the next few years.

It is just such a shame that Labour decided to grant the wind farm permission.

I proudly hoisted the St George's Flag up on the village flag pole this morning in my village of Airmyn, near Goole. I am a Parish Councillor in the village and helped bring the flag pole back into use last year. The village looks even better with the St George's flag flying.

Tonight I am on the Isle where I am hosting a St George's Day Supper. I am speaking at the dinner and will be focusing on all the great things being English means.

Happy St George's Day!

Yet another Labour budget is falling to pieces within hours of it being announced, with respected bodies such as the CBI, the Taxpayers Alliance joining with business leaders and economists in slamming a budget that will increase national debt to £1.4 trillion. The Government will borrow more in the next few years than every government up to 1997 has borrowed in total!

• Tax rises are on the many not the few - £1000 tax rise on every family over the next two years
• National debt to double again to £1.4 trillion – every child born owing £22,500 

Britain cannot afford another five years of Labour's economic incompetence.

• Less than half of the £5bn tax rises announced today are on the rich before the election.
• Most of the tax rises Labour are planning are on average earners – fuel, and the £5bn NICs increase announced in the PBR – after the election.
• On average we have £1000 tax rises per family between now and 2012. £310 tax rise on fuel

• £2.3bn off the NHS capital budget next year
• £0.6bn off the Schools department capital budget next year
• £0.3bn off Universities and Skills capital budget next year

It's been a really busy couple of weeks so I have to apologise for not updating my website too much. There are lots of local issues on-going at the moment, and I have been involved in many of them. I've also been invited to a lot of events locally, such as the Wrawby Mill Open Day (see photo). So here is a quick update on what I've been doing for local people in the last week or so.

• Wroot Bus - I had a number of villagers contact me about this and as a result I worked closely with our local Councillor William Eckhardt on the issue. The route to Doncaster has now been saved and from next week will operate three days per weeek. The exact route of the bus is not perfect but this is for a trial period of three months, after which I hope the Council will look at it again.
• Broughton Civic Dinner - Last Saturday, I took a table of friends and colleagues to the Broughton Civic Dinner. The event raised money for the Town's Girl Guide group and a great time was had by all.
• Burton Wind Farm Application - The hearing for this will take place next Wednesday. We have been round the village to deliver a note to let people know about this.
• Wind Farm Traffic - Crowle, Ealand, Swinefleet, Eastoft - The contruction traffic for the Keadby wind farm is causing a great deal of concern in Swinefleet and the north of the Isle of Axholme. I have been out to meet with Parish Councillors and I hope that the Council will refuse the company permission to take the thousands of vehicles associated with the contruction through these villages.
• Goole Docks Tour - I met with the Port Director of the docks yesterday to tour the docks and get a quick update on how the recession is hitting the docks. Matt painted a quite worrying picture, telling me that trade on the Humber was massively reduced, particularly when it comes to steel and timber products.  The situation on the docks is made much worse by Labour's massive increases in tax on businesses operating on the docks.

As well as the above, we have also been fighting Labour's increases in car parking charges and student bus passes in North Lincolnshire. It seems that North Lincs Labour Councillors don't understand just how hard people are finding it at the moment.

We have also been doing a lot of door knocking of late and the results have been fantastic. It seems that Labour have been doing some telephone canvassing in the area too, they have been getting a very bad response apparently!!

So this week saw the release of my opponents expense claim which had grown by a massive 10% on the previous year. Nice to know that at a time of economic recession our MP thought that it was acceptable to take more of our money in expenses.

I predicted the excuses which we would hear from him and sure enough, the same old nonsense was trotted out. He tried to defend them by claiming its because he represents a big constituency!! Funny then that MPs with similar sized seats, such as David Davis next door, managed to claim thousands less.

Had quite a few e-mails from angry residents about these claims, most of them use words such as disgust, wasters and such like in the text.

Worst of all though was the fact that Ian Cawsey claimed nearly £10,000 in taxpayer funded publicity, through the Communications Allowance. This is the controversial allowance which allows MPs to publicise themselves thanks to the taxpayer. It is basically a way of helping MPs get themselves re-elected without having to pay for it themselves. They produce publicity and leaflets etc and you and I pick up the bill!! All my leaflets and communications are produced at no cost to the taxpayer.

I shall certainly be making residents aware of these disgracefully high expense claims.

It is so nice to know that in these hard times, our MP is thinking of us by submitting claims of nearly £160,000. Oh and don't forget the salary of sixty odd grand too. Talk about being far removed from the experience of we ordinary folk.

Bed for me now as I have to get up tomorrow and earn an honest crust by teaching. I wonder if I can get the taxpayer to pay for my diesel to get to work like these MPs do ...