Andrew has welcomed the decision today by East Riding Council's Strategic Planning Committee to grant approval for a new Morrisons store on Boothferry Road, Goole.

Andrew says, "When I surveyed residents on this, a massive majority told me that they supported the development. We are still at quite an early stage as much more work needs to be done as the approval is linked to another application which has yet to be submitted. This relates to the historic windmill on the site which I am pleased to say the applicants say they wish to 'bring back to life'.

The approval included a provision for three hours free parking at the store's car park which will be in addition to the two hours free just down the road at Tesco. Clearly, the granting of this makes the argument for parking charges in Goole even more ludicrous!

This is a positive decision for Goole and it will give those of us living in the Goole area more choice as to where to shop. The development will also create about 200 new jobs in addition to those linked to the construction of the store."

I have been asked by quite a few people what my view is on expenses. Let me start by saying that as a school teacher by profession, I find many of the claims that have been made outrageous. When I decided to enter teaching I accepted that I was not going to get rich from it. I was interested in the public service, and the same should be true of MPs.

A few residents have mentioned that I have been banging on about expenses in my newsletters for the past few years and they are right. Long before all of this broke, I had been campaigning hard against my opponent's use of the Communications Allowance and I had already pledged not use first class rail travel, not to use the Comms Allowance and not to claim for mileage driving around the constituency.

When I go to school to teach I buy my own lunch and I pay my own diesel to get to school. MPs earn enough and have to eat wherever they are, be it London or in their constituencies so why they have ever been able to claim for food is beyond me. Likewise, they earn enough to pay their own petrol bills and if they are so precious that they want to travel first class, they should pay for it themselves!

So here is what I have been pledging for the past couple of years, with a few new additions. If I am elected -

• I will not claim for food, furnishings or household goods.
• I will not claim for travel costs around the constituency.
• I will not make use of the Communications Allowance.
• I will not make any claims for first class travel.
• I will campaign for MPs to lose the power to set their own salaries.
• I will publish all of my claims on-line every month.
• My second home designation will remain London, no flipping between constituency and London home.

I am also not convinced that MPs should receive any pay rise over the course of the next Parliament but then, having argued that that should be a matter for an independent body, it would not be right for me to make a pledge which interferes with that.

There are obviously some things which MPs need to be provided with, office staff to deal with constituency casework and accommodation in London, as well as the ability to actually get to London. Beyond that, I can't really see what else they should be allowed to claim.

Incidentally, earlier in April, before The Telegraph stuff, I sent the following Freedom of Information request.

3. I request a full breakdown of claims made by Ian Cawsey MP for
mileage and travel from parliamentary allowances since April 2007. In
particular I request details of how many times this MP has used first
class rail or air travel under these allowances.

The response I received is below, so much for open access -

"This information is not subject to FOI and therefore the House of Commons is not obliged to disclose it. For further information about the application of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to information of
this nature please refer to the linked document:"

I have had a lot, and I mean a lot, of e-mails and calls from people today relating to the expenses scandal which is presently engulfing Elliot Morley and, by extension, Ian Cawsey. People are really angry about this and the other revelations which have appeared.

For those who don't know, the crux of the local scandal is this - Elliot Morley claimed for a mortgage which had been paid off over a year before. He flipped his second home and also rented his London flat out to his very good friend Ian Cawsey who then claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers money to pay to Mr Morley in rent!!! According to the story on the BBC website, both MPs were apparently claiming on the same property for a few months.

I just cant believe that one MP is allowed to claim taxpayers money to pay to another MP, who also happened to be a close friend and former employer of the MP, by way of rent without any external oversight or audit!

I am sure the system allowed this to happen and the arrangement was within the rules but it is absolutely clear that these sorts of arrangements have got to end!!

Just last week, I highlighted how Ian Cawsey and Elliot Morley had jointly used their expenses to take out a paid advert in the local press promoting themselves courtesy of the taxpayer. It would appear that that was not the only arrangement they had with each-other involving taxpayers cash.

It would be easy to be cheap about this scandal but I shall resist that opportunity. I don't think MPs of any of the parties have come out of this issue well. My solution would be to scrap this whole system and strip them of the power to set their own salaries and expenses. This power should be given to an independent body who should decide on a new system which would also require MPs to publish their claims on the internet on a monthly basis.

I have been watching the expenses debacle with interest and increasing astonishment over the past few days. As someone who does not enjoy either an MPs salary or MPs allowances, it has been a real eye opener to see what has been going out. I think the publication of these expense claims has been long overdue and I hope that it will lead to the whole system being scrapped.

I personally have been campaigning against the current expenses regime for a number of years, most recently highlighting the use by my opponent of taxpayers money to promote himself in the local press. Sadly, this is not a one off and has been a pattern of behaviour which he seems to consider appropriate and shows no sign of ending.

However, it is clear that this whole issue is engulfing MPs of all parties who have been party to what is clearly a broken system. All parties are implicated and whilst the claims may have been allowable under the rules, it is patently clear that the public do not accept them.

Long before these expenses were revealed I made a pledge that if elected I would not use the Communications Allowance, claim for first class rail travel or claim for driving around the constituency. My reason for that pledge was that personally I don't think taxpayers should pay for MPs' self promotion, nor do I believe that the taxpayer should foot the bill for first class rail travel. Likewise, I think an MP's salary is big enough to stand the cost of their travel around their constituencies.

The challenge to my opponent is to see whether he agrees with me that public money should not be used for these purposes, we shall see by his use of the Comms Allowance in the next few weeks and months.

In other news, I did some canvassing in Goole recently which was fantastic. One chap on the doorstep who has never voted anything but Labour gave me enthusiastic (sic) support by declaring that he would vote for me because the Conservatives couldn't do a worse job than the current lot!! Not quite as enthusiastic as I would like but it will do :)

Andrew Percy joined local Councillors Gordon Megson and Caroline Fox at the Leisure Centre in Goole this week for the East Riding Council's roadshow on the proposal to introduce car parking charges in Goole.

Andrew reports, "We spent the weekend delivering leaflets to local residents in Goole, Hook and the Marshland villages informing them of this event.

As a result we saw a large turnout of residents at the event, between 80-100. This is not only the largest turnout at any of the roadshows thus far, it was also higher than the others added together!!!

Goole people really did us proud and have certainly made their views known. Personally, I think car parking is a core Council service and that there is nothing wrong with applying different solutions in different areas. Goole is not a major tourist or seaside destination as some other places in the East Riding are. Therefore, the argument for parking charges is totally different.

We have got to support local shops and businesses in what is still one of the more challenging areas economically in the East Riding. Parking charges at this time would be wrong and I hope the Council looks again at this.

Thanks to everyone who turned out to support us."

Readers of one of the local papers will see in tonight's edition that the Labour MP for this area has joined with Scunthorpe's Labour MP and taken out a full page ad in the paper promoting the alleged policies of the Labour Government. No mention however was made of their rises in fuel duty, car tax, national insurance or their cuts to local services such as the Probation Service.

You might well say that is their prerogative and normally I would agree. However, on closer inspection it is clear that this piece of shameless self-promotion has been paid for not by the MPs or Labour, but by you and I. The advert is paid out of the controversial Communications Allowance which uses taxpayers money to allow MPs to promote themselves locally. It is basically politics on the rates.

I warned a few months back that as we get closer to the election Labour would use more and more taxpayers money to try to con people into supporting them. Alas, I have been proved correct.

Considering this advert coincides with yet more fuss over MPs allowances this is a massive own goal on the part of the Labour MPs!

Most amusing of all is that they couldn't even come up with an original title for the ad, they stole the title of my regular and FREE local newspapers! Oh well, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It is just a shame that you and I have to pay for their poor attempt.