A decision has finally been made on the proposal to raise the Humber Bridge toll from £2.70 to £2.90. The decision has been taken by the Department of Transport but is subject to an embargo until midnight tonight so apparently we can't say anything until then!

Personally, I think that is a load of old tosh and people should know the decision asap. However, I'm not what the rules are so I wont say anything more until later for fear that the Department of Transport swoop on me and take me away for re-education!

Today does however strike me as a good day for rejecting things.

Update

As you probably guessed from my hints last night, we achieved success in stopping the Government agreeing to a rise in the tolls on the bridge. There is no doubt this is a political decision due to the clutch of marginal seats in the area. I am however relaxed about that for two reasons.

Firstly, the decision not to increase the tolls is the right one. Local businesses and residents are struggling enough as it is at the moment and any increase would have been unacceptable.

Secondly, the refusal to raise the toll won't make the slightest difference the the results of the next election either here or in the other marginal seats in the area. Local people are not fools.

The decision is good news but it is such a shame that the Government are refusing to do anything about the broader issue of the bridge debt which is the reason we have the tolls in the first place.

Had a very busy day today with visits to Gunness, Epworth and East Cowick, followed by an evening cup of tea in Airmyn with my neighbour and local Councillor Caroline Fox. Before all of that though I met with Jonathon Brant, Alex Godfrey and Caroline Ellis from the local National Farmers Union (see photo).

We had a really good discussion of the various challenges facing the farming community at the moment. We spent quite a lot of time discussing the various form-filling and regulations which afflict farmers especially hard. I assured them that the Conservatives had already pledged to scrap the ridiculous system that leads to farmers filling out the same information time and time again. As a teacher, I can relate to their concerns about endless paperwork. Likewise, I was able to assure them that we will do something about the gold-plating of EU legislation which sees the British Government add more regulations to those already forced on us from the EU.

After that I had a quick stop to see Pat in Gunness who runs the Scunthorpe Cat Rescue. I recently raised £150 for the centre and so I popped in to drop the cheque off to a very grateful Pat; I am sure the cats will be grateful too!

Then it was on to Belton, Epworth and East Cowick before I drove back home to Airmyn. The last few weeks have been mad with so many groups and people asking me to pop in to see them. This weekend we spent in Snaith where we had an absolutely brilliant response on the doorsteps.

I never get round to updating this blog enough as I never seem to have the time. Apologies for the long gaps, I will try to do better from now on!

Prospective Brigg & Goole MP, Andrew Percy, and Snaith, Airmyn and Rawcliffe Ward Councillor, Caroline Fox, joined thousands of East Riding residents in welcoming the 1^st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment to East Yorkshire last week. The battalion has recently completed tours of duties in Iraq and Kosovo and will shortly begin training for deployment to Afghanistan.

The ‘homecoming’ parade took place in Beverley where the troops marched through the town before being inspected by the Chairman of East Riding Council and the Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding.

Prospective MP Andrew Percy says; “Caroline and I wanted to show our support for the troops who have served our country proud in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The parade was especially poignant given the recent heavy casualties in Afghanistan, where these troops will shortly deploy too.

The reception from the thousands of residents who came out to cheer the 1^st battalion was very moving, and I think everyone there felt quite emotional. It was really great to see so many people come together and it really did remind us that, as difficult as the times may be for our country at the moment, there is still a lot of pride in this country and the values it stands for.

The 1^st battalion will deploy to Afghanistan following their training and we must all pray that they return safely as soon as possible.”

Cllr Caroline Fox adds; “It’s about time we got behind our troops and showed them that, whether you agree with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan or not, we are proud of their work and we respect them for putting their lives on the line for our country. You could see the pride in the young men as they marched last Thursday and I know they appreciated the huge turnout.”

Your local Conservative team have launched a campaign for improvements and a clean up of County Bridge, Brigg. Andrew has joined Brigg and Wolds Councillors Carl and Nigel Sherwood in calling on residents to support the campaign by signing a petition demanding action.

Brigg and Wolds Councillor, Carl Sherwood, reports, "I have already met with Council officers to discuss this issue and have outlined our view that urgent action is needed to tidy the bridge up. The bridge has become increasingly untidy and dilapidated in recent years and clearly needs sprucing up.

"There have been efforts in the past to renovate the bridge which have, sadly, being unsuccessful. I am determined to take up the fight and campaign for improvements.

"We would like your support on this which is why we are asking residents to show their support by completing the petition linked at the bottom of this article. The more we can show we have local people behind us, the more likely we are to get action."

Prospective MP Andrew Percy adds, "The current state of the bridge really lets the town down, which is why we are determined to fight for action to improve the bridge and make sure that it is a real feature we can all be proud of. Obviously, we can’t promise an instant success, but the more people who sign up to support the campaign, the more pressure we will be able to put on those with the resources to act!"

Please sign the petition here.

Had a really busy weekend out and about in the constituency. Saturday, I was out canvassing (the results just get better) and then I went to a Strawberry Tea in aid of Gunness pre-school. Everyone was really kind and the event was well attended, meaning that the award winning pre-school will hopefully have raised some money.

In the evening I was at a BBQ in Rawcliffe Bridge where the weather held out pretty well. It's so unusual to have a BBQ in Britain without it absolutely throwing it down so I was really happy that we had great weather and great food, all from local suppliers of course!

Sunday was our day at the Winterton Show where we had the best reception I have ever experienced at the show. Quite a lot of thumbs up as people went past and a lot of people dropped in to say hello, especially when the showers came! Funniest comment of the day came from one passer-by who said the police had just driven by the Labour stand (which was funded by the taxpayer of course!) and everyone in it had done a runner! A reference to the expenses outrage of course!

Have had some very angry residents on from Burton about a leaflet put out by Labour locally regarding the wind farm application at Flixborough Grange. My word have they got it seriously wrong. You shouldn't take local people as fools, especially when many of them have been heavily involved in the campaign against the wind farm.

Their lies, just like the local Labour MP's food bill, are whopping. Here are just some of them from the leaflet.

Lie 1

'Your Labour team is fighting plans to build a windfarm at Flixborough Grange'  - Er wrong, along with their Indepdendent chum, 5 Labour Councillors voted for the windfarm compared to 0 Conservatives!

Lie 2

'Only Labour members stood up and spoke out at the planning meeting on your behalf'- Hmmm, interesting one that as Conservative Cllr John Briggs attended and spoke out against the proposal (see minute 1133 (72) of the North Lincs Planning Committee meeting April 29th 2009). Lets not forget also that the decision to reject the windfarm was proposed by Conservative Councillors, all of whom voted AGAINST the wind farm.

Lie 3

They then go on to accuse the Tories of 'crocodile tears' over the windfarm. That I find very insulting as my general antipathy to windfarms is well known. I have worked hard to keep residents updated on this issue, something Labour haven't bothered to do and I have attended numerous meetings on the issue.

Was Mr Cawsey MP at the planning committee meeting when this was decided? Of course not, I however was as I wanted to support residents.

Worst of all however is the fact that it is this Labour Government who are demanding more windfarms be built and who are providing the subsidies for them. The Labour Government also set the planning framework which makes it so difficult for residents to oppose them. Don't take my word for it take the words of Labour's local Councillors. 

 Labour Councillor Bernard Regan stated in the Scunthorpe Telegraph June 17th 2009 -

"People should understand that Government policy and corporate greed are the principle drivers behind windfarm development."

Or what about Labour Councillor Linda Cawsey, wife of the local Labour MP, who in the Scunthorpe Telegraph on August 15th 2008 said -

"I'm for wind turbines ... I would rather have a wind turbine than a nuclear plant at the bottom of my garden."

Labour should learn a bit of humility and start telling the truth, or is that just something they are incapable of these days. What a shame they have tried to make fools of local people.

Oh dear, Labour just do not get public anger over expenses, do they. As if it wasn't bad enough that last year the local Labour MP spent nearly £10,000 of taxpayer's money on self-promotion we now have another example of it today.

I have just been sent a copy, from a very angry resident, of another communication funded by taxpayers which has been delivered in the south of the Isle of Axholme. Yet again, it has been funded from the taxpayer via the Communications Allowance. Why won't the local MP learn, he can't get away with using our money to promote himself locally. It's just not right.

I suppose what makes it worse is that most of the issues in the newsletter are ones we have updated people on already, via our non-taxpayer funded communications. Some of them are weeks out of date. It just proves what I have been told by certain people within the Labour Party locally, they have no network locally and so rely on taxpayer funded communications instead.

I certainly won't be using taxpayers money to try to buy the next election. It's a shame Labour seem happy to try though.

They really can't get anything right this Government can they. I saw Brown's big speech on Monday and was absolutely staggered to watch him, after 12 years in power, basically admit that they had got it wrong and basically failed to deliver in a range of policy areas. As a teacher I was aghast at his rubbishing of targets. Hello, isn't this what most of have been saying for years?

It got worse though when he got to the end of his speech without saying how any of it would be paid for. If that wasn't bad enough today we see that one of Brown's key pledges, local houses for local people, will actually be illegal under Labour's new Equality Bill. Just like British jobs for British workers, its all spin. That is a real shame as I have always argued that local authority housing allocations should be able to take account of strong links to the area. The Housing Board I sit on has tried to achieve this through discretionary allocations but its not perfect.

Simon Hoggart in the Guardian yesterday morning offered the best analysis of Brown's way of running, or rather ruining, the country -

"We are in a strange, dream like world in which everything is promised but almost nothing happens."

Quite!