Councilbust

 Former Southend Mayor Roger Weaver has had his application to rejoin Southend West Conservative Association turned down.

 Mr Weaver, who left the Southend West Association in 2005 and became in independent councillor for two years, stood down in 2007 and rejoined the Conservatives at the Southend East Association.

 Earlier this year Mr Weaver applied to join his original association, but his application was rejected.

 Chair of the Southend West Association Nancy Howard, signed the letter informing Mr Weaver that his application had been unsuccessful. 

 She told the Echo that his behaviour before leaving the association was the cause of the application being turned down:

 “He resigned so precipitously, and left us in the lurch when he formed his own party,” Ms Howard said, “So we decided to give him time to earn his stripes again.

 “The timing has nothing to do with the upcoming elections,” she continued, “It is our prerogative what we choose to do, and we have invited him to try again.”

 Mr Weaver said that he was “shocked” by the letter and accuses the Southend West Association of “playing a political game”.

 He wished to return to the association because he felt he knew the area there and was “concerned about the way people in the area are being represented.”

 Mr Weaver, however, has now said that he is willing to stand in any ward in Southend where he feels he will make a difference.

Southend West Conservative MP David Amess has asked for information regarding the activity of JobCentre Plus since the recession hit.

Mr Amess wrote to the Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions Tony McNulty, who passed his request on to the acting chief executive of JobCentre Plus, Mel Groves.

Mr Amess asked: “how many jobcentres were opened, relocated and closed in each of the last 12 months” and “under what circumstances jobcentres are opened, relocated and closed.”

Mr Groves wrote a letter to Mr Amess explaining the position of JobCentre Plus, first informing Mr Amess that all information on openings, closures and relocations has been placed in the Parliamentary library.

Mr Groves went on to give a more detailed picture of the organisation’s activities in the past year.

On the closure of JobCentres, he wrote: “Our approach to closure of a customer-facing Jobcentre takes into account any impact on customer service and the relocation of the work and staff of the closing office.

“When considering site closures we are committed to full consultation with our customers, partner organisations, Trade Unions, staff, and local Members of Parliament.

“In light of the emerging economic downturn pressures we decided to suspend the planned closure of 25 Jobcentres.

“There has been a further closure of three small sites in London during March 2009. These had been announced last summer prior to the decision to suspend future closures.

“There will be no new Jobcentre closures while the current economic conditions persist.”

Mr Groves went on to outline the size and reach of the organisation: “Jobcentre Plus inherited around 1,500 offices from the merger of the Benefits Agency and the Employment Service in 2002.

“We have modernised our Jobcentre network to improve customer service, rationalising our estate to provide excellent high street coverage and a single, integrated customer facing office, at the same time reducing cost to the tax payer.

“We remain the largest office network in Government with 741 modern Jobcentres. This high street presence is supported by 31 modern contact centres and 79 main benefit processing centres.”

In addition, Mr Groves explained that JobCentre Plus has attempted to improve accessibility and service delivery through telephone and internet services, as well as the additional 6,000 staff planned to be recruited soon.

He said: “Whilst Jobcentre Plus will have an additional 6,000 staff in the next operational year we do not yet have the detailed plans on their deployment.

“However, it is anticipated that more than half of these will be Personal Advisers and others will be in customer intervention and support roles within our customer service operations.”

 Conservative MP for Rochford and Southend East James Duddridge questioned the purpose of Home Information Packs (HIPs) in a Parliamentary debate yesterday.

 Having requested information on the impact on the housing market from the Department for Communities and Local Government, Ian Wright, Parliamentary under-secretary for the department told him in the House:

 “Independent research into the impact of home information packs was undertaken by Europe Economics.

 “The implementation of HIPs is being kept under review and an evaluation of the HIPs programme is currently planned for 2010 by updating “The HIPs Baseline Research Report”.

 Mr Duddridge continued his line of questioning, asking Mr Wright:

 “In another survey, 89 per cent. of professionals said that HIPs would not benefit buyers.

 “In the age of rhetoric and of trusting professionals, why should we believe what the Government say, not the professionals?”

 Mr Wright, however, refused to accept the results of the survey, saying that professionals welcomed HIPs. He said:

 “Professionals are telling us that information is vital, and giving buyers information about probably the biggest purchase in their lives benefits the whole home buying and selling process.”

 Mr Wright went on to quote Roger Wilson of estate agents Cornells, who said: “Knowledge is key when it comes to building confidence for any big purchase and prospective home buyers need to do their research and gather as much information as possible.

 “Buyers will have more information about a home from the very first day it goes on the market.”

 Mr Wright went on to argue that HIPs speed up the homebuying process, avoiding deal failures and the waste of administrative costs this causes.

 He said: “Electronic conveyancing can speed up the process hugely.

 “We remain committed to ensuring that we can simplify and streamline the home buying and selling process.

 “Some £1 million a week is wasted in abortive home purchases and sales, and that can cause heartache to the people involved and disruption to the economy, so we remain committed to HIPs.

 “We want to provide information up front to allow buyers to make an informed choice.”

 The Labour prospective Parliamentary candidate for Southend West, Tom Flynn, has challenged Conservative David Amess to a public debate.

 Mr Amess, who has declined to comment on his expenses claims on several occasions, has not yet responded to the challenge which would take place at the next General Election.

 Mr Flynn told the Echo:

 “I have been approached by a number of residents in Southend West who want to see a public debate on the subject of MPs’ expenses and how we restore trust in parliamentary democracy.

 “I believe that to do this we must be honest and open with people.”

 “Surely at this time, our most important task is to restore public trust in politics.

 “That can only be done by facing local people and discussing the situation in an open and honest way.”  

 The pressure has been growing on David Amess since the details of his £20,000 per year expenses claim for the past four years.

 His silence on the issue has provoked speculation on who may stand for his seat in the coming year.