Today (Wednesday 7 April), Labour Candidate for Rutland & Melton, John Morgan, met with members of the Melton Borough Council branch of UNISON, the public services union.

Speaking after the meeting, John Morgan said: "We had a very useful discussion about public services in general, and Melton Council in particular. We all know that money is tight in local government at the moment. The question is what you do about it. In a recession it becomes even more important to preserve jobs and services. That is why it is vital that George Osborne does not become Conservative chancellor. The Conservatives would put large numbers of people out of work, stop the recovery, and make the recession worse."

John Morgan added: "We also need to be aware of the threat to public sector pensions. For the last few years, Conservatives and their allies in the media have been attacking working people's pensions, public and private. We need to defend the rights of working people, and improve our society so that more and more people are covered. The threat from the Conservatives is clear. We need to stop them on 6th May."

Labour Prospective Candidate for Rutland & Melton, John Morgan, has welcomed today's announcement of the General Election on 6th May.

John Morgan said: "This election is all about the economy. We are in a recession that none of us wanted. The question is what we do about it. We can grow our way out of it, as Labour is trying to do. Or we can let the Conservatives in and make it worse. Unemployment is much lower this time than it was during the Conservative recessions in the early eighties and the early nineties. We cannot risk going through that again."

He added: "Gordon Brown was absolutely right to stop the banking crisis getting worse in 2008. He stopped a bad situation becoming worse. It would be a tragedy if David Cameron and George Osborne got in now and made it worse anyway. We must not let the Conservatives back in."

So, the Conservative run Melton District Council want to "improve play facilities in the (South Melton) area" (Melton Times 1 April) by, er, demolishing the Hartopp Road play area.

Isn't that a bit like putting people out of work to cure a recession? Oh, hang on, that is their policy as well!

The Conservative controlled Rutland County Council have got it wrong. The decision by the Council cabinet to press ahead with the increased parking charges in Uppingham will be a disaster. For shopping areas in small towns to be viable there has to be cheap, accessible parking. If there isn't, people in the surrounding area will go somewhere else, shops will close, and the shopping centre could die.

"Reviewing" the decision in six months time is a cop out. A lot of damage will already have been done by then, and there is no guarantee that the decision will be reversed then anyway. It is very short-sighted of the Conservative Council to try to increase revenue from parking charges, if they end up losing money on the business rates.

John Morgan, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Rutland & Melton, condemned the decision by Leicestershire Police to cancel the march in defence of RAF Cottesmore. Speaking at the Question Time, organised by the Rutland Federation of Small Businesses on Thursday (1 April) night, at Oakham Castle, he said: "Like many people, I was expecting to be on the march on 11th April, and I am disappointed that it has been cancelled. I don't know why there should be a risk. Were they expecting a counter demonstration by the Taliban? I would have thought that the Taliban were rather small in Rutland. But even so, this is a democracy and they should be allowed to express their opinion too, if they want."

He added: "I have written to (Armed Forces Minister) Bill Rammell on the matter. But my letter on its own will not change anything. It needs to be one more letter in a big pile of letters. The decision to close RAF Cottesmore will only be reversed with a big public campaign. As long as the base is still open, there is still hope. But cancelling the march does not help."

At a Question Time, organised by Rutland Federation of Small Businesses, at Oakham Castle on Thursday (1 April) night, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate John Morgan called for support for small businesses.

He said: "The best way to support small businesses, is to have them operating within a successful economy. That is why it is vital that the Conservatives do not get in and damage the economic recovery. If they put large numbers of people out of work, that means that there are fewer consumers to buy the products and services provided by small businesses."

He added: "Labour is trying to get us out of the recession. We have much lower unemployment than we did under the Conservatives in their recessions in the early eighties and the early nineties. We need to keep people in work, and small businesses must be part of that."

Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Rutland & Melton, John Morgan has supported the re-opening of the Post Natal Ward at St. Mary's Hospital.

John Morgan said: "I was very pleased to see that the post-natal ward in St. Mary's has been reopened. While some medical procedures are best concentrated on a few sites, births are taking place all over the country, all the time. So it is vital that we have a proper network of maternity and post-natal units, and that must include St. Mary's."

He added: "I have written to Leicestershire and Rutland NHS expressing my support for re-opening the post natal ward, and would urge others to do the same. I know from previous campaigns that I have been involved in, that the best guarantee of a good local health service is pressure from the public."

Comment from Parents at King Edward VII Melton on Facebook about arrangements for the transfer of their children in the fortnight after the Cabinet Decision of March 9^th.

It is causing stress, confusion and worry for a lot more than just years 7 and 8 pupils and pupils. They need to answer questions about the mess they have created.

I didn't realise I could feel such anger and despair

Now that the Cabinet at the County Council has made it's decision to close King Edward VII in Melton, pupils, parents and staff at KE7 and the other schools are left to pick up the pieces. The decision for closure included two elements of implementation, the phased closure of KE7 and the expansion of the other schools.  This reorganisation hasn't however gone according to plan.....

What a difference having a Labour MP and County Councilor Makes:

Having messed up the reorganisation of secondary schools in Melton with the closure of King Edward VII, the county Tories have now screwed the bid for Loughborough. Of course the county Tories will try to blame the Labour Government for their mistakes, but  this bid was appallingly handled for a party that claims to want to be decentralised, but tried to impose a solution on the Loughborough schools against the wishes of a substantial number of parents. Get all the schools in Loughborough round a table with the parents and ask them how they would remove the surplus places and plan the reform.

The Labour Government has said money is available, its up to the County Council to find consensus and work on a bid that will deliver high quality secondary education without dividing the community.

UPDATE: Tories to close KE7 - confirmed by Leicestershire County Council Cabinet. Decided in less than ten Minutes [Tuesday 9th March 3pm].

Questions have been raised tonight about the role of Melton Tory County Councillors in the decision to close King Edward VII school. Rob Watson, secratary for Melton Labour Party said "Pam Posnett is a governor at King Edward VII school, and has clearly been ineffective in her efforts to support the wishes of parents and pupils. She did nothing to challenge the original faulty figures that were put forward by the County Council, and now she has made matters worse by saddling Melton North school, John Ferneley, with a huge increase in pupil numbers." Rob continued "Questions are also being raised about the judgement of Melton South County Councillor, Peter Roffey, who has done next to nothing to support King Edward VII." Rob added "Conservative County Councillors are in the majority at County Hall, it is obvious that these Tory Melton Councillors have very little influence over their colleagues and are unable to represent the best interests of Melton."

A couple of weeks ago the Conservatives released a leaflet explaining what their top priorities were, declaring that the NHS is “our top priority”.

More recently however, in another Tory leaflet [pdf], Conservative Central Office downgrades the NHS to just 4th place.