Monday 9 November 2015

Should the number of Southend Councillors be cut?

Today's Echo newspaper is reporting that the Leader of Southend Council is suggesting that savings of £250,000 can be made by reducing the number of councillors to just 2 per ward.

I have sent the following letter to the Echo in response:


In my view Cllr Ron Woodley is offering a superficial way for Southend Borough Council to save money by proposing a reduction in the number of elected councillors.

He seems to have overlooked that following the formation of the Unitary Authority, additional Councillors were required to deal with the functions and responsibilities devolved from Essex County Council.

The suggestion that each Ward within the Borough would have only two councillors would raise serious questions about the workload they would be required to undertake. There is the strong likelihood that those councillors would then need to be full-time and salaried. I doubt that that people of Southend are willing to accept employed councillors. Would the payment of salaries lead to budgetary savings?

A move to just two councillors, raises issues with the period of office served and the frequency of elections. A few years ago, the Conservatives were unable to form a consensus for a move to 4-yearly “all up” elections. The result of Cllrs Woodley’s proposals, based on a councillor serving a 4 year period of office would lead to 2 years in which elections are held, followed by 2 years with no elections. I believe any reduction in the frequency of elections diminishes the democratic accountability of the Council to voters in Southend.

I believe there may be a case for a small reduction in the number of Wards within the Borough and a subsequent reduction in the number of councillors. However, the redrawing of Ward boundaries will be an expensive process that offers no short-term savings.

The reality is that democracy has a price tag and that accountability of elected Councillors
cannot be sacrificed in exchange for short-term budget cuts.

Friday 4 September 2015

Southchurch Tories - A changing of the guard?


I am grateful to my blogging colleague Matthew Dent for the news that the Conservative Party in Southchurch will be fielding a new candidate in the 2016 Borough Council elections rather than veteran Councillor David Garston.

Having served as a Southchurch Ward councillor since 1970 (although I do believe he was defeated by the Independents in the Noughties), I would hope that the Tories will arrange for him to receive an OBE or a similar gong for his services to local politics.

I believe this may well be a gift to the Independents. In 2014, the Independents won the council seat in Southchurch Ward when the Conservatives ran a new candidate in the elections. As last year's Independent candidate, Keith Sharman, has announced that he will be standing again, in my view he has a very good chance of winning.

As the Independents are currently the largest grouping within the administration on the Borough Council, I think it is worth examining how they hold themselves accountable to their electorate. I did read in the Echo newspaper, earlier this week, that the Leader of the Council Ron Woodley will be attending a series of meetings to consult on the future direction of the Borough. My political antennae started to twitched, when the article reported that attendance at these meetings will be by invitation only. My initial suspicion is that the invitees will be drawn from local residents associations, from whom many of the current Independent councillors sprung forth. This caused me to look up the word tendentious in my dictionary, and its meaning is "calculated to promote a particular cause or viewpoint".

I suppose that as Councillor Woodley doesn't have a diverse group of people behind him, or dare one say a political party, he is forced to embark upon these meetings. However, simply consulting a narrow range of vested interests hardly makes for good politics and even worse policy-making. For instance, will a residents association offer any constructive advice on the crisis of homelessness within the Borough?

It is my dearest hope that following the conclusion of the leadership election, a reinvigorated Labour Party will be able to sweep away both the Independents and Tories, in Southchurch Ward and throughout the Borough of Southend.





Thursday 13 August 2015

Vote Jeremy Corbyn!

  


Labour has lost its electoral base in Scotland and stands to lose up to 50 seats in boundary changes before the general election in 2020. Against this background any Party Leader is going to face a massive uphill struggle to beat the Tories.

I don't believe that the New Labour approach of trying to appeal to middle-class, floating voters in marginal constituencies can succeed. This is the reason Ed Miliband failed to win. It is now time to move away from policies based on the views of "focus groups" and news management (spin).

I believe the policies advocated by Jeremy Corbyn can reach out to those disaffected from our political process. The Labour core voter, so long taken for granted by the Party's establishment, will be reconnected by a shift to progressive policies.

You don't have to agree with every single political position Corbyn holds, or every statement he has made in the past. His opponents attempt to deride his attitudes to foreign policy, but then they do not put any alternatives forward in response.

Despite the interventions from the relics of the party's past and the fear mongering by the other candidates, it is time for all those who want Labour to be a moral crusade once more to support Jeremy Corbyn. Vote for hope over fear and cynicism!

Wednesday 29 July 2015

The 2016 Council Elections have begun ....

A few weeks ago, the prospective Independent candidate distributed leaflets announcing his intention to run again for Southchurch Ward in 2016. He wishes to build upon the work he started this year.

To be fair to Mr Sharman, he was disadvantaged by the council and general elections being held on the same day. The heightened political atmosphere benefits the national political parties. Why would you vote differently in the general election to the council election? The Independents did lose seats to the Tories in other wards, notably the Shoeburyness Ward, for this reason.

I suspect that Mr Sharman rates his chances of being elected in Southchurch in 2016. I hear rumours of in-fighting within the Southchurch Conservatives, which are likely to hamper the re-election of the veteran Councillor David Garston.

Despite being an "independent", Mr Sharman is actually representing the current administration on the Borough Council and nails his colours to their mast. His leaflet contains the obligatory photo of him with Council Leader Ron Woodley.

I am forced to ask how much longer the self-proclaimed "independents" can maintain that they are not a group with common cause or in other words "a party"? Surely participating in the administration, and the grubby business of Civic Centre politics, denies them the assumed virtue of not being "politicians".