County Council reform

The timing couldn't be better.


Everyone is up in arms about politicians but far more important the whole system is being questioned.

At present the focus is on Parliament but what is happening on our doorstep needs to change:

The way our Town, District and County Councils are run needs a radical shake up.

Not only must this look at the way the the Councillors behave but even more important:

It must examine the performance of the "civil servants" who repeatedly are left by the Councillors to work in a totally unacceptable way.

It was the behaviour of those running the Neighbourhood Forum that was the final straw in my decision to become a County Councillor back in June last year:

1. They didn't advertise their meetings here in Ulverston
2. The Forum started off well in the early days but local people became disillusioned when it became clear that it was the County Councillors that were running the show. Some forums in the UK are brilliant and provide a valuable means of good communication between the public and the politicians. The key phrase you will see in these good forums is "Each (forum) is run by a committee of volunteers" - not the politicians. This is true in many parts of the UK but not here.
3. Instead of enabling community discussions it's main function has become the distribution of small grants to those "in the know" that they can be obtained - very few in Ulverston itself.
4. It stifled important discussions so that the topic of Affordable Housing was held in Swarthmoor Hall on a cold November evening and not the Coronation Hall that had been promised. Attempts to have this meeting rescheduled were thwarted by Cllr Kolbe.
5. Despite questioning the officers running the Forums throughout Cumbria, no change in the set up of the Forums here was possible. The only way with a chance of this was to become a Councillor myself!
   

Another area for reform is the procedure accompanying public participation in the council meetings.

In practice this is often a farce:

Councillor Geoff Cook who chaired the county meeting in Kendal when the Highways Department were questioned about their supervision of the contractors working on the cobbles in Market Street did not take the question seriously.

He allowed a totally irrelevant answer to be given even though this was pointed out to him. Furthermore none of the Councillors appeared to understand what was going on. The result was - nothing registered. Action came not from the County but from the contractors who recognised that they were at fault.

As you will see from my first post here I am intent on doing things and not talking about them

Reform of the political system

I agree with Nick Clegg.

The whole system needs to be overhauled.

This will take time but a new direction needs to be set before the next election.

Good to see Esther Rantzen getting involved.

We both share the same approach.

We refuse to be answerable to anyone other than ourselves.

MPs expenses and behaviour - the future! ?

It's this kind of thing that got me all fired up last June and caused me to decide:

Enough is enough.

I'm not going to be treated like this - by the present system and the County Councillors on the Neighbourhood Forum - which most of you won't have heard about because the Cllrs don't publicise the meetings.

So I fought as best I could and as I was getting nowhere, I raised my game:

Can't beat 'em. Join 'em.

When elected I'll again try to get the procedure changed.

From my experience of speaking to the County Council last year, I can see that I'll be upsetting a few apple carts as I buck against an archaic system that prevents freedom of speech in the council chamber.

A system where you are careful not to upset the committee chairman because he will overrule you and won't grant you "the privilege" of speaking.

A system akin to that in Parliament where the speaker has enormous power and you try not to upset him. Well this week I suspect the MPs will be getting rid of Martin, the Speaker, who has been attempting to prevent access to the expenses fiasco information.

Slowly this archaic system will have to change.

Things will have to be much more open so that politicians will have to be more honest.

Getting good MPs in future will be difficult. "If you pay peanuts you get monkeys" comes to mind. ( How many people will want to be a County Councillor for £9,000 / year? with all the time away from home necessary and the need for most people to supplement this income to pay the mortage and feed the kids).

Are there enough dedicated people who will do the job because they have a high regard for their fellow countrymen/town.

One hopes so.

However I haven't found others in Ulverston who want to get involved by being a councillor! If you know someone let me know - I'm willing to help them win their next election if they have a mind of their own and some integrity. The SLDC and Town Council elections can't be too far away.

Time for you/them to show what you/they are made of!

Come on now - have a go! Especially if for no fault of your own you are out of work.

It really can be fun!

Especially if you enjoy having insults thrown at you regularly - as you will find on this blog and even from a certain incumbent County Councillor . . . . who has reformed more recently!

Are things all getting worse?

Slowly , steadily, are we moving in the wrong direction?

Does the article below persuade you that aggression just makes things worse?

Do you understand why we're in Afghanistan?

If it's to do with the supply of drugs to the UK; why not concentrate on raising people's self esteem and belief in the future so that they're not attracted to drugs?

Why is it that we continue to make offcomers angry with the way we treat people abroad?

Why do we support the actions of countries like Israel as they seek to pulverise the Palestinians?

Are we really surprised they support the latter? I certainly do and so do many Jews.

Can you really cower people who feel deeply that western justice is hypocritical?

Are we proud to be English when independent courts tell us we are criminals?

Don't these things matter?

Do we not mind the loss of our freedom in an increasingly police state?

Are the voices of rational British who are at this moment demonstrating against greed and inaction being listened to?

Are they really the voices of deluded trouble makers that need to be ignored so that we can 'move forward'?

Which direction is forward?