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Tressell Blog
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June 2009:
June 29th: Audit Committee this evening. Our newly-elected 'independent' chair, Cllr Springthorpe, sent his apologies - due to 'unforeseen circumstances' (which were unspecified). But then, he only showed up to one out of the four meetings last year, so this wasn't surprising. Will he actually do anything to earn his £2,172 allowance? Turning up to a meeting would be a start. So, with the vice-chair having to perform the most important job of the year (signing off the Council's accounts for 2008/09) we pressed on with the meeting, discussing amongst other things the Council's new Risk Management Strategy and the annual accounts themselves. A lot of savings seem to have been found, with reductions in budgets across all services. This could be a good thing, particularly as the Council is facing difficult financial times. But it could also mean cuts in services. We need to ask more detailed questions. Peter Chowney
June 26th: Spent most of the day in a Licensing Committee meeting, reviewing the licenses of three pubs in George Street, in an attempt to deal with the disorder, street drinking and general rowdiness down there. In the event, the police backed away from their tougher recommendations because of the co-operation they'd received from the licensees, Shepherd Neame Brewery. Quite a few additional restrictions were imposed, on drinking outside and keeping noise levels under control. Whether they work or not remains to be seen - if they don't, we'll have to look at it again - Committee members could be tougher then. Peter Chowney
June 25th: Went on a walkabout of Halton Estate with the new 1066 Housing Association estate manager, Mike Bushell, as well as a local resident and others. The estate looked pretty good really, no serious problems, either with its maintenance or socially, much better than it was. This was the first time I'd met Mike, and he sent me a list of the names of the estate managers and their contact numbers for 1066HA/Amicus Horizon. I'd not been able to get this at all, which seemed not to bode well for the reorganised structure and new constitution for the Association. However, I've now (somewhat reluctantly) agreed that the Council should now sign this new constitution, although I'm still not convinced that a housing association run from Sittingbourne can be as responsive to local needs as one that was entirely based in Hastings. Peter Chowney
June 16th: Off on holiday, to Norfolk for a few days. Back on 22nd. Peter Chowney
June 15th: Cabinet meeting today. Labour now has three places on the cabinet, but this hardly makes for a 'balanced' cabinet, as the Tories have grabbed six places for themselves (hardly in the overall ratio of 13 Labour councillors to 15 Tories!). It also means that although I'm opposition spokesperson on Housing and Leisure, I no longer have any right to speak at cabinet meetings. So I had to brief my three Labour comrades on the Empty Homes strategy report - in my view, the Tories are far too soft on landlords who are leaving their properties empty - around a thousand of them in Hastings now. But still they won't make a clear commitment to using Compulsory Purchase Orders or Empty Dwelling Management Orders on these people - too many Tories are private landlords, they don't want to upset them. Labour members moved some amendments but, with the unbalanced cabinet, these were of course defeated. I did get one chance to speak, to present the report from the Seafront Strategy Working Group, which I chaired. That had a lot of recommendations in it to improve the seafront, most of which were accepted. Peter Chowney
June 4th: County and Euro Election day. We were expecting the worst, but as the 'telling' results came in, it seemed that a higher than expected percentage of those voting were Labour promises. As I went round delivering 'knocking up' leaflets, I got more support than I expected, too. In the end, Labour held four out of the five county seats, and missed the fifth by only 38 votes (that was Baird and Ore, where Kim Forward, the Labour candidate, was unknown in the area). Against the national picture, this seemed pretty good. It seems to come down to just getting out and knocking on doors - people are much more likely to vote for a candidate if they've met them, and feel they know them. It fits with the picture elsewhere - the only constituency in the country where they knocked on more doors than we did in Hastings was Oxford, where they gained four extra seats on the City Council! Peter Chowney |
