ANOTHER U-TURN

It hasn't escaped my notice that the recent changes to the membership of the Council's Scrutiny Committee have left the Tory ruling group without the majority the leadership claimed to require in April last year.........see my post of 27.04.07 "Opposition Scrutiny lost after one year".

Out of the 14 full voting places on the committee (excluding the school people) the Conservatives are entitled to just 6 places as they use the rest of their entitlement to give a place to independent Muriel Miller so that she can Chair, and two co-opted places to Sue Poston and Charles Rogers. And of course some of the Conservative members of the committee are not good attenders !

I wonder how long this balance will last..................

ELECTED UNOPPOSED TO PARISH COUNCIL

Well the nominations deadline for the new parish council elections came and went yesterday, and Tony Coburn (pictured) and I were elected unopposed to represent Pan on Newport Town Council for the next two years. This is the only uncontested ward in Newport and I hope it shows that we both have done pretty well for Pan over the years. 14 years between us at County Hall.

We decided along with our Labour colleagues in the rest of Newport not to stand on political labels for these parish elections. The Tories haven't either - though one Newport Tory activist had had the cheek to label himself as an 'independent'; shame on you Mr P! - but the Liberals have decided to do so. That's a pity as the TMC has not been a party political body over the last 2 years, even with me as Chair, and it seems to run contrary to what Liberal members of the TMC have been saying.

Of course this has given us an opportunity to see how weak the Liberals are in Newport currently with just three of their five candidates living in Newport, and three of their candidates hedging their bets until Wednesday as to where they intend to stand; where do they have more chance of being forgiven ! Particularly when one is the former Liberal leader of the IW Council......

LIBERALS GET HEADS OUT OF SAND

Some EIGHT MONTHS after I was widely reported as saying the Undercliff enquiry was both a vindictive fishing trip and a waste of public money, the County Press today bizarrely gave coverage to the Liberal parliamentary candidate - the Brighstone Loser - suddenly reaching the same conclusion, but without remarking on the time it has taken her !!!!!

Of course, since one of her councillor buddies sat on the Investigatory Committee for the duration of its existence WITHOUT reacing the same conclusion unti the very end, we shouldn't be surprised.

END OF A CHAPTER

Last night saw the final meeting of the Newport Town Management Committee (TMC) after 2 years existence. The TMC has been a sort of 'shadow town council' until a proper Town Council is elected on May 1st, and has consisted of the 8 IW Councillors in Newport and Carisbrooke and up to 8 properly appointed co-optees.

Formal emparishment of Newport is a consequence of the IW Council's decision to charge a local precept on local households back in 2006, whether local people wanted a parish council or not. This lead to a 'no taxation without representation' petition for a local council the following summer, which was then approved by central government at the end of last year. The same has also happened in Ryde, Northwood and Whippingham - with Newport the last bastions of non-parishment on the Island !

For the last 2 years I have chaired the TMC and it was good to reflect last night on what we have achieved in that time (though pretty small scale), and to receive the warm 'thanks you's' for my leadership from the other members of the TMC - of all parties and none. Disappointment was also pretty clear at the meeting that the Island's MP has continued to support the rejected petition for a separate Carisbrooke parish council without ever approaching us to explain why.

So now there will be formal elections to the new Town Council on 1st May. Two town councillors will be elected for each of the 8 Newport wards and I really hope that there is plenty of interest in being elected and a reasonable turnout to vote. I personally have decided to seek election to the new Town Council for the Pan ward and will be standing with my IW Council predecessor and friend Tony Coburn (who was a co-optee on the TMC). Hopefully we will both get elected and be able to continue putting Pan at the heart of Newport, not on the fringes.

WASTING POLICE TIME.....

So the Council's referral of the internal Undercliff enquiry 'evidence' to the Police last autumn has resulted in no further actions, due to 'insufficient evidence' of criminal activity or corruption.

So that's £2million of public money wasted by the Council and who knows how much of the Police budget spent on a pointless referral.

Someone suggested to me that it should be the Council which is the subject of a Police enquiry for wasting Police time.........

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Even though everyone is innocent until proven guilty, last summer the Council Leader said when four Tory councillors were referred for a Standards Board enquiry,

"I will now need to carefully consider whether any action needs to be taken in relation to these members while they are under investigation, to ensure the public have continued confidence in us and our commitment to working to the highest standards in public life."

After consideration he threw them all off committees or any other positions they had. The same was done to a fifth Tory member who was added to the Standards enquiry. It appeared that he was being consistent. However...........

This week we learnt that his Tory Cabinet sidekick and another Tory member with some special reponsibility - Wells and Webster - were also to be investigated by the Standards Board. When I asked generally would this mean similar treatment by the Leader, I was advised,

"I do not believe that they will be found to be in breach of the Code (of Conduct)."

I thought he was the Council Leader, not the Grand Inquisitor -dispensing personal justice!

REFLECTIONS ON A BAD NIGHT

After last week's Full Council I cleared off to Cornwall for the last 6 days, so did not have time to post my usual report here. Sadly even after 6 days the events of last week have left a very, very bad taste.

The details of the meeting are now well known - the last minute tabling of an Option 5 by the 'leadership' as I suggested on the afternoon of the meeting (a sort of lighter touch Option 3 - 2 tiers with less school closures), the loss of the referendum amendment, and the final agreement to Option 5.

The voting was as follows:

Referendum Motion LOST by 17 - 28 - the 17 being Gardiner, Lumley (both Labour), Swan, Mosdell, Joyce, McRobert, Churchman, Bishop (unwhipped Tories), Foster, Humby, Stephens (independents), Chapman, Bowker (ex LibDems), Adams (LibDem), Arnold, Ward, Peacey-Wilcox (Tory rebels) - the 26 of the 28 against being Tories (including Whittaker now back in their fold), plus Hancock (independent) and Knowles (LibDem). The other LibDem - Price - was missing again, as was Miller (independent) for personal reasons.

LibDem amendment to Option 5 LOST by 2 - 42 - mainly because it was entirely pointless - much like LibDemmery as a political philosophy. Interesting that their new parliamentary candidate appeared to have given this meeting a wide berth.......

Vote on Option 5 was AGREED by 27 -17 - the same line-ups as the Referendum vote, but with Foster having left and Knowles (LibDem) now swapping sides.

So the only remaining executive LibDem from the last Council - Knowles - finally won on 2-tier schools as the Tories decided to throw away all the goodwill they secured at the 2005 elections from their opposition to 2-tier. And this despite the behaviour of the LibDem rump on this night being manifestly shambolic......

Best contribution of the night was from Melanie Swan in moving the referendum motion. The bad taste I still feel was partly to do with the ignorant and ill-judged attack on me by the so-called Council Chairman right at the end of the education debate as he hasn't the intelligence to recognise humour when it is used.

And after all the disruption this has caused ? The Chief Executive - who seemed to find the entire Full Council proceedings hysterically funny - announced he had got a new job even though he has always denied previously he was looking elsewhere. So its 2 years rather than 4 years.......

.........as ever - you couldn't make it up.........

BACK TO THEIR OLD HABITS

One of the few good things about the Pugh administration was their new transparency about Budget setting; something I applauded. Its a shame that the same transparency isn't being shown for tonight's Full Council debate on schools reorganisation.

Apparently the Council Leader is intending to propose a policy Motion tonight, without giving any notice as should constitutionally be required, that the Council Chairman believes (as he is privy to these plans despite supposedly being neutral in his role),

"I am sure (the impact of change) will be more than satisfactorily addressed by the Motion to be moved by the Leader of the Council".

Of course many of us will only see this Motion tonight, thus giving us no time to consider and consult. But what do the Tory Leadership care ? They have the votes in the bag no matter what I think, so my quibbles don't amount to anything.

NODDING DOGS ?

My latest press release:

"The Labour member of the Council's Scrutiny Committee is questioning the committee's effectiveness.

Cllr Geoff Lumley's doubts have been brought to a head by a recent Cabinet member delegated decision to merge ABK and Trinity Middle Schools ahead of the Council's current school reorganisation proposals. Cllr Lumley made extensive written representations to the Cabinet member (Cllr Wells) ahead of this decision, seeking its deferral. However, the decision was made without any response being made to Cllr Lumley's representations. Something that has never happened before in the light of delegated decision representations. The decision was then made by Cllr Wells in private and without any accountability.

Consequently Cllr Lumley then sought the support of three of the other non-Conservative Scrutiny Committee members (seven in total) to 'call in' the decision to a special committee meeting to hold the cabinet member to account. By the deadline of 5pm yesterday only two (Cllrs Miller & Humby) had signed up to the call-in. Without four signatories there can be no 'call in'. Late support from Cllr Foster, who had been unavailable the previous week, was ruled out.

Cllr Lumley said, "Last November the newly constituted and Tory controlled Scrutiny Committee received a stern talking to about misuse of the 'call-in' process on delegated decisions without prior representations being made. So in this and other cases I now ensure I make prior representations when I am unhappy about a proposed decision. Before now I always get a response before the decision is made, but not in this case. Subsequently not getting sufficient support from the other 'opposition' and co-opted members on the committee for a 'call in' is very disappointing. Sadly it is a manifestation of how irrelevant the Scrutiny Committee has become since it was reconstituted without opposition control." "

THE NEXT GENERATION TO LOSE THEIR COUNCIL PLACES ?

I went along to the Save Our Schools demo yesterday. Considering the weather and how long this campaign has had to keep a head of steam up, I think getting about 500 plus there was terrfic. The Tory MP was there at the start, as was the Labour parliamentary candidate Mark Chiverton, and the Liberal previous school threatener/candidate !!! Also about seven Tory rebel councillors and one independent councillor.

So now it is all down to the Full Council on Wednesday with hopefully 4 options to chose from if the opposition amendment for a Referendum is added to the choice.

Back in the 2005 Council elections some high-profile Liberal councillors lost their seats due to their arrogant disregard for public opinion over a schools reorganisation- Smart, Wareham, Harris, Barry, Kendall - but also some who did not have the trappings of Cabinet office - Fox, Lloyd, Howe, Clough for example.

In May 2009 we have Council elections again and together with those current Cabinet members who will deservedly struggle to hold their seats (if re-selected) - Brown, Cousins, Hunter-Henderson, Tuson, Wells, Pugh - will be other foot soldier Tories who may think they will be OK one year after perhaps betraying their electorates, but who will probably pay the price of defeat..........

Ladies and gentleman the next generation of unrewarded losers will include - Cameron, Burt, Hobart, Webster, Humber, Whittaker

WHILE WE WERE SLEEPING.......

A delegated decision was made today by the Cabinet Member for Children that relied upon MISLEADING the public about the futures of the church-aided schools at Carisbrooke High School, ABK RC Middle and Trinity CE Middle.

The decision, made outside of the committee process and entirely non-responsive to representations that I made, is to merge these two Middle schools as from September this year.

A decision made despite the fact that the so-called earlier consultation on this merger made no mention of the subsequent plans to create a new 'faith' secondary school from the two Middle schools and Carisbrooke High - the so-called Christ the King College. Something I would have thought was pretty pertinent......

Delegated decisions are supposed to be forewarned in something called the Forward Plan. This one wasn't.

In the past when I have made representations about a delegated decision I have always had a considered reply before they made the decision. Its called going through the process, but newer Cabinet members don't seem to understand that. This decision stinks.

CAPITAL OMISSIONS

I have referred here to the Council's failure to spend its Capital Programme budget before. Highways being one of the main underspends with consequences for Islanders.

The Capital Programme this year started off as £56m, but was reduced mid-year to £39m as they realised they did not have the staff or the processes (after Undercliff) to deliver. By the end of December the spend to 31 March was projected to be £16m. A massive difference even from the revised budget.

Some of the additional items that are not being delivered to Islanders are:

*** 20mph schemes outside schools - budget £200k, projected year end spend £74k;

*** Grants to provide adaptations to the homes of people with disabilities - budget £890k, projected to year end £390k, not spent £500k;

*** Sure Start programme for children - budget £215k, projected NIL;

*** Access to Council buildings for people with disabilities - budget £100k, projected £19k;

*** Planned maintenance of school buildings - budget £129k, projected £5k;

*** CCTV equipment replacement - budget £100k, projected NIL.

Not a good record for an administration that bleats about underfunding on as regular a basis as the LibDems did before 2005 !

SCHOOLS - LET THE ISLAND DECIDE

The following Motion will be proposed to the Council Meeting on March 19th:

Council on March 19th resolves to add the following 4TH OPTION to the three currently available to Members within the Education Reorganisation decision-making process tonight:-

A Referendum of the Isle of Wight electorate to be called immediately, to decide between;

*** Continuing to raise standards within the current 3-tier system, retaining small schools and avoiding a major reorganisation;
or
*** A reorganisation to a 2-tier system, which emphasises the importance of small schools and community-based learning.

I don't normally support referendums, except when there is a clear lack of leadership from the top. That is the position now. A referendum can be delivered within 10 weeks and still meet the current timetable for capital funding submissions to central government.

The motion offers Island people a clear choice and at a cost of no more than 75p per adult would be money well spent. Certainly better than the 90p per adult spent on the current private and confusing consultation.

ISLAND LABOUR SMILING

So the local LibDems have picked a former IW councillor as their next parliamentary candidate. The woman who tried to force 2-tier education onto the Island without listening to the people and then paid the price by losing her Council seat in Brighstone back in May 2005. So now her party wants Islanders to have faith in someone with a track record of ignoring the Island. I don't think so.

As LibDem grandee Morris Barton said back in July 2005 after the last elections, " LibDems face a decade out of power on the IW." And "We are seeing the voting intentions of people polarise towards either Labour or the Tories." Even more true now Morris !

Of course the Labour parliamentary candidate, Mark Chiverton (left), is well positioned as the representative of the only political party on the IW that doesn't flip flop over its position on schools. Standards matter, not organisational structures.

Someone later said here...

"Jill Wareham's attempt is doomed. This woman was responsible for our failing education system and now claims to want to put education at the centre of her campaign! Will she be letting us know where her administration went wrong?

I would laugh but it's not funny. This woman clearly has no shame and local Liberals must be desperate."

POLICE UNDERCLIFF INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE.....

Noticed lurking in the back pages of the CP this weekend that the Police 'Serious Crimes Unit' are still investigating the Undercliff affair.

So public money is being spent twice it seems ? £2m of Council Tax payers money on the Council's investigation and who knows how much now out of our police precept.

I recall saying months ago - if the Undercliff matter was so bad why not just refer it to the Police and save the Council Taxpayer the expense.......

JUST NOT EFFECTIVE SCRUTINY

I attended the Scrutiny Committee on Thursday evening. I wonder sometimes whether I should expend my energies more productively elsewhere.........

As is now intergral, the majority of the committee were silent Tories, who wouldn't know how to scrutinise decison-making even if they were in opposition - as a few of them will be in 14 months time. It was subsequently observed to me that if it wasn't for the two lay co-optees and myself there would not be a meeting.

When I initiated a line of questioning into the Council's failure to spend its £760,000 capital programme monies on road surface treatments, with the consequent effects on insurance claims, and on a day when senior officers were in London seeking Roads PFI monies, the Tory silence was deafening as the relevant Cabinet Member floundered quite embarrassingly. If there had been more than the co-optees and I to pursue him on this I suspect his position would have become untenable. Which of course is why the Tories gutted Scrutiny last May.....

We are repeatedly told how committed to scrutiny the leader of the Council and the Chief Exec are. So committed indeed that the CX hasn't attended a meeting since Sept 2006, and the leader was just along the corridor, no doubt plotting his next deft (daft?) move in the education debacle.

THREE YEARS WITHOUT A WORD

A keen Council watcher sent me an email remarking on the number of loyal Tories who have yet to make an unscripted contribution to Full Council in 3 years - and how once a Tory shakes the whip you can hardly shut them up !

The wordless currently number 9 - or one quarter of the original group before the leadership starting its blood feuds.

I'm too polite to mention their names, but I am sure others aren't........

A LITTLE LIKE GERTRUDE ?

I made a suggestion recently at Full Council (and here) that assurances are possibly being made to Tory councillors over school closures. A suggestion, not an allegation or an accusation, based on rumours heard by myself and other opposition councillors in recent weeks. After I was howled down at Full Council by some of the Tory Group for making this suggestion, I also remarked here that the truth can hurt when it is being hidden.

The Council leadership is now getting very agitated about this. I wonder why ?

There is an old saying from Hamlet, '(they) doth protest too much, methinks'.

TORY MAD HATTERS

Well it went on for nearly 4 hours, as I predicted, and last night's Full Council made 3 appalling decisions that reflect the Alice in Wonderland world the Council's Tory group currently seem to live in:

On School closures the meeting decided by 26 votes to 17 not to abandon the current flawed consultation on the barmy options. There was a named vote, which I will not repeat here unless people can't find it, but basically the 17 were cross all parties and none, and the 26 were all Tories plus one Independent and one arms-length Tory. When I suggested that the Tory majority members with schools due to close in their ward had possibly received reassurances from the leadership that options might change I was howled down ! Nothing hurts like the truth when you are trying to hide it......

Best remark of this debate from one rebel Tory, "The leader is trying to make a name for himself and I fear that name is twit."

On Ferry Fares Fair our motion to support the MP's campaign for an OFT investigation was amended by the leadership to kick it into the long grass of a Policy Commission enquiry by 27 votes to 14 - those against were myself, Gardiner, Mosdell, Swan, Foster, Stephens, Bowker, Joyce, Bishop, Churchman, Mc Robert, Humby, Knowles and Adams. Again cross party and none.

On the Budget, the leadership's 3.9% Council tax increase proposal with a £10m raid on balances over 3 years to prop up day to day expenditure went though with all the Tory group members in favour, plus the arms length Tory and one Independent, and everyone else against - including Labour - or abstaining. Our Labour amendment - a 3.75% increase with NO use of balances - attracted 5 votes this year, which is a 250% increase on our amendment last year - and 5 abstentions (Liberals and NAGs)! Thanks to Ian Stephens, Charlie Hancock and Patrick Joyce for their support.

Mass school closures, opposition to their own MP on ferry fares, spending what you haven't got - here on the Isle of Wight the world has been turned upside down as the local Tories behave like some sort of militant tendency..........

And when I got home at 10.15pm I had received TEN Council press releases in my email Inbox within the space of about one hour from the Westminster-lead communications arm of the Council telling me how everything is so wonderful. Entirely bizarre. A contract must be up for renewal....

COMBATING THE COUNCIL PIRATES

The Labour Group tonight published its Alternative Budget for Council Tax this year.

Its main points are:

1. A 3.75% increase - just below inflation;

2. NO plundering of Reserves to balance the books;

3. Starting the financial year aiming to deliver the Government's efficiencies targets, rather than putting it off

Of course we may never get to the Budget given what else is on the Full Council agenda this Wednesday - the schools consultation abandonment motion, followed by the Ferry Fares Fair motion from us. Will be a long evening.

LEADERSHIP ?

Anyone wondering how NOT to lead a political grouping need only look at the classic example evolving here on the IW Council. As an example of dysfunctional leadership you would struggle to find one worse.

Membership jumping the sinking ship in droves, insults and threats rather than reaching out to the rebels, a belief that you are right no matter what even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary................

And who suffers ?

SCHOOLS DECIMATION TO HAVE EARLY DEBATE

Thanks to 16 IW Councillors agreeing to the need, the following Motion will now be discussed at the Full Council meeting on 20 FEBRUARY:

"In view of the widespread public concern and as the Isle of Wight Council had not received guidance from the DCSF on any issues of concern to be addressed by the Primary Capital Programme by 31^st January, Council resolves to abandon the current informal consultation on education reorganisation. Council also instructs the Cabinet member for Children & Young People to secure from officers a plan and consultation proposals for managing surplus school places that does not result in mass school closures and damage to local communities."

The 16 are - Cllrs Joyce (proposer), Adams, Arnold, Bishop, Bowker, Chapman, Churchman, Foster, Gardiner, Humby, Knowles, Lumley, McRobert, Mosdell, Price and Swan.

Obviously if this were to be agreed it would be a tremendous outcome. If not, there is still a debate on 19 March when IW Councillors will have to register their positions on the 3 Options

EXCLUDING........

I see the good people of Shanklin are in for a tough choice! According to IW Radio's website:

"If you live in Shanklin, it's your chance this week to have a say on issues affecting the community. A series of meetings are being held at the town's Conservative Club in Palmerston Road. Police and Isle of Wight Council are holding the public forums, which take place at 7.00pm tonight (Monday), tomorrow night (Tuesday), and on Wednesday evening."

Clearly they don't want any self-respecting Labour people - of whom there are a good many in Shanklin - along, as they wouldn't feel comfortable at all in that hellish place !!!!

Doesn't seem right to me holding public meetings on political premises.

SCHOOLS PROTEST IN SHANKLIN

Today I managed to get out to a schools protest when I joined the 500 people who silently and peacefully marched through Shanklin to demonstrate outside the local Conservative Club (see left).

The protestors here and in Ryde this morning were joined by a dozen Isle of Wight councillors, including Deborah and I. Real cross-party representation in this campaign is very evident.

The coalition of people who are working against the mad Tory leadership proposals in the interests of the whole Island surely must mean something to Pugh and his sidekicks

WHEN EVEN YOUR FRIENDS TRUMPET BAD NEWS......

"ISLAND COUNCIL ONE OF THE WORST IN THE SOUTH EAST"(IW Radio headline today)...........you know you are in trouble.

For the 3rd year running this Conservative Council has been judged to be 2-star, despite the massive investment in highly-paid management.

Some of the rest of IW Radio's story speaks for itself,

"National research conducted by the Audit Commission has awarded Isle of Wight Council just two stars - the same mark for the third consecutive year. It compares with Portsmouth which scored 3 stars and Southampton which achieved a rating of 4. Every other Council in the south east region, apart from Slough, scored higher.

The chief executive of the Audit Commission, Steve Bundred has told Isle of Wight radio, "it's disappointing the council has remained on two stars when eight out of ten councils across the country are in the top two categories of 3 and 4 stars".

Roll on May 2009 !

UNGRATEFUL TORY B*ST*R*DS

A 5.9% increase in Government funding this year compared to an inflation rate for state pensions of 3.9% and what do you get from the ingrates on the Council's Tory Cabinet - pictured looking guilty/smug/barmy/deluded (you choose) above?

"The Revenue Support Grant Settlement set by the government for the next three years is a poor one and gives the council limited resources" waffled on one of the Sinister Seven at tonight's Cabinet.

Get real Barry, for goodness sake! 5.9% settlements were beyond the wildest dreams of local govenment under Thatcher and Major prior to 1997 - as was an inflation rate in single figures.

However, not content with whinging and whining they also propose to RAID Council Reserves this year to the tune of £5m (search previous posts on 'RESERVES') whilst avoiding their responsibility to start achieving real efficiencies of £15.3 m on their budget over the next 3 years. An abdication of responsibility.

Some of us would not shirk from that responsibility.

SCHOOLS: IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THE TORIES SAY......

TOO HALF-HEARTED

Yesterday I went along to the very short notice public exhibition and consultation about the Pan development.

Organised by the developers' community consultation agents I wasn't impressed. Neither were the people I have spoken too since. Given that well over 100 people went along that does not start it off well.

It all seemed very rushed and poorly-resourced, with low quality displays. I have passed my views on to the Council, Medina HA and PNP.

Hopefully the next one - in April I believe- is going to start taking consultation seriously.

"CHIEF ROUGH BOY" ?

I've had some wonderful descriptions over the last 3 years that I have been on the Council (see one above), but I now have the one I like best in the CP's View from the Gallery this week,

Chief Rough Boy

I can live with that!

NEWPORT TRAFFIC MEETING

Wednesday night I chaired a Newport Town Management Committee-organised public meeting on traffic. Yes, I rarely get an easy life !

Despite all the outrage about the proposed school changes, Newport residents still have enough anger in them about traffic issues to turn out in good numbers. We had about 100 people at the meeting.

Although Newport TMC had wanted to try and focus on longer term options for traffic management in Newport for at least part of the meeting, quite understandably residents wanted to continue discussing the Council's unpopular decision to reverse the traffic direction in Trafalgar Road to a westerly direction and the devastating effect that has had on a number of residential roads around Newport. Out of 100 people at the meeting ONE person expressed support for that change and even the councillor for Brighstone supported a reversal.

The Cabinet member for Transport came along to the meeting and maybe, just maybe, he will at last have got the message from the people, that I and other have been trying to get across to him for the last 3 months. If he doesn't, I can't help feeling that it is deliberate.

WHAT THE SCHOOLS MINISTER ACTUALLY SAID TODAY

Cut out the Sir Humphrey's - watch and LISTEN to the BBC South report "Close threat school gets £1m" at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southtoday/

and hear what the Schools Minister, Jim Knight MP, actually says.

Not what the Tory truth-twisters at County Hall interpret him as saying.

Additionally his answer to a questions from the Island's MP:

"No Ministers or officials from the Department of Children, Schools and Families have had any discussions with the Isle of Wight council about intervention should existing primary schools not be closed under current reorganisation proposals."

That's one lie demolished that was doing the rounds last week.

A VERY PECULIAR IMBALANCE

Today we learnt that a Conservative MP who misused public money to support his son's further education will probably be suspended from Westminster for 2 weeks.

Here on the Isle of Wight a councillor (not Labour) who was found guilty by the Standards Board of not declaring a prejudicial interest against a candidate who he was considering for a public appointment was suspended for TWO MONTHS by the local Standards Committee.

Seems very unbalanced to me.

A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD

Well I spent yesterday listening to the SOS demo from my sick bed, having been up to St Mary's during the night before with severe nosebleeds. Nothing to do with a visit to Carisbrooke Village Management Committee I can assure you ! More a case of my seemingly beginning to fall apart !!!!

The demo certainly seems to have been very successful and almost as large as the GKN Westlands 600 job losses one back in Feb 2002. The trick now is to keep the momentum going right through to 19 March. Perhaps a march through Newport and demo in early March ?

On Friday a couple of us were wondering who on the IW Council will oppose the barmy proposals in their entirity. We probably still need at least 6 more Tories to show some backbone, provided the 3 LibDems councillors don't change their mind again. Remember - they voted for this ludicrous consultation in November along with Pugh's Tory leadership. Hopefully the views of their local Chairman will be reflected by these councillors.

PUSHED OVER THE EDGE

Full Council tonight. An inward looking agenda dramatised and enlivened by the early departure of 4 Tory councillors to the opposition seats over the schools debacle.

After the Council Leader won his vote of confidence before the Council meeting over his school proposals by 27 votes to 6, Cllrs Joyce, McRobert, Churchman and Bishop all declared they were leaving the Tory Group at the commencement of Full Council. We all had to budge up a bit in the opposition side of the Council Chamber.. The other two were, I guess, Ward and Peacey-Wilcox.

Only a matter of time before more of the Tories with vulnerable primary schools in their wards smell the coffee........

This Leader started with 35 Tories in his group. He is now down to 29 in just 4 months. By Easter he may not have a majority.

THE COUNCIL'S OWN PRIMARY PUPIL FORECAST

As I alluded to on the IW Radio phone-in last week, there is Council data around that indicates that the need for primary pupil school places will increase over the next decade.

The chart shows a 25-30% increase in primary places by 2017.






Also see - http://eduwight.iow.gov.uk/the_lea/amp/images/SCH_POP_FORC_2007.pdf
for all the data.

LEAVE SCHOOLS ALONE AND MAKE DO WITH A LITTLE LESS MONEY

The Save Our Schools campaign has gathered pace phenomonally over the last few days. Councillors from all parties and none are making it clear they will oppose the proposed changes at Full Council in March - with any luck all of this will be abandoned well before then........

I note on the SOS website that Conservative Cllr Ian Ward from Sandown is attempting to organise a leadership challenge to the boy wonder Pugh. Hopefully he will be successful, and will bring down his right-hand man, Wells, too.

As I was being bombarded with emails yesterday evening I have tried to direct campaigners to put pressure on those Tory councillors with a primary school in their ward that is set for closure under all the options and have yet to make their position clear. There's no point in targeting those of us who agree with the campaign !

The Council leadership claims that it will have £2m further to spend on education if it closes all these schools. In my view this is just about the most political choice you can make. Do you resolve that £2m is a price worth paying to retain schools in our communities, or do you determine that the cost of something is more important than the value it gives ? In my view the choice is very easy.

Finally the reduction in government capital grants from April does not force closures on the Council. There is no government agenda to do that. What the Council are CHOOSING to do is reduce the number of schools it has to maintain in future years.

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS

The last few days has been very interesting on the schools issue. Yesterday I did the IW Radio phone-in. I was booked to talk about Pan, Newport and Labour matters, but of course it ended up being almost exclusively about schools. Best thing about it was learning that two Conservative councillors are joining Labour, Cllr Joyce, the Non-Aligned group, and it now appears the Liberals, in opposing these barmy reorganisation proposals from the Council leadership. Neither have schools in their ward that are closing.

That makes it 11 out of 48 councillors publicly opposed so far. So just 14 more needed to throw all of this out. If the Independents and 'odds and sods' join the opposition that would give us another 7. With at least that many Tory backbenchers representing wards with a closing primary school, it is clearly possible that the proposals will be rejected.

IW Labour will be doing what it can to concentrate the minds of Tory councillors over the next few weeks, and I will play my part.

PLUNDERING RESERVES

At Thursday's Scrutiny Committee we had more details on the depletion of the Council's Reserves. Last December I reported that the Tories had plundered them so far this year to the tune of £8m. On Thursday we learnt that by the end of March they will actually have been reduced by £15m to pay for things like the Undercliff enquiry and what I called 'propping up services'.

On top of this it looks like the Tories plan to reduce them by a further £10m over the next 3 years to balance their Budget books - despite another generous grant settlement from Government.

So in the space of this Council, by May 2009 Reserves will have reduced from nearly £40m to less than £20m. No wonder they want empty land and properties that they can then sell off.

Scrutiny otherwise was OK. No public present, but a good session on the coming year's Budget, and approval of an excellent report on Waste Management and Recycling.

The Tories committee members were a little more contributory this time after my criticisms in December, with only half their membership making no contribution this time !

MP NEEDS TO GET FACTS RIGHT

I see the MP is claiming that it "appears" Government civil servants put pressure on elected members of the Council to reorganise the Island's school system, without any evidence for that claim. Clearly he is so beleagued these days - or is that bepughed ? - that he needs to find some way of justifying why his Tory '"allies" on the Council are so entirely juxtaposed to his views on our school system.

If only he had asked the Council's own Director of Childrens Services first, who told my Labour colleague that,

"I can assure that that I do not feel pressurised and have not conveyed that to the political leadership. This is very much about local decision making within a national framework."

2005 TORY MANIFESTO PROMISE SHATTERED

The Tory promise to the Island electorate back in May 2005 said in their so-called 'Timetable for Action' they would,

"Maintain local village schools as vital centres of the community"

Consequently they swept the board in 35 of the 48 Council wards. Swept the board on what is clearly yet another LIE to Islanders.

Of the 24 schools that are guaranteed to close under each of the 3 proposed reorganisations, I can offer the following list of the local councillors:

Gurnard Primary - Hobart; Love Lane - Brown; Holy Cross - Webster; Greenmount - Taylor; Bembridge - Pigot/McRobert; St Helens and Brading - Joyce; Gatten & Lake - Williams; Chale - Arnold; St Margarets' CE - Scoccia; St Wilfreds RC - Fitzgerald-Bond; Godshill and Wroxall - Wood; Weston - Cameron; Yarmouth - Burt; Arreton and Chillerton & Rookley - Oulton; Carisbrooke CE - Whittaker; Summerfields - Cousins; Nodehill - Cunningham

St Johns CE - Humby; St Thomas' RC - Foster; St Mary's RC - Bowker; Hunnyhill - Price.

All but the last four were elected as Tory councillors. I have asked my local councillor in that list why she is breaking her pledge. I suggest everyone does the same.

ISLAND LABOUR'S POSITION ON EDUCATION PROPOSALS

The IW Council Labour Group has consistently voted against the proposals for structural changes, insisting that the Council should concentrate it’s time and money on raising standards in our schools, not changing the structures. We are very unhappy that the Council should even be considering the closure of primary schools when the primary school sector is doing well and when these schools are the heartbeat of local communities.

We are rather astonished that the Liberal Democrats are coming out against these proposals when their Councillors voted for them at the November Full Council and when the school closures would have happened under the last Lib Dem Council had they not been thrown out for proposing them. There is absolutely no evidence that changing the structures here will in any way improve standards – all that will happen is that the education of Island children will be pointlessly and severely disrupted for years to come.

Island Labour will be campaigning against these changes, campaigning in favour of raising standards and voting against these destructive, and frankly barmy, proposals and we urge Liberal Democrat Councillors and Conservative Councillors to find a backbone at last and join us in opposing them.

Cllrs Deborah Gardiner & Geoff Lumley

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES ?

Well I finally accessed the education consultation webpages this morning and I am astounded.

Not content with the uncertainty they have caused over the last nearly 3 years in our schools, the Tories have now decided that no matter what reorganisation option people prefer they are going to close at least 27 of our 67 schools with a totally unnecessary reorganisation. Further, 23 schools are GUARANTEED to close, whichever option for change is selected.

Is this perhaps a case of history repeating itself as farce, after the Liberal suicide over school reorganisation back in 2004/05 ? I bet there are numerous unhappy Tory councillors today..........will be interesting to see how many are left in their group by the end of this process.

Of course the IW LibDems supported this latest consultation on the 3 options at the Full Council back in November, and presumably are happy that at least 31 schools will close if their two-tier preference was chosen.

Labour supports the option that does not lead to school closures, and always has done. The option of NO CHANGE to our existing school system; just change to the standards delivered therein. But its not part of the consultation.......

NO SURPRISE THERE THEN......

.......just tried to access the Education Consultation details on the Council's website as everyone - ordinary councillors, staff, governors, the media - was told it would be available after 6pm. As I anticipated none of the Links work.

As I repeatedly say about this Council - you wouldn't make it up.........

9pm - STILL NO WEBSITE ACCESS TO THESE DOCUMENTS. HOW MUCH DO WE PAY WESTMINSTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS EXPERTISE ?

TORIES APPOINT PAN DEVELOPER

At tonight's Cabinet in East Cowes, the new developer for Pan was unanimously agreed to be Miller Homes. No financial details will be released until contracts have been finalised. The decision was made on the recommendation of a panel of IW Council, Spectrum Housing Group & PNP officers, who had evaluated the three bids against agreed criteria.

I was not involved in the decision in anyway, did not want to be, and do not know any of the financial details.

More about Miller Homes can be seen at:- no, sorry, their website is not very good at all.

EARY BID FOR QUOTE OF THE YEAR !

From my favourite CP columnist this week,

"(Nick) Clegg may not believe in God, but does God believe in the LibDems? On the Island at least, it would be a truly magnificent feat of faith if He did."

BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR

This blog has now completed its second complete calendar year - 2.67 years in total. In 2007 I have posted 178 times - 166 more than the other IW Council related blog ! That's a post every two days and I hope my readers have found them reasonably interesting and informative.....

I had 14,566 page hits throughout the year - a 10% increase on last year - an average of 40 per day; and 5,878 new visitors to add to the 5,148 I had at the start of the year = 11,026 different visitors over the year - an annual increase of 114%. I suppose I am still providing some sort of service.....at least you get the truth here, not just spin.

At this time last year I said that I was doubtful if I would continue as Scrutiny Chair past April. I was only one month out, being compelled to resign in May due to Tory lies and deceit. Nothing much changes !

Consequently I have had more time to concentrate on the people who put me in County Hall - not that I was neglecting them before - and I hope I am still an effective and assiduous councillor for Pan. The indications are that I am. Also more time for Newport as a whole, where I have continued as the Town Management Committee Chair for a second year, and am looking forward to elections for a Newport Town Council in May.

Nationally the Brown honeymoon has lead into a very poor 3 months after the 'snap election' nonsense. However, I am remain confident that the British people are not daft enough to fall for the Cameron con and that Labour will revive its fortunes.

Best wishes for the New Year to all my readers.

MERRY XMAS AND A PEACEFUL NEW YEAR

To all my readers - my very best wishes for Christmas and hopes for a peaceful new year.

TIME FLIES

I just realised its a week since I blogged. Its been one of those weeks where I haven't had time to sit at the computer and think malevolent thoughts about this Council ! Maybe its something to do with the spirit of the season ?

Looking back - as one tends to do at this time of the year - I am slightly taken aback to realise that I have now been blogging here, on a reasonably regular basis, for three Xmases. No matter what you think about it that's a real feat of stamina as so many blogs tail off after a few months or are hardly ever updated. I can think of one that has had 12 posts in the last 12 months. I'll tell you in a week's time how may there have been here and how many visitors I have had. I think you will be impressed.

ANOTHER TORY JUMPS SHIP !

Just learnt that former Cabinet member Melanie Swan has resigned from the Tory Group. No idea why yet, but not that surprised.

So from the 35 Tories that were elected in 2005 they have lost two - Swan and Mosdell; ejected another - Whittaker; and banned from all committees another 5 - Sutton, Joyce, Bishop, Churchman and Peacey-Wilcox. On the 'positive' side they gained Mazillius who was a Tory anyway, but was elected as an 'Independent'.

What with the Liberals losing two of their group - Chapman and Bowker - Labour is the only Group that has been stable throughout. Its called being principled and comradely !

A LITTLE ROAD RELIEF ?

At the Pan Neighbourhood Partnership board meeting last night there was continuing disquiet at the absence of any Council intentions for a proper Relief Road as part of the Pan development when they go for planning permission next year. A Relief Road that would take rat-running out of Pan and away from Coppins Bridge.

I reminded resident board members that it was the Council Cabinet that took the decision not to have a Relief Road mainly due to the financial effect - less return for them on sale of the land - despite my support and (more importantly) the Island MP's.

Quite understandably there is an increasing feeling on Pan that the Council leadership are not interested in LISTENING to the views of Pan residents. I get the strong feeling that the planning process isn't going to be as smooth as the Council need it to be......

WHAT A SHAMBLES !

Tonight's Full Council was a total shambles - badly organised, badly prepared, and badly chaired.

Called as a special meeting to put to bed the Undercliff Final Report this should have been a professionally organised event by the administration, but after tonight's performance brewers have very little to fear.

The Council leadership were seemingly astounded to find there was opposition concern about the non-role of the District Auditor throughout this saga, and were particularly surprised that one LibDem had bothered to compile a list of those concerns with the intention of incorporating them into the Report's recommendations as an amendment.

It caused havoc in their ranks and the meeting had to be adjourned whilst they worked out their position - that is the Cabinet (excluding Cousins and Hunter-Henderson), the Chief Exec, and the Wragg & Co. solicitor who is seemingly still on call. They decided they were against the Liberal amendment and proceeded to vote it down by 22 votes to 6 (Knowles, Adams, Mosdell, Stephens, Gardiner and me) and 1 abstention- yes, there were about 18 (37.5%) of the Council missing tonight, mainly Tories - under-investigation and not.

The Tories then had to cobble together an amended recommendation accepting the Report for the Council, which saw another adjournment - even though much of it was just basic tidying up of their original proposal. This prompted the departure of the only journalist present, probably in disgust, which is probably just as well. This amendment went through 24 to 4 (Knowles, Adams, Gardiner and me) with 2 abstentions - and we awaited the substantive debate on the Final Report.

And waited, and waited, and waited.......for the Chairman had decided that the vote on the last amendment constituted the final decision on the Final Report, so it went through without any real analysis of its serious deficiencies. Despite mine and Deborah's protestations. You would be lynched at some trade union meetings for such ineffectual chairing.

And that was basically it apart from the latest bout of constitutional tinkering with Scrutiny, the minutes silence at the beginning in memory of the recently deceased former Tory councillor Roy Westmore, and lots of public questions about the Chapel Street/Trafalgar Road debacle - which were answered most unsatisfactorily.

DETAILS OF IW COUNCIL RESERVES

OVERALL IW COUNCIL RESERVES & BALANCES 2007-08: (from public Scrutiny Committee last week)

1st column shows the reserves the Council leadership started with on 1.4.07, spread across lots of different pots;

2nd column shows how much each will be reduced by this financial year. 'Education' spending is good - 'Org Dev Reserve' is bad > where the Undercliff enquiry etc was funded from;

3rd column represents a tidying up of all the pots of money so that £14.372m can be put into the General Reserve. This is uncommitted money;

4th column shows the total in Reserves at the end of March 2008. Only the £16.427m is generally uncommitted - unless the 'doubtful debts' are chased up more actively !!!

Overall you can see that the TOTAL reserves have been reduced this year by nearly £8m.

Scrutiny is now seeking similar details for the previous two financial years.

LABOUR GOVERNMENT GENEROUS TO IW COUNCIL....AGAIN

Although there has been absolute silence from their Westminster City Council-based communications operation, last Thursday the IW Council found out that it will get a 6.3% increase next year in its Revenue Support Grant. That's 2% above the norm for local authorities like us, and 3% above inflation.

It was the same last year, when they received similar generosity - a 6.1% increase.

This means that the IW Council Tory Group can once again restrict Council Tax increases next year to inflation if they want, and still have some growth in service delivery.

LOBBY FODDER

Last night was the first Scrutiny Committee under Cllr Miller. I quite enjoyed it (!), and a lot of useful stuff was learnt, particularly about the Council's Reserves (of which more at a later date).

The committee now seems to be three very distinct groups - 1. those who want to hold the administration to account (me, the Liberal, the 3 co-optees, and the 2 parent school governors on education matters); 2. the two independents including Cllr Miller, uncertain whether to be critical or friendly; and 3. the Tories who made no worthwhile contribution last night and are there purely as lobby fodder.

There are only 4 Tories at present due to a cockup with all their recent sackings, but they will be back to a majority after next week's Full Council with the addition of one person so close to the Cabinet it is entirely unethical for them to be Scrutiny members.

The agenda last night included the Budget & Reserves, and school standards. Astonishingly the Tories had nothing worthwhile to say on these two fundamentally important topics ! Clear evidence that they are not interested in Scrutiny - just interested in stopping the committee making critical recommendations to the Cabinet.

When I got home afterwards something struck me. If I and one or two others hadn't been there the meeting would have had little credibility. Something to ponder over the next few weeks........

CART BEFORE THE HORSE

The IW Council is seeking a national award for regeneration work at Pan before it has achieved a thing itself.

In my view anything successful that has been achieved in Pan over the last 3 years has been down to the Pan Neighbourhood Partnership (PNP), the Police, Medina Housing Assoc., or me (in a very small way). None of these are IW Council services.

The time for awards should be once something has been achieved with the Pan development for local people. Something I am not convinced will happen just yet.

UNDER MAINLAND CONTROL

This week a new Chair of Medina HA will be appointed by the massive mainland Group - Spectrum Housing - that now controls it.

Despite there being no rules to stop such an application, and no contrary guidance from the regulating Housing Corporation, my own entirely credible application was blocked by Spectrum - by decision of their Group Board at a meeting in Christchurch, Dorset, early last month. They blocked me because they do not think that I am or can be 'independent' of the IW Council, because I am an IW Councillor and a Council nominee onto their subsidiary Medina Board !

I consider that to be both a ridiculous and an insulting assertion. However, I have not taken this any further as it would just take up too much of my valuable time challenging it.

Nonetheless I consider this to be a deeply worrying development in the sensitive balance between the Spectrum Group and its Medina subsidiary. Medina is the largest landlord for rented, social housing on the Island, and from my councillor point of view is the landlord to 40% plus of Pan households. And yet, decisions about how its governed here on the Island are now made in Christchurch by people who do not know the IW. That's is why the current Chair is standing down.

I thought I was a person who could redress the imbalance a little, but Spectrum have now made sure that cannot happen.

"MORE PUTIN THAN PUGH "!

So remarked a fellow Member when telling me of how the Tories now intend to further emasculate the new Scrutiny Committee.

A rule change will go to Full Council next week that will allow Tory office-holders that are currently banned from Scrutiny, due to their role in supporting the Cabinet's policy-making, to be members of the Scrutiny Committee. So we will see two Tory Policy Commissioners and the Cabinet Secretary for Town & Parish Councils on the Scrutiny Committee in the new year. Putin would be impressed indeed ! Next thing you know there will be Cabinet Members involved - though the Council's website still suggests there is - some 3 months after the coup !

Nonetheless, little effective scrutiny is likely to be done in the remaining 18 dog-months of this appalling Council. Performance management is also to be dumped onto the Committee, and that can take up much of a public meeting if done properly.

UNDERCLIFF THOUGHT

Spent the last few hours closely reading the final report into the Undercliff Enquiry. As a result one thing keeps nagging at me - what is the purpose of the District Auditor ? Surely he should have picked up on the problems with this contract ages ago - something that I questioned at a Cabinet meeting in Ventnor last March and to which the DA seemed particularly twitchy.

I also see that the media have been told that some of the enquiries findings have been referred to the Police. ABOUT TIME, even if it is only part. I suppose we can console ourselves with the fact that we will now have double-handling out of our taxes.

TORY MP SUPPORTS LABOUR POSITION ON SCHOOLS

I need add nothing further to the report in the CP today, with the Island's Tory MP taking both Labour's and the 'Standards not Tiers' position on the latest schools 'consultation'. No unquestioning acceptance from him of the 'No change is not an option" mantra. Probably because unlike some of his colleagues at County Hall he thinks things through - even if I don't often agree with him.

What with him being photographed with pro-Palestine demonstrators outside his office last Friday, he is rapidly heading headlong to some of my long held political opinions !