DANCING ATTENDANCE ?

Went along to my first Audit & Performance Committee last night. I have been gifted this place by the Independent group, so thanks to them. What I know about financial audit is not very much; but performance is right up my street. Complements my new unconstrained role on Scrutiny very nicely.

What struck me was the way in which the Chair of this committee operates. It was a fearsome performance by someone who is clearly very knowledgeable - perhaps too much for others in top roles in this Tory administration. What I particularly liked was the way various Cabinet members and senior officers dance to the committee's attendance throughout a very long agenda.

I think I am going to enjoy this one !!!!

INCOMMUNICADO ?

I learnt last night that Housing has its third Cabinet member of this administration - a week after it happened. Clearly the delivery of Affordable Housing for Islanders is proving to be too difficult for this Council - as evidenced by how few new homes were provided last year - only 150 against a target of 250, which in itself is a drop in the ocean of housing need.

The new Cabinet member for Housing is also the member for Communications. Good to see that that is seemingly still a dirty word in this Council.

CUTTING & RUNNING ?

Yes, that is what the Council Tory leadership have claimed about my Scrutiny resignation ! Another example of their total failure to understand how ordinary people perceive things. For example, this from a member of the public,

"The ruling group should be ashamed of themselves. I do not think the council can have effective scrutiny dominated by the majority party. They wanted to shut Geoff Lumley up. I do not go along with his politics but as a chairman of scrutiny, I think he has been brilliant.” Thank you Mrs Welch of Shanklin.

IW LABOUR SELECT CANDIDATE FOR NEXT GENERAL ELECTION

The Isle of Wight Labour Party membership on Thursday endorsed MARK CHIVERTON as our prospective parliamentary candidate for the next General Election - expected in 2009 or 2010.

Mark also stood for Labour on the Island at the 2005 General Election when he was one of only a few Labour candidates nationwide who significantly increased the Labour vote.

Mark is Island born, bred and resident - in Ryde - and is best known as one of the leading trade unionists on the Isle of Wight, through his role as the elected Secretary of the 1800 Unison members within the IW Council, IW College and voluntary sector. He has also been Chair of IW Labour for 8 years.

Island Labour re-selected Mark as their candidate for a second time after a short selection process that began in February. Interest in the selection was expressed from off Island, but Mark was always the clear front-runner and he was overwhelmingly endorsed at an all-members meeting last night.

Mark Chiverton has immediately appointed me as his Agent for the campaign. I was also his Agent for the 2005 campaign.

We are all absolutely delighted to have Mark as our Labour candidate for the Island again. With his strong local roots, his vast experience in the labour movement, and his remarkable track record as an advocate for ordinary working people, we are all very positive about securing a real voice for the Island at the heart of a fourth-term Labour Government.

SAD DEPARTURE

Very sorry to learn on Thursday that Solent TV had gone bust. Although I had not always seen eye to eye with them about political balance in recent times, I am genuinely sorry they have gone and hope the staff all get other employment soon. Ironically I had taken part in Extra Extra that morning - an episode that will not be shown now ! And it was so good !!!!!

HOLDING THE ISLAND IN CONTEMPT ? - part four

A further 9 days later and still 14 Members have yet to publish their required Annual Report ! Of the 4 who are now in compliance only one was a Tory - a backbencher at that.

THE THINGS THEY SAY........

Leader of the Council, 8 August 2005, e-mail to all opposition councillors:

"I am determined that the (scrutiny) committee remains out of the hands of this administration. We have made that commitment and it still stands."

Lies, lies, lies.........if their mouths are moving............

GETTING OUT OF HAND ?

Today TWO more Council officers were suspended over the St Lawrence Undercliff investigation. That makes SEVEN in total, all of whom are having to be covered at great expense to the Council Taxpayer, or are not covered at great expense to the service they are supposed to lead - as I have found in relation to Highways queries.

All of those costs, together with the £300k currently committed to the two sets of solicitors working on the investigation, suggest that this whole enquiry is currently going to cost about £1/2 million.

When this investigation was initiated by Full Council in February the reason for it that was presented was what was contained in an initial report by an officer from Southampton City Council, which said in the Executive Summary,

"The Council acted either in ignorance or disregard of procurement rules and regulations and
the Council’s Constitution. The Council is, therefore, unable to demonstrate value for money
in using public resources. The governance arrangements exposed by the failure to comply
with statutory requirements fell short of the standards the public has a right to expect.
Procurement regulations were not complied with and, in my opinion, the appointment of HPR
was unlawful. The Council failed to secure its duty to achieve best value and the failure to
enter into a lawful and fair contractual relationship with HPR has exposed the Council to
unnecessary risk."

It seems to me that the costs of this investigation are beginning to become entirely disproportionate to the extra costs that were possibly accrued as a result of the unlawful appointment of HPR.

I WON’T BE A FIG LEAF FOR INDECENCY

Tonight I announced my resignation as Chair of Scrutiny, with effect from next Monday.

I have thought carefully over the last 3 weeks about this, but I have decided that I can no longer do a job that is fundamentally and disgracefully different from what I took on 14 months ago.

I was lied to by the Tories last year – now there’s a surprise – and I will not provide a fig leaf for their indecency. In the end they will lose out from my decision.

I am remaining on the Scrutiny Committee, free to do what I do best. Embarrass them !

ANOTHER TORY PROMISE BROKEN

After much 'What we did on our US holidays' preamble, last night's Full Council saw another Tory promise broken as they steered through a Boundary Review submission for a reduction in councillors by one-sixth. Their manifesto said they would seek a reduction by one-third, or down to 32. Island Labour has already made a submission to the Review for a reduction to 33, which apart from anything else would save the taxpayer well over £100k in allowances each year.

I expressed concern at the understated population projections for Pan in the Council submission, which claim there will only be 116 extra adults living in the new Pan development by December 2011? A clear case of gerry-mandering. I had made representations to the Council about this beforehand, have been ignored, and have now made a complaint to the Boundary Committee.

All the Tories voted in favour of breaking their promise in the Council submission, Labour voted against, and the three LibDems had a variety of reasons for doing so - some want more, some less - but they also all voted against.

We had the latest visit by taxi proprietors, unhappy at the quality of consultation over de-regulation. Instinctively I support de-regulation, but I expressed concern about their level of unhappiness. On a named vote the Tories all voted (bar the two JPs) to de-regulate with most opposition members abstaining.

Under the Reports section of the agenda I made a fuss about the censoring of my Report from Scrutiny for being too political, but got nowhere. As I had already circulated the Report myself to all Members and the media I wasn't too fussed.

The meeting eventually closed after nearly 3 hours without any further attacks on my atheism. But then the Council Leader did appear to be under sedation all night.

Tonight - Scrutiny Committee, where I will have an announcment to make towards the end of the meeting.................

TONIGHT

Yes its that time again - a Full Council ! Can't wait.

Full Report tomorrow morning.

CENSORED !

My Report to Council for tomorrow evening's next atheist bashing session - aka Full Council - as Chair of Scrutiny has been blocked. This has NEVER happened before despite political comments in Cabinet member reports.

My Report is similar to my Blog post on 27 April "Opposition Scrutiny lost after one year". I am safe saying that here as of course no Tory councillor will admit to reading this Blog on pain of demotion.

I was told after I submitted it, "Many thanks for sending us your report for tomorrow's Council but I am afraid that we really can't accept it as written as it is clearly political content (contrary to the Local Government Act Code of Practice on publicity) and contains little of the work of the Scrutiny Committee since your last report. I would also advise that we would not publish the report with the ostrich picture you have included."

NEWPORT ROBBED OF A FURTHER £20,000

Tonight was the May meeting of Newport TMC. At the meeting I confirmed for members that £20k from the old Parkhurst Community Forum, which was going to be used by the TMC for various projects over the next year, had been withdrawn by the IW Council late last month without any warning. Given that our 2007/8 budget was based on having half of this money for the next year this had effectively scuppered our budget. This together with the £6k grabbed back from last year's Newport budget, meant we have lost £25k in total - £15k of which was specifically earmarked.

There was real unhappiness about this sudden loss, particularly from the Parkhurst councillor. The Tory councillors vainly tried to defend it, but without much success given they had all signed up to the detail of our budget last December without a whimper about grab backs.

Consequently all new projects have now been cancelled and a decision was made to forget producing a Community Plan.

All in all I felt the guts were ripped out of Newport TMC by the IW Council with these decisions, and there is little motivation now until we get an independent, elected town council.

HOLDING THE ISLAND IN CONTEMPT ? - part three

Further to my original post of 20 April: the 18 Councillors who had not posted an Annual Report as required by the new Members Allowances Scheme have still not addressed that deficiency nearly 4 weeks later.

Just as a reminder - Included in this 18 are the Cabinet member for 'The Customer', the chair of the Planning Committee, and two of the four Policy Commissioners. In all, one-third of the Tory Group are non-compliant. Additionally not one of the 3 Ryde Liberals has bothered, nor two of the Independent Group. Guess which group met the requirement 100% !

QUIZ TIME !

Which Tory Council Cabinet Member allegedly spent a year working for Dr Peter Brand - the unlamented former LibDem MP for the Island (1997-2001) ?

AFTER TONY BLAIR ?

For some months this Blog has carried a Link 'After Blair?' Now that Tony Blair has decided to resign on 27 June a few people asked me today, when I was delivering my latest Newsletter in Pan (No. 9), what I think about the future leadership of Labour and Britain. The answer to that is the same as what I said in my September 2006 Newsletter (No. 6):

'With the impending departure of Tony Blair as Leader of the Labour Party, Geoff is adding his support to calls for a party debate about the future direction of the Labour Party, when the party elects its next Leader and our next Prime Minister.

Geoff is NOT one of those who thinks that Gordon Brown should be crowned as the next Leader, whilst nothing much else changes on government policy. Geoff is consequently supporting the leadership campaign of John McDonnell MP—not in the expectation that he will win, but because John represents the opportunity for a real debate about Labour’s future policies.'

My current newsletter goes on:

'there is no doubt that for ordinary people Gordon Brown has been one of the most successful Chancellors of the Exchequer in modern times. If we remember what the UK economy was like under the Tories—high inflation, low growth, high mortgage rates, high unemployment, record levels of house repossessions—we can easily see why we must never let Britain return to the bad old Tory days. That is why whoever becomes the next Labour Prime Minister in the next few weeks should command the support of ordinary, working people at the next General Election in 2009/10. '

IW COUNCIL ROBS NEWPORT OF NEARLY £6000

£5777 of money held by Newport Town Management Committee (TMC) - the shadow Town Council - from the Special Expenses levied on Newport households last year has been taken back by the IW Council. The TMC had plans for this money in this financial year, but they have now been stymied. No indication was ever given that money could not be carried over until very recently.

Consequently the May meeting of the TMC, this coming Monday, will undoubtedly be interesting.....

THE BLOG OPPOSITION

When the Council's Chief Exec 'launched' his blog last year little did we realise that it would almost immediately sink ! In over 4 months this year we have had 7 - yes SEVEN - posts. In that time I have posted 66 times......

Comments by me about the infrequent nature of his blog generally prompts action. Lets see how fast they are this time?

WHAT IS THE ISLAND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP ?

According to its website,

"The ISP is the Island Strategic Partnership - bringing together representatives from the public, business, voluntary and community sectors to deliver a Community Strategy for the Island. The Community Strategy is an overall plan for the Island that draws on and influences plans from key local organizations, and summarises the long-term strategic vision and aims of the ISP.

The Community Strategy is also built around the Local Area Agreement (LAA) - a contract between the government and the Isle of Wight, identifying priorities for the Island and improvement targets the Island wants to address these priorities.

The LAA was signed by the ISP, the Isle of Wight Council and the government in April 2006.

That LAA and the Community Strategy set out objectives for the Island to be delivered over the next three years by the council, the NHS and partners from the public, private and voluntary and community sectors."

As we haven't heard much more about it since April last year I decided to go along to one of their meetings today, with half an eye on a future scrutiny enquiry. I checked their website last night - http://www.islandstrategicpartnership.co.uk/default.aspx - which indicated the ISP Board was meeting at 4pm today in County Hall.

Well I got there and there was no one there ! I checked with an officer who told me it had been cancelled. I revisited the website when I got home to discover that the Board meeting was now marked as cancelled. I explored the website a bit more and noticed that minutes of meetings are pretty well dated.

What on earth is going on ? I will have to delve further.

PROPORTIONAL JIGGERY-POKERY

If these things are supposed to be proportional, how do the 2 Councillors from one opposition group at County Hall get 4 places on committees, but the 4 Councillors in each of the other two opposition groups get not 8 places on the committees, but 11 ?

Consequently Labour has no place on any of the Policy Commissions (PCs), nor on the Audit & Performance Committee. This despite there being an opposition vacancy (LibDem) on the PC that Deborah has now been manoeuvred out of, TWO opposition vacancies (LD and Independent) on the PC that I have been thrown off, and TWO opposition vacancies (LD and Indep.) on the A&P Committee despite my regular offers over the last year to take one of these vacancies. Additionally the LibDems continue to boycott the Scrutiny Ctte, showing once again there unwillingness to offer any sort of opposition to this dreadful Council.

Prior to the latest re-allocation of places there was room for a small Labour Group to take part in areas that interest it, which is how we had PC places. Not anymore as the Tories ensured the new scheme dramatically marginalised Labour.

Are these the first signs that the Tories prefer the LibDems to Labour as they are easier opponents to defeat and compromise ?

ISLAND LABOUR URGES ONE-THIRD REDUCTION IN COUNCILLORS

Press Release by the IW Labour Party last week:

ISLAND LABOUR URGES ONE-THIRD REDUCTION IN COUNCILLORS

The IW Labour Party tomorrow makes its formal submission to the current IW Council Boundary Review consultation.

After extensive consultation and discussion with local party members the formal submission calls for a reduction in the number of Isle of Wight Councillors by almost one-third - from the current 48 to 33. Further they urge the responsible Boundary Committee to maintain single-member wards to retain close accountability between councillor and local electors.

The main points of the Labour submission are:

* 4 wards for the major part of Newport (including Pan), and for the Cowes area

* 5 wards for the Ryde area

* 3 wards for the Sandown/Lake area

* 2 wards for each of Shanklin; Ventnor & Wroxall; East Cowes; and Freshwater & Totland

* 1 ward for each of - Bembridge; Fairlee & Havenstreet; Wootton & Fishbourne; Ashey & Brading; Nettlestone, St Helens & Seaview; Calbourne, Shalfleet & Yarmouth; and Brighstone, Carisbrooke & Shorwell

* 1 ward named South Wight - Chale, Niton, Whitwell & Godshill

* 1 ward named Central Wight - Newchurch, Arreton, Rookley & Gatcombe

* Average size of wards = 3463; none of the proposed wards more than 10% variance

* Arguments that an effective Council administration can be run with 33 councillors

Island Labour Party Chair, Mark Chiverton, said, " For many years we have been committed to a policy of a substantial reduction in the number of IW Councillors. As a result of our consultations and discussions with party members we have decided that 33 is the ideal number, which is a substantial reduction. We are hopeful that the leadership of the IW Council will also seek a similar reduction by one-third, as they pledged to in their 2005 election manifesto. Sadly the indications a month ago were that they were retreating from that contract with the Island electorate. In which case Labour is happy to take on that commitment."

It will be interesting to see what the proposed Council submission is when its published this week

SCRUTINY - AN EMAIL TO THE CABINET SECRETARY

The following may further illuminate a few things. I sent it to the Cabinet Secretary and all IW Councillors yesterday:

The Local Government Bill from our Government, not just mine whether you like it or not, outlines changes to the overall scrutiny role, not to the committees. As you know most authorities have more than one Scrutiny Committee and indeed here the only previously existing external scrutiny role - Health - sits with Erica Oulton's Policy Commission, with a Conservative majority.

The Scrutiny Committee that I agreed to chair last year is actually a Corporate Scrutiny Committee with an internal affairs brief. Of course I was pleased that you wanted to give it new external duties, which opposition chair wouldn't be, but at no time was I advised that this would entail your group reneging on the commitments made by David Pugh last year. If I had been then I would have had nothing to do with the changes. That is why I consider that lies were made to the Labour Group last year about our role within an opposition-controlled Scrutiny Committee..

If your group did not want external scrutiny in the hands of the opposition you should have set up an External Partners Scrutiny Committee or such like, and left the Corporate Scrutiny Committee to get on with what it is doing.

By using the methods you have you have effectively destroyed effective internal scrutiny of this Council leadership. It is that that I am pondering as I consider my position ahead of the next formal meeting on 17 May. Can opposition scrutiny of internal matters really be effective if all Scrutiny Reports are likely to be voted down on the Conservative whip ?

A STRANGE FEW DAYS

A strange few days. Sunday saw my team Sunderland promoted to the Football Premiership for the fourth time in 12 years - hopefully to stay this time, and not to perform like the Tory government of 1992-97 - again. I was over the moon.

Tuesday I joined my work colleagues on strike, and on the morning picket lines, against the continuing job cuts within the civil service. I may not be a union branch officer anymore, but I am still a member of the rank and file who respects the collective decisions of his union. Old Labour, I know.

Every day I get messages about Scrutiny and the disgraceful behaviour of the Council Tories. Some say I should stand down as Chair; others urge me to stay on. I will make my mind up in readiness for 17 May.

Tomorrow we have an informal meeting of the new Scrutiny Committee. That too willl play a part in my decision. Though I suppose some of the 5 new members are off to the USA tomorrow.