DISASTER ! TORIES HOLD NEWPORT NORTH.

Clearly the 1 in 10 of the Newport North electorate that voted for them don't want to teach the Tories a lesson ! Off to lick my wounds for the weekend. This is seriously bad news.

IF YOU CAN TOMORROW......

and teach the Tories a lesson ! The Liberal Democrats are irrelevant.


(posted and published by Geoff Lumley on behalf of Laraine Pascoe, both c/o 30 Fairlee Road, Newport, IW)

UNSIGNED COUNTRYSIDE

Spent the weekend in the Island's countryside in our small motorhome, as the by-election plans are going so well and we really don't want to be harassing Newport North residents like the other parties.

We did some extensive walking with our dogs - in the Shorwell and Brighstone area on this occasion. What strikes me is how difficult it is sometimes to get around due to the absence of signposting. Try following a footpath into Shorwell and you will see what I mean. I'm not asking for anything like the photo - far from it. Just some idea of where you are supposed to go ! Not a lot to ask .....

SOMETHING STINKS - LAWYERS REPORT CONFIRMS MY SUSPICIONS

The Report I referred to last Sunday into the contractual elements of the Council's relationship with Undercliff contractors Highpoint Rendell has been leaked to IW Radio. It confirms my suspicions that 'no evidence of fraud or bad faith has been found against Isle of Wight Council officers involved with the High Point Rendell contract for Undercliff Drive'.

Given that the Tory, Liberal Democrat and Independent councilliors leading this so called enquiry are aware of the Report's contents, then why did they agree today to increase the lawyers budget to £700,000?

Something stinks about all of of this, and its not the suspended officers.

POSTSCRIPT - IW County Press also has a copy of the Report now. I have asked for a copy myself now, but no doubt this joke Council will continue to play games......

'BEYOND BELIEF' - LATEST INCREASE IN UNDERCLIFF LEGAL COSTS

Press Release issued tonight:

LABOUR COUNCILLOR CONDEMNS AS 'BEYOND BELIEF' LATEST INCREASE IN UNDERCLIFF LEGAL COSTS

Labour councillor Geoff Lumley has condemned as 'beyond belief' plans by the IW Council to more than double permitted expenditure on lawyers for the Undercliff Drive enquiry. The new limit is proposed to be £700,000 to allow the Council to hire barristers for the impending disciplinary hearings against the four most senior of the seven suspended officers.

Of the £700K, £30,000 was spent on a now concluded legal enquiry into the contractual elements of the Council's relationship with Undercliff contractors Highpoint Rendell. This Report has been seen by members of the Investigatory & Disciplinary Committee, who have decided that other councillors cannot have access to it until after the disciplinary hearings.

Cllr Lumley said, "It is almost beyond belief that the Council proposes to double expenditure on solicitors to £700K, but will not allow all councillors to know whether the Council's relationship with HPR was either criminal, corrupt, underhand and/or not in the best interests of the Council. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary I can only assume that the Report is not helpful to the case against the officers. Otherwise what have they got to hide ?"

He went on, "I am also concerned that two opposition councillors - one Liberal Democrat and one Independent - are going along with this secrecy as members of the Investigatory and Disciplinary Committee. As long as they are involved they give it all a veneer of credibility. I urge them both to stand down now that this enquiry has lost all contact with the public interest."

UNDERCLIFF LEGAL COSTS TO DOUBLE TO £700K

The committee handling the Undercliff investigation will this week be asked to more than double the expenditure limits on outside Solicitors etc from £330,000 to £700,000.

This is an amount entirely unjustifiable and I call on the two so-called 'opposition' councillors on the committee - Muriel Miller (independent) and David Knowles (LibDem) - to stand down from what is becoming a vindictive and appallingly expensive fishing trip.

MISSING THEIR OPPORTUNITIES

Yesterday I took part in one of the pre-Pan development 'walk and talk' sessions with local residents, PNP staff and the Director of Community Services. It was an excellent opportunity to listen to the views of local people of all ages, both resident on Pan and not. It is also gratifying to hear residents tell others in the Council the sort of things that I say as their representative.

What was less pleasing was the 'no-show' by three Council Cabinet members who had earlier indicated they would take part in this session. Given that they will make the final decisions about the Pan development, that doesn't send a very good message to local people. Presumably they will instead take on board the reports from these sessions when they make these major decisions ? Or have they already got pre-conceived ideas ?

AS I SAID - POODLES....

As I said on July 1st, the new Scrutiny Committee is a now effectively a Poodle Committee.

Last December the old committee agreed to 'call in' any Cabinet decision about closing the Tennyson Trail. The decision was deferred for months after that threat, but was then made recently.

I tried to organise a 'call-in' of the decision two weeks ago, but only one other member of the committee supported me. I need 3. The committee has 10 Councillors and currently consists of 7 Tories, 2 ex-Tory independents, and me. So we now have a closure order on the Tennyson Trail that the Police have said they cannot effectively police.

I think I am wasting my time staying on this joke committee..........

SOON IN OUR TOWN CENTRES ?

Who knows ? But we should know who the Town Centre Managers will be within the next month.

These two are what many of us envisaged when the Council Leader announced and described them last February in his Budget speech.... All at a cost of £700k !

Soon Islanders will be under surveillance from up to four types of public officer - all with enforcement powers !

A McCARTHY SYNDROME ?

With a new football season starting today as ever I am hopeful and optimistic about the prospects of my team - Sunderland - on their latest return to the Premier League. And this got me thinking....

Two years ago Sunderland previously returned to the Premier League, and our supporters as ever had high hopes. At that time our manager was a certain Mick McCarthy, and over the ensuing 9 months he proved he was just not up to the job at the highest levels as we plummeted back to the so-called Championship with a record low number of points.

Its a bit like the IW Council - a Council with high ambitions and great potential. Just like Sunderland Football Club! But has the Council got the strength of political leadership ?

Just as Sunderland had McCarthy back in August 2005, is it the case that the IW Council has the same problem of leadership ? Perhaps when our Council had leadership of the calibre of the current Sunderland manager - Roy Keane - it will start to fulfil its potential and ambitions !!!!

Unfortunately we will have to wait a further 21 months to do anything about it on the IW. I dread to think what damage McCarthy could have inflicted if he had stayed on after Sunderland's relegation in May 2006......

BEANO NIGHT TOMORROW

Tomorrow evening will see the annual IW Council Chairman's shindig at Cowes Week, with a cost to the IW Council Tax payer of at least £12,000, if last year is a guide. As promised last year, I will not be attending as I cannot see the benefit of it. Clearly others have thicker skins than I.....oh, and its just for the 'great and good'. No 'One Island' on this occasion. More like One Elite !

Efforts continue to revive the Isobel Centre as a vibrant community centre within Pan, which is proving to take quite a lot of my time. However, I am feeling quite confident that we can succeed.

BACK FOR ACTION

After a week in Devon and some much needed sun on my back, I'm now home ready to fight the Newport North by-election for the next 4 weeks. An interesting array of candidates, which makes things even harder to project. Nonetheless I remain convinced that Laraine Pascoe is by far the best of the bunch, and we will do our best to get her elected to the Kremlin.