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 !

PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES

After they were demanding the resignation of one ex-Tory councillor last week over a standards issue, the LibDems now have the embarrassment of one of their councillors - John Bowker - being suspended for bringing the council into disrepute.

No idea what this is all about, but I always thought the complainant - former Liberal councillor Reg Barry - and Bowker were drinking pals!

PULLING THEIR WEIGHT ?

Looking at the current Council committee membership of the 34 members of the Tory group, nearly one third - ELEVEN - are either members of no committees or just one.

With the recent removal of Cllrs Bishop and Churchman from all their committees they join Cllrs Sutton and Joyce as 'non-persons' due to the Standards Board referral. In addition we have two ex-Cabinet members - Ward & Swan - and new councillor Humber, all with NO committee role.

With just one committee each are Cllrs Arnold, Effemey, McRobert and Peacey-Wilcox.

CONFUSED THINKING

The only weapon a scrutiny committee has is one of 'call in' of a Cabinet members decision, where the Cabinet member can be grilled in public about why they made a decision. The recent Shanklin Theatre call-in was a good example - though it was only the fourth one of this Council. A weapon used sparingly.

This is because call-in requires four Scrutiny Committee members to sign-up for one, which given that the committee has EIGHT Tory places out of 14 voting members makes it very hard. Naturally there has to be a bit of arm-twisting and wheeler-dealing behind the scenes, but that doesn't matter because Scrutiny is not a quasi-judicial committee like Planning or Licensing. Its how politics works.

Sadly this is not clearly understood by at least one new (leading) member of the Scrutiny Committee, who confuses lobbying for a call-in with lobbying over a planning/licensing application. They are very different matters. Without lobbying for call-in we may as well abandon any hope of effective scrutiny of this Council.

TOWN COUNCIL FOR ENTIRE NEWPORT AREA

Today we learnt that the government will be approving the petition for the emparishment of the entire Newport area - including Carisbrooke - at the expense of a separate Carisbrooke petition.

As Chair of the shadow body 'Newport Town Management Committee' and one of the Newport petition organisers I am of course pleased at this news. However, I also feel some sympathy for the Carisbrooke petition organisers, who I can only hope will now participate fully in ensuring a smooth transition to democratic Town Council status from May 1st next year.

A "GEOFFREY HOWE MOMENT"

Last night was Full Council - and we witnessed what we can only hope will be our very own "Geoffrey Howe moment" as former Deputy Tory Leader Patrick Joyce savaged the new Tory administration for reneging on their manifesto commitments against a two-tier school system. He was joined in this by his fellow ex-Cabinet member Melanie Swan - but to no avail on the vote:

The proposed new schools organisation consultation went through overwhelmingly with the Liberals voting together for a change, but shamefully all in favour of the sham Tory consultation - two-tier or the madcap Tory scheme agreed last April (the one that puts Year 9 into middle schools). No option of 'no change of structures, just standards' - as Labour has CONSISTENTLY called for and voted for over the last year.

The vote was 31 in favour (including all 4 Liberals and the new Scrutiny Chair), 5 against (me, Gardiner, Joyce, Swan, Mosdell), and 3 abstentions (Tories Ward and McRobert, and Stephens - Independent)

Interestingly the Tory MP for the Island has apparently said that the reasons for change have NOT been demonstrated. So true ! But that won't bother the Mr Unfettered Ambition who now leads the Council.

NB. The back of the Council Chamber used to have chief officers sat there that I recognised. Its now a line up of many mystery people - three or four last night. The usual lack of respect to opposition backbenchers. .......

COMPLIMENTS AT CABINET

I went along to a Cabinet meeting tonight for the first time since I stood down as Scrutiny Chair last May. In that role I saw attendance as an integral part of the job - but tonight was for some sort of personal, masochistic 'pleasure' !

The new, tame Scrutiny Chair wasn't there, which is no real surprise. After all they were only making decisions about our schools, concessionary bus fares, planning performance and enforcement, budget overspend, the Undercliff Drive project, and performance measures. Nothing too troubling in the world of an independent.......though I guess there was probably good reason.

The meeting went on for about four times as long as the average Sutton Cabinet, and gave me welcome opportunity to ask questions as I desired - until I thought I better shut up as time pressed on.

Amazingly - and at last - I secured recognition from two Cabinet members for the work the old Scrutiny Committee did that informed the 'planning performance' decision they made tonight, and the Wightcare delegated decision of last month. This is the first public acknowledgement we have ever had, though they will probably be gushing in the future...........

The other news of the day - COUNCILLOR REFUSES TO RESIGN AFTER INVESTIGATION - I will leave for now, other than to observe: when will all of this stop ?

THE USUAL LACK OF RESPECT

Got back from a working visit to Glasgow last night - much warmer than here !

The latest Forward Plan of planned Cabinet/Council decisions arrived today and indicated that a 'Final Report of the Undercliff Investigation' will go to Full Council on 12 December.

Fine you think - until you realise that there is no Full Council scheduled for December. No one has shown backbench councillors like me the respect of telling me there will be a meeting then. Nothing changes.

MADNESS

According to one councillor - who also happens to be a member of the local Standards Committee - one councillor attempting to influence another to 'call in' a dodgy delegated decision by a Cabinet member,

"is a dangerous thing to do at the moment with so many councillors being referred to the Standards board and I do not want Scrutiny process to be tainted in anyway and so will not sign the call in"

Madness clearly prevails at County Hall ! Scrutiny is entirely different to a quasi-judicial Council function like Planning or Licensing.

NO CHOICE AT ALL

So the Tories are pretending that they are now giving parents a choice again over 2-tiers or 3-tiers for our school system. The only trouble being that supporting 3 tier will mean supporting their previously agreed plans to retain Year 9 in middle schools - which no one but them want.

There is still no option for retention of the existing 3-tier system - which is yet another breaking of their manifesto commitments to the Island back in 2005.

Why or why are they so obsessed with structures? Standards are all that matter.

FINAL UNDERCLIFF CASES DEALT WITH

Although the Council have been very quiet about it subsequently the cases against the final two Undercliff suspended members of staff have now been settled. One receved a written warning, and the other has decided to resign.

So for £1.5 - £2 million there was one dismissal, one early retirement, two resignations, two who got written warnings, and one further resignation that they aimed a petulant kick at on the way out. I think many of us would have expected a bit more - something a bit more 'scandalous' - for our money.

We now await the final report at the end of the month.....

IW AN ECO TRAILBLAZER ? WHAT RUBBISH !

I nearly choked on my breakfast today when I looked at my daily newspaper - The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/02/isleofwight

This of a local authority that one year ago was voting against wind turbines being located here. Half-decent research by this journalist would have uncovered that salient fact - and I will be making sure that this nonsense is corrected. Its enough to stop me reading the paper after 30 years !