ALL OVER THE PLACE

The report on the County Press website today pretty much tells us all we need to know about the state of local Liberals:

"SENIOR Liberal Democrats on the Isle of Wight have said they would not raise council tax to protect the 205 jobs under threat at County Hall.
Last week, the County Press reported how LibDem group leader Cllr Garry Price said he would consider putting council tax up by a few pence if it meant the jobs could be saved.
He said it would be his preferred solution to plugging the council’s £8m budget black hole, which has put hundreds of jobs under threat.
However, Lib Dems have now agreed a policy which would rule out any council tax increases. Instead, they would look at cutting consultants, the communications budget and the cost of directors.
(The) Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate said Cllr Price's remarks were more to do with the party’s concern about unemployment on the Isle of Wight."

It will be interesting to see if they come up with an alternative budget this year that tells us exactly how they would fill the Tory black hole.......work on our's continues and it will not lead to an above pension-inflation increase.

SILENCE OF THE SHEEP ?

I have just realised something unusual about last night’s Full Council. Apart from the Chairman and the 5 Cabinet members present, not one of the other 25 Tory councillors opened their mouths. That may not be unusual for most of them, but for someone like Cllr Mazillius – who generally makes Deborah and I look like Trappist monks – that is totally astonishing………

What on earth was going on. Have they been banned by the leadership from speaking for fear of making fools of themselves ? Or have they just got nothing to say……..

TOOTHLESS WATCHDOG

First Full Council for what seemed like ages tonight, though the time is now almost entirely taken up with questioning of Cabinet members - as all decisions are now taken behind closed doors or at Cabinet. I find this a useful time, so it will probably be abolished or reduced in the near future. Sadly few other 'opposition' councillors see questioning as useful apart from Deborah of course, one Liberal and a couple of independents, and the meeting barely lasted much longer than an hour.

A couple of interesting points from my point of view:

1. The Scrutiny Committee Chair has denied Deborah's request for a scrutiny enquiry into local childrens services in the light of the Baby P case, as she has been told by the Chief Exec and Leader that there aren't the 'time and resources' available. And the Scrutiny Chair has accepted this...... Oh, how they must love her ! So councillors have to rely on what they are told by senior officers and the Cabinet member, rather than what they find out for themselves from talking to a wide range of staff and service users through a formal enquiry.......

Leader quote, "We are very happy with what the scrutiny committee has done over the last 18 months". I bet they are.

Scrutiny Chair quote, "I can't get any volunteers from the committee to do enquiries." Because they are mainly Tories who don't want to do effective scrutiny; it was never a problem when the opposition were in the majority when I was Chair in 2006/07......

2. The proposed Pan development is 'no nearer' delivering a capital receipt from developers for the Council than they were last time I asked here - mid-November. They are now actively pursuing getting more Housing Corporation money towards a scheme with more affordable housing than the planned 240 homes. However, that still doesn't get the development started anytime soon.

Apart from that there were a few skirmishes between the only former Liberal Executive (Cabinet) member and the current Council Leader over Council Tax increases between 2001 and 2005 and the current dreadful situation that the Tories have got themselves into. I stayed out of that not wanting to pre-empt what I will be saying next month when I present the Labour alternative budget.

GOOD ON THEM.....

A couple of young Island women have set up a much needed pro-wind turbine group - the Island Turbine Action Group (ITAG).

They can be found at: http://www.islandturbines.co.uk/

They have my support. Its time for young people to speak up about their world, their future.

IN THE FACE OF CYNICISM

Further to my post on 19 Dec 2008 re Petticoat Lane.......

Despite the cynicism expressed by some in response, and in the face of a 6:5 vote (and 1 abstention) by Newport Parish Council on Monday NOT to make representations opposing the Diversion Order, Jackie Hawkins has managed to get 115 representations against this Order - including Age Concern, Voices for Older People, Friends of the Earth, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and Places for People.

The sort of a campaigner I have time for. An optimist who does not want to just look after number one.

£8M TORY CASH CRISIS

Last year this spendthrift Tory Council decided to set a budget that raided our Council Tax Reserves (again) to the tune of £5 million rather than properly tackling the Government’s efficiency target and holding reserves for a very rainy day – as you and I would – and as they would if it was their own money. Instead of £4m of efficiencies – as proposed in the Labour group’s 2008 alternative budget – they set a lower target of £2m and agreed to increase their expenditure on other pet projects.

Consequently they planned to have to find £8 million this year even before the economic downturn fully hit us last summer– a downturn that is denied by one of the increasingly irrelevant Council ‘payroll scrutineers’.

Now the Council Tories are in a position of having to fund an estimated shortfall of £12 million, as a result of the economic downturn. A further £4 million raid on our fast-reducing Reserves brings this down to a still scary £8 million.So an £8 million shortfall looms large over services and staff, with talk of 200 plus job losses and short-time working.

How an opposition group can offer an alternative is a real challenge this year given the mess the Tories have got things into. However, Deborah and I will come up with an alternative as we have at each of the last two budget rounds.

Maybe this year the other opposition party, the Liberals, will come up with their first alternative budget of this Council ?

Whatever, I am very happy to receive suggestions at my private email address – geofflumley@ gmail.com

(updated 21.1.09)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Just back from a few days away re-charging my batteries for the next 6 challenging months. My very best wishes for 2009 to everyone.

As usual at this time of year I summarise here the activity on my Blog over the previous 12 months:

This blog has now completed its third complete calendar year - 3 years and 8 months in total. In 2008 I posted 115 times. That's a post every three days ( down a third on last year) and I hope readers still find them reasonably interesting and informative. The evidence suggests they do..........

I had 25,048 page hits throughout the year - a 72% increase on last year - an average of 68 per day;

and 8,882 new visitors to add to the 11,026 I had at the start of the year = 19,908 different visitors over the year - an annual increase of 81%. I suppose I am still providing some sort of service.