THAMES WARD Part 4

As usual this posting is a matter of rumour, allegation anecdote, observations and historical memory.

Barry Poulton - where were we? the residents of Thames ward as we have said do not hold back on their views when it comes to Barry, he is seen as a complete waste of time, if any resident on Thames View has a problem they go straight to Fred Barns who they trust to do the job. And on Scrattons they go to Joan Rawlingson, we are told the residents of Scrattons do not even know what Barry Poulton looks like. The 3 tower blocks rely on Fred and Joan. So just what does Barry do then?

We are told that Barry very rarely speaks at Council meetings, and if he does it has nothing at all to do with his ward or issues that his residents have raised, when Barry does speak it is to criticise council officers on their spelling and grammar in their reports, he will also labour the point if a survey that is being presented is 1% out in its calculations. You can imagine how much these actions endear him to officers. We are informed that he claims to have been a teacher of Math at one time, but we have no evidence to prove or disprove this claim.

We have been told that within the Labour Group Barry is in the ultra right wing of the group, which is not unexpected when you consider that he is working for George Shaw, thankfully we are told that this ultra right only consists of about 5/6 people, but, do not forget that this ultra right is supported by the North Street Mafia.

Now lets just have a look at Barry's involvement with the North Street mafia, Barry's one big failing by the way is that he likes to brag and boast, and unfortunately for him he picks the wrong places and people to brag and boast too.

Barry, we are told duly attends at North Street on almost a daily basis with George, we understand from our insider that Barry firmly believes that because he is usually the only Councillor who is there all of the time that he is a person of authority, a big fish in a little pond, whose every word is listened to and taken for gospel. The Labour Group are very aware that Barry reports back to North Street all issues raised at Group meetings, even though he has been warned on a number of occasions.

We have been made aware that in the run up to the selection process North Street were offering training and help in filling in the forms and practice for the interviews, this should have been offered to all who were considering putting themselves forward, but, Barry was the only sitting Councillor to have been advised.

One really major contentious issue that came out during the selection process is that as Thames Ward Secretary Barry wrote the ward reports on the sitting councillors even his own, the question to be answered among many is how come Barry was allowed to do this, and is'nt it strange that Barry is the only sitting councillor in Thames to get through.

Bearing in mind that we understand that all correspondence going out to candidates, and all copies of paperwork etc went through North Street, and was handled by the "volunteers" just like Barry and George who are there practically everyday, it is no wonder then that reports started to come back to Group members that Barry had bragged at a meeting that Val Rush had failed at her appeal, this statement was made at a meeting 5 days before the appeal was heard, and we are told witnesses have signed statements to this effect.

We also understand that Barry was out with M Hodge and the North Street mafia on a Saturday and they were actually telling residents in Thames Ward that Barry was the only decent Councillor on the ward, and that they will be getting 2 new ones as Fred and Joan had been de selected, this was before Joan and Fred had even had their letters telling them they had not got through. We hear that witnesses have made written statements to this.

Barry has even confirmed to Council officers that there is a list, and that Cameron Geddes will be Leader, Evelyn Carpenter Deputy Leader, and Barry will be the Executive Member for the Environment and Sustainability.

This is all part of George Shaw's bid to take back Thames Ward to how it used to be when he and Roy Patient controlled it and the major committees.

We have also heard just recently, the Council are continuing their programme where Executive members go out into wards across the borough with Key officers and speak to residents to find out from them how they feel the council are performing in their area, and any issues or complaints residents may have. This has been running for a year or so now and seems we hear to be quite successful with residents.

There is one due to take place in Thames Ward in the next few weeks, but it appears that Barry has stated that NO Executive Members is to come into his ward. Barry has done this with no consultation with either Joan or Fred. So it certainly looks as though the drive by George Shaw to take Thames back to the old days when it was said that officers and other members needed to have a passport to go onto Thames Ward is gathering a pace.

We have duly considered the comments posted yesterday where some of our readers believed we were a little harsh, and to a certain extent we have tempered our post today.

If you have any further info regarding Barry that you feel would add to the potted bio please either place a thread in your comments which we will then investigate further, or email us on

Keirhardierulesok@gmail.com

As usual this posting is a matter of rumour, allegations, observations, anecdote and historical memory.