We have been reading through our emails over the weekend, looking for a story that challenge North Street to come up with the evidence.
Over a number of posts we have requested information about Barking CLP finances, as we are very much aware that Barking members have had no financial up date for over a year.
Time is rolling on and with any election plan there should be a sound financial plan to go with it. Needless to say in Barking there is no sign of a financial plan. In fact we understand that wards are being told they have to finance their own elections. You should be asking why? You should be asking where your money is being spent.
We have explained to our readers in a previous post how the membership funding is supposed to be split up, but of course in Barking nothing runs as it does in the rest of the country. Wards are we hear expected to do their own fund raising.
Does this state of affairs mean that whatever money, if there is any, in Barking CLP's account will only pay for the MPs election?
We are reliably informed that Dagenham CLP will not have this problem as they are very well supported by the Unions, but, it seems that Barking (North Street) have not made the same efforts to befriend the unions and we are told it is very unlikely that they will see much help coming from that quarter.
Members at their next ward meetings should be raising the question about the financing of the Local Elections, and they need to start doing that now, because if they leave it to the last minute raising that kind of cash could be a major problem for a lot of the wards in Barking.
Don't say you were not warned, ask to see the finances, find out just what your money is being spent on.
Of course we can do what you suggest and ask the ward Chairman to take up the issue of the party finances, but that doesnt mean we will get an answer.
ReplyDeleteJust how much would they be expecting each ward to pay. It will probably be ok for the better off wards like thames, abbey and longbridge, but what about the rest of them.
Does it mean if the ward cant come up with the money it dont get the leaflets and the support? all seems wrong to me.
We have never had to do this before. Why should we pay for the MPs election expenses, I am pretty sure she could cover that herself and not miss it much.
I remember last time at the general election there was a bit of a row about costs and Barking had to pay 2 of her staffs mobile phone bills and travelling expenses. We never did get a decent explanation on that one either.
Why all the change this time? even if each ward has to come up with £500 its going to be a big struggle.
So we need to know whats gone wrong with the finances.
Barking party member
Your comments about the Unions and Dagenham CLP are so right.
ReplyDeleteDagenham party members have always worked well with the unions, but I hear that the unions think Barking is a closed shop to them.
And Dagenham will not be sharing any of the union money it does get in with Barking.
Dagenham party member
£500 per ward I would have guessed it will be more like £500 per candidate, that will make it very expensive for each candidate, I should imagine if they had known this at the time they would not have put themselves forward.
ReplyDeleteI bet a lot of them will struggle to find the money, and of course we all know that the party has not got the money this time round.
party member