As anyone living in Barking & Dagenham, or outside with any interest and a computer can click on the councils website and after a little hunting can find in the agendas for the select/scrutiny committee meetings the Options for cuts.
This is because the council has to find some 48 million in cuts we read, in the reports and in the local press.
There is also on the agenda for the Executive the proposals for increase in charges.
None of these reports are making for easy reading, council staff will loose their jobs, services will be cut altogether or trimmed down.
We can fully appreciate that difficult times such as these call for difficult decisions, and we know that as well as the staff that will loose their jobs it is the residents of the borough who will feel the most pain of these cuts.
But, just what cuts are the elected members making? well we can always assume that the usual tea, coffee and biscuits for meetings will get cut, at least for the first 3 months and then quietly make their way back, but, what else? Nothing!!!!!!
Well lets have a look at one prominent member, he has his own business registered at Companies House, he works for a Registered Charity in the borough, his wages for this job come from public funds. He receives as all members do just over £10,000 per annum on top of this he receives a little over £3,000 as a Lead Member on a select committee, these monies come from public funds. He also receives £7,500 per annum as a non Exec member of the PCT again paid out of public funds.
So quite a nice little income really, just how much is he and the other 50 members of the council prepared to sacrifice to share the pain that the community they were elected to represent are going to feel?
How about the option that for the financial year April 2011 all 51 members offer up their basic £10,000 per annum?
This we are sure you will know makes a good saving of in excess of £510,000 quite a tidy sum, which could very well mean that some council staff do not loose their jobs.
And lets face it no councillor should depend on that £10,000 per annum, you never know when a by-election could be called.
So the question we pose to the members is are you up for the sacrifice?
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Friday, 15 October 2010
OH DO GET A GRIP!!!!!
Many of those who are contacting us now are pointing us in the direction of Minutes of council meetings, especially those of Select committees which do sometimes make for very interesting reading.
Let us firstly offer some words of advice, at the beginning of any agenda there is an item asking members to declare any interest, it appears that many of the new members either do not know what this means or choose to ignore it, which if they carry on could cause them problems.
Recently the Safer and Communities select committee received a report consulting them on the proposed new way forward for Council Grants.........now any member who had taken the trouble to read the report beforehand, and of course had any common sense would have realized that working for a voluntary sector organization that is funded by the council should have declared an interest at the beginning of the meeting. Of course we were surprised to see there were no declarations of interest minuted. There should have been!!!!
Then we come to the discussion no doubt started by the Lead Member who wants to see more council grant funding go to Tenants and Residents Associations, (well we all know the reasons why that is).
Well lets air an argument we understand from our sources that has been going on for a long time with regard to funding for these "elite" groups. (a) they are funded from the Housing Revenue Account, therefore no resident who is not a council tenant should benefit from the funding given by the council to these groups, and they should in fact be only Tenants Associations. (b) and why,( if has been suggested that the funding for these groups comes from the General Fund) when cuts are going to come, probably to much needed council services, should the council tax payers money fund "elite" groups such as these.
We should all be thankful that in the Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting where these appalling suggestions were reported that the wise heads in the Cabinet NOTED the report. At least the council tax payers in Barking & Dagenham can take some comfort that the Cabinet Members will use their experience and good, sound judgement to kick the irresponsible suggestions put forward by certain self seeking members who FAIL to declare their interests into touch.
We will continue to monitor the progress in the Minutes.
Let us firstly offer some words of advice, at the beginning of any agenda there is an item asking members to declare any interest, it appears that many of the new members either do not know what this means or choose to ignore it, which if they carry on could cause them problems.
Recently the Safer and Communities select committee received a report consulting them on the proposed new way forward for Council Grants.........now any member who had taken the trouble to read the report beforehand, and of course had any common sense would have realized that working for a voluntary sector organization that is funded by the council should have declared an interest at the beginning of the meeting. Of course we were surprised to see there were no declarations of interest minuted. There should have been!!!!
Then we come to the discussion no doubt started by the Lead Member who wants to see more council grant funding go to Tenants and Residents Associations, (well we all know the reasons why that is).
Well lets air an argument we understand from our sources that has been going on for a long time with regard to funding for these "elite" groups. (a) they are funded from the Housing Revenue Account, therefore no resident who is not a council tenant should benefit from the funding given by the council to these groups, and they should in fact be only Tenants Associations. (b) and why,( if has been suggested that the funding for these groups comes from the General Fund) when cuts are going to come, probably to much needed council services, should the council tax payers money fund "elite" groups such as these.
We should all be thankful that in the Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting where these appalling suggestions were reported that the wise heads in the Cabinet NOTED the report. At least the council tax payers in Barking & Dagenham can take some comfort that the Cabinet Members will use their experience and good, sound judgement to kick the irresponsible suggestions put forward by certain self seeking members who FAIL to declare their interests into touch.
We will continue to monitor the progress in the Minutes.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
NORTH STREET MAFIA OUT IN THE COLD
Just how did they get it so wrong? being driven by Hodge to support 2 losers, Oona King and David Milliband will now consign Barking CLP and M Hodge MP to Siberia.
The mafia will now learn how the party punishes, as will Hodge.
The rest of us will just sit back and watch.
A great day for the "true party members" well done Ed.
JUST WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
Now this information is in the public realm, you don't have to make a Freedom of Information request, you can just check out on the councils website. And its about time local residents did so, they would then find in black and white just what meetings their duly elected councillors are not attending, and if they are not attending they are failing to represent the residents of the ward.
We will focus on just 2 areas this time round, Louis Couling, all the fuss about how great she would be as a councillor, she has only attended 1 council meeting since being elected, wonder how the residents of Goresbrook feel about that?
Standing at the very bottom of the list at the moment are the councillors for Mayesbrook ward, one of whom has only a 15% attendance record since May, and the other 2 are not much higher.
It will be clearer as time goes on just how many of them are just there for the money and don't want to do the work, or in some cases are totally incapable of doing the work.
And although we have not been able to access the attendance figures for the groups political meetings we are given to understand that the Barking councillors consistently fail to turn up for those as well.
One other question we have been asked to raise re Mayesbrook ward, how can a resident attend a surgery with issues that maybe of a sensitive and confidential nature when the councillors persist in holding their surgery in a local cafe?
We will focus on just 2 areas this time round, Louis Couling, all the fuss about how great she would be as a councillor, she has only attended 1 council meeting since being elected, wonder how the residents of Goresbrook feel about that?
Standing at the very bottom of the list at the moment are the councillors for Mayesbrook ward, one of whom has only a 15% attendance record since May, and the other 2 are not much higher.
It will be clearer as time goes on just how many of them are just there for the money and don't want to do the work, or in some cases are totally incapable of doing the work.
And although we have not been able to access the attendance figures for the groups political meetings we are given to understand that the Barking councillors consistently fail to turn up for those as well.
One other question we have been asked to raise re Mayesbrook ward, how can a resident attend a surgery with issues that maybe of a sensitive and confidential nature when the councillors persist in holding their surgery in a local cafe?
Saturday, 18 September 2010
STORM CLOUDS ARE GATHERING
We have been reliably informed by insiders within Barking CLP, that, during the summer recess the North Street Mafia have been planning how to bring down the Leadership within the council Labour Group, a group we are told they feel NO loyalty towards because of course "they" are not leading it!!!!
We understand that their first salvo will take place at the Group meeting due to take place this coming Monday. Where we have been told they will attack one of the Cabinet members who they believe has fallen down on the job, whose service they believe is crap, of course it isn't, but, as usual when you get enough people shouting, as they no doubt will it wont be easy for the Cabinet member to get a word in.
This is just the start, their plan we understand is to pick them off 1 by 1 until they can then force through a vote of no confidence in the Leader who selected the Cabinet.
Should be an interesting and entertaining meeting on Monday, especially as the Chief Whip is very firmly in the North Street Mafia, BUT, there is of course always a glimmer of hope, that is that the stupid fools have failed to inform the Chairman in writing 7 days before the meeting that they are going to bring the issue up.
If they haven't of course that stops the conversation dead.
Lets wait and see shall we?
We understand that their first salvo will take place at the Group meeting due to take place this coming Monday. Where we have been told they will attack one of the Cabinet members who they believe has fallen down on the job, whose service they believe is crap, of course it isn't, but, as usual when you get enough people shouting, as they no doubt will it wont be easy for the Cabinet member to get a word in.
This is just the start, their plan we understand is to pick them off 1 by 1 until they can then force through a vote of no confidence in the Leader who selected the Cabinet.
Should be an interesting and entertaining meeting on Monday, especially as the Chief Whip is very firmly in the North Street Mafia, BUT, there is of course always a glimmer of hope, that is that the stupid fools have failed to inform the Chairman in writing 7 days before the meeting that they are going to bring the issue up.
If they haven't of course that stops the conversation dead.
Lets wait and see shall we?
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
WHISPERING CAMPAIGN
Looks like the honeymoon period at the council is over.
We have been informed that one of the junior councillors has started a very nasty campaign against a very Senior member.
The junior councillor has been identified as representing Alibon ward.
The subject of the campaign is that the junior member is spreading it around that the Senior member is guilty of "gerrymandering" during the run up to the elections in May.
The he is claiming that the Senior member made sure that works, such as roads, street cleansing and real detailed clean ups were concentrated in wards that the Senior member had close colleagues in. The junior member states that no such works were done in his ward, and in fact where officers were intending to go in and do works they were routed to another area.
Now just a word of advice for this junior member, "just bear in mind that this Senior Councillor has been around for a long time. He also has very good working relationships with a close group of journalists"
So if you are going to be so stupid as to spread lies such as this, just be careful who you talk to because the Senior Councillor referred to sees all and hears all.
We have been informed that one of the junior councillors has started a very nasty campaign against a very Senior member.
The junior councillor has been identified as representing Alibon ward.
The subject of the campaign is that the junior member is spreading it around that the Senior member is guilty of "gerrymandering" during the run up to the elections in May.
The he is claiming that the Senior member made sure that works, such as roads, street cleansing and real detailed clean ups were concentrated in wards that the Senior member had close colleagues in. The junior member states that no such works were done in his ward, and in fact where officers were intending to go in and do works they were routed to another area.
Now just a word of advice for this junior member, "just bear in mind that this Senior Councillor has been around for a long time. He also has very good working relationships with a close group of journalists"
So if you are going to be so stupid as to spread lies such as this, just be careful who you talk to because the Senior Councillor referred to sees all and hears all.
IN MEMORY OF DON HEMMETT
We have learned this morning of the death of Don Hemmett, a life long member of the Labour Party, a formidable trade unionist, and a great Ward Councillor for the residents of Valence Ward where he lived for many years with his wife Astrid.
Although over recent years Don has had his health problems, they never stopped him working on behalf of his community. Residents knew that they could knock on his door or telephone him and he would work tirelessly to deal and resolve their problems.
Being disabled did not nor should it have ever stopped him being an effective ward Councillor.
Already we hear that since May of this year residents had contacted Don voicing their concerns about the inability of the newly elected councillors to deal with their problems, and even though he was no longer a councillor Don still tried to help.
The mafia at North street should now be hanging their heads in shame, their decision to get rid of Don and replace him with what????? we are convinced brought about Dons final illness.
The mafia have no soul, and no feeling for the community they claim to represent not like Don Hemmett who will be very sadly missed by his family, his true friends and the community he represent so well for many years.
Don we salute you.
Although over recent years Don has had his health problems, they never stopped him working on behalf of his community. Residents knew that they could knock on his door or telephone him and he would work tirelessly to deal and resolve their problems.
Being disabled did not nor should it have ever stopped him being an effective ward Councillor.
Already we hear that since May of this year residents had contacted Don voicing their concerns about the inability of the newly elected councillors to deal with their problems, and even though he was no longer a councillor Don still tried to help.
The mafia at North street should now be hanging their heads in shame, their decision to get rid of Don and replace him with what????? we are convinced brought about Dons final illness.
The mafia have no soul, and no feeling for the community they claim to represent not like Don Hemmett who will be very sadly missed by his family, his true friends and the community he represent so well for many years.
Don we salute you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)