Cllr Paul Carter fights off leadership challenge in Kent

Congratulations to Cllr Paul Carter  who has been decisively re-elected leader of Kent County Council. At the Conservative AGM he won 53 votes while his challengers - Cllr Nick Chard and Cllr Keith Ferrin obtained 19 votes between them.

The concern I have with Cllr Carter is his opposition to school choice. But this does not appear to have been the main issue in the leadership challenge. It has been more about Cllr Carter's "leadership style." To the extent that it was about issues of policy it was over the implementation of spending cuts - specifically over libraries (using more self service machines and fewer staff) and cutting the number of Community Liasion Officers.

Supporters of Cllr Carter were unimpressed by the manifestos put forward by his rivals.

Most councillors shut out of decision making process

John Andrews, a former councillor on Chichester District Council, says most councillors are involved in decisions too late to make a difference on behalf of their communities

When I arrived as a new councillor in January 2009, I was horrified by three aspects:

Firstly, lack of involvement by councillors in decisions until more or less "too late"; Secondly the lack of representative character of councillors, perhaps in part caused the poor IT facilities for councillors in their work - both as Ward representatives and as a supervisory board; and Thirdly the poor level of interaction with councillors and local communities before decisions were taken.

So far as I can see I'd have a similar reaction at most District Councils.

After the 1999 "reform" of local government by Tony Blair's first term, various requirements were imposed on all local government, as far as I can see these were designed to curb the curious behaviour of some LAs. At District level this led to the formation of an "Executive Board" of councillors, now a Cabinet.  The Chairman of the Cabinet is of course the Leader of the majority party. The Cabinet members are appointed by the Leader, essentially the leader of the majority party at his or her whim, and endorsed or otherwise by the full college of Councillors - so essentially by the majority party, save where the Council is hung (I mean there is no clear majority, rather than treated to a popular uprising!).  

The way the Cabinet then works is that a collection of topics selected by the Leader is allocated to each Member as  a Portfolio Holder. There is no fixed correspondence between the Portfolio and any specific senior Officer (Director).  So the relationship between a Portfolio Holder is with several Directors and of course each Director has a relationship with at least two Portfolio holders.  That may seem logical as the Portfolio Holders are not individually the "boss" of any Director, but it does also lead to some conflicting interests and one might say odd trade offs.

Sunderland Council leader's bizarre Nazi slur

Sunderland Council's  Budget meeting saw Tory Councillors attended to support the budget other than for one small amendment. However, when Tory Group Leader Cllr Tony Morrissey responded to Labour Leader Cllr Paul Watson's opening diatribe against ‘Tory Cuts’ by suggesting that cuts would have been as bad if not worse under his party the Council Leader responded:

“It’s like saying we should speak German now because the Nazis could have won World War Two. You’re in charge now!”

Cllr Morrissey says:

  “I think many people present, myself included, and from all sides, gasped and wondered what Cllr Watson was thinking. “In retrospect I should have pointed out to Cllr Watson that he was in effect comparing his own party (in terms of a Nazi victory) to the NSDAP."

If you want to speak at a council meeting, get elected

Peter Cuthbertson reports on last night Westminster Council budget meeting

Yesterday evening's discussion of Westminster City Council's Budget had some great debate. It was somewhat spoiled by the chanting and ranting demonstrators in the public gallery, encouraged by members of the council's tiny Labour Group. The noise from the gallery certainly contributed nothing new. Everything they heckled was drearily predictable - much of it seemed to be irritation at the banking bailout. I felt like explaining to them that the Council of course has no say on the banks and that of Westminster's two MPs it was the Conservatives' Mark Field, not Labour's Karen Buck, who opposed bailing out the banks.

Certainly the noise did not put off the councillors who spoke. Colin Barrow noted a fourth year of Westminster's very low council tax being frozen. He then offered powerful examples of cuts being made to essential services by Labour councils - cuts that Westminster is managing to avoid, with 80% of all reductions being made in back office costs. I am starting to think Labour councils aren't being all that clever in slashing front line services and then blaming the government. Voters just may notice the more substandard-than-ever service they are getting from Labour councils and vote accordingly.

The council's security team showed saintly patience in dealing with the demonstrations. Let's be clear: shouting down elected politicians in a council chamber is an affront to democracy. This noise not only prevented others in the public gallery from hearing the discussion, but at times prevented councillors from hearing one another.

Putting the Politics Back Into Local Politics

Liam Scott-Smith is Government Relations Manager at the New Local Government Network and an Exec Member of Bright Blue welcomes the return of councillor power

According to the Department of Communities and Local Government 2011 is the year of ‘Councillor Power’. I, for one, am moved to say ‘about time’.

Often a gripe of councillors, and acknowledged by many more, is the relatively limited scope of decision making power and responsibility that councillors enjoy. Unfortunately, both parties have to take a share of the blame for this as both have overseen what can only be described as a long de-politicisation of local
politics. Whether it was Margaret Thatcher centralising in the face of irrational municipal hostility or Tony Blair centralising in pursuit of greater target scores we experienced centralising none the less.

Unfortunately local politics has repeatedly been the loser. As a policy or service decision is moved up the chain to Whitehall that decision or service in return ceases to become a regular fixture of the local political discourse.

The rules of predetermination (which Grant Shapps recently announced would be done away with) are perfect examples of such de-politicisation. The most contentious of planning issues are often some of the most politically loaded. Removing a councillor’s right to speak on certain issues removes their ability to act on behalf of their constituents and ultimately takes the issue out of the political sphere and into the managerial.

The hypocrisy of Lambeth Council leader Cllr Steve Reed

Mark Wallace, Senior Account Manager at Portland Communications and author of the Crash Bang Wallace blog, reports from his own borough

A fortnight ago, I wrote about the shameless tactics of councils who refuse to take responsibility for managing their budgets, and instead place the blame for any painful cuts they might implement on the Government.

A good example recently emerged in the form of Steve Reed, the leader of Lambeth Council (which happens to be my own local authority). It should be noted that Cllr Reed has form for underhand tactics, having apparently instructed his own council officers to intercept the emails of one of his own party’s councillors.

On Thursday he lamented on Twitter:

 Tears at council cabinet discussion this morning on the detail of the ConDem cuts. What they are doing to vulnerable people is criminal

This is a good example of the tactics I was talking about in my previous article. Of course politicians should be concerned about potential suffering – but is Cllr Reed really doing his best to minimise the harm.

Conservative leader of East Riding Council deselected

Has the Tea Party movement reached Yorkshire? First we had the remarkable election of Peter Davies as Mayor of Doncaster - although the jury is out on whether he will be able to achieve anything much. Now there are some interesting rumblings of  dissent in East Riding. Cllr Stephen Parnaby, the Council leader, has been deselected along with nine other Conservative councillors including four other Cabinet Members. An appeal is under way.

What makes the developments in East Riding interesting is the involvement of the Taxpayers Alliance. There is plenty of frustration around the country that even when a Conservative council is elected the Council Tax is still much too high and that wasteful spending continues. Of course that is not the only issue where Conservative councils often fail to implement Conservative policies - there is adoption being blocked by political correctness, jobsworth health and safety rules, resistance to free schools, failure to evict Council tenants involved in anti social behaviour, failure to promote home ownership. The list could go on. But Council Tax is probably at the top. Those who vote Conservative are entitled to feel cheated if they see a Conservative council elected which then pursues Socialist policies.

Andrew Allison blogs triumphantly on the Taxpayers Alliance site about the saga as follows:

Call to select councillors by lot

Professor Vernon Bogdanor writes in The Times (£) this morning proposes a change in the way local councils are governed with some councillors being chosen randomly.

The "political class" must be broken to enhance the "democratic spirit." He says:

One way to do this is to select a small proportion of councillors — say a tenth or a twentieth — randomly by lot from the electoral register. Those selected would include the young and members of ethnic minorities, groups markedly under-represented in most local authorities. It would be voluntary in that one could refuse to accept the role, but those who did serve would be genuine independents. They could decide what was best for their communities without being beholden to party.

His proposal is flawed for several reasons:

What can Tory councillors learn from the Tea Party Governors?

 Florida has a population of 18.5 million. Texas has a population of 25 million. Both now have Governors endorsed by the Tea Party movement of grassrooots activists demanding smaller Government and lower taxes.

Much has been said about the anti establishment nature of this movement. But it is not mindlessly so. In the case of Texas they were backing the re-election of Rick Perry. His message was strongly one of how low tax is the path to job creation. This could become more relevant in British local elections in future years if councils gain the power to set business rates.

Voters need the right to leave their councils

Mark Wallace, Senior Account Manager at Portland Communications and author of the Crash Bang Wallace blog, says those in neighbouring wards should be allowed referendums to switch authority

One of the most common complaints about local democracy is the time it can take to change things. If you don't like a policy or even a whole council leadership, it can take years to unseat councillors or drive your message home to the powers that be.

The effect of that is to deter people from trying to change things at all. In a world where ordinary voters who aren't political obsessives have more than enough pressures on their time - paying the mortgage, holding on to your job, seeing the kids - it is small wonder they are dispirited and deterred by the slow pace of change.

To overcome that will require introducing new methods of allowing voters to make themselves heard.

The first way of doing this would be to introduce the power of recall, so if enough voters got together they would be allowed to sack councillors mid-term.