Earlier this morning (Monday 25th January) all members of Thanet District Council were summoned to an extraordinary meeting of the council (apparently secretly) planned for Tuesday 23rd February. There then followed a day of heated negotiations and seven hours later, the date for the meeting was changed to the 18th February.
Labour Group Leader Cllr. Clive Hart said "this afternoon, it became very clear indeed that the Chairman of the council was not at all happy with the extra-ordinary meeting of the council being planned for 23rd February without even consulting her".
More worrying still, was that council leader Cllr. Ezekiel then also claimed that the meeting came as a surprise to him too:
"I got back from holiday and the meeting had already been arranged" Cllr Ezekiel told a chamber packed full of councillors, together with financial and legal officers.
Cllr. Clive Hart says "you have to ask - just who is running TDC? The council's Conservative administration appear to have lost control. If what we were told is true, it can only be council officers making these decisions. I thought they were supposed to take direction from members but it appears to be yet another case of 'the tail wagging the dog'.
Even more worrying is that the only issues to be discussed at the proposed extra-ordinary meeting will be shared services in East Kent. These are extremely complex arrangements concerning housing, waste and back office services that many fear could put their management ever more 'distant' from the local residents who pay for and use them. The end result could well be that many of Thanet's services will be run from other parts of East Kent through new procedures from which TDC may never be able to withdraw.
The shambolic way in which this meeting has been planned does absolutely nothing whatsoever to create confidence in the shared service proposals, and if the current Conservative administration can't even organise a meeting to discuss them, how on earth can we trust them to retain democratic control over them for the people of Thanet?"
One further comment on the Conservative council meeting fiasco (below):
Thanet Labour councillors have had an internal group meeting booked for the 18th February to discuss our response to the Conservative's budget proposals. TDC were notified of that meeting many months ago but now the ruling group have re-arranged their proposed extra-ordinary meeting to fall on that date.
Once more this change has been implemented without consultation and effectively interferes with our efforts to respond -not just to the Conservative's proposals for the council budget - but also on East Kent Shared Services.
I can't help feeling this is an attempt to frustrate any opposition to the Conservative's budget proposals and East Kent Shared Services changes. Yet again we are being bounced into decisions, but this time the issues are simply enormous with outcomes that could significantly change the way the council works and seriously reduce local accountability!
Cllr. Clive Hart - Labour Group Leader - TDC.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
3 comments:
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It seems quite obvious all the running is being done by the officers and the elected members are just nodding dogs. Richard Samuels and his cohort are trying to take over east kent, or is it a unitary body in all but name.
ReplyDeleteOf course Thanet council is run by its officers-why else would meetings be called at two and three o clock in the afternoon when most members are unavailable?
ReplyDeleteso a case of the tail wagging the dog.
ReplyDeleteThe officers lead by their glorious leader (new title picked up in china) feel that elected members are a waste of time and stop them doing their job properly. Which by the current track record is making a complete Ar** of everything they do. They have seen the manager of Manston off back to Kiwiland, scuppered the fastcraft, failed to sell Albion house, ditched the maritime museum and then given it to someone else at a greater cost to the public purse.
WoW they are good.!!!!!NOT