Both Mandy and Andy don't turn up to Council Meetings

The Council Meeting on 23rd February 2011 is an important meeting on the District Council calendar. St Neots stay away Conservative Councillor Mandy Thomas didn't turn up for this meeting. The "going to work hard for Eaton Socon" District Councillor is once again missing from a meeting. The last meeting at Council or Committee that Mandy attended was on 15th July 2010. Mandy is elected until May 2012.

What of Andy Monk, the other stay away Councillor for Ramsey. Andy is the other member of the UKIP group on HDC. His seat is up for election in May 2011. As with Mandy he was also absent.

This is a bit more of a revelation. Because if Andy Monk stood down it would do a couple of things. Firstly the UKIP group on HDC wouldn't be a group any longer and the leader Peter Reeve wouldn't be a minor leader any longer!

As can be seen in the current Members' Allowances Scheme Peter Reeve gets an extra £723 for being leader of a minor party. The scheme changes in May 2011 to a minor leader being only able to receive this allowance if the group has 5 members. If Andy resigned now and UKIP won the election Peter Reeve would be £60.25 a month lighter until 3rd May when Andy Monk 6 months runs out.

With all this money being wasted (plus any council own computers etc) on stay away councillors and extra benefits for another, obviously both the Conservatives and UKIP are very comfortable with paying people to do virtually nothing. Especially from the Conservatives who are cutting the staff and services.

Both Mandy and Andy should resign now and let their seats be fought at the elections on 5th May 2011. In the case of Mandy this is doing a big disservice to the people Mandy is supposed to represent. A stay away Councillor isn't fighting for their ward and is just a burden on the council taxpayer.

Or is this what the New Homes Bonus will be used in St Neots for? Propping up this stay away councillor!

Andrew Monk - UKIP - Not attending meetings

As I said a year ago, Andrew Monk, representing Ramsey, is a political tramp who is now turning up for the minimum. Andrew was elected as a Conservative in Ramsey only to go Independent and then join with Peter Reeve to make the UKIP group. As with Mandy Thomas, Andrew shows little inclination to do much for his pay than the legal minimum. His last Council meeting was 3/11/10. As his term ends on 5/5/11 he will no longer be a Councillor on 3/5/11 two days before the local elections.

Andy was UKIP Parliamentary for South East Cambridgeshire. On a Youtube vid at about 1 minute 50 seconds in Andy is caught saying UKIP wants to get the best value from your local councils.

Obviously not. As Andy seems to have no intention of turning up to another meeting why the hell are council taxpayers still paying his allowances. If Andy resigned now that would be best value for the council taxpayer!

Maybe this seat will turn to the Conservatives once Andrews attendance record is displayed for everyone to see.

Letters in the News and Crier 27/01/10

Rather than doing a separate piece on each letter so I thought I would lump all I want to comment on into one article. Link to the ever excellent News and Crier.

Outrage at candidate's 'offensive remarks' - This blog started this story and the News and Crier picked this up. Bill Sinclair is right. Though whether this is slanderous is a moot point. James Clark should read the original article before firing off a letter.

Community should pay - Malcolm McColl is right to say Tesco should be asked for a contribution. The church pays the rest. As for Helen Cochrane's letter, I will repeat that it if the church wants this car park then the Church should pay. Has it got to be that everytime something is used by "the community" the taxpayer must then pick up the bill? I don't think so. Will Helen support all churches which have or want a car park get these paid for and maintained by the taxpayer? It is very easy to call for taxpayers to pick up the bill because there is no direct relationship. But one of the consequences doing something for the 'community' is in next letter.

Anger at £270k hole - St Ives Town Council is run by Independent Councillors. I think that is worth saying. The trouble is the Corn Exchange. These Independent Councillors were elected to stop the building being sold and set about refurbishing it for the 'community'. When Councils do things for the 'community' it cost money and Council tax goes up.
In answer to the letter, Parish and Town Councils are NOT included in the capping arrangements. In theory they could tax us more and more. My worry is that HDC, with all its financial problems, will look at what a Town/Parish can do and try to shift services and costs to the Towns and Parishes. This is what HDC did with the Public Conveniences.

Did they want a lap dog - A much better letter from Paul Dakers than the one printed in the Hunts Post. I can understand the frustration with the political process when you are at the bottom. The political parties/councillors/councils build up their respective roles. The reality is what Councils can do is restricted by law and many major decisions are taken by Government.
 The trouble with Cllr Monk is he is a political tramp. Started with the Conservatives, went Independent and has ended up in UKIP.  Probably not the end of his journey.

Fewer jobless than in 1992 - Labour Parliamentary candidate is again in the papers. This time with an outright political letter. What Anthea doesn't mention is the Government is likely to borrow in this current financial year at total of £180,000,000,000. That is scary! 

Letters in the Hunts Post 27/01/10

Rather than doing a separate piece on each letter so I thought I would lump all I want to comment on into one article. Link to Hunts Post.

It's time to make a stand - If all these people are using the church, why does the taxpayer have to pick up the bill for a church car park? Something that I feel the letter writer Mrs K Robertson missed.

Web of intrigue - Cllr Andy Monk's letter shows a fundamental misunderstanding of local government. In it he looks at trying to have a go at the Conservative run HDC over spending money on a new website. The Editor's note is good but doesn't go far enough.  When Monk says:

"Could not the extra money spent developing this site have been better used ensuring more roads in the district were gritted, or helping the elderly and others whose needs were great keep warm during this extended cold snap."

The simple answer is NO. As a UKIP District Councillor you should be able to come up with specific costed alternative proposals. But you didn't. This is just a very poor political attack against his former colleagues. Maybe the UKIP group leader should forego the extra £723 he gets for being a minor leader?

No change - Cllr Peter Bucknell has a go at Cllr Monk about becoming a UKIP Councillor. Whilst this wouldn't cost much money as there is an election in 2010 in Ramsey anyway, I have to say Cllr Monk was elected by the people of Ramsey and he is not bound to do so by political convention. Otherwise all those Councillors who defect from other parties to the Conservatives in other parts of the country would have to do the same.

Air of resignation - Paul Dakers has a go at his former colleagues over their response to his resignation. Well DUH! Politics moves on. You have resigned. That is it. I feel your resignation has embarrassed the Conservatives and HDC so they ain't going to send you letters of sympathy.

The trouble with letters to the weekly press is they can be out of date when printed. This is the case. As I reported in an article on this blog dated 21st January 2010 a by-election has been called in Fenstanton.
Obviously the Hunts Post is behind the times.

Whilst HDC has gotten round to editing Dakers out of its website the same can't be said for the Conservatives. As found on the HCCA website today!

Council Tax reduction is a ploy - Cllr Bird reiterates her problems with the Town Council budget for not having enough contingencies. But no proposals on how much these contingencies should be! I agree with Cllr Bird the newly annexed residents are paying for this cut in Council Tax. As for the ECC estimates, I do have a degree of agreement. But the budget is ONE BIG ESTIMATE. Full of small estimates.

Again, Cllr Bird blames the Liberal Democrats for closing the public loos when it is the Conservative run HDC that decided to do this. This is a dreadful misrepresentation.

As for Rodney Bird (her husband) weighing in accusing Hunts Post of being pro Liberal Democrats I feel this is wrong. I feel the Hunts Post is pro Djanogly/pro Conservative newspaper. That is probably why the Hunts Post publishes Cllr Bird's dreadful letter.

Was the defection of Andy Monk truely a defection?

I was amazed to see the headline that Cllr Andy Monk of Ramsey had defected from the Conservatives to UKIP. But this isn't as it seems. Monk, elected less than 9 months ago, resigned the Conservative whip back in October 2009. So rather than being a Conservative Councillor down, Monk was already subtracted from the Conservative numbers. So all this effects is the Non-aligned councillors which now becomes the 2 member UKIP group.

As for the boost it gives to UKIP, yes it must do, but I'm not too sure whether such a Councillor is going to give a real boost to the electoral prospects.