Gordon Thorpe - should we feel sorry?

Gordon Thorpe cut a very fine figure at the Annual Town Meeting in his formal robes. He and his team raised £8500 for his nominated charities. He went to many different functions representing the Town. He even got the Town Council to spend money on regalia and his robes. Gordon had his picture in the paper opening something almost every week.

But should I and the rest of the residents feel sorry for Gordon. I don't.


Gordon was re-elected in 2007 to the District Council with a 12 vote majority.

Indeed at the Town Elections on the same day he received 719 votes.

Fast forward to 2011 and Gordon is up for election again. At his re-election he gets 464 votes whilst Julia gets 553.

Even at Town Council Gordon lags behind with 586votes against Julia's 674 votes.

So why did Gordon do so badly? Because he was too interested in being Town Mayor he totally forgot he was there for two reasons. Firstly he had to be elected. Secondly the Liberal Democrats had to have a majority.

According to one source Gordon only became interested in the Town Council elections roughly a week before the elections were held. Far too late to change things.

Gordon seemed far more interested in being Town Mayor and raising money for charity. Gordon must have thought his high profile in the papers were doing the job. But they weren't. Local politicians need to have a base on which to stand. The Liberal Democrats needed to make their base in Eaton Socon and they didn't.

It is obvious that Gordon didn't do the work needed to get re-elected. He was too involved in being Town Mayor instead of looking after Eaton Socon which he needed to win. Gordon's downfall was because he didn't put the work into his ward that was needed. Should we feel sorry? I don't feel any residents should feel sorry that Gordon wasn't re-elected. Gordon should have done the basics before enjoying the treats.

Reflections on the Town Meeting.

The Annual Town Meeting was to total farce. Well beyond time that it was separate from the Annual Council Meeting. I was late and missed the first bit. Then we had a very emotional time of having the Town Mayor drone on about raising £8500 for charity but not being re-elected. His own fault. Yet he took ages. This seemed to be the Gordon Thorpe show rather than an Annual Town Meeting.

We had the Youth Team leader giving a short talk, same as at the Neighbourhood Meeting a few weeks previously. The Huntingdonshire Business Against Crime presentation was a bit of a disaster. For the life of me I couldn't see the point. This seemed to be presentation about retail crime but how many retailers were there in the audience.

Questions were of course cut short. Of the 13 questions I put in beforehand only two were answered. The rest I await from the new Chairman/Town Mayor to answer.

The question over the Town Plan from another member of the audience was totally fluffed by the Town Mayor who seemed to be in a different world to the rest of the audience. yet he had the Town Clerk sitting next to him. Gordon seems to take the role of being spokesman for the Town Council personally when he is only Chairman and should pass questions onto those who know.

What is the point of having an Annual Town Meeting when people are not allowed to ask the questions? Of course the Chairman's decision is final. But it is a waste of time and energy. Gordon Thorpe did a disservice to the Town by not allowing questions. Gordon once said to me that "You are the most hated man in St Neots". Does this colour what I feel. Well no. I revel in this accolade. I'm just having a go at exposing some of what goes on in this town.

I probably get the blame for his downfall. But if Gordon actually went out and properly campaigned he should have done much better. Instead it is easier to blame everyone else rather than for Gordon to look at what he didn't do.

In the end the way the Annual Town Meeting is constituted it is a waste of time for the people who turn up and the people who ask questions. The Annual Town Meeting is for the Town not the local politicians.

The incumbents and their attendances

I took a look at the list of candidates and I looked up their attendance records at HDC and other Councils to see how they have been doing. Attendance is only one measure of being a Councillor. Whilst not perfect it does give a good idea of how each is doing. I'll do this by ward:

Eynesbury- Cllr Ursell - Conservative

This is for the 6 months period before the election. As can be see Cllr Ursell has turned up for 55% of the meetings.

I therefore went back another 6 months to see if this was a blip.

As can be seen his average was 70%. So I went back a further 6 months to see whether this was a blip.

Well it was. Cllr Ursell's attendances were back down to 55%.

Eaton Ford - David Harty - Conservative

Again I went back 12 months.

Clearly a Councillor how takes being a representative seriously with only 1 absence.

Eaton Socon - Gordon Thorpe - Liberal Democrat

With nearly twice as many meeting to go to, Gordon Thorpe put in a good number of appearances.

Eaton Socon - Andy Jennings - Conservative

As Andy is an ex-Councillor from Greenwich I thought I would his attendances at Greenwich. These were:

Not exceptional.

Priory Park - Kendal Cooper - Liberal Democrat

Pretty good statistics.

Of all the candidates standing the only question mark I have is over Cllr Ursell's attendances at 55%. This is low for a Councillor who should be representing St Neots at Council. Too much work Paul?

Liberal Democrats asking what St Neots wants?

On their webpage St Neots Liberal Democrats have put up a survey. In the preamble it says this:

"Four years ago we asked residents what they wanted for our town. We prepared our manifesto accordingly. It's not been easy, but we've achieved a great deal, despite endless attempts to obstruct us and the actions of the District Council, such as doing away with free parking and closing toilets. We've built the new £1.2m Eatons Community Centre, refurbished the Priory Centre and all our playgrounds. Put in new Christmas Lights and bus shelters are made real progress towards a new pool and a cinema. This survey is designed to ask you what our priorities should be if you re-elect a Lib Dem Town Council in May.

The phrase: "despite endless attempts to obstruct us...." needs examination. The only people obstructing the Liberal Democrats have been the Liberal Democrats. With a majority of 8 (Liberal Democrats 13 - Conservatives 5) on the Town Council the Liberal Democrats should have been able to push through their programme without any opposition. They didn't and therefore the Liberal Democrats can only blame themselves for 4 wasted years.

The main problem has been finance and the inability of the Liberal Democrats to balance the budget for much of their term in office. So who was obstructing from within the Liberal Democrats? Cllrs Giles and Thorpe are prime candidates. The idea of setting up a Policy and Resources Committee was a good idea, but badly carried out. The idea of having a Council Leader was a good idea but was also badly carried out. The Town Council descended into financial crisis which was covered up for a time with not holding Policy and Resource Committee meetings and when they did eventually hold a meeting it was not to discuss finance. The only obstructions the Liberal Democrats encountered were their own.

Another phrase the needs examination is: "..the actions of the District Council, such as doing away with free parking and closing toilets." What has car parking to do with the Town Council? Now closing the toilets did put extra spending on the Town Council of £30,000 pa but shouldn't have deflected the Town Council from its course. The Town Council didn't have to takeover these toilets. Again deflecting the blame for the Liberal Democrats own problems.

Also: "refurbished... all our playgrounds." What about Shady Walk/Lane? This hasn't been refurbished. Turnstone Estates are looking to turn the whole area into a car park! Hardly refurbishment! This statement is saying something that hasn't happened.

Lastly: "This survey is designed...".There is something the Town Council produces which is called the Forward Plan. This plan says where the Town Council is going for the next 4 years. Were the public consulted over the formulation of this plan? Of course not. The Liberal Democrats put this through Town Council without asking what the public thinks of the future. Also when the Town Council was in financial crisis Cllrs Giles and Thorpe dumped the essential Town Plan, something which could have been used to point the way.

The preamble is about shifting the blame from the Liberal Democrats to somebody else. This is a classic tactic.

Whilst having a blast at the Liberal Democrats it should be noted the St Neots Conservatives have done nothing yet. At least the Liberal Democrats have done something. The Conservatives have closed their local website and the Huntingdon one doesn't have much to say about say about St Neots.

Dibley Parish Council meetings run better than St Neots Town Council

St Neots News and Crier - 20/01/2011

I read the letter from R. Harrison with much amusement. This is our Town Council down to the ground. I like the description of the Town Council being a "Cross between Spitting Image and The Vicar of Dibley." Ouch that much hurt. The Dibley reference is a particular barb because the Town Council doesn't want to look that way. But they don't recognise that they do look like a Vicar of Dibley Town Council.

This interesting bit is about the Swimming Pool Trust. Whilst these are different bodies, all the Town Councillors are Trustees and the Town Clerk does work for the Trust. It is not telling the truth when the Town Council denies it has got nothing to do with the swimming pool trust.

The Town Mayor isn't impartial as is pointed out by Mr Harrison. "He seemed at allow this behaviour when a councillor was from his own political persuasion, but jumped all over it in a bully boy when councillors from another party retorted."

The fiasco of the Forward Plan is not un-typical of what goes on at this level of Government. Only 15 minutes was spent deciding what they were talking about on the Forward Plan. I've only been to a couple of meetings but they aren't usually run that well.

This is what Town Councils are like. Not nice but messy. The few times I've been to the Town Council these have been badly run. Not only the Liberal Democrats but the Conservatives have a good go at each other. That should be so. But when meeting aren't being run properly that is down to the Chairman.

Wait until the Annual Town Meeting. Now turn up for that to see how badly meetings are run.

Burial Plots stopped over water fears

St Neots News and Crier - 09/12/2010

The new cemetery extension has been closed to new burials because of problems with the high water table. This is a muck up by the Town Council. What makes this worse is the Town Council tried to hide all this behind the 1960 Public Bodies (Admission to meetings) Act rather than be open and transparent with the public. This Town Council loves secrecy and hides behind this by various ways. The reason given this time by Cllr Thorpe was: the "sensitive nature" of this subject.

Nice try Cllr Thorpe. I feel it would be better to be honest with with residents rather than hiding behind secret decisions. Rather than explain to relatives, plot owners and the public that there are problems with the extension the Council resorts to secrecy.

Being secret is easy. Explaining what is wrong is hard. This Town Council takes the easy way out. Being open and transparent needs a change to the culture. The Liberal Democrats don't seem up to the job of changing this culture of secrecy within the Town Council. Openness and transparency is the way forward.

Cllr Thorpe no longer Deputy Leader?

The St Neots Liberal Democrats often cry "Why does Huntingdon get everything and St Neots gets nothing?". Up to May Cllr Thorpe from St Neots was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats on HDC. 

This balanced the leadership between the Huntingdon Councillors and the St Neots Councillors. For whatever the reason, after the election Cllr Thorpe was not Deputy Leader any longer. Mike Shellens of Huntingdon East was made Deputy Leader in his place. Mike is doing a very good job.

Of the 12 Liberal Democrats on HDC only 3 come from St Neots. The Huntingdon set rules the group.

The Leader is from Brampton (not far from Huntingdon) + 1 other, 3 are from Huntingdon (including the Deputy Leader), 1 is from Warboys (north of Huntingdon), 1 is from Ellington (west of A1 by Huntingdon), 1 is from Buckden, (just south west of Brampton), 1 is from Fenstanton (south of St Ives) and 3 are from St Neots.

So the Huntingdon Liberal Democrats have sidelined the St Neots Liberal Democrats. I just hope this will end the "politics of envy" which sours the politics in St Neots. But I doubt it.

Xmas Lights Fiasco

St Neots News and Crier - 12/08/2010 digital edition

Having bought a whole load of Christmas lights, the Town Council hasn't been able to erect them across the High Street. This is due both the on-going investigation by the HSE and the inability of the Town Council to release the report into this accident.

The reason why landlords aren't willing to allow their buildings to be used is the Town Council will not answer the basic question. As a lover of secrecy the Town Council has kept secret the report into the incident a few Christmases ago. Cllr Thorpe makes the excuse that buildings are old. This is just a silly excuse. Many other Towns use old buildings to hang Christmas decorations across the street. Tring is a prime example.

My view is simple. Instead of using secrecy to hide the report, the Town Council should publish this report. The longer this goes on and remains unresolved the less likely these decorations will be used. Instead the Town Council has to spend more money to resolve this problem. 

Who is in charge of the Town Council

The Hunts Post St Neots - 30/06/2010 digital edition

What is a community drop in centre and does St Neots really need one? The £10,000 gift to help kick-start, which is the vision of Town Mayor, Gordon Thorpe.

Cllr Barry Chapman said: "a clear plan with costings the town council was needed."

To me this is just throwing money at a project without the due diligence needed because the project needs to be "pushed ahead".

I would have thought the Town Council would have learned lessons from the 2 damning audit reports and the ECC.

But who is in charge at the Town Council? The Liberal Democrats having gotten rid of the "Leader". This has left a power vacuum which has been taken up by the Town Mayor. See why I feel he should resign.

Burial could be soon after two-month wait

The Hunts Post St Neots - 28/04/2010

I read that Cllr Thorpe offered some hope to the family who has been left on ice awaiting a burial in St Neots. He said the cemetery extension will be consecrated on May 9.

I will continue to point out this cemetery extension only came about because the plan to establish a cemetery in Bedfordshire failed.

Having got the extension consecrated Cllr Thorpe is still unable to say when the first burial will happen.

Mum's bid for better shopping

The Hunts Post St Neots - 21/04/2010

Wow, yet another Facebook campaign. This time it is for more shops in St Neots Town Centre. This Facebook campaigner, Emma Speed said: "We are the largest town in Cambridgeshire but we are just forgotten by the councils. All they want is more houses."

Actually. it is the Labour Government that wants more housing in this area and requires HDC to find the land. And whilst St Neots is the largest Town in Cambridgeshire, we have a much smaller catchment area than Huntingdon.

Credit where credit is due, Cllr Thorpe sets out the problems very well. Many of the properties are listed and there would need to be wide scale demolition of the Town Centre to create the space which simply won't happen. The time scale of 2026 is about right. But this could well be movable feast as when we get to 2026 the economics will have changed.

What we do need is the extra retail to go into the Town Centre rather than another out of town development. If the Councils are not willing to knock down the buildings to create the space needed then all we will get is talk. Linking two shopping areas will just not work.

It is a pity the Town Council scrapped the Town Plan which could have led the way over what St Neots needs and wants.

Treading water in the pool of despair

The Hunts Post St Neots - 07/04/2010 digital edition

The Swimming Pool trust is in the papers again. This time, this unaccountable body, is pushing the pool out to the long grass. Cllr Ursell (St Neots Conservative Councillor) informs the public the land sale will be pushed back. The trouble is land prices will be depressed for a long time. Cllr Gordon Thorpe (Liberal Democrat) is diminishing expectations over the type of pool from a proper open air swimming pool to a splash/fun pool for children.

This is the trouble with having Councillors in charge of this project. This charity is far too close to the Town Council and should have independent trustees. This is shown with the bad reporting record to the Charity Commission.

The Swimming Pool will have to wait?

St Neots News and Crier - 01/04/2010 digital edition

Not too sure what to make of this. The site has been in problems for ages. The likelihood is the reliance on Government cash has gone. I still say this is the best site for the Cinema as it would be next to the Eat n Bowl.

What worries me is Cllr Ursell linking of the open air pool with another form of Leisure outlet. SNTC has a bad track record with the newly finished ECC. I have no confidence the Swimming Pool Trust has the ability to manage this type of development. Especially when they have a history of not getting the returns and accounts into the Charity Commission on time.

Cllr Gordon Thorpe is hardly impressive with "...but the Town Council will do what it can to redress the balance." What does that mean?


It is time the St Neots Swimming Pool Trust comes forward and publishes the future plans.

Town Council in trouble over frozen woman

The Hunts Post St Neots - 24/03/2010 digital edition

No grave for "frozen woman"

I see the Town Council is in trouble over no burial places in St Neots. The previous cemetery project wasn't even in St Neots and was over the border in Bedfordshire. That was a right mess of a project. The previous Town Clerk, P. Devonald, went sick soon after and left 3 months later.

So who is to blame? Having a proper Town Clerk would have allowed the Town Council to get on with the cemetery extension. But Cllrs Giles and Thorpe stopped that by delaying the appointment of a new Town Clerk. Even when the money was available, SNTC has been very slow to appoint a new Town Clerk. Very slow. This is what can happen if the bureaucracy is underfunded. This was a Liberal Democrat decision. They should put their hands and say they were wrong.

There are choices to be made on this subject. With a growing population where are the dead going to be buried? I have to say I'm not one for the cemeteries as my family is for cremation rather than burial. If everyone who dies is buried St Neots will always run out of space. Time to make a different decision on how we deal with the dead.

Should the Town Council break the law?

The Eatons Community Centre (ECC) is a wonderful building which is in the wrong place. Behind the Co-op and abutting residential housing the ECC has restrictions on its use in terms of the number of hours and the lateness of those hours. The failure of the specially built pre-school and for the non take up by local groups is leading to a financial crisis.
But this shouldn't mean SNTC should break the law over its use.

I will further point out that Councillors object to retrospective planning applications. These are applications that come in because someone has built or is doing something that needs planning permission and haven't got it. This is exactly what SNTC is doing with the Eatons Community Centre and they need to vary the planning conditions so they can comply with the law.

So the New Town Clerk is.......

Helen Clark, the current Acting Town Clerk. Wow! The last thing I want to do is not criticise Helen Clark as the Liberal Democrats put her in an impossible situation and Helen has done a good job as an Acting Town Clerk.

What this Town Council needs is a proper Town Clerk that has a proven track record at another Town Council. This post should have gone out to competition because this Town Council needs the best. By appointing internally without competition, the Liberal Democrats have done Helen a disservice.

Cllr Thorpe is quoted as saying: "The main change is to the structure is was the combining of two part-time posts - the Deputy Town Clerk and Town Centre manager into one post....".

Oh dear! This is not so. The Deputy Town Clerk was a full-time job. The Town Centre Manager was a Part-time job but was made a full-time position in after 2006. Cllr Gordon Thorpe is Chairman of the Personnel Committee. I just don't understand why Cllr Thorpe is misleading the public?

Staff Structure 2005/06
Staff Structure 2007/08

Will the resignation of Fiona Birks mean a by-election?

The unexpected resignation of Fiona Birks from St Neots Town Council expands the local elections a little further. With the local elections due on 6th May 2010 in only two of the four St Neots wards a by-election in Eaton Socon means a bit extra for the local parties to do.

Stretched as they will already be Eaton Socon will be a result which is at the fate of the Parliamentary election very likely on the same day. This by-election will be the first electoral test of the Town Council since the two damning audit reports. Eaton Socon Town Council ward is classified as a marginal. The 2009 County result confirmed this ward as a marginal.

snrednek says: In this election I would urge the electors of Eaton Socon to vote for the Conservative candidate. The reason is to send a message to the Liberal Democrats leadership that 2 damning audit reports are not acceptable. Cllrs Giles and Thorpe should have resigned over this. They didn't. So send the message!

Eaton Socon Town Ward Map.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey electionmap service. Image reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey and Land and Property Services - where electionmaps, Ordnance Survey and Land and Property Services are hyperlinks to http://www.election-maps.co.uk, http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ and http://www.lpsni.gov.uk/ respectively.

More Community Centres!

So Cllrs Bob Farrer, David Harty and Barry Chapman have joined together to bring forward a plan to build a community centre in Love's Farm. Good for them if they are going to build and run a community centre themselves.

On the other hand if they are going down the route of building this themselves and then expecting the Town Council to own, run and pay for the facility then they are wrong.

There is a whole load more development due to the east of St Neots. So why is there a need for a community centre on this site? At this rate the new developments could have three separate community centres. More than the rest of St Neots put together!

There is roughly £350,000 and a piece of land for a community centre to be built on. £350,000 won't go that far. The Conservatives need more money to make a fist of this. But don't get too carried away with all this hype. Cllrs Chapman and Harty were on the Committee and/or Working Party building the Eatons Community Centre. At least they have the experience of how it can all go so wrong.

This isn't how Town Councils should work. The whole reason for having officers and professional support is they do the work. With Councillors seemingly going off at tangents I have gained the impression there is a power vacuum in the Town Council. This is not the staffs fault and must be laid at those Councillors currently in charge and mainly at those who were in charge (Cllr Giles and Thorpe).

ECC running into problems already?

I've come into a little bit of information about the use of the Eatons Community Centre. I should remind St Neots Town Council and The Town Mayor Cllr Gordon Thorpe (also a District Councillor, member of the Development Management Panel and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats on HDC) that licensing law is different from planning law. The licensed hours for all licensed activities is not paramount to planning law. These only differ on Friday night where licensing adds an extra hour to midnight. Whilst the Town Council could get a Temporary Events Notice (TEN) this would still be breaking the planning conditions.
The planning hours are:

These hours are restricted to preserve the amenity of surrounding residents.

The basic problem is it is a far too bigger building for the site in amongst the housing. The Planning conditions and licensing laws aren't very well known by the public.

In its own literature the Town Council doesn't provide the opening hours. I wonder if the Town Council is deliberately ignoring the planning conditions?

With no one taking on the specially built pre-school area and only 5 local groups renting the place it is going to be a bad time at the ECC.

Further information is here:
Minutes of the meeting.
Decision letter.
Planning list of documents
Licensing Hours

So No Pre-school for ECC!

As trailed in a previous article, the Town Council has finally admitted it hasn't found a tenant for the specially built pre-school area of the new ECC. This wonderful area was always part of the Town Council plan. The reasons why this was part of the plans have been very hazy.

How local councils can work is someone thinks this is a good idea. Councillors run with it and push the idea through committees without any real business plan for the project. This is how the Town Council ends up in this mess.

Remember the Town Council told the public back in 2008 that:

“We have had a lot of interest from local organisations and community groups keen to use the centre and we have no doubt that we will be able to fill it. It is much-needed and it will be a well used multi purpose community centre.”

So just 5 groups (probably including the The River Church) have come forward to use the centre. Not filled then.

Of course the current economic problems are used as an excuse as to why the centre is failing. This is wrong. The problems are basic. The ECC is too big and in the wrong place. Instead of building to a design, the Town Council should have taken account of the area and built something far smaller. These Grand Designs will cost the St. Neots Council Taxpayer dear as we have to subsidise this facility.

In this weeks Hunts Post Cllr Barry Chapman goes on the offensive. The articles says:

"However, town councillor Barry Chapman branded the building “an absolute white elephant” and said it was too large for what was needed. “We could have built something a quarter of the size, like the Jubilee Hall, and it would have been adequate. It was madness to build something so big when there is a desperate need for facilities in Eynesbury and Loves Farm."

I agree with Councillor Chapman this is a white elephant. A building far too big for what is needed. Where I disagree with Cllr Chapman is the desperate need for facilities elsewhere. There isn't. There is no evidence of need. This is just the politics of envy. 

The blame for this problem needs to be shared. An example is Cllr Ursell who said:

“This much needed community centre will be a tremendous asset for the residents of the Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon communities who will undoubtedly make full use of its facilities.”

Lastly, the eternal optimist Cllr Derek Giles wades into this by saying:

"it was still “early days”. "It is a great community facility and I am confident that the pre-school will be used once the word has got round."

Cllr Giles is always optimistic. Word about the pre-school has already got round with the Town Council having put the whole thing out to tender to local pre-schools. The Acting Town Clerk says 200 letters had been sent to potential interested parties. No takers. Well not at that rent. If we believed Cllr Giles the outdoor swimming pool would already be opened. The cinema would already be built. As with the Town Council 2008/09 budget Cllr Giles gambles at the casino with public services. Sometimes he wins. Mainly he loses. Cllr Giles continues with his losing streak.