Undemocratic Liberal Democrats

The Annual Town Meeting is where the electors of St Neots can stand up and ask questions of the Town Council. It is an important part of the Town civic agenda, but it has been relegated to happening before the Annual Council Meeting. Other Town and Parishes hold separate Annual Meetings. Not here in St Neots.

So I wasn't surprised on at the Council Meeting on 14th April 2011 to find the Liberal Democrats carried on with this squeezing of the Annual Town Meeting before the Annual Council Meeting.

Seeing the Annual Town Meeting can be held from 1st March to 31st May inclusive this is rather late in the day to sort out a date. As ever, rather than holding a separate meeting the Town Council decided to hold them together. The result was a meeting dominated by Gordon Thorpe and questions were secondary.

Will the last St Neots Liberal Democrat to leave please remember to switch off the lights!

With Del-boy leaving the Liberal Democrats that was a bit of a blow but something the Liberal Democrats could get over. Julia Hayward leaving the Liberal Democrats is big news and a big blow to their chances in Eaton Socon and the county seat at the County Council elections in 2013.

Why? Because Julia was able to get out and campaign and put in the work needed to try and win elections. Many Liberal Democrats (and other parties do the same) stand "paper candidates". Whether or not I agree with Julia on policy, she has put in a vast amount of time to try and get elected and that should be praised. Julia's resignation from the Liberal Democrats could mean the Liberal Democrats give up in fighting for seats and let the Conservatives in.

Is this the time for a new political party for St Neots? The scene maybe changing with the main opposition out of the loop. With the abysmal pay at the local level of government for Councillors I believe there would be few takers for this type of local party for St Neots.

Maybe the type of Independents collective they have in St Ives could be a possibility. I doubt whether this would happen.

HDC hates the notion of a referendum

In an act of mutual self interest HDC group leaders have put forward a motion to the next Council Meeting on 14th December 2011. This calls for low tax rate councils to be allowed higher increases and high taxing councils to be restricted to lower increases. For information the Government has set the ceiling for Council Tax increases at 3.5%. If greater then a referendum is needed.

But this motion is wrong. The Coalition Government has ended capping and allowing each Council to decide the rate of Council Tax itself with a referenda for the electorates. If HDC feels it has a good case to increase their portion of the Council Tax then HDC should put this to the public by way of a referendum.

Instead HDC group leaders, by putting this motion forward, are trying to wriggle out of a referendum by allowing higher increases for low taxing authorities. This is wrong. All authorities should be looking to communicate with there residents over what the Council wants to spend and the tax rate to achieve that spending. If the residents don't want to be taxed so highly then service cuts will happen.

In Cllr Abelwhite's letter to the DCLG he states:

There is an argument that referendums may penalise low taxing and low spending authorities for
previous good financial performance. With referendums and re-billing having significant costs, the
benefits of holding referendums are more attractive for authorities with higher Council Tax as the
percentage increase would generate greater receipts for them and make it easier for them to fund
the additional costs.


But HDC isn't a low taxing/low spending authority. It has for a long time been a low tax/high spend council which spent reserves to prop up the failing budget. It is not for HDC to compare with other District Councils tax levels. It is for HDC to decide its spending levels and tax accordingly.

In Cllr Downes email he states the following:

A 3% increase in Council Tax would net £292,800 in extra tax. The current estimate is £100,000 for carrying out a referendum. But that is a one-off and could be used from reserves to pay for this. But that is the question. Do the HDC political parties actually want to give the residents the right to vote over excessive increases or carry on the same? The answer seems to be carry on the same.

A referendum would give a big headache to the political parties as they would have to campaign for an increase. The likelihood of getting enough people out to campaign for an increase is minimal. Likely there would be a revolt in there own ranks to any increase.

I hope Eric Pickles stays the course and dismisses this way round the rules. What is the point of giving this power to the people when those in charge just want to get around the rules.

Excessive Council Tax rises must mean a referendum. In my view the 3.5% level is itself excessive and should be 2.5% or less. If HDC wants to increase the tax it should go for a big rise and the political parties should campaign for an increase. If they don't want to campaign for an increase then they should cut services and cost accordingly.

Olympic flame not coming to St Neots!

Oh well! The Olympic Flame is not coming to St Neots and Huntingdon and St Ives are hosting events. Our Town Councillors have faux outrage at this "snub" to St Neots. Here something from the usual rent-a-quote:


Bob Farrer told The Hunts Post: “I am disgusted. We are supposed to be the biggest town after Peterborough and Cambridge. You would think we’d have been included.”


But this "snub" may not have happened. Ignored as usual at the 2009 and 2010 Annual Town Meetings I asked what St Neots Town Council was going to do for the Olympics in 2012 and what financial provision was going to be made. The answer was nothing. Not a jot for the Olympics.

That was the Liberal Democrats with Gordon Thorpe answering for the Town Council. The Conservatives, in opposition, were there.

I am not surprised that St Neots had been "snubbed". If the Town Council wanted the flame to come through St Neots it needed to do events celebrating the Olympics and inform the organising committee. Simples!

It is not as though the Olympics are being held in secret or 2012 is a surprise. Instead of all the faux outrage the Town Council should plan ahead. 

Liberal Democrats campaign for free parking?

I saw on the Huntingdonshire Liberal Democrat website that has come to life the following:

Lib Dems call for free parking for Christmas

October 31, 2011 10:16 AM

Huntingdon Liberal Democrats are launching their THREE 4 FREE Campaign today. 

"We are calling on Huntingdon District Council to help local businesses and residents this Christmas by providing FREE PARKING at all District Council Car Parks for the three weekends leading up to the festive season," comments Cllr. Mike Shellens, "We want to give local people every chance to support local shops and local jobs." 

Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokes, Martin Land, adds "By providing free parking on the 3rd and 4th, 10th and 11th and 17th and 18th December, HDC could show their support for our market towns of St Ives, Huntingdon and St Neots in these difficult economic times. This move could encourage residents to shop locally and not on-line or in Bedford, Cambridge or Peterborough." 

Except parking is already free on Sundays except at Hinchingbrooke Country Park. Saturdays sounds good. With HDC finances in such a state then how much will be lost by this initiative? What will have to be cut in its place? Car Parks are revenue for HDC. The Liberal Democrats have not fleshed the costs out.

Maybe the reason why Martin Land feels having Sunday free is such a good idea when it is already free is that Martin doesn't drive!

If the danger is people will drive to Bedford, Peterborough and Cambridge they will do so anyway. The higher parking costs and the fuel costs associated going to these towns will mean people will go there for better shops and are willing to pay to go and park there. Cutting 50 pence off the cost for parking for an hour will make no difference.

Good idea. Badly thought out. In the end just a gimmick.


If the Liberal Democrats and HDC want to attract more shoppers to St Neots then they need to change the shopping experience with larger retail units. Cutting the marginal cost of parking just means the Council taxpayer picks up the bill for this elsewhere.

The next District Election won by the Conservatives

Even before the polls are being thought about the Conservatives have won the next District Elections. Whilst the overall result is in no doubt, the individual ward elections are still to be fought and won.

These are the wards up in the electoral cycle:

St Ives East - Conservative - Jason Abelwhite (Council Leader)
Brampton - Liberal Democrat
Godmanchester  - Conservative
Huntingdon East - Liberal Democrats
Huntingdon North  - Conservative
Ramsey -  Conservative
Sawtry  - Independent
Somersham - Conservative
St Ives West - Conservative
St Neots Eaton Ford - Conservative
St Neots Eaton Socon - Conservative
St Neots Eynesbury - Conservative
The Hemingfords - Conservative
Warboys and Bury - Liberal Democrats
Yaxley - Conservative

There are 52 Councillors sitting on HDC. 27 for a majority. The current political make up is:
41 Conservatives
8 Liberal Democrats
2 UKIP
1 Independent

There are 15 seats up for election.
11 Conservatives
3 Liberal Democrats
1 Independent

The Conservative spread is 45 seats - 30 seats
The Liberal Democrats is  12 - 5 seats
UKIP is 3 - 2 seats
Independent 1 - 0 seats.

Even if the Conservatives drop all their seats up for election they will still retain 30 seats. A majority of 8.

The battlegrounds

The Liberal Democrats need to demonstrate they are still a political force in St Neots. There has been hardly any activity by them so far. Potentially they have St Neots Eynesbury and St Neots Eaton Socon to try and win. Eynesbury has the only Liberal Democrat Councillor for a St Neots ward. They also need to fight back in Eaton Socon

The Conservatives need to thump home their wins of 2011 in Eynesbury and Eaton Socon by scoring good wins against the background of the NO2AV campaign not being behind them.

On the wider District, the Liberal Democrats need to defend the seats they already have and push ahead. Huntingdon East is a Liberal Democrat/Conservative battle. Huntingdon North is also a three way battle between Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour. This is the only seat Labour could take.

Ramsey could see the last of 3 Conservative seats fall to UKIP which is making this their centre of power.

Whether the Independent Councillor in Sawtry will continue is open to question. If he doesn't re-stand this should be another Conservative win.

9th June 2011 - who I'm voting for!

Eynesbury is set to vote on 9th June 2011 for the last seats to be decided in the Town Council elections. With the Conservatives winning back in May this is a different election.  There are now different reasons as to which way I'm voting.

Firstly, I won't vote Labour. Secondly, looking at the new Town Councillors at the Annual Town Meeting they are a bunch of men, with one exception. Therefore I'm voting for the female candidates first.

That is Hutton, Collins and Andrea Ruck.

The next thing is I won't be voting for either of the Conservative District Councillors. HDC is in a financial mess. The HDC Conservatives have taken the New Homes Bonus without a peep from the St Neots District Councillors when formulating the HDC budget.

As for the rest. Seeing the death of a candidate delayed elections I feel I should vote for the younger candidates. Steve van de Kerkhove gets my vote. As does Les Roberts, Rob Moores and David Ruck

AV - The Huntingdonshire result analysis

The result of the AV referendum for Huntingdonshire is:

Yes: 15,145 

No: 38,725

The vote data for the local elections were:

Conservatives: 22729

Liberal Democrats: 8745

Labour: 5401

UKIP: 3492

Independent: 811

There were a total of 21 wards up for election.

Conservatives: 1082 per ward in 21.

Liberal Democrats: 437 per ward in 20 wards.

Labour: 270 per ward in 20 wards.

UKIP: 317 per ward in 11 wards.

Independent: 811 in 1 ward.

The electorate at those wards voting was: 43.57%

With the non local elections ward voting at the referendum there was little drop between the two sets of results with those not having locals coming out stronger at 46..58% of the referendum vote.

With the vote split at 72% No and 28% Yes then roughly the AV vote in the local elections went NO 29603 and YES 11575. If the YES campaign for AV which included UKIP + Liberal Democrats + some Labour votes are totalled up the YES campaign didn't attract all their voters. There was a percentage of voters in the YES camp parties who voted NO. 

In the end it was the strong NO campaign which brought out the Conservative vote. A tactical mistake by the Liberal Democrats who believed the YES AV campaign would help energise their supporters. In reality it didn't. All it did was energise the Conservatives to get their vote out with the NO to AV campaign and helped them win the local elections.

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.

What should the Liberal Democrats do now?

This is a major question for the Liberal Democrats. Priory Park Ward and Eaton Ford ward are beyond them for the foreseeable future. There is one election left. That is Eynesbury. 7 seats remain to be won. Instead of worrying about the results, the Liberal Democrats need to throw themselves into this election with plenty of door knocking and plenty of leaflets. Don't worry about the glossy leaflets.

For the future the Liberal Democrats need to go back to regular leafleting at least once a quarter. Nothing glossy. Just a simple black and white A4 leaflet through every door in Eynesbury and Eaton Socon informing the residents of what they are doing or what they want to do. Basic campaigning really. What you do on Council is one thing. It is more important to get your message out to residents on a regular basis. Not just at election times.

New question mark over the cemetery

I was a bit perplexed over the secret item over the Cemeteries coming up in a spat between Cllr Hayward and candidate Roger Harrison over town council secrecy. In her reply Cllr Hayward said the reason why the recent cemetery discussion was kept secret was:

What is (1)? This is one of the reasons why the Town Council can hold discussions in secret.


PART 1 – DESCRIPTIONS OF EXEMPT INFORMATION:
1) Information relating to any individual. 


So if this is information relating to an individual why wasn't this in the minutes?

The discussion was secret because this item related to an individual but all it was about was the closure of the cemeteries. This get curiouser and curiouser.

New Liberal Democrat leaflet for Postal Voters

As a Postal Voter I got an extra piece of literature. This is a short leaflet aimed at those who receive their votes by post. It can be accessed here.

The leaflet makes a statement about the difference in Council Tax between Liberal Democrat run St Neots and Conservative run Huntingdon.

The leaflet goes onto make a promise:

and a target:

With the number of housing continuing to increase these will be easy to achieve.

Should I take the promise and the target seriously. Well YES. The Liberal Democrats have got the Town Council into a much better position financially than when they started off. That is not without problems and quite a few pledges got dumped along the way.

In my view the Liberal Democrat run Town Council is roughly taxing us what it is supposed to raise. Reserves aren't being used to keep Council Tax down which is a good thing.

This sounds a tough promise and target to meet but the reality is it should be pretty easy to meet this promise and target over the next 4 years.

Postal votes are being sent out today.

With postal votes being sent out voting for the elections on 5th May starts today. Now postal votes are used by a significant number of electors, the actual knocking up of postal voters should start soon. The political parties should do this to ensure their likely voters have returned their postal votes.

Since I'm voting when I receive my postal vote, what have the candidates informed me about the local elections. So far I've only received a leaflet from the Liberal Democrats. I haven't received anything from the Conservatives about their policies and pledges. Nor anything about their candidates.

This side of elections is often overlooked. As postal voters are more likely to have voted their significance is normally higher than the normal supporter who has to go to the polling station.

The introduction of easy postal votes, by Labour, should have changed campaign strategy. But doesn't seem to have got to Huntingdonshire yet with the Conservatives.

Baffled over cinema site!

In a letter published in the News and Crier, Laura Stokes of Eaton Socon writes to say she is baffled anyone at St neots Town Council thinks Huntingdon Street is an appropriate site. I agree with Laura.

This is the wrong site for a seven screen cinema. One screen is supposed to be able to be used for theatre productions. Will this be the largest scheme. The seven screen cinema will be titchy in comparison with many other cinemas including Huntingdon or Bedford.

So why are our local politicians banging on with this project. Because it is an election. Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have spent so much politic capital that this needs to go ahead somewhere in St Neots. The land is owned by HDC and SNTC so it would be relatively simple to sell.

Building this titchy cinema here will cause many problems to local residents. Building a titchy cinema will mean St Neots gets the worst of all deals. Instead of being able to blame HDC (Though judging from the past record the Conservatives will blame HDC and the Liberal Democrats) St Neots will have itself to blame.

Questions to ask the candidates on your doorstep

I've thought up some questions to ask candidates if they ever come knocking at your door. Print this off and keep it if they ever come knocking. The questions are:

Conservatives:

1. Why is your leader talking about holding a referendum on increasing Council Tax?
2. With all the development why isn't St Neots getting any of the New Homes Bonus?
3. Town Council: Cllr Chapman said you want a fund specifically for the annexed areas. Are you going to do a fund for each area in St Neots?
4. HDC: What services are you cutting in St Neots?
5. HDC: What guarantee is there that funding to the CAB won't be cut? Would you resign if a cut was made?

Liberal Democrats:

1. The Town Council got two damning audit reports. Why should I vote for you as no Town Councillor resigned over this?
2. HDC: You propose not to cut money to the voluntary sector. Where are you going to find the money?
3. I thought the Town Council promised to protected open spaces. Why are you not protecting Shady Walk?
4. Why did the Town Council give a grant to the racist playgroup?
5. Will you increase Council Tax?

Labour:

1. Who are you?
2. I've had no literature?
3. Why are you knocking on my door? Please go away!

Independent (St Neots Eat Ward only):

1. I'll be voting for you.

There off and the Conservatives have already got 3 seats on the Town Council

With the publication of the nominations for the local election on 5th May 2011 the Conservatives are already 3 seats up on the Town Council as the Liberal Democrats have failed to get enough candidates. In Eaton Ford they are two down. In Priory Park they are one down. Unlike Huntingdon, where Labour are fighting for the Town Council, Labour isn't putting up candidates at Town level. Probably hoping to keep the Conservatives out. At Town Council it is therefore a straight Liberal Democrat/Conservative fight.

Former Liberal Democrat leader of the Town Council, Derek Giles, isn't re-standing. There are a number of other losses with Alan Cummings also not re-standing but is standing in Little Paxton at the District elections there.

There is one Independent candidate standing in the single member ward of St Neots East.

If the Conservatives win there could be quite a few District and County Councillors on the Town. 7 District Councillors/candidates are standing for Town. With Catherine Hutton, already a County Councillor, this would make 8. Any controlling Conservative Group that emerged would be dominated by District Councillors.

Whatever the outcome there will be quite a few changes.

Labour have put up candidates for most of the wards except one leaving Eaton Ford as a straight Conservative/Liberal Democrat fight. Though whether the Liberal Democrats will have the resources to fight here is open to question.

The main fights are in:
Eaton Socon where Town Mayor Gordon Thorpe and Julia Hayward are facing an onslaught from Conservatives Andy Jennings and Roger Harrison.
Eynesbury where Paul Ursell is challenged by Rob Moores. The Liberal Democrats want to gain this seat at District and keep there seats at Town.
Priory Park where sitting District Councillor faces a Conservative challenge from Conservative Paula Longford.

Can the Liberal Democrats hang onto the Town Council and their District seats? Only the election will tell.

Local elections: Eaton Ford ward

This is a Conservative safe ward. These elections are for one District Councillor and 5 (up one seat) Town Council seats.

The candidates for the District ward are:

The candidates for the 5 seats for the Town Council are:

For the Conservatives, David Harty is standing in both elections. For the Liberal Democrats Eleanor Mason is standing in Eaton Ford for District and Eaton Socon for Town. At Town the Conservatives elections Bob (resigning) Farrer who is also a County Councillor and a District Councillor is standing.  Neal Weston shares the same address and Andy Jennings as does Liberal Democrat Anna Hayward with Julia Hayward. Anna is also standing in the Gransdens and The Offords ward.

The inability of the Liberal Democrats to put up 5 candidates for Town means the Conservatives have already have 2 seats. This must be a disappointment as the Liberal Democrats were only 21 votes from taking a seat back in 2007. Missing from this list is Jenny Bird and Brenda Arnold who have stood down. And Barry Chapman has changed wards and is now standing in Priory Park ward.

Previous elections

District Results 2008

District Results 2007

Town Council results 2007

In 2007 the Conservative vote fell from the 1102 that was achieved at District level to 992 (Jenny Bird). That is a loss of 110 votes. The Liberal Democrats increased their vote from 755 at District to 888 (Sandie Giles). An increase of 133.

.

Local Elections: Priory Park

This is a Conservative/Liberal Democrat marginal. The District ward covers much of the north east of St Neots plus Love's Farm. The Town ward excludes Love's Farm which has its own Town ward. There are 4 seats up for election at the Town Council elections in this ward.

The Town Candidates (excluding Love's Farm) for the 4 seats are:

With only 3 Liberal Democrats standing in this 4 seat ward this gives the Conservatives 1 seat. For the Conservatives Barry Chapman is already a District Councillor. Ian Gardner has been brought in from Grafham. For the Liberal Democrats District Councillor Kendal Cooper is standing in both elections. Standing down is Bob Eaton, Alan Cummings and Leigh Ottotangui.  Martin Land, Agent, is having to stand to make up the numbers.

The 2010 District elections results:

This was in combination with the 2010 General Election. Therefore a much higher turnout.

The 2007 District elections results:

The 2007 Town Council results:

Local elections: Eaton Socon Ward

Eaton Socon could be the most fascinating result in the elections on 5th May 2011. With the recent resignation of the "fly me" Councillor Mandy Thomas this has meant both District seats are up for election. At the same time there are 4 Town Council seats up for election.

The District candidates are:

The Town candidates are:

For the Conservatives the both Andy Jennings and Roger Harrison are standing in both elections. For the Liberal Democrats Gordon Thorpe and Julia Hayward are standing in both elections. Also Eleanor Mason is standing for Town in this ward and for District in the Eaton Ford ward. No Labour candidates for the Town elections which probably means Labour wants its supporters to vote Liberal Democrat at the Town Council elections but can't say so.

The big news is that Derek Giles is not standing.

Previous elections

At the 2008 elections the result was:

At the 2007 elections the result was:

The 2007 Town Council elections was:

In 2007 the Conservatives increased their vote from 659 to 673. An increase of 14 votes. The Liberal Democrats increased their vote from 671 to 791. An extra 120 votes. Thorpe increase his vote by 40.

Local Elections: Eynesbury

This is a Conservative/Liberal Democrat marginal seat with 2 Conservatives and 1 Liberal Democrat at District level and 5 Liberal Democrats and 1 Conservative at Town Council level. The Town Ward has expanded and there is an extra seat for this election.

The Candidates for the District Elections are:

The Candidates for the 7 seats (1 extra because of boundary change) for Town Council are:

For the Conservatives Paul Ursell is standing in both elections. County Councillor Catherine Hutton and District Councillor Andrew Hansard are also standing for Town. For the Liberal Democrats Steve van de Kerkhove is District Councillor. Labour perennial Bill O'Connor is standing for District but Labour isn't standing for Town.

Previous elections

The 2010 District results:

This election was held in combination with the 2010 General Election.

The 2008 District results:

The 2007 District results:

The 2007 Town Council results:

This is not strictly comparable as the District Eynesbury ward took in the Town ward of EHPC but the Town Council ward didn't. With the annexation the ward boundary has changed to both boundaries are the same for the elections in May.