2 years on....

.... and what has changed?

Djanogly was re-elected. Despite living in London and prominent in the MP's expenses scandal, the voters of the Huntingdon constituency re-elected Djanogly therefore forgiving him for his part in this scandal. Djanogly went onto become an Under secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice. This is a third rung on the Ministerial ladder with Minister of State above him and Secretary of State at the top. Djanogly became a bit of a lightning rod scandal. There was his spying on local Conservative members and his relationship with his brother-in-law. The spying was internal. The brother-in-law was really a non-story.

Useless Town Council Planning Committee. This has carried on being useless and a sheer waste of money. The new Conservative administration on the Town Council has carried with this sheer waste of money. The only real reason for this is the Town Councillors want to pontificate on the merits of planning applications without any real training or idea of what they are doing.

Cllr Ablewhite is new District Council Leader. Despite being party to costing the District Council £5,000 over a planning decision in St Ives, the District Council Conservatives deemed Cllr Ablewhite worthy of their leadership. Cllr Ian Bates stood down at from the leadership after the abortive merger talks with East Cambridgeshire and Fenland District Councils fell down.

Cinema progresses. The idea to squeeze the cinema into a totally inappropriate site continues. Turnstone Estates were given preferred status and went ahead and ripped the Development Brief to shreds. As the land owners HDC and SNTC must have been privy to these changes yet didn't say a thing. So much for transparency.

Rough waters for the Outdoor Swimming Pool. Having done a deal with McCarthy and Stone, rumour has it the SNTC/SNSPT has reneged on this deal. Whilst selling the land and using the proceeds to build a new swimming pool on other land made sense, unless SNTC/SNSPT have found a source of money it will make no sense to rebuild the swimming pool on the old site.

HCCA. The slow downfall of this once proud Conservative Association continues with HCCA running out of money.

Council Tax. HDC has, for many years, used reserves to keep Council Tax down. Combined with the previous Labour Government who used the threat of capping to keep the District Council tax rises down. Capping is due to end with a new referendum rules to ensure any excessive Council Tax rises are voted on by the electorate beforehand.

New Homes Bonus nicked. This becomes a large amount of money for HDC. According to the Coalition Government this money is for the communities which are accepting new housing developments. HDC is supposed to consult the locals over the use of this money. Think about £8000 a property and 5000 properties. £40 million would make a difference to St Neots.

Riverside Car Park. This was a joint approach that ended up as a pantomime. As the basic decision was correct as either the user pays or the Council Tax payer (and I prefer the user pays) this now looks to be revisited. The Liberal Democrats made hay over this. The St Neots Conservatives are against but voted for the budget. This issue went back and forth until it was decided by Cabinet and then Council make this a pay car park.

Councillors. Over the two years I've looked at Councillor attendances. Some are good. Some were bad. On Town Councillor did good by resigning. Mandy Thomas just didn't turn up or only to one minor meeting in 6 months. The dearth of candidates to be Councillors was also highlighted before the last elections. On one good note, Carl Jones stood as an Independent and won the Town Council East seat.

CPALC. It looks as though CPALC gave the Town Council Quality Status to SNTC with too much trouble. Though how they passed many of the tests didn't stand up to scrutiny. Anyway SNTC paid their sub and CPALC seems happy the Quality Town Status means absolutely nothing.

The Liberal Democrats. These have been a big disappointment. With Martin Land as both Agent and Parliamentary Candidate this was going to go wrong. The Conservatives are "closet racists and homophobes" quote did damage. Also if that is how Martin thinks the Liberal Democrats are destined to lose and lose again.

Gordon Thorpe. It is a pity that Gordon has gone. Although he called me the "Most Hated Man in St Neots" I hold no grudges against him. I did warn him at the time that Harrsion and Jennings were fighting hard for Eaton Socon and Gordon needed to get out and campaign. Gordon didn't take my advice and, I was informed, turned up about a week before the campaign finished to campaign. Miles too late.

Have I given up on the blog? Well no. But there will be fewer blog entries as time goes on. Of course if SNTC decides to alter the Priory Centre.......

Conservatives win Eynesbury

At the delayed Town Council elections for the Eynesbury Ward held yesterday on 9th June 2011, the Conservatives won.

Edward Bruning, (Liberal Democrat), 326 
Diana Collins, (Liberal Democrat), 385 
James Corley, (Liberal Democrat), 320 
Andrew Hansard, (Conservative), 560 - elected 
Catherine Hutton, (Conservative), 546 - elected 
Robert Moores, (Liberal Democrat), 328 
Emlyn Rees, (Labour), 204 
Leslie Roberts, (Liberal Democrat), 327 
Andrea Ruck, (Conservative), 532 - elected 
David Ruck, (Conservative), 512 - elected 
Douglas Terry, (Liberal Democrat), 317 
Paul Ursell, (Conservative), 584 - elected 
Adrian Usher, (Conservative), 551- elected 
Steve Van De Kerkhove, (Liberal Democrat), 406 
Karl Wainwright, (Conservative), 511- elected 

Turnout was 15.09 per cent.



This makes Conservative control of the Town Council near total. The only opposition member is Carl Jones who stood as an Independent. The Conservatives went at this with a full on campaign which did them well.

Now the Conservatives have the problems. Their is no one else they can blame if things go wrong. Cllr Farrer tries to blame "THEY" which seems to be a code word for Conservatives.

This has been a good set of elections for the Conservatives. But when you get to the top of the mountain the only way is DOWN.

New Conservative leaflet - where are the Liberal Democrats (and Labour)

A new Conservative leaflet came through on Sunday and I've gotten around to posting it here. The Conservatives are going all out to win this election. Since this election started I have received no Liberal Democrat or Labour literature. The Conservatives are out campaigning the other parties and deserve to win on this alone.

When the election is over the Liberal Democrats will be looking for many other factors to blame. The basics are very simple. Get out and campaign if you want to win. Don't campaign and you will lose.

Where did it all go wrong for the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats had a pounding on the Town Council losing this Council to the Conservatives. But where did it all go wrong?

Starting with the elections in 2007. 
The Liberal Democrats won 13 out of 18 seats. But not by much. In Eynesbury they took 5 of the 6 seats. In Priory Park ward their smallest majority was 65. In Eaton Socon the smallest majority was 35. So the Liberal Democrats got in by the skin of their teeth.

First Forward Plan.
A good Forward Plan with much in it. Carry this out and the Liberal Democrats would have a programme for change. Much of the plan was not costed. This meant whilst the Liberal Democrats had good ideas they hadn't planned the money to spend on these projects. This downfall was to haunt them for the next 3 years.

The 2008/09 Budget.
This was a bad budget. Those in charge at the time, Cllr Giles and Thorpe, underfunded the budget which meant a large deficit during the year. The Liberal Democrats baulked at the 24% increase needed and went for a lower amount of 9.2% increase instead.

Taking Grounds Maintenance in-house
This had been dealt with by contract. Taking this in-house means the Council becomes the employer. This had significant costs which weren't foreseen. These amounted to £95,000. This dug into the Council finances. It was the mishandling of this project which caused the Liberal Democrats untold pain.

Cemetery.
The new cemetery, to be in Bedfordshire, was the main project for the year and it failed when the farmer upped the price after the Town Council obtained planning permission. This led to the downfall of Philip Devonald who should have gone when the problems over the finances arose.

The "Shambles".
The Liberal Democrats got themselves into a mess over the missing loan. But this was minor and a cover for something much deeper. When the Liberal Democrats got a majority they set about changing the constitution. They set up a Policy and Resources committee whose job was to oversee the finances of the Council. In charge was Liberal democrat Leader (Derek Giles) and Deputy Leader (Gordon Thorpe). What went wrong wasn't the "missing" loan. It is the fact that knowing something was wrong the Liberal Democrat leadership kept this from Council.

The problem was that no councillor resigned because of this "Shambles". They didn't see it as their problem. Indeed Cllr Thorpe was promoted to being Town Mayor!

The 2009/10 Budget.
This budget tore the heart out of the Forward Plan. It also took the decision not to replace the Town Clerk for 6 months. This was another very big mistake. By not getting the resources of a properly qualified Town Clerk the Liberal Democrats messed up the Town Council for years. This came back to bite them with:

Loss and regaining of Quality Town Status.
Not appointing a proper qualified Town Clerk means the Town Council couldn't re-apply for Quality Status which they lost in January 2010. This is where the Liberal Democrats went wrong. They pushed for the regaining of Quality Status over much else. This isn't what the Liberal Democrats should have done.

The Car Park Pantomime.
I still don't see the reason why there was any need for any real protest. And a protest march to boot. The failure of this didn't do the Liberal Democrats much good. The District Council is in financial crisis and needs the money. Why not focus on that rather than messing about over 20 pence an hour (free evenings and on Sundays). Instead of pointing at the inability of the St Neots Conservative Councillors to change things they masked these ineffective efforts by having an alternative pantomime.

The Town Mayor's regalia.
A small item in what went wrong, yet it was to resonate around the Town. The excuse that Civic Pride was needed and this was embodied in the Town Mayor really missed the point. Town Mayor - who cares? Civic Pride - again who actually cares.

So what else did the Liberal Democrats do wrong?
Being only in power by a few votes, the Liberal Democrats needed to make progress. Being in power is one thing. Keeping in power is another. The tendency is to "blame the national situation" rather than analyse what went wrong and what went right.

Where the Liberal Democrats went wrong in Government was not understanding the Town Councils finances. This led to a casino budget which led to a cuts budget which shredded their Forward Plan. The inability to control the previous Town Clerk is also evident in the Cemetery and the debacle over the finances. By not getting in a properly qualified Town Clerk led to the loss of Quality Status but also, in my view, held the Liberal Democrats back from getting the Town Council back on track.

Yet however you look at all that went wrong the main problem was communication. Newspapers, if delivered, can be read. The adverts in the News and Crier were good. But I don't get the News and Crier! The only way to get your message out to your electorate is to put out leaflets on, at least, a regular quarterly basis.

The age old reason for not getting your message out are too many to quote now. Yet many others are able to achieve this even in winter.

There are 4 District wards in St Neots. Eaton Socon and Eynesbury should be your targets. A leaflet every quarter with door knocking once a month should make life interesting for the Conservatives. Both Eynesbury and Eaton Socon are up for election in 2012. Time to get leafleting and knocking now!

If the Liberal Democrats want to win they need to out campaign the Conservatives. If they don't then their voices in St Neots will be drowned out.

Will Labour standing In Eynesbury help the Liberal Democrats?

With Labour scoring the highest vote in Eynesbury they have taken the opportunity to put up one candidate for the 7 seats in Eynesbury. The big question is whether the Liberal Democrats will make much of this or will Labour supporters just vote once for their candidate. Judging by the way the Liberal Democrats falling apart from their defeat probably not. But each Labour voter has 6 other votes. The District result says the majority are against the Conservatives.

Paul Ursell got 1081 votes. The Liberal Democrat and Labour candidates got 1312 between them. It whether the Liberal Democrats are actually willing to campaign to win. If they sit on their hands the Conservatives will have a near clean sweep of the Council. Labour standing could help the Liberal Democrats. Opportunity awaits but knowing the Liberal Democrats "winning here" will just mean too much work.

First election leaflet through from the Liberal Democrats

My first election leaflet through the door and it is from the Liberal Democrats. In a very well laid out leaflet the Liberal Democrats put over why they should be elected on some key policies to them.
The large red square on the front comparing St Neots Town Council with other Town Councils is very good.

This shows the marked difference between St Neots and other Town Councils.

The leaflet sets out some key aims, but no real specific promises. Only general promises on what a Liberal Democrat run Town Council will do.

The only statement to take issue with is:

Whilst the next Leader of the HDC Conservatives has said the money could be found for these voluntary groups but nothing has happened at Council to change this policy. So the policy remains in force until it is changed. The Conservatives had the opportunity to change this policy at Council but didn't.

The Liberal Democrats seem to continue to court the Labour supporters with:

The 375 UKIP voters should focus their minds. A close race?

A very good leaflet from the Liberal Democrats hitting at the Conservatives.

The Liberal Democrats: Are they all bad?

The Liberal Democrats have been running the Town Council for the last 4 years. This has been with 13 Councillors to the conservative opposition of 5. A very healthy majority of 8. So the Liberal Democrats have really themselves to blame if their policies haven't been pushed through.

Being in opposition is easy. Being in Government is hard. That is the lesson for the last 4 years.

The two damning audit reports. Very little of this has actually made the headlines. What made the headlines was the missing loan. Yet this was an historic event. The Town Council was paying the loan. It was the outstanding amount that wasn't accounted for. Actually very minor. Whilst many historic problems arose it wasn't this I had a go at the Liberal Democrats about. It was the handling and secrecy surrounding this resolution of these problems that should be held against the Town Council.

The Liberal Democrats started in a bad position. They had minimal reserves and were using these reserves to keep council tax down. This is really a no-no. When reserves run out either Council Tax has to rise steeply or services have to be cut. In charge of this was Cllrs Giles and Thorpe. Leader and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the now defunct Policy and Resources Committee and, for a year, Leader and Deputy Leader of the Town Council. They were in charge.

Much of why I feel the both Giles and Thorpe should have resigned is in this blog.

Instead of taking stock they went on an expansionist plan without the resources to implement those plans. This from the Liberal Democrats which set up the Policy and Resources Committee. In the end it was their inability to do the right thing that was their downfall. Except Cllr Thorpe was made Town Mayor after this mess.

To get out of this mess Giles and Thorpe dumped many of the essential projects such as the Town Plan without any notice. Policy and Resources meetings were simply not held or when they were Council finances were not discussed.

In the end the Town Council was just labelled a:

No Councillor resigned because of this. Officers went but no Town Councillor stood up and took  responsibility for this mess. Indeed Cllr Thorpe became Town Mayor. Derek Giles has decided not to stand this time around.

The loss of Quality Status was a blow. But this was to be expected after two damning audit reports and the Town Council has come on since it was a "Shambles". The regaining of the Quality Status was a bung by CPALC.

Is the Liberal Democrat run Town Council perfect? I don't believe it is. What I do take on board is this Town Council has moved on from Shambles to a better place. In many respects this has been 4 wasted years by the Liberal Democrats.

Do I feel the Liberal Democrats deserve 4 more years? Well yes I do. What has changed is Derek Giles not re-standing for Town Council. With a useless lacklustre Conservative opposition I don't believe they are ready to take power and lead St Neots either. Far too many Conservatives will be sitting on two or three Councils.

What has it for the Liberal Democrats was their unwillingness to kowtow to Conservative run HDC. What also has it for the Liberal Democrats is they have turned the Town Council around.

Who I'm voting for at the elections in May

As someone who normally votes Conservative I still find myself in a quandary on how to vote in May. I have voted Conservative at all the General Elections -1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2005 - and a multitude of local elections. It is only since I moved to St Neots that my voting habit has changed, but not my views. So why has the way I voted changed?

On one level it is the realisation of the mess Conservative run HDC is in. Running a massive budget deficit and blaming everyone else for this hasn't enamoured me to the local Conservatives. With massive investment in Council leisure I view Conservative run HDC not as a forward thinking Council, but as one stuck in the socialist past. Conservative run HDC is doing what I would expect an old Labour run Council to do rather than a Conservative run Council.

Djanogly is an absent MP living much of his life in London, where his main home is, who got into a mess over his expenses. He didn't even deem the electorate worthy of allowing us to ask questions at a public meeting. All slight of hand. But he did get re-elected!

The St Neots Conservative Councillors group seems very rudderless. A good pantomime over the closure of the public toilets, eventually blaming the Liberal Democrat run St Neots Town Council for not taking them over.

Blaming the Liberal Democrats seems to be the Conservatives way. The annexation of the old Town Ward of Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Council is another case in point. The former EHPC ran nothing and provided nothing apart for a few grants. Some Conservatives felt it was right to put the old Town Ward into St Neots Town Council. Conservative HDC even endorsed these proposals. When it came to the General Election/Local Elections it was the Conservatives who blamed the Liberal Democrats.

On another level it is the sheer incompetence of the local Conservatives. Not being even able to call a by-election in Eaton Socon. Not going to town over the "Shambles" the Liberal Democrats made of the Town Council. Promoting was is still being used as a Church Car Park as a "Community Car Park". These are but a few examples of what annoys me about the local Conservatives.

On yet another level it is the sheer disappointment with the Conservatives, whom I normally vote for, at their lack of campaigning. As M. Stephenson put it in the 2009 accounts:

May I suggest this problem results from the Conservatives not campaigning enough! It is a vicious circle of the Conservatives not having enough volunteers. Therefore less campaigning takes place. Therefore you don't attract members. And so it goes on with fewer members meaning less campaigning and so on and so on.

So who will I be voting for?

Labour is out of the question. The Liberal Democrats are the only alternative. Whilst at District level I will vote for the Liberal Democrats in Eynesbury, when it comes to the Town Council I'm still in a quandary and I have yet to decide.

Another Secret Meeting of the Town Council?

Well not so secret, though you would have to go down to the Town Council offices to find out about this because it isn't on the website.  The press and public are excluded from part of the meeting as it is to discuss the proposal to tarmac over Shady Walk Open Space for a cinema car park.

So what is so secret? The terms of sale/lease of the land of course and the amount of the land which the Town Council gives away to the developer. All this will be able to be kept secret until the developer puts in the planning application. So much for transparency.

As it says on the Forward Plan version 3 on the website:

Maintain and protect green space provision is not turning any of the green space at Shady Lane into a car park!

The meeting is on Thursday 24th March at 7pm. As with all Town Council meetings the residents are given 10 minutes to have their say on any matter under the Town Council at the start of the meeting. Then the press and public are excluded from the bit that matters.


We all know the Town Council is going to give away this piece of land. So why make this secret?


Is this how a "Quality Town Council" is supposed to work? Meetings added to the noticeboard but not added to the website! Obviously those at CPALC including Ian Dewar and Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee think this is how a Quality Town Council should operate as they bunged the Town Council the Quality Status. A meeting that is virtually kept secret from the people in the hope this goes through without as much as a mutter from those affected by this decision by the Town Council. Quality Town Council indeed. CPALC should reconsider their verdict that St Neots Town Council is a Quality Council.

Could AV referendum favour the Liberal Democrats?

With the AV referendum, District Elections and Town Elections all happening on the same day this could be the game changer for the political parties in St Neots. Depending on the enthusiasm for the AV vote this may bring out voters who would normally turnout for local elections. This is therefore an unknown quantity. There isn't much to go on with referendum turnouts. The last UK one was in 1975 and Cambridgeshire had a 62.9% turnout. Scotland had a 60% turnout for their referendums in 1979 and 1997. In Wales it was 50% in 1997.

With AV not on the top of most political agendas, the turnout may be as low as 35%. Roughly what I would expect at a council election. The likelihood that this will attract those who support the Liberal Democrats and the minor parties could bring more voters out. This will mean higher election turnout but not as high as the general election. This could favour the Liberal Democrats at Town level if Labour don't stand.

On the otherhand UKIP will be supporting the Yes to AV campaign. Unless UKIP stands again at the District Elections and their vote will go largely locally to the Conservatives and, to a lesser extent, the Liberal Democrats.

What of Labour? If they put up even a minimal fight they could attract some of the vote going to the Liberal Democrats. This could cause the District Council seats to go Conservative and the Liberal Democrats, unless Labour stands for Town Council, win the Town Council.

The results of the Town Council elections are still up in the air. Labour not standing at these elections will favour the Liberal Democrats. Labour standing will favour the Conservatives. If Labour doesn't stand I say the Liberal Democrats should win. Martin Land is probably running the Liberal Democrat campaign and many other campaigns in Cambridgeshire so a Liberal Democrat win is not certain.

As a predominately Conservative voter I have mixed feelings about both political groups in St Neots and in HDC. Nearer the time I will set out which party and candidates I favour and why. It will probably be a mixture between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Both sides have their faults. With the Conservative run HDC being a financial disaster and, a few years back, the Liberal Democrat run St Neots Town Council was in the same position I find it hard to distinguish between the two.

With all up for grabs I would have thought the streets would be littered with political party literature. They are not. Unless I'm missing out because I've been blacklisted by both political parties in St Neots. According to one Liberal Democrat I'm the "most hated man in St Neots".

Eric Pickles says: People should be able to video Council Meetings

Eric Pickles, Communities Secretary at the DCLG has said:

"Councils should open up their public meetings to local news ‘bloggers’ and routinely allow online filming of public discussions as part of increasing their transparency."

What do our local councils say on this matter?

The standing orders of HDC say:

The standing orders of St Neots Town Council say:

Time to get into the 21st Century with this. Why can't an ordinary member of the public video or audio record what is going on at both Council and Committee meetings? The key to local democracy is the ability to report what is going on. It is called transparency. These are our Councils. We pay for them. In recent articles in the press HDC has mounted a campaign to get all those who haven't paid their Council Tax. This could eventually mean prison.

The rigmarole each Council has set up is wrong. The public should be able to record and video what is going on at open council or committee. It is called transparency. Something both councils shy away from. 

And the Liberal Democrats spent more!

One of the little bits of information to come out of the analysis of the spending by political parties during the 2010 General Election was the Liberal Democrats spent more than the Conservatives over the short campaign. The Liberal Democrats spent £7,618.29 and the Conservatives spent £7,178.80.

In relation to other spends by the Liberal Democrats:

NE Cambridgeshire: £1,592.98
NW Cambridgeshire: £953.94
South Cambridgeshire: £6,459.64

The resulting spends also threw up a mix of results with:

NE Cambridgeshire: +3.0%

NW Cambridgeshire: -1.8%

South Cambridgeshire: +4.7%

Huntingdonshire: +2.6%

In the end spending masses of money doesn't necessarily bring in the results. It is boots on the ground that wins elections.

Notice of completion

The Town Council is supposed to notify the residents that the Audit has been completed. Last year the Town Council had the temerity to charge 60 pence a copy for the damning report into the Town Councils' finances.

What of the notification this year? Huntingdon Town Council has the way forward with the notice appearing on their website. No mention of charges. One of the main criticisms of the Auditors was the lack of financial information on the Town Council website. Obviously this Liberal Democrat run Town Council isn't up to the job!

Can the Town Council regain Quality Status?

The Town Council is looking to regain Quality Town Status. This is a tough ask of the Town Council as many of the required tests will need a shift in how the Town Council is run and communicates with the residents. The Guidance for obtaining Quality Status is here.

I've had a run through of the tests to see how far off the Town Council is and looked at this through the eyes of a resident and not those who will judge any application. For more information go to the guidance.

Passes with flying colours.

The Town Clerk has gained these qualifications.

The Town Council doesn't always give public notice to meetings. One example was the Special Council Meeting held on 13th September 2010.

The main reason for failure is the non publication of the Annual Report. There are also issues over Priorities as there is no specific section. Also, whilst delivered to every home, I haven't seen this at public sites.

The Town Council meets only 4 out of the minimum 9 discretionary requirements. Number 8 has an X next to it because it has formulated a Community Engagement Strategy but hasn't informed anyone about it. At the time of writing it wasn't on the Town Council website. What is the point of this strategy is no one is informed of it? Hardly community engagement! So 5 out of the minimum 9.

This would be fascinating and courageous of the Town Council to do. Therefore unlikely to happen!

The Town Council has been getting away with just a the Mayor's Report at the Annual Town Meeting. Now it will need to inform residents of what it has been up to. 

After the 2 damning reports into the Town Council, the town Council could have gotten away with them as they were both unqualified.

In my view to pass this test the Town Council needs to change. It needs to inform and engage, neither which it has done in the past. Secrecy still abounds with meetings not publicised and minutes and agendas for some committee meeting not on the website. Of course they could take the easy way out of do schools. But this is a large Town Council and the largest Town in the County. It should do more to engage with residents.

I don't know it the Town Clerk is employed under NALC?SLCC terms and conditions.

The Town Council has some way to go to meeting all the tests. CPALC will be the ones to judge whether St Neots Town Council is worthy of the status of Quality Town Council.

The demise of Priorities or a large bill for SNTC

St Neots News and Crier - 18/11/2010

In an article about the withdrawal of funding by HDC for the Town Centre Initiative there was a bit of a revelation. John Davies said The Priorities newsletter may have to go.

I know very little about the TCI but I have been informed that SNTC pays 25% of the costs of Priorities Magazine. Obviously it has been the HDC Council Taxpayer who has been funding the other 75%. This is important. It means the Council Taxpayer - one way or another - has been paying for Priorities magazine.

This poses a problem for St Neots Town Council. To regain Quality Town Council status it needs produce a newsletter 4 times a year. With the withdrawal of funding this could mean a potential bill of an extra £23,400 a year.

UPDATE: I see from the Town Council budget proposal the 25% share is £3,690. This would mean an extra £11,070 would have to be found. Much less than the £23,400 I thought the potential bill could be.

So the Town Council accounts didn't come out too well!

I see the Town Council ran into a number of criticisms over the way the Town Council is run. According to the News and Crier the Town Council was criticised over:


Grant Thornton said: "The reporting of the financials in a timely, reliable and meets the needs of local people." I've been going on about the bad service St Neots residents have been receiving since the start of this blog back on 3rd November 2010. What I said back then was: "What I found by reading this was a whole bunch of meetings had taken place without the agendas being published on their website." It never got much better than that with missing meeting from the website throughout the year. The Town Council knew there was a problem and did nothing about it.

Grant Thornton said: "The non-existence of a medium term plan." The Town Council used to have a forecast in the first Forward Plan. But the Liberal Democrats messed this up. What I said about the first Forward Plan was: "The budget forecasts was a load of muck and could never be relied on. I do realise that this is a forecast. A Council cannot just make wild budget forecasts. Changes in the budget forecast and other variations must be able to be identified and reported. This didn't happen."

Grant Thornton said: "Not publishing the key financial documents on its website." The Town Council replied that the website was being rebuilt. But what the Town Council forgets is this was the case during the 2009/10 financial year. 6 months on from the end of the financial year and the Town Council is only now rebuilding the website. - Shockingly bad excuse.

Grant Thornton said: "The Forward Plan has only limited details of future financial plans."
This is what I said on my blog back on 20th August 2010 after finally finding a "Forward Plan": "The second missing section is the forward financial projections."

What really puzzles me is Cllr Chapman and his rants.

With the building of the ECC there would be a change in the balance sheet as the Town Council took on a loan of £450,000. The £120,000 budget savings mainly came from a cut in staffing levels - some of which were to the detriment of the Town Council. What I can't fathom out is the following:

Except this was for the 2009/10 accounts. The residents of Love's Farm and Eynesbury Manor weren't actually annexed until the beginning of 2010/11 financial year. So Councillor Barry Chapman is spinning false information.

snrednek says: The freedom loving Liberal Democrats aren't so freedom loving when it comes to communicating with residents. They would rather have robes for the Town Mayor than a properly functioning website communicating with and informing residents. Under the Liberal Democrats this Town Council has had a bumpy ride. Whilst many of the problems were inherited, it was their inaction over resolving these problems that exacerbated the situation. This report only confirms what I've said in another blog entry, that this Liberal Democrat run Town Council is rudderless and leaderless.

When are technical difficulties actually technical difficulties?

Many months ago I had a go at the Town Council about the bad website is runs. (Is the Town Council website "Fit for purpose" - 16th February 2010.) Eventually all the Town Council did was cover themselves with "due to technical difficulties". But what does "technical difficulties" actually mean?

These aren't really "technical difficulties". The website isn't working, the links are broken and we don't know how to fix them. This is more likely. Because The Town Mayor gets new clothes but the website is falling apart. It is not as though the website doesn't change. The bits in green and yellow keep changing.

In a letter from the Auditors I am informed of the following:

IF the website is in the process of being upgraded why not inform website users of this rather than use the term "technical difficulties". I just don't believe what I'm being told by this Town Council!

The "Protest" numbers game

The Protest numbers are up for dispute. As they always are.

"It was a resounding success with nearly 200 people showing up for the protest" says protest organiser Cllr Steve van de Kerkhove.

Yet there is discrepancy with the Danny Noonan, Facebook protest, and his "150 turnout, well done to everyone involved, thank you"

Even the Town and Crier said the numbers were "dozens".

Cllr Barry Chapman (Conservative) gave the figure as "50".

The picture in the News and Crier shows about 100 adults and children.

In the end whether this is either nearly 200 or 50, both numbers were small beer. To make this count the protest needed a minimum of 3,000 people to turn up. They didn't.

Where does the protest go now?

They had the march and now the protesters are thinking what can we do next? The Facebook site has been very silent on this issue. The natural progression would be to make the protest into a political movement and stand for council. But this protest was mainly organised by the Liberal Democrats and therefore a new political movement for St Neots would disadvantage the Liberal Democrat elite.

There are some who want to take this further and compare the small numbers to the poll tax demonstrations in 1991. There were far larger demonstrations in 1990.

If there is no way forward then it is likely to be a damp squib.

What could they do to carry on the protest? Here are some ideas:

Call a Town Meeting and hold a Parish Poll on the subject. This would cost money, but SNTC has lots in reserves. The downside is the Facebook protest was an utter failure at a leaflet campaign.

Demonstrate outside Pathfinder House. Go and protest at the next Council or Cabinet Meeting. Of course this would take time and effort to organise.

Don't pay the parking charges or the fines. Set up a protest where people simply park and don't pay. Needs a good support network.

Stand candidates against Conservative Councillors. The Liberal Democrats won't be happy about this one.

The problem with this campaign is where does it go now? I hope it will turn out to be a damp squib and the demo will turn out to be the last act in a political PANTOMIME.

Protest without music?

St Neots News and Crier - 29/07/2010

I read that Steve van de Kerkhove, District Councillor and Town Councillor has called off the music part of protest this coming Sunday. Member of the Licensing Committee, Steve says: "We are not going to have an amplifier or music because there's a licensing issue". DOH!

To find out what licensing issue was I looked up on the HDC website to see if any licences had been applied for. The Town Council does have a licence for the playing of music on Sundays. If the Town Council supports this protest why isn't the Town Council allowing this licence to be used?

There is something called a Temporary Event Notice which organisers have to put in for regulated entertainment. On the licensing website there is no Temporary Event Notice.

So the "licensing issue" is they didn't send in a Temporary Events Notice. Not really a licensing issue! Just an issue of bad organisation! I just hope they have informed the Police of this demonstration?