What worth a councillor?

Ipswich Borough Councillors from all parties work hard for their communities. There are a very few exceptions but in the main we put in hours on casework, reading, attending meetings and training sessions, community events, committee meetings evening and daytime and we are on the end of a phone 24/7.

People have literally laughed when we've told them how much backbenchers receive when they find out it is less than £3800. Most are astonished.

We have refused the recommendations from the independent panel for over a decade and have not had an increase for 10 years.

Had we have taken their recommendations, the remuneration would now be a thousand pounds more a year than we currently receive. This would not have felt right in a time of austerity but I don't know of one single person who has not had a rise in over a decade, if they are still in the same place. Time to stop being embarrassed about this and do what's right, reward where it is due and value what we do.

Furthermore most of us do not claim for travel expenses to and from our meetings, as is our right. My only claims have been for unique travel to the Bournemouth LGA conference a couple of times in 10 years.

Some of us are out of pocket because of the time commitment we have to give (average of 15 hours per week but many do more) and all of us sacrifice family time and leisure on a regular basis. I'd like to think a reasonable person would recognise this and not begrudge us a penny.

I was determined to do something about this and so I contacted the leader of the council who agreed with me that we should have a consensus amongst the leaders of each party, on behalf of our groups.

Even though we can disagree vehemently on how to go about achieving our aims it is not as often as people might suspect. Our influence on national problems is limited but the one thing we must do together is ensure we attract good people to become councillors and that we encourage them from a wide, diverse background. My personal wish is for more young parents. Councillor Jones said at the council meeting that they don't have any special talents. I disagree. All ages have their own special unique talents and wisdom. I think an old wise head with experience of life is equally valuable - just in a different way but I don't want to mix with just wise old heads in my political world.


The point is our low remuneration (one of the lowest for backbenchers but one of the highest for special responsibility) needed addressing and I felt we should value ourselves a bit more than to just take the easy route and ignore the whole thing once again.

Ignoring would've meant in 4 years time at the next review, we would've fallen even more behind and this would be a huge decentivisation, requiring an even bigger increase.

An alternative proposal to the one put forward by the panel, was agreed together which corrected my concerns - increase backbenchers basic allowance and re-calculate the special responsibility allowance to address the inbalance and shrink the gap between the 2.

I was upset with the Ipswich Star yesterday and I said so at the meeting. Cllr Ellesmere and the Mayor both concurred. Their headline did not reflect what was actually going on and all the facts.

I'm looking forward to seeing the follow up and apology in todays paper

Ipswich Conservative News and Action

Normally August would be a quiet time, a month in which to catch one's breath and to reflect.

However, we Ipswich conservative activists have been working several times a week to talk to residents, listen to their problems and views but most of all have been busy holding the labour administration to account.

There are so many decisions they are taking that appear to be riding roughshod over the thinking and wishes of anybody else. I can forgive them for not wanting to indulge their opposition but this is not what I am alluding to here.

Let's take the Ravenswood proposal. Nearly 100 council homes that the local residents are up in arms about - see my last post and yet the language and stance shows they have already made up their minds about this.

The issue for me is one of common sense - In a few years time those new homes may very well have been bought by the tenants under the right to buy which will mean we will lose an asset, and the tenant will have bought at a huge discount, whereas putting funds into shared ownership or the Help to Buy supports people in owning their own home from the beginning. But then that would be more inspiring and empowering, wouldn't it?!

Developers have been put off in the past by the Labour administration's insistence on things like 35% social housing to be included, which means that Labour now use under-building as an excuse to grow their share of the vote with large council developments. The public meeting showed that others disagree with them and would prefer to see help in other ways, alongside building a few council houses but peppered around the town. This way integration doesn't have to wait for tenants to buy their house.

Before that we had the call in on Argyle street concerning the Bangladeshi Support Centre. This has caused many problems within the community because it seems that Cllr Ellesmere was dealing with only one part of the group whereas another part of the group was also hoping to benefit from the site - I won't go into too much detail here - and had no knowledge of what the Labour administration were doing.

This means that Cllr Ellesmere is having to rethink the whole idea - something that wouldn't have been necessary if he had opened up the lease to all, using a competitive process. The whole point of my call in was because of my concern about fairness and openness but I didn't expect my case to be proved immediately afterwards. It was because of the publicity brought by the call in that other parts of the Bangladeshi community were made aware.
This has caused hurt to a wonderful group of people and that is why I have left them to it. It is far better for there to be a win/win situation rather than have even more newspaper articles. I will not be giving out any press releases on this subject and just hope that Cllr Ellesmere does the right thing.

Overview and Scrutiny (who agreed to look at this as part of my request at the call in) can ensure that this never happens again.

On a lighter note, we had a stall at the Ipswich maritime festival for all 3 days of the event and covered by conservative councillors and activists. We gave out Ben's newsletters, surveys and balloons. My own grandson proudly took one of the balloons but burst it within an hour, which brought a few tears so I made sure it was replaced the next day. I went again but this time with my whole family on the Sunday, which gave me much joy as I watched my grandchildren having a great time at the children's fun fair and making clay pots to take home to paint. It was a great event - and I never went near the beer tent!

Last but not least, I have instigated a new regular community activity for Stoke park in the Cambridge drive area. A resident brought up something that had been bothering me for quite a while, pertaining to that one part of my ward, which was a lack of a community centre. I asked an IBC community development officer to look at providing some activities at the Chantry Gym Centre on Birkfield drive and to cut a long story short, I will be seeking funds at the next Area Committee meeting, which I know will be supported by my fellow stoke park councillors. This will pay for the hire of the room, for a year, and we hope to bring in a variety of leisure activities for those that live nearby - crafts, pilates, tea dances, film evenings and perhaps a lunch. Look out for the flyers and posters which will be advertising it soon.

The northern fringe was an important paper at the last executive and you can see the film of the meeting courtesy of Ipswich Spy. However I will blog in more detail about this when it is brought to the next full council meeting 17th September. Ben Gummer spoke at the executive as we are concerned about the masterplan and infrastructure - so watch this space.

Why I Walked Out of Full Council last night

The residents of Stoke park have a right to know why I walked out of full council, following the Q&A questions from our Group to the Labour administration, and I have every intention of giving a full explanation right here on this blog.

I have been a councillor for over 7 years now and never have I walked out of any council meeting, although recently it has been a close call. So let me start there.

I can only describe the Labour administration and some of their backbenchers as a Muster of Peacocks looking so pleased with themselves and enjoying the mocking, jeering, juvenile laughter that tends to come our way.

Now I don't mind a bit of banter - it's good for all of us - but it has to be appropriate and not be detrimental to the professionalism of the environment.

Let me take you back, just a little, to the questions I put to Councillor Smart when I was campaigning for the saving of the no 16 bus route to Stoke Park. Councillor Smart assured us that all would be well with ALL bus routes but in doing so decided to take a swipe at me, alluding (or even inferring) that I wouldn't be around next year anyway, so any long term guarantees to me were not really relevant. As I am up for election next year, this was obviously a 'funny' meaning I would lose my seat. In the public gallery was a resident of mine who came to hear the answers to the bus question. So disgusted was she by the behaviour of labour councillors that she said she would never come again. I was furious to say the least and apologised on their behalf. But that's not the point. Our public gallery appears to be shrinking - I wonder why.

As an aside - I am the only Tory out of 12 councillors who represent the SW of Ipswich - read on if you think they should be left without being held to account by a member of the opposition. See if you think your concerns will be heard, especially if you're a Tory voter.

Now call me old-fashioned, but when a man is not as gentlemanly as he should be to a woman, I rather wonder how they were brought up, in their socialist household - or is the education just limited to 'Let's hate the Tories and I'm a socialist so you will be too son. Don't you let me down now boy, we have to stick together at all times and fight these nasty people. You know so that we can all have choices in life, our own voices and all be winners by ensuring the State looks after us from Cradle to Grave. So don't you dare not be a member of the labour party or the union, boy!'

Some of you may not know but the questions are submitted beforehand and so it gives plenty of time for the portfolio holder to put together an answer. I often think that some of them get together to think up the wittiest, most derogatory, patronising replies and that making people laugh is far more important than actually answering the question.
IF I WANT TO HEAR A BLOODY COMEDIAN I WOULD BUY TICKETS AND SEE A REAL ONE!

Kevin Algar a well known Tory activist asked a couple of questions to the Leader of the council, David Ellesmere. Every time Kevin asks a questions, Ellesmere always starts by saying 'you are a Tory member' as if that somehow negates the substance or validity of the question!  SO, all you Tory members out there, best not ask the Leader a question, he doesn't take you very seriously at all.
Now Kevin is a unique and quirky individual who is as bright as a button when it comes to political stuff but he was told quite calmly, by Councillor Ellesmere, that the question Kevin had received from a resident (hence asking on her behalf at council) was 'as bizarre as you'.  Calling a resident (that resides in your own ward!) as bizarre is totally unacceptable and he didn't even answer the question. As Kevin stated at the end 'Thankyou for so eloquently not answering my questions today'.

And this is a man who wants to be your MP! - Can you imagine Ben Gummer ever saying that to ANY resident, never mind infer that a second absent resident was also bizarre. Where is the grace, the professionalism, the courtesy that our people expect from us? 

I was angry but at this point had not yet decided to leave. Worse was to come.

Last night Councillor Pope asked 2 questions. the first one to councillor Smart was about bus 31 and reminding him of his promise and using the word 'infer'. Smart commenced by telling us that the word 'infer' caused some discussion with his colleagues and proceeded to tell Richard - a teacher - what it means, all in an endeavour to undermine him and get a cheap laugh. Again, forgiveable but by now I was starting to feel ashamed of the proceedings. More was to follow.

His second question to Councillor Jones was answered by starting with the words 'you've spelt embarrassed' incorrectly. Councillor Pope responded immediately by saying he was dyslexic and would she apologise to which she adamantly replied No!

Now firstly, if you want to humiliate a teacher then there's an easy way to do that - pick up on mistakes. The spelling had nothing to do with the question, was irrelevant, could've been the officer who typed up the question but again, let's knock a Tory when we can and have a bit of fun. If councillor Jones had apologised immediately, I would not have walked out but this was a pantomine scene too much.

Councillor Pope, Harsant and SCC councillor Murray walked out with me along with Kevin Algar. I was disgusted and still am. a night's sleep has not curbed my determination to put a stop to the frivolous.

The labour group are behaving worse each month and I have told my leader that if he doesn't put a complaint in, I will. Let's have some fun and banter (I have actually laughed out loud at some of the Leaders comments - I am not without a great sense of humour) but let's draw a line on patronising humiliation to get a laugh at someone else's expense when what they should be doing is answering the bloody questions.

So people of Ipswich, don't be put off by coming along - I promise you that I will personally be working towards helping the administration and back benchers to give the taxpayers what they deserve, but if they don't co-operate on this, I do not rule out walking out again.