This was the week ( or 3 ) that was

Rocke · This was the week ( or 3 ) that was

As promised, here's my round-up of life on The Council since the last time I wrote.

Once again, apologies for it not being a weekly event ( so far ) but it will be from now.

Council Business:

Been to all the committees that I'm a member of, so now much more aware of what's involved.
We've got a lot of very supportive officers ( staff ) and I'm fortunate to have been involved with a lot of them.
Some Departments have a poor reputation, and I can understand why.
Our job now is to bring it home to them that putting things on hold is not good enough - sort things either way, it can ( and will ) be done, or it cannot ( and explain why ).

Politics have to be bulldozed.
Some parties seem more interested in scoring political points than helping out in making the best we can of what we've got.
A number of really well respected and highly experienced councillors have been prevented from having positions of influence because of stupid rules .
( More under the 'Politics' heading later ).

This Council - and indeed this administration - will have very difficult decisions to make in the next year or so and we need to ensure that people understand the options and the consequences.

One example is recycling.
I've expressed a belief in the past that the onus is on the County Borough of Blaenau Gwent to achieve targets for the percentage of refuse recycled and given the relatively extremely levels of Council Tax it should be doing it, not getting residents to do the work for it, creating Tidy Trev in the process.
However, now that I'm party to 'inside info' I realise the importance of recycling. If we continue to gobble up the landfill area we have at the same rate we have been then EU ( and subservient UK ) regulations will penalise our Borough, which means either less to spend on trying to improve things or higher Council Tax.
We do need to change our 'putting out the rubbish' habits.
My attitude to the Tidy Trev initiative has changed, and so have our household's habits - now he has something to collect from us every Tuesday.
I ask you to consider doing your bit.
I also wonder why the message couldn't have been put across better a few years ago.

There's a major piece of policy regarding our Children's and Young People's Development Plan.
All Councils in Wales have to come up with a plan regarding the educational, social and cultural needs of Tomorrow's World.
I chaired the meeting on this.
Our plan has been regarded as "exemplary" by the Welsh Assembly, which is a glowing tribute to the team and in particular one officer concerned - Well done S.A !!!
It's now up to the 'Councillor Team' to get it up and running.

Had a meeting with the main players in the Regeneration of the town centre and all councillors of the surrounding area.
I wasn't overly impressed with the ideas - and this was a great occasion when every councillor thought of the town and there was only one political spat ( and it wasn't from an opposition member, to be fair ).
It would be really nice if this would be the way we work together in the best interests of you.
I think we might have to put a bit more pressure on some of the people at the business end of the work to get them to sort out what you - via your expressed views - want to see ( and how you don't want things to develop ) and that's where we have to stand up and be counted. Despite being well under way there's still a lot that can be shaped, and if it isn't then we, as representatives of you all, have to take the responsibility for that.
I came up with some suggestions and they were all but pooh-poohed.
Not good enough !!

Ward Business:

Has loads of requests for financial help via the so-called Halfpenny Rate.
If you don't know, this is a additional charge to your Council Tax which is then allocated to each councillor, who decides which organisations to make contributions to.
I'm not a lover of it because it makes a councillor look good when all they're doing is redistributing your money which you had no say in parting with anyway.
In effect I get about £120 per month to dish out, although I can decide to let it mount up and so have, for example, £720 available after 6 months.
It can also be pooled between the councillors in a ward.
However, Delwyn and Mark have started allocating their amounts so we're going our separate ways on this, as indeed do most councillors - so there's no split here.

I've decided that I'll wait a while and will give priority to those organisations who haven't had anything from anyone yet.

This is because if funds are allocated per month, but there's a sudden rush of applications at, say, Christmas then those who apply later might have £20 instead of the £100 paid to one in July, for example.

Leaving it until later means I can ensure that if this happens the the effect isn't such a problem - 7 applications in December means they could have £100 also.

LET ME MAKE IT CLEAR THOUGH - your councillors aren't in a competition to please the most people or pay the most to every applicant.
You might get £100 off Mr. A and only £50 off Mr. Rocke and Mr. Rocke's not going to be concerned about your organisation regarding him as stingy compared to Cllr. A. I know you wouldn't, but it's an example of how I intend to reallocate your money back into the ward.

Talking of which............

I've stated that any 'profit' I make will be reinvested in the ( Cwmtillery ) ward. Although I won't know the actual figures until April I've a good idea of how much leeway I've got and I'm pleased to say ( from the point of view of being able to help ) that I've already been able to commit funds to two organisations that are helping Tomorrow's World, the young people of this area.
These were among quite a few who sent letters asking for a donation.

So you see, between the 3 of us and with the additional resources I'm able to release we should be able to support any organisation that needs it, no matter how small or large it is ( the donation, as well as the org ).

Now - the POLITICS !!!
( You can now switch off Wink

)

Firstly, you may have read a few things in The Gazette this week about allowances.
Good on the People's Voice for voluntarily sticking to their manifesto and taking a 50% cut in their Special Responsibility Allowances.
It would be nice if their influence enabled their aim of a 50% reduction across the board to become reality.
However, they are not in control so we should understand why that hasn't happened. The other members of the partnership didn't make that promise, so don't listen to any fool that tries to make out they did, especially fools that don't even check their 'facts' before launching into a clearly politically-motivated piece of mischief.

Talking of which........

Cllr. Scully's piece of mischief in the same paper a few weeks ago has rebounded on him, so much so that he now needs the support of Cllr McCarthy in another crafted letter.
Yet another example of shooting their party in the foot !!

You won't believe how many people approached me after my somewhat cutting riposte to Cllr Scully's letter in the Gazette, all of them congratulating me. It went on for nearly a week.

Now the past few days have been spent with more joining in - what a double-header, the two biggest hitters on the Labour group upset within 2 weeks.
I should have been doing this years ago !!

What's more, Cllr. Scully managed to make a tenuous link between the Council's Statement of Accounts for 2007/8 and my letter to the Gazette in order to personally attack me in Council last Monday.

What a adrenaline rush I had !

I'm not sure if he could see far enough to observe me smirking on the opposite side of the chamber while he was there doing his 'I have in my hand a copy of the article' parody of Neville Chamberlain in reverse.

Not even 2 months in and I've out-manoeuvred an old hand of over 30 years standing to such an extent that he's gunning for me !!
And a coordinated attack by his leader the next day in the press.

Next it will be bad stories in the nationals put about by HQ.
I wonder if Gordon Brown's spin doctors have heard of me yet ?

I'm happy, because all the time they're doing this they're doing a disservice to the Labour Party in this area, hastening the day The Party will come to its senses, remove the causes of its failures and get back to doing what it was set up for - to come up with innovative ideas to improve lives ( remember the idea of the NHS ? ), to bring them to fruition and to keep them fully on track to continue to support people.

Not to change and just rubbish any opposition that comes along.

There's been a lot said about individuals being bankrupt.
Being financially bankrupt is an unfortunate fact of life, moral bankruptcy is a failing of the soul.

See you next week.

PS - don't forget to post any items you'd like info. on.
If I can get it and give it then I will.

Cheers.

Ian

Now I know how to get the last word in,stay up until the early hours and post a novel Wink

I see the political heels are already getting well and truly stuck in,which will not do any good for furthering the interests of us the poor electorate.I've said previously that in my opinion unless the infighting stops which is unlikely,any good intentions will get bogged down or lost in the endless layers of bureacracy and point scoring(which seems to be a 2 way street even this early into the new 'independant' administration) Exclamation

It's all too easy to get drawn into these games and lose sight of the real goals Sad

This is no reflection on Rocke posting his updates here on a regular basis,or if not I personally would be happy to discuss the issues with him along with the merits of the best rock song on the Commercial Jukebox(answers on a post card) Rolling Eyes

Rocke

Morris Minor

Rocke · So right

Just a quick update.

Morris' post is very pertinent to things that happened in the Council meeting this week.
The Borough has representatives on outside bodies such as the National Parks Committee, Police Authority etc.

We've been well served by two members for years and it was thought in the best interests of us all that they continue.
They accepted their nominations - only for 'The Chairman of the ... Party' as he described himself to launch into a tirade regarding how unfair it was to appoint these, and that the Labour party was taking legal advice because they believed that in one instance the appointment should be one proportional basis ie. that they should decide who represented you and me.
We were then told that party rules meant that any positions offered by the ruling group could not be made to individuals but to the party.

In other words despite not being in power it still wants to decide who represents us on these other bodies.

After this we ( that's the Council, not the ruling group ) had to nominate governors for some schools.
We don't ask for volunteers, the way it's done is that people get asked if they would like to do it, or they ask if there's a vacancy, or if not then the ruling group puts a name forward.

Two ( other ) Labour members were nominated by The Partnership, on the basis that the schools were in their wards and so they were better placed to sit as governors.
Amazingly they declined, citing that 'in the current political climate they felt it inappropriate to accept' or similar words.
Both said almost exactly the same wording.

Can you believe it ?

I bet the next few Labour meetings will be highly charged.
For what it's worth I hope the councillors involved get wind of this posting.

Our reps. on outside bodies deserve praise for putting the people who voted them in first and I hope they press that point home and don't get stick.
As for the other 2 I'm very disappointed because on the courses and meetings I've been to I've found them to be very nice people and I regarded them as genuine colleagues, representatives of the people who elected us, not mere cannon fodder for the mischievous small clique of power brokers that are all too evident.

This was the week ( or 3 ) that was

So right