Sutton Council Meeting - Last Night
I went along last night and asked two questions.
1. On the benefits of a single party Strategy Committee
2. Whether the Council will be objecting to the downgrading of Epsom Hospital, A&E as quite a few Sutton residents in the Cheam or Nonsuch area actually use Epsom rather than St Helier.
I will cover these issues in separate posts.
It was fascinating to watch the debate from the public gallery as I had done for 5 years prior to coming on the Council in 1986.
It was clear to see the new Tories in action. Particularly impressive were Barry Russell, Tim Crowley and John Kennedy! They will all go far as they demonstrate that they do the research. Graham Whitham seems to have developed a new role as the "attack-dog" of the group, but of course does it with much more style than some of their previous ones! Over coming Council meetings I am sure we will see some others shine.
I would like to congratulate all the maiden speeches, especially David Theobald and David Callaghan as I would have been disappointed if St Helier Ward was now represented by 3 Councillors who never said anything at Committees or full Council's, after the contribution in the past 40 years by a range of St Helier Councillors!
I would also like to apologise to Jenny Slark, if she felt I used her comments to the Chief Executive at the induction event in April in a way that she felt they were not intended, but I'm sure she realises she also said them at the time in front of many of her own new colleagues as well as members of other parties. What she said was of course completely right!! Hopefully some of her colleagues will see sense by April next year and return Sutton to its unique structure that we were, in all parties once so proud to support! I will cover the issue of Strategy Committee in a separate posting.
Of the member questions, I thought Barry Russell's regarding a 600% increase in estate agent's fees as perhaps the most interesting. I didn't catch all of it, so I will wait until I see the minutes of this meeting.
I will cover in a number of separate postings, the Chief Executive's presentation. Suffice to say at this stage, I thought he did a superb job in presenting in effect a number of varied policy priorities for the two groups on the Council and those of us not on it to consider. It will be interesting to see how the Tories respond to this agenda as there is a lot there that could be supported by them to demonstrate their wish to secure power, rather than simply play a negative role.
The Committee recommendations were a bit dull. I thought the Tories made a lot of valid points in the "Area Action Plan" debate. Tim Crowley's speech on this items was one of the best maiden speeches I have ever heard!
I got the feeling the Lib Dems were a bit unclear as to what they really wanted. This followed on from a lack of clarity at Strategy Committee. Graham Whitham described it as "seduction" by the Lib Dems. I am a little less cynical than Graham and suspect it is more to do with Lord Tope advising the Group to hold back and wait and see what the Tories are prepared to commit to before committing themselves (it can't be knocked as it has meant they have now overtaken Richmond as the longest Lib Dem Council). Unfortunately judging from her previous approach there is a danger that Eleanor Pinfold won't want to commit to anything either, thus we end up seeing more drift, which isn't good for a supposed "Excellent" Council. If I were one of the new bright Tories I would be arguing in group that they do set out their positive agenda and use the key themes from their manifesto to start saying what they wanted from that and the Chief Executive's presentation, rather than not commit. We must wait and see how the Tories respond to the Lib Dem seduction. It really depends whether people are planning for power or really prefer opposition?
The second debate on Safecall which I thought at the time was ok, probably showed more that Eleanor should probably delegate more to colleagues as she clearly doesn't seem to have the time to deal with these issues quickly. If I were the Lib Dems I would be posing the question that if she ever wanted to be leader of a quarter of a billion pound organisation whether she would be prepared to do it full time as frankly it does require it. You just can't run Sutton Council form your legal practice! Whitham's speedy intervention saved the day for her, but the Tories need to be able to process decisions whether to take an item to Council a lot quicker than they demonstrated on this item.
Apart from that it was a really short meeting. Will this be what they are all like?
1. On the benefits of a single party Strategy Committee
2. Whether the Council will be objecting to the downgrading of Epsom Hospital, A&E as quite a few Sutton residents in the Cheam or Nonsuch area actually use Epsom rather than St Helier.
I will cover these issues in separate posts.
It was fascinating to watch the debate from the public gallery as I had done for 5 years prior to coming on the Council in 1986.
It was clear to see the new Tories in action. Particularly impressive were Barry Russell, Tim Crowley and John Kennedy! They will all go far as they demonstrate that they do the research. Graham Whitham seems to have developed a new role as the "attack-dog" of the group, but of course does it with much more style than some of their previous ones! Over coming Council meetings I am sure we will see some others shine.
I would like to congratulate all the maiden speeches, especially David Theobald and David Callaghan as I would have been disappointed if St Helier Ward was now represented by 3 Councillors who never said anything at Committees or full Council's, after the contribution in the past 40 years by a range of St Helier Councillors!
I would also like to apologise to Jenny Slark, if she felt I used her comments to the Chief Executive at the induction event in April in a way that she felt they were not intended, but I'm sure she realises she also said them at the time in front of many of her own new colleagues as well as members of other parties. What she said was of course completely right!! Hopefully some of her colleagues will see sense by April next year and return Sutton to its unique structure that we were, in all parties once so proud to support! I will cover the issue of Strategy Committee in a separate posting.
Of the member questions, I thought Barry Russell's regarding a 600% increase in estate agent's fees as perhaps the most interesting. I didn't catch all of it, so I will wait until I see the minutes of this meeting.
I will cover in a number of separate postings, the Chief Executive's presentation. Suffice to say at this stage, I thought he did a superb job in presenting in effect a number of varied policy priorities for the two groups on the Council and those of us not on it to consider. It will be interesting to see how the Tories respond to this agenda as there is a lot there that could be supported by them to demonstrate their wish to secure power, rather than simply play a negative role.
The Committee recommendations were a bit dull. I thought the Tories made a lot of valid points in the "Area Action Plan" debate. Tim Crowley's speech on this items was one of the best maiden speeches I have ever heard!
I got the feeling the Lib Dems were a bit unclear as to what they really wanted. This followed on from a lack of clarity at Strategy Committee. Graham Whitham described it as "seduction" by the Lib Dems. I am a little less cynical than Graham and suspect it is more to do with Lord Tope advising the Group to hold back and wait and see what the Tories are prepared to commit to before committing themselves (it can't be knocked as it has meant they have now overtaken Richmond as the longest Lib Dem Council). Unfortunately judging from her previous approach there is a danger that Eleanor Pinfold won't want to commit to anything either, thus we end up seeing more drift, which isn't good for a supposed "Excellent" Council. If I were one of the new bright Tories I would be arguing in group that they do set out their positive agenda and use the key themes from their manifesto to start saying what they wanted from that and the Chief Executive's presentation, rather than not commit. We must wait and see how the Tories respond to the Lib Dem seduction. It really depends whether people are planning for power or really prefer opposition?
The second debate on Safecall which I thought at the time was ok, probably showed more that Eleanor should probably delegate more to colleagues as she clearly doesn't seem to have the time to deal with these issues quickly. If I were the Lib Dems I would be posing the question that if she ever wanted to be leader of a quarter of a billion pound organisation whether she would be prepared to do it full time as frankly it does require it. You just can't run Sutton Council form your legal practice! Whitham's speedy intervention saved the day for her, but the Tories need to be able to process decisions whether to take an item to Council a lot quicker than they demonstrated on this item.
Apart from that it was a really short meeting. Will this be what they are all like?
posted by Charlie Mansell at 3:09 pm
5 Comments:
Assuming you believe the local newspapers, the Tories were quite disappointed not to get a majority in Sutton. Having encountered a few of their members, I am astonished that they managed to get any seats at all, clearly a protest vote against the sitting councillor. The Lib Dems seem to be struggling with the idea that they no longer have an overwhelming numerical supriortiy in council and this may account for their collective antipathy towards Cameron's hoodie huggers.
Seems a reasonable analysis.
With just a further 2% swing the Tories could have had exactly half the seats on the Council. It was that close.
The Lib Dems still seem a little nervous to me. Clearly they still need time to wring the necks of the stratgists who suggested that they should fight 17 of the 18 wards seriously to assist their MP's vote in 3 years time when ALDC advice is generally to fight for a 2/3rd majority and if you win any more, then lucky you. This divergence between their MP's and Council Strategy could be their undoing if they ever repeat it again. Expect them to target for 39 seats only in 2010.
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