They make
deals with failing ferry companies and property speculators wasting £millions in taxpayers money in the process. They
are incompetent. Supporting plans and investing public money in airports, ferry and container terminals and railway stations which
most people know have no sustainable
future. They pour huge amounts of money into dodgy joint venture organisations
like East Kent Opportunities which will never pay back investment value. They
allow the over-development of our rapidly disappearing greenfield land. They agree senior
management restructures which cost
hundreds of thousands in redundancies payments and gagging orders, only to revert
back to the old structure less than 3 years
later. They conduct their business in secrecy. They won’t allow the public to
film meetings. They vote through rules permitting councillors to procure gifts
and hospitality up to £99.99 without the
need to declare these inducements. Some
of them are corrupt, using inside
knowledge and influence to make personal profit. Others are dismissive, rude
and downright insulting towards the public who elected them.
And when Independent,
non-party political, Members of the Council Standards Committee warn that their
behaviour threatens to bring the Council into disrepute what do they do? They
round on these well intentioned volunteers, reject their report and bully them
mercilessly until they resign in disgust.
Quite frankly
the political leadership of Thanet Council is more suited to North Korea than
Northdown Road
And it’s not
just me saying that. Read the local papers. Read the blogs. Read the Facebook
pages. Listen to and watch the news reports about Thanet on TV and Radio. Virtually
anyone with an opinion about Thanet Council and its political leadership is
massively critical.
So why is it
like this?
Well in my
view the way in which the Council is being managed is the cause of a lot of the problems we are seeing. For the
past decade or so, Thanet has been run by what’s called a Leader/ Cabinet system.
Which means that the current Leader, Clive Hart, and his team of 5 Cabinet Councillors make virtually all of the important decisions about how TDC is run including
how the Council’s multi-£million budget
is spent.
More and more
people are now thinking that this system of political management is wrong. It concentrates power, influence and
decision making in the hands of too few people, It allows for the domination of
a single political party. This means that decisions are unlikely to be made on
the basis of a proper balanced debate.
It means that alternative views and ideas are not taken seriously. It means
that it’s much easier to make mistakes and bad decisions.
The other problem
with this system is patronage. Cabinet members depend on the good will of the
Leader to keep their posts and their lucrative responsibility allowances,
Council officers are reluctant to
disagree with political leaders for fear
of their jobs. This often means that
Council Leaders and Cabinet members often
become surrounded with yes mem and women who, because seldom dare to question or disagree with their
patrons.
This type of
unhealthy relationship can have disastrous impact upon the quality of decision
making and can even lead to councillors and officers turning a blind eye to bad
practice, misconduct and corruption by Councillor Leaders and Cabinet members.
But don’t take my word for it. Several senior Thanet councillors have confided in me that
they had serious doubts about Sandy Ezeikel’s activities when he was the
Council leader. Others have told me that were desperately unhappy about the
Pleasurama and TransEuropa decisions. But despite these worries and doubts, they all admitted to keeping quite because they were worried about how their positions
in the Cabinet or on other committees might be affected if they broke ranks. In Thanet we are all living with the consequences of a
flawed system of political management at the Council which has led to
incompetence, corruption and poor service delivery.
But it doesn’t
need to be like to this.
The Localism
Act 2011 gives residents the tools to fight back against corrupt, incompetent councils
like Thanet. Using this piece of legislation its possible to force the Council
to abandon it undemocratic, secretive, Leader/ Cabinet system of management and
replace it with something better. The
committee system.
This approach
to managing the Council puts a stop to a tiny cabal of councillors from the
same political party exercising all the
power. Power is spread out to several committees and backbench councillors from
all political parties become engaged in making decisions. It’s even possible
for members of the public to be co-opted on to committees to give councillors
the benefit of their specialist knowledge and experience. An inclusive approach
to decision making means that wiser choices are made and it also destroys the power of patronage.
So how do we
make this happen. Simple. We must raise a petition asking the Council to change
the Leader/ Cabinet system of management to a committee system. The petition must
have a minimum number of 4869 signatures (5% of registered electors). If this
figure is achieved and the signatures verified then the Council MUST hold a
referendum of all voters. If the change is approved then then Council must
abolish the Cabinet/ Leader system.
Funnily enough
a campaign to make such a change has
just begun on Canterbury. Many people across Canterbury have become
heartily fed up with the way the City Council politicians are managing things.
They are now collecting signatures to force a referendum on the introduction of a democratic committee system.
Well I say if
democracy is good enough for Canterbury its good enough Thanet!. So lets go to work.
If you are
interested in becoming involved in starting a campaign to pettion for change
please get in touch with me. This would be a non-party political campaign. It’s
purely about making our council more democratic, accountable and effective. So whatever
your views, Whatever you affiliations e-mail me on ianddriver@yahoo.co.uk
It’s time for
change in Thanet.
Do you want
to be part of it?
Ian
ReplyDeleteI reckon I could get a couple of hundred signatures from my own circle given sufficient time, I even struck up a conversation with our postman this morning for the first time about how bad things are with TDC, especially inconsistencies and hardships caused over rubbish collections, and apparent failure to consider adapting more to the system that was already in place.
This is not the way forward - it only creates a slightly larger cabal of the same faces. And as you point out they will keep quiet for their salaries. And TDC ignores the laws anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe need arrests for corruption and fraud: it is so widespread and tolerated. Sandy is only the first. And barred from office for incompetence.
It might not be perfect Anon but its better than what we have got. It would also be possible to make other changes such as electing one third of the Council every year like some other districts do. That would help independents to get elected and keep the big parties on their toes, I have friends in Canterbury who tell me that the petition for a referendum is going down well and that the political bosses are becoming nervous. I think its worth a try. We can let things carry on like this.
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