Statement
of Thanet Green Party Re Council Standards Committee meeting 21 November
Thanet
Green Party condemns the shameful and unacceptable response by the two main
political parties to the critical report aimed at improving Thanet councillors’
conduct.
The
four independent members of the council’s Standards Committee, who produced the
report, resigned immediately after the committee’s meeting on Thursday when the
party leaders and councillors angrily denounced the report’s findings.
The
walk-out by the independent group followed these attacks and a decision by the
committee to ask the authors to rewrite the report giving more evidence of
their findings.
“This
unfortunate event will serve to strengthen the public perception that Thanet
councillors do not listen to their constituents and are out of touch, unresponsive
and defensive. Instead of being an opportunity for Thanet Council and its
councillors to move forward and become more open and democratic, the meeting
last night took a big step backwards.This was a classic case of shooting the
messenger.”
Pulling no
punches, their report published earlier in the week, said that the council was
seen as secretive; that councillors appeared to be out of touch; did not engage
with or listen to residents and community
groups; and there was local suspicion of corruption. The report also cited examples of councillors being rude
and abusive towards each other and on occasion making threats to members of the
public. The report pointed out that some councillors have disobeyed council
rules.
Despite its
highly critical findings, the report had intended to present and honest picture
of public perceptions. Unfortunately, most of the councillors at the Standards
Committee did not see it this way and were extremely angry and defensive.Labour Leader Clive Hart, his deputy Allan Poole and Cabinet Members Iris Johnston and Michelle Fennel, attacked and verbally bullied the report authors in a quite extraordinary way. Instead of seeing the report for what it was – a starting point for an important debate and overdue change – they regarded it as personal criticism which it clearly was not.
The views
of Conservative Leader Councillor Bob Bayford,
who had pledged to support “steps which will change the public perception
of council affairs”, were clearly not shared by his party colleagues.
Thanet
Green Party noted that some councillors attempted to divert blame for the
council’s poor reputation on Councillor Driver, who faces disciplinary action for taking pictures
of council meetings— a practice allowed
by most councils in Kent.
The Green
Party supports Councillor Driver’s principled efforts to force more
transparency and openness on to Thanet Council in his campaign to allow the
public the right to film meetings.
Councillor
Driver has been campaigning tirelessly against corruption, incompetence and secrecy at Thanet Council. He was the
first councillor to raise concerns about Pleasurama, the secret £3.4 million
TransEuropa debt, and the mismanagement
of the Royal Pavilion lease disposal.
Councillor
Driver made an audio recording of last night’s (Thursday) Standards Committee meeting. The Thanet Green
Party is happy to publish this recording. It can be accessed below.
Although
the recoding may have been made in breach of council rules we believe that
there is overwhelming public interest in making this recording publicly
available. Let the people of Thanet judge for themselves how well served they
are by their councillors.
It's great news for the two main parties. Now, they can people the committee with their chosen lackeys and can continue to cover up malpractice and incompetence. No wonder the public has so little faith in these clowns. Roll on the election when we can elect a new troupe.
ReplyDeleteI see that £2.7 millions has been paid to KCC out of reserves as TDC's share of the cost of the New Haine Road under the EKO arrangement. EKO being another secretive part of TDC. If reserves had to be used why did TDC agee for this venture knowing that it was not affordable.
ReplyDeleteThat's easy. They did it because the councillors don't understand what they are doing and they don't care because they've been doing it for years without being held to account. What this really calls into question is the competency of the district auditors. There are already big questions about how TDC hid the Transeuropa deal. Now we find that further millions have been lost on a road scheme. We haven't yet been told how many millions short they are on the Dreamland thing. How can these sums of money have been hidden from public scrutiny when there is supposed to be a body which audits the council and is not supposed to sign off the accounts until and unless they present a true and accurate picture of the state of her finances? I, for one will not be paying increased council taxes to pay for failed schemes which were concocted in secret. In my opinion, the auditors should be fired and the councillors and officers who have lost this money should answer for it in court. I can't see how immunity from prosecution can apply if you were operating in secret.
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