ELECTION PLEDGES IT SEEMS HAVE A BEST BEFORE DATE

The Liberal Democrats both locally and nationally before the last election warned us of the proposed Tory VAT Tax bombshell. Nick Clegg during the Leaders debates clearly declared on the 8th of April 2010 that:

"We will not have to raise VAT to deliver our promises...Let me repeat that: Our plans do not require a rise in VAT"

Local Lib Dem's including parliamentary candidates Cllr Andrew Simpson, Cllr Paul Varnsverry, Cllr Scott Collins and Cllr Portio Wilson all campaigned throughout the election against the rise and accused the Tories of introducing a regressive tax which would hit the poorest the hardest.

So you would have thought it would have been easy for the same Local Lib Dem's at the town hall to back a Labour Group motion tabled at last nights Council meeting which read as follows:

“This Council expresses its concern at the increase in VAT announced in the budget on June 22^nd 2010, which will have a disproportionate impact on the poorest families in Northampton.

The Council recognises the Government’s need to bring down the borrowing deficit and the need to make decisions over tax and spending. The Council notes however that this should be done in as fair a manner as possible, should not have a disproportionate impact on the poor and should not risk economic recovery.

The Council further notes the report produced by the Institute of Fiscal Studies which says that the increase in VAT will impact those on low incomes the hardest and this includes pensioners living on savings.

This Council instructs the Leader of the Borough Council to write to the Deputy Prime Minister asking him to reconsider the VAT increase to 20%.”

But no they voted en-block against it !!

"The economy is in a worse state than we thought" they cried"

Not true as a) All the opposition parties are shown the red book way before the election and b) The deficit was expected on polling day to be £178bn but bettered to be only around £155bn post election a £23bn boost for the coalition government before a single cut has been made!!

"Its needed to balance the books" they bleated

Not true as the Institute of Financial Studies director Robert Chote pointed out to Mr Clegg when he told him that "the Coalition would not have had to raise VAT if Mr Osborne had not also cut other taxes, such as those on the profits of corporations".

"It won't be all that bad as inflation will fall" they squirmed


Not true as Sally Copley, head of policy at Save the Children UK recently outlined when she informed Parliament that "A 20% VAT rate means the poorest parents will see their VAT bill rise to at least £1,600 a year — affecting already overstretched budgets — and driving some into the arms of loan sharks," Copley said. "We mustn't forget that 3.9 million children are still living in poverty in this country — and that's just not good enough. The very poorest didn't create the financial crisis — so the most vulnerable in society should not be asked to pay the price for clearing it up."

I therefore last night pleaded with them to vote with their consciences and to stay true to their individual principles. I asked them to think about how shallow they will look if having campaigned against the rise in VAT before the election that they now are seen to be backing it.

All though to no avail, as en masse the Lib Dem with heads held low succumbed to the whip and the yellow sheep were safely shepherded in to back their Tory colleagues in voting the motion down

But one comment from Cllr John Yates summed up the whole sorry affair for me and reminded me why I struggle to trust any of the parties these days. His response to the debate speaks not only for itself but sums up the state we are now in. He said

"I don't see what all the fuss is about, all the political parties promise to do one thing before the election and then afterwards they have to think again and then change their minds and have to do something else, it's natural"

Indeed John indeed.

The minuets were singed by the chair

Back in my Labour Party days I attended far too many boring party meetings for little or no purpose and at times our only release from the tedium was to make fun at a rather hapless secretary of the Northampton District Labour Party whose typed minutes of the meetings always contained priceless errors, changing the whole context of what we had been discussing in the previous month.

For instance I can recall written testament to debates on "The state of the County's toads" (roads) proposals for reductions in "Symmetry charges" (Cemetery) and the "Pole Tax" (Poll) not to mention the number of local and general "erection" (election) campaigns we considered.

But my all time favourite for its completeness as a sentence and for its percieved imagery was when we noted that "The minuets were singed by the chair" We did however leave most of these errors intact, you see we couldn't really challenge them, because to do anything other than bite our hands in concealed merriment would have meant upsetting the secretary and then someone else having to take on the job. But spelling errors aside they were always a true reflection of the events that actually occurred at the meeting. And politicians from all parties and none, sad as we all are, cannot survive without minutes, it somehow gives reason and purpose for the ridiculous amounts of our time that we spend away from our families locked away in dark rooms being nasty to each other.

Therefore imagine my disquiet last night at this months Full Council meeting when amendments to the minutes were proposed to not just alter the words in the minute but to alter the whole course of events! below in my posting "Silence is Liberal Yellow, Not Golden"

http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com/2010/01/sometimes-just-sometimes-minutes-of.html

I have cut and pasted the recorded minutes from Decembers Council meeting. This is not my version of events but simply those taken down by the minute clerk at the time and recorded in his own handwriting in the minute book as they occurred and then afterwards posted on the Councils website.

But it seems as if one of our fragile Liberal Democrat Portfolio Holders, Cllr Paul Varnsverry was disturbed by these truths and so decided to challenge the minutes with his own version of events. Apparently we now are led to believe that twice during the period in which I questioned him on the Councils support for our Credit Unions and on the cost of the One Stop Shop that he intervened and that the Mayor then ruled that because the title of the portfolio holder was wrong on the written question that the question was out of order and had no need of answer? Now I am not precious about such matters, its hardly a point of major importance, he never answered the questions anyway, but hang on a damn minuet I hear you fry, if a false minute can be recorded on this occasion, then what is stop anyone in the future becoming equally challenged by the truth?

So I intervened, calmly and politely, informing the Mayor that the published and hand written minutes do not support this new version of events, and that it indeed looked bad on the Mayor himself if we were to record events that suggest he made rulings on challenges which simply did not happen. I also asked the Chief Executive for his view of what had occurred, but unfortunately (or fortunately for him) he could not recall what had occurred at last months meeting.

I also helpfully pointed out that the Cllr had indeed challenged me on his correct title later on in the meeting during his Portfolio Holders presentation but that his suggested change was not a correct minute of the nights events. Cllr Varnsverry is the "Portfolio Holder for Communities" which includes a whole host of responsibilities, It is a bit like when I in the early 90's when I used to chair the "Environment Services" Committee but would get letters addressed to me as "The Chair of Leisure" or "The Chair of Parks" Which is why the Committee clerks always use the words "The relevant portfolio holder" I therefore asked in order for their not to be any disagreement on the night that the minutes not be signed as a correct record until such time as we could check the written record and agree between us what had taken place.

No such luck, instead we proceeded to vote on the erroneous change to the minutes (despite most of the council not having the proposed amendment in front of them).The Conservative and Labour Groups as a show of their true fire and determination as opposition party's decided that the matter was beneath them and thus chose to sit on their hands and abstain leaving the three Independent members and Cllr Colin Lill, a brave and honest local Tory to vote against the amendment made making our 4 votes count against the 19 Liberal Democrat sheep on the opposite side of the chamber who as a result got their way and changed the official version of the Councils minute to suit themselves.

Members of the Public, who had been at last months meeting, looked on in puzzlement, they remember very well what had happened previously, and some of them were very keen after the meeting to tell me so. It was all very very unsettling. In the scale of things though,as I say above it is all very trivial, but on the other hand a Council minute is a Council minute and if it can be changed at will by the ruling administration once, then why not again? And when in a 100 years time people look at the record of our meetings will they then have in front of them a record of what really happened? or simply a changed minute of what some people wanted to have occurred?

It was all a new low for me, Local politics is foremost about serving local people, our debates in the chamber should be focused solely on that outcome, but the manner in which Northampton Borough Council is now running itself makes that impossible, we have pointless debates about very trivial issues whilst the real decisions are made by officers and the administration behind closed doors, and we then wonder why we are held in such low regard by our electorate. Full Council meetings should be about lively and challenging debate on how we are best serving that electorate and whether we win or lose those debates, we should all expect that the minutes of our deliberations are a true record.

Sadly with this Council, they are not.

Silence is Liberal Yellow, not Golden!

Sometimes, just sometimes, the minutes of the Council say enough in themselves about the record of our Liberal Democrat administration on Northampton Borough Council and the sorry state we are now in !!

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING OF NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH COUNCIL HELD AT THE GUILDHALL, NORTHAMPTON, ON MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2009 AT SIX THIRTY O’CLOCK IN THE EVENING:

"Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “would the Leader agree to the contract between Legal and General and this Council being submitted for scrutiny (as private business if necessary) to ensure the Council’s decision is robust? If not why not?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “If agreement is given to close Bridge Street on a temporary basis on Friday and Saturday nights will a similar order be raised to open up the top end of the Drapery to traffic be sought for the same time? If not how will vehicles entering the Drapery from Gold Street leave the Town Centre.”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor P D Varnsverry as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Can the Portfolio Holder explain what assistance this Council has given to groups wishing to set up credit unions in the last year?”

Councillor P D Varnsverry declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “How many members of the Council’s staff have been affected by verbal or physical
violence in the last 5 years? In what locations did these events occur and what level of support has been given to those employees?”

Councillor B Markham declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What professional fees, eg SOLACE etc, does NBC pay on behalf of its staff and what has been the annual cost of such over the last three years?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What is the total cost of maintaining the Council’s web site?”

Councillor B Markham declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Why does the Council not have joint member/trade union liaison committee?”

Councillor B Markham declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Re overview and scrutiny work of the Council: Is the leader satisfied that officers are acting on Member requests, so that reports intended for Cabinet should appear at meeting of Scrutiny committees for pre scrutiny before the items are dealt with by the Cabinet?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Would the Portfolio Holder list in table format the following information of each of the past four financial years for each Council directorate:
i. the estimated pension costs of staff employed;
ii. the percentage this represents of the directorate’s running costs?
Would the Portfolio Holder list in table format the following information of each of the past four financial years;
i. the number of employees for whom the Council has to make pension provision;
ii. the number of pensioners;
iii. the estimated pension liability of those currently employed;
iv. the annual cost of pension provision to those retired;
v. the percentage of total council expenditure spent on pension provision;
vi. the average annual pension for an employee who retired during the last financial year?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Given the naming in 2008 of at least a hundred companies in the Office of Fair Trading’s “bid-rigging” inquiry, does the Portfolio Holder know of any company who the Council has a link with that was named – firstly those in the group of companies who have admitted breaking the rules and secondly of the others named but have so far not admitted any responsibility? Given this, will the Portfolio Holder quickly investigate and then look to take legal action against such companies that have
caused Northampton Borough Council to pay more than was fair or expected for contacts? Will the Portfolio Holder act to change the rules on how the Council procures contracts given the recent findings, perhaps including clauses to cover exposure of this type of wrong-doing and suitable compensation payments to Northampton Borough Council from such colluding contractors?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “How many public clocks are there in the Borough, how many are working and not working? and what is the total cost to the Council?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor P D Varnsverry as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Will the Portfolio Holder set out in table format the running costs of the “one stop shop” in each year since 2007?”

Councillor P D Varnsverry declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Will the Leader of the Council comment on how the Guildhall may be made more welcoming to visitors who use the main staircase entrance into the building? In view of the total dearth of signage and welcoming reception desk, what could be provided at minimal cost to indicate that this is an open and democratic Council?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What steps will be taken to ensure that all voters are made aware of the recommendations being made by the Council working party to the Electoral Boundary Commissioners?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Would the Leader agree that the proposed reduction of Overview ans Scrutiny committees will lead to a weakening of the Authority’s ability to fulfil its statutory duty in view of the amount of Council business required to promote this Council in its journey towards 4* status.”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What tangible benefits accrue to NBC for their membership of the LGA and can the Leader give examples of where VFM and best practice has been achieved as a direct result of such membership taking into account the opportunity cost of attendance at conferences.”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Crake as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Can the Portfolio Holder confirm the number and location of all the public waste bins in Northampton, the collection rotas for each, and the plans for the future of such waste bins?”

Councillor Crake declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Crake as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Are flood mitigation plans adequate to protect the Borough’s IT services in the event of this service being moved to Westbridge?”

Councillor Crake declined to answer.

end

So much for Liberal democracy I hear you cry!