Administration Councillors make the best opposition

In an otherwise docile Scrutiny Committee the highlights came from Labour's Lakenham Councillor Keith Driver, who (wittingly or unwittingly) asked some of the best questions and tackled Executive Member Alan Waters a treat; especially asking if the council ever achieved its budget aims! Someone that remark from an opposition councillor would have looked cheap but from a member of the ruling party it came across being classic.

Labour's Neglect: Lakenham

Residents in Lakenham have been reading a new leaflet organised by an anonymous group which goes by the name of "Spotlight" who have attacked the record of Labour in the area.

The leaflet says that "claims of action by the Laour Community Action Team - reality is a bit different. With the defeat of Bob Sanderson in the May elections the penny should have dropped. But no. The action team keeps spinning."

It attacks Labour, saying they have denied local people welfare rights and labelled local people as "spongers".

It says: "Cuts in services have become drastuc. Repairs to council properties must be paid for by the tenants. Roads are only swept every 16 weeks. Weeds are growing out of the roadside. Families are left homeless and some are sleeping on the floor of friends. Rents and council tax are up. The list goes on and on."

It concludes by saying that "Spotlight will be looking at the LibDems in Lakeham soon."

Now, I don't like anonymous leaflets - we as politicans put our heads above the parapit and accept criticism and all other should do the same.

And I like both Keith Driver and Mary Cannell but often feel that their efforts are thwarted by "the system"; but I have never doubted their committment to their community.

But the issues raised the leaflet are valid and it is clear that the poorest areas are most hit by Labour. Many of the weakest in society can now ill-afford Labour either nationally or locally. If you live on a council estate with anti-social behaviour and crime problems, where the housing stock is getting worse and taxes carry on rising then Labour are no help at all - in fact, they are usually the problem. No wonder more and more people are choosing the vote Conservative, many for the first time ever. Because we are putting a crackdown on crime and quality of life at the top of the agenda. Just take a look at Bowthorpe - Labour rejected after 40 years and why? Because despite the promises people were taken for granted and things got no better.

I hope Labour and the LibDems repond to this, but the best response they can have is to tackle the issue it raises.

Scrutiny gets angry

I have been thoroughly disappointed with being on Scrutiny Committee for over a year now. It seems totally unable to hold the Executive to account and it feels as if people are deliberately frustrating the work of what should be an important check and balance. We are told we are there to support the Executive - I think we are there to support the poor, long suffering council tax payer of Norwich.

So it was to my delight that today the powers-that-be got a really rough time as Councillors - of all parties - laid into the complacent attitudes at the council. Lakenham were particularly well represented. Keith Driver, who is becoming an increasingly independent minded Labour member, kept coming back to the issue of value-for-money and never got the answers he wanted over the number of firms who tender for council contracts. He also made a good point about the workload of restaurant inspectors when it was revealed that 81% of inspections would be squeezed into the last 6 months of the year. His fellow ward member, Hereward Cooke, was equally irrate. Saying that the officer comments justifying various council failures were "gobbledegook", Hereward make a passionate plea for councillors to keep control of the management of the council. He also tore into the council about community engagement and asked that residents didn't have things "done to them, but with them". Green member Tom Dylan, who represents Mancroft Ward, did brilliantly on several counts including challenging the council to allow councillors to set policy rather than just having briefing notes bought to us and being asked to comment. Other councillors, myself included, enjoyed this moment as one to lay a marker in the sand about who does, and who should, control overall council policy. LibDem Brian Watkins raised the issue of the tourist strategy (again) and to good effect. Labour's David Bradford and Green Leader Adrian Ramsay did similarly good interventions on other topics too.

This meeting probably achieved very little but it did certainly lay down a marker about the work of the Scrutiny committee. This was an excellent examples of opposition and backbench councillors making a stand about just some of the flaws in the system. I hope this heralds the start of a new sort of approach from Scrutiny. It was democracy and accountability at its best ... just a pity not a single members of the public turned up to see it.

Dean's hat goes back in the ring

I like Gordon Dean - which is now probably the kiss of death - and I think he made an excellent contribution to Norwich civic life. It is therefore good news that I am told he is to re-stand for Council. However it is bad news that I hear it is for Lakenham Ward. Mr Dean will attempt to overturn Labour's wafer-thin 15 vote majority here - tougher than it sounds because Labour's candidate is the equally well known Keith Driver. Whatever happens it'll be a close and tough fight and whoever loses, then the council will have lost a good person. Why don't the LibDems bury the 2004 hatchett and give Gordon Dean the seat he deserves ... assuming they have any safe seats left in the City? ;-)