Useful revenue can be obtained from hiring out Town Halls and other Council buildings. Given the duty to reduce the Council Tax it makes sense to get as much as possible. But where should we draw the line about events that might be felt unsuitable? Falkirk Council have decided to go ahead with a comedian […]
Two Labour councillors in Oxford, Cllr John Tanner and Cllr David Williams are holding a rally in support of abolition of the monarchy. Cllr Tanner says replacing the monarchy with an elected President would save 90% of the cost of the Civil List. Not sure which countries elected presidents he has looked at to come […]
Cllr Eileen Kinnear has been expelled from the Conservative Group on Harrow Council for a number of "serious breaches of the rules." She still has 14 days to appeal so no further comment is being made. This obviously make it difficult to discuss. But regardless of whatever misconduct she may have been involved in, I […]
Cllr David Whalley, the Lib Dem leader of Cornwall Council is standing down as a councillor. This follows votes of no confidence and a damning verdict from the Audit Commission. A new unitary authority is being formed with elections on June 4. Caroline Righton has already written about the Newquay Airport fiasco on this site.
Cllr Ben Grower, a Labour councillor in Bournemouth has been exposed as writing emails praising himself to a newspaper website under the alias Omegaman. The Bournemouth Daily Echo said they decided to expose him as they felt the public should be told when a councillor pretended to be someone else to enhance his reputation.
The Labour elected mayor of Stoke-on-Trent Mark Meredith has been arrested by the police as part of an inquiry into alleged corruption. This follows the arrest of a Conservative councillor Roger Ibbs, also over corruption allegations.
There has been a complaint over Cllr Paul Baccara, an Independent councillor on Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, over an email he sent to Karen Roberts, a member of staff working for the Lib Dems at the Welsh National Assembly. He urged her to resign on the grounds that her employment constituted "a waste of taxpayers […]
Cllr Jay Jethwa, a Asian Conservative councillor in Bristol, has been described as a "coconut" by Cllr Shirley Brown, a black Lib Dem councillor. The comments came after Cllr Jewthwa opposed spending more money on the "Legacy Commission" for specific ethnic minority projects. Cllr Brown has "unreservedly apologised" after a complaint.
In order to stand and be elected to a local council it is not necessary to be CRB checked. This is a process where those who will be working with children have to be cleared by the organisation concerned being checked with the Criminal Records Bureau. Many councillors will end up having to be checked […]
Peggy Mitchell, a character in the BBC TV soap opera played by Barbara Windsor, is standing for election to the fictional Walford Council as an independent. She is the landlady of the pub the Queen Victoria whose catchphrase is: "Get ouuta my pub." She is standing for election on a single issue – protesting at […]
A Labour councillor in Thanet, Cllr Mark Nottingham, has been allowed to send text messages during a Council meeting after he claimed he was "logging proceedings" and if he "had been making notes on paper notes on paper there would have been no problem." His argument was that live blogging via his Blackberry was an […]
The publication today of Control Shift, the Conservatives Green paper for local government, has already been given an excellent summary by Jonathan Isaby on ToryDiary and been generally welcomed by most of you who have commented so far. There is a lot there for us to look at here in more detail in days ahead. […]
Labour-run Tower Hamlets Council has adopted its own foreign policy passing a motion attacking Israel. A motion from far left Respect councillors calling for a boycott on Israeli goods and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador was not supported. The East London Advertiser reports that Conservative councillor Phil Briscoe said "precious time" should no be […]
The Labour/Lib Dem coalition that runs Wirral Council are closing 14 libraries while still sharply increasing the Council Tax. It now seems that a breakaway left wing party is being formed to target councillors responsible in next years Coouncil elections. The Liverpool Echo reports that no name has been chosen yet but the trade unions […]
A portrait of the nation’s head of state was rescued from the indignity of a town hall basement and restored to its rightful place in a council chamber in Surrey. The issue of whether council chambers should have a portrait of the Queen was raised on Conservative Home after the controversial decision of Mid-Suffolk District […]