Mid-term blues hit early

With open hostility in the ruling group surrounding positions and the number of officer departures I suspect the hand-quivering clustershambolic leadership of Chambers and Jarrett must be on the close.

All eyes for this week will be on Full Council on Thursday night where we will finally get a confirmation on the Mayor and Deputy Mayor and on the discussion around member allowances. 

Medway Labour of course had a consistent policy on both these issues last year which we believed reflected the public interest; namely a return to the fair points-based system around mayoralty selection, which takes the pathetic partisanship (observed in the Conservative Group this year) out of the Queen's appointed representative for Medway; and a cut of the Conservative party chairman & deputy chairman perks who we believe are 'lapping the cream' of public money whilst the majority of Medway taxpayers continue to pay huge sums of Council tax for poor political leadership.

It is of course good to note that members will be taking a pay cut this year, as per the recommendations of the independent panel, but this does not go far enough in my mind and what we need is specific focus on those mid-level takers of public money.

We do not need so many Tories on the payroll at Gun Wharf. 

The other points to note from the meeting come from the public and member questions for the evening. A number of noticeable themes emerge

The first is that the Tory attempt to introduce a 'fake' Freedom Pass, as promised in their local manifesto in 2011, has clearly backfired badly. The Tories have a terrible record on the Freedom Pass having spent most of 2010 opposing any form of public subsidy for bus travel for young people because of cost, seemingly taken out of a hat, and pubicly lambasting the opposition Labour Party for proposing the idea. In 2011, the Tories took the Freedom Pass and audaciously added it to their local manifesto and claimed Labour were opposed; but the budget in 2011/12 only allocated a pathetic sum to the scheme, and so Labour called the Tory rat out. 

Rightly so, as we now have a scheme which to huge numbers of parents is woefully substandard; and I expect many more will continue to articulate not only the rank Conservative hypocrisy but also why we continue to suffer a worse deal then our neighbours in Gravesham, Sittingbourne and Maidstone who have a Conservative-controlled County Council.

Roads and re-surfacing also make an appearance with the announced overspend of £1.2m on the Stoke Crossing, dubbed the 'Bridge to Nowhere' by the press. With Tory-leaning Parish Chairman and Councillor's citing the money could have been better spent elsewhere, and the public outraged at the scale of spend whilst residential road budgets are seemingly 'gerrymandered' into Tory wards with a number of roads slipping budget cycles, this will prove controvertial.  We all know the Tories have spent millions on road schemes in Chatham no one voted for or wanted, and that have gone millions overbudget; taking money from what could have been spent on residential roads. 

Tories will no doubt spread the blame; who will it be this month... I cant wait. 

A number of other questions relate to the botched care home closures and privatisations which have been totally mishandled by the administration, and which descended into a farce, when the Council refused to extend the consultation on a proposal from Medway Health to take on the closing Balfour Centre. The Tories also ignored local campaigns calling for a limited partnership and stakeholder co-operative model of management favouring overt privatisation. We now go into the future with no public care home provision as a number of privately-owned homes continue to fail CQC reviews. 

The way in which the cabinet managed the Balfour process was nothing short of incompetent; as standard from Medway Tories. 

Marlowe Park and the campaign by Cllr Igwe to safeguard this facility is also on the table; Cllr Igwe led the campaign and called-in the manner in which the Medway PCT communicated and acted. 

Lastly the Community Safety Plan is due to be discussed; now that Cllr OBrien has returned from his 'fact-finding' tour of Kent it is interesting to note the precious little change in the document that all these visits were apparently tasked. Given Medway has seen a massive reduction in crime from 1997-2010 there will surely be commentary around the cuts to PCSOs, cuts to Police numbers and the real concern that opportunistic theft and crime is increasing across our towns. We may also get an announcement on whether our multitiled Cllr Mike will be standing for Police Commissioner on the back of his record as Medway CSP Chair. Then again; we may not.

A busy night ahead. 

Not such a Freedom Pass

One of the more eye-raising, rather then eye-catching, announcements from the Medway Conservative cuts budget last week was the mention of the Freedom Pass proposal

Many readers of this blog, and of the former Musings from Medway blog, will be aware of its campaign to get the Medway Freedom Pass locally.

The Freedom Pass proposal is one operated by Kent County Council which makes travel easier and more affordable for young people. The principle aims of the scheme are to:

• empower young people
• improve safety
• financially assist families
• promote healthier lifestyles
• encourage greater use of sustainable transport
• reduce congestion and journey times (especially during the school runs)
• ultimately increase quality of life accross the county.

Medway Labour has led on the Freedom Pass proposal locally with motions and campaigns with local interest groups and parents.

It now appears however that the Conservatives are proposing the same scheme whilst challenging Labour on a lack of policy substance.

Particularly ironic because it is another glaring fib. Sadly the Tories may not have been aware of just what they said at the time, and fully public, on the Freedom Pass, so its just worth reminding people:

Cllr Jarrett stated in an article for the press, titled, you could not make it up - 'Opponents would slash spending for passes' the following:

'The subject up for debate was a Labour proposal to introduce a Freedom Pass giving free bus travel for children. A laudable enough idea, if only it were affordable – with a projected cost of at least £3 million a year.

Councillor Jarrett admits it was a Labour idea then...

The basis of the argument being was if Kent County Council could afford a Freedom Pass, then so can we.

Yes, which he presumably has also agreed with by introducing the scheme

The argument misses the central point that in Medway, Council Tax is almost £150 per year less than in the rest of Kent. In Medway a Freedom Pass would add up to three percent to our council tax bills.

Interesting point this, because as we now know the Tories are only allocating £250,000 to a scheme that cost £3m (assuming he is not wrong on this figure)

The debate was revealing, for Labour, Lib Dem and Independent councillors rattled off a list of cuts to service delivery that they would make in order to finance their latest wheeze.

A wheeze that the Tories now support

Schemes such as road safety improvements, new and improved allotments, sports and play schemes, community safety initiatives such as CCTV, plus a host of minor road improvements would all be cut to pay for Labour’s latest gimmick

Unsurprisingly, the sums do not add up, for the cuts they outlined would not fund even half of the £3 million bill. It leaves you wondering what else they are planning to cut.

The irony of this statement is that it is a Conservative Government which has cut £23.5m from the local budgets. Yet Cllr Jarrett claims no hits to front line services whilst in this article he indicates a £3m cut will hurt, yes, front line services.

Each year they callously try to block the Conservative budget, trying to deprive both young and old of the support they need in these difficult times.'

So why is it when a Council has £23.5 less to spent that we can suddenly afford the scheme which we could not last year

The public are fed up of being treated as mugs by the same old Tory spin

It simply beggars belief that less then 12 months later we have a Conservative Councillor stand up and claim, with a straight face, that the Freedom Pass was their idea locally, and secondly that they can now afford it.

So on the face of it we should be applauding the administration you would think.

Ah, but no - the sting in the tail. Councillor Jarrett, on a announcing the scheme, forgot to mention how much money he had allocated to the scheme. A pathetic and miserely £250,000. On his own numbers it would take 12 years to pay for one year of this pass.

Sadly ladies and gentleman, this is a Conservative u-turn waiting to happen and another case of Medway Conservatives taking you for a ride, whilst your children have to pay for theirs

Shame on them for playing the public like this. It is time for a new generation of change.