Dan Poulter blames Jeremy Pembroke and County Council for Broadband bid failure

Dr Dan Poulter MP

Suffolk woke on Friday to hear that our much needed bid to improve broadband provision for businesses in the county had failed. Up the road in Norfolk, to add insult to injury, they were celebrating the success of their bid.

Dan Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich is fast getting a reputation for providing strong support to his local constituents for example on the issue of libraries and Andrea Hill. He has not hesitated to criticise Conservative colleagues when necessary and yesterday he continued that trend when he laid the failure of the bid on the shoulders of Jeremey Pembroke and the previous Conservative administration of Suffolk County Council.

Dr Poulter is quoted in the EADT saying:

A lot of businesses signed up for the bid but the council didn’t commit. I had three meetings with Jeremy Pembroke but he didn’t seem to understand the problem. We always thought that was the bid’s weakness.

It was reported earlier in the week that since Mark Bee's election as Leader there had been a change of heart at the County Council and they have now pledged to support the bid with the Cabinet approving proposals to spend £51,000 a year for the next four years and to make a capital grant of £235,000 in the new technology.

But sadly this comes too late for this round of bidding and just goes to show how out of touch the County Council has become. Judging from what I saw at the full council meeting this week Mark Bee has a steep hill to climb to bring Suffolk County Council into the 21st century but I am encouraged the Council is backing this bid and all of us in Suffolk should now get behind the next bid.

This just goes to show the importance of having a strong and supportive County Council that understands what is actually going on in the county. I am going to blog a bit later about some of the reasons (and these are not party political) why I think the Council is so out of touch and what can hopefully be done by all parties in the run up to the 2013 elections to ensure we elect a better Council of whatever political balance.

Mark Bee is right about Andrea Hill - it's a HR issue

Andrea Hill

Today the Court of Appeal decided that Sharon Shoesmith was unlawfully dismissed from her post as Head of Children's Services following the tragic death of Baby P. This was done by Ed Balls at the time Children's Secretary. Proper procedures were not followed in the case and in fact her sacking was announced live on TV before she was even informed, let alone had a chance to comment. It looks like this case will now cost hundreds of thousands (if not a couple of million) pounds of public money.

Ipswich Spy was critical of Mark Bee when he was elected by describing Andrea Hill as "a HR issue". He clams Colin Noble said that he would deal with her - basically removing her from office.

Mark Bee

Today on BBC Radio Suffolk Mark Bee said he could not comment on the case as proper employment procedures are being followed.

He is right to do this. Everyone deserves a fair hearing. I have been critical of Andrea Hill and called on her to resign and described her position as untenable. I still think this,  but it maybe that any fair finding on this case finds blame on both her and the County Council. The EADT are reporting a Disciplinary Panel will meet next week possibly to consider this case and I hope that there is a fair outcome.

Things "looking up" for Suffolk County Council?

Suffolk County Council Cabinet members look up

Mark Bee was elected Leader of Suffolk County Council yesterday at the annual meeting of the Council. In his acceptance speech he said that the New Strategic Direction had "failed to connect with the people of Suffolk" He then went on to say:

"I am clear that my leadership will not be about a philosophy, it will be about –listening to the people of Suffolk, openness and transparency and practical solutions appropriate to the needs of a community.”

All this sounds great but dig a bit under the surface and it becomes clear that there is not quite so much change as this might lead you to believe. The cabinet remains unchanged (with the exception of the departure of Colin Law who is the new Leader of Waveney) and whilst the phrase "new strategic direction" has been dropped large parts of the idea - in particular the "My Place" concept remain intact.

It was also apparent from the meeting that many Suffolk Tories seem either not to have noticed the problems the County Council faces or be in denial. Mark Bee knows these problems more then most but even he is on the radio this morning claiming there is "no crisis" at Endeavour House.

The outgoing Chairman, colourful Eddy Alcock summed up the previous year without even mentioning the serious issues that had occurred preferring to entertain the chamber with amusing anecdotes from his time as Chairman. It sounded at times like one of those embarrassing wedding speeches and certainly played better in the chamber than the public gallery.

Another decision that I think will play better in the chamber than outside was the election of Jeremy Pembroke as Vice-Chairman of the Council which almost certainly means he will be Chairman next year. Now the Chairman is just a ceremonial office but it still looks a reward for failure.

Incoming Chairman Patricia O'Brien seemed to have more of a grip of reality when she acknowledged the difficult times the Council and country faced.

So do things "look up" for Suffolk County Council? It's too early to tell yet. The My Place agenda might be a genuine attempt to take local issues into account but it also runs the risk of turning County Councillors into "Lords of their Manor" and producing fragmented services. Some people will be lucky to get great services due to local interest and maybe having a proactive County Councillor. Others poor services due to lack of local capacity and maybe less useful councillors.

In any case in order to fix problems it is first necessary to acknowledge and accept them and I am far from convinced that the current leadership realise quite how dysfunctional the County Council has become.

I heard fine words from Mark Bee but also witnessed a number of young people and people who work with them patronised and ignored over their attempts to get the Council to look again at the eXplore card withdrawal despite presenting a strong case that this decision has actually undermined the education of young people. Graham Newman, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People didn't even see fit to speak leaving Guy McGregor to answer on the grounds this is a "transport" issue

Suffolk County Council Cabinet

Links
Flickr Photoset Suffolk County Council Cabinet
Suffolk County Council Press Release
Full text of Mark Bee's Speech
My Live Tweets on Wikisuffolk
Wordblog Article "Suffolk's New Pragmatic Direction"
Guardian Society Daily Article quoting this blogpost

eXplore card petition handover and debate

Campaigners against eXplore card withdrawal from Just42
Youth charity

Today I attended Suffolk County Council's Annual meeting and I was impressed to hear articulate, reasoned and powerful arguments. However these did not in the main come from members of the council but from petitioners including a group of young people from the Just42 youth charity in Woodbridge.

Three petitions were presented to the council one on country parks, a second on waste tips incredibly presented to the County Council by two Conservative Mid Suffolk District councillors including the Portfolio Holder for Waste and then the eXplore card petition.

Patrick Gillard in conversation with Cllr McGregor

Patrick Gillard from Woodbridge and Greer Hill, Head of Student Services at Otley College presented a convincing case that the withdrawal of the eXplore card is an injustice and already causing attendance and retention problems at colleges. The card which enabled young people to have discounted travel on public transport was withdrawn in April this year.

Gillard described the eXplore card as an investment in the future and pointed to problems with education, employment and independence caused by its withdrawal. Hill said that there was a feeling that the card was withdrawn as its holders cannot vote and they and the Just42 students present complained that they were not consulted about the withdrawal of the card half way through the academic year.

Greer Hill, Otley College

The response to this petition was particularly shameful. Despite promises to listen to the people of Suffolk made a few minutes earlier Mark Bee didn't seem too keen to do anything about this issue. Portfolio Holder GuyMcGregor claimed to have introduced the eXplore card himself and there was quite a scene between him and Labour Leader Sandy Martin who pointed out that this was a deliberate attempt to mis-lead. McGregor did introduce the card but it was simply a re-naming of the existing card issued by the previous Labour/Liberal administration.

4138 signatures!

McGregor went on to simply repeat the argument that there is no money and there was complete confusion in the council chamber about what the next action should be. Newly elected Chairman Patricia O'Brien seemed to think that petitions were literally presented, 3 Councillors speak and the Portfolio holder replies and that is that. She seemed to have some difficulty with the procedures and ended up adjourning the meeting with the future position unclear.

It became apparent that we were watching a Council that had just seen its leadership collapse, where the CEO is on gardening leave and where there are really serious holes in the legal department. Mark Bee did say something about this possibly being referred to Scrutiny but other councillors were dismissive suggesting quite incorrectly that young people elsewhere did not get what Cllr McGregor kept describing as a "discretionary" service. Children in London enjoy completely free bus and tram travel under 16 and then discounted rates between 16 and 18, even a third off for all students....

Links
Flickr Photoset

Waveney District Council's "Ashes" Democracy

Colin Law, new Tory Leader
of Waveney District Council

In the famous Ashes cricket test match series played between England and Australia if there is a draw in the series than the existing "holder" of the Ashes retains them and "wins" the Ashes. This, more or less, is what happened at Waveney District Council last night.

As I reported earlier the 5th May elections and the (with retrospect) unfortunate decision to have an even number - 48 - of council seats left an awkward situation in Waveney with the Conservatives and Labour tied on 23 seats each with 2 other seats, one Green and one "independent".

The Green decided to support Labour and the Independent turned out to be what is sometimes known locally as a "Condependant" ie really a Conservative but stands under an independent label.

Peter Collecott new
Waveney Chairman

The end result was that there was another tie this time at 24/24 so lawyers were called in to decide how to break the tie and the outgoing Chairman of the Council a Conservative called Alan Duce was allowed to chair the meeting last night even though he isn't even a councillor any longer. He didn't get an original vote but he did use his casting vote to appoint Peter Colecott (the Condependant) as Chairman of the Council.

What then followed was casting vote central with the Vice-Chairman, Leader and Deputy Leader all elected on Colecott's casting vote and all going to Conservatives.

So Suffolk County Council Cabinet member Colin Law is now leader of the Council effectively because the Conservatives previously ran the council on the "Ashes" principal. However this was an election not a cricket match and the popular vote tells a different story with Labour and the Greens getting 38252 votes Tory and Independent 31375 votes. Colin Law claimed during the meeting that his party "still had a clear mandate from the electorate and he would focus on what was best for the people of Waveney" but it seems unclear where that mandate comes from.