Our pressure has paid off and the clothing allowance of £12860 a year which Labour has been paying its councillors has gone. Your local Lib Dem councillors uncovered the horrendous way in which Labour was spending your money earlier in the year and have managed through continued pressure to humiliate Labour into stopping the unjust payouts. We have now checked and the allowance will not be paid this year. Only legitimate expenses will now be claimed. Sometimes you have to shame Labour into action – this time it worked.
LABOUR DOWNGRADES MAYOR, THROWS ALDERMAN AND PRESS OUT OF MEETING
Welcome to Democratic Durham……….Post election, things go from bad to worse.
At a meeting today of Charter trustees who oversee the 400 year tradition of Mayor of Durham City, the Labour party downgraded the Mayor.
In addition they threw a well respected ex-Mayor and alderman of our City out of the meeting and barred the press against the wishes of the Acting Mayor, and current Deputy Mayor Councillor Hopgood.
Labour will now effectively merge the Mayor and Chairman of the Council positions if they carry through with this at the formal Mayor Making meeting in June.
We suggested that in line with 400 years of history, the deputy Mayor become Mayor, with her year of experience in the role as Deputy, but instead Labour chose to politicise the position and unceremoniously ditch the Deputy Mayor, replacing them with Councillor Pauline Charlton from Evenwood in Teesdale.
One Labour member said their actions would save £100,000 but completely failed to explain how, and did this in front of the employee who is paid from this money – about as disrespectful and out of order as you can get.
Labour will now effectively merge the Mayor and Chairman of the Council positions. Not one of the charter trustees present who are also labour councillors could properly explain how a single individual could attend over 800 separate events as a merged Mayor and Chairman. Indeed at the meeting of the full council today council leader Simon Henig commented on how difficult a role being chairman of the council is, with over 400 events to attend. Presumably doing another 400-600 on top of that is impossible then? So many people who look forward to seeing the Mayor at local events will be let down.
Over the last nine years £200,000 has been raised for charity by successive Mayors.
The only hope now for the protection of the position of Mayor of Durham City and 400 years of tradition is the creation of a Town Council.
I am proud to support the Mayoralty of Durham City, which is why along with other charter trustees we proposed the existing Deputy Mayor to become mayor, and will propose Cllr Hopgood at the forthcoming Mayor Making instead of the Labour proposal.
The position of Mayor is supposed to be non-political. Labour have destroyed that principle.
The Labour proposal for next Deputy Mayor was fully supported by all charter trustees who are Lib Dem councillors, because we at least respect the position as not being political.
When I think back to the magnificent way in which past Mayors have represented our City, including local independent councillor Jeff Lodge who I proposed for freedom of the City before his death, it saddens me that elected councillors would seek to undermine the history of Durham City.
PRIME MINISTER ATTACKS LABOUR RUN DURHAM COUNCIL
I’m not one of David Cameron’s biggest fans, but he has today reminded everyone in County Durham of just how badly run Durham County Council is. In his speech he has told everyone who didn’t already know that Labour is still paying the clothing allowance of £12860 to Labour councillors.
By way of a reminder David – it is the Lib Dem councillors in County Durham who unearthed this and other waste, but I do agree with the Prime Minister that Labour contributed significantly to the debt we are in nationally and that this kind of Labour waste is totally unacceptable which is why we have been campaigning to stop it for so long.
LABOUR CONTINUES TO DEFEND AND COVER UP CLOTHING ALLOWANCE
From Northern Echo:
Council refuses Echo request for more information following “clothes-gate” row
DURHAM County Council has again refused to disclose details of spending by its chairwoman and her vice-chair following the “clothing-gate” spending row.
The Northern Echo wrote to the authority to request a breakdown of items bought by Linda Marshall and Pauline Charlton over the past financial year using an additional allowance which entitles them to claim for clothing and other items associated with their ceremonial posts.
The request, using the Freedom of Information Act, was eventually refused by the council which was unable to respond within the 20 day working deadline, as set out by the Act.
The council, which apologised for the delay, said: “There is no requirement for the chairman or vice-chairman to provide a detailed breakdown of expenditure incurred.
“Therefore the council does not hold these records and cannot provide the detail requested.”
Coun Marshall and Coun Charlton can claim an additional annual allowance of £8,580 and £4,280 respectively on top of a basic allowance paid to all councillors and a “special responsibility” allowance.
The council has responded to criticism of the payments by announcing a review of all civic expenses.
Should she retain her seat in next month’s county council elections, Coun Charlton, who represents Evenwood for Labour, is expected to replace Coun Marshall in the chairwoman’s role when a new vice-chairwoman will also be appointed.
Coun Charlton was recently quoted as saying she could not turn up to civic events “in tatty clothes”.
The councillor, who said she had not spent all of her allowance and tried to shop in sales, added: “We’re the front face of the county council so we’ve got to be at least clean and tidy and well-presented.
“We work weekends and we don’t always have the time to turn around and wash clothes.”
Staggering Labour incompetence leaves roadworks £5m over budget
For a number of months I have been challenging the Council because internal figures have shown that they were £5m over budget on the flagship Durhamgate Scheme in Spennymoor. The redvelopment of the Thinford Roundabout and neighbouring roads off the A167 was already set to cost an eye watering £9m, but this year, with £500,000 left to finish off the project, the entire reserve of the Regeneration budget has been soaked up by overspends leaving the project 932% over budget this year alone.
It really is time that the Labour Party were removed from power at County Hall before they waste any more of residents hard earned taxes.
Here is the article in today’s Northern Echo:
The council is paying out over £200k a year for the Chief Exec and £168,000 for directors. Why? And why yet again do we have millions wasted? They say if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. What happens if you pay someone 15 times the average wage? If we keep electing Labour in this county, pretty soon we won’t even be able to afford a packet of nuts.
“I can’t do job in tatty clothes” says Labour Councillor who “Doesn’t have time to wash clothes”
I was astonished to read the following quote from the Labour councillor for Evenwood who is currently Vice Chair of the council, seeking to defend the clothing allowance she receives:
“It covers a multitude of things, not just clothes. Every chair and vice-chair in Durham County Council gets these allowances. We’re the front face of the county council so we’ve got to be at least clean and tidy and well-presented. We work weekends and we don’t always have the time to turn around and wash clothes.”
Yes Councillor Charlton – and a hell of a lot of Durham residents work weekends, and work damn hard, but they don’t get £12860 over two years for clothes at the taxpayers expense. And they have to find time to wash their own clothes! What planet are these Labour councillors living on?
As one of the residents who has signed our petition said:
NOW EVEN LABOUR MPS ARE ATTACKING USELESS LABOUR RUN COUNCIL
A trebling in complaints to Durham County Council over the last few years – something I brought up months ago. It would seem that County Durham’s Labour MPs are now worried that the complete ineptitude of the Labour-run Council is affecting them.
IT IS TIME THE PRESS WOKE UP TO THE COMPLETE FAILURE OF LABOUR TO RUN DCC PROPERLY
Last night councillors received an email from senior management to say that problems with grass cutting and strimming were as a result of the exceptional weather. This is not the whole truth.
Two weeks ago Cllr Hopgood and I in a meeting with the Head of Service and managers received an apology because in the Durham City area the Council started grass cutting three weeks later than elsewhere.
We were then told that in Coxhoe grass had been cut SIX times, yet in Bearpark and Newton Hall it was only 3 times. Asked why, we were told the machinery had broken down. Why didn’t management bring machinery from other areas of the county to ensure a balanced service? They have now after our complaints.
We have evidence of staff taking longer breaks than they are allowed, of rude staff, in fact as I write this I have another complaint from Framwellgate Moor from a resident on the phone.
We have areas left unstrimmed, in some places several feet high, in one place trees growing out of the side of a council house, yet were told in the council budget that grass cutting services had not been cut in the recent budget documents.
All of this says to me a complete breakdown of communication and management at all levels and a complete failure by Durham’s Labour cabinet to get control of this huge Unitary Authority. We need political change in County Durham urgently. This is not the only department where there are problems.
And whilst budget cuts do cause problems, it does not help when the council persists in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money on publicity rags, refuses to cut the cost of councillors, and seems to spend more time on press releases than dealing with day to day issues which matter to residents.
I recently asked how many press releases the council puts out here was the response:
July 2011 – 112
Aug 2011 – 75
Sept 2011 – 117
Oct 2011 – 56
Nov 2011 – 105
Dec 2011 – 82
Jan 2012 – 59
Feb 2012 – 96
Mar 2012 – 98
Apr 2012 – 77
May 2012 – 123
June 2012 – 88
TOTAL 1,088
And how many complaints have they received?
In the last fifteen months complaints to Durham County council have more than doubled:
509 – Last Quarter of 2010/11
578 – First Quarter of 2011/12
630 – Second Quarter of 2011/12
759 – Third Quarter of 2011/12
1138 – Fourth Quarter of 2011/12
It strikes me that because of the failures all over the place at DCC, Labour are fighting a media battle to put out as many press releases as possible to help cover up the problems. Staff across all departments have stories of things not being run properly. Council phone systems still have wrong phone numbers for contacting officers months after they have moved to new premises or changed their numbers.
Many staff are frustrated by the minority of colleagues taking advantage of poor or none existent monitoring of sickness absense which would see heads at all levels roll in private industry and many other councils across the country.
No one knows who is in County Hall at any particular moment because no one has to swipe into the building and record their presence – so no proper monitoring of who is and isn’t working, a health and safety nightmare in the event of a fire and a serious security risk.
Labour are losing any credibility they ever had in this county to run our local services.
LIBRARY LINK RESTORED -SIGN THE PETITION – SEND LABOUR A MESSAGE
Having kicked up a fuss about the disappearance of the link for the library consultation I can confirm that it has now been readded to the council homepage.
Please join in the consultation. there is no need to cut opening hours, but plenty of scope to cut waste and various other budgets to protect frontline services.
This is no longer just about libraries, it is about democracy and protecting frontline services, so whether you use your local library or not, please join in and send a message to the council. They must protect services, root out waste, cut director numbers, cut councillor costs, cut publicity rags etc.
www.durham.gov.uk
Petitions: www.durham.gov.uk/petitions
LABOUR HIDES LIBRARY CONSULTATION?
On the day that the Northern Echo reported on our campaigns to stop the slashing of Library opening hours, the Council Website removed the link to the library consultation on its front page – and replaced it would you believe with a report on how accessible the website is! You really could not make this up! They also added information on archeology and an article on country dancing. Now whilst all of these are clearly important to those interested in them, to remove any mention of the library strategy which is affecting nearly every community in the County on the day our petitions are launched strikes me as a bit too much of a coincidence……
To sign the Newton Hall library petition visit www.durham.gov.uk/petitions
To comment on the consultation visit: http://www.durham.gov.uk/Pages/Service.aspx?ServiceId=7639