After repeated telephone requests, and simply because I happened to be in Consett for something else this afternoon, I actually took myself to the Civic Centre to collect my nomination papers for the local elections. Apparently, they were about to be posted out to me. Course they were, dear.
By whom? Next to nobody intends to contest the Parish, in particular, this time. Although I'd still be surprised if there were no election, I wouldn't actually bet against it.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyway, I'm not the only person to have had this problem. Which is no suprise, all things considered, such as that Peter Hughes, key member of the Young-Hodgson Axis and just retired as Head of Member Services, has been selected as a Labour candidate in place of a Portfolio Holder, yet emails to Independent Councillors are still being delivered to his District Council address. Among other things...
As an Independent. I just walked into the Black Bull last night and had all the necesasry signatures within 20 minutes, including that of a Labour Parish Councillor seeking re-election as an Independent. They all said that they had been wondering what I had been waiting for. Well, I had been waiting for the forms, of course.
ReplyDeleteThere had been some urgent Labour get-together in there earlier. By my recokoning, they actually haven't enough candidates to keep control of the Parish, no matter what. And one of their District candidates is practically unknown, although his literature will no doubt make it clear that he used to be a policeman...
All in all, things are looking good.
Well, there's a limited amount that a Councillor can now provide, since this obsessively local government-hating central government, just like the last one in that as in so many regards, introduced "Best Value" and replaced the old committee system with the present dog's dinner, cooked up, like "Best Value", by some wonk in a Westminster Village thinktank.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Derwentside has a very good record (with its various Beacon Status and other awards, and so forth) of making the new system work, not least because DDC functions as a partnership between the sane (i.e., non-Jones-Hodgson-Young) section of the Labour Group and the Independents (who did have one outspoken dissident, but he's gone now).
I'm hardly either Alex Watson's nightmare Independent Councillor or Watts Stelling's nightmare "Independent Independent" Councillor, am I? So, support for more of the same, pretty much. Why fix what isn't broken?
And carrying over while carrying on my Parish Council work in relation to planning, recreational facilities, the never-ending battle for proper community policing and for youth services, &c, &c, &c.
As to whether I'll get on, who knows? Labour is only running two credible candidates. The Tories and the DIs, by time-honoured convention, will only run two each (this might change, but I'd be extremely surprised if it did). If the Lib Dems put up at all, then it will only be with two candidates, if that.
Leaving everyone with one spare vote going begging. You never know...