Flintshire Councillors met on the 27th March for the last Council Meeting of the 4th year of Coalition administration. Its been a mixed time for me personally. Health wobble, commitment to Flintshire Chairman as his consort plus my own heavy committee & ward workload. If that was not enough, I had to defend myself against the relentless pursuit of the Ombudsman’s investigator. Of course, that Adjudication Panel chaired by Ms Helen Cole, a specialist in non contentious legal matters going to find me guilty but that’s water under the bridge. This four years Council term has been a series of “if only!” If only the alleged misuse of a photocopier had not barred the rightful candidate for leadership of the Authority and allowed the present incumbent to take to the top slot. If only the Corporate Management Team had not alleged bullying by Patrick Heesom in March 2009, which allowed the Ombudsman’s investigation to start we would not have had to endure Arnold Woolley’s now officially criticised leadership. If only I had not volunteered a statement for Patrick Heesom as I had not witnessed any inappropriate behaviour during a housing selection panel I would not have stumped up £10.5K for …..
I missed the bang when a Huws Grey crane lorry foolishly tried to drive under the Station Road, Queens ferry bridge but it must have just happened. Driver looked shocked but how he thought a sticking-up crane could clear the bridge, I know not. I was heading for the Post Office Sorting Office and was able to drive past so I saw the crane touching the upper masonry and the dislodged lumps that lay on the road. The Sorting Office’s gates were closed and entry is on foot only owing to some health and safely rule. Amazing! In the past parking was laid out for customer’s use. All very convenient but not now. By the time I had collected my package, a police car had sealed the road and I had to make the detour though Garden City. Disruption to traffic flows were evident as vehicles were queuing up to get to the Asda roundabout. A few seconds earlier and I would have been able to pop back under that damaged bridge before it was closed. At least no one was injured. I have an uneasy feeling that the Council may have to pay for the bridge repair under some …..
The Coalition’s fourth budget of the current administration went through despite being voted down by Labour who complained that it was dreadful. The vote split was 37 to 13. I agree that the Estyn school report and a Welsh Audit Office report were not good. Estyn judged the schools inspection as “adequate”. Welsh Audit Office made uncomplimentary comments about the leadership of this administration and policies were poorly presented. (Both sadly true). Despite the ongoing presence of our heavily damaged Leader of the Council, backbencher members and Executive have made solid progress particularly when we cast minds back to the mess the Coalition inherited in May 2008. Welsh Government seem unable to plan sufficiently far ahead as very late withdrawal of a vital transport grant caused problems and money had to be found and again at short notice, Welsh Government has sliced the Bus Service Operators Grant from 1st April. (More on this in later blog bu it is not good news for bus users.) The budget has been achieved without redundancies or any heavy loss of front line services. The pain of year by year cuts cuts is far from over but council tax increases have been as modest …..
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on March 13, 2012, 11:31 am,
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Personal.
My oldest chum & I jetted out of England bound for New Delhi on a bleak snowy day. We held our breath that the plane would actually take off amidst swirling snow flakes with much snow having been already cleared from the runway. I’d booked club class but in all the years of travelling we were upgraded to first class and spent a comfortable night stretched out on BA’s finest sleeping pods. I’d visited India 25 years previously and really had no strong desire to re-visit; remembering the poverty, the constant press of small children and other beggars tapping on our bus windows and the use of gutters for impromptu loo stops. I felt sorry for the diseased dogs that roamed everywhere, the cows that wandered around the streets (even the airport and I did not enjoy sights of people sleeping on pavements or mixing cow pats for heat and bulding materials. The luxury of the hotels compared with how some Indians live worried me but best friend had developed a deep passion for the county and it was time to indulge her before we both popped our clogs. Most standard tours don’t combine north and south and I wanted …..
Dear Ms Cole, You chaired the Adjudication Panel in March and May 2010 that found me guilty of breaking Codes of Conduct and your fellow panel members are now serving on the Cllr Armstrong Braun panel. I would be very surprised if you had not been told that the evidence given at my tribunal by Cllr Woolley was false and that I have reported Cllr Woolley to North Wales Police for perjury. In October 2010, I unearthed evidence that totally undermined an entry made by Cllr Woolley in his handwritten journal in which he wrote that I had accused Cllr Heesom of bullying behaviour. Heesom’s behaviour was at the heart of the case against me. After being recalled three times by Cllr Patrick Heesom’s legal team, I was present on 15th September 2011 at the Heesom Adjudication Panel when Cllr Woolley admitted that the event he had recorded that seriously incriminated me when he stated that I had accused Heesom of being a bully could not have happened and that he had been wrong to write as he did. I had always stated that the journal was false and it comprised the main weight of evidence against me. My lawyers …..
On Sunday I made a couple of visits to my patch. Level Lane Play area was first and as I suspected from heavy silence from the dog poo bin overseer/manager that only two of the three assigned three bins had been installed. As council staff were erecting them in December, a nameless man passed by threatened to wreck it as he had objected to its position. I was cross. I had the agreement of the nearest resident who did not object and thus the choice of position should not have caused any problem. So having installed one, the men left and no more was heard. This battle for the bins has dragged on since August. I had meantime identified another site close to the cut through leading to Green Meadows and yet again, my quest for information fell on stony ground. Now, I ‘ve asked Executive Member Nancy Matthews if she can wave a magic wand and get her staff to finish the job. Nancy as been under huge pressure from waste collection complaints but answered at once that she would see what she could do. The one complaint I received regarding brown bin collection was dealt with promptly and …..
The Corporate Resources Meeting was more interesting that I had expected and the Chief Executive played a major part in taking members through the complexities of the forthcoming budget proposals. As I had expected, I did not learn much more about the Early Retirement issue that was up for discussion. Both the elected chair for the meeting and another member closed any debate down, an action I accepted as the press was present. The press is frequently used to get a story out that a member wishes to have published in a round about way, but obviously my story and my concerns of a certain early retirement did not press the right buttons on this occasion. I was chuffed when the Head of Human Resources credited me with pressing officers to bring the costs etc. of early retirements to members’ regular attention. Head of HR graciously agreed that this policy had fallen by the way side and my doggedness had put it back on the agenda once more. I was happy to praise officers in return as I thought our Chief Executive, Colin Everett had displayed a masterful command of the budget brief. He answered detailed and complex questions without …..
The last site visit scheduled for 9th January Planning bus was in Magazine Lane, Ewloe and the matter would be decided by members on Wednesday 11th. It was a mean little site tight against the A55 with its constant roar of traffic, deep in mud in which wallowed 5 inquisitive ponies I felt sorry for the livestock and their conditions and I would have felt even unhappier for young children to live in such conditions particularly when a properly laid out site was available down the hill. A break before the start of the 1300 Planning committee allowed me to pop out and explain procedure to the people who were speaking against the proposal for the residents. I then met the applicant’s agent & my breath was taken away with his gratuitous rudeness to me and to Planning Officers. Yes, he would want three minutes to speak to the first part of the application and yes, he would then want a further three minutes to tell us how we had got it all wrong if we dared refuse the first application. He then threatened all in hearing with how he would take the Authority to the cleaner’s with massive costs. …..
The Council’s been in recess but started up again in earnest on 4th January with a members review of the demolition of Flint Maisonettes. I had spent New Year in a very soggy New Forest doing a fiendish jigsaw; the subject being owls. I’d bought it years ago for a friend who died. It was a total and absorbing challenge and when upon meeting Joan, my wonderful cleaning lady in the New Year, she told me that she had purchased some too years ago as they stimulated the brain! Having spent a week on the puzzle & hardly making an impact on all those almost identical owls, clearly my brain is in serious need of re-stimulating. For the time being owls are definitely having the last hoot! Stormy weather on 3rd January made me delay the return journey as I was just not willing to risk driving in suicide road conditions with 4 dogs in the back of a heavily laden car. Regret I missed the “Call in” but had read the papers and find the timing of this decision very strange indeed. How ever it is argued, it seems that the maisonette residents have been disenfranchised from the Choices …..
Attended last Community Council of 2011 and I hate the Institute car park as its a sea of mud and pot holes and the security light positioned to light up the path is erratic. The car torch comes in handy. A journalist and our local CBO, Sian joined us and agenda soon moved to police matters. The Chair of that committee has strong feelings that we MUST always have a police presence although the local inspector has firmly indicated that with stretched resources this is just not possible at times. Before the cuts, we could expect the full compliment of 4 officers. I am more & more disinclined to push for a police presence as it eats into officers’ patrol time and they are little more than messengers taking complaints back to the bosses on historic issues. The crimes that concered two members were missing hanging baskets & a broken window, all having occurred a few days ago. Sian knew nothing of either incident nor was she able to add any more to the collected sum of our wisdom on damage to a member’s van and some other long past vandalism incident. Sian sat making the list & I thought …..
