Telford & Wrekin Council Watch
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Latest News
The Dawley Sign and a TAWPA councillors Comments
The Dawley Sign and a TAWPA Councillors Comments
The Ho...Readmore
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Telford Housing Report Update
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| Are The Tories Falling Apart |
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| Written by johnfranklyn | |||||||
| Wednesday, 12 November 2008 | |||||||
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Are The Tories Falling Apart?
FULL COUNCIL
The email with regards the Full Council has been issued to all members,
Further to discussions with the Speaker and the Leader, the date of the next meeting of Full Council has been rearranged from 27th November 2008 to Thursday 11th December 2008. This is in order that a motion on proposed changes to NHS services in the area can be drafted and debated. Unfortunately the report which will set out the NHS proposals will not be available until shortly before the original meeting date. The Speaker and the Leader are of the opinion that this is a key issue for the Borough and that it is important for members to be able to consider it properly and for all Members to hopefully develop a united stance.
I apologise for the inconvenience that this will cause - particularly for members of the Standards Committee who were due to meet on this date. This meeting will be rearranged shortly and the revised date notified to those Members concerned. Please update your diary with the new date.
Having discussed the email with several Council Staff and Members, it would appear that this email and reason for the change of meeting, is at best misleading.
The real reason for the change is allegedly completely different but is more a political manoeuvre rather than the NHS proposals.
It is being said that the Conservative Party are on the run and worried about losing control.
Since the appalling sacking of Cllr Denis Allen from the cabinet, Cllr Miles Hoskin has now found himself a comfortable seat on the cabinet.
Unfortunately for the Conservatives this now provides a slight dilemma.
A new speaker now has to be elected and the Conservative Administration has a key member on holiday. This means that should the Conservatives go to full council, they may not get a Conservative speaker, ultimately leading to them losing on a drawn vote as the speaker would cast the deciding vote.
This happened over the vote for the increase in Councillors allowances when Cllr Miles Hoskin voted in favour of the increase at the cost to the tax payer.
In order to ensure that the Conservative Party continue walking in the Garden of Eade, the full council has been delayed under the guise of the above excuse, but the real reason is to ensure that their key member returns from holiday in time for this critical vote.
Hardly honest is it Councillor Eade?
AT EACH OTHERS THROAT
It is now being said that the heat within the Conservative meetings are so hot that debate has gone beyond that and now entered the realms of being personal.
Issues have become so heated that it is being said, a certain heavy weight and former Labour Councillor actually lost the plot to such an extent, he threatened an act of violence towards other Conservative Members who are also democratically elected members.
The Shropshire Star recently ran a story about bullying on the increase in the Council, this displays that bullying is not just confined to Council Towers but is also accepted as normal behaviour within the Conservative Party.
As the person who carried out this threat has not been dealt with, we can only conclude that by not dealing with it, it is considered acceptable and will therefore manifest itself as bullying in other areas of the council and politics.
THE APPALLING TREATMENT OF COUNCILLOR DENIS ALLEN
As we know, Cllr Denis Allen was sacked from his position on the cabinet and returned to the backbenches of Telford and Wrekin Council Conservative Administration.
What people may not be aware of, is the final decision to sack Denis was made by a select few, whilst one key member was absent, in an establishment which sells alcohol. This is apparently illegal under some act.
What others may also not be aware of is,
Councillor Andrew Eade, Councillor Steve Bentley and Councillor Adrian Lawrence attended the house of Councillor Denis Allen.
Some are describing Cllr Lawrence as a ‘deer caught in the headlights’ and really didn’t know what was happening.
Councillor Eade sat there and watched the kangaroo court in full swing.
Councillor Steve Bentley did all the talking that went along the lines of,
“You leaked out information to XXXX and you’re sacked”
A great deal of people are somewhat baffled about the involvement of Councillor Bentley in this issue and it is being said that Cllr Eade is quite prepared, to sit back, play judge, jury and executioner, but prefers others to do his dirty work whilst he sits back and watches it happen.
WHAT LEAD TO THE SACKING?
The whole sorry saga started with the following radio interview and the transcript reads as follows,
Start time – 08:12:30
Eric Smith, presenter
Listening to that, Dennis Allen, cabinet member for communities, Dennis good morning.
Dennis Allen, cabinet member for communities, Telford & Wrekin Council
Good Morning
Eric Smith:
Can you clear up for me then what the policy is?
Dennis Allen:
Well it has been extraordinarily difficult for me to get hold of it as well. And I’m now amending it because it’s over the top at the moment.
Eric Smith:
You see you said it’s difficult for you to get hold of it so you have people out in the park administering a policy which isn’t clear.
Dennis Allen:
Yes it may be clear to them and it’s certainly ………I’m sorry for them because it’s not their fault if they are the foot soldiers and if they’ve been told to do what we’ve just been hearing about, i.e. accost any person that’s not with a child in the park, they’re just carrying out their instructions.
Eric Smith:
Well is it clear to you now and what it is?
Dennis Allen:
It’s not terribly clear because I asked our lawyers what laws applied and it was……..I got a very vague answer mainly that my officers were looking into it so it would appear that my officers didn’t know either. Then we’ve……looking into it more deeply I found that in 1999 the government produced a guidance document saying that basically we’re all responsible for children who use our facilities and I can only think that in response to it our Labour predecessors produced this document which I believe to be, erm, ruling that’s totally over the top.
Eric Smith:
You see I can understand it if you’ve got somebody who you persistently see in the park, on their own, hanging around children’s play areas, I can understand that then you might want to know who and why and what. But maybe I’m having a bit of a stroll in the park, I have an ice cream, I sit on a bench and I just enjoy watching the kiddies playing on the slides and I move on. What’s wrong with that?
Dennis Allen:
Absolutely nothing…I agree entirely and I think this is a symptom of what’s happening all over the place these days where their taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut because they can’t deal with the real criminals the rest of the population suffers. There’s a number of circumstances like this. We are, or I am, in the process of changing the rules , saying in the park, the park is a huge area and it’s quite ridiculous. We’ve got to teach our, it we tell our officers, our park attendants, to use their discretion we’ve got to teach them what that means. I mean it was too easy to say everybody without a child, and we’ve also got to define the areas and I would say something like acting suspiciously in a child’s play area and I think that would meet both cases of freedom of speech and so on and freedom of movement but also give some sort of protection to children.
Eric Smith:
And briefly if you will, what about somebody who’s in the park distributing leaflets?
Dennis Allen:
Well again I don’t believe its……I believe strongly in freedom of speech, I think they should be allowed to distribute leaflets providing it’s not causing litter or they’re offending people by pushing it on them. The law of the land already covers that, we don’t need extra laws. I feel strongly that you should be able to distribute…..but I do wonder why they choose the park. Now John, yes, his leaflet was about the park so it made a lot of sense to distribute it to people using the park because they were the ones most likely to respond but these other leaflets, anti-war and I can’t even remember what the other one was, they, oh, the penguin one, presumably that’s global warming, surely the best place to do that would be in the Town Centre where more people are, more adults, and possible outside the meeting house, meeting point house, where a lot of people go. I really don’t understand why they choose to go in the children’s area of the park.
Eric Smith:
Dennis thank you, we’ll leave it there. Cllr Dennis Allen and Telford and Wrekin Council then just having another look at policy of stopping children in the park.
End Time: 08:16:36
A total of 4 minutes and six seconds in length
EVIDENCE
This is a crucial part of the evidence that Telford and Wrekin Council used against Denis that helped lead to his sacking from the cabinet.
When Cllr Eade was asked if he listened to it and what part he disagreed with, he initially said he had not heard it, only later to say he heard some of it.
As the interview only lasted 4 minutes and six seconds, if you hear some, surely you listen to it all.
Cllr Eade was less than honest with his account on this issue.
LEAK
Cllr Eade also said that a leak about an external inquiry was made to John Franklyn, this is a lie.
It is also said that a leak about an inquiry was made to two parish Councillors, who found themselves dragged into something they knew nothing of.
We have been forwarded an email, that points the accusing finger directly at Cllr Stephen Bentley which says
Quote
“in which she said, sparks are going to fly and he has jumped to the conclusion the we had been told about the inquiry”
“Obviously, what he doesn’t realise was that THAT email referring to sparks, was sent to me by you on the 14th, the day before the cabinet meeting, so we couldn’t possibly have known.
“It is obvious to all he has cocked up big style”
In the email, there is a clear mistake made with regards communication, some by text, some by email, it goes on to say
“If he doesn’t reply and produce the email, I would consider writing again and telling him that unless the email is produced by the weekend you will consider taking legal action against him for slander and defamation of character. He certainly wouldn’t have a leg to stand on”
“Whatever other issues Andrew has with you, his allegation involving us and the leak is totally outrageous and I still get very angry when I think of it”
Clearly Denis Allen has been used as a scape goat, but what about Ron Odunaiya and his radio interview where he said the policy had been in force for nine years, yet the Council cannot find the policy and I have been told that my FOI request will be fobbed off because the Town Park Policy does not exist.
Yet our caring Council allow 25 organisations to use the town park and their procedure is not to known about CRB Checks, clearly their duty of care does not go as far as ensuring that contractors and partners are safe to be with young people in the Town Park.
RUMOUR
There is a rumour that an elected member, spent two days away on council business with others, but spent the second evening locked away in a room they were sharing with a staff member.
Sounds like the lay-by incident is being repeated, but this time, indoors at our expense.
OPEN AND HONEST COUNCIL
 We’ll work hand in glove with residents, we’ll be open and honest.
These are nothing but weasel words issued by the Conservative Leader and are without any doubt false promises.
Our Petition is still live and we want as many signatures as possible to get a residents panel and our voices heard.
Unfortunately, we cannot trust the Leader so must try other methods to get our voice heard.
Sign the petition at the following link
http://pet....gov.uk/CommunityPanel/
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