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| A review of The Telford Tories |
| Written by johnfranklyn | |||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, 20 December 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||
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Like many people, I quickly lost faith in the Conservative Administration after being sucked into a string of promises and the belief that positive change was to be implemented.
Councillor Andrew Eade took some delight in handing me his election leaflet in 2007, it said everything we wanted to hear.
In bold headings it promised
An Open and Honest Council that Responds to the Community
An Accountable Council that Spends our money Wisely
A Council run by Councillors for the Local Community
An even handed Council that spreads its resources fairly
A Council that provides the infrastructure for future prosperity
Andrew took great delight in running round the borough, making further promises that were continued but never delivered.
In truth, we found that the residents throughout the Borough and in every community, were actually let down in a series of broken promises.
First of all, we saw a Council Tax Increase of 4.3% followed by the Administration blaming the previous Labour Administration. Councillor Eade has promised to keep the future increase low, but they are going to have great difficulty in maintaining that promise.
We then saw the sale of Council Assets that became known as the “Eade bay Sales”, this was mismanaged by Councillor Eade at his own admittance, this also saw business properties sold from under the feet of local new start businesses.
Councillor Eade was critical of the “City Region”, he promised to open this up, working hand in glove with the Community, not only did he fail to keep this promise, he promptly joined up, took his seat as a Director and has left the borough to foot the growing bill.
Councillor Andrew Eade was again critical of Transforming Telford, but as soon as he became Leader, he promptly took another Directorship and is now talking about setting up another quango, at our expense.
As the country was sailing through a credit crunch and about to hit the ice berg of recession, Councillor Eade saw it a prudent move to increase Councillors allowances that will be a further financial burden to the tax payer, costing us an additional £130,000 during the next financial year.
The administrations first budget saw
£18,000 removed from libraries,
£5000 removed from homelessness storage,
£5000 removed from charities
The financial burden on carers increased
The cost of meals on wheel substantially increased.
Bulk waste charges were introduced that has seen a six fold increase in fly tipping throughout various parts of the borough.
Telford Town Park continues to have a political boundary that means large parts of it will be used for development and the threat to The Arena is far from asleep.
Accident figures for the EP A442 were messed up and it was discovered that the casualty figures had increased since the changes. Public money then had to be used to pay for new signage giving the accurate figures.
Councillor Eade promised residents a voice at full council and planning meetings, this idea was echoed by MP Mark Pritchard, but Councillor Eade has failed to deliver on this and refuses to answer why it has not happened, although he said it would only take a simple constitutional change.
The first year of the Conservative Administration has seen the council wage bill increase by £6.7 million, yet we see very little improvement in services offered.
Over the same period, we have seen the salaries of the Councils top earners increase by over £1,000,000 and the claims of bullying have increased.
In June T&W Council struck a £22.3 million deal with Morgan Sindall that read “Morgan Sindall finished in sixth spot with wins that included a £22.3m housing deal with Telford and Wrekin Council.”
Staffing Levels have increased from 5838 in 05/06 to 6122 during 07/08.
A Borough Councillor resigned from Muxton, it is alleged he never even lived in the Borough.
Various land swaps have been completed between the Council and Their partners, but the Council have not said what has been swapped with who, why it was swapped and if it was a like for like basis or what the cost is to the public.
The Administration are prepared to use tax payers money to redevelop the Town Centre that will be to ultimate benefit of the private sector and sell the Council HQ without any public consultation until the deal is all but complete.
The Administration has seen a substantial increase in advertising costs.
National Embarrassment.
Telford and Wrekin Council came under fire and became the laughing stock of the UK when they introduced a policy to stop lone adults when they used the Town Park. They often referred to a policy, which was later found to never have existed. Whilst the Council were prepared to check adults using the Town Park, it also came to light that they allow 25 organisations to use the Town Park, work with young people, but do not have any list 99 or CRB information on them, this despite one organisation being a school and another organisation they send young people to.
Later the Administration sacked a highly respected Councillor from his Cabinet post for leaking information that never actually existed.
This decision was made in a restaurant, without all the cabinet present and in breach of the Conservatives own rules.
More recently, two highly respected Councillors resigned the Tory whip, which the Council Leader strenuously denies operating and as a direct result of Councillors Eade’s leadership style.
Yet Councillor Eade took no action against a Councillor who threatened his colleagues with physical harm.
Councillor Eade also said he expected the two Councillors to resign and fight a by-election, but he took a defector from the Labour party quite happily.
The Conservative Administration failed to support the Telford Housing Summit, despite making all the right noises and have seen an end to the regeneration of Woodside.
We were promised change
And we all believed it was going to be for the better. Sadly this has not been the case. The Conservative Administration have failed to keep one single promise they made, have spent money like it was going out of fashion, sold council assets at bargain basement prices, thrown local business into a period of turmoil and placed increased financial burdens on the very people that require help the most.
Hey have lined the pockets of top earners and whilst we were entering recession gave themselves a considerable financial pay rise.
By any measurement, these are not the hall marks of a Party in touch with the needs of any community and are not the Hall marks of a Leader with any credibility.
Residents are making noises about requesting the resignation of Councillor Eade from the position of Leader and should I receive enough interest, I would gladly take the lead in raising that petition on the grounds of a loss of faith and confidence.
Politics needs something new, something to bring back openness, honesty and credibility back to the borough, I hope the New Year will see the delivery of it. Unfortunately, it will not be brought about by the Conservative Administration in its current format.
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3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."Telford Council Watch                |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 22 December 2008 ) | |||||||||||||||||||
