Working Arrangements

On Thursday night it was the second meeting of the Full Council in a week where the decisions as to who would sit on and chair important committees was decided. Prior to the meeting a working agreement was reached with the Thorpe members of the Independent Party which will be published on the Council website shortly.

A full in-depth analysis of the breakdown of the details of the agreement can be found on Nigel Holdcroft's blog here. I know I have locked horns with Cllr Woodley in the past and have to agree with Nigel that it would have been easy for him to have thrown his toys out of the pram after his failed leadership bid but he was prepared to engage in constructive dialogue, along with his Thorpe colleagues, with the Conservative Group.

There are a couple of aspects of the working arrangement which I want to touch upon. When you enter into any working agreement there has to be some compromise which is to be expected. I was happy to compromise on some areas of policy regarding parking charges in Thorpe Bay as did Ron and his colleagues on the issue of the CCTV Vehicle where they agreed to the continuation of its responsible use. This was particularly big of him especially as he put his name to these posters in Shoeburyness High Street during the elections.

Despite the constructive dialogue with The Thorpe element of the Independent Party this still hasn't stopped Shoeburyness ward Independent Party councillor Anne Chalk taking to the web and have a disgusting rant at me and trying to claim some phantom credit for the agreement on the CCTV Vehicle. I am happy to lock horns with anybody on issues of policy, beliefs, double standards, anything but have never branded any member of Southend Council incompetent or insinuated that they are profiteering from any aspect of council policy. It is just a shame Cllr Chalk couldn't conduct herself in the same manor as the Thorpe Independents.

Whilst I am no supporter of Independent Party politics but as Ron was prepared to enter into a working agreement I thought it was only fair that I support him in his bid to become Chairman of Economical & Environmental scrutiny committee. I did find it a bit odd that last week Labour en mass supported Ron in his leadership bid but voted against him to become chairman of the Economic & Environmental scrutiny committee.  I was also happy to support other opposition members in other roles too and gave my backing to retiring Labour Mayor David Norman as Chairman of the Development & Control Committee and Lib Dem Paul Collins as Chairman of the Audit Committee.