I was at the Cabinet meeting last night and they were discussing among other things the Audit Commissions report on Thanet Councils Housing service. this was a mixed bag of fair, poor and abysmal and Cllr Michelle Fenner was pointing out the fact that the fair bits had been cherry picked from the report and spun to create a good immpression, she then went on to highlight the shortcomings in the report at which point Ezekiel and Martin wise in particular completly lost the plot and started interupting Michelle and shouting at her. Wise was going quite scarlet with rage and was screaming in an uncontrollable manner while Michelle Fenner was still speaking. Frankly the attitude of Ezekiel and Martin Wise in particular was appalling. whilst I accept the Tories right to disagree with what we (Labour) are saying at least they should do us the common courtesy of allowing us to speak without being interrupted by a senior Tory shouting like an out of control football hooligan.
Reproduced below is a press statement on the matter.
COUNCILLOR EZEKIEL, LEADER OF TDC, TRIES TO GAG OPPOSITION
At last night’s Cabinet meeting, Councillor Michelle Fenner, Shadow Cabinet member for Housing, was prevented from finishing the comments she had prepared on the Housing Inspector’s report.
What she had to say was obviously hitting home and Councillor Ezekiel couldn’t bear to listen to it all.
Councillor Michelle Fenner tried to make the points that she was disappointed in the way that the actual Inspector’s report had been cherry-picked by TDC. The Inspector’s report commented that “TDC’s plans do not always have clear, consistent and stretching targets in place2.
Councillor Fenner stood up at Full council in December 07 and said just that but, at the time, her comments were dismissed. According to a Tory Councillor “it is better not to have stretching targets so that you can be sure to achieve them”. (!!!)
Councillor Fenner intended to point out that the action plan produced as a response to then Inspector’s report needed to be more stringent.
Councillor Fenner also expressed concerns that complaints from TDC tenants did not always appear to be taken seriously nor acted upon. A recent example of this was the fact that a council tenant had to wait 2 weeks and the strong intervention from his Local Councillor to the Acting Chief executive to have his toilet mended which had been condemned by the contractors.
On the issue of affordable housing, Councillor Fenner pointed out the Inspector’s comments that not enough of it is being built because of TDC’s slowness in negotiating Section 106 agreements with the developers.
Thanet Councillor Jo Gideon shortlisted for Conservative candidate for Kent Police and Crime Commissioner
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Local councillor Jo Gideon has been shortlisted in the selection of the
Conservative candidate for the new Police and Crime Commissioner role in
Kent. Jo...
3 hours ago
4 comments:
How about all meetings should be recorded and made available to the public, you could bleep out sensitive information or Ezekiel, sorry vulgar bits.
I would have enjoyed Wise going scarlet.
Seriously if people were on video they might realise that their job is to represent me, not act like a jerk.
When we ( Labour ) were in control at great expense and in a forlorn attempt to drag TDC into the 21st century we had installed an electronic voting system, a new sound system with a hearing loop, a digital recording system and not least a video and webcast system. Following our defeat at the 2003 elections, and I wiil go into that at greater depth if needed, at one of the first Council meetings when we were discussing an ammended budget the electronic voting system was used, we had moved several ammendements to the Tories proposed budget and using the electronic system the vote was tied so the Chairman had to use his casting vote to get the Tories budget through, clearly this was a great embarrasment to them and the electronic system hasnt been used since.
Quite why the webcast system hasnt been used is beyond me, well actually it isnt but I must not publish on a public internet page that the IT Techies at TDC are probably not capable of making it work so I must remain puzzled about the reason for its non functioning.
My granny could probably make the video systemwork if it mattered enough to here and therein lies a problem - lack of will to make it work on the part of the poeple with the power to insist.
As for the points about Council Tenants being inored - this is common practice - councillors and council workers are famed for ignoring council tenents. That's why (in my opinion) labour lost the Dane Valley ward completely.
what gos round comes round regarding the carpetbaggers interruption whilst cllr fenner was trying to speak i too asked a valid question some years ago at a agm of the early years project i too was interrupted by a shrill female voice who obviously had not been listening i was informed later this was cllr fenner i was suprised to be told she was a labour cllr
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