Town Council up and running.

I was at last nights inaugural meeting of Ramsgate Town Council to witness the birth pangs of this newly elected body. Like most births it was a drawn out painful affair starting with the head emerging. As some of you will know this is usually the most painful part of the process and so it turned out to be. In front of a packed house, there were probably 60 people in the audience, The Midwife, TDC’s Head of Legal Services struggled manfully to get through the process but was thwarted by the various factions voting on strictly party political lines. Nominations for Chairman of the new body were Pat Doyle, moved by Jill Kirby, Dave Green, moved by Steve Ward and Ralph Hoult, moved by Gerry O’Donnell. Eventually following an elimination vote where the candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out Ralph Hoult was eliminated. Following another failed attempt to elect it was agreed that the two remaining candidates should address the Council in an attempt to break the deadlock. This resulted in Dave Green emerging victorious. He made a short acceptance speech and then presented retiring Mayor Kay Dark with a commemorative badge. Next on the agenda was to elect a deputy for Dave Green, this was achieved in no time at all as Ralph Hoult was elected unopposed.
We then moved on to something headed ‘Style of the Council’ this was just to decide whether to mutate into a Town Council or remain as a Parish, it was duly agreed that Ramsgate should have a Town Council as Ramsgate is indeed a Town.
It was also agreed that the Town Council should meet on a monthly basis except August and December at 7pm, then it was onto the formation of the various committee’s that actually make a Council work. It was decided to form three main ones, a planning committee, a finance & general purpose one and an allotments committee. The normal rules of political balance apply so no one group will be over represented anywhere.
Next it needed to be decided where the Councils home would be, obviously Albion House has to be the choice but as TDC seem intent on flogging it off there is some doubt about this so it was agreed that RTC should sort of squat at Albion House until agreement can be reached. It was accepted that RTC will have to pay a commercial rent for the place but arguments lay ahead about the condition of the building and who will pay for it to be made fit for purpose not to mention making it DDA compliant. The rest of the meeting was taken up with even more turgid and soporific debate and items until it came time to exclude the press and public although by this time considerable numbers of the public had decided that Horlicks and News at Ten was a considerably more enthralling prospect and had left.
Quite rightly in my view the Council decided NOT to exclude the public as there were to be no discussions about individuals salary levels or performance.
Some of the new Members obviously didn’t understand that the Town Clerk is not the person that takes the minutes and writes reports, he or she is in fact RTC’s Chief Executive or indeed that he/she will also have to be the Section 151 Officer. I wont explain what a 151 Officer is here other than to say that all councils that spend public money have to have one and they have to have a CIPFA qualification.
Details of what a 151 officer is and does can be seen HERE.
I am very concerned that Gerry O’Donnell seems the believe that you can advertise a job and then start negotiating pay and conditions either at the interview or after you have appointed someone. No one worth their salt is going to apply for a job where the terms and conditions or salary range are not on offer up front.

Also discussed was what interim assistance may or may not be needed from TDC until RTC actually employs its own staff.


I suspect that the 60 or so folks in the audience who came looking for some kind of revolution and some world changing actions and decisions went home disappointed, unfortunately Annual Meetings are always rather long drawn out turgid affairs. No doubt in the coming months RTC will start making decisions that will have a far reaching effect on the Residents of Ramsgate including potentially increasing your Council Tax.
I also noticed in the assembled multitude some ‘furiners’ there was among others, from Birchington John (am I an Independent, no I am an Independent in public and a Tory in private) Worrow. From Westbrook there was Cllr Dean (call me Bert) McCastree and from Margate Cllr John (Snowy) Watkins. I can only assume that they were there to gather information about how a Town Council looks and works having as they do aspirations in that direction themselves.

I am still concerned that some of them are unable to grasp the basic premise that if you are going to spend money it has to come from somewhere and the only source of income are the Taxpayers of Ramsgate but only time will tell if I am being unduly pessimistic .