Fans of dark comedy would have been richly rewarded by Wednesday night’s torturous meeting of Greenwich Council. In fact, it’s hard to know where to start.
But running through the meeting were themes common to anyone who’s read this website over the past couple of years – the lack of transparency and an unwillingness to listen.
Labour mayor Angela Cornforth, who is on the longlist to be Greenwich & Woolwich’s next Labour candidate, announced she had refused permission for the meeting to be filmed. It’s understood the BBC wanted to bring a camera into the meeting, but the doors were closed to the corporation and so Greenwich residents won’t be able to see their councillors’ inaction.
Council leader Chris Roberts’ bullying voicemail hung over the meeting like a cloud, but it wasn’t just the local Labour outpost having problems.
The Tories’ attempts to capitalise on the issue were hampered by deselected councillor Eileen Glover consistently making digs at her former colleagues. When the Tories complained about another attempt by the Labour leadership to make changes to the way the council does business, Glover, sporting the biggest poppy in the room, turned on her own colleagues, saying they should have “tracked the changes” themselves.
“It’s past their bedtime,” she spat at youthful ex-colleagues Nigel Fletcher and Adam Thomas. Hell hath no fury like a Tory scorned.
The Tories plan to get Roberts hung on a clutch of motions designed to smoke any dissent on the Labour benches. One was about the way the council runs its scrutiny panels (no Tory ever gets to run one), hung on the back of a tweet from another wannabe MP, Matt Pennycook, declaring “the decades-old culture of machine politics must change”.
Challenged by Tory leader Spencer Drury to explain what he meant, Pennycook kept quiet. The situation was a lose/lose one for the Greenwich West councillor. Speak out and get disciplined, or keep schtum and look silly? Short-term embarrassment was the easier option rather than face the long-term difficulties of being ostracised by Roberts and his helpers.
With his own councillors staying quiet, Roberts made one of the oddest contributions himself – presumably to try to protect Pennycook. Talking about his early days in Greenwich Labour, during the days of rate-capping rows, he recalled how he and other young upstarts vowed to change matters.
“The most embarrassing political question you can be asked is ‘what’s the average age of your councillors?’ I’d be really worried if we didn’t have a group of talented twenty- and thirtysomethings saying ‘this is our time’. And believe me, after [the elections] in May, you will see some of those in this chamber.”
Nobody thought to ask why twentysomething councillor Hayley Fletcher is stepping down because of bullying.
https://i0.wp.com/853.london/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/sarky_motion.jpg?resize=640%2C300&ssl=1
Fletcher has now launched a formal complaint over the issue.
All of which overshadowed two significant bits of news. Firstly, the council voted to review its new “pavement tax” on shops’ outdoor displays, introduced earlier this year with no discussion or debate. Indeed, an unusually sheepish Chris Roberts even apologised for the way things had been handled. https://i0.wp.com/853.london/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/answer.jpg?resize=640%2C250&ssl=1
What is the matter with these people?
I move with my job a lot and this is about my 6th council and MP. They all got things wrong and had their share of criticism on something. But Greenwich is in a league of its own for getting it wrong across the board for the people who live here. Governmenet targets seem ok and commercial interests are kept happy. And if my kids were fighting like the grown ups here they would live in the naughty corner. What a way to carry on.
Call me a pessimistic bastard (I am) but the leadership knows Labour will dominate the next elections like they always have, ignoring the views of many and tolerating no dissent. Given the massive amounts of apathy, ignorance and non existent media around the area the chances of change seem slim. Will the labour party do anything? Seems unlikely. Still, keep fighting the good fight.
What scares me is that recent actions by Mr Roberts may not be U turns and retreats on policy caused by exposure to the media and/or a realisation that the people may actually oppose his policies, but U turns deliberately aimed at appeasement, with the objective of retaining power in the locals next year. Now that’s a prospect a darned sight more scary than halloween.
Agreed Derek and murky
I thought Chris Roberts was on his way out..its about time.!!!
Very sorry I wasn’t at this Council meeting, as there was an important tenants’ meeting the same night. Thanks for the full report back. The apparent loss of a public question I find particularly concerning, and this:
‘Written answers about the tunnel told a questioner he was “misinformed” about the council not publishing air quality stats from its 42 monitoring sites. Yet it doesn’t – go looking on its website, and you won’t find a thing.’
You won’t find more than the top 3 local councillors results’ in the ward-by-ward breakdown of local election results either – http://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/1000/elections-results/826/local_elections_2010
When I queried this during the run up to the London GLA and Mayoral elections the returning officer Stephen O’Hare informed me that the full results had technically been published by displaying them on a noticeboard outside the Town Hall for the statutory 2 weeks after the 2010 local elections. When I asked for a full breakdown on the website he argued that this was an unreasonable request, given that he had so much work on preparing for the upcoming election, and then told me I must have ‘special needs’.
I eventually got them through the post – after having had to listen to quite a lot of personal abuse – and found that the count of spoilt papers in my ward – Charlton – had been mysteriously left out. I contacted my local councillors to point out the omission and ask for their help in making sure all results were properly recorded and made accessible in future, and received no replies. I remember there were small but significant votes for candidates not of the main 3 parties across the borough. Perhaps we can try and make sure all these figures are made available online before and after the next local elections?
Better news about the pavement tax, though!
Ashleigh
Ashleigh
You can find the results in full from the 2010 local elections in Greenwich (and all other local authorities) at http://www.andrewteale.me.uk/leap/results/2010/24/.
Thanks very much Alex. Why are the results not on the Greenwich website though? Surely they should be.
I know the picture quality of the above is not the best but this is surely the Addams Family Conference rather than a council meeting. And in these we put our trust.
Jim – that picture mainly shows Council officers and the Tories
I spy with my little eye both Mary Ney who is an officer, but one of the public faces of Greenwich and also Councillor Roberts.Not to my knowledge a Tory. Why take my frivolous comment with anything but a pich of salt?