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Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob
>>No. Council has very few powers now. It passes the budget thats all. Plus any constitutional changes and passes the minutes of meetings. Thats it. Everything else ends at the Cabinet. Its a very closed system designed to fast track desicions.<<
If this is so, then what is the point going to all the fuss and expense of electing so many councillors? And where does the idea of democracy feature in all this fast-track jerrymandering?
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funny you should say that bob.
Richmond Council who are all Tory or quasi Tory have been studying Hyndburn and in the brief chat I have had with several of them they branded it awful and described PB as dictator. She described the cabinet as a disgusting & continual election roadshow. And it is. And thats Tory outsiders.
I suggested sarcastically to the Tory leader that the Labour Group would appreciate this monopoly on power if we got back in and she gave me an awfully hard disgusted stare and said "no matter what party benefits its disgusting". Sometimes Tory allegiances can be extreme so the thought that Labour might one day have that level of power clearly cleared her thought processes. I just wish Tories in Hyndburn could be as lucid in their thinking.
The last 5 years have been disastrous. In 1999 we were 10.9m in debt, now its 27m. Still you can always blame Tony Blair at the ballot box. Might make HBCs problems much worse, but it still makes some people feel better.. [ i say that sarcastically from canvassing on door steps - forgive me]
The one year we had in power we discovered how awful it was. It was probably that level of personal stress that caused the Labour Leader Ian Ormerod to have a stroke.