onlineFOCUS – News and Stuff For Rochford District since 2003

Another new government announcement is that when a council operates a “Community Infrastructure Levy” on developers (which Rochford will introduce eventually) 15% of the money will be passed to the relevant Parish/Town Council where development is taking place with, apparently, no rules over how this cash can be spent…

May 11th, 2013 | Category: Coalition Government, Future Housing, Local Democracy, Local Facilities | Comments (24)

Rawreth Parish Council meets earlier than usual this Wednesday at 7.00pm in the village hall. This is followed by the Annual Parish Meeting at 8.00pm.

A hot drink for everyone who comes, some intelligent questions and real discussions. Definitely worth coming to if you live in Rawreth!

April 29th, 2013 | Category: Local Democracy, Rawreth | Leave a comment

Essex Liberal Democrats
Our Priorities for the 2013 Elections

Four years of Tory scandal and financial mismanagement

Over the last four years Conservative run Essex County Council has been hit by a series of financial and other scandals
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The former Leader, Lord Hanningfield, was forced to resign over his House of Lords expenses for which he was imprisoned
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Lord Hanningfield’s ECC expenses were exposed which showed £287,000 had been spent over the five years 2005-10, the previous five years records having been destroyed
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Further revelations showed his office staff claimed £70,000 over three years and ECC paid his £4,600 bar bill at the House of Lords
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The Conservatives, with Labour support, refused a Liberal Democrat call for an Inquiry to establish who authorised those payments and why
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The use of ‘P’ cards (payment cards) by officers was exposed which revealed £1.7m had been spent on luxury hotels, trips abroad and shopping sprees
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Five cases of personal identity data were leaked or mislaid
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The revelation that ECC had £14.5m of art treasures hidden away from public view
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Developer contributions (Section 106 monies) were lost through inaction

Now is the time to sweep away the secrecy and open up the County Council to public scrutiny

The Liberal Democrats will make that change by:
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Council meetings to be web cast
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Allowing the public to speak and ask questions at Council meetings
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No more decisions made behind closed doors

April 13th, 2013 | Category: Elections, Essex & East, Liberal Democrats, Local Democracy | Comments (6)

The last meeting of the All-Conservative Non-Rayleigh Council Cabinet  supported the following proposals, they will now go to Full Council for a decision:

1.1 Recommended to Full Council that from the next municipal year:-
i) The membership of the Review Committee is expanded from eight Members to fifteen Members, with the Chairmanship continuing to rest with a Member of the main opposition party.
ii) The specific functions carried out by the Review Committee are expanded to make clearer reference to its role in both the budget monitoring process and the forward planning around the budget and medium term financial strategy, including in-depth review and analysis of not just policy issues, but also service specific areas of work. Also, to include specific reference to the scope for joint reviews with adjoining Councils.
iii) The Executive Portfolios and responsibilities be changed as follows:- Environment to become Environment, Leisure, Arts and Culture. Leisure, Tourism, Heritage, Arts, Culture and Business to become Economic Development, Regeneration, Business Liaison and Tourism. Planning and Transportation to become Planning, Transport and Heritage
iv) Each of the Executive Portfolios allow for a Member to work shadow each of the Portfolio holders; these work shadowing arrangements to be facilitated by the Leader who will make the appropriate appointments.
v) In light of iv) above, the current two Member champion roles be disbanded.
vi) The current East and West Community Forums be disbanded and replaced by a more tailored approach, which involves:-
1) The Leader and appropriate Portfolio Holders, plus the Chairman of the Review Committee, meeting with the leaders of the Parish and Town Councils two times a year to discuss matters of common interest across the District.
2) Working with the Police and Crime Commissioner and the local Joint Crime and Disorder Partnership to promote two public meetings per year on policing and crime in the District.
3) Working with the local Clinical Commissioning Group and local Joint Health and Wellbeing Board to promote two public meetings per year on health provision in the District.
4) Arranging other topic specific or area specific meetings as appropriate, as agreed by the Leader and relevant Portfolio holders.
vii) Subject to the agreement to i) to vi) above, the relevant changes be made to the Council’s constitution to reflect these decisions.

So what does all this mean in practice?

First of all the Council’s Review Committee is going to be expanded from 8 councillors to 15. The job of the Review Committee is , roughly, to analyse council decision making and policies, and is ably   chaired by the one Lib Dem on the committee, June Lumley. It’s a bit like a Select Committee at the Houses of Commons. Expanding the committee might allow it to do more work, provided that the 15 members are all keen and raring to go.

They are going to change some of  the job titles and roles within the cabinet. So Mike Steptoe, the affable cabinet member for Environment, will presumably become cabinet member for Environment, Leisure, Arts and Culture. (That’s going to be a real mouthful we want to write about him – wouldn’t “Environment and Recreation” cover things?

They are going to have a few ordinary councillors being allowed to shadow a cabinet member. This would give useful training for cabinet members; it’s not clear yet if it would ever be offered to non-Conservatives.

They are admitting that the current Community Forums have been a total embarrassment, and replacing them with a different set of meetings. We hope they will work better – they can”t work any worse.

April 1st, 2013 | Category: Local Democracy | Comments (1)

It’s interesting that Michael and Diane Hoy can get 100 people to a public meeting in Hullbridge on future development when the District Council can only get 1 ordinary member of the public to the West Area Forum, which covers Hullbridge AND Rayleigh AND Rawreth !
You can read an account of the meeting here, from John and Christine Mason. They mention:

■sewerage at capacity
■creates a new community out of cohesion with Hullbridge
■the development offers youth provision where it is not needed
■the development offers more A1 Retail where it is not needed
■access over Malyons will create congestion
■Watery Lane improvements will be 10′s of £M – economically viable?
■Flooding issues to be dealt with by major engineering offsite in the Rawreth area creating further development
■This site is not viable and nor are the alternatives which suffer from the same issues
■Surface water flooding issues are assessed on insurance claim criteria – not assessed because there are no insurance claims for flooding in green fields
■Tidal reflux in 3 rivers has effect on flooding – will affect Hockley and other areas upstream

Also:

…. the Allocations Submission Document is not sound as the Highways Authority has evidently not looked strategically at the cumulative effect of traffic impacts on the Rochford Core Strategy through the Local Transport Plan because the information quoted by Essex County Council has not been published in the Evidence Base.

January 6th, 2013 | Category: District Core Strategy, Future Housing, Hullbridge, Local Democracy | Leave a comment

Council meetings start tomorrow…. in particular Rawreth Parish Council kick off the New Year with their January meeting tomorrow night on Wednesday 2nd.

7:30 in the village hall….

January 1st, 2013 | Category: Local Democracy, Rawreth | Leave a comment

Last Sunday we mentioned two meetings coming up – the West Area Forum on Tuesday, and Rawreth Parish Council last night.

They were two very different meetings.

The West Area Forum was really very disappointing from a public point of view. Leaving aside District Councillors, Parish councillors and a couple of councillors’ husbands, there seemed to be only one genuine member of the public there!

This gentleman had come along because of the District Council’s plans to relocate Rayleigh Sports and Social Club. You would have thought that the ruling Conservatives would have warmly welcomed the chap because as the one member of the public who had turned up he had saved them from total embarassment. But instead he was subjected to tough questioning by a senior Tory councillor on who he was and what his connection was with the club. Many people would have been intimidated by this but he stood his ground.

One person present told us later that they thought this was quite disgusting. The meeting was over in less than an hour, the two police officers who had come along barely had a chance to say a word and the two visitors from the health services didn’t get to speak at all.

The council chamber can be a very intimidating place – even some councillors are nervous about speaking. We are not going to have the public getting involved unless things are changed.

Meanwhile Rawreth Parish Council showed how it can be done. About a dozen members of the public came along- and most of them spoke. People get a friendly greeting, feel they are being listened to and get a hot drink and a biscuit at half-time. There were serious questions asked. The two police present (different ones from the previous evening) discussed local policing issues in a very relaxed way, and there was actually some laughter. The chap from Anglian Water, Paul Torvill, had driven down from Peterborough to talk about the sewage works and then stayed to listen. He was even able to help on another matter, by offering to provide some drainage maps to help with problems in Rawreth Lane.

November 8th, 2012 | Category: Council Drama, Local Democracy, Rawreth | Leave a comment

Next Tuesday we have the West Community Forum. It starts at 7:30 in the Council Chamber in Rayleigh. This is where members of the public from Rayleigh , Rawreth and Hullbridge can ask the ruling Tory councillors questions on any local topic. It would be good to have some health questions as well – there will be people there from SEPT (South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust) and South East Essex Primary Care Trust.

On Wednesday evening at 7:30 Rawreth Parish Council have their regular meeting in the Village Hall. The agenda includes flooding, highways and development issues. It will be interesting to see which meeting attracts the most visitors (Rawreth provides hot drinks for everyone!) and which meeting has the most thoughtful discussions…

November 4th, 2012 | Category: Hullbridge, Local Democracy, Rawreth, Rayleigh | Comments (1)

All Councillors on Essex County Council will, in future, be able to ask questions at Cabinet meetings. This follows an announcement today by the Leader of the Council, Cllr. Peter Martin.
Currently, only the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition can ask questions at Cabinet meetings.
Cllr. Mike Mackrory (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition) has welcomed the move.

He has said:

“This is something we have wanted for a very long time. At the last Full Council meeting in July, we pointed out that – although Councillors can attend – they cannot take part in Cabinet meetings.
“We are pleased the Leader of the Council has listened to our concerns, however there is still no public question time. So there is a long way to go for Essex to be a really open and transparent Council.”

Rochford District Council has even further to go…..

August 2nd, 2012 | Category: Essex & East, Local Democracy | Leave a comment

The next Full Council Meeting of the District Council is on July 17th at 7:30 pm . Members of the public are allowed to ask questions, though this isn’t publicised very much.

Does anyone fancy asking a question? If you did ask a question, it would be one of the main events of the evening..

You have to deliver it in writing to the chief executive (Paul Warren): 7 days before:

A question may only be asked if notice has been given by delivering it in writing or by electronic mail to the Chief Executive no later than midday 7 days before the day of the meeting. Each question must give the name and address of the questioner and must name the Member of the Council to whom it is to be put.

The rest of the rules are as below:

10.
QUESTIONS BY THE PUBLIC
10.1
General
Members of the public may ask questions of Members of the Executive, at ordinary meetings of the Council. The maximum time limit for asking each question is 3 minutes. The maximum time limit for a supplementary question is 1 minute.
10.2 Order of Questions
Questions will be asked in the order notice of them was received, except that the Chairman may group together similar questions.
10.3 Notice of Questions
A question may only be asked if notice has been given by delivering it in writing or by electronic mail to the Chief Executive no later than midday 7 days before the day of the meeting. Each question must give the name and address of the questioner and must name the Member of the Council to whom it is to be put.
10.4 Number of Questions
At any one meeting no person may submit more than 2 questions and no more than 2 such questions may be asked on behalf of one organisation.
10.5 Scope of Questions
The Chief Executive may reject a question if it:-
• is not about a matter for which the local authority has a responsibility or which affects the district;
• is defamatory, frivolous or offensive;
• is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of the Council in the past six months; or
• requires the disclosure of confidential or exempt information.
10.6 Record of Questions
The Chief Executive will enter each question in a book open to public inspection and will immediately send a copy of the question to the Member to whom it is to be put. Rejected questions will include reasons for rejection.
Copies of all questions will be circulated to all Members and will be made available to the public attending the meeting.
10.7 Asking the Question at the Meeting
The Chairman will invite the questioner to put the question to the Member named in the notice. If a questioner who has submitted a written question is unable to be present, they may ask the Chairman to put the question on their behalf. The Chairman may ask the question on the questioner’s behalf, indicate that a written reply will be given or
decide, in the absence of the questioner, that the question will not be dealt with.
10.8 Supplemental Question
A questioner who has put a question in person may also put one supplementary question without notice to the Member who has replied to his or her original question.
A supplementary question must arise directly out of the original question or the reply. The Chairman may reject a supplementary question on any of the grounds in Rule 10.5 above.

If you aren’t familiar with the council it’s not easy to find the rules , they are actually on page 4.5 of “Constitution Part 4 – Rules of Procedure ” on this page.

June 17th, 2012 | Category: Local Democracy | Leave a comment

The government are changing the system of dealing with complaints against councillors.

Up till now, the sanctions that could be taken against councillors found to have breached the code of conduct were pretty severe. For example , you could actually be suspended from being a councillor for a few months or even longer. Because of this , Standards Committees had to be chaired by a non-councillor, and only a minority of the committee would be actual district councillors.

Now, the rules are changing. Really serious matters will be dealt with by the police. But for ordinary breaches of the code of conduct you will no longer be able to be suspended. So the standards committee will soon be all district councillors – though there will still be a role for 3 ‘independent persons’ and the District Council is now advertising for them on their
website.

Three independent persons wanted for standards committee

The Localism Act 2011 confirmed the Council’s continuing duty to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by members and co-opted members of the authority.

We are looking for three “Independent Persons” to work with our Standards Committee to help to ensure high standards of conduct in the Council and among elected Councillors within the District.

If you think you have the qualities to take on this challenging role, we would like to hear from you.

You must be aged 18 or over and understand the Rochford District area and some of the issues facing it. You should be impartial, have a good standing in the community, and support the Council’s goals of being accountable, open, principled and committed to equal opportunities.

We are unable to consider anyone who is, or has been within the last five years, a member, co-opted member or officer of Rochford District Council or any of the Local (Town/Parish) Councils within the District, with the exception of existing independent members of the Standards Committee; or is a relative or close friend of a member, co-opted member or officer of Rochford District Council or any of the Local (Town/Parish) Councils within the District, with the exception of existing independent members of the Standards Committee. Preference will be given to applicants with experience and knowledge of the ethical framework and governance regime.

Independent Persons are entitled to a payment of £425pa under the Council’s Scheme of Remuneration for Members.

To find out more, please call Albert Bugeja, Monitoring Officer, on 0 1702 318 130, or email him at albert.bugeja@rochford.gov.uk. You can also write to him at: Council Offices, South Street, Rochford, SS4 1BW.

You will be sent an information pack and application form, which you should complete and return by 25 June 2012.

June 16th, 2012 | Category: Local Democracy | Leave a comment