Monday 16 March, 6pm – Labour Group campaigning
Wednesday 18 March, 2pm - Visit to Holywells Park
Thursday 19 March, 7pm – New Wolsey – to see ‘United We Stand’
Saturday 21 March, 10am – Labour Campaigning – SW Ipswich
Sunday 22 March, 11am – Labour Campaigning – NE Ipswich
Another good days campaigning just finished with support coming from London as part of their #Lab3seats challenge. Good response on the doorstep but there is also certainly a Green and UKIP vote out there but not many seem keen to support the Tories and Ben Gummer. But you do find the odd Tory but almost impossible to find a Lib Dem anywhere in the town beyond St Margaret’s/ But as we had another meeting this week where the Lib Dems failed to turn up, you do wonder why they bother to stand all all.
Thursday will give us a break from campaigning as we go to the New Wolsey to see a play about industrial action from the early 70’s – it does remind us how anti union and anti the working class the Tories can get when they have got their feet under the table – even more reason to get rid of Cameron (and Gummer) in May!
We have had the final council meeting of the year cancelled, so we may now never get the apology that is due from Tory Cllr Stroet for the false statements he made at the last Full Council meeting. Then again the Tory leader showed how hypocritical the Tories are when she accused us of bad behavior and asked residents to look at a video on 'You tube' the same video that showed her applauding Cllr Stroet when he decided to make his false statements and partake in childish name calling!
Showing posts with label Cllr Stroet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cllr Stroet. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 March 2015
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
My week ahead 29 May - 2 June 2013
Wednesday 29 May – 9am, Planning meeting
7pm, Ipswich Town FC Independent supporters Trust meeting
Thursday 30 May - 2pm, Councillor training on use of social media
Saturday 1 June - 10am, Labour campaigning, North West Ipswich
4pm, Labour post-election party
Sunday 2 June – 2pm, Brunswick Road ‘Big Lunch’ – Brunswick Rd Park
The murder last week of a young soldier on the streets of London was a reminder of the dangers myself and fellow servicemen faced in the 1980’s – then the threat was from Irish extremists – who not only targeted soldiers but also our families. I thought and hoped those days were well in the past but the murder of the young Drummer in Woolwich showed that the enemy may have changed but the threat still continues.
The aftermath of the murder and the actions of the English Defence League also make this a week that will have a lasting effect on this country. I will write a more detailed post about the events of the last 6 days later in the week.
Last week we had another North East Ipswich Area Committee meeting, as this was the first meeting of the municipal meeting a new Chair had to be elected (or the old Chair – me – re-elected)
When it came to the election of the Chair one of our Labour members was stuck on a train so the Tories proposed Cllr Pope to be elected as Chair whilst my colleagues proposed me. The vote was 4-4 and a second secret ballot was also 4-4. Standing Orders then state a Chair has to be nominated for the meeting and the Chair of the committee will be elected at our next meeting.
Cllr Stroet again suggested Cllr Pope stating that I might learn from watching another Chair I action, from his tone it was obvious that I had plenty to learn.
Now if you read Ipswich Spy – or the Tory blog that just copies/steals posts from others you will know (according to them) I reluctantly seconded Cllr Pope! Now I was disappointed that the Tories decided to try and score cheap points over the election of the Chair but I then decided to quickly second Cllr Pope rather than have another 4-4 vote and leave the meeting to be chaired by an Officer. The reason I did this was that I was sure the many residents who had turned up for the meeting were there to hear about matters concerning our local area rather than witness petty party squabbling and this seemed to easiest way to get the meeting to go ahead as planned.
Now ‘Ipswich Spy’ does declare itself to be neutral and even though the main contributor is a former Tory councillor ‘Spy’ does attempt to be neutral but in this case he has just taken a story direct from a Tory source as he was not at the meeting or bother to check the facts with myself.
Did I learn anything from Cllr Pope as he chaired the meeting? Not really but he did do a good job and it became obvious that he had as much difficulty as I do in stopping Cllr Judy Terry from acting as if she is running the meeting!
So what now for the committee? Fortunately work on the action plan can continue as Cllrs have volunteered to lead on the 3 main points – all Labour Cllrs as it seems the Conservative councillors have decided not to get involved in working on the action plan (that is for the benefit of their residents)
After the meeting it was obvious that Cllr Carnall thought it was all a great laugh and said it was our fault for not making sure we had all our Cllrs present, he then seemed surprised when I informed him that not one of the 3 Tory Cllrs in the South East had turned up for their last meeting. At least Cllr Pope was more constructive and we agreed that we would hold a joint meeting with officers to plan the agenda for the next Area Committee.
But after the events in Woolwich the behaviour of the Tory Cllrs seems even pettier that it seemed on the night.
7pm, Ipswich Town FC Independent supporters Trust meeting
Thursday 30 May - 2pm, Councillor training on use of social media
Saturday 1 June - 10am, Labour campaigning, North West Ipswich
4pm, Labour post-election party
Sunday 2 June – 2pm, Brunswick Road ‘Big Lunch’ – Brunswick Rd Park
The murder last week of a young soldier on the streets of London was a reminder of the dangers myself and fellow servicemen faced in the 1980’s – then the threat was from Irish extremists – who not only targeted soldiers but also our families. I thought and hoped those days were well in the past but the murder of the young Drummer in Woolwich showed that the enemy may have changed but the threat still continues.
The aftermath of the murder and the actions of the English Defence League also make this a week that will have a lasting effect on this country. I will write a more detailed post about the events of the last 6 days later in the week.
Last week we had another North East Ipswich Area Committee meeting, as this was the first meeting of the municipal meeting a new Chair had to be elected (or the old Chair – me – re-elected)
When it came to the election of the Chair one of our Labour members was stuck on a train so the Tories proposed Cllr Pope to be elected as Chair whilst my colleagues proposed me. The vote was 4-4 and a second secret ballot was also 4-4. Standing Orders then state a Chair has to be nominated for the meeting and the Chair of the committee will be elected at our next meeting.
Cllr Stroet again suggested Cllr Pope stating that I might learn from watching another Chair I action, from his tone it was obvious that I had plenty to learn.
Now if you read Ipswich Spy – or the Tory blog that just copies/steals posts from others you will know (according to them) I reluctantly seconded Cllr Pope! Now I was disappointed that the Tories decided to try and score cheap points over the election of the Chair but I then decided to quickly second Cllr Pope rather than have another 4-4 vote and leave the meeting to be chaired by an Officer. The reason I did this was that I was sure the many residents who had turned up for the meeting were there to hear about matters concerning our local area rather than witness petty party squabbling and this seemed to easiest way to get the meeting to go ahead as planned.
Now ‘Ipswich Spy’ does declare itself to be neutral and even though the main contributor is a former Tory councillor ‘Spy’ does attempt to be neutral but in this case he has just taken a story direct from a Tory source as he was not at the meeting or bother to check the facts with myself.
Did I learn anything from Cllr Pope as he chaired the meeting? Not really but he did do a good job and it became obvious that he had as much difficulty as I do in stopping Cllr Judy Terry from acting as if she is running the meeting!
So what now for the committee? Fortunately work on the action plan can continue as Cllrs have volunteered to lead on the 3 main points – all Labour Cllrs as it seems the Conservative councillors have decided not to get involved in working on the action plan (that is for the benefit of their residents)
After the meeting it was obvious that Cllr Carnall thought it was all a great laugh and said it was our fault for not making sure we had all our Cllrs present, he then seemed surprised when I informed him that not one of the 3 Tory Cllrs in the South East had turned up for their last meeting. At least Cllr Pope was more constructive and we agreed that we would hold a joint meeting with officers to plan the agenda for the next Area Committee.
But after the events in Woolwich the behaviour of the Tory Cllrs seems even pettier that it seemed on the night.
Sunday, 3 February 2013
My week ahead 4 - 10 February 2013
Monday 4 February, 6pm – Labour campaigning
Thursday 31 January, 6pm –Ipswich Area Committee Chairs meeting
7pm – Councillor training
Saturday 2 February, 10.30am – Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich
The two main events this week were Full Council on Wednesday followed by the North East Area Committee meeting on the Thursday. Full Council was the first with Chris Stewart as the new Tory leader and it was not the most auspicious of starts for him. The questions from the Tory group were both poorly researched and seemed opposite to his first statement s Tory leader when he stated that “I would not be opposing everything for the sake of it. We need to choose which issues to fight on.”
In the end it was left to the former Tory leader Councillor Carnall to attempt to save the car crash of Tory questioning from his new seat on the back bench.
Maybe one of the first things Cllr Stewart will need to do is to get his front bench to research their shadow portfolios. It was obvious from the question that Cllr Pope asked and then his comments on the proposed council rate rise that he does not have a strong understanding of the housing portfolio, a worry when he used to be the Tory Housing Portfolio holder. On two occasions he mentioned that tenants were being let down as IBC do not visit each house each year, what Labour have decided is to concentrate on working with tenants whose homes are felt to below the required standard. I then had to inform Cllr Pope that the frequency of visits and the change in inspections had been fully discussed at the Area Housing Panels, meetings attended by Officers, councillors and tenants. Before I could finish Cllr Pope was on his feet to say that the meetings were for administration councillors only - so it quickly became obvious that he did not know that Cllr Debman is the Tory member on the panel – then again both Cllr Debman and the Lib Dem Cllr Ken Bates have failed to attend the last three meetings of the East Housing panel. At least Cllr Bates sent in his apologies! So if Cllr Debman had attended and then briefed Cllr Pope we maybe would have had a question that challenged our running of social housing in the town rather than yet another example of the lack of Tory knowledge or interest in council housing in Ipswich.
Then we had Cllr Stroet talk about the lack of help we have given to small businesses in Fore Street, seeming to forget both the Fore Street market that we put on and the help we have given to over 100 small forms in the town that has enabled them to claim business rate relief (strange he had forgot this as six days earlier he had joined other members of the scrutiny committee in thanking officers for the work they had done on this project)
So Cllr Stewart may need to control some of his front bench or at least get them to do their homework before the next council meeting.
Thursday was a much more pleasant meeting and away from the slightly partisan arena of the council chamber, Cllr Pope and Stroet willingly contributed to a successful North East Area Committee.
At our second ever meeting of the area committee, a number of residents from Orwell Road had attended, lobbied and spoke about traffic measures they believed were needed to make their roads safer and on Thursday the committee unanimously voted for an experimental traffic order to place on Orwell Rd for 18 months. After the decision was made the room gave the residents a round of applause in recognition of all their hard work. We also heard the latest updates from another local resident in his campaign to improve one of the local parks, another scheme that is being supported by the area committee.
Thursday 31 January, 6pm –Ipswich Area Committee Chairs meeting
7pm – Councillor training
Saturday 2 February, 10.30am – Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich
The two main events this week were Full Council on Wednesday followed by the North East Area Committee meeting on the Thursday. Full Council was the first with Chris Stewart as the new Tory leader and it was not the most auspicious of starts for him. The questions from the Tory group were both poorly researched and seemed opposite to his first statement s Tory leader when he stated that “I would not be opposing everything for the sake of it. We need to choose which issues to fight on.”
In the end it was left to the former Tory leader Councillor Carnall to attempt to save the car crash of Tory questioning from his new seat on the back bench.
Maybe one of the first things Cllr Stewart will need to do is to get his front bench to research their shadow portfolios. It was obvious from the question that Cllr Pope asked and then his comments on the proposed council rate rise that he does not have a strong understanding of the housing portfolio, a worry when he used to be the Tory Housing Portfolio holder. On two occasions he mentioned that tenants were being let down as IBC do not visit each house each year, what Labour have decided is to concentrate on working with tenants whose homes are felt to below the required standard. I then had to inform Cllr Pope that the frequency of visits and the change in inspections had been fully discussed at the Area Housing Panels, meetings attended by Officers, councillors and tenants. Before I could finish Cllr Pope was on his feet to say that the meetings were for administration councillors only - so it quickly became obvious that he did not know that Cllr Debman is the Tory member on the panel – then again both Cllr Debman and the Lib Dem Cllr Ken Bates have failed to attend the last three meetings of the East Housing panel. At least Cllr Bates sent in his apologies! So if Cllr Debman had attended and then briefed Cllr Pope we maybe would have had a question that challenged our running of social housing in the town rather than yet another example of the lack of Tory knowledge or interest in council housing in Ipswich.
Then we had Cllr Stroet talk about the lack of help we have given to small businesses in Fore Street, seeming to forget both the Fore Street market that we put on and the help we have given to over 100 small forms in the town that has enabled them to claim business rate relief (strange he had forgot this as six days earlier he had joined other members of the scrutiny committee in thanking officers for the work they had done on this project)
So Cllr Stewart may need to control some of his front bench or at least get them to do their homework before the next council meeting.
Thursday was a much more pleasant meeting and away from the slightly partisan arena of the council chamber, Cllr Pope and Stroet willingly contributed to a successful North East Area Committee.
At our second ever meeting of the area committee, a number of residents from Orwell Road had attended, lobbied and spoke about traffic measures they believed were needed to make their roads safer and on Thursday the committee unanimously voted for an experimental traffic order to place on Orwell Rd for 18 months. After the decision was made the room gave the residents a round of applause in recognition of all their hard work. We also heard the latest updates from another local resident in his campaign to improve one of the local parks, another scheme that is being supported by the area committee.
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