My colleague Jenny Antill has written on her blog as follows:
“I feel I should probably write something about last week’s ‘leadership contest’ at the County Council. If nothing else it will serve to record what was for me and my colleagues an important event in the growing chronicle that is represented by this website. It also might clarify one or two things for people confused by the press coverage. Many people of course don’t follow, or care about, the to-ings and fro-ings at Endeavour House (Suffolk County Council’s Headquarters in Ipswich). The majority of Suffolk residents don’t know or care who the Leader of the County Council is, and furthermore don’t know any of the members of his Cabinet. This is not altogether surprising…councils only get onto people’s radar when something goes wrong, and they feel that ‘something should be done about it’ by ‘someone’. So for those of you who are unaware, last week the Conservative Group was obliged to hold a ballot to decide who should continue as our Leader. Since we are the largest party in the Council, this was probably also a decision about who will be the Leader of the Council as a whole. A leadership challenge is always a possibility at all levels of political life….remember Mrs Thatcher’s demise shortly after she had promised to go ‘on and on and on….’? Our contest was brought about by a challenge for the Leader’s position, held by Mark Bee from Waveney from the Cabinet Member for Finance, Colin Noble, who comes from Forest Heath. The fact that the rivals came from different ends of the county led some press commentators to suggest that the reason for the party split was due to some sort of East/West rivalry. I do not think that this lay at heart of the matter. While it is true that many of the supporters of both candidates did come from their respective areas, this was only natural. There are plenty of us in between! At bottom I think that the issue was a conflict between a steady, gradualist approach to policy (Bee) and a more radical and aggressive stance (Noble). Bee, it must be remembered took over after some damage was caused to the council’s reputation by fall out from the dramatic root and branch changes initiated by the colourful former chief executive, Andrea Hill, with the support of the previous leader, Jeremy Pembroke. Three years have passed since that time. Many councillors were only elected a year ago, and some among them, along with more long standing members who understood that not all that was done in the Hill years turned out badly, have perhaps been disappointed by what might be seen as a rather pedestrian, low key approach to the challenges faced by the council today. I will leave it to readers of the blog to decide whether, at a time when the Conservatives have a majority of three rather than the double digit margin enjoyed during the last council, a more cautious, conservative, consensual approach is the appropriate one to adopt. Taking on more risk may prove more politically attractive, and win us more votes in 2017, but it is of course, well….more risky. The key of course is to get the balance right, and this needs constant reappraisal. I do not agree with those who say that the contest was an unnecessary distraction. Although Colin Noble’s challenge did not succeed, the result was thought to be close and the Bee administration will clearly now embrace some positive changes. Political groups need to respond to internal demands for change and debate is healthy. Perhaps however it would have been better to have the discussion, and the at times quite fierce conflict, in a less public manner. Now it is all over, I know we will all get behind Mark Bee, both sides having learned a few useful lessons along the way”.
We are of course all behind Mark Bee. That is the nature of these conflicts – the political equivalent of Schumpeter’s “destructive capitalism”. The voting was thought to be 21-18 which means that a number of people said yes (to both parties) but voted for the other side when push came to shove. Colin Noble is now out of the Cabinet and we wait to see who his replacement will be and whether it represents a nuance in our perceived ways forward.
Jennys’ blog can be found on http://jennyantillsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/reflections-on-last-weeks-leadership.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+JennyAntillsBlog+(Jenny+Antill’s+blog.
Political – Local
Policing in Suffolk
Tim Passmore, Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner is seeking the views of the people of Suffolk over a series of proposals that could change the face of policing in the county.
At the end of last month the Chief Constables of Suffolk and Norfolk jointly presented proposals to the two Police and Crime Commissioners on the ongoing collaboration programme to help bridge the funding gap. The proposals included a joint Contact and Control room to be located in Norfolk and a combined Shared Services Partnership which aims to bring a number of support functions together in one location in Suffolk.
The proposals were discussed at length at the Collaboration meeting (on February 27th) but Suffolk’s PCC Tim Passmore felt that more detail was needed to be certain of the robustness of the plan and has asked the Chief Constable to present more refined proposals at the next Collaboration Panel meeting on April 30.
Meanwhile he is seeking the views of the public on the principle of the proposals which are to move the Police Contact and Control room to Wymondham in Norfolk and combine services such as HR, Estates, Procurement, Finance, ICT and Transport Service in Suffolk.
Tim Passmore said, “It is really important that I, as the elected representative of the people of Suffolk, fight to protect front line policing in the county and I believe that the control room is a very integral element of front line policing.
“No decision has been made yet, but I can assure you that I will carefully consider the Chief Constable’s proposals and will make my decision based on what is best for the people of Suffolk.
“I would encourage everyone to have their say.”
Please take part in the electronic survey, go to the website http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ or write to Tim at Martlesham Police Headquarters.”
There are various public meetings. The nearest one to Hadleigh will be held at: East Bergholt High School, Heath Road, East Bergholt, CO7 6RJ on Wednesday 9 April 2014
The meeting starts at 6.30pm. No need to book, just turn up.
Benton Street Squeeze
There is 
a new reporting link for overweight vehicles using Benton Street in an illegal manner.
Regrettably the link indicates that responsibility for monitoring and enforcing (!) the illegal usage of the street has been transferred from Trading Standards to the Highways Network Management section at the Economy, Skills and Environment Department of Suffolk County Council. The new link is
https://www.csduk.com/CSD/SCC/product.aspx?ProductID=PHGV01
Budgets
Suffolk County Council have approved their budget for 2014/2015. Whilst there are considerable savings being made, some reserves are being run down and the overall effect is a zero increase in the Council Tax. The vote was 45 to 20 with one abstention. The Conservatives had some support from the Liberal-Democrats and whole hearted support from UKIP. The Labour Party voted against claiming that the reserves should be run down further – forgetting the reason why reserves are needed. They are for planned future capital spending and for emergencies. We can no longer claim that they are for rainy days since in the current fiscal climate all days are rainy days.
Surprisingly, the approval was not unanimous, which suggests that there are still representatives of the public who think that all problems can be solved by throwing money at them.
Many years ago when studying the Theory & Practice of Foreign Exchange I learned that Money has three functions. It is unit of account, a medium of exchange and a store of value. Listening to my Labour colleagues at County I realised that money has a fourth function – it is there to be spent. Let’s all be afraid for the future because this is the thinking that got us into trouble in the first place!
Earlier this week the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) got his budget approved by Suffolk’s Police and Crime Panel. Again a zero increase. The PCC explained to the Panel his rationale for recommending that there be no increase in the precept, helping financially stretched citizens in the county, and receiving the government’s 1% freeze grant. There would be an underspend in the Constabulary budget this year in the region of £800k, an amount which equated to around 2% of the precept. Funding grants had been received very recently for implementing automatic number plate recognition and enterprise resource projects collaboratively with Norfolk. There were some specific areas within the Constabulary where efficiency savings could be made, and which the Chief Constable is looking to address. The PCC was not willing to put up the precept for citizens when there were still significant efficiency savings that could be realised.
At District level we are once again going for the zero increase option.
Meanwhile, my Town Council is balancing its budgets by outing up its precept. Which is a fancy way of saying that we shall be paying more for our very local services.
Rogers Farm, Newton
Next Wednesday I am a substitute on Babergh’s Planning Committee to consider an application for a change of use from agricultural land to a twenty six hectare solar farm. From the farmer’s point of view it must make sense to convert a quality field (winter wheat) into a solar farm. The field slopes away from the farm house and the visual intrusion is quite reasonable – especially when you consider the income from a field which is forecast to provide approximately 15 Megawatts peak (MWp) of electricity, sufficient to provide the power needs of 3,390 average U.K. households, which is equal to 8% of all households within Babergh. The local population are not happy. The installation will be seen from quite a wide area (as indicated from the photograph from Edwardstone Village Hall). The Box River Valley is a significant tourist area. The nearest piece of the Edwardstone Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest is only 150 metres away and a small part of the site is within the Box River Valley Special Landscape Area. North Norfolk District Council recently rejected a similar application for a wind turbine. The application went to appeal. The Planning Inspector overturned the decision and North Norfolk referred to the matter to the High Court arguing that the decision flew in the face of the will of the local community. Now a High Court Judge has ruled against the Inspector on the grounds that he did not have sufficient special regard to the desirability of preserving the setting of the listed buildings. The life of the solar farm is expected to be about twenty five years. Experts believe that they will be obsolete long before then and in the meantime it will take ten years for the new screening trees to become effective. Overall I think that this will be an interesting debate and as always my mind is open to the arguments of the developers and the residents. What was I doing on Wednesday? I was viewing the site from various angles – a character building two hours of walking about in the cold and the wellingtons.
Onward and Yeoward
Yesterday’s EADT (contained details of a letter of support from six Conservative Members of Parliament based in East Anglia promoting Tim Yeo’s cause and concluding with “We greatly value the contribution that you make as a dedicated community campaigner and experienced Parliamentarian and hope that the members of The South Suffolk Conservative Association will make the right decision”.
The article can be found on http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/ south_suffolk_yeo_gets_backing_from_the_county_s_mps_1_3167446).
The full letter is attached see: Suffolk MPs letter Dec 2013 (1)
Tim has also set up a web site (www.timyeo2015.net). Among the endorsements are one from Ian Dowling MBE, (former Association Chairman and President). Ian wrote “Tim has served his Constituents in South Suffolk with diligence and skill for 30 years. Over this time he has demonstrated considerable Political expertise and leadership, attributes which have been recognised by several Conservative Party leaders with appointments to several senior Ministerial and similar posts over those years. All this continues, and Tim’s energy to deliver not only on behalf of his Constituents but also as a senior Parliamentarian respected by his colleagues, is undiminished. I have no hesitation in supporting his application to be the candidate in South Suffolk in 2015.”
High praise indeed!
Happy Marriage Study Abandoned
The Daily Telegraph reported this week that a study to assess whether marriage improves if a husband agrees to all his wife’s demands had to be abandoned after the man sank into a deep depression.
Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand were hoping to test whether the key to a happy marriage lies in bowing to the whims of a partner and giving up the need to ‘always be in the right.’
In the experiment the husband was asked “agree with his wife’s every opinion and request without complaint. Even if he believed the female participant was wrong, the male was to bow and scrape,” said researchers. But after recruiting a couple for an initial pilot they were forced to scrap the project as the husband became deeply depressed.
There were a number of conclusions drawn from the pilot study.
These suggest that it seems that being right may be a cause of happiness, and agreeing with what one disagrees with is a cause of unhappiness.
The availability of unbridled power adversely affects the quality of life of those on the receiving end.
This last comment not only applies in a marriage. It also applies in Government where elected representatives think that they were elected to rule. Worse are the civil servants (at all levels) who think that they have the God given right to tell people what’s good for them. Often a case of don’t do as I do, do as I tell you.
More can be read on
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10524035/Happy-marriage-study-abandoned-as-husband-becomes-depressed.html
Chihuahua of Doom
On Thursday I attended a full Council meeting at Endeavour House, Ipswich. The day started at 10 a.m. when the political group meets and chews over the bones in the documentation and discusses best ways of answering the questions and motions put and proposed by the other parties. We look not only at the questions and the motions but also at the minefields which might come from the follow up discussions.
So it was seemingly innocuous in the afternoon to hear Motion No. 1 – proposed by Councillor Julian Flood and seconded by Councillor Tony Brown “That Suffolk County Council supports the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition in his aim of freezing energy prices, and will work towards the same goal.”
Julian turned his opportunity to speak into an attack against green taxes. Claiming that they did little to counter adverse climate change but instead penalised the consumer and those businesses who had to compete in a world where effective green policies were not always in evidence. And then it went pear shaped. Julian was trying to highlight the effect of carbon in the U.K. It was the equivalent of six thousandths of a degree of temperature change. As you usually have to ascend or descend a thousand feet to see a change of one degree – this was the equivalent of six feet of vertical movement. Suffolk’s carbon emissions were the equivalent of less than one part per thousandth of a degree or about ten inches of vertical movement – the height of a Chihuahua.
And then it went surreal as we were cautioned against the Chihuahua of Doom which was threatening our economic survival and the richness of our countryside through unnecessary wind and solar panel farms.
There were enough votes in the Conservative Group and their friends to defeat the motion.
Best entertainment of the day was the way in which the Leader of the Labour Group tried to endorse the motion but distance himself from the idea that green policies were overdone.
More details can be viewed on http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/suffolk_chihuahua_of_doom_stalks_the_council_chamber_1_3132304
Internships up for grabs
Over 20 internship placements are available in councils across Suffolk starting in the summer of 2014, but interested parties need to get their applications in by Tuesday 28 January 2014.
There is also an information session to which interested candidates are invited to learn more about the application process, meet members and heads of departments and hear what past interns got out of the experience. The session is being held at Endeavour House, Ipswich between 11am and 1pm tomorrow. Anyone interested in attending should email risinghigh@suffolk.gov.uk
The internship programme is designed to encourage young people to take up careers in the public sector and to provide paid opportunities for undergraduates (or graduates) to experience working for us during their summer break from university. It consists of a 12 week paid work placement supported by group development opportunities.
A paid 12 month Industrial Placement is also available at Suffolk County Council which will put the successful candidate at the forefront of innovative and exciting developments in economic development and skills policy. This placement must form part of the applicant’s university course.
Details of the internship opportunities can be found on the Rising High website via: www.risinghighsuffolk.org.uk
Onward and Yeoward
Wednesday brought us the news that our M.P. Tim Yeo will fight his deselection by the South Suffolk Conservative Association Executive. Tim has decided that the party members should decide if he is to be their candidate in the 2015 General Election.
Apart from the Executive, everyone I have met (both party members and other well wishers) only speak good things about Tim.
I think this might be a case of “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” (Mark Twain). Certainly we have a man who is not backward in coming forward and this is what we need in anyone who represents us. Certainly we do not need a milquetoast.
Voting papers will be sent out around the 20th January.
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/south_suffolk_mp_tim_yeo_to_fight_for_his_seat_with_party_ballot_1_3101155)
brian riley's blog 