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April Unique Hits 4,866
A Unique
hit is defined as a visit from a single PC within a 24 hour period.
Multiple visits from the same PC within 24 hours are counted as a
single hit.
. . . by way of light relief after the
elections I thought I'd run a little quiz this week - so here it is:
Question: Which of the following statements and
promises were made during the development of the Marina?
-
A tram service would run between the marina and church
street
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A 4 -star hotel would be built at Navigation Point
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Mandale purchased 20 pedalo boats to be hired out in the
marina.
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A bus 'shuttle service' would run from Jackson's Landing to
the town centre.
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A Tall Ships Centre to repair and refurbish large sailing
ships would be built at Navigation Point.
-
The Imperial War Museum would locate its Maritime History
Museum on the marina.
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A 'Puffa' train would run from Navigation Point around the
marina.
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A thriving factory outlet facility would be based at
Jackson's Landing
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Retired person's bungalows would be built in front of Osprey
House.
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A huge Garden Centre would be built at Navigation Point.
I'm glad that
the teachers at St Hild's School have finally got their printing facilities
back after they were hijacked by the local labour group to print their election
leaflets . . . still the school would have received a nice cash injection
assuming that the group paid the market rate for the printing . . . er . . . you
did pay for the printing didn't you? . . . talking of schools . . .
apparently 5% of the grant money paid to some of our schools in the posher areas
of town are being redirected to those in 'deprived areas' with another 5% being
re-allocated next year . . I'm not familiar with the schools in question
but Ward Jackson Primary, for example, looks to me like it could do with a coat
of paint, which in turn suggests that internally things can't be that great
either . . . I'm not unsympathetic to schools in deprived areas, far from it,
but bearing in mind that such schools can already bid for NDC and NRF monies, I
see the blood pressure of parents of children at Ward Jackson and Fens Primary
set to rise significantly when they find out . . . oops, I think they just did !
. . .
oh yes . . . the quiz . . . bit of a trick question . . .
I'm afraid they are all true :-)
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Did You Know?
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H.B.C. is planning to sell
off publicly owned land at a knock down
price to publicly funded Housing Hartlepool
because the housing association can't afford
to pay the market price for the land. Yes,
that's the same Housing Hartlepool that
recently threw a party to celebrate
its own 4th birthday at Hardwick Hall in
Sedgefield complete with free dinner, dance
and all the free drinks they could get down
their throats before closing time.
-
During the recent local
elections the Tories reneged on an agreement
they had made to allow the contest for the
Grange Ward to be a straight
Labour/Independent fight. At the last
minute, the Tories put up their own
candidate which split the anti-labour vote
and allowed the incumbent labour candidate,
Carl Richardson, to win the seat.
-
H.B.C. is currently seeking
to recruit a £25,000 per year Climate
Change Officer complete with a rather
inappropriate but generous car mileage
allowance.
-
Braintree Borough Council
recently ran an advertisement in the
Guardian Society jobs page for a
£36,000 'Climate Change Manager’ .
The ad, which cost several thousand pounds
to place and measured 13cms x 19cms, was
blank save for two sentences and the council
logo and a statement that it had saved ink.
-
The Council will use up to
£4m of its reserves to protect the salaries
of staff who it now acknowledges have been
overpaid - some as much as £5,000 p.a. - for
years.
-
The current direct cost
for the position of Mayor in Hartlepool
stands at £73,000.
-
Hartlepool was one of only 4
local authorities from a total of 354 that
failed to respond to an enquiry from the BBC
Panorama programme about the cost of bottled
water to local authorities. The Council
provides bottled water facilities at most of
its venues with no provision to recycle the
plastic cups that these generate.
-
the lowest council tax
increases this year are in the 238 districts
that face local elections in May.
- The
average
local
authority
is
employing
over
nine
times
as many
people
on
£50,000plus
salaries
than
ten
years
ago
–
66
people
in
2006-07
compared
with 20
people
in
2001-02
and 7
people
in
1996-97.
By
contrast,
in the
economy
as a
whole,
the
number
of
people
earning
more
than
£50,000
has
increased
by less
than
three
times
over the
same
period.
- An
inquiry
was
recently
set up
to
determine
if
£400,000
spent on
modern
art at 7
hospitals
had been
money well
spent.
The
eventual
cost of
the
inquiry
-
£100,000
-
Hartlepool's
flip-flop
M.P.
Iain
Wright
expressed
an
interesting
point of
view on
planning
issues
recently.
In a
Housing
Development
debate
on
the
22nd
April
2008
he stated,
"I
still
maintain
that
it
is
vital
that
we
have
a
plan-led
system
that
includes
public
involvement
and
consultation
in
its
key
principles.
To
reiterate
what
I
said
earlier,
it
is
not
in
anybodies
interest
for
houses
to
be
plonked
somewhere
without
due
regard
to
the
area,
the
views
of
local
people
and
the
infrastructure
on
which
they
will
rely".
Somebody
tell
him
about
the
Marina
Park
and
Coronation
Drive
-
please.
- For
the
thirteenth
year
running,
external
auditors
have
refused
to sign
off the
internal
accounts
of the
E.U.
citing
numerous
examples
of
sloppy
financial
management,
over-payments
and
slack
control
of the
expense
claims
of euro
M.P.s.
The
European
Parliament
has,
however,
voted to
accept
the
accounts.
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Support
Labour
(Vote
Lib Dem)
As Margaret
Thatcher famously once said - it's a funny old world.
When
each of the above Lib Dem Councillors last stood for
election they all had a labour opponent. It was therefore
easy for voters to vote labour if that's who they wanted to
support. But in every case, the
majority of voters chose not to vote for the labour
candidate but to vote Lib Dem. We have to assume,
therefore, that those same voters did not want either a
labour Councillor or a labour dominated Council; if they had
they could just as easily have voted labour.
In the
recent local elections, labour lost a seat and hence its
single seat majority of councillors.
Some 6,054 people voted
Labour. More than twice as many, 13,094, voted for someone
else. This equates to 64.8%, nearly two-thirds, of voters.
That
figure is significant because, although labour lost its
majority by losing only one seat, the scale of the 64.8%
anti-labour vote gives the loss of that majority full
backing. It was a clear indication that people didn't want
the previous labour domination of the Council to continue -
they wanted something else; they wanted change.
The
loss of that slim majority also meant that, for the
first time in a number of years, the Lib Dems,
Independents, Conservatives and UKIP could now out-number labour in the
allocation of the 17 available positions for Chair and Vice-Chair
of the Council and for the Chairs of the various committees.
Labour had previously used its slender majority to usurp
nearly all of these positions for itself in a way
totally disproportionate to either the number of seats
it held or to its share of the vote.
If
that allocation was based fairly and in proportion to
the number of seats held the current distribution of
posts would be as
follows:
| |
Labour |
Independents |
Lib Dems |
Conservatives |
UKIP |
| Appointments by Fair % |
8 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
The Admin Group, which consists of a loose alliance of 8
Independent Councillors and the 2 UKIP Councillors, suggested an allocation
which was slightly over-generous to the Labour and Conservative
groups relative to the number of seats that they held,
However, it was
particularly generous to the Lib-Dems as it included the
position of Chair of the Council. This was an important
change and a definite plus for the Lib-Dems because the council now consists of more
non-labour Councillors than Labour. Consequently, it is no longer
appropriate for Labour to continue to hold this central position.
| |
Labour |
Independents |
Lib Dems |
Conservatives |
UKIP |
| No. of Seats |
23 |
11 |
6 |
5 |
2 |
| Appointments by Fair % |
8.3 |
4.0 |
2.2 |
1.8 |
0.7 |
| Suggested by Independents and UKIP |
9 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
| Actual Appointments |
12 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
Labour, still in denial of having
lost the ball, refused even to discuss the suggestion put forward
by the Admin Group. They
wanted 12 of the available Chairs, 4 more than their number
of seats could possibly justify - otherwise they wouldn't
play. They also insisted on keeping the critical
position of Chair of the Council with its ability to steer
council debates; this in spite of the fact that
they now had a minority of Councillors and had managed only
31% of the recent vote.
At this
point, the issue should have been left in abeyance with the
polite suggestion that Labour recessed for a cup of tea and
a reality check -
but no. Instead the Lib Dems and Tories, apparently not
realising that it was they who now had possession of
labour's lost ball, melted and incredibly decided
to go along with Labour's own, tit-bit offer which would allow the
Lib-Dems 3 Chairs and the Tories 2 Chairs of some of the
more minor committees in return for perpetuating Labour's
dominance.
Quite why the Lib-Dems agreed to this is anyone's
guess. In effect, they gave up a better offer, suggested by
the Admin Group, which, although giving them the same
number of Chairs offered by Labour, critically,
would have included the influential position of Chair of the
Council. That they should turn down such a gift
suggests either an alarming degree of stupidity or an
inappropriate fear of
holding any real influence.
There is
of course another possible reason. Arthur Preece, leader of
the Lib Dems had scraped in by just 2 votes in the Fens ward
with 419 votes ahead of UKIP's 417 and the Independent
candidate's 401. With the Admin Group consisting of both
Independents and UKIP perhaps the thought of recognising the
public's support of both made Arthur just a little
uncomfortable.
What is
certain is that the action of the Lib-Dems has been a
betrayal of the very people who voted for them. It
has ensured that a party with only 31% of voter's support
will continue to dominate the Council - exactly what the people
who voted Lib-Dem didn't want.
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In just 10 years,
the cost of running the Council's PR Department has
risen by some 321% to £1.4m so we ask why a Council even
needs a Public Relations Department and why their own
appears to be Spinning Out of Control?
more |
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Are the Developers
slowly killing Hartlepool Marina? We take a look at the
realities against the aspirations in view of the latest
proposal to demolish the only green space on the marina
to build yet more flats
more |
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Everyone's A Winner - Just when you
thought it was safe to open your wallet H.B.C
announces it wants another £10m to
increase the salaries of 58% of its staff and to protect
the salaries of those who it now acknowledges have been
overpaid, some as much as £5,000 p.a., for years
more |
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Some are
beautiful, some can be technically admired, some look
like Lego and others are just plain ugly. Send us your
suggestions for the best and the worst designed
buildings in Hartlepool. There are plenty of gems - but
sometimes you have to seek them out.
Suggestions |
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with some 13
billion plastic carrier bags given away each year, we're
asking HBC and local Supermarkets to join the growing
number of Councils who have taken the initiative and
banned the bag. We're launching our
own
Ban the Bag Campaign
and we're after your support.
more |
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Your e-mails. Send your e-mails to be published on High
Tax Hartlepool to
letterspage@high-tax-hartlepool.co.uk . Please try to limit
your e-mails to 500 words and include your full name and
address. We do not accept anonymous letters and in all
circumstances names and addresses (not house numbers) will be published alongside
letters. We reserve the right to edit letters. |
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inside pages . . . |
the things people say . . .
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are the developers killing Hartlepool Marina?
A Navel War Museum, a Tall Ships Centre, a 4-Star Hotel, a Tram
Service, a 'Puffa Train', Pedalos, a huge Garden Centre, a Factory
Outlet Centre - we've ended up with none of them. But we did get
lots of flats.
more
does the town lack imagination?
Some interesting ideas sent in by visitors to the HTH web site to encourage Councillors and Administrators alike to be more
imaginative in their decision making.
more
the best and the worst buildings in Hartlepool
Hartlepool has the U.K.'s first, steel framed building - but can
you name it? Some buildings are beautiful, some can be technically
admired, some look like Lego and others are just plain ugly. Send us
your suggestions for the best and the worst designed buildings in
Hartlepool. There are plenty of gems - but sometimes you have to
seek them out.
Suggestions
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" I was under the impression that
an independently elected Mayor controlled Hartlepool"
Stuart Drummond Hartlepool Mail
May 7th (Editor: OK
Stuart, but don't keep it to yourself - Who is it?) |
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"One thing about Peter is that he
is a little bit more loyal to the party and to Hartlepool than
to run off and leave it in the lurch."
Cllr and then Labour Agent Steve
Wallace talking about MP Peter Mandelson in Feb 2001. |
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“the
fight to save the hospital is over”
Labour Group Leader Cllr Jonathon
Brash speaking at a meeting of the Health Scrutiny Forum |
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"I'm pleased that all councillors
at the meeting pledged to stand with me to ensure that
Hartlepool's hospital has a successful future..." Iain Wright M.P. 18th
September 2006 after a meeting with Hartlepool Councillors |
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". . . the Council cannot reject
a (planning) proposal simply because a lot of people are against
it . . " a H.B.C.
Planning Case Officer providing a new slant on local democracy
in guidance notes to objectors |
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