Thursday 13 January 2011

TC Battlegrounds: Canvey Island Central Ward

CI Central WardAS ITS NAME SUGGESTS, Canvey Island’s Central Ward is situated in the middle of Canvey Island. It is also the Canvey Island Independent Party’s safest seat.

It was this ward that elected both Dave Blackwell (CIIP Leader) and John Anderson (currently Town Council Chairman) on 3rd May, 2007.

Blackwell and Anderson also represent the Central ward at Castle Point Borough Council – so they in fact hold four of the five local government posts available in this district between them. Together with that other CPBC post, held by their colleague Peter May, Canvey Island Central only has CIIP members representing its residents in both local councils.

Canvey Island Central has been the main beneficiary of Town Council spending, with over £180,000 of resident funds being directed at Canvey Lake, which lies along its north-east border with Canvey Island North. The Town Council also proposes to spend a further £800,000 on the asset over the next three years – leaving nothing for any other community projects unless they substantially raise the TC’s precept.

Prior to last year, Canvey Lake was the sole responsibility of Castle Point Borough Council with its costs shared amongst all borough residents; but the CIIP led Town Council badgered them into taking it over, and now just island residents are responsible for its costs..

Dave BlackwellNeither politician actually resides in the Canvey Island Central ward. Dave Blackwell lives in Munsterburg Road – in Canvey Island’s North ward – just a stone’s throw from Tewkes Creek (now renamed Creeky Woods) and the site of the Town Council’s tree planting fiasco. The CIIP Leader’s outlook was not improved when many of the newly planted saplings failed to take root and died in the inappropriate soil conditions (which Dave, as a gardener, apparently failed to spot). The Town Council employed free child labour and spent £6,305.17 on the venture.

John AndersonJohn Anderson lives in Church Parade – in Canvey Island’s Winter Gardens ward. He was elected as the Town Council’s Chairman last year.

In 2007, the CIIP won the two Town Council seats with a 27.36 point lead over its opponents. It turned-in a highly respectable 63.68 per cent of the vote, compared with the Conservative 28.57 per cent and 7.75 per cent from Labour.

Dave Blackwell achieved the most votes – both in the Central ward and across the island’s Town Council elections as a whole. He achieved 1,077 votes to John Anderson’s 820.

Carol Day (Con) came third in the poll with 493 votes; Peter Day (Con) came fourth with 358; and Bill Deal (Lab) came last with 231.

CI CentralIn 2001 there were 2,824 dwellings, housing 6,770 people in Canvey Island Central ward. The average age was 39.8 years old. Four-thousand nine-hundred and eighty of its residents were Christian; with 25 Muslim, 13 Jewish, eight Sikh, six Buddhist, four Hindu and 33 others. One-thousand one-hundred and fourteen had no religion - and 587 preferred not to say.

Those aged up to nine-years-old accounted for 12.3 per cent of the population; 10-19 13.6 per cent; 20-29 11.2 per cent; 30-59 39.4 per cent; 60-74 14.6 per cent - and there were 8.7 per cent over the age of 75.

Essex Police designate Canvey Island Central ward as having an average level of crime.

Dave Blackwell’s main political hero is said to be the Trotskyist, Derek Hatton, whose antics during his leadership of Liverpool City Council brought that once proud institution to its knees. Unlike Blackwell, who resigned from the local Labour Party when it failed to re-select him as its candidate, Hatton was expelled from the Labour Party for being a member of its Militant Tendency – an otherwise clandestine Marxist group that used the same tactics that Blackwell employs to seed discord in the Borough to take-over Liverpool’s local Labour Party and exert control of its City Council.

Blackwell’s strong support, and that of his party, comes mainly from the success of his divisive political tactics of constantly criticising his political opponents without ever offering an alternative solution. It is straight out of the Militant Tendency’s ‘cook-book.’

Criticising those in power from a legitimate political platform is an easy way of ensuring the message is taken-up by the local press that has an obligation to publish alternative views. And, by withholding any alternative solution, criticised parties can never find any grounds upon which to reply.

Such tactics are especially easy to employ in the sleepy suburbs where the local press is weak and its reporters often inexperienced.

The record shows that Blackwell is an ego-centric politician who has little respect for Democracy or those around him. He was forced to resign as the Town Council’s leader, shortly after his party won that establishment’s first election, when he was found guilty of bullying the first Town Council’s clerk – the highly experienced Julie Abel. And his egocentricity is exemplified by the very first actions he took as TC leader.

  • He ensured that the newly formed Parish Council was re-designated as a Town Council
  • He had the old Canvey Island District Council’s coat-of-arms transferred to the new entity
  • He spent £1,000 of islanders’ money on a gaudy chain of office for himself as Chairman – and he treated it like his personal property.
Decision Notice D Blackwell Sc0109

Julie Abel’s case for constructive dismissal will be heard in March – before this May’s Town Council Election. That is bad news for Blackwell who had hoped to keep details of the way he uses his political offices quiet this side of the local elections. (But it will be interesting to see if the Echo publishes details of Julie’s case – or institute another black-out on the facts like they did with the Standards Committee report, inset above, whose findings they never published).

There is more bad news for Blackwell as well; because, this year, the John Wayne of local politics and Conservative Party candidate, Bill Sharp, has thrown his hat into the ring to stand for the Town Council in the Canvey Island Central Ward against Blackwell.

Bill SharpMainlanders especially will know Bill as an honest, old-fashioned, forthright politician who has a reputation for speaking his own mind – even if it means bringing himself into conflict with the authorities. He also has one of the best political and business brains in the Borough. But, perhaps unfortunately, St James’ ward is no longer likely to see its favourite representative vilified by unelected Council Point Officers when he puts them in their place – because the new Coalition Government has finally gotten around to allowing Councillors to vote for the community projects they passionately support in public. Now, St James’ ward will no longer be deprived of its best advocate whenever he takes a personal stand – and that is especially good news for the whole of the Borough as well.

The Canvey Island Central Ward live debate, due to take place on this Blog in April, looks set to run significantly over its allotted time…

1 comment:

  1. It is my understanding that Ms Abel's claim for constructive dismissal will be heard from 12th - 21st December at the East London Employment Tribunal.

    ReplyDelete

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