The conditions perfectly expressed the political weather that lies ahead.
Borough councillors face an ominous task in 2011, paring back overheads and public services to achieve almost 30 per cent cuts over the next two years. Few residents are likely to be happy as the axe falls; but the majority of Canvey Beat readers agree: deep cuts are necessary, and members should not increase Council Tax or Business Rates to lessen their impact.
The debates will take place on consecutive Friday and Saturday evenings, at 7.00pm, commencing Friday 8th April 2011, and all will follow a simple format:-
… (Ted Pugh, 30/12/2010) – Planning The New Year
Blackwell and his party, like Spink last year, can be expected to receive a great deal of friendly press coverage from the Echo; but that did not help Bob Spink’s campaign. Instead, the paper’s local political coverage alienated a large swathe of residents when it became apparent that it was supressing publication of relevant breaking news and evidence produced by this Blog.
The Canvey Beat underwent a number of significant changes. Freed from WordPress restrictions, this Blog can now provide live coverage of interesting local and national events – as well as providing live links to all the breaking national and local news in its STOP PRESS column. And, instead of being confined to plain text and image content with hyperlinks, the new Canvey Beat can now provide full interactive access to supporting documents within its articles, together with full video hosting.
In three 48-hour straw polls, conducted by this Blog, 92 per cent of businesses said they could not afford any increase to their business rates – with only 8 per cent prepared to pay a one per cent rise.
An overwhelming 100 per cent of readers rejected any idea of Canvey Island Town Council receiving an increased precept.
Voting was softest when asked how much extra readers could afford to pay in Castle Point Borough Council Tax. Sixty-four per cent said they could not afford any increase; but 29 per cent were happy to pay a two-and-a-half per cent rise – and seven per cent were prepared to pay up to five per cent more.
Despite the conditions being explained to Mr Derek Gray and Mr Reece Turner, the licensees, it is alleged that, during its Howl Or Scream Halloween event, alcohol was poured directly into the mouths of under-18s by staff – and a male exposed his penis to female customers.
Jean Burroughs finds the question impossible to answer. ‘The problem,’ she says in her email, ‘is that so few people know what the Council spends its money on.’ And she goes on to say: ‘I just feel fortunate that I am not one of the councillors forced to make these decisions.’
That duty is clearly something that the Echo’s editorial department simply disregards whenever Dave Blackwell or his associates are mentioned.
It is known that Bob Spink, Castle Point’s last MP, held a sword of Damocles over editors’ heads - threatening to sue them over stories they had written about the former’s marriage – if they once again impugned his image. It is that threat that lay behind the Echo’s reluctance to pursue the topic of Bob Spink’s expenses and other allegations that were consequently confined to this Blog. But Bob Spink no longer holds power – and the man, it could be said, now has no image to impugn. There is enough information on this Blog and its WordPress sister to ensure that any libel action undertaken by our deposed MP (if he can now in fact afford such actions without access to taxpayers funds) would be summarily dismissed.
THE IMAGES OF THE ONE HUNDRED or so protesters organised by Bob Spink and the Canvey Island Independent Party (CIIP) may soon re-emerge in the local press as Dave Blackwell’s party launches its attempt to keep control of Canvey Island Town Council in the run-up to May’s local elections.
The swingeing Government cuts, imposed upon Castle Point Borough Council, will provide the opposition leader with just the issue he needs to accuse the Conservative majority of disregarding islanders’ wishes. And, just as Spink alluded to the real CIIP’s objective of achieving Canvey’s separation from Castle Point in the accompanying David Bullock video, Blackwell and his party’s members will again represent public protest as support for that separatist policy.
Castle Point Borough Council Leader Pam Challis announced the news to shocked members at the Full Council meeting held on Tuesday evening.
The cuts are much more than anticipated. This year CPBC received £6.65 million as its formula grant from government, crystallising the two reductions as £1.17 million next year and a further £663,000 the year after.
‘It is important that we all work together,’ Pam said, as she concluded her announcement.
Fifty-five per cent were in favour, against 45 per cent who were opposed or undecided.
This week the Government will put flesh on the bones of its Autumn spending review and, by the end of the week, councils will have a good idea of how the cuts are likely to impact them.
Essex FSB Chairman, Iain Wicks, said: “We know that the current bad weather has meant many business owners are seeing fewer customers through their doors and we are encouraging people to use that time to develop their marketing and internet presence.
“Many businesses are finding that using Twitter and other social media is proving successful for them and, in very little time, it is possible to develop a presence which will raise the profile of your business and help attract more customers.
The image conscious councillors passed a resolution to employ local firm, Impact Media Design (based in Charfleets Farm Way) to conduct the work - at a meeting of the Canvey Island Town Council on 19th July this year.
Local residents are discovering that the Canvey Beat is the only place on the Web that now brings together all the local and national news as it breaks – as well as providing local weather information and immediate announcements from Essex and Castle Point Council Twitter feeds. Moreover, local business information is also made immediately available via tweets from the Federation of Small Businesses.
Most have far more important things to do as they settle down to writing Christmas Cards and preparing for the festive season, so my sincere thanks goes to those who took time-out to participate in the two 48-hour straw polls in the new STOP PRESS panel. (Readers may also have noted that, to encourage its use, I am also publishing a funny video in that column each day – at different times – to help lighten the mood).
Local organisations; Bloggers; and aspiring young reporters are also invited to provide their Twitter account names so that those feeds can be incorporated into the feature’s live content.
If you need to advertise a forthcoming event or make an appeal: just enter your company or private name in the 'Your Name' field and then write your post in the 'Send questions or comments' box.
Approved content will normally be published within 24 hours.
It was a polished delivery, belying the fact that our MP has little commons experience, and was delivered with a masterful command of keeping a wary eye upon the opposing benches (where the Scots sat).
The debate went all Mrs Harris’ way, despite an unedifying attack upon Peter Hitchens (at the Mail on Sunday) by Tobias Elwood - one of Rebecca’s supporters and author of an extensive missive of all the benefits that SDST could bring - for the reporter to have dared to use the term: ‘Berlin time’ in a fortnight-old MoS article.
I managed the event keeping a wary eye on the system’s visitor counter, wondering why it only peaked at eight viewers and deciding not to engage those few with the various polls I had prepared – because the results would have no statistical basis. Similarly, I confined myself to Parliament’s proceedings rather than broadening the various issues out as I would have liked.
Visitors will be able to contribute by commenting; asking questions; and contributing to various live polls throughout the time the broadcast remains ‘on air’ – and any local Blog will be able to carry the feed (to ensure their readers remain on their sites) by simply emailing me a request for the embed code.
Neville makes no mention of his recent call upon councillors to reduce their allowances – or mention the fact that his party, currently in control of the Town Council, has budgeted to introduce lucrative personal allowances for its members this year.
Perhaps that sordid matter has just been brought to his attention, and he has decided to remain quiet.
It took me some time; but I finally realised that Canvey Beat readers were not interested in national news. They seek out this site to supplement their knowledge of local matters.
It is to that end that I have now introduced a ‘Local Newsreel’ widget in this site’s first right-hand column, above the Echo feed. Powered by Google, it draws upon that search engine’s news database to provide customised local coverage according to the topic chosen in its header. For instance, clicking upon ‘Rebecca Harris MP’ will return the top news articles recently written about her – and, clicking upon ‘Canvey Island’ will bring up the latest news regarding our local football team. Just click on the headline that attracts you and the article will open in a new browser window.
Having placed itself in a dubious financial position and faced with the need to increase resident contributions, while all other Councils seek to reduce their costs, CITC is currently doing everything it can to save face over its public promises regarding the Concord Pool. But just how it can maintain that particular asset without the right to have a labour force or its materials access it – and be obliged to restore the beach area to a suitable pristine condition afterwards – is anyone’s guess.
Ray will lead a strong team of candidates, committed to winning back Conservative seats from the Independent Party. He will be joined by James Parkin in South Ward; Mark Howard in Winter Gardens; Lydia Parkin in East Ward; and Chas Mumford in North Ward.
At the same time the Conservatives will be battling to gain control of Canvey Island Town Council. Candidates already in place include Bill Sharp in Central Ward; Tony Belford in South Ward; and Pat Haunts in North Ward.
The selection process for remaining seats will continue over the coming weeks.
HERE IS a little party gem that may prove useful to readers over the coming festive season – particularly if you do not have the funds to stand the next round yourself.
This video is currently doing the rounds on the internet – so beware…
The number of Castle Point residents, registered to vote, is 67,284.
It is an interesting comparison that Norman Ladzrie seized upon to support his argument that the Cabinet had not ensured that the majority of residents had been properly consulted over the Borough Council’s new waste policy – but was he right to do so?
As usual, with statistics, there is more to this than meets the eye…
His committee had called-in the Cabinet’s decision to introduce weekly collections of food waste, using specially designed caddies, and confine the borough’s non-recyclable waste to fortnightly collections.
Councillors Norman Ladzrie (Conservative, St James); Martin Tucker (Canvey Island Independent Party, Canvey Island North); and Andy Cole (Conservative, St George’s) had been concerned that the Cabinet’s decision would lead to health problems from not collecting nappy and surgical waste on a weekly basis, which is currently the case.
Dumbing down educational standards, it can be argued, has resulted in dumber citizens. And dumb citizens are easily controlled; because they are not taught to think for themselves.
Both here, and on my personal Blog, I recently exposed how the current national debate over our own MP’s Private Member’s Bill (regarding the adoption of Single Double Summer Time) has been hijacked by powerful lobbyists and self-centred interest groups by basing their argument for adopting SDST upon ‘manufactured’ statistical evidence from an old 1998, Labour Government commissioned report – whose authors remain anonymous.
Having just defeated Bob Spink in last May’s General Election – in a contest which few thought she could win, our new MP, Rebecca Harris, chose not to select a soft option; but finally come to grips with an issue that has polarised the British public ever since Railway Time was introduced in 1840. She proposed that the new Coalition Government seriously investigate the pros and cons regarding Britain’s Daylight Saving Time – including the option of dispensing with GMT and adopting Central European Time instead.
The costly event will take place at 7.30pm, in The Paddocks, this Friday, on November 12th – and all islanders are invited. It is understood that the current Chairman, CIIP councillor John Anderson, will be there sporting the Town Council’s Chain of Office (for which islanders paid £1,000; but which is so rarely seen by the public).
Mrs Elaine De Can replaced Bosmere’s John Burridge in October - after just six months in office. The post being advertised is for the assistant’s position that she originally held.
The Town Council is casting its net as wide as possible in its search for someone capable of putting-up with Dave Blackwell and his Canvey Island Independent Party’s financial incompetence. Unusually, for such a post, there is no requirement upon applicants to have any formal qualifications; or any experience of Local Government.
Innuendo, rumour and convenient political spin is Blackwell’s main stock in trade, so it would have come as no surprise for islanders to read his rantings in Monday’s Echo regarding: ‘A plot by certain Tory borough councillors to wipe out the town council.’
THE ECHO provided several of its precious column inches to covering the island this week. The paper reported that Joan Liddiard (Vice Chair of Canvey Island Town Council) would be hurling her ‘really bad knees’ from an aircraft in the hope of obtaining the £400 cost of making the parachute jump from donations she hoped to collect in support of the local Citizens’ Advice Bureau. One would have thought that, in her position, she could have called upon the civic support of the Town Council to cover the costs of her charitable venture - but perhaps there is nothing left in the local Grant Budget to make that possible.
AT ITS FULL COUNCIL MEETING on Tuesday, Castle Point Borough Council voted 21 to 14 in favour of undertaking a review of the current Cabinet System in anticipation of Coalition Government changes to the Local Government Act, which currently makes the present system mandatory.
The Canvey Island Independent Party voted in block against Bill Dick’s amendment to Dave Blackwell’s original motion calling upon the Council to revert to the previous Committee System, employed under the last local Labour administration, which had led to the Council being rated one of the eight worst boroughs in the UK. At that time, John Prescott (the then Deputy Labour Prime Minister) had threatened to take central control of the Socialist run borough to rectify the lamentable state of its political leadership and administration.
DESPITE Anne Wood’s well publicised complaints regarding Kismet Park’s Adizone and her Canvey Island Independent Party’s opposition to the park’s play-space budget being reduced by Castle Point Borough Council, it seems that the CIIP and its Town Council is unwilling to encourage the island’s younger generation to participate in the online survey designed to ensure that the needs of its young residents are met.
No information is provided on the Town Council Website, and it appears that no CIIP councillor has so far taken the trouble to encourage young resident participation in the exercise. Instead, CIIP councillors have been keen to call for Canvey Road’s railings to be replaced; re-launch their aborted campaign for a Youth Centre in the Paddocks under new leadership - and reduce previously encouraged resident expectation over Canvey Lake.
‘EACH SUMMER, as a respite from Spitalfields, I take a day trip to the sea. Last year, I enjoyed a visit to Broadstairs, but this year, inspired by a brochure given to me by Gary Arber, I decided to be more adventurous and go to Canvey Island. Printed by W.F.Arber & Co Ltd in the nineteen twenties – when Gary’s grandfather Walter ran the shop, his father (also Walter) was the compositor and uncles Len and Albert ran the presses – this brochure seduced me with its lyrical prose.’
You really should read the rest.
What are you waiting for?..
A meeting of Canvey Island Town Council took place last night (1st September) at the Paddocks, Long Road, Canvey Island, to receive and discuss an offer made by Castle Point Borough Council to transfer responsibility for the day to day management and operation of the old pool to the Town Council.
