Readers will remember that, on his last outing, Dave was pointing his finger at Castle Point Borough Council and accusing them of not using local contractors for local building work; but his criticisms back-fired on him when this Blog revealed that Canvey Island Town Council, originally led by Blackwell, could not claim to have employed any local island firms for their contract work either.
The loss of Bob Spink as Castle Point’s MP appears to have fatally wounded Blackwell’s party. Although still an active supporter and confidant, Spink’s political acumen and influence is no longer immediately at the party’s finger-tips, and, left to its own devices, the CIIP is belatedly struggling to find an issue on which to fight the next local and Town Council (TC) elections. It also needs an issue which can be used to turn attention away from the CIIP’s bumbling incompetence administering the TC.
In June, it appeared that the CIIP was intending to ‘buy’ May’s TC elections out of their £86,000 events budget for this year; but it seems that the reality of the TC’s financial position has led to them cancelling their ‘Summer Fun’ package. An anonymous reader, of this Blog, informed visitors that the events collated in the two PDF brochures, published on the TC’s Website, had ‘nothing to do’ with the Town Council.
‘Canvey Town Council have had absolutely nothing to do with the production of this leaflet,’ that reader informed us. ‘It is a collaboration between Canvey & Benfleet Extended Schools with contributions from other organisations so that all children in Castle Point have a comprehensive guide as to what is happening in the Borough in one place. Canvey Town Council have just uploaded it onto their site. It is delivered through schools to all pupils and is not posted to residents addresses and is of no cost to Canvey Island residents.’
Canvey Island Town Council make no mention of that on their Website; nor do they congratulate the collaborators whom have joined forces to provide Castle Point’s Youth with such badly needed resources during the summer holidays. It seems that town councillors would rather have residents assume that they played a vital role in organising those events – just as they appear to wish visitors to believe that the Annual Town Council Meeting (ATM), for residents, took place.
It did, and has, not.
The minutes on the Town Council’s Website for 24th May, mischievously labelled: ‘Annual Council Mtg,’ concern the usual annual appointments of a chairman and committee members following the local elections.
The last ATM was actually held on 27 April 2009 and the next is planned for 9th May 2011. Residents are not to be permitted the opportunity of hearing the Chairman’s Annual Report, or questioning councillors, in this the TC’s election year. And it seems that residents are not to be permitted to read TC minutes this year either. (Meeting agendas are available on the TC’s Website; but not a single minute has been published so far this year).
So what is this air of conspiracy surrounding Blackwell and his CIIP colleagues? The Canvey pool issue has run its course; the claims regarding new island housing have been shown to be just political lies; and the CIIP has found no traction in its complaints regarding the Adizone or Bumble Bee park.
Are we to see the revival of that old Spink chestnut, attempted by that once MP together with the political activist Luke Akehurst, during the general election campaign, accusing the local Tory party of corruption?
Is there something going-on at Castle Point Borough Council that Blackwell, as chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, is aware of, which could be spun to further his political agenda?
If there is, then Blackwell is uncharacteristically keeping it close to his chest. Perhaps he has been cautioned by Spink not to reveal his cards, just yet. That would be the course of following political expediency at the expense of the public interest – if the public interest were, in fact, involved.
Responsible politicians would, of course, use their privileged position in the council chamber to ensure the public interest was served; but perhaps there is a reason why Blackwell has chosen to keep quiet.
Or perhaps he is just saving his powder for the next full council meeting at which all will be revealed.
One can but hope…
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