WELL, YOU DID HEAR IT HERE FIRST. The story of how a group of narcissistic individuals conned island residents into believing that they would represent their wishes and establish a Parish Council in which all islanders could be proud.
You heard how that band’s leader, Dave Blackwell, mischievously named his group of bandits as the Canvey Island Independent Party (CIIP) and how, once they were installed in the newly formed Parish Council, immediately applied for it to be known as a ‘Town’ council to improve its local kudos. You learned that his next move was to commission, for himself, expensive chains of office and, at the same time, reprieve the old Canvey Urban District Council Coat of Arms from 1974.
On this Blog, you were told of how the CIIP held secret ambitions to separate Canvey Island from Castle Point – and that the party was misrepresenting itself in its name. It was, and is, the Canvey Island INDEPENDENCE Party.
Now the truth is out. Despite constant denials by Blackwell and the CIIP party’s spokesman, Neville Watson, the continued revelations on this Blog concerning Town Councillor incompetence; the constant waste of islander funds on half baked projects, and a concerted attempt to buy votes, this year, by plundering precious TC reserves to fund costly entertainment events on the island, the party has had no choice but to choose the one platform upon which they cannot be judged on their record.
They have been forced to reveal their true ambitions in a desperate attempt to retain their hold over island residents; forced into turning this local election into a referendum on Canvey Island’s separation from Castle Point.
But they have not put forward any plans, or proposals, about how their ludicrous ambition is ever to be accomplished.
A ludicrous ambition that, even on its own, suggests to many that these blundering politicians all share a common case of NPD. And now, even Ray Howard, Mr Canvey himself, presents with similar symptoms.
Not content with remaining quiet about unsustainable Town Council spending, Ray Howard, West Ward Conservative Councillor for both Borough and Canvey Island Town Council, today chose to reminisce about his time as an Urban District Councillor, installed in the old Urban District Offices in Long Road, where he once held court. Mr Canvey was looking forward to the tiny Parish Council mugging island residents over the next four years for the funds to pay for purchasing and renovating the old 1974 Urban Council offices from Castle Point Borough Council – as if the TC does not already squander over 60 per cent of its precept on ‘overheads.’
So what is all this going to cost islanders – and what is it all for?
Well, from the outset, whatever those costs are – islanders will be forced to pay whatever is demanded by the TC (in addition to their normal annual Council Tax). Unlike Borough Councils, which might be subject to central government caps on what they can raise, Parish Councils have no such restrictions. Neither can Borough Council members vote against, or in anyway impose limits, on any Parish Council precept.
But perhaps, what we should first be asking, is how the TC is going to raise enough money for its Long Road expansion without passing the full cost onto islanders – and the answer to that, if they can somehow qualify, is to take-out an extremely large mortgage (which islanders will have to afford). Islanders may not feel as large an impact on their annual bills; but it will mean that even less of those few pence in every pound will be be spent on front-line Parish projects for the foreseeable future.
Sixty-per cent on administration may seem high, now; but it might turn out to be an extremely good deal when we have the advantage of hindsight.
Costs of separating from Castle Point are an entirely different matter; firstly because there is no constitutional mechanism to enable some kind of break-away Republic; but, secondly, there is no way of providing residents with a discount on their local Borough Council Tax for financially ‘opting-out’ of the services it provides. More to the point, even if there were such a possibility, why would anyone choose to?
On paper, given that no one can oppose what Parish councillors agree to spend, it would appear possible for a Parish Council to declare its full independence. But where would it find the suppliers it would need to establish its own service provisions if residents could, somehow, withhold their Borough Council Taxes?
The only answer to that question would be to purchase all the services it needs from the private sector – or the very Borough Council from which it has severed itself. And, in the case of Borough Services, they would have to be provided at additional cost. Even if the Borough Council decided to provide them at cost (which is highly unlikely) there would in any case be further expense involved with the additional administration and logistics involved in managing the required contracts.
So the only thing that island residents can be sure of is: separation will cost them all considerably more.
Let us face it. This has never really been about the island’s separation from Castle Point. That is nothing more than a carefully crafted fantasy, given life by a self-serving group of local politicians whom are intent on preserving the public’s illusion of their own importance and making sure that they continue to milk the Democratic system of allowances paid to council members.
Purchasing, renovating and redecorating the old Urban District Offices; installing leather chairs; mahogany desks; deep pile carpets and a host of officers and secretaries has nothing to do with serving the public. It never has.
And it has absolutely nothing in common with running a tiny Parish Council, on a tiny reclaimed island, in the Thames Estuary…
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