One of the Labour Candidates pledges during these by elections is a petition to call for a referendum on having a directly elected Mayor (DEM) here in K&C.
A DEM will replace the leader and cabinet and have sole executive authority for all decisions, and thats all decisions. The only time an ordinary councillor has any say will be on the budget when two thirds of the council have to vote in favour of the proposals that are made in the name of the Directly Elected Mayor.
Of course the DEM appoints a collection of councillors who act as "advisors" and s/he can either heed their advice, totally ignore it or meet somewhere in the middle.
So exactly what are the Labour lot proposing?
They have finally cottoned onto the fact that you do not need to win more than half of the seats to have control if you have a DEM, so have jumped on the bandwagon that Hornet suggested last year.
To switch to a DEM the first step is a referendum in which 5% of the voting public in the borough sign up to. Then the question is asked, "do you want a directly elected mayor, yes or no" and if more people say yes than no then an election to find one is held within a month or so. If the answer is no, then its status quo.
But how many signatures do they need to ensure it triggers the referendum process?
The legislation put in place by the Blair government bringing in these demi gods thought of that, and by law each local authority is required to publish its "electoral verification number" that is the minimum number of signatures required.
....and here you see above the page from the council website that proudly displays the figure as 2,563 electors confirmed as 5% of the boroughs voting public.
Only it isn't.
Here you can see the electorate for Kensington seat is about 65,000 - now that is about average size and it doesnt take a mathematical genius to work out that 2563 is nowhere near 5%.
So, Dear Reader, your man at the Top of the Heap, Mr Derek Myers who as Big Cheese at Solace attended conferences of Solace at your expense using his Council Credit Card, also presides over an authority that cant even do its sums right.
£240,000 per year he gets, but Hornet bets payroll get it right.
amazing how this appears straight after a full council meeting
ReplyDeleteYou have omitted,as it appears has
ReplyDeletethe returning officer electors in
Chelsea perhaps c.30,00o?This would
mean a trigger point in excess of
5000.
I'm unqualified to sign the Petition; but made a positive comment about it on "Save the Portobello Road Market" Facebook wall. I mentioned that RBKC Leader has been in post for 13 years & has been very naughty over his expenses. Yet no one stood against him in recent internal elections ... information from Hornet, so presumably accurate. I added a positive word about Boris. Rather than anyone posting an argument, my comment was promptly deleted & I received a "Warning" from Facebook; without further explanation. One wonders who 'shopped' me to Facebook. Is RBKC in 21st Century UK or the old Communist East Germany? Such attempts to silence free speech are very good reasons why electors should sign the Petition & vote for a Referendum on a Directly Elected RBKC Mayor.
ReplyDeleteIf Myers can't do his sums, what does that say about the rest of them? They're just not very bright, are they?
ReplyDeleteBut Hornet, surely once it's published, they have to stick to the number stated? There are some words at the bottom of the declaration I don't quite understand on this subject.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/kensingtonchelseadirectlyelectedmayor/
ReplyDeleteGo on, you know you want to!
In simple terms, please explain what this blog means??
ReplyDeleteHow many signatures do we need to call for a Directly Elected mayor in K&C?