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| WELL DONE! |
One of the great pretensions of the previous leader was his extraordianary belief that RBK&C Cabinet positions were on a par with the great offices of State-such as the Prime Ministerial office and the Chancellorship of the Exchequer...
Pooter dreamed he was PM and Warwick Lightfoot was Chancellor.....
Yes, as that very unloveable old rogue and ex Mayor, Barry Phelps would guffaw, "you could not make it up"!
One resident has written that our new leader has made an early win by dropping these ludicrous titles.
He rightly points out that this is an early sign of more humility and less hubris in the new Cabinet.
Taken with the reduction in SRA's it clearly shows that Paget-Brown is quietly settling down to do the things he promised.
As our resident said....
"You pledged in your acceptance speech that you
want all Ward Councillors to reach out and connect up with residents.
Humility in Councillors and accesss for residents will be key ingredients of this new policy and you have sent out a powerful signal"
Another made this excellent comment...
Councillors need to both BE more accessible and APPEAR more accessible.
"At the moment the contact details for most Conservative Councillors imply that they simply don't want to be approached - contact details point to the Town Hall or 1a Chelsea Manor Street. Only one Conservative-run ward has a regular surgery - Cremorne, once a month (and it'll be interesting to see whether that survives past the impending boundary change).
And more than one Councillor has made it perfectly clear that they don't expect to be contacted by residents who are apparently all perfectly able to engage a solicitor to deal with any issues they might have with the Council without having to "bother" their Councillor.
Nick has his work cut out and needs to crack the whip...."
Another made this excellent comment...
Councillors need to both BE more accessible and APPEAR more accessible.
"At the moment the contact details for most Conservative Councillors imply that they simply don't want to be approached - contact details point to the Town Hall or 1a Chelsea Manor Street. Only one Conservative-run ward has a regular surgery - Cremorne, once a month (and it'll be interesting to see whether that survives past the impending boundary change).
And more than one Councillor has made it perfectly clear that they don't expect to be contacted by residents who are apparently all perfectly able to engage a solicitor to deal with any issues they might have with the Council without having to "bother" their Councillor.
Nick has his work cut out and needs to crack the whip...."
Keep it up Nick and more of the same. You have nothing to lose and much to gain....at this rate the Dame will have nothing to scream about!
Councillors need to both BE more accessible and APPEAR more accessible.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment the contact details for most Conservative Councillors imply that they simply don't want to be approached - contact details point to the Town Hall or 1a Chelsea Manor Street. Only one Conservative-run ward has a regular surgery - Cremorne, once a month (and it'll be interesting to see whether that survives past the impending boundary change).
And more than one Councillor has made it perfectly clear that they don't expect to be contacted by residents who are apparently all perfectly able to engage a solicitor to deal with any issues they might have with the Council without having to "bother" their Councillor.
Nick has his work cut out.
This is a hugely significant signal from the new Leader to Councillors that "we are in business for real". This no longer an organisation for half baked people to puff themselves up and boost their egos - it is an organisation whose purpose it is to serve residents
ReplyDeleteOfficers will notice the change in style too. It will have a great impact
DeleteOfficers need to raise their game. It is the little things that show up the decayed corners of Hornton Street. Some of the staff were working hard until after midnight on Wednesday to make sure that the Council Meeting and Mayor Making went smoothly. At approximately 8.23 pm Cllr Paget-Brown was confirmed as the new Leader by a vote of Councillors (curiously, Labour abstained - what a petty gesture). At 8.24pm the name of the new Leader and the names of the new Cabinet should have been up on the Council website. The changes did not occur until after 3.00pm on Thursday. Mr Fitzpatrick and his overstaffed PR Department are not tuned in to the new, performing organisation. Time for some radical changes there.
DeleteWhy wait until the vote? The result of the election was a foregone conclusion. They could have put it up a week ago and it'd still be accurate.
DeleteCllr Palmer has resumed briefing against Cllr Borwick. It is inconceivable that the new Leader is encouraging this. It was a favorite tactic of the wretched Cockell whose insecurities knew no bounds. Let us hope that Cllr Paget-Brown stamps hard on this cockroach and stops him from indulging in such pathetic infighting in the new Administration. And particularly with a Councillor who gives so selflessly of her time and energy. Palmer should be deeply ashamed of himself and a little peer group pressure from his colleagues would be no bad thing either.
ReplyDeleteLong live the Dame! Another change in behaviour in Hornton Street that is long overdue. Something that the Dame has pointed out in the past. Phelps and Cockell are gone. Meyers is going and Bore is on the skids. Moylan has been banished into oblivion. Expenses are now on the website and there is no more joy riding in the Bentley by the Leader or entertaining friends in New York on the tax payer. There are no more vanity projects (Exhibition Rd, Holland Park School)being cooked up and insanities like Borough housing in Peterborough are a thing of the past. The Dame has a record to be proud of.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the greatest triumph of all is the elimination of the absurd post of "Cabinet Member For Civil Society". The post created to "keep everyone on their toes". A non job if there ever was one.
DeleteWe all know that this was an invented position by Cllr Cockell for his pet, Rocky.
DeleteMuch work still needs to be done. The ridiculous subsidies to Holland Park Opera need to be stopped. The Arts and Crafts programme is a wholly inappropriate expenditure. Planning needs a root and branch overhaul. Leighton House should be gifted to the National trust. The two Mayors, Bentley and Jag, eight support staff and the Mayors Parlour need to be slimmed down to something that is more appropriate to the modern day. The reserves need to be targeted at the old. And Cllr Palmer needs to be deselected.
ReplyDeleteCllr Fielding-Mellen is also unfinished business. He needs to go the way of Moylan. Not quite as obnoxious but a complete waste of space. A person who played his cards, sold his vote, and ended up in the Cabinet. These people get found out in politics
DeleteThe electorate will be deselecting Cllr. Palmer next year.
DeleteOne can only hope that they will finally see sense where Holland Park Opera is concerned and realise that it is a wholly innappropriate endeavour (and expenditure) for a local authority.
DeleteSadly it appears to have become a willy-waving exercise for certain posh-people-wannabes on the Council.
Cllr Mellen is needed to crack down on the crack dens in North Kensington
DeleteFar too much crack for one (in that sentence).
DeleteOh I think there will be plenty more cash spent on rubbish art:
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwhOfzNvytk
' a peacock ponders the eccentricity of zero'.
You what?
WTF!?!
DeleteClearly someone at the Council believes keeping peacocks entertained is a key Council service. I hope "zero" is how much they paid for it, but but I doubt it.
It could be that much needed change is underway in the Royal Borough. The useless MP and time server, MAacolm Rifkind, also needs to put out to grass and replaced by someone as good as Greg Hands, the Member of Parliament for Chelsea. A casual glance at the websites of these two MPs will show any resident the extent of short changing in Kensington compared to Chelsea. Benchmarking is a powerful thing and the Kensington Selection Committee needs to sharpen its pencil before the next General Election
ReplyDeleteLets see if the new Leader has the courage to reverse the ban of the Hornet from the Council's email server. Now that would be a statement of self confidence and intent.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting idea. Nick does not suffer from the insecurities that Cockell has.
DeleteAnd pigs will fly
DeleteFitzpatrick has talked the new Leader into the idea of addressing whoever tunes in to the Council website to speak via a video, something much favoured by the pathetic and self obsessed Cockell.
ReplyDeleteThe new style Paget-Brown video has some jingly music and is shot in the Park (with birdsong) compared to the tired old sofa favoured by Cockell (DOUBLE sofa of course) and the SINGLE fireside chair used by Rocky in his disastrous video appearance (double and single is the editorial technique for signalling a pecking order). Note to Editors: Fitzpatrick is a creep.
Curious thing. If you close your eyes and listen, Nick sounds just like Merrick. The "err" is in all the same places and there is the same pace and intonation of voice. Is this a Fitzpatrick trademark?
Well that didn't take very long did it?
DeletePigs most definitely grounded.
DeleteAccess to councillors is a very important point. Ward councillors are supposed to be representatives of residents. Consider Brompton Ward with many elderly and settled residents. Brompton has become a centre of social pollution (the Harrods mess) and rich Arabs driving their noisy cars around at high speed, late at night. Residents need access to their councillors. All three Ward councillors (playboy Cllr Marshall; without the bite Cllr Barkhorder and Cllr Moseley) give their address as "the Town Hall". They include a Skype number and an email address in their details - but how many elderly residents have Skype (or have even heard of it) and know about email? The answer is none of them.
ReplyDeleteWho the hell do these councillors think they are?
Time for the new Leader to crack the whip. Cllr Paget-Brown, action please!