Dear Dame,
This year's intake of RBKC councillors has to be the weakest on record.
Most are unknown, some are parachuted in from elsewhere and have next to no local connections, and most of the good hard-working councillors have either retired or been deselected.
Both the Conservative and Labour Parties have completely lost the plot, deselecting some truly great councillors.
Labour deselected Ian Henderson, Nadia Nail and Pat Healy and caused Monica Press and Robert Atkinson to resign before they were forced out.
Not sure if you also know that disgracefully, the Conservatives also deselected Julie Mills.
Cllr Mills was, in the most recent times, one of the best councillors this borough has ever seen. Dedicated, hard-working and critical but always fair.
She has been respected on all sides for years, except by the RBKC Leadership and the KCFC Party bigwigs who pushed her out.
Cllr Mills was most recently known for being the lone Conservative voice who rightly questioned the Council's expenditure decisions over Grenfell and lacklustre supposed "Grenfell Recovery" which is now being exposed at the Inquiry. She was removed from Committee soon after that. Julie Mills was also a Conservative councillor who was against RBKC's abolition of the Grenfell Recovery Scrutiny Committee and who abstained during the vote.
The very few councillors remaining who show some degree of conscience, are more popular with the voters than their leaders and who bring insightful debate and independent thinking to the table, had perhaps better watch their backs. It looks like Elizabeth Campbell and Emma Dent Coad want their party councillors to be robots who agree with every single thing they say and do and will never ever pose any sort of challenge to them....that is why Victoria Borwick was never selected.
Such narcissism can only result in our Council being more detached from its public than it is already. It is small wonder election turnouts are so low and poorer scrutiny levels abysmal.
It would appear that Cllrs Campbell and Dent Coad have far more in common than either would like to admit.
Yours sincerely,
An insider.
Well done Dame for exposing things as they are. The traditional role of the media and action groups. Residents and voters need to ponder this information very carefully.
ReplyDeleteThere is an unfortunate cancer that has taken over and infiltrated the whole Public Administration of RBKC. It is the unfortunate and inevitable result of single party and monopoly rule in the Royal Borough for more than 60 years.
DeleteChange needs to come from the outside. The current administration and opposition of RBKC are corrupted. Grenfell is the fulcrum point to make this happen. It will be a long time before there is another opportunity like this to shake up the Borough. Maybe some good will come of Grenfell.
DeleteIf the Council was ever going to be removed it would have happened 4 years ago
Delete9.27, these things take time. Residents and voters are generally not interested so long as the dustbins get collected. But occasionally a disaster like Grenfell happens and creates a powerful group of activates determined to seek change. Let's hope that the Grenfell Action Group is up to it and the rest of us can follow their lead
DeleteThe activists in the Grenfell Action Groups are stars. The odious Emma Dent Coad could not bring herself to be decent when one of the stars of Grenfell, Francis O'Connor died. Dent Coad a means spirited, self possessed, architectural journalist, who has been a disaster in local politics.
DeleteWhat an organised crime to get rid of Julie Mills
ReplyDeleteYou can say that again
DeleteDreadful story from the Dame about a Council in decay and institutionally corrupted
ReplyDeleteHornton Street is a Poodle Parlour. Turn right for Blue Poodles and turn left for Red Poodles. The dog handlers (job creation Officers) devise vanity sheets of costs for shampoo and beauty treatments
ReplyDeleteThis story is an outrage and a disgrace for democracy
ReplyDeleteAll of these de selections by Conservatives and Labour is a terrible waste of talent. People of experience, ability and proven public service. And replaced by often dubious and inexperienced individuals. A travesty of democracy
DeleteAn abuse of power by dizzy and EDC. Gross behaviour
DeleteDizzy is the bigger abuser. All about self interest, self preservation and self promotion. Tory Councillors too timid and/or too stupid to see through this and take action to get rid of her
DeleteJulie Mills was not deselected, she stood down. Get your facts right before you make stupid accusations.
ReplyDeleteA stupid accusation? No, I don't think so. When one is forcefully told, "you won't be selected" the dignified option is to announce you will stand down rather than having an undignified row.
DeleteSince you seem to know all about it, stop hiding behind a veil of anonymity and present the facts and who has told you this. You won't, because it's not true.
Delete'Stepping Down' covers a multitude of sins . Mills , Atkindon & Press all seem to have thrown in the towel because they all had better things to do with their time than continuing to battle with the unresponsive 'establishment' of their respective parties. Their loss and the consequent drift of the new Council seems to be the best argument yet for the restoration of Aldermen to modern Councils . A means to retain experience whilst freeing the 'silver beards' from the pressures of reselection . Just a thought
ReplyDeletesound idea
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