Stoke-on-Trent City Council Meeting 8/9/11

I observed the city council meeting from the public gallery.  It is also webcast and I refer to times in the webcast.  As an ordinary member of the public I comment on some of the highlights from my personal perspective.

Petitions

I always like hearing the petitions and public questions as I'm particularly interested in the grass roots aspects of democracy.

Lisa Meredith (0:23:03) did a fantastic job of presenting her petition, signed by 102 people, asking the council to take action to combat the anti-social behaviour in the alleyway between Dairyfields Way and Brianson Avenue in Moorcroft, by means such as reinstating the foliage, shrubs, railings and/or gates to the alleyway.  She was very angry and accused the council of 13 years of empty promises and said that £100,000 for the area seemed to have gone missing.  I really hope Lisa and her fellow residents get a suitable outcome, though from the history she gave and the council response I don't hold out much hope.

Tracy Brennan (0:26:51), 158 signatures, asked the council to relocate the "Welcome to Penkhull" signs at the end of Gresty Road/Honeywall to a location at the bottom end of Honeywall and spoke about the need for an inclusive discussion to resolve this.

Roy Naylor (0:29:31:), 891 signatures, asked the council to provide a School Crossing Patrol outside the Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy (Blurton High School in old money - council web link to school is broken), Beaconsfield Drive, Blurton, especially following the tragic death of 12 year old Courtney Holdcroft in June.  Roy said a crossing patrol would be the quickest solution for a dangerous road but also asked for a scrutiny committee to consider a more permanent crossing.  I agree, it is a very valuable part of a student's general education to participate in after school activities, as Courtney was.  School crossing patrols provide a good service but do not cater for those staying after school.  My experience of unsuccessfully asking for a crossing years ago in a different area led me to believe the council needs deaths before properly considering these, which is awful.

Another petition on the list, which did not have a speaker, was one to increase the annual intake of Ash Green Primary School from 60 to 75.  I am interested in this as the school is in my area and my children attended it.  I have long thought the intake should be increased as it is a highly popular and successful school and with high birth rates we need plenty of primary school places.

Public Questions

The council now provides the initial responses to public and members' questions on the website.  This is a great improvement.  Supplementary questions may be asked at the council meeting.

Tracy Hall, question 5, had asked why the problem of livestock on the loose causing damage in Packmoor had not been resolved over many years.  Council Leader Mohammed Pervez had replied "The City Council is actively dealing with a number of livestock related problems in this area."  This is a bland response typical of him.  I suppose we'll believe it's been dealt with if it ever happens.  Tracy (0:33 :51) asked why the council rents out fields with substandard fencing.  Mohammed Pervez (0:34:57) explained that the fields were being used illegally.

Kieran Clarke, question 7, had asked what is being done to bring the woefully inadequate bus information at bus stops up to date.  Cllr Adrian Knapper, cabinet member for planning & transportation, had replied that they were working on a "Bus Information Strategy"  (for goodness sake just have a bus timetable at bus stops, it's not rocket science) but to be fair to him he did say the information would be updated by the end of this year!  Kieran (0:36:18) said he is not so sure the council is capable of getting this right (as a former councillor I guess he knows) and cited cases of bus information being 3-6 years out of date.  It was more of a statement than a question and Adrian Knapper (0:37:58) said officers would contact him to sort it out.  We'll find out who is right in January then.

Mick Williams, question 10, asked specific questions on the council's policy relating to its duty to inform, consult and engage.  The response from Cllr Gwen Hassall, cabinet member for housing & neighbourhoods, had been vague in the extreme; how determined? - "normal processes", resources? - "spread across directorates", timescale? - "ongoing", monitoring? - "existing arrangements", means of local groups to have their views registered and acted upon? - "currently being finalised".  As a committee member of a residents' association I would be interested in that last issue but won't hold my breath.  Mick (0:38:30) said that the decision to close the Community Empowerment Network was undemocratic, made by 3 people out 75 and asked whether the council had participated in the DCLG consultation, if not why not and will it act on the results?  Gwell Hassall (0:40:38) said the vote was 6 for dissolving and 3 against and spectacularly failed to answer the questions on consultation.  (Why am I not surprised?)

Community Hall Management

Cllr Paul Shotton (0:56:40) reported that nominations for community halls were suspended but are now reinstated.  It would be interesting to hear from anyone who knows more about the shenanigans behind this.  On the face of it, it looks like nominations were suspended while Labour feared losing control... surely not!  Labour had produced a list of names for the management teams.  Cllr Ann James (0:58:12) proposed an alternative independent list for Packmoor.  She made the point that if Labour were really interested, those proposed could have joined the committee, whereas those on the independent list were already committee members with important roles.  I am with Ann James on this one.  We need committed active people at the grass roots (and on the council!), not Labour names only there to serve party dominance.  Needless to say Labour won the vote.

Moving Council Meetings to the Evening

Council considered a Notice of Motion (1:31:28), moved by Cllr Paul Shotton and seconded by Cllr Tom Reynolds:

“That this City Council notes that great strides have been made towards ensuring that full Council meetings are viewed by the widest possible audience following the introduction of the webcasting facilities.  Council resolves that:
• in order to give greater opportunity for members of the public to attend the City Council meetings and
• to attract high calibre candidates with diverse backgrounds to stand in local elections,
the normal starting time for those meetings will in future be 5.30 p.m.
Council also confirms that changes to the starting times of the meetings of any of its committees are matters for those committees to determine.”

I agree with the first bullet point above but find the second blatantly disingenuous!  What local elections?  Labour outrageously and dictatorially did away with our annual elections (by thirds) for the next 4 years, contrary to our council's vote, by getting their then Labour government to impose the new election system on us!

Amongst the lively debate on this I pick out just a few examples from many.   

Cllr Paul Shotton (1:31:45) cited Shropshire council where a public petition had requested a move to the evening and Lewisham council which wanted a move from evening to day and were accused of stopping public protest.  He also said daytime meetings make it difficult for the working public to contribute and observe and thinks it is more difficult to find childcare during the day.  I agree on the first point, I have asked public questions in the past and have had to delay them to a month when I had a chance of getting away from work on the day to attend and then bust a gut to get there on time.  It is less important to attend to observe now it is webcast, although there is a different perspective when attending.  I have not been to a council meeting for a while because of work and only attended this time because I was on holiday.  I disagree on the second point.  Having been there and done that; it is easiest to get childcare during the day, difficult but sometimes possible to find a babysitter for later in the evening but virtually impossible around the 5.30pm 'teatime' they are planning for.  Furthermore that is prime time to spend with your children, after school and before their bed time.   

Cllr Paul Breeze (1:35:23) gave a lively and entertaining rant that was nothing like watching paint dry, accused Labour of self interest, referred to 24 Labour voting fodder stooges and suggested Mohammed Pervez should ditch his day job.   

Cllr Andy Platt (1:43:22) said evening meetings have been Labour policy since the 1980s.  So it's taken them over 20 years to implement this then!  Typical Labour.   

Cllr Randy Conteh (1:45:57) and Cllr Ann James (1:48:55) pointed out they think it is a full time job being a councillor and it is important to attend meetings with residents in the evenings.  I agree on these points.  The reason I have not stood for council is because I would not be able to do both that job and my existing job.  I would not be prepared to let residents down or leave important commitments in my other work unfulfilled and I need the money the existing job provides.  Actually on my planet it would be very different.  There would be much more devolution to local communities and many more people involved from the grass roots.  There would be more councillors, but unpaid, making each role manageable alongside other work.   

Cllr Mohammed Pervez (1:55:27) made an amusing comment, getting his own back on Paul Breeze by inviting him to join the Labour group.  I do take exception to his suggestion of attracting high calibre candidates to stand for election.  Fine, but again, what elections?  And diversity?  Labour don't want diversity, they want Labour and have gone to great dictatorial lengths to get it.   

Cllr Tom Reynolds (1:59:32) asked if people show disdain for parliamentary democracy.  Actually I think I do, I would prefer a more representational democracy with less party politics.  There was then a named vote to ensure Labour councillors were thoroughly whipped. 

Even Lord Mayor Terry Follows said (2:07:10) surprise surprise the motion is carried.

Labour Dominance

Cllr Debra Gratton (2:09:50) said she was at a ceremony at Thistley Hough High School relating to new school building.  Cllr Randy Conteh (2:10:36) asked a very pertinent question; why wasn't he as councillor for the ward invited?  Debra Gratton treated him terribly.  First, after finishing her gloating, she didn't even afford him the respect of listening to him and he had to repeat himself.  Then she didn't apologise for his exclusion and dismissively said she didn't know why he wasn't invited.  Well, if she engaged brain she would realise the elected councillor, given the mandate from the people, should be involved in ward events.  So either she didn't think or it was a deliberate act, either way it's a poor show.  To me it looks like intentional sidelining and exclusion of non-Labour councillors of the sort that I believe has been going on for years.  I think it is to con the public into thinking Labour are doing the great things and others can't be bothered, whereas in my experience it is for the most part the other way around.  Where I live we had problems with some of our Tories instead, but again it's a large party problem.  We've done the sensible thing now and voted in independents who actually care about the community above party politics.

The Campaign To Defeat Ross Irving in Hanford and Trentham: Stoke-on-Trent Local Election 2011

Saved Trentham High

Everyone knows Trentham High School was under threat of closure from BSF and was saved due to a massive community campaign.

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Victory-battle-save-Trentham-High-School/article-906070-detail/article.html

We had friends and enemies in that fight; of our three councillors at the time Terry Follows was on our side, Roger Ibbs and Ross Irving were against us.

Terry Follows was re-elected in 2008, Roger Ibbs did not dare to stand in the ward in 2010 and was defeated elsewhere, but Ross Irving had the audacity to stand for election in Hanford and Trentham in 2011.

My Thoughts

I was outraged at Ross Irving. I spoke to a few people about whether to mount some sort of protest. The Sentinel failed to publish letters I sent to them.

I sat on the fence for a while, not really drawn to the idea of a negative campaign. Everyone I knew disliked Ross Irving for acting against us and everyone they knew felt the same. So we nearly concluded a campaign against him was unnecessary.

Then I spoke to some more people at the Trentham High Cooperative Trust launch and found Trentham Action Group members enthusiastic about the idea. After that I jumped off the fence and embraced the notion of a negative campaign against Ross Irving.

Local Campaign

As a law abiding citizen I was keen to follow the rules for what is classed as a ‘local campaign’

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/105936/intro-campaigner-npc.pdf

I had thought acting alone I would have a couple of thousand leaflets printed and distribute them to all postal voters and to the middle of the ward where I live. I felt postal voters are important as they have chosen to vote so have a high probability of doing so whereas other voters maybe have only a ~25% turn out. At the risk of outrageous stereotyping I thought the South of Trentham has more staunch conservative voters, some of whom may tend to vote that way regardless of who the candidate is and Hanford is likely to have fewer conservative voters anyway. I figured we are more likely to float our vote in my area.

As I doubted I could leaflet the whole ward on top of full time work and a holiday away I had booked, this seemed like a sensible allocation of effort.

Plotting

After some initial email discussions a TAG group met to discuss the campaign. I took some near final leaflets and a map.

When Trentham High was saved TAG had decided to campaign against Roger Ibbs or Ross Irving if they ever stood for election in the ward again. We did not imagine it was likely Ross could win but nevertheless felt we should follow through with having our say. Besides, if we did nothing and by chance he did win, we would be inclined to blame ourselves for our apathy.

It was agreed that TAG would endorse the campaign and members would help with the leafleting so we arranged to get 5,000 A5 black and white leaflets from a printer used by TAG before and distribute most of the ward. We allocated leafleting areas on the map.

The leaflets were I think far better as a result of input from other people than I would have produced myself. I was happy to pay for the leaflets but a number of TAG members wished to contribute so the cost was split.

The 5,000 leaflets were nearly but not quite sufficient for the whole ward. Apologies to residents in a few pockets of Hanford who did not get a leaflet.

The leaflets were black and white A5 versions of the following.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwnPMdnm-yQhYWRlN2E1OWQtYWIxYy00NTRiLThhMDAtOTU0MTIwMDBkMGQ3&hl=en_GB&authkey=CN_V-8kF

The one distributed had my address and the printer’s name and address included to comply with local campaign rules, although I have omitted these now for the web.

Campaign Ethos

The campaign was not party political. We decided not to suggest who people should vote for and we did not target the other conservative candidate. This was just a campaign against Ross Irving, a reminder of his failure to support the overwhelming wishes of the community over Trentham High.

A member of the team preferred to just get the information out on the ground, rather than make any announcement. The team consisted of 12 leafleters that I am aware of, although there may have been others who helped that I am not aware of. Additional people were involved in discussions and planning. Everyone did whatever they could within their other commitments and I am grateful to all.

Leafleting

I was a leafleting virgin before this campaign. I had never liked the idea because of my dog phobia, which stemmed from childhood in an era when dogs frequently ran free in the streets and it was normal to walk to school alone from the age of 5. However this phobia I suffered from for about 50 years has been all but obliterated, as people are now sensible with their dogs, have them safely enclosed in the back garden or have a post box at the front gate.

I discovered after initial experimenting that my favoured method of posting was to roll the leaflet up into a tube as I walked to the house for ease of sticking this tube through the draft excluder in the letter box. I tended to leaflet a street on one side including at the same time all the cul-de-sacs off, then the same on the other side, whereas I know others do the main streets first and the streets off afterwards.

All postal voters in the ward were leafleted before they received their ballot papers. In fact a large part of the ward was completed by that time. In some cases leafleters were able to deliver completely to their areas on that time scale. For others who could not, I delivered to the postal voters to allow the rest to be done at leisure.

I personally delivered 2,048 leaflets. The first ~600 were easy because they were so close to where I live I could nip out for an hour and deliver ~150 effortlessly. Then I took on some areas a bit further away, I didn’t bother to get in the car but accessed them by canal path and other footpaths. I had scheduled some leave from work and after some longer leafleting sessions suffered some aches and blisters. This surprised me as I regularly go on 5-10 mile walks for leisure anyway, it was probably due to carelessness with footwear. What a wimp I thought to myself about myself. But I just carried on anyway, the problems seemed to go away and I felt fitter than ever.

I preferred leafleting the open plan areas having main roads and loops with cul-de-sacs off them. I didn’t like Hanford so much because many of the areas I did have garden gates, which slows the process down. Barlaston Old Road was the most time consuming as the houses are mostly huge with large grounds and long drives. These were the least efficient 63 leaflets I delivered.

Experience at the care homes was varied, some were happy to take leaflets to pass on to residents while others were a little more guarded, although all were polite and took some leaflets to consider passing on to some residents as appropriate.

During the campaign we had a further meeting to redistribute leaflets amongst us and I also liaised with others individually.

The 5,000 leaflets were nearly but not quite sufficient for the whole ward. There will have been a small amount of double posting although not much. I apologise to residents in a few pockets of Hanford who did not get a leaflet because we had run out.

The Ross Irving Encounter

Prior to postal voting I was tackling the last cul-de-sacs to complete the South of Trentham where another member of the team had already done a large amount of leafleting. Who should I meet but the man himself, Ross Irving. Ross wasn't as far ahead, he was going round just delivering to postal voters.

"Hello Ross" I said and smiled pleasantly/smirkingly and covered the leaflets poking out of my leafleting bag with my hand. "Hello" he said pleasantly/smirkingly "how are you?" "Fine" I replied, grinning rather manically. "It's confusing with these postal voters mixed in all over the place" he said, "it is" I agreed, although perhaps he might have noticed I wasn't just doing them at that time, I was finishing the lot. Both of us remained polite.

Feedback

I received a ‘phone call and a letter from pleased members of the community congratulating me on the campaign.

When speaking to residents whilst leafleting I found no opposition to the campaign against Ross Irving and most were very positive and supportive.

Only one resident I encountered was negative and that was without looking at the leaflet or knowing what it was about. He asked if it was an election leaflet and when I said it concerned the election he refused it and said he didn’t want to have anything to do with the election. I said it was very important information from the Trentham Action Group but he still declined.

All in all conducting the campaign was a positive experience and I actually enjoyed the process.

The Ward

Hanford and Trentham is a two member ward

http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/content/csec/MemberServices/ward-consultation/2011-new-wards/hanford-and-trentham.en

in which 11 candidates were standing

http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/content/ce/elections_team/elections-2010/election-notices-2011.en

two independent, two Conservative, two Labour, two Liberal Democrat, two UK Independence Party and one British National Party.

This gives 55 possible combinations of two candidates and with one vote also being permitted, a total of 66 combinations excluding blank or spoilt ballots

http://pitsnpots.co.uk/blog/2011/04/count-accuracy-must-be-paramount

The Count

I was very keen to attend the count, out of a general interest in Stoke-on-Trent politics and of course to see the ballot papers and counting process for multimember wards such as Hanford and Trentham. Ballots for these wards were counted in the Jubilee Hall and tally charts were used. It can be hard to tell exactly who is winning during the count, but it did seem whilst Ross Irving was getting some votes, the top three seemed to be Terry Follows, Peter Hayward and Mark Wright. In fact I thought during the count that Mark had the edge, but I did not watch it all closely as I was chatting to various people.

The Result

The result for Hanford and Trentham was as I had hoped for.

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Elections-2011-Stoke-Trent-City-Council/article-3528623-detail/article.html

I had always wondered whether the campaign was actually necessary to defeat Ross Irving. I think it was certainly a good idea. Furthermore even Ross Irving attributes the outcome to our success:

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/council/Joy-hesitation-size-Labour-tsunami/article-3528591-detail/article.html

"There was quite a strong campaign by the remnants of the Trentham Action Group to persuade people not to support me", he told the Sentinel.

Lessons Learned

If I were considering a future election campaign, perhaps for my own election, I have learned the following:

• Leafletting the whole ward is a manageable task. Even if I had to do this alone for two leaflets I am confident I could. If I were standing for election I would have ceased working, making this even easier.
• Ask for input on the leaflet from supporters to achieve a better product.
• Get 6,000-7,000 leaflets printed to provide well for the ward with plenty to spare.
• Post out to care home residents and possibly some flats for ease of delivery.
• The decision to leaflet all postal voters before they receive their ballots is clearly an obvious tactic to maintain.
• Roll the leaflets up en route for ease of posting or consider card.
• Deliver to distant parts of the ward when there are several hours to spare, leaving the near areas to be done effortlessly by popping out for the odd half an hour to an hour.
• Wear proper walking socks and walking shoes or boots rather than trainers.
• Taking lists of postal voter addresses, maps and highlighter pens out with me, keeping a record of numbers of leaflets used in different areas and colouring in a master map at home, seem to be good things to do.
• A good leafleting bag is immensely useful, I already have one suitable for A5.
• People are sensible with their dogs, caution is advisable but hysterics are unnecessary.
• Stopping for a chat with residents is largely a good idea and more active canvassing may be even better.
• Rain – I have no lessons to be learned about rain as there wasn’t any!

Concusion

Goodbye Ross Irving – Well done TAG!

Congratulations to Councillors Follows and Hayward on their election.