Conservatives said NO to the Labour Green Bin TAX by 1 of the 8

 I am 1 of the 8

There, I said it...... I am 1 of the 8

What does that mean? I hear you ask. Well, 8 very worried and concerned Conservative Cllrs at Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) had the audacity to call for a special meeting of Council to debate and vote on the Councils waste strategy instead of it being discussed at an "informal" meeting of Council last week.

That's right - one of the most contentious and arguably the most divisive proposal this Labour Council has made since coming to power in 2015 was about to be swept through without proper debate, without giving residents an opportunity to come to Council and look Cllrs in the eye and without a meaningful vote. Any vote would be non-binding and the decision made elsewhere and "in balance" of comments made at the informal meeting.

Stich up anyone? One lump or two with that? So I, along with 7 others called for a special, F2F meeting of Council. The Labour hounds of incredulity were unleashed upon us.....putting safety of Cllrs and Council employees at risk, the government was accused of "letting people get sick and dying" my one of the more delightful (and shouty) Cabinet members who happens to be the deputy leader of the Council.

Yet Labour run Halton borough Council, next door, across the road, actually held a F2F meeting the night before and all was well. The very same week as "you are going to kill us all" from Labour - two of Winsford's finest Labour Marxist Cllrs announced they were going to open a nightclub......if it looks, like hypocrisy, smells like hypocrisy and walks like hypocrisy then it probably is hypocrisy eh?

But I as 1 of the 8 did not call for this meeting in fun. Oh no.

I have NEVER had so many residents tell me how unpopular any proposal of Council has been compared to this one. Let's put that into context, not the Gypsy and Traveler site proposal in Whitegate, not the maximum Council Tax rises from CWAC Labour EVERY year for the last six years, not the Greedy Pig development, not the 20mph scheme, not the Car Parking Charges, not even the Chester Bus Lanes.....nothing at all has stirred the residents like this. So much so that we conducted a survey.....the results were very interesting indeed

Resident who oppose the Green Bin Tax - 94%  - Still Labour didn't listen

Labour voters who oppose the Green Bin Tax - 90%  - Still Labour didn't listen

Residents who oppose a move to 3 weekly collections - 83% - Still Labour didn't listen

and we didn't ask residents questions we only wanted to hear the answer to - residents were not "guided" to supply one answer as in a similar fashion to the original consultation on the waste strategy that paid £88,000 in consultancy fees - the original consultation did not even have the courtesy to ask residents if they opposed a proposal of a Green Bin Tax. 

Labour's headlong rush to blame the Government for everything is reckless and could mean they will miss out on further funding for mandatory green bin collections. 

While everyone goes back to work, while our food and transport workers, our NHS workers and our business owners and shopkeepers meet the challenge of recovering from COVID together, we Cllrs cannot hide in a bunker and we must have scrutiny on key decisions, especially those as unpopular as this. 

I  called for this meeting on behalf of those who elected me and who will suffer from this new Green Bin Tax - those hard working, tax paying residents of Winsford, those concerned that we look after our environment by not encouraging our residents to burn, dump or place waste into our grey bins, those who simply cannot afford another Tax on their already hefty bills.

I am 1 of the 8

P.S. Despite Labour complaining that the special meeting costing £6000 (I refer you to the consultancy fee above) - the Labour Chairman (lets call him Mao) shut the meeting down with 30 mins to go - proving once again that Labour don't provide value for money

Give me an L for "proportionality" and what that means for you in Winsford

 

Hello Winsford, or at least the part of the town that actually reads this...

I have a question for you.

Do you remember your GCSE (Or GCE) or even "A level" maths? Keeping your head down to learn those lovely topics such as algebra, functions, powers, statistics, trigonometry and even indices to name but a few.

But you never did proportionality did you? Aha, got you there because it seems to me at least, it's only a real subject in politics because in politics, proportionality means prizes (no, not points mean etc...).

What it means is that when things are "tight" or when a multitude of parties have been elected then all the places on a committee are given out proportionally.

In CWAC, this means that because Labour have the majority (but don't have the majority big enough to control the council fully) they get to select most of the committee chairpersons (the "prizes" as they often come with extra "responsibility allowance" to the normal "allowance" we get).

Right then, moving on - proportionality makes a lot of sense when the political make up demands it and all parties (especially beneficial for independents if they form a "group"  more on that later) get representation on nearly all the committees the council run. Remember that the committees are quite large at CWAC and there are 70 Cllrs. WTC have 15 Cllrs, 10 of which are Labour.

At  town and parish council level  - which Winsford is a fairly bog-standard one - the rules of  proportionality do not apply USUALLY.

So what makes WTC so very different? Well our Labour representatives of the "corbynism is alive and well" brigade who haven't quite cottoned on that its over for that brand + momentum + marxism etc... and since elected have overly politicised our town council.

What that means in practice is that they have no intention of letting independents (who are "old Labour" stalwarts until they were forced out of the party by the Corbynistas) sit on any meaningful committees.

Those three independents have not formed a group (unlike our "quiet as lambs" Liberal Democrats who are complicit to Labour - demonstrated by their inability to give any sort of opposition to them) and as such are three separate "groups".

Labout throw the proportionality curve ball to keep those independents off things like the finance committee but they are allowed to attend the planning committee - why is that you ask? Well, looks like the Labour members have been missing a few planning committee meetings so to keep the Committee going (called quorate) they need the independents.

Watching the car crash of a Town Council meeting "it's really well attended because we get people [Labour party stalwarts] watching and yet no one actually participates or asks a question" and AGM the other night - once again we see the Labour bully tactics and moral high ground grab in all it's glory.

How? Well, when asked by Cllr Kennedy (independent) about proportionality and its unfairness, Cllr Savage stated.....

"The rules of proportionality don't actually apply at Parish/Town level but we have, to be fair, the Labour group...decided to apply them to give the opposition members and opportunity to sit on committees"

Here is the plain English version...

"We, the Labour Group are not letting those guys go anywhere near the committees we don't want them to because we don't like the scrutiny. However, we know the optics look bad on that  so we brought in a rule not applied elsewhere to make sure we can either get them on the committees we need them on or sideline them to committees which no real decisions are made on. We are wonderful aren't we and so very gracious for doing that".

So here is a thought for you all.

I am going to step out on a limb here and say that this town should consider whether the over politicising of its town council is a good thing or not. Maybe it's time for all (non-Labour) political parties or interested residents to unite under a new banner and bring this controlling and ultimately failing force to an end at the place it matters most - the ballet box. All done with a dose of proportionality, of course. Just a thought

P.S. I have provided a link whereby you can look at CWAC Cllrs expenses, allowances and responsibility (WTC Cllrs do not receive any allowances)

https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/your-council/councillors-and-committees/councillors-allowances/documents/members-allowances-2018-19.pdf

Winsford "welcomes" another 32000 reasons in 2021 to be thankful to Labour - but don't please ask questions why

 Happy New Year to you all

Without wishing to be all "Star Warsy" to you it is good to see that there is a "New Hope" on the Horizon as the Government pushes out the COVID Vaccines into our Towns, Cities and Rural locations in an unprecedented action that as of the time of Writing has Vaccinated over 4 million people.

It's coming up to Budget time here in Winsford and in CWAC (or tax raising time if given it's correct name under the two Labour Councils) and while we have to wait for the double whammy from Labour - last night our esteemed Cllrs voted for another 7% increase in Band D precept for the hard working Tax payers in Winsford. "Just 8p a week" should be the new Labour slogan (not "New Labour" - these lot of Corbynistas are far too hard left for that).

I need to be very clear here - the Tax increase for Winsford will be a staggering £31,931 MORE than 2020

So let's look at what that Tax increase will be spent on......

More money for the participatory budget - not withstanding that there is £6K remaining not spent from the budget this year despite the Town Council reducing the fee they were paying for the platform. Labour are still spinning this as a positive but next year will have 6K less in it than this year.

The money spent on the Guildhall is increasing by £15K again this year to a magnificent 45K - this project can easily be afforded by the sale of the Greedy pig land, which the Council still has not confirmed yet (more on this later).

But here is the big question...the really big question - how does the council come up with an increase of nearly £32,000? 

Well, in a single word.....SALARIES. Yep - in a time of uncertainty and pulls on the public and private purse, the wisdom of this Labour run Council is to increase salaries by £48.5K and to hire a deputy clerk to help out in little old Winsford. Not Manchester, Liverpool or indeed Birmingham but in Winsford....a deputy Clerk!!!

Really? Yep, Really. 

Labour will spin this increase as a pay increase for their staff and as hiring an apprentice - (neither of these I would object to) but it actually hides the fact that they are planning to hire a deputy Clerk. 

OK - this was the broad outcome of last nights meeting. Maybe the not actually the most important part either. Let's look how the meeting was started....

Cllr Pardoe - Deputy Mayor of Winsford

"...Proposers of items have the opportunity to introduce an item and sum up the debate. All other Cllrs are permitted to speak ONCE per item. This ensures each Cllr has the opportunity to speak on every item if they wish and provides a fair framework for debate. At committee meeting these rules have occasionally been relaxed to allow for more detailed discussion but due to the number of items on full Council meeting agendas, enforcement of the rules is essential, they ensure Council business is conducted efficiently. Without these rules, debates become an argumentative ping-pong and that is not what the residents of Winsford want nor is it in the best interests of our Town. in common with physical meetings, disruptive behavior will not be tolerated, these rules of debate are common place at all levels of government and have long been a part of the Winsford Town Council standing orders and are nothing new"

This nearly one minute diatribe firmly sets the Labour expectation of debate in this town - which is they don't want any. they don't want any dissenting voices and are taking a classical centrist approach whereby the narrative and discussion is controlled by them.

Let me ask you two questions....

Why would a fair, open, honest and transparent Parish council wish to start a Council meeting in this way?

What do you think when you look at the Whitegate Parish Council introduction to their Parish Council meetings?

Chair "Hello everyone, good to see you all again - do we have any public speakers here tonight"

The contrast is stark - one Parish Control tightly controlled by Labour, the other Parish Council, non-political, trying to work on behalf of all residents.

Let me write that introduction  how I really read it

"Proposers of items have the opportunity to introduce and item and sum up the debate. All other Cllrs can speak but there are plenty of you we don't like and have made life difficult for us so we don't want you asking too many questions. We will relax the rules when it suits us, but not tonight so we can appear to be working efficiently. Some residents will fall for it for sure. Enforcement is essential otherwise you take press and air time from us and we don't want the scrutiny. To legitimize this, we are re-stating the old rules that no one cared about until we got here - like it, or lump it"

There you go - that's it until 2023, more tax hikes and no debate under Labour. Welcome, sadly, to Winsford under Labour.