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Medway’s Conservative Council delivers double-blow to “non-political” CRAG and failing Labour MP

By Alan W Collins on Friday 6th April 2007 12:58 / 3 comments

“Tell me, Alan,” Reh said to me after another evening delivering leaflets, “what do you think the public’s response would be if the Council re-opened the flyover and gave £50,000 to the Sunlight Centre?” Obviously, I immediately saw scenes of jubilation eminating from campaigners who have worked hard to see this happen, before coming to a stark realisation. “They’d never do it,” I responded. How wrong I was.

Reh just looked over his glasses at me, and said “don’t tell anyone”. So I didn’t. And, sure enough, the front page of today’s Medway Messenger said it all: Medway Council’s Conservative cabinet plans to re-open the flyover and is also giving the Sunlight Centre a £50,000 interest-free loan!

The move is being attacked as being a Political U-Turn, designed by a Conservative group running scared with four weeks until crucial Local Elections. However, it also demonstrates the immense power that people can wield over those in authority, alongside the willingness of the Conservative Council to listen. Whilst Labour and Lib Dem Councils (alongside the Government) continue to ignore the people they represent, then wonder why they drop in the polls, the Conservatives continue to listen, promise and deliver.

The Chatham Regeneration Action Group, on the other hand, prides itself on being non-political, whilst displaying banners and delivering leaflets urging people: “don’t vote Conservative on May 3rd”. Despite the Council listening and actioning based upon what the people they represent want, the campaign to oust the Tories continues, with 30,000 leaflets being sent out urging people to vote Labour. That is “only about politics,” according to the deputy leader of Medway Council, Cllr Alan Jarrett.

The Party have been accused of failing to talk to traders, but when those traders are using half their energy to try and talk to the Council, and half their energy to get them voted out, then they deserve none of the precious little time the Council can afford to offer them. After the election, when CRAG have exhausted their Political agenda, the Conservative Council would be more than happy to reopen talks with traders.

No plans are set in concrete. The flyover was closed because of safety fears, but Cllr Rodney Chambers admitted that they may have used out-dated information when the closure and proposed demolition of the flyover was planned. The flyover will be reopened while the public consultation phase of the Chatham Regeneration plans continues, meaning that the campaign has reached its first victory.

And as my failing local Labour MP continues to slide further down the appreciation ladders of many of his Constituents, he seems determined not to go down alone. Instead, calling upon a standards investigation, he is trying to bring down Medway Council Conservative Group, whose logo is clearly seen on the symbolic cheque, as they presented the “£50,000″ for publicity, but handed over no cash at all.

Oh, but that is where you are wrong, Mr. Clark! Because, after the Home Office you support, which is supposed to look after the interests of its people, yet again refused an opposition council funding for a worthy cause, the Medway Tories have afforded the Sunlight Centre a £50,000 interest-free loan for five years.

And they say local politics isn’t interesting.

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3 Comments

Councillor John Ward says:

Wednesday 13th June 2007 at 14:09

I’ve just re-read this article in full, and from the point of view of hindsight it is particularly interesting.

The Sunlight Centre financial crisis arose as a result of central government’s engineering of the Lottery Fund to concentrate on headline-making stuff (as usual!) and depriving smaller organisations of their Lottery funding. This widespread practice has become more generally known to the public in recent weeks, but of course the Sunlight Centre situation brought it into sharp relief here in Medway several months ago…

Anyway, it was the Conservative Administration of Medway Council who were the *only* ones to propose any kind of solution, even a partial one. The other political parties did nothing at all. The idea was, however, contingent upon getting approval for the use of the so-called “Supernanny” funding from central government in this slightly different way to achieve much the same end result.

No response was forthcoming from the Minister whom we approached formally, after months of waiting, so we brought the matter to wider public attention by means of the somewhat cheque-like request that you pictured being held by three Conservative Councillors (at the time — alas now only two are still Councillors) as a promise to pass over our entire Supernanny funding amount to the Centre, if this were approved. The thing even says “please”, as can easily be seen in the photograph.

So, what was the Labour Group on Medway Council response to this innovative idea?

All they did was try to claim it was a false promise, made on a Medway Council pseudo-cheque. IN fact, it isn’t a cheque at all (it has no account details for a start!) and Medway Council isn’t mentioned anywhere on it

Fortunately I was able to show, at the meeting of the Full Council where Labour tried to get the senior legal officer of the council to take action against the Conservative Members involved, that it was not a council cheque or anything else — one of the many advantages I have over all other Medway Councillors in having a portable computer in the Chamber, rather than paper. Everything but everything is to hand.

“Advantage Ward”, as we’d say at Wimbledon (where I was born)!
Alan Collins says:

Thursday 14th June 2007 at 00:41

Also to be pointed out here is that Conservative Councillor Rehman Chishti gave £1,000 of his Ward fund when he was Ward Councillor for Gillingham North to the Sunlight Centre.

It is a shame that Labour Councillors try to penalise the Conservative Administration when their own Government fails to deliver to an important cause – but is more than happy to keep spinning the machine and send the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the very same place whilst he tried to win the public hearts (once he knew he didn’t need to win the votes of his party members to become Leader).

I am thankful that our Party was once again leading the way and ashamed that the others wouldn’t follow in order to provide for a worthy cause.
Cllr John Ward says:

Friday 29th June 2007 at 12:41

Alan

Thank you for your response to my comments, and the useful additional info that I did not know (Reh Chishti’s donation).

It is indeed a shame that the opposition groups/members did absolutely nothing of which I am aware to help the Sunlight Centre in its time of need. It is little surprise that the Labour councillors for Gillingham North were both voted out just a few weeks ago, when it became clear that they had little to offer the residents of that area.

We shall have to wait to see whether their LibDem replacements will be better — and I very much hope that they will be — but at least it has changed the political situation there, and that was clearly needed.

Although it was, as you say, the Conservatives who were the *only* practical supporters of the Sunlight Centre at this time of genuine need, realistically I would not expect Gillingham North ward to turn blue at this time.

Like River and Walderslade wards, they need to grow into not only a desire for a genuinely better community, but the will to make it happen.

Those two wards have partially shifted already (as did Princes Park before, by the way, and what a difference /that/ has made! I am immensely impressed with what we have going on there!) and inevitably other wards will similarly mature.

A few will probably never change, and in those cases I suspect rightly, as they would need wholesale changes to their entire community and its outlook before they could possible “trade up”, and that would be very uncomfortable and disruptive, certainly in the short term. Perhaps they will never change. If not, we should (and I shall) respect that. There’s room for all types of community.

Personally, I love wandering around places like Gillingham, Princes Park, Walderslade, and ebven Rochester East. It helps me to gain a better “feel” for those places and their residents. So, if any reader of this should ever encounter this strange bespectacled middle-aged chap apparently aimlessly walking around their home area — don’t worry: it’ll probably be me, trying so very hard to feel your area in a way that I can best apply to my work in the Council. It has worked very well on numerous occasions already!