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Medway blogger Alan Collins has questioned whether Labour Councillor Bill Esterson can continue as a Medway Councillor at the same time as trying to become an MP in Merseyside.
Speaking after Cllr Esterson was selected to fight the Sefton Central seat in Merseyside, Mr Collins questioned how he would be able to continue to serve his constituents to the best of his ability at the same time as fighting an election halfway up the country, claiming that any attempts to do so would be “unacceptable”.
Alan Collins commented, “Other Medway councillors are also fighting election campaigns in Medway constituencies, but I cannot believe that anyone can work their hardest for their ward constituents whilst they are also fighting an election 250 miles away.
“If Cllr Esterson spends more time working hard for the constituents who have already elected him here in Medway then he will anger his new colleagues in Sefton Central and face a tough battle against a local councillor in the constituency.
“However, if he spends more time in Sefton Central, he will be showing the utmost contempt for his River Ward constituents, a situation which is quite simply unacceptable.
“Cllr Esterson needs to be honest with his River Ward constituents about what is going to happen over the next couple of months.
“If he cannot devote enough time to his constituents, Cllr Esterson should resign and allow someone else who can put the time in to do so.”
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Alan,
Your points are well intentioned, but we’re all in danger of missing the point that our councillors are part time. They are not elected to work full time. I don’t see how Bill Esterson campaigning in Liverpool will affect his performance as a local representative, as long as he devotes enough time to his River Ward constituents, and in this age of the iPhone and mobile broadband, most work can be done “not locally”. Its the issue of time that concerns me, and I do wonder how Reh Chisthi manages to find the time to be both a busy portfolio holder at the council, and a campagining MP. Bill Esterson is not a portfolio holder, so in fact, the pressure is more on Reh to justify how he manages to be at all times a barrister, a portfolio holder with responsibility, and a parliamentary candidate without undermining the responsibility of any of them.
And, as a matter of an aside, there’s an implication that the local Tories would like Bill Esterson to resign. Will they be brave enough to call on disgraced Cllr Brice to do the same thing?
Ah, now here Ben has missed the point (but I’m sure he didn’t mean to). Cllr Esterson also has a (very lucrative, I understand) occupation as well, so still would be unable to devote his attention properly to both River ward here and his target constituency in Liverpool. My “three-ended candle” analogy in a comment in another thread here might seem to apply here…
As it happens, though, he doesn’t really have to because the latter is such a safe Labour seat that a donkey with a red rosette could win (hold) it. That might or might not have a bearing on why he was selected for that seat, especially bearing in mind his current commitments.
Also, as we know, he doesn’t cope well with more than one topic (or sometimes even more than one part of a topic) at a time, so again this is a logical seat for him. He’ll walk it…