July 2014

If June was about building awareness-two way:others getting to know me as I got to know the places, processes and people etc-then July was about setting my purpose and establishing my priorities.

I choose to be proactive, not reactive like some. I have taken a back seat on my other work interests, be they professional -that put the roof over my head and feed me as I need to top up my minimal pensions-and I have a time when my youth work falls into holiday mode. My Parish work should continue and at times run alongside Borough roles, though the work is quite distinct and discrete with many specific remits.  I was minded, and still am, to cut back on the Parish roles, as again I am not the reactive one that just turns up to nod and groan! I actually take part in several of the Parish Committees and Working groups, some of which have major work responsibilities.

So in July as I go to Maidstone House or the Town Hall, or other bases, or Village Halls, where I meet many and use every opportunity to talk to people before and after a meeting, the days are full and sometimes long.

And bear in mind theres emails, phone calls, letters, reports, agendas, informal discussions and more that can take up time. I also read background papers and do a lot of research. Many meetings, especially formal ones, are in the evenings, whilst informal ones and working parties/sub committees can take place at any time. Emails come in 24/7, and I tend to deal with them in batches at all hours.

I have also had a few personal at home problems to resolve too, but I won't detail them.

So my diary this month includes :

A meeting about Solar Farms on the 1st. I think the plans for the area that were initially proposed are wholly over the top and disproportionate!
2nd: A KCAP meeting about Youth and the problems of under-age drinking, drug abuse etc in the local villages. Then onto East Sutton Parish Council meeting.
3rd: A sub group meeting of the OSC PT in the morning at Maidstone House to discuss transport issues. Again I put up the RURAL agenda, with bus services in rural areas barely understood by many and the concept of cycling and walking hardly grasped!
4th: A meeting with the Environmental Health/Street Cleaning teams at the Park Wood depot. I had a number of issues I wanted to raise.

7th Finance Meeting of Headcorn Parish Council.
8th meet with Chief Officer of Housing regarding some social issues in Headcorns community housing,
9th meet with leader of MBC to state concerns with Planning matters, at which time a Gypsy matter is raised to follow up, followed by a Member, Employment and Development Panel Meeting, then attend Headcorn Parish Council,
11th meet with Chair of Planning followed by a Meeting with the Chief of Housing concerning Planning matters and Gypsy and Traveller issues. This meeting was also attended by a cabinet member and 2 other officers including Director Zena Cooke.
12th I attended the Parish Surgery in the Village Hall and met many of the public both formally and informally at the Farmers Market.

14th Meeting with a Parish Councillor fully explaining the need to understand all the finer points of background in respect to Planning, so we can defend the Parish and Ward against excessive and bad building. In the evening I did a "walkabout" with the new Police Community Support Officer giving him my viewpoint about our village issues and needs.
15th I had several meetings in Maidstone House and had to deliver some paperwork for "outside bodies" in respect that I have to formally apply for such roles. I then had a OSC for Community, Leisure and Environment on which I am a committee member. A sub-committee was alluded to and guess what? I was on it! Its about Old people, loneliness, care, the concerns, how we could address it and what we can actually do.
16th Today was the Mayors Summer Garden Party, a bit of a break and in the sun, but it was still a chance informally to get on trumpeting about the rural cause. Getting sympathy and support is still a problem in a Council so strong on urban based members.
17th/18th I was concerned about a number of Gyspy & Traveller matters that I seemed to be on the phone or emailing most of the days. This extended into the weekend.

21st This was one of those days when the diary was double booked with several meetings spread out and some clashes of timings. In the end I attended meetings with Officers in Maidstone and had informal talks with several members, before meeting with the Conservative Group to discuss many issues and where the Local Plan dictated the discussions.
22nd started with a meeting with Director Zena Cooke at 10am. Here we formalised a review of all the things that make Headcorn and its area a Gypsy and Traveller centre with some problems. We examined Planning issues, enforcement, crime, community cohesion, education, perceptions, parking, fly tipping and much more, This will be on-going work.

I continued throughout the day with various informal conversations with many that ranged from the Tourism business-I really think more could be done for Headcorn in this respect-to many Planning based conversations. The evening rounded off the day with a OSC PT meeting that took us to after 10pm.
23rd Another long day that started at 10am with a sub group meeting for OSC members and Cabinet members of all parties, where we resolve issues jointly and seek solutions jointly. This was then followed by several informal meetings, after lunch, where common issues and special agendas were discussed. A number of rural Wards/Parishes are now forming a bond, regardless of political party where we all want some rethinking and better communication.
Then we had a Council meeting that took us into the evening. Invariably several informal meetings take place after that, in a pub!  I joined a group made up of several different political  persuasions, and again we debated the need for change in terms of the Local Plan.
24th I had a meeting with the County Councillor today, we had a long agenda, from fly tipping, to Policing, to Speeding/Traffic and the Local Plan. Meanwhile a by-election was taking place in Staplehurst. The Lib Dems won...just!
25th I was out on Speedwatch duty on Millbank in the morning to observe a much slower day than usual. Its usually very bad, but the schools were now on holiday. Then back to more emails!

I had intended to be in Paris this weekend, for the Tour de France finish, as I love the sport and the race, but challenges in this new role meant I cancelled it at the beginning of the week. So the weekend continued with more conversations with MBC members, Parish Councillors, the County Councillor and residents. I also went to the Aerodrome to support all the wonderful things that go on there. The Museum is developing and they do such a great job there, and I wanted one of my regular youth group members to be a volunteer for them. It would be good for them and him.

28th I am keen to promote Tourism, I am also keen to support business in Headcorn, so I visited Hi Flight at the Aerodrome. I set up some further meetings to support their development.
29th I joined the OSC pre-meeting, but this was for Economic and Commercial Development. I am a substitute member so it pays to be in tune with what they do, and I do have a motivation to be involved as I want rural business recognised for its contribution and supported better. I then attended the full meeting and contributed. I actually made some recommendations and they were supported.
30th I met with a Parish Council Chair in the morning and then attended Planning Training in the evening.
31st I arranged some Flying. Yes it was a bit of pleasure, but with a purpose, to photo all the fields, rivers, streams, houses, Gypsy sites etc throughout the ward, to get a good picture of the ward. Then I would use it to present.
I had a Parish Council Staffing Committee in the evening.

So a busy month.

I also set up meetings for following up the above. One critical meeting is to attend Parliament.

I have to keep on campaigning about the Local Plan and how it might affect Headcorn and the surrounding communities. Some of the proposals outrage me, some should be modified, some may be acceptable if amendments and conditions could be opposed (see my consultation responses). This can be discussed at Conservative groups-we are the administration! Some issues should be discussed informally. Some more forcibly. Some suggestions should be made. Some re-thinks are called for. This can be done in Maidstone with Officers or Members and Chairs. Attendance at Committees will be beneficial, though politics tends to move processes and not attitudes at such meetings, so other avenues are more preferable. Plans, new ideas, constructive strategies, major responses take more than just a committee meeting. So I will pursue all those avenues.  I will also question anything that is I believe wrong for Headcorn. That may call for immediate responses by phone or email or meeting in person.
I have to work in a multi layered way. This must also include working with the Headcorn Matters Team that is doing so much good work in respect of an emerging Neighbourhood Plan/NP. That NP must be seen as the positive and constructive acceptance of rational planning with a measured approach.

And Parliament? It pays to do your research and grasp the bigger picture, rather than just react  at ground floor level I believe! This gives ammunition and a better defence from both a "top down" and "bottom-up" stance. Parliament have a sub-committee examining the NPPF, the National Planning Policy Framework. I have submitted a response to them together with Dr Rebecca Driver about the situation Headcorn faces. What is emerging at our Village level is down to an over arching National Policy, interpreted and acted out by builders/developers and Planners, that needs some sorting out!  So Rebecca and I are off to a meeting in September. We have responded  explaining our position and the sub-committee want to see us.  You can view the background on
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/communities-and-local-government-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/national-planning-policy-framework/

Naturally I am keeping in touch with all the key players both in Headcorn and Maidstone about the Local Plan, but I will also attend the Conservative Conference at the end of September to make my views known.



The meeting of the 4th June was about this!

Now we have this!

I hope thats better!

10th June onwards into the month

I had attended my first Committee meeting, but since I wanted to get "stuck-in" and be an active Council member I attended Cabinet-the new Cabinet on the Wednesday 11th.

I then attended Licensing Committee on the 19th that included training.

On the 23rd I and many members attended the Mayors and MBCs tribute to Armed Forces Day.

OSC PT occurred again on the 24th June, IT Training on the MBC system and some other in house training took place on the 25th that was followed by Planning Training at 6.30pm to 10ish!

I also attended a number of Parish Council meetings over the month dealing with Staffing  as well as general Council matters, or representing the Parish in terms of the possible Broadband in the community, and accompanying the Community Warden to a presentation in London, where he got an Award.
(I also went to Kings College Hospital twice for check-ups).
I did one Speedwatch session.
I attended the final Boxing and social evenings for Headcorn Youth Forum-before they close for the summer holidays and some of us demonstrated Boxing at an event in Biddenden.

Plus I met with 3 members of the community with various problems to sort out that meant several phone calls, emails and in one case a meeting with a Council Officer and a another meeting with the County Councillor.

I also liaised with the Mayor on several occasions about the Ward and the 4 Parishes we serve.

Whilst the above may outline some activity it does not indicate the other work I did. I frequently went to Maidstone House to discuss various things with Officers or Members and members of the Parish Councils.

My aim and objective over June was to get acquainted with the many key areas and people and spread the message that RURAL areas are important to Maidstone and that they must be valued. I actually upset a few people on that front!  But they got the message!

It was apparent that some work was needed though.

9th June

I spent all the weekend going through old background of committees and researching the brief of those committees as I had been given several committee roles. I had also been invited to sit on several outside bodies and had to get the appropriate paperwork done.

My first Committee was Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Planning and Transport OSCPT at 6.30 9th June. Officers had set up a pre-meeting to establish what our priorities were, so many of us attended a forum to identify areas we needed to examine. The work was actually quite extensive and demanding at times. The start of the actual meeting had to be delayed. I have to say the Officers worked very hard and at times suffered some awkward moments, but we finally got the meeting underway. Details of that work will be published on the MBC website.

It was a long day and evening. Like all "first meetings" and starting a new regime we had to elect Chairs and Vice Chairs and that meant lots of processes and politics, but after that we got along happily!

OSCPT was going to be the most challenging I suspect. It was clear others meant business!

2nd June-7th June

Mondays are always-term time-when I set up and organise a Boxing Group for young people in the village. We actually get people from as far as Marden attending, but they are still welcome. So I usually attend the evening in the Scout Hut. I also try to find volunteers to help me and a professional ABA training coach. I have one very good one at present, but her time is limited.

On the 3rd I had another introduction to MBC in Maidstone House. This was a much fuller induction rather than the brief oversee of 28th May. We had a few more processes to go through and more people to meet and some more forms to fill in! Then we had a tour of people and places throughout Maidstone House, the Town Hall and the Museum. It was a long day. It was a lot to take in. I was not going to remember all the names and the places to find them, but we got a map of the buildings!

On the 4th we had a Conservative Group meeting to de-brief after the election again and go into our political strategy for the AGM of Council on the 7th.

Incidentally I have other jobs and roles. I have small pensions from former roles in teaching, local government and industry as a result of my enforced retirement (as a result of injuries sustained from a Road Traffic Collision), but I still have a need to earn a living. I also have care responsibilities for a 82 year old mother! And I continue my Youth work and Parish Council roles. But I had a working day in London on the Friday, as a member of the Care Quality Commission Inspection teams.  And the phone constantly rang whilst I was trying to engage in Care Inspection work!

The AGM of Maidstone Council finally came. June 7th was to be the inauguration of Richard Thick as Mayor -he is the other Headcorn Councillor- and the election of the Council leader.

The meeting is very much a pomp and ceremony affair for some of it. Electing the Mayor is a very civil and civic matter. All parties applauded Richards new role as we all thanked Clive English the out-going Mayor.

Later we would all dress in robes and go to Church together,  I accompanied an Independent and a Lib Dem in a line together and it was very amicable. Then I'd sing hymns with a Labour member!

And bearing in mind us "newbies" had already started getting to know each other in our inductions and we had already formed some friendly rivalries or indeed genuine common interests.

But the Leadership vote would be key. The Lib Dems insisted on a named vote so that each individual member would make their vote known for the record so the Chief Exec asked for each member by name and then each member would say who they wanted as Leader. You can not be anonymous!  The new UKIP members asked to abstain. So with some members absent and only marginally a few more Tories than Lib Dems, it all hung on Labour and the Independents to swing the vote. 2 Independents voted for the Conservatives and Annabelle Blackmore was elected as Leader.It was fairly tense though.

Then we got papers from officers giving us our committees and roles. Officers had clearly worked out all conceivable options from that vote and gave us papers accordingly after the vote.

Then we were all nice to each other!  But the Lib Dems did not like UKIP!

May 30th

Political organisations and activity can be either full-on, foul, fallow or feast or famine!  It was busy before and tonight would be interesting as a Tory.

We decided to elect Annabelle Blackmore as Leader of the Conservative Group for Maidstone Borough Council. Others were nominated, but it was fairly unanimous. It was very cordial in the end.

Now we had a Tory leader, but would we lead the Council administration?

The meeting continued as we discussed the key issues. The Local Plan was the big issue. I actually said that my political adversaries were not my problem at the polls, the Local Plan was! Most others followed that tone. 

May 28th - May 30th

After my thrills at Brands Hatch in the morning, I went to Maidstone House and then attend the first induction at the Town Hall.

There were several of us, of all political creeds, all newbies, plus some incumbents to meet, greet and induct us. Many officer were present, so we met the Chief Exec, Chief Planning Officer etc. They explained their jobs, roles etc and legal foundations and we asked questions. Incumbent members handed out some advice, non of which was political, it was just plain good sense!

Having been on a Parish Council for years I have to say that I pretty well already knew the "players" and the processes. Others present clearly did not!

So after 3 hours I had my induction, I then had to get a pass to get into the building and a car pass to park the car and follow a few simple mundane admin processes in the next few days and return with forms duly filled in. I had a vague idea about some of the people I would need to be involved with, at an officer level, if I was on certain committees, but I had no idea what I was actually going to be involved with in terms of agendas and likely committees and I did not know who my own leader would be, nor how the Council would be led. There was no Conservative Leader and no Council Leader. There was no cabinet or people assigned to committees. This would be the case until June 7th at the Council meeting where we would confirm the Mayor and vote for a leader. As a Conservative there would be various meetings and communications to resolve our own leadership in this time, as I am sure there were meetings of the other groups, to work out many "what ifs" and who would do what. It really depended on a vote for Council leadership at the Council meeting, once we resolved who the Conservative leader would be.
A few emails and telephone calls came my way on the subject of who might lead the Tories. They were not just from fellow Maidstone Council members. Many people were keen to influence me. I made it clear from my point of view: whoever does the job MUST have rural sympathies and a proven record of understanding rural communities. My vote may not count in amongst many, so I admit I lobbied others in favour of certain candidates that emerged. My other fellow Headcorn ward member shared my convictions. We both wanted our Local Plan issues taken seriously and FAIR consideration given to our lovely ward. We had rural issues we wanted taken seriously.

So the next 48 hours was made up of lots of uncertainty and working up to a Conservatives meeting on Friday 30th. It was quite busy!

28th May 2014 - the morning.

I had a good nights sleep beforehand, thank goodness, for today. I had another R&R activity to achieve. I had booked driver training at Brands Hatch, specialist training to spin, skid, drift and control.

After a driver briefing and introductions to our driver mentors we set about doing the actual driving. It was a miserable day, for a change, quite wet and somewhat chilly compared to previous days this month. A special skid pan had been set up for us. We had to take turns to have a go.

This was just the morning 8am to 2pm and I have to confess after the initial thrills and ruining the clutch I found it a bit boring after the 3rd time having mastered figure of 8s!

Maidstone Borough Council Induction

The evening of the 28th May was the new members Induction. It was basically the introduction to Chief Officers and some ways, means and processes. Having been a Parish Council Member for some years and a community and rural activist for many of those years I was aware of the names and positions and their roles they fulfill together with many of their functions and processes. It was nice to meet them directly and get to know where they work in the building. It was also good to meet my new fellow members from all parties. I had hoped to get away for another meeting, but this one lasted from 6pm to 9.30pm and the other one was only in the opposite room in the Town hall, but it started later and finished much sooner.  It was a KALC meeting, where the Kent Association of Local Councils includes Borough and Parish Councillors   discussing wide issues affecting all across the county. It is often meaningful and full in its exchanges. There are clashes that are more than politics! Its important to be there stating you case and in my case its about Rural communities getting a fair hearing when so many turn deaf ears to rural areas. We don't have the critical mass-enough numbers-to make certain things worth while so some say! I disagree, we need rural communities and all the different things and values they offer and have. Headcorn more than any other has great assets, opportunities and qualities I need to expose to others and find ways to optimise them, as well as counter the demand for the ruination of green fields in various guises. I DO appreciate the need for housing, but under MANY terms and conditions with limitations!

I started my induction as I mean to go on-promoting rural identity and its values. I fear I may have to spend a lot of time and energy on this and tackle it across many aspects and then once awareness is roused and they know me, then I can make a difference.

I need to be on or attend key Committees. I need to let the leaders know I will be more than a "nod, grunt, moan and attend" type member. But first we don't know who our leaders are! The Leader as of pre-election has resigned. As Conservatives we need to elect a leader and then at Full Council we need to do so too. The next few days will be politicking in many ways until a vote at Council on Saturday June 10th.

Many meetings loom!