| Topic: | Re:Re:Will Hounslow Council's five new pledges be kept ? | |
| Posted by: | Phil Andrews | |
| Date/Time: | 26/05/10 18:37:00 |
| I was out last night when the first meeting of the new Borough Council took place, but I did watch some highlights of it on the webcast today. I didn't watch it in its absolute entirety because even I am not that sad, but I was curious to see how both parties would cope with their reversed roles on the local authority. The first thing I would say is that in victory the Labour Group did not exhibit the arrogance and bombast that I had expected of them. Councillor Sharma in particular was very magnanimous, paying tribute to the hard work of many of the councillors who had lost their seats without naming anybody in particular. Councillor Colin Ellar, the new Mayor, chaired the meeting with the confidence and command of a man who had never been away. On the question of councillors' salaries, Councillor Sharma surprised me and doubtless many other people by announcing that backbenchers' salaries would be reduced by 5% and Special Responsibilities Allowances (SRAs) by 20%. Whilst this does not return SRAs to their pre-increase levels and whilst, in my view, the reduction in backbench allowances was unnecessary, it certainly did send out the message at a very early stage into the new council that this new administration is unlikely to be as oblivious to how it is perceived by the general public as were past Labour administrations. The promise to put 100 uniformed police officers onto the streets of each ward or even of the whole borough is going to prove extremely difficult to deliver, of course, and there have already been hints on the W4 forum that any new "officers" will in fact have a lesser status to that of PCSOs, which will in effect make them little more than a useless and ineffectual gimmick. Even at the National Minimum Wage this will still be some commitment, but it is only fair that we should wait and see what the new administration is able to deliver before being critical. Likewise with its pledge to cut Council Tax. For my part it does feel strange looking on as a spectator, but I have a genuinely open mind at this moment in time and obviously as one would imagine I certainly don't feel any great enthusiasm for the opposition right now. What happens during the next four years will, in my opinion, shape the political direction of this borough for a whole generation to come. |