Luton

Achievement five: Tackling climate change at Luton Borough Council

On the 5th May 2011 I failed in my attempt to be re-elected to Luton Borough Council after eight years serving as an elected councillor. This article is part of a series of posts where I attempt to process what those eight years have meant for myself by asking the question “what did I achieve?” in that time.

Looking back one of the things that I am clear that I have done during my time as a councillor has been to be a champion for the issue of climate change within the authority. Getting the council to take seriously its responsibilities towards playing its role in tackling climate change developed into one the things on the top of my personal agenda. I am sure there were ways I could have been a better advocate for the cause but by being the councillor that would keep going on about it I kind of made it my issue. So much so that my ward colleague would frequently talk about “Andy’s global warming” as if I was personally responsible for it all.

While it was an issue that I kept coming back to when in opposition, asking questions in council and so on, it was what I did during my time as portfolio-holder with responsibility for environmental issues between 2004 and 2007 where I made the most significant impact. This is the story of how an initiative by elected members was responsible for putting the issue of climate change on to the agenda of Luton Borough Council and as a result gave council officers the opportunity and space to make solid progress on the issue.

After the minority Liberal Democrat administration was elected in 2003 in the area of the environment our initial priorities were street services and transport. Climate change was not really on the council’s agenda both at member and officer level. However, in 2006 I with my colleague Martin Howes, the then finance portfolio-holder, decided to set out to change that.

The key decision we took was to get the Council to sign up to the Nottingham Declaration in late 2006. The Nottingham Declaration is a pledge by local authorities to systematically address the causes of climate change and to prepare their community for its impacts. It was launched in October 2000 and updated in 2005, and has been signed by over three hundred English local councils.

It is important to make clear that this was a member initiative. It was something that Martin and I chose to do and got the backing of the Liberal Democrat group for. No officer had suggested to me that we should sign up to the declaration. Nor do I remember being lobbied to do so from outside. It was something that we cooked up together.

We were also very keen that this would be more than just talk. We saw signing up to the Nottingham Declaration as a lever to put tackling climate change on the agenda. Martin was keen to get financial gains from energy efficiency and I wanted to widen the scope of the Council’s approach to environmental policy, but what we most wanted to achieve was to get the to Council to take practical actions. So much so that I can clearly remember Martin and I sitting together to rewrite the officer recommendations on the first key report to the executive in order to make them more action orientated.

We also saw it as important to establish clear officer responsibility for taking this agenda forward. In the beginning this turned out to be the Council’s Scrutiny Manager working alongside an officer working group that was established. We also, in order to ensure that this process gained momentum, asked for regular reports to the executive on progress for the first key year. I have collated and uploaded the paper trail of the various council reports if anyone is interested in looking at the detail.

Our approach to taking forward the Council’s work on climate change was threefold:

First we wanted to identify some quick wins. We wanted to identify things of benefit that could be achieved within a short time frame.
Second we wanted the work to be cost neutral. We looked for actions that would fund themselves from savings or that would bring in external funding.
Third, we did want some engagement with the public on the issue of climate change, but we thought this would only be credible if the council was practising what it preached. So we saw the priority at the start being about “putting our own house in order”.

So what did we achieve with this initiative?

The key impact that we had acting as elected members was to provide a space and structure for officers to make progress. The work that followed the signing of the declaration highlighted existing good practice and allowed officers to make connections with other strategies and activities across the council. It also put in place new mechanisms that allowed the officers to develop new initiatives.

So our key achievement was to embed the climate change agenda into the work of the council. This work has continued through the change of administration in 2007 and continues today.

On two occasions last year I was asked to be a guest speaker and facilitator at the Climate Change Leadership Academy organised by Local Government Improvement and Development and run by the excellent Steve Waller. These two day courses for elected members were designed to show how local councils can take action to prevent and mitigate climate change and empower councillors to lead that work within their authorities. I was asked to bring insights from my experience from Luton to share with the other participants.

I chose to talk about how we had used the Nottingham Declaration as a lever to get the issue on the council’s agenda and this blog post is based on the first part of the presentation that I gave at these training days. I have made the slides available online for anyone who is interested in looking at the whole thing.

Going back through my notes I’ve realised that there is a lot more I could say about climate change at LBC and the role of local government in tackling the issues more generally. I certainly want to talk a bit more about what practical actions signing up to the declaration led to. It appears that I have the material for another few blog posts!

15th June 2011 10:00 1 Luton, Politics

Achievement four: The Luton Summer Festival

I remember the occasion well. The architects that Luton Borough Council had employed to come up with the design for the new St George’s Square were giving a presentation to executive members, me amongst them, and other councillors about what they wanted the new Square to look like. The architects firm, Gillespies (despite having one of those awful impractical websites that architect practices seem to favour), had done a very good job. The designs they presented that day didn’t look all that much different to what we ended up with and the Square has gone on to win several awards.

So as we watched the presentation I think most of us were rather impressed. But there was one sequence in their presentation that struck me more than the other bits and gave me an idea. This was a real ‘light-bulb’ moment.

They showed a couple of slides that outlined how the Square could accommodate a stage and theatre style seating in a number of different configurations. Viewing these I suddenly realised that in the redeveloping the Square we would be doing more than reviving a tired and underused space in the town centre, we would also be creating an outdoor space that could be used for a number of different activities. An unexpected bonus of the new development was that we would be giving the Town a new venue.

I came away from that meeting excited by the possibilities. While the redevelopment of the Square was a really good project in itself I was now aware of the opportunity to give it some added value. The question was then how could we make use of this new venue.

In the following months, as the new Square was being built, I set out to do two things. The first was to ensure that early discussions were held with the relevant council officers about what we could do with the Square. The second was during the budget process to secure a modest pot of money that could be used to part fund whatever it was we were going to do. I achieved this and this meant that when the new Square was opened a whole programme of activities were planned for the first year.

I knew that to some extent this would be an experiment. This was a new facility. It would take some time to work out how to use it. You would need to discover the practical implications of making the space work. For instance what equipment would be needed and how the space could best be managed. It would also be necessary to work out what kind activities worked in that space and what did not. But I felt it was important that the Council should be brave enough to allow this experiment to take place so that we could learn how to make best use of this new asset.

The hard work of conducting this experiment was mostly done by the staff of the arts service, the team headed up by Andy Grays, which at that point was still part of the Council. But I don’t think without me giving the political space in which to explore how to use the Square the Council would have done as much as it did. So I feel that insisting that the Council take a lead in developing this programme of activities is an achievement.

Two things came out of this that I was particularly pleased about. The first was that for several weeks during the winter of 2007 there was an ice rink in the Square. I thought this worked really well and I don’t quite understand why it hasn’t been brought back.

The second was the first Luton Summer festival. This series of concerts and performances held during the summer of 07 wasn’t quite what I personally envisioned. The choice of acts wasn’t quite right, the layout of the Square felt over engineered with too many barriers and such, and it was discovered that selling tickets didn’t really work. But that was the whole point of the experiment – too learn how to make the venue work. But what it did do was prove that the new St George’s Square could be used as a venue to provide entertainment to the people of the Town.

And the the Summer Festival has continued. Sometimes it has been unlucky with the weather, but for four years it has brought a wide range of music and children’s activities to the Square. It has showcased local talent, brought life and vibrancy to the town centre, and given people a good time. So in all, I think, worthwhile.

14th June 2011 10:00 0 Luton, Politics

What’s next? Part Three

Since missing out by 14 votes on being re-elected to Luton Borough Council on May 5th I’ve been taking my time to adjust to the election result and to work out what comes after and I’ve been using posts on this blog as part of my process of working things out.

I’ve posted a number of articles looking at the things that I believe I can claim to have achieved over those eight years (achievements one, two and three) with a couple more to come. I’ve yet to write about the more general conclusions about the political world I have come to having reached this point but I think I have a better idea of what they are. But I am ready to start looking to the future. So, following part one and part two, this is the third and final post in my ‘What’s Next’ series.

So what will I do now?

Well I know myself well enough to know that politics is in my blood. It is part of who I am and I will always be involved in it in one capacity or another. I also know that there is more than one way to do politics. Local government and standing for public office is one way to influence things and fight for what you believe in. But there are others.

I know that I do have something to say and that something is now backed up with the knowledge and experience I have gained from eight years of holding public office. I now also realise that I have a greater freedom to speak out. It is not in my nature to set out to be deliberately disloyal to my party, but I am aware that the restrictions, self-imposed and otherwise, that were inevitably placed on me by the fact of being an elected representative and owing a loyalty to my council group no longer apply.

I also think it unlikely that I will stand again for election to be a councillor for a good while. A number of people have said to me that “you’ll be back”. That may be true, but it won’t be for at least a decade or more. It is time for other things.

So I think the priority for my political activity may now be to concentrate on thinking, writing and debating ideas and proposals. I am struck that while we are now in government at the same time in many ways the Liberal Democrat ideas cupboard is rather bare. So this may be a good moment to give greater reign to my inner policy wonk. Although I am not entirely sure how to go about this. Any suggestions gratefully received.

As for working for Luton I remain on the Board of Trustees of Luton Culture, something I am deeply passionate about, and there are more than enough challenges there to get my teeth into. I am becoming more and more interested in the politics and management or arts and culture. It plays a vital, if often underestimated, role in people’s lives and communities. Not least in a place like Luton. It is also a sector facing tremendous challenges given the economic climate. So it would be interesting to explore and develop my knowledge and understanding of this field.

Yet I have recognised that, not least for a number of reasons of practicality, my priority is going to have to be work and career. Politics will have to take something of a back seat while I concentrate on finding the right kind of work and trying to increase my level of income. So I am now actively looking for new work and opportunities. So again, if anyone has any suggestions to where I can make good use of my talents do let me know.

So in the words of The West Wing’s President Jed Bartlett; “What’s next?”

13th June 2011 23:00 0 General, Luton, Politics

Achievement three: A little bit of pavement in St George’s Square

The first two achievements I have talked about in these posts have been a little insubstantial. They have been about decision making, meetings, and processes. This one however is actually something that I can go and point at and say “I did that”.

One of the major achievements of the Liberal Democrat minority administration of four years ago was the refurbishment of St George’s Square. I was part of the discussions that led to this and I am tremendously proud of what we did, but I certainly wouldn’t try to claim personal credit for the new Square. However, I can claim credit for a little bit of it.

Luton residents might remember that before the Square was redone the area at the beginning of New Bedford Road outside of what is now Di Niros Italian Restaurant contained a curiously shaped little lay-by. I never really understood what this was for. Presumably it was used for deliveries, but it never seemed to make much practical sense to me.

The designs for the new St George’s Square didn’t include this piece of land, it was not seen as being part of the Square, but it was included in the plans for the cycle paths that were timed to be built alongside it. The original plans for the cycle paths made no changes to the lay-by. I thought this was rather stupid.

The whole idea of the redevelopment was to improve the environment of St George’s Square and to make it work better for residents, shoppers and the business in and around it. I thought that this should also include making changes where we could tidying up around the edges. One of the things we wanted to achieve was more spaces outside pubs, bars and restaurants for tables and chairs. Filling in that lay-by and turning it into pavement would help to achieve both of these. So I insisted to the transport officers that their plans were changed to remove the lay-by.

It may seem a little odd to claim credit for such a little bit of pavement. But this is a very clear example of something that, if I hadn’t of spoken out, would not have happened.

12th June 2011 14:26 0 Luton, Politics

Achievement two: An intervention in the merger of Downside Infant and Junior Schools

The second achievement I thought I would talk about is one I am somewhat cautious about discussing. I have been a school governor at Downside Junior School in Luton more or less since I became a councillor.

The school is in my old ward of Challney and I thought that being a school governor would be a good way of understanding and involving myself in the life of my ward. In some ways it has been one of the richest experiences I have had. I’ve learnt things about education that I otherwise would not have known. I’ve been involved in an organisation which at the very basic level is shaping the community and improving peoples lives. It has been a pleasure to have been a part of a friendly and forward thinking school, and I have developed tremendous respect for the head teacher Mrs Thompson.

However, I have often felt that I have got more out of being a school governor than they have got out of me. I don’t think I have been a particularly good one. I haven’t been able to give the time that is needed to do the role properly and I have often missed meetings because they have clashed with other things. So I am cautious about claiming credit for something in an area where I feel that in general I have been of limited use.

The Junior School is just about to complete a merger with Downside Infants School to create a new, and very large, primary school. The work on extending and refurbishing the school buildings is almost done. A headteacher for the new school has been appointed and a few weeks ago I was helping with the interviews for the appointment of a deputy head. An awful lot of work has been done to make the process of merger, which seems to be happening relatively smoothly, happen. The credit for that should go to the staff, the headteachers of the two schools, and the governors who sat on the joint working group.

I haven’t been that much involved in the merger except for one significant moment right at the start. It is that moment that I think was an achievement of mine and I want to talk about it because it is a good example of how an elected local politician can make a real difference through a timely intervention.

Being both a councillor and on the school’s governing body I have been able to be a bit of a bridge between the school and the local education authority. I did make sure that I had occasional meetings to discuss the school with officers from the LEA. It was during some of those meetings that it became obvious to me that the long term future for the school would involve a merger and the creation of a new primary school. This was the preferred direction of the LEA and the logic of the circumstances seemed to strongly point to it.

The conclusion I came to was that given this was the direction we were heading in we ought to grasp it and do it right. There was a need to be proactive about it rather than just waiting for it to occur. Another consideration was that I new that both the headteachers of the two schools were schedule to retire and it made sense to coordinate the creation of a new school with that.

So the action that I took was to organise a meeting between both sets of school governors and officers from the LEA to discuss the possibility of merger. The meeting went well with lots of agreement and so the idea of carrying out the merger became fixed as an objective for the two schools.

Organising a meeting may not seem like much of an achievement in itself but by acting as a facilitator I think I helped to force the issue a little. Getting these discussions to happen earlier than they might have done has meant that the timing of the merger was better and that the schools themselves were more in control events.

I repeat that I was acting at the very start of the process and the heavy lifting of carrying out the merger has been done by others. But looking back I do think that my intervention was useful in making sure that this important change was got right.

There is a lot of talk within local government about “community leadership” often without any real understanding of what that is. The lesson I have learnt from this is that a key component of community leadership is about fulfilling the role of a facilitator. It involves being aware of what issues and decisions are coming down the track, understanding who are the right people needed to tackle them, and knowing when to bring them together. It is an achievement in itself to provide the right context for others to achieve.

10th June 2011 10:02 1 Luton, Politics

Prevent 2.0 means money for Luton – but who is winning the argument within Government about the meaning of integration?

Yesterday the Home Secretary Theresa May announced the conclusions of the review of the Government’s counter-radicalisation strategy designed to tackle home grown terrorism and violent extremism, known as Prevent, by the independent reviewer of anti-terrorist laws Lord Carlile of Berriew.

Prevent was set up in 2007 and proved to be controversial. Both from many members of Britain’s Muslim community who felt it unfairly targeted them and from others who saw the policy as being confused and badly managed. The coalition government has accepted much of this criticism blaming the previous Labour government for mishandling the policy, and much of yesterday’s announcement reflected that. It seemed to me that the Home Secretary was arguing that future policy in this area would be based on a new and improved Prevent strategy. A sort of Prevent version 2.0 with better management and the bad bits cut out.

The news of relevance for Luton is that it has been identified as one of the 25 priority areas to which funding will be targeted. This means that the Government will provide funding for projects within the town that form part of the Prevent strategy.

There is no doubt that there were problems with Prevent as it had developed so a new approach is needed and there is a lot here to be welcomed.

For example, for a policy that, by some and seemed to be about targeting Muslims, it was very welcome that the Home Secretary made clear that Prevent “should address all forms of terrorism including the extreme right wing”. This opens up the possibility that some of the activities of groups like the English Defence League could come into its remit. Which is a good thing. However, she did make clear that our greatest threat remains that provided by Al Qa’ida and allied groups and that this is were the focus of its work will have to continue to be.

The objectives of the Prevent strategy, which strike me as being about right, will be measures to:

Deal with the ideological challenge
Intervene to stop individuals being radicalised and involved in terrorism
Work with institutions and organisations to prevent radicalisation from within

However, the Home Secretary felt it necessary to name check both the speeches on this issue that were made by David Cameron in Munich and Nick Clegg here in Luton. Yet these two speeches held out deeply contrasting visions and this is where things get tricky.

She criticised the previous Labour government for confusing policies on community integration and policies on tackling terrorism. Both were needed to deal with the issues of radicalisation and extremism, both non-violent and violent extremism, but they needed to be run in parallel and not be confused. Prevent would solely be about tackling terrorism and violent extremism. What the government would do would be to bring in a new additional emphasis on policies towards integration.

I agree with the need not to confuse the measures to tackle terrorism and violent extremism with the wider agenda of community cohesion. This was something that I criticised Cameron for doing in his speech and praised Clegg for getting right in his! So it is good that the government is being clearer about the difference. However, by talking about integration in the way she did the Home Secretary was framing the debate within the terms of the Tory political rhetoric of “multiculturalism has failed”. We are back to that dreadful phrase “muscular liberalism” again and trying to work out what it means.

I have written before about how the debate over multiculturalism has in recent years become something of a dialogue of the deaf because critics and defenders of multiculturalism are mostly talking about starkly different ideas. The Home Secretary seems to be trying to navigate between the Tory rhetoric and workable policies that exist within the mainstream of current thinking about community cohesion. In an editorial today the Guardian describes this as a fudge. It says;

“For the last election, the Conservatives built a detailed counter-terror agenda around the idea – made explicit for the first time by David Cameron in his Munich speech in February – that multiculturalism had failed. Instead of mutual respect for difference, integration should be at the forefront of the strategy…….After the election Lib Dem negotiators, reassured by a common resistance to Labour’s control orders and detention without trial, signed up to most of the Tory programme. But then came Mr Cameron’s Munich speech and the differences were launched into the public space. Nick Clegg went to Luton to argue for engagement rather than exclusion. The result of the trimming that followed is a convenient fudge over the precise definition of extremism that will leave some flexibility of implementation for Lib Dem ministers….”

I think I am more optimistic that on the ground those actually working in this field will be more able to work positively within this “fudged” framework. But the talk of fudge and negotiation does highlight in this area the difference the Liberal Democrats are making in government. What would the policy look like if the Conservatives were governing alone? What kind of mess would we be in then? What more do Lib Dems need to do to make sure that we can get this to work?

You can see the Home Secretary’s announcement below:

8th June 2011 18:53 1 Luton, Politics

Achievement one: Reforms to the Council’s decision making process

The main way in which politicians act and attempt to achieve things is through their role within the decision making process of whatever body to which they have been elected. After all the primary reason why we elect people is for them to make decision on our behalf. So it has always surprised me how few politicians are interested in, or even take the time to fully understand, the workings of the decision making process that they are involved in.

Constitutions, procedures, committee remits, agenda planning, and standing orders may not be the sexiest elements of politics but they are key tools within the politicians’ workshop. You use a screwdriver and not a hammer to fix things together with screws. You use a saw and not a blow torch to cut wood. So why is it that the political craftsman is so careless about which tool he or she picks up?

In my first few years of being a councillor one of the most frequent questions I found myself asking was “why are we doing it that way?”. Almost invariably the answer would come back “because we’ve always done it that way”. No one had appeared to have done any thinking about the process by which decisions were made for a very long time. This was despite a very significant change in the framework in which local government operated having occurred only a few years previously.

Up until 2000 local government had operated under what was known as the committee system. Councils were made up of committees of councillors the membership of which was in proportion to the numbers of councillors elected from each political party. These committees would cover different areas of responsibility and the councillors on them would make the decisions for those areas. So you would have committees with titles like the education committee, and the social services committee, and the wonderfully named general purposes committee that would hoover up anything that was not dealt with elsewhere.

Obviously where you had a council where one party had a majority that party would have a majority of councillors on every committee. So it would be councillors from that party who would in reality make most of the decisions. In Luton this meant that for many years the real decision making body was the group meetings of the Labour Council group where decisions would be stitched up before the committees met. Still the committee system meant that at least at some level all councillors were involved to some extent in decision making.

In the Local Government Act 2000 the Labour government required councils to work in a different way. They abolished the old committee system and replaced it with the executive and scrutiny system. Under this new system a few of the old committees were retained for things such as planning and licensing but most of them were got rid of. Instead most decisions would be made by an executive or cabinet of councillors. This did not have to reflect the balance of the parties on the council, instead it was made up of councillors from only the party (or where there was coalitions, the parties) that made up the administration. Each of the councillors who sat on the executive was expected to have a portfolio, an area of policy they were responsible for, and in some cases they could make decisions about these areas on their own.

The remaining councillors, including all of those who made up the opposition plus the councillors from the ruling group who were not on the executive, would be involved in what was called the overview and scrutiny process. Their job was to question and hold to account the decisions of the executive and to investigate areas of policy and concern. They couldn’t make any decisions themselves but they could make recommendations to the executive. They could also “call in” executive decisions, essentially a request for the executive to think again.

Opinion is divided about whether this change was a good thing. The merits and the failings of both systems can be argued about. I don’t want to get into that here. My point is that this was a major change in the way councils and councillors were to go about making decisions. Moving to the new system required major changes to the procedures and processes of how councils worked at both the member and officer levels.

Only, in the case of Luton at least, it didn’t.

When the Liberal Democrats formed a minority administration on Luton Borough Council in 2003 we found ourselves heavily dependent on making the executive system work. Because we were a minority and so didn’t have a majority on the committees and the council that we could use to force through our decisions when necessary we became very reliant on the powers of leadership and decision making inherent in the executive system. We also had a number of strong individuals who, although inexperienced, were keen to grasp the new opportunity they had and make an impact through the role they had as portfolio-holders. But it soon became apparent that this new assertive executive had come as something of a shock to both the council officers and the Labour opposition group.

One story I heard that I believe to be true is that soon after the election the Labour group asked for a briefing from the officers on how the council actually worked. What they wanted to ask was “could the Lib Dems really do that?”. Only to be told that “yes, that is how the executive system works”.

There were also a number of examples where council officers struggled to deal with the demands of the more hands-on Liberal Democrat portfolio-holders. I think there were a number of misunderstandings and frustrations on both sides. I personally experienced a number of clashes that I think were down to different expectations of what my role as a portfolio-holder actually involved.

After a while I realised that what was behind this friction was the fact that the council had never truly adapted to the change from the committee system to the executive and scrutiny system. Yes, some bodies had changed their names, some councillors had got new titles, and reports got labelled differently but by and large the council had operated more or less as it had always done. Crucially the real decision making body had remained the group meetings of the Labour group. It was only when the Lib Dems came in and wanted to make the executive work the way it was supposed to did the cracks start to show.

I am not sure how fully my colleagues shared this analysis of the problem, but many of them shared my frustration with the difficulties we were experiencing in getting the council to work in the way we wanted it to. So I took it upon myself to work out how we could reform the decision making process of the council.

Sometime during 2005, with the help of Ros our then group support officer, I spent some time doing research into the structures and arrangements that other councils had put in place and went back and looked at the relevant legislation to understand what the requirements were. I then developed some proposals that adapted some of the models from elsewhere to what I thought would work for Luton. Finally, I put together a presentation to take to the Liberal Democrat group.

I still have that presentation and I have uploaded a version of it here if anyone is interested to see what I came up with.

The key objective I had was to improve the coordination and communication between the ruling Liberal Democrat council group and the formal bodies of the council. I wanted to replace a rather confused and ad-hoc set of arrangements with something a little more formal and structured. The main way I wanted to do this was to create two new bodies. The first of these was a “group board” designed to strengthen the leadership of the council group and to help establish a more clearly communicated Liberal Democrat political agenda. The second was a “joint board”. This was a regular meeting of the executive and the most senior council officers. It was designed to improve communication between the councillors forming the administration and the senior managers and to ensure that both sides understood what the other wanted to achieve.

Although I got agreement to go ahead with these proposals from my group I don’t think I ever got full buy-in into the ideas from them. So my scheme was never fully implemented in the way I wanted it to be. I got elements in place but regrettably the full package of my reforms was not followed through. Sadly Liberal Democrat politicians are not immune from the failing to be interested in, or to fully understand, the decision making process that they are involved in. Still, some progress was made and I do believe that a real achievement that I can claim credit for was the establishment of, for Luton, the innovative idea of the Joint Board.

Just think about that for a moment. Until I suggested it those elected members that formed the council’s political leadership never had a regular scheduled meeting with the senior management team. There was not a forum where they sat down together and discussed the critical issues of the moment. I hope I am not alone in finding that extraordinary.

So I am confident that the introduction of the joint board has helped to improve the quality of the decision making in the Council. Probably not as much as it should, or could, have done but enough to make it worthwhile.

The joint board still exists and meets today. It is now a fixed part of the council’s meetings calendar. I don’t suppose that any of the people who are members of it know, or care, that it was I who introduced it. Indeed I strongly suspect that, in the unlikely event that any of them asked “why are we doing it this way?”, the answer would come back “because we’ve always done it this way”.

7th June 2011 09:43 0 Luton, Politics

What’s next? Part One

Since missing out by 14 votes on being re-elected to Luton Borough Council on May 5th lots of people have been very kind in expressing their own disappointment at my loss and asking after my welfare. I am hugely grateful for the support people have shown.

One of the commonest things I have been asked is “are you all right?”. Sometimes this enquiry has been accompanied by an expression on their face that suggests they are either expecting me shout out in anger and rage at the unfairness of it all or breakdown and start sobbing on their shoulder. My actual response has been to smile and say “yes, I’m fine”.

And, to a very large degree, I am. I always knew it was going to be a tough election and the possibility of defeat was always with me so I was able to prepare myself for the eventuality. I do have a life and interest outside politics and I had already had initial thoughts about how my life would change if I were not a councillor. Also I was determined to “be a man” in the sense of the old Kipling poem and attempt to greet whichever turned up out of triumph or disaster in roughly the same manner. This determination may have approached enforced cheerfulness at times, particularly as the full horror of the launch of my career as the poster boy for Lib Dem misery became clear to me, still I am in the main pretty OK about things.

However, I do now realise that it is going to take me longer to truly adjust to not being a local councillor than I had initially expected. I still find myself worrying about issues and concerns that I no longer have any influence over. In truth I had limited influence over some of these things when I was a councillor, but I suppose I had more of a legitimate reason to worry about them. I do have this niggling sense of loss that I no longer have a voice in the counsels of the elders of my tribe. Or something like that anyway.

Now I am not someone who often rushes to judgement. I have a tendency to need time to process things. To stop, think and reflect before moving forward. Sometimes this is a weakness, I know that it often is frustrating, but mostly I believe it to be a real strength. So I am choosing to take my time to adjust to the election result and to work out what comes after. I thought I would use making posts on this blog as part of my working things out. Given that it is now roughly a month on it is about time I started to write some of these thoughts down.

I have been thinking a lot not only about May’s election result here in Luton, but what has happened nationally in politics over the last few years, and about the highs and lows of my eight years as a Luton Borough Councillor. There are two themes that have come out.

The first is to try and work out what those eight years actually mean. In some ways I feel the need to justify my time as an elected member both to myself and to the wider world. So I want to try and catalogue and write about what I think I actually achieved as a councillor. And possibly more usefully where I went wrong.

The second is less specific but I hope more widely applicable. It is an attempt to try and learn the lessons from my involvement politics and the things that have happened to and around me. A kind of discussion of, having reached this point, how I see the political world and what conclusions I have come to.

Having thought through all that I will then be ready I hope to establish, if not plans, some clear ideas for my new direction.

While I am mainly doing this for my benefit, I hope readers of ‘Strange Thoughts’ won’t be too bored and that they may even find something of interest in these posts.

5th June 2011 15:37 0 General, Luton, Politics

Why didn’t Luton on Sunday cover the Police Authority row?

I was going to write about the Police Authority row anyway but I was more keen to do so when I realised that one of our local papers, the Luton on Sunday, hadn’t covered it.

Now they may not think it a particularly exciting or interesting story. A bunch of councillors arguing about who sits on what isn’t full of sexy scandal or heart warming human interest I admit. So I wasn’t expecting the front page or even much of a substantial piece – but for them not to cover it at all is surprising. We are talking about an important public body of relevance to all Luton citizens after all.

It’s particularly surprising considering that they did have space for this crucial story about the Chief Constable’s Facebook page!

I may be being unfair in that they didn’t have time to get the story done before their deadline so maybe they will have space this Sunday. I did notice that the Herald and Post did run a story about it this week, which I have reproduced below.

It contains comments from a Labour “spokesperson” which suggests that, following their success at the local elections, the level of arrogance of Luton Labour may be growing to hitherto unknown proportions. Worryingly, this suggests that they may not see sense and change the nominations from Luton to the police authority at the next council meeting.

27th May 2011 15:30 2 Luton, Politics

Labour cock up leaves Luton without representation on Bedfordshire Police Authority

As I hinted in an earlier post, there is currently a big row going on about who should represent Luton on the Bedfordshire Police Authority. It seems that arrogance by the Luton Labour party has screwed up the appointment process and left Luton without any members.

The police authority is the body that oversees policing in Bedfordshire, sets the police budget, and appoints senior officers. It is made up of independent members and councillors appointed from the three Bedfordshire local authorities. Following this month’s local elections a new set of councillors needed to be appointed and their membership was to be confirmed at the first meeting of the new police authority last Friday morning.

However, at that meeting the appointment of the three councillors from Luton chosen by Luton Borough Council were rejected. This means that as things stand Luton has no representation on the police authority.

What I understand has happened is as follows.

It is a legal requirement that the councillors who sit on the police authority should reflect the party political balance across Bedfordshire. The number of councillors on the police authority should be in proportion to the number of councillors elected from each political party. Note that this is not reflecting the balance within their own councils but reflecting the balance across the whole of the county.

Following the elections the expectation of the police authority and other officials was that Bedford Council would choose as their representatives a Labour and a Liberal Democrat member, Central Bedfordshire would choose four Conservative councillors, and Luton was expected to send two Labour members and one Liberal Democrat. This would have achieved the right balance. Also, I understand the the Chair of the police authority had written to all three councils asking for as much continuity in appointments as possible given that this is likely to be the last year of the authority in its current form before the Government changes the system.

However, at the meeting of Luton Borough Council earlier in the week things didn’t go to plan. I am told that the Liberal Democrat group put forward for their one expected place Cllr Martin Pantling. Martin has been on the police authority for six years as was, until the election, the Chair of the Performance and Planning Committee. However, presumably believing that they could grab all the places available, the Labour party put forward three councillors. These were Cllr Malik, Cllr Riaz and one of the new councillors Cllr Whitaker. A vote was duly held and by using their majority the three Labour councillors were chosen to go forward to the police authority meeting.

I don’t know whether that decision is because the new membership of the Labour group are particularly keen on policing issues, I have to say that has not been my experience in the past, or it is to do with the fact that members of the police authority receive a healthy allowance of £9,000 a year. Whatever is the reason, it was a very arrogant and short-sighted decision to take.

It was also a completely incompetent one. When the police authority met, Bedford and Central Beds having chosen appointees of the party stripe expected, it had to deal with the fact that to accept the Labour nominations would have meant that the authority had the wrong political balance. So the choice of Labour members from Luton was rejected.

I suppose it would have been possible for them to accept the Luton nominations but then they would have had to ask Bedford to change their mind about the Labour councillor they had chosen and come up with a second Liberal Democrat. I wonder what the Bedford Labour group think of their Luton brothers and sisters attempting to nick their place?

So this cock up by Luton Labour means that the police authority starts its new term without any councillor representation from Luton. Decisions will be made over the next weeks and months without anybody there to be a voice for Luton’s interests. Obviously, this is not sustainable. I guess that they will have to go back and revisit this at the next council meeting and appoint the people they should have appointed in the first place.

I’d like to hope that Labour at the Town Hall would learn from this farce – but I am not holding my breath.

24th May 2011 08:15 4 Luton, Politics

Luton’s Annual Council gives us a new Exec – same as the old Exec

Luton Borough Council held its Annual Council meeting on Tuesday of this week and it is an indication of how quickly you can adjust to things that I had completely forgotten that it was happening.

The Annual Council is the meeting that appoints councillors to the various committees and positions for the coming year. Now that I don’t have to go along to these things I can just catch up on the details when the reports appear on the Council’s website. But for anyone who’s interested but not keen to go to that much effort here are the key results.

The new Mayor of Luton is Cllr Don Worlding and the Deputy Mayor is Cllr Mohammad Ayub.

The Leader of the Council continues to be Cllr Hazel Simmons.

Cllr Robin Harris also continues as Deputy Leader and finance portfolio-holder.

The Council has appointed 8 further members of the Executive making a total of 10 executive positions. I’ve thought for a long time that the Executive in Luton has too large a membership, with the portfolios often being very badly defined, but Labour like to spread the work, and the allowances, around. These Executive members are:

Cllr Roy Davis – Regeneration
Cllr Dave Taylor – Environment
Cllr Tahir Khan – Children’s Services
Cllr Mohammed Ashraf – Public Health
Cllr Tom Shaw – Housing
Cllr Shelia Roden – Adult Social Care
Cllr Joan Bailey – Social Justice
Cllr Tafheen Sharif – Community Safety

This Executive looks very much like the outgoing Executive. The only newly elected councillor on it is Tafheen Sharif and most of the members have the same or similar responsibilities to what they had last year. So if anyone was expecting the election to bring a change in the approach to how the council is run they will be sorely disappointed.

Needless to say, all the above are Labour councillors.

Outside the Executive the other significant appointment is that of Liberal Democrat councillor Doris Hinkley to be the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board. I won’t go into the whole painful saga here, but after the Council’s scrutiny process was rescued from complete collapse a couple of years ago by establishing new arrangements it was agreed that the body that oversees the scrutiny of policies and decisions should be chaired by an opposition councillor. This is in line with best practice. Given the Labour Group’s tendency to arrogance and high handedness there was a worry that their increased dominance in the council would lead them to abandon that agreement and appoint one of their own. They have form on this in the past. So it is positive and welcome news that this has not happened and I know that Doris will do an excellent job.

However, I am aware that there is a big row going on about appointments to the police authority which I will say more about in another post.

Within the Liberal Democrat group I have been informed that Cllr David Franks will continue as Leader of the Liberal Democrats on the Council, and so is leader of the opposition, and the Deputy Leader for the year will be Cllr Martin Pantling.

On a personal note, the Liberal Democrat group have kindly, and on their insistence and not mine, chosen to continue with me as their appointee on the board of Luton Culture. Apparently you don’t have to be a councillor to have the role. This is something which I am immensely grateful to them for as I have found it such a fulfilling organisation to be involved with.

20th May 2011 18:14 1 Luton, Politics

Olympic torch to come to Luton

It was announced yesterday that the Olympic torch will visit Luton on the evening of Sunday 8 July 2012. This will be the focal point of a weekend of celebrations including Luton Carnival which will be moved from its usual date to the 7 July.

More details are on the Council’s website

19th May 2011 11:55 2 Luton

Luton local election results

I’m finally getting round to writing up the local election results in Luton.

This is my result in the Barnfield ward:

Martin Pantling, Liberal Democrat: 904
Rachel Hopkins, Labour: 822
Andrew Strange, Liberal Democrats: 808
Graham Costello, Conservative: 691
Bryan Davey, Labour: 679
Saeed Akhtar, Conservative: 657
Simon Hall, Green: 171

As you can see my colleague, Martin Pantling, topped the poll with myself narrowly losing out to Labour candidate Rachel Hopkins. I lost by only 14 votes!

Given the bad night that the Liberal Democrats had across the country it wasn’t a great surprise that I lost. What was a little surprising was that it was to Labour in a ward that until eight years ago was Conservative held. Yet, I wasn’t greatly surprised that the Labour candidate I lost to was Rachel. She is the daughter of Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins and it is likely that the name recognition helped.

You can find the results for the other Luton wards here.

The new council make up is:

Labour 36
Liberal Democrat 8
Conservative 4

While there is no disguising the fact that we had a bad night,what is encouraging is that we continue to have Councillors in wards outside of our “eastern heartlands” and had a relatively strong showing in a number of others. It was bad but it was not the “wipe out” that some in Labour were predicting.

16th May 2011 13:06 2 Luton, Politics

How I became a poster boy for Lib Dem misery

Just over a week ago I failed to be re-elected to Luton Borough Council.

Since then I’ve handed in my Town Hall pass, done a substantial amount of tidying and throwing things away, got drunk, caught up on my sleep, and had time to reflect on my new situation. I now am ready to write up the experience, starting with how it felt like I had become a poster boy for “Lib Dem misery”.

In common with activists and candidates across the country the election result was, shall we say, a difficult one for the Liberal Democrats in Luton and me personally. This was not made any easier by my regular appearances on national television.

Unbeknownst to me, during the election count in the hall of the Regional Sports Centre, a BBC camera crew took it upon themselves to film shots of candidates watching the counting operation. Someone then made the decision to use some of the footage from Luton to illustrate the story of Liberal Democrat misery across the country. The first I knew about it was when I started getting messages from people via Twitter saying they had seen me on the telly. This continued for most of Friday and into the weekend.

When I finally got to see what they were talking about I realised that I had been filmed at the point when I’d gone to the stage at one end of the hall to have a sit down and catch up on what was happening elsewhere. The irony was that at that point in the morning, we didn’t leave the count until gone six o’clock on Friday, I was not particularly gloomy. I knew we were having a bad night but, given the circumstances, my spirits were reasonably high.

Yes Nick Robinson “in Luton heads were down” – but that was because I was looking at my phone.

However, losing an election is never a pleasant thing and I’d have preferred not to have the fact advertised across the BBC. Why weren’t they ever there in the past to film me when I actually won something?

If you must, you can see a report in which they use this footage of me here. You might also spot a few other Luton Liberal Democrats as well.

That was bad enough, but then on Wednesday as I was watching the 10 O’clock News’ coverage of the first anniversary of the formation of the coalition government, there I was again. I now have a real fear that from now on when anyone at the BBC wants some stock footage of a Lib Dem looking miserable it will be that picture of me looking at my phone.

Frankly, if I had known that was going to happen I’d have worn some smarter shoes!

13th May 2011 13:52 16 Luton, Politics

The AV referendum result for Luton

Blogging has been rather light around here over the last few weeks for the obvious reason that campaigning for the local elections has taken up large chunks of my time. The result on Thursday was a tough one for the Liberal Democrats both nationally, here in Luton and for me personally. More on that later.

But also disappointing was the outcome of the referendum vote on changing the electoral system for Westminster. Sadly, Luton went along with the national trend and voted ‘no’. The full result in Luton was:

Yes: 16,002 (31.4%)
No: 34,980 (68.6%)

More detail can be found here.

9th May 2011 09:33 0 Luton, Politics