Friday 11th October 2024,
North Yorks Enquirer

“A Scintilla of Hope”

December 28, 2016 Letters

A petition launched by a Scarborough resident calling for a VOTE of NO CONFIDENCE in the present Conservative Council Cabinet’s ability to manage and maintain services whilst ensuring constitutional and legal processes and procedures are observed and upheld, for and on behalf of the people of the Borough of Scarborough has clocked up over 700 signatures, including those of a number of Borough Councillors – representing all parties bar the Conservatives. As one might expect.

Please consider signing the petition and sharing it by email or on social media:

http://tinyurl.com/j3r6u3f

~~~~~

Governance

On 18th November 2016, at the request of a group of Scarborough Borough Councillors, the Enquirer published an Open Letter to the Leader of SBC, Councillor Derek BASTIMAN [Con.], and his seven fellow Cabinet Portfolio Holders, requesting that they complete a simple Self-Assessment Template rating their own performances in relation to key elements of their respective remits.

No responses have been received.

The Councillors have now requested that the Enquirer re-publishes an article from the Local Government Lawyer (LGL) web-site, reporting on a successful bid by a cross-party group of Worcester City Councillors to abolish the Strong Leader/Cabinet governance template in favour of a Committee-based (i.e. more democratic) form of governance.

A PDF of the LGL article is reproduced below. It may offer a scintilla of hope to those who believe that it is time to hit the RESET button at Scarborough Borough Council – electors and Councillors alike.

Download the PDF file WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL.

A helpful explanation of the main distinctions between the two models (by Councillor Andrew WALLIS [Ind.] of Cornwall Council) is available here.

The Futurist Theatre

On the subject of The Futurist Theatre –  and notwithstanding the Scarborough News coverage of the SBC statement on the demolition proposal – a number of voices have recently been raised refuting SBC Leader Councillor Derek BASTIMAN’s assertion that Council has already approved the demolition of the much-loved building.

1 – Councillor Norman MURPHY [Ukip.]– on Yorkshire Coast Radio:


2 – Councillor Tony RANDERSON [Lab.] – on Facebook:


3 – Councillor Janet JEFFERSON [Ind.] – in the Scarborough News:


4 – A ‘Member of the Public’ [name redacted]– also on Facebook:

And now, rumours are rife that the Futurist has been dropped from the Agenda for the meeting of 9th January 2017, just as it was dropped from the November 2016 meeting.

The hand on the SBC tiller is looking more than a little bit shaky.


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