- Mobile site
- E-Newsletters
-
- News feed
- Find us on Twitter
@ksshuttle
Follow The Shuttle on twitter
- Find us on Facebook
The Kidderminster Shuttle
Get involved with The Shuttle on facebook
Kidderminster Shuttle
Find your Shuttle on facebook
Voters to receive Kidderminster town council petition (From Kidderminster Shuttle)
Get involved! Send your photos, video, news & views by texting KS NEWS to 80360 or e-mail us
Voters to receive Kidderminster town council petition
7:50am Thursday 1st November 2012 in News
FORTY thousand Kidderminster residents will be receiving a petition by post this weekend to have their say about creating a town council.
The letters have been posted by the Electoral Reform Service and will allow residents to add their signature in favour of the change.
Only 10 per cent of eligible voters need to sign the petition for Wyre Forest District Council to consider creating a Kidderminster authority.
Anne Hingley, chairman of the cross-party working group, said: “It’s time for the people of Kidderminster to have their say.
“A town council will help to increase our local democracy and we can finally be consulted on Kidderminster issues. At the moment, we don’t have a say over our hospital, our library or any planning issues, like Bewdley and Stourport do.”
Kidderminster borough council was abolished under local government reorganisation in 1974 but the town maintained traditions such as appointing a mayor through a board of charter trustees.
Under recent localism laws, district councils have been given the right to grant ‘town’ or ‘parish’ status.
The charter trustees will also be on hand outside Kidderminster Town Hall on Saturday and the following Saturday between 10am and 4pm to answer people’s questions.
Any person registered to vote can sign the petition, which will run until Friday, November 23.
Mrs Hingley added: “Hopefully we will get the 4,000 signatures needed so we can move to the next stage.”
If the 10 per cent is achieved, the district council can begin a year-long consultation process on the idea.
Comments(27)
walkerno5
says...
3:36pm Thu 1 Nov 12
neilhar
says...
5:47pm Thu 1 Nov 12
these members have ensured that the cabal gets what it wants, when and how it wants it. Without proper regard for the greater community or alternative methods of achieving the same end result.
I agree totally with John. I am actually speechless at this total and complete waste of public money.
WHO, asked for this and who in their right mind authorised such a costly and time consuming waste of resources?
Plus, it will affect the whole district, so why is the whole district not being asked about it. Will Kidderminster's council tax go up to pay for it?
Disgusted is what I am.
emjaypee
says...
8:37pm Thu 1 Nov 12
Dump the trustees, forget the town council idea and get on with dealing with real issues. WFDC is the council for this area we don't need extra talking shops just so that our Cllrs egos can become more inflated.
Anne Hingley seems to be at odds with the ideology of her national party, which is to cut everything not add to it.
DOEPUBLIC
says...
9:50pm Thu 1 Nov 12
I think it is of more concern that a large percentage of people do not feel the need to vote for representatives? It would seem this is more in the name of vested interests than community interests.
DOEPUBLIC
says...
10:01pm Thu 1 Nov 12
mark.lawley
says...
8:27pm Sat 3 Nov 12
jon cooper
says...
10:04pm Sat 3 Nov 12
mark.lawley wrote:I would guess by the means of a significant rise in taxation for the Kidderminster taxpayer Mark !
how would this new kidderminster council going to be funded?
pottery1
says...
11:06pm Sat 3 Nov 12
Cllr Helen Dyke
emjaypee
says...
11:03am Sun 4 Nov 12
Does this 5p include all the extra admin & council officer time. IT provision, offices, secretaries etc, etc the list is endless.
5p or 1p it all adds up to an extra expensive talking shop that we do not need. The existing DC is more than enough. And who will be putting themselves forward for election? Existing Cllrs who just want to add to their expense account by duplicating services.
Seems we are not "all in it together" some are more in it than others.
pottery1
says...
11:36am Sun 4 Nov 12
Cllr Helen Dyke
jon cooper
says...
12:23pm Sun 4 Nov 12
kidderlord
says...
1:40pm Sun 4 Nov 12
Parish Councillors will be elected, and it will be up to residents to elect them on a four year basis. At present the Charter Trustees changes every year when district Elections are held as Trustee members are automatically appointed as Kidderminster Councillors on the DC. This means at present the make up reflects the DC but will not if elections are four years apart.
Parish/Town councillors DO NOT receive an allowance. they are the only tie of local government where no money is paid, despite in recent times their workload being higher than ever, sometimes more than a "backbench" District Councillor who no longer has much rel power.
Areas not covered by the town councils of Bewdley, Kidderminster and Stourport already have a third tier as Parish Councils exist in most areas.
Not many powers are given to Parish/Town councils, and are only consulted on planning matters, but very rarely listened to. In Parish areas this is important as you may have one District Councillor, but ten local people to express views on PC's. However, with town Counils it i not so important because there are about 10 District Councillors for Kidderminster anyway.
One of my big beefs about Town Council's is the role of the Mayor. They are no more than the Chairman of the Town Council, which is a Parish Council in effect, but though they get invited to civic functions as part of the "chain gang" a similar courtesy is not extended to PC's Chairs.
And on the point of Council Chairs, again as there is no where else to raise this, is Clee still chair of Wyre Forest, It is noticeable that his pic has not appeared in the paper for weeks.
Gobby Robby
says...
6:36pm Sun 4 Nov 12
emjaypee
says...
7:36pm Sun 4 Nov 12
Red Flag Dan
says...
9:11pm Sun 4 Nov 12
I agree with the report commissioned by George Osborne which says that: "The costs of a two-tier system are simply unsustainable."
A Kidderminster Town Council could deliver the localism agenda at a fraction of the cost.
greengage44
says...
10:45pm Sun 4 Nov 12
DOEPUBLIC
says...
11:05pm Sun 4 Nov 12
kidderlord
says...
6:45am Mon 5 Nov 12
HowardM
says...
12:05pm Mon 5 Nov 12
The savings in running costs would be huge through economy of scale - only one Chief Exec instead of 7 currently, saving over £1m pa on that alone as one simple example.
Heseltine's recent report suggested greater use of single authorities and it has both cross party support as well as cross party opponents - it isn't a party political issue - and I'm expressing my own opinion which is in favour of scrapping District Councils.
So the creation of a town council for Kidderminster can start to move towards Unitary status for the area, which, im ny opinion, for what it is worth, would benefit us all.
emjaypee
says...
12:06pm Mon 5 Nov 12
I agree that in the context of a unitary authority it might be needed. But we are not unitary therefore this equates to further duplication. 5p per week! = how many extra thousands per year which should be best spent on frontline services.
DOEPUBLIC
says...
7:30pm Mon 5 Nov 12
'I'm expressing my own opinion which is in favour of scrapping District Councils'.
Surely you can't have both.
HowardM
says...
11:27am Tue 6 Nov 12
'I'm expressing my own opinion which is in favour of scrapping District Councils'.
Surely you can't have both.” says DOEPUBLIC
You're missing the point - A Town Council for Kidderminster (and Bewdley, Stourport and the other parishes) takes on the purely local roles of the DC, which is scrapped, along with WCC. The main roles of both are given to a new Unitary Authority which will be cheaper to run than what we currently have through economy of scale and less senior officers and councillors.. Red Flag Dan has already mentioned "the former deputy PM" etc being in favour. The system needs standardising and the move to unitaries has already begun with about half the shire counties already having adopted them - it will come here eventually! Hence the need for Town and Parish Councils in place now.
My final comment about expressing my own views referred to the fact it was my opinion and I wasn't speaking for the local Labour Party since we have yet to have a full debate on the suggestions made by Heseltine last week. Some may agree with my view, some may not.
mark.lawley
says...
7:18pm Tue 6 Nov 12
es.gov.uk/documents/
localgovernment/pdf/
1896534.pdf
emjaypee
says...
7:55pm Tue 6 Nov 12
How can he predict what the public will vote in favour of. One assumes that this move will be subject to public opinion as it was in the early 1990's when 3 options were put forward. I agree that we should go unitary but there is no need to put into place an extra body when we have no idea when/if this will happen and no timescale.
There is plenty of time to set up a TC once the process of deciding on a unitary authority has run it's course.
If you can predict the future that well Howard any chance of Fridays euromillions numbers in advance?
Stephen Brown
says...
11:48pm Tue 6 Nov 12
The potential for Worcestershire becoming a unitary authority, is not one that has been subject to any compelling rationale or business case. Like do we want it, why, costs, will it serve us reather than itself and should it happen at all? The councils themselves have even buried their proverbial heads in the sand on the question.
But yet, the question is being raised because we are becoming a unitary authority by stealth and financial pragmatism - and I am not sure that is a good basis for forward planning and decision making let alone local democracy. In that, I mean this rush to 'share services' to save costs has effectively meant local district councils are voting themselves out of existence. Some like Wychavon are now getting itchy feet about this as they realise something not to their liking may end up happening. I am just amazed it has taken them so long to cotton on to this fact.
Now some may applaud the removal of an additional tier of local authority bureaucracy. There is a downside though! We all moan about voting being a waste of time as nothing changes or councils do as they want anyway and a unitary authority may exacerabte that feeling.
I am a critic of Worcestershire County Council and the way it goes about some things. It is cumbersome, bureaucratic, remote, and patently undemocratic in its complete lack of accountability to/for the needs of local people. It talks a good talk but rarely walks the walk despite its trumpeting of being signed up to 'localism'. There are many examples of this lack of accountability: the gallery and incinerator being but two that affect us all her in Wyre Forest.
So, if anyone thinks this accountability will improve as yet more power is invested in this single body if it does becomes a unitary council, think again. I can only see matters getting worse. Bigger is not always better despite whatever issues we have with the district councils.
If someone was to suggest a model of local town councils having increased powers and Worcestershire as an entity retaining just the wider strategic control of important things like highways etc, that might be something worth exploring. It is something that would need to go hand in hand with a change in the voting system so everyone's vote counted eg PR.
I would prefer to have a constitutional debate and discuss the pros and cons and costs rather than this current imposition by stealth that ends up serving no-one but the bean counters and some of those senior councillor empire builders. Puts me in mind of the saying "Not everything in life that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts".
mark.lawley
says...
12:45pm Wed 7 Nov 12
jon cooper says...
3:28pm Thu 1 Nov 12
"It's time for the people of Kidderminster to have their say. A town council will help to increase our local democracy and we can finally be consulted on Kidderminster issues. At the moment, we don’t have a say over our hospital, our library or any planning issues, like Bewdley and Stourport do".
As Councillor Hingley is a high profile member of the mainly Kidderminster based Wyre Forest Cabinet, (the representitives who have the real control on the levers of power in Wyre Forest); i can't help but wonder where she comes to the conclusion how Kidderminster will anyway be better off with a Kidderminster Town Council ?
How have Bewdley and Stourport in any way benefitted from embracing their very own Town Council, apart from their taxpayers paying an above and beyond tax contribution compared to their neighbours in Kidderminster ?
Has Bewdley Town Council been effective in securing a leisure centre for their residents; would they have been listened to ? Was this why the Wyre Forest Cabinet, (of which Councillor Hingley is a member), decided to axe Bewdley Leisure Centre, and rebuild a new multi-million pound leisure centre in no easy reach for the people of Bewdley, on the outskirts of Kidderminster !!!!!!!
Have Stourport Town Council been a big game player in the so called "democracy" that Councillor Hingley refers to ? Is this why Stourport - for the first time in its history - is now facing life without its own civic facility. And even worse; the very real possibility that their residents will lose many frontline services that Kidderminster have the luxury in enjoying !
The real truth is that since 1974, Kidderminster has ALWAYS had its own Town Council, its just been hidden behind the facade that is 'Wyre Forest District Council' !
I would welcome back a Kidderminster Town Council on the basis that the larger authority of WFDC were better represented in a fair and democratic manner by a cross section of elected members from the three major towns in the district, which is sorely missing currently. Democracy and fairness fails on this level alone in my view !