Early Election Results! Labour Party Legs it in Dinnington and Anston!

Yes we know the elections are in May, but all candidates have now declared and there are insufficient numbers for Anston Parish Council and Dinnington Town Council.

What does this mean? Anyone who nominated themselves is now a Councillor and the big news is that the Labour Party has done one in Dinnington and Anston, they have vanished!

Labour big guns like Iain Saint John, Judy Dalton, Jo Burton, Dominic Beck and Simon Tweed have stood down leaving the field clear for a mass of mainly independent candidates.

Ralph McIver has also chosen not to continue as Dinnington’s chair, is no longer on the Council and no longer a member of the Labour party.

Indeed as has been pointed out even former Labour Cllrs who have re-joined do not seem to be describing themselves as Labour.

Anston Parish Council will be John Ireland (current chair and Borough candidate), Gordon Jarvis (current Cllr) and Philip Matthews for South and Clive Jepson (current Cllr and one of the few independent Borough Cllrs in South Yorkshire), Ivan Machin, Myles Manship (campaigner for Anston Skate Park), Christine Sadler, Drew Tarney, Stuart Thornton (current Cllr) and Paul Vernon for North.

Dinnington Town Council will be Leslie Clarke (Salvation Army), Pauline Davies (Former chair), Brian Lewis (Political agitator crossed with a flying picket!), William Loftus, Andrew Milner, Roy Mugglestone (current Cllr), Paula Russell (current Cllr), Steven Scott (Current Cllr) and Dave Smith (current Cllr, former NUM President and politico at large for Dinnington).

Why has Labour rode off into the sunset? A few theories doing the rounds:

1. After the CSE scandal in Rotherham the knives were out (metaphorically) for certain Labour councillors who had held responsibility in the past for child protection. Possible.

2. Shame? Never stopped them standing before?

3. Parish and Town Councillors don’t get paid? Probably the favourite explanation for the withdrawal of former Borough Cllrs! Many Borough Cllrs used the Parish and Town as a platform to drive their personal priorities and fiefdoms, now with these people stepping down from the Borough due to the problems in Rotherham, Parish and Town level does nothing for them.

4. They just got tired. There has been a lot more scrutiny of their actions over the last few years and many of them were conscripts and not battles hardened. Basically they ran away.

If anyone else has further theories, however wacko just leave a comment.

Dinnington Town Councillors Refuse to Condemn Disgraced Rotherham Councillors

Dinnington Town Council at their Monday night meeting refused to condemn the disgraced Rotherham Councillors and call for immediate resignations.

One Councillors said the move would be too drastic. What?!!!

When firebrand Councillor Dave Smith tried to place the subject on the agenda he was voted down.

Shame, Shame, Shame, SHAME!

See it here for yourselves!

Part one

Part two

Yet by only the narrowest of margins did Dave Smith prevent the Council from giving TEN THOUSAND POUNDS to an organisation with connections to a Councillors daughter!

Unbe smegging lieavable.

A Local Referendum for Dinnington on Greenbelt Issues?

Dinnington residents attending the Parish Meeting on Monday April 14th will have the opportunity to vote for a Parish Poll, a local referendum to be held on whether or not Dinnington should give up large areas of its green belt for housing developments,

If at least 10 local residents ask for a poll the local authority is duty bound to call a date and give the people of Dinnington their say at the ballot box, Like all referendums, however the poll is not binding, merely an expression of opinion.

Please come and support us at the Lyric on Monday.

Children’s Centre “Counsultation” in Dinnington

The consultation event at Dinnington Community Primary was a bit of an eye opener, this was of course our chance to find out about the plans to close children’s centres in Dinnington, Anston, Kiveton and Thurcroft, and a chance for all to air their views.

Parents and staff from the Children’s Centre were joined by local ward councillors, town councillors and two members of the actual cabinet from the Town Hall itself, Children’s Services supremo Paul Larkin and Deputy Leader Jahangir Akhtar.

Local activist Dave Smith was also present and was unsympathetic to the Council’s case for closing all the Children’s Centres in the Rother Valley South Area. Cllr Larkin threatened to close the meeting and take his ball in if any one tried to make a political point, Cllr Akhtar accused Mr Smith of showing no respect (A bit rich given Cllr Akhtar’s criminal conviction for assault, but never mind)

The lady chairing the meeting kind of lost her credibility when she admitted to a parent that they didn’t actually know how well attended each centre was.

She also told us that the service would improve despite any closures so a parent asked then why not close all the centres if the mystery alternative is better. Again no answer!

Firebrand independent Cllr Stuart Thornton was next, pointing out that the consultation was a  bit of a fix given that Cllrs had already voted for the cuts by approving the budget. This was met by howls of protest from the cabinet members and Cllr Jacquie Falvey (who had stayed obediently quiet throughout the previous exchange)

Cllr Paul Larkin settled the issue by admitting that yes the money has already been cut from his budget, but that if the “consultation” decided the centres had to stay open he would cut it from somewhere else in the Children and Young Persons budget.

Sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul! (Paul Larkin, get it? Not sure who Peter is…)

The Cllrs from Dinnington Town Council also held their tongues, thanks for your help there ladies and gentlemen! Not.

Cllr Akhtar got really surreal when he suggested that the dissenting voices in the room were upsetting the children (who were happily playing football at the back as far as I could see)

At this point I had to leave to pick my daughter up so cannot report further on the proceedings.

I never got the chance to air my views, but I fear they would not have been important to the cynical self serving officials and Labour Councillors who frankly give not one jot for the children of Dinnington and Anston.

Dinnington’s Annual Parish Meeting 14 April 2014

Dinnington Town Council have announced a Parish Meeting at the Lyric Theatre, all residents of Dinnington are welcome to attend and vote on the issues of the day.

The votes cast by residents are not binding on the Council, but it is a very direct way of telling our Council what is important to you.

Issues sure to be discussed:

1. Closure of our Sure Start centre

2. Building on our Greenbelt

3. Our relationship with Rotherham Council

4. The state of our roads

5. Street cleanliness

6. Getting our young people back to work

To have something included on the agenda email the clerk by close of play on 28 March 2014.

Annual Parish Meeting in Dinnington April 14th 2014

Dinnington Town Council want to hear your view on all issues Dinnington related, be it Sure Start centres, protecting our greenbelt, dog poo or any of the other stuff we like to moan about.

A Parish meeting will be held at the Lyric on the above date and all residents of Dinnington are invited to come along and make their views known on the issues of the day.

All agenda items you wish to see included should be lodged with the Clerk no later than 4pm on Friday 28th March 2014.

In other news from Dinnington Town Council:

1. The Town Council refuse to allow a local referendum in Dinnington to decide on housing developers proposals to tarmac over our countryside. Chair of Council says it will have to come to the Parish meeting (see above)

2. The A57 works are due to end in early April, but works will soon start to sink a pedestrian tunnel on the Lindrick side of the road, this will involve some weekend closures and a diversion through Anston whilst being carried out.

3. RMBC are described as liars by certain Councillors, congratulations on catching up chaps, we told you that a couple of years ago!

Rotherham Council move to raise Council Tax by 2%

RMBC Cabinet have put forward plans to raise Council Tax by approximately 2% for the next year, raising an additional half million or so of revenue.

In other news:

1. Dinnington Town Council up in arms over (proposed) closure of Sure Start centre.

2. Anston Town Council a bit less so, Councillors saying that the centre was not well used and Anston is not a deprived area. Hmmmm!

3. Dinnington Town Council refuse to record a vote of confidence in Dinnington’s relationship with RMBC.

4. Rotherham Council told to build 3000 extra houses, Dinnington’s greenbelt once again in the cross hairs!

5. Rotherham Council refuse to transfer Birkdale Avenue playing field to local ownership, say they want to hold onto the land for commercial reason as it may be used for a housing development.

Dave Smith Launches Dave4Dinnington Campaign

Dinnington local activist Dave Smith is the latest to enter the fray for May’s local elections. He intends to challenge the incumbent Labour Councillor Jacquie Falvey for Dinnington ward.

Launching is Dave4Dinnington website he says:

“I make no secret of the fact that I will be standing as an independent candidate in the Rotherham Borough Council elections in May.  The question I get asked the most is what difference can one person make when faced with the might of the political parties.  So I think I should point out the changes I have forced Dinnington Town council to adopt, and this whilst not being an elected member of the Town or Borough council.  Dinnington Town council has been misusing the 1972 local government act, to keep the general public from hearing what decisions these people were making supposedly in our interests.  Virtually all of the council business was being conducted in secret, I challenged this and made them change the way they conduct their meetings; the public can now stay for all of the meeting.  This means that what for years was secret is now open to public scrutiny, I did this.  Then I took them on about their secret committees, they had two, one was  the finance committee and the other the asset committee.  They were keeping the public out of these committees by misusing another act, I have forced them to disband the finance committee because this has to be dealt with in the full council meeting; and the asset committee has to now allow the public into their meetings.  These are important changes it means the council has to conduct its business in front of the very people who’s money they are spending.  I did this because I believe that the public should be able to see at all times what their elected politicians are doing.  I did this whilst a member of the public just imagine what I could do as an elected councillor.  It is worth noting that in all the years I have been attending the council meetings there has been no sign of the Conservatives or UKIP attending yet when it comes to the election they will be asking for your vote.  I am active all the time not just at elections.“

Let’s hope he gets a better picture this time, the last one looked like something off Crimewatch.

For balance I should state that we will also be seeking to give full coverage to all candidates if and when we hear something about them.

Labour Fires the First Shot in Run Up to the Elections

Got this through the post the other day from our local Labour politicians. May is election time and they have wasted no time at all by starting things off with this little note.

Shame about the photographs, come on guys, get yourselves a decent photographer!

Wind Turbine Application to Dinnington Town Council

Dinnington Rugby Club have applied (twice now I believe) to Dinnington Town Council to ask permission to build a wind turbine on the Leys Lane site they from DTC.

This proposal was discussed and quashed in Monday’s DTC meeting as members voted against hearing further proposals.

The size of the turbine and other details were not discussed, if anyone has any details please let us know.