Local Council By-elections 4th October

[tonygreaves]

Lots of people here seem obsessive about some obscure corner of the fens. No-one seems interested in a LD gain from Labour in a proper town! I had a chat with Tony at Brighton - he seems pretty fit and youthful for an 80-year old!

[East Anglian Lefty]

Oct 4, 2018 8:26:12 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Don't see why a straightforward resignation on taking a politically restricted job should so offend ordinary people.

There's rather more to it than that, though it's difficult to summarise and hence probably had much less impact on the electorate in Soham than it did upon Cambridgeshire political anoraks.

Raynes was first interviewed for the post by a panel including members of multiple parties, which considered him to be unqualified for the position. He was then re-interviewed by a panel made up of the Mayor, a Conservative councillor from Huntingdonshire and the chief exec of the Combined Authority, which decided to appoint him. Since then, the chief exec has been placed on gardening leave having fallen out with the Mayor for reasons that still aren't entirely clear*.

There's also been some disquiet about the Mayor's habit of appointing colleagues and associates from East Cambs to senior roles (his chief of staff was formerly councillor for Ely South; the interim chief exec is the (to be fair very highly-regarded) chief exec of East Cambs DC.) But it has to be said this is hardly likely to annoy people in East Cambs.


In addition, there have been a lot of ructions relating to scrutiny - when a decision was called in for review, the Conservative members of the scrutiny panel refused to turn up for the meeting to prevent it being quorate, and they've since decided that nothing can be called in for scrutiny unless the decision is supported by at least one Conservative on the panel. John Elworthy has done sterling work following up on all these stories, but they're generally too complex to easily fit on to a leaflet, so their immediate electoral impact is probably limited.

*It may possibly be connected to the recently uncovered news that the Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire, the chief of the Fire Authority, the head of the CCG, the PCC's office, the chief execs of the County Council and every district bar East Cambs had written to the chief exec of the Combined Authority expressing concern about how the Combined Authority is run.

[Deleted]

I suppose that one man's 'obscure corner' is another's home - is interest in it not legitimate for the latter? In any case better that this site is a bit OTT on detail and analysis than merely another place for shallow partisan skirmishing.

[The Bishop]

Oct 7, 2018 11:14:22 GMT @bencornock said:

I suppose that one man's 'obscure corner' is another's home - is interest in it not legitimate for the latter? In any case better that this site is a bit OTT on detail and analysis than merely another place for shallow partisan skirmishing.

I have no problem with your posts in this thread, very informative

[yellowperil]

Oct 6, 2018 22:42:22 GMT tonygreaves said:

Lots of people here seem obsessive about some obscure corner of the fens. No-one seems interested in a LD gain from Labour in a proper town! I had a chat with Tony at Brighton - he seems pretty fit and youthful for an 80-year old!

(1) A lot of us (me included) are as equally obsessed with "an obscure corner of the Fens" as we are with a splendid gain in Chesterfield, because both are important indicators of progress when these come few and far between! There is one sense and one sense only which makes Cambridgeshire more interesting than Chesterfield, and that is that it's a bit more surprising! In contention from nowhere is maybe more exciting than regaining old fortresses.
(2) Glad to know our octogenerian new (restored!)councillor seems fit and youthful and given that I am a few months off that same age its more than encouraging to know.  Nevertheless I hope they are training up a by-election candidate!