This has been a really busy week for extra-curricular activities. When I lost my seat on the council I was looking forward to a quiet life, spending the evenings with my books, computer, and music, except when going out to see bands, but just lately it has not been working out that way.

Its true that I have been easing out of the few formal commitments I had, like being treasurer at the community centre and a trustee at the CAB, but that just means I can get involved in all sorts of things on a more ad hoc basis. I may even start going to council meetings as a civilian and enjoy the fun of asking questions at public question time and joining in with the general barracking at planning meetings.

This week I had the CAB board meeting on Tuesday night (with some follow-up work feeding back to the council), the Broadfield conference on Tuesday evening, followed by the police authority public meeting, and the Labour party constituency meeting on Thursday night. Tonight there is an election celebration party at the Labour club, and on Monday I may go along to the development control committee meeting.

The CAB I have already written about, although the Broadfield conference did give me the opportunity to follow up some of the issues with the council’s chief exec.

Community Conference

I was going to write all about the community conference, but I found a report here which, while not complete is adequate for the basic facts.

For me it was not particularly educational as most of the issues were ones I used to be involved in myself, but I had a chance to express my opinions in the form of stickers. My one lapse into irreverence was that there was a poster asking “how can we improve our local environment?” and I added a post-it on which I had written “Vote Labour”.  As an ordinary member of the public I can do that sort of thing.

Unfortunately we turned up just too late for the controversial stuff. Somebody (I think it was Alan Quirk’s son) had set up a laptop near the entrance which had a rolling slideshow on it. The slides were stuff like a big photo of Marcella Head with the caption “Marcella Head. Your Conservative Councillor” and pictures from the council’s recent clean-up day up at Carman walk with titles saying it was a Conservative team doing the work.

Understandably, the Labour councillors kicked off about this and made them remove the computer. As far as I am concerned its just another example of the Tories trying to use council events for personal party political gain. The clean-up photos apparently showed quite clearly that there were CBC vehicles and staff, and yet it was billed as the “Broadfield Conservative Team”. I still cannot work out whether our local Tories are devious and machiavellian or just rank amateurs and terribly naive. Fortunately for them, the computer was Richard Quirk’s personal laptop. Had it been a council computer being used for party political gain there would have been very good grounds for involving the Standards Board.

I was quite surprised to find how many people at the event were people I know. I had forgotten just how many different people I must have met and worked with over four years, but this was a good chance to catch up with some of them.

One such person is Mr Earl, who was along for the police meeting, but also does loads of other voluntary stuff. He used to be (and still is) an independent member of the council’s standards committee, which I sat on, so we had a chat about that. I tend to get a bit anal retentive about the code of conduct – I always used to declare everything that there was any doubt about, I had been on the training and tried to keep up with the latest advice. Maybe that’s why I get so wound up by our Tories’ behaviour, because I used to stick not only to the rules but to the spirit of the rules and expect everyone else to as well.

That is also why being out of office is such a liberating experience for me. If I have a lack of respect for particular members and officers I am free to express it. I can even bring the authority into disrepute if I want to, without sanction, but best of all I can express myself properly and if I think one of my councillors is a lying, racist twat I can call him that.

The most amusing point of the day was when Jayne was talking with a reporter from the Observer. She was not one I had seen before, and seemed to be OK. She was very surprised when Jayne mentioned that she felt the Observer was hostile towards the council and the Labour party and tried to insist that the paper is neutral. She really did seem surprised that anyone could perceive the paper as biased.

Sussex Police Authority Public Meeting

I had been to one of these meetings before, at the Friary. The routine is that there are presentations from the police authority, the council’s community safety officer and the police and then the public get to ask questions.

I think we asked some tough but fair questions, and got answers which were less evasive than in the past. There were the usual comments about how we never see beat policemen around, and how travellers are seen to get different treatment.

At the end I tried asking a bit of a cheeky question: “How far does partnership go?” The police had shown maps which demonstrated that the Broadfield shops are a hot spot of just about every type of crime and anti-social behaviour, and had commented on how the design of the canopies there and the general demeanour of the place encouraged such behaviour and made it hard to police. However at last week’s meeting we had the civil engineer from the Barton management company telling how little money is available for the upkeep of the area (just enough to keep it swept and replace blown bulbs. Maybe repainted. Nothing for serious improvements.) So the question was, if improvements to the buildings would reduce crime more than anything else, would the police or one of the councils or the PCT or whoever pay for those works for the general good, even though its not their responsibility.

The answer was more or less what you would expect, but one senior copper had a word afterwards and said that their might be some funding from some government scheme or other which will be available for this sort of thing. Maybe there is a small light at the end of this tunnel after all, and I can make sure the Labour party puts pressure on whoever receives this funding so they realise the Broadfield shops should be a high priority for it.

Crawley Labour party general committee

Being a vice chair of the party I was naturally ecstatic to find that the chair had turned up so I could sit at the back. She was a bit nervous as it was the first GC meeting since she became chair, but I think she did well. OK, so she upset a few people, but that happens. The rows were breaking out when the chair tried to cut someone short when they were talking to a motion, but going well away from the point, and I think it’s a good thing that we are trying to keep to the point. The chap was getting away from the issue, but then all the previous speakers had as well in my opinion.

It got a little bit nasty, but I reckon the chair handled it fairly well, and I’m very glad it wasn’t me who had to deal with it.

The general post mortem on the elections also got a bit fractious, and Jayne managed to upset a few people, but thats OK – there are some long-standing issues which maybe need to be spoken about openly and Jayne is a great one for speaking her mind!

The worst moment came when Laura Moffatt made a really very good speech. It was just the sort of rousing speech to make a suitable climax to a meeting, and then I got called to speak immediately afterwards. Talk about a tough act to follow!

Now all thats out of the way, the only thing left this week is the celebration party tonight at the Labour club.