THURROCK Council leader, John Kent has blasted the Conservative opposition after they frustrated his plans to make savings.
Cllr Kent’s outburst comes after a recommendation was voted down that would have seen £1 million saved by exploring a number of options for sharing services between Thurrock Council and Barking and Dagenham.
Cllr John Kent said: “While I can accept, even expect, issues over accuracy to make political points and grab a headline, what really concerns me are the errors in fact our Tory councillors have been using and publicising.
“These people aspire to run the council and its finances, yet they blatently do not understand the figures, and cannot grasp quite simple concepts.
Not only do they use inaccurate information, they seem keen to put people’s livelihoods at risk and to increase the pressures on the already struggling ordinary people of Thurrock.
For some reason they appear gleeful that Thurrock Council will have to find another £600,000 in savings in the coming financial year. Our proposal that it should come from linking back-office teams with Barking and Dagenham – communications, policy officers and some finance officers for example – was voted down.
The need for this saving is still imperative, but where will it come from now? We could raise council tax by about one per cent, or we could hit front-line services or make more people redundant. We’re looking and we’re thinking. but what do the Tories suggest? Will they spring more “savings” at February’s budget-setting council – savings that won’t go through scrutiny; savings which will threaten jobs without warning; or savings that simply cost more! They’ve done it all before.
What will they suggest? Shut a library? Close the Thameisde? Don’t repair Grays Beach? I just don’t know.
And I don’t think they know what to believe either. They said no more links with Barking, yet voted to accept 12 of the 13 recommendations for strengthening those links. For instance they supported continuing with the joint legal services, joint chief executive and specifically voted for a joint appointments committee. Do they know what they want, except to sow confusion?”
“Even Eric Pickles says councils should share back office rather than cut the front line. I will be writing to Mr Pickles to express my disappointment.
“What about the facts? The only talk of a merger between Barking and Thurrock councils has come from the Tories. It has never ever been on our agenda, we recognised the fear and I said it wouldn’t happen. This is nothing more than more Tory scaremongering.
“There was no recommendation to share aspects of education or housing by this administration yet they continually bring it up. Either they didn’t bother to read the reports before them or were, once again, scaremongering.
“At a time when the Conservative led Government is cutting this council’s funding by – at least – £6 million it is imperative that we continue to explore opportunities to share services such as communications, policy and some elements of finance so we can absorb those cuts as painlessly as possible. That is what we will continue to do.
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Here we go yah boo politics again,they says this we said that.shut the Library.shut the Thameside,close schoolsPlease. the lot of you grow up be sensible stop scaremongering get your collective heads together and work for the benefit of your electorate
I despair I really do!!!!!
I would rather no link with Barking and Dagenham. I would rather a link with an Essex council and am 100% behind the Tories probing into this dubious link between Thurrock and Barking.
It would be in Cllr Kent’s favour to share housing with B&D as that will mean more votes for him and that is why I don’t trust the whole thing. I cannot see how a link could not be made with Basildon, Southend, Castle Point, Brentwood or even Havering LB. Instead we get linked to a borough council who are about as solidly Labour as you can get. What next a link with Newham? (That really would spell the beginning of the end).
As for the government cuts. If local authorities didn’t pour money down the drain for so many years, especially Labour councils and especially under Blair’s government, then there would be no need for such deep cuts. Thurrock also chose to become a unitary authority and therefore will have to make larger cuts than our Essex neighbours.
Something what people and the Thurrock Tories must realise is the idea of Thurrock becoming a London Borough would take a huge piece of Government Legislation (changing bounderies, especially becoming a London Borough would be the biggest change in local government for decades!). The fact that the council has got huge cuts to make, if they don’t we would soon be complaining about a big rise in Council Tax! So come on Thurrock Tories, yes this financial mess we see ourselves is partly down to the overspending of the last Labour Government, but grow up and don’t try to make cheap political points by scaring the people of Thurrock.
Yippee it is nearly Christmas, the official start of the season for Pantomime Politics, boo hisss, he is behind you………..
Odd for a man whose plan would have involved redundancies to accuse the Tories of wanting redundancies. The only people the Tories want to make redundant are the Labour cabinet. When was the last time you had a majority at a council meeting John? I’ll give you a clue it wasn’t recently…
We are on the same wavelength Lambo,oh no he isn’t…….
Jonno is right. It would be a monumental change which would have to go through parliament but I still don’t like the link with that particular council. We want to be working with councils who have a sense of vision which Thurrock can learn from not. Council whose accounting skills are as bad as Thurrocks.
The Comrade’s a liar. It’s a simple numbers game. Someones going to go otherwise there aint no point in sharing services. Shring services brings it’s own problems which actually add to costs because of the different working practices, systems etc. How many people are we talking about, what do they do and can they be got rid of anyway. That’s what the private sector has to decide. Grow a pair Kent and stop bullshi##ing the voters. How about getting rid of the equalities and diversities team and stop paying money to trust to waste. There’s a saving the people of Thurrock would cheer from the rooftops.
“How about getting rid of the equalities and diversities team and stop paying money to trust to waste”
Without these teams No Voice there would be absolute chaos on the streets of Thurrock which could potentially erupt into race war!
What exactly do the equalities and diversities team do?
Equalise and diversify,Yeah I know I havn’t a clue either but at least it gives someone a job,value for money for the electorate definitely not.
They enforce Labour’s legislation on ensuring quota’s of immigrants are employed in all publicly funded bodies. Warms the cockles don’t it.
Oh and lets not forget that TRUST is only open to Black or Ethnic Minorities (as per their statement on their website) so much for being a “community” group
Getting back to the original subject – I expect that if the tories were in power in Thurrock now, we would be looking at sharing services with someone like Havering. But we have a Labour Council and B&D it is! Something which Cllr Kent will have to do is to sort our both Cllrs Baldwin and Kiely – both have been disasters since the day they were elected – if both of them had bothered to turn upto the full council meeting, Labour would of won the vote.
looks like the usual suspects at it again Lambo, NoVoice PERMAN Bernard 87 or should i say in my personal view some of the best known racist bloggers in Thurrock. Its enough to make the average local resident laugh. Unfortunately your views are not representative of those of the good people of Thurrock that value diversity and the different ethnic minority groups that live in this borough. We know the script if you could have it your way you’d ship all ethnic minorities back to where hence they came.
The funny thing is that the money spent on communcations and the money spent on Your Thurrock and other media supports this machinery of racist blogs and much of the nonsense you post. Clearly these racist rants about TRUST, Labour etc is more evidence that these the investment in equality is so important and absolutely needed. What else would you want to cut education? health?
The real problem with the Lambo, NoVoice PERMAN Bernard 87’s you would only make these comments from behind a PC why not come out lets see your face and lets get to know who you are as we might better respect your views then. Very strange comments also that dont relate to the article i wonder who your friends are and what you are up to?
Ed, Lambo, Perman and Co i think Bernard 87 makes an interesting point, part of the work of the equalities team is to promote community cohesion. Colin is right on the money here. i take it from the reference to the term ‘Comrade’ that there is a shared Stalinist and far right extermist ideology shared by this group of bloggers. This might explain the use of very interesting tactics for example cyber bullying, disguise, misinformation and local networks to spread negative messages. it shares many similarities to how the KKK used fear and hidden identities (bedsheets over the head) and the use of communication channels, and networks to lynch, terrorise and spread hatred.
Interestingly the hate, racism and phobia ‘Comrades’ are spreading only serves to make the case for why organisations like TRUST and equalities teams are absolutely important to prevent this type of hate and division. I find Colins point interesting where did this random conversation come from!! somebody is up to no good.
Messrs Baker and Shaw,be very very sure of your facts before u start calling people racists.Please explain how you interpret my post as being racist when all I said was I don’t know what the Equualities and Diversity Department does?
Unfortunately it’s the usual default position of some of you to immediately play the racist card,the Labour Party used it a lot before the election,and then after their defeat admitted they were wrong.
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Comrade PERMAN it is still Comrade isnt it? It is racist because you and your other ‘Comrades’ are quite happy to sit behind your PC peddling negative messages about ethnic minorities, you seem to agree with the racist sentiments shared here by NoVoice: “They enforce Labour’s legislation on ensuring quota’s of immigrants are employed in all publicly funded bodies” Are we to assume that ethnic minorities should not work in public funded bodies?? These ethnic minorities are social workers that help local families, they are nurses that help the old and vulnerable. You are quite happy to dish out sharp criticism of Labour and others PERMAN: “the lot of you grow up be sensible stop scaremongering” but you dont see the scaremongering you are quite happy to dish out. So typical of racist ideology that it is loudest when hidden, why dont you share your real name, so we can have a real debate with you about your racist ideas and those of your ‘Comrades’. You ask the question what does TRUST / Equalities team do, there is another article on this site about a Gay man who was subjected to homophobic abuse and he stabbed the perpetrator. i would suggest that it is an important job to ensure that this type of situation does not happen, not to talk about challenging much of the racist and bigoted ideas posted here . So in a sense you are helping to keep them in a job and so actually we have much to thank you for!!!
Questios for you Shaw Evans:
Give me an example of one of my “Racist Posts””?
Please answer my original question,how is asking what the Equalities and Diversity team actually do interpretated as being a racist view?
For the record one of my cousins is a gay man,I went to his wedding had a fabulous time and count many of his gay friends as my friends.
In my last job my regional manager was a black guy, and many of my colleagues were black guys,spent many happy hours socialising with them.Left the job 3 years ago and still keep in contact,
If u look at my posts I criticise all politicians for their lack of engagement with the electorate,thats all politiciians not just Labour.
As i have said previously be very sure of your facts before you start accusing people.
Can i step in to answer your question PERMAN? The racist element was making a comment about something that is totally unconnected to the actual article. The article was about sharing services, so what exactly does this have to do with TRUST, ethnic minorities or Equality teams? Why not ask what social workers do or police officers, or firemen or communcation managers, press officers or nurses or change managers or planners etc
Clearly there is a bit of an agenda here. Perhaps you and your ‘Comrades’ hope to drum up the far right extermists in the area, or hope to gain poltical interest in your perverse ideas? Listen if you want to know what equality people do go to the website and education yourself or try the Commission for Equality and Human Rights they would make it clear.
A bit of a cheeck you and your ‘comrades’ making racist comments about ethnic minorities and generally trying to bring about racial hatred, then saying you have a few black friends!! Also i thought the explaination above was very clear!! these people work to promote community in Thurrock and challenge racisim, homophobia etc. Yea you might think that is a waste of time but in the 18th century people like you would have been serfs working the fields for a feudal lord until the birth of equality.
Just to point out that slave owners had a couple of black friends mostly those in their homes serving food and working in their fields, so dont try the old i’ve got a few black friends trick, because your black friends would quite easily explain to you what racism is all about and what organisations like TRUST and Equality teams do. Listen grow up we don’t need this type of rubbish in Thurrock. Also quick apology to Bernard 87 misread his comment, he has a point that without these people we’d have some major community problems.
Please give me an example of my Racist comments?
lively discussion here but a bit hard on PERMAN who has only repeated the comment from Novoice, although with a bit of a sarcastic twist. The problem is that people like NoVoice use these blogs to promote individual agendas, it is often in the attempt to start something that will have racist overtones, with the aim of stirring extermist views of the few that read these blogs. The reality is that almost three million people are employed by local borough councils after an “explosion” in “crazy non-jobs”, see telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8332107/War-on-thousands-of-local-borough-council-non-jobs.html
The telegraph quotes that “Crazy non-jobs like cheerleading development officers and press officers tasked with spinning propaganda on bin collections provide no value to the public”.
The article also reports on other roles “They were for a director of regeneration and employment on a salary of “up to £140,000”; an assistant director of adult services on £90,000 a year; and an assistant director for supporting communities, also on £90,000 a year”.
The point i think the article makes is that there are many things that councils spend a fortune on that they dont have to do or have any legal requirement to do, but equality is not one of them. Very important that organisations like TRUST, and the important work done by teams that champion equality are respected for example SEERIC that deals with violence against women and girls, Womens Aid, MENCAP, Thurrock lifestyle solutions that recieved a lot of priase from local MEP and diveristy team that brings T-Fest to the borough in these very hostile and difficult economic times.
All this work is very important. The original article here was about sharing services and it seems like if this is done sensibly that jobs will be secured, value added and front line services protected. So we should support the council Cllr John Kent Mr Graham Farrant and those looking to ensure services to the community are protected and equality for all secured.
Thankyou Chad for bringing some common sense and not going into a diatribe about drumming up support for racists, my comrades etc etc.I just fail to see how asking what the diversity team do can in any way be construed as racist it’s absolutely ludicrous.
For the record I do not know No Voice and do not agree with many of his posts,I am however still extremely angry to be unjustly accused of racism.
PERMAN- Chad makes my point clearer: The telegraph quotes that “Crazy non-jobs like cheerleading development officers and press officers tasked with spinning propaganda on bin collections provide no value to the public”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8332107/War-on-thousands-of-local-borough-council-non-jobs.html
What value do press officers or those other jobs quoted in this article bring? that is superior to those organisations like SERRIC, Womens Aid, CVS and TRUST etc?
These equality teams and organisations add value and address issues for the most vulnerable in society and by championing equality and human rights. i’m suggesting that the reason that you said the following: ‘Equalise and diversify,Yeah I know I havn’t a clue either but at least it gives someone a job,value for money for the electorate definitely not’
This above comment is aimed at creating extermist and racist views because you believe that equality is for minorities, and those that do the job are more likely to be minorities. People like you dont mind the ethnic minority doctors when you are sick or the nurses and social workers,when you are in need.
Many equality groups in Thurrock are saving women from domestic abuse, disabled residents from harm and creating jobs for them. It is so sad that people like you not only ask the silly quesiton about what do they do, but have the cheek to even write it. Just because you think you want to score political points by associating equality with labour and want to use the old ethnic minority groups to stirr the extermist end of the political spectrum ‘no chance’ people are not stupid and event politicans know what is right.
I think most people in Thurrock that know of the good work of local organisations and the council team in the area of equalities will be disappointed with the racist and ignorant comments you and your comrades have made here. Especially when the article had nothing to do with this topic, dont pretend you dont have an agenda!! it is clear from the many blogs that people read here that racism, sexism homophobia etc is alive and well in Thurrock and hopefully you have helped to make it clear we have to tackle it and the extermisim, that still exist in this borough.
Totally missing the point again and again accusing me of being a racist,it fits your agenda to equate any comment made about equality or diversity as being a racist rant without any foundation in truth.I am not a political animal never have been never will be.
You still havn’t or cannot answer my question:what racist or inciting comment have I made?For the record I didn’t bring up enforcing Labour s Immigrattion policy that was No voice,I didn’t bring up the issue of TRUST being open to Black or Ethnic Communities that was Lambo.
I note you now see me as an extremist anything else?
I think the point PERMAN is making is that the more insensitive comment came from others and his comment was a follow on question. He was asking a question which clearly has been well answered. The comment from Lambo, NoVoice etc seemed like the more racist and politically motivated comments, and probably did what the bloggers wanted which was to start a discussion about ethnic minorities which i think is the point Shaw Evans and others got caught up with. Obviously equality is important and many local organisations and the council team are doing a great job to make Thurrock a better place. I think the problem is that people try and associate equality as something only about ethnic minorities this is not true. it is something that old people, disabled people, young people need. I just read an article today that the true cost of university education is 100k. Anyone who has to start life with that amount of debt will tell you that youth unemployment is a big equality issue. Hopefully the council and others involved in this area will make sure the young people are supported and their work makes a difference in this area.
Thanks once again Chad unfortunately my question has not been answered and expect not to be.
This wlll be my last post on this subject which has really opened my eyes as to how people can spin what was a simple question about diversity and turn it into a race issue.
In conclusion I am now seen as:
a racist,a bigot.an extremist, an agitator,a comrade!!You couldn’t make it up!!
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