THE view this week is really from the Council Chamber for the new council had their first formal meeting on May 21 and top posts were allocated. Winifred Sloan is Provost again – and will continue her Civic Pride programme. Leader of the council is Conservative Hugh Hunter. The principal leadership panel is made up of Tories, (the majority party) but all the other senior posts have been distributed between the SNP, Labour and Independent
The council is taking on a exciting new format – Cabinet style they call it - which involves a new range of panels (instead of committees)_- but it is felt this will give a better standard of service from all of us. The Cabinet will have the job of making the decisions and the Scrutiny committees will have the chance to review these before they are implemented. This is supposed to give a greater opportunity for public debate. It is early days for councillors and officers – so it will be a challenge for everyone to make it work.
The Council meeting went remarkable smoothly considering this was the first time four different parties faced each other across the council chamber – and there was remarkably little cross party sniping. Long may it continue for the new partnership style of local government is all about us working well together.
June 5 sees the council getting down to the serious business of running South Ayrshire – I will keep you posted. Of my wide range of positions - from panels to outside bodies – I think I will find the Regulatory Panel which deals with planning and the Licensing Board the most interesting.
Those living in the rural part of South Ayrshire will be pleased to know that the Rural Committee has been maintained and of course the various Community Councils can look forward to receiving real money to work with in the coming year - £2,000 for the smallest rising to £5,000.
Speaking of Community Councils – the ward of Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton, has five so it should be fun trying to cover them all – particularly as some meet on the same night. This might be where having four councillors for the ward may prove an advantage – we can split up so that everyone is looked after and the views expressed relayed to the other councillors.
Friday, 25 May 2007
Monday, 14 May 2007
from the council chamber - it begins
I HAVE discovered a new human condition . . . electionlag. It`s like jetlag, only worse and it lasts longer…It maybe had something to do with the 24-hour stint on election day. All started well. The sun shone, the voters were appearing to come out, there was even a bit of a carnival atmosphere outside Coylton polling station and it all passed quite nicely until around 11pm – when the new electronic system of counting took over and we discovered the intricacies of the two part voting form for the parliament had by-passed a large number of the electorate!.
Then I guess you could say things went from bad to worse. Being the cynics that we are and going on past experience, when the company engineers in charge of the super duper new system assured us beforehand that nothing could go wrong – we somehow knew that it would. Half their counting machines gave up the ghost early and my ward results managed to get lost somewhere in the system. They assured us they were in there but meanwhile as all the other candidates were assessing from screens how their votes were going – the one for Maybole North Carrick and Coylton was blank. We were in the dark.
Add to that the confusion of the spoilt papers – South Ayrshire had about 900 – and you can see it was a fun – or for that, read fraught – night for all concerned. I decided around 3am I was dead on my feet and decided to go home for a couple of hours rest. My head barely reached the pillow when the phone rang at 4.30am and I was called back to the Citadel. Things were happening I was told. Not quite true – but after standing around for another couple of hours the results were at last being announced and by 7.30am I was celebrating being a new councillor – one of 15 on the new-look South Ayrshire Council.
And new look it certainly is with 12 of us Tories, nine Labour, eight SNP and one Independent (Something the Ayrshire Post somehow managed to miss. Brian Connolly who beat me be one vote last time round, was re-elected)..The first couple of days passed in a bit of a haze – but I wasn`t alone in feeling like that. We were councillors but didn`t know where to go or what to do. The corridors of the County Buildings are a maze for the uninitiated. They all look alike so we found ourselves wandering aimlessly for a while and this combined with the tiredness produced that electionlag feeling.
The system has now clicked in and the council officers have arranged `councillor classes` for us. So it is a bit like going back to school to learn the intricacies of local government and how it operates. We will also need to learn how to work together. Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton is one ward with four councillors, one from each party – Tory, Labour, SNP and Independent. How we will share responsibility? It is a learning process for us all
The first meeting of the council proper is Monday, May 21 at 10am . How will it go?
I will certainly keep you posted.
Then I guess you could say things went from bad to worse. Being the cynics that we are and going on past experience, when the company engineers in charge of the super duper new system assured us beforehand that nothing could go wrong – we somehow knew that it would. Half their counting machines gave up the ghost early and my ward results managed to get lost somewhere in the system. They assured us they were in there but meanwhile as all the other candidates were assessing from screens how their votes were going – the one for Maybole North Carrick and Coylton was blank. We were in the dark.
Add to that the confusion of the spoilt papers – South Ayrshire had about 900 – and you can see it was a fun – or for that, read fraught – night for all concerned. I decided around 3am I was dead on my feet and decided to go home for a couple of hours rest. My head barely reached the pillow when the phone rang at 4.30am and I was called back to the Citadel. Things were happening I was told. Not quite true – but after standing around for another couple of hours the results were at last being announced and by 7.30am I was celebrating being a new councillor – one of 15 on the new-look South Ayrshire Council.
And new look it certainly is with 12 of us Tories, nine Labour, eight SNP and one Independent (Something the Ayrshire Post somehow managed to miss. Brian Connolly who beat me be one vote last time round, was re-elected)..The first couple of days passed in a bit of a haze – but I wasn`t alone in feeling like that. We were councillors but didn`t know where to go or what to do. The corridors of the County Buildings are a maze for the uninitiated. They all look alike so we found ourselves wandering aimlessly for a while and this combined with the tiredness produced that electionlag feeling.
The system has now clicked in and the council officers have arranged `councillor classes` for us. So it is a bit like going back to school to learn the intricacies of local government and how it operates. We will also need to learn how to work together. Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton is one ward with four councillors, one from each party – Tory, Labour, SNP and Independent. How we will share responsibility? It is a learning process for us all
The first meeting of the council proper is Monday, May 21 at 10am . How will it go?
I will certainly keep you posted.
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