Dave Black you missed one CC Lyn Camsell
March 26 2008
Labour leaders can’t make starting gate
by Dave Black, The Journal
MORE than half of the ruling Labour group on Northumberland County Council are set to be missing when elections for the county’s new unitary super council are held in May.
The scale of the changes afoot under the switch to an all-purpose single authority next year is shown by the fact that up to 20 members of the current 35-strong Labour administration at County Hall are set to miss out.
They will be replaced at the elections by sitting Labour district councillors or new party candidates after a fraught selection process, which has seen some of them fail to be chosen by their local branches or lose out to controversial all-women shortlists.
The shake-up starts at the top and of the current eight-strong Labour executive at County Hall, only deputy leader Tony Reid has survived from the process of selecting candidates for the May poll.
County council leader Peter Hillman and Wansbeck councillor John Smith have failed to be selected, former leader Bill Brooks and Cramlington councillor Ivan Hayes have seen their seats earmarked for women candidates while Couns Jim Wright, Mick Scullion and Dorothy Luke have decided not to stand for election.
Other senior Labour councillors who have stood down or failed to win selection include former leader Michael Davey, former social services chairman Bill Ashbridge, former deputy leader John Whiteman and former planning chairman David Nicholson.
The mass exodus has prompted claims that the new unitary council – due to take over in April 2009 – will lack experience in running county council services such as education, social services and highways.
There have also been murmurings of a deliberate campaign to oust Labour county councillors who supported the single unitary option rather than the two separate all-purpose councils promoted by the six districts.
One Labour insider said: “There is no doubt there has been a campaign to get rid of county councillors who nailed their colours to the single unitary mast. Anyone can see that. A few scores have been settled and there has been a lot of bitterness.”
Yesterday Blyth Valley Borough Council leader Dave Stephens, who is also a Labour county councillor and will contest the May election, said: “Any suggestion that this has been payback time is completely false. What has happened is that this will be a brand new council and all existing councillors, both county and district, have put their names forward for selection.
“I am confident that the people who have been selected will be able to do a good job, because most of them have experience of being councillors and running things.”
A number of experienced Conservative and Lib Dem county councillors will also be missing when the elections are held in May. Those from all three parties who have failed to be selected will now be considering whether to stand for election as independent candidates
by Dave Black, The Journal
MORE than half of the ruling Labour group on Northumberland County Council are set to be missing when elections for the county’s new unitary super council are held in May.
The scale of the changes afoot under the switch to an all-purpose single authority next year is shown by the fact that up to 20 members of the current 35-strong Labour administration at County Hall are set to miss out.
They will be replaced at the elections by sitting Labour district councillors or new party candidates after a fraught selection process, which has seen some of them fail to be chosen by their local branches or lose out to controversial all-women shortlists.
The shake-up starts at the top and of the current eight-strong Labour executive at County Hall, only deputy leader Tony Reid has survived from the process of selecting candidates for the May poll.
County council leader Peter Hillman and Wansbeck councillor John Smith have failed to be selected, former leader Bill Brooks and Cramlington councillor Ivan Hayes have seen their seats earmarked for women candidates while Couns Jim Wright, Mick Scullion and Dorothy Luke have decided not to stand for election.
Other senior Labour councillors who have stood down or failed to win selection include former leader Michael Davey, former social services chairman Bill Ashbridge, former deputy leader John Whiteman and former planning chairman David Nicholson.
The mass exodus has prompted claims that the new unitary council – due to take over in April 2009 – will lack experience in running county council services such as education, social services and highways.
There have also been murmurings of a deliberate campaign to oust Labour county councillors who supported the single unitary option rather than the two separate all-purpose councils promoted by the six districts.
One Labour insider said: “There is no doubt there has been a campaign to get rid of county councillors who nailed their colours to the single unitary mast. Anyone can see that. A few scores have been settled and there has been a lot of bitterness.”
Yesterday Blyth Valley Borough Council leader Dave Stephens, who is also a Labour county councillor and will contest the May election, said: “Any suggestion that this has been payback time is completely false. What has happened is that this will be a brand new council and all existing councillors, both county and district, have put their names forward for selection.
“I am confident that the people who have been selected will be able to do a good job, because most of them have experience of being councillors and running things.”
A number of experienced Conservative and Lib Dem county councillors will also be missing when the elections are held in May. Those from all three parties who have failed to be selected will now be considering whether to stand for election as independent candidates
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