Will the Last One to Leave Hartlepool Please Turn Out the Light?

[testing times]

A variation on a famous headline but very much how I felt this morning when I read this depressing news. At least now the Politburo will be fully exposed for their actions and no longer be able to blame Mr Drummond.

[The Great Dictator]

Precisely, if drummond was as good as he says he was then he'll have no bother getting another top job...

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

OK, Drummond may not have been Mr Wonderful, but I reckon that we're going to regret the results of yesterday's election pretty sharpish.

As I see it, the role of PHF and other Independents could increasingly become that of striving to provide 'checks and balances' against the Labour/Tory leviathan; a leviathan which doesn't seem too willing to face up to the Peer Group Review's findings (is 'in denial' too strong a phrase)?

Poor old Hartlepool - no clear cut leader...no real prospects for growth...no jobs...no money...no stability...no hospital (before long)...I'm not normally one to feel down, but I do despair for the town.

Maybe 'Tees Valley City Outpost' isn't as bad a fate as it first seemed...

[Stig of the Seaton Dump]

Drummond let us down over his lack of fight for the A&E, he championed the expensive jolly of the Tall Ships and he also failed to control the councillors.
Hartlepool also had a chance to vote in a more effective Mayor and didn't, so was there any real hope for the future.

Lets hope him not being around means the labour pocket fillers get noticed more and got rid of when the elections come around again.

[steveL]

That is perhaps the one bright light in all of this.

I would dare to make a few predictions:

• The Government council tax grant paid to 'freeze' council tax will now be turned down and we can look forward to a maximum increase in council tax - part of which will be used to offset the 20% reduction in council tax benefit for predominatly Labour voters.
• We will wait several months before we hear anything of the additional payments to be paid to the Leader of the Council, Deputies and Chairs and when it does happen it will be attributed to the Remuneration Panel
• There will be an increase in the number of Committees and therefore the number of paid Chairs
• Basic allowance increases which have been held back until after the referendum (the report was due in September) will be slipped through during the Christmas period when people are busy with other things
• The Peer Group findings will be dismissed as now being irrelevant as the structure of the council has now changed
• There will be an exodus of council staff to other authorities
• Christopher Akers-Belcher will refuse to resign from his full-time job as Links Coordinator despite being labelled as 'Two-Jobs Akers-Belcher' in the Press. He will instead make constant claims for paid time-off to attend to council business and be supported in this by UNISON
• Damien Wilson will be appointed to the vacant Director position and Dave 'I got this job because I'm old' Stubbs will retire late next year and be replaced with Wilson after only one year as Director

[fred c]

I would back you get 7 out of the 8 bullet points correct..............

Do you fancy doing a fixed odds football coupon anytime...... Crystal Ball gazer that you are....... lol