Extraordinary Meeting 13th October

[notenoughsaid]

    Having watched the video of the fiasco in the Council Chamber 13/10/14 few come out with any credit.   Well done to the five councillors who brought proposition and to those who voted for it. Shame on the rest.!!!

    My first thought afterwards reminded me of the words of a David Essex song along the lines "Oh what a circus, Oh what a show". A right pantomine if it wasn't so serious.

    Watching the actions of the ill at ease CEO Mr.Stubbs reminded me of a quote made by him at a Council meeting  some years ago ( when he held a lower position than now) whereby he stated "the Hartlepool  Mail is not noted for it's veracity"  a word which I had to look up.   Please do the  same if you are not familiar with it.  You will see that we now have a classic case of people living in glass houses throwing stones.   It is fair to say the said expression can be now be applied  replacing "Hartlepool Mail" with the "Labour group and its leaders"

     As a footnote I felt sorry for Coun.Fleet who was completely out of her depth as Chair. with few  attempts made to keep order or control the meeting  Mind you a lion tamer would of had his work cut out seeing the mindset of the Lab/Con.  coalition.

[beanzontoast]

Yes councillor Riddel has launched a complaint through the proper channels, as have several other councillors including UKIP. The complaints have been recorded and acknowledged.

[fred c]

Anyone who witnesed the disgraceful behaviour of cranney can make an official complaint......just email Mr P Devlin Borough Solicitor.

Mine went it on Monday......the councils code of conductn is something else "The TorLab Mob" abuse.

Lets see how many people actually take the time to send that simple email ......

[fred c]

Putting Mary Fleet in that position was a craven act of cowardice by The Mob........ where were Cranney or Richardson or Jackson or Payne or James........ the poor woman was left to be ridiculed & they didn't give a monkey's ......

Only in Hartlepol & Only under "The Mob"

[beanzontoast]

The UKIP councillors did have a statement to make, and it would have went much further than a request for the mayor to stand down until his appeal had been heard, you must remember council meetings have to be conducted much like a court of law the problem was with UKIP and the other councillors on the day was labours narrow frame of reference you could not combine gross misconduct with the Hartlepool radio fiasco, you can only combine them by getting it in before someone stops you which they did, and they did the main problem though was in the small print, it stated the mayor's gross misconduct had damaged the council's relationship with Newcastle council labours motion to the Dave Stubbs said there was no damage so all labour had to do was get it to a vote which they did and the rest as they say is history, one other snippet councillor Payne has been deselected by labour but still voted with them tribal loyalty. Voting for anyone but labour will restore democracy the polling stations will be open in May.

[SRMoore]

If  either of the UKIP councillors had a statement to make they certainly didn't indicate it at any point during the meeting, either during the opening statements or during the 'debate' that followed.

It was interesting to note that not a single councillor stood up and either praised or attempted to defend the ceremonial mayor on Monday. Not a single bit of praise... So despite the fact that the faithful sheep fell into line and did as told to save him, the absence of any form of defense/praise was very telling.

[Tommy]

SRMoore, UKIP really do need to stick their heads up a little more in town and in the Council chamber, its my belief that if they do they could gain more seats in May and a good chance at the rate the Labour/Tory alliance are going here in Hartlepool to be seated as the towns new MP.

It must be quite embarrassing for you as a Tory SRMoore, knowing your current party Cllrs in Hartlepool agree with everything Labour want them to. Does the national arm of your party know whats going on here in town?, you should put yourself forward. 

[SRMoore]

I'm not angry with them but very disappointed... Again!

[steveL]

It seems clear to me that the 'cunning' plan was put together jointly by Stubbs and the Akers-Belchers/Richardson. As Mary is the official deputy Mayor it would have looked very strange if anyone but Mary had taken the Chair but Mary was Labour's weak spot. Everything depended on the Chair agreeing with Labour's tactic and when Mary started to wobble, swayed by the public gallery, Richardson promptly stood up and told her that the decision was not for the public to make but for elected members.

If she had allowed a full debate she would have got it in the neck from Labour afterwards so we ended up with a hybrid, disorganised mess.

Stubbs is a real disgrace - sold his soul for a pension.

[steveL]

Just had an e-mail from Danny saying that the number of visitors to the site since Monday has doubled. It will only be a temporary thing but it shows that a lot of people are interested in what's going on.

[steveL]

If Cranney paid back all of the public money he's wasted over the years through his 21 companies then it could have a significant impact on reducing the Government deficit.

[Foggy]

If  either of the UKIP councillors had a statement to make they certainly didn't indicate it at any point during the meeting, either during the opening statements or during the 'debate' that followed.

I saw George Springer put his hand up to speak once, along with many others on that side of the chamber, following Brash and Thompson's statements.  However, Mary Fleet looked at them looking a little confused and invited Marjorie James to read out her prepared statement instead.  Although to be fair, I never saw Springer's hand go up again after that.

One of the most telling moments for me was when Jonathan Brash asked Mary Fleet if she felt the matter had been sufficiently discussed and he was met with deafening silence.  I looked across towards the Labour lot and Kaylee Sirs put her head in her hands!! A significant sign that their big plan had failed!!

[steveL]

I wouldn't make too much of UKIP's silence on Monday. The opportunities to speak were severely curtailed and we only heard what we did because several councillors used points of order to slyly slip in parts of what they really wanted to say. In a true debate, every councillor would have been given the chance to throw in their two-penneth. Remember the meeting was over with in an hour and a normal council meeting can go on until 9pm so there was plenty of time to hold a full debate.

Time was not the issue here. This was all about Labour's attempt to cut short the debate. You either allow a full debate or you don't. There is no allowance in the constitution for 'a limited debate', especially in a meeting with only one discussion item, but a limited debate is what we ended up with here.

A telling point that someone else made was that no one in the Labour ranks spoke up in defence of SAB. This was because everything had been based on their plan to stifle the debate - all eggs in one basket.

There were some very uncomfortable people in the Labour ranks on Monday - Robbie Payne's head never left his hands and rightly so. Shame on the lot of them.

[SRMoore]

If  either of the UKIP councillors had a statement to make they certainly didn't indicate it at any point during the meeting, either during the opening statements or during the 'debate' that followed.

I saw George Springer put his hand up to speak once, along with many others on that side of the chamber, following Brash and Thompson's statements.  However, Mary Fleet looked at them looking a little confused and invited Marjorie James to read out her prepared statement instead.  Although to be fair, I never saw Springer's hand go up again after that.

If that is the case then I'll stand corrected. I, personally, did not see George or Tom raise a hand or make any other indication that they wished to speak.

[clav 73]

Shane your comment about sheep must be a wind up as that's how your lot acted as well