Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Some closing comments on events last week.
Sarah Content’s rewarding with (sorry ‘awarding of’) district council posts to the ‘gang of five’ that sided with the Lib Dems has thrown up several interesting points. Three out of the five have received jobs involving additional allowances; the two that have missed out being Cllr. Manasseh (who is now the WWDC representative on several outside bodies), and Cllr. Oakman who is now vice Chairman of the Council.

The lucky three are Cllr. Newbury (who, The Wiltshire Times states, was sacked from the previous Cabinet last August, after he was involved in an attempt to remove the then Chairman), Cllr. Cox and Cllr. Syme. Cllr. Newbury is now Chairman of the Planning Committee (allowance £2,750 pa). Cllr. Cox is the deputy leader (allowance £5,625 pa) but, according to a spread sheet I have seen, he is the only cabinet member with no improvements to drive through or any targets for ‘Getting the Job Done’ – a nice little number, in other words. Cllr. Syme is now the portfolio holder for Communications (allowance £3,750) and this appointment is very interesting for two reasons. Firstly, ‘Communications’ was regarded as such an ‘easy’ job by the previous administration that the deputy leader dealt with it as well as his other commitments; secondly, WWDC records show that Cllr. Syme only managed to attend 45% of possible meetings over the last financial year. Interestingly, this is also the attendance figure given for Cllr Chivers, the new Community & Leisure portfolio holder. Whilst past attendance statistics can be distorted by things such as illness, let us hope that the members of the new Cabinet are able to improve upon these, frankly, shamefully low figures.

It has been put to me that many of these appointments are a classic “Jobs for the boys” scenario – personally, I would rather not comment.

I am sure that the new Cabinet members are going to do their best but, if they start undoing the savings made by the last administration, they will either have to make cuts elsewhere, or put our Council Tax up. Judging on past form, I have a nasty feeling that they will opt for the latter.

One final thought. Cllr. Osborn (Planning portfolio) has stated that re-igniting the Vision for Trowbridge is one of his main priorities. “Great sound bite”, Cllr. Osborn except for the fact that the previous administration hadn’t let the flame go out. Just because a third of the Cabinet, including the leader, represent Trowbridge wards (and a further third is drawn from representatives of other towns), don’t think that those of us that live in the rural areas are ‘cash cows’ to be milked for the benefit of your urban electorate!!