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Hi Sue .Indeed like I said around transport and other issues we worked closely together , but sadly once your Nigel got control he did away with that committee as it was doing things!!
I always find Helen Bartello(never short of a swear word lol ). But Aylsham clkrs always fought for there ward, Derek Garrity another, I think Percy was ok but got sucked in by people and the role .
Frank Woodbridge was a good chairperson
Although I don't share most of Pauls politics it hurts me to say he was a good leader , which is what is required.
Never really rated Philip King , thought Mary was the better cllr
But in those days Sue as you recall at that time you were part of the Lib Dems ((where are the lib Dems now?) They elected 6, cllrs I think it was enough to dismantle the Tory administration , but Philip wanted to keep them there, only by going to the lib dem head office did a lab/lib partnership(if you can call it that )
Formed, only to find no lib dem wanted to chair any committee, and really the partnership never really came off.
The next election saw mist of the lib Dems disappear until today where they don't feature anywhere .
I have always said we need an effective and strong opposition , but at the mo I just don't see it, and it's going to take years to rebuild trust.
I get the horrible feeling us just going to rely on Boris to cock up more , in the hope that will get cllrs elected , but I fear that won't happen .
With wards far to big now we are less likely to see cllrs .
I found it strange the large number of town councillors we have (4) and how they managed to keep so many , and on the other hand, we still don't see them, or many of them.
We see Rebecca sawbridge because she likes to be in communities.
Gwyn prosser was ok in the chamber , but no good in community , but held onto my coat tails to get elected then didn't see him in community often for four years , but he was after MP job and I have to say he worked hard to achieve it , and although I don't share his politics he did what he set out to do, first opposing the channel tunnel, then onto councils , before reducing the majority the conservative MP to 833 votes that was the sign the seat was winnable, and he won and held the seat three times against all odds .
I'm glad it appears labour has scrapped M Woods the candidate that failed in do many wards to get elected and she isn't reappearing.
I found in letter years P Wallace was good to start off with , but slowly he went round promising the world to everyone in the ward, started projects with no feedback or final outcomes and i was having to pick up the pieces , and was glad to see him go , I think he lost the trust of the party when he went into a buddy scheme to get rid of the labour respected chairperson John Bird .
Wallace went in with bully boy Mike Eddy
And ousted J bird
Then internal warfare took place , and Wallace chucked in the chair , where Eddy soon found out Wallace wasnt up to it and soon replaced him.
He (Wallace ) was rumoured to want to be an MP
But really he wasn't up to that .
In later years Ian Palmer wax quite good until he bogged himself down with one minority issue and stopped listening to people but it appears his party were not a fan of his so he didn't stay long .
So what we have is much of the same old , in need of new blood that can commit to taking on the administration , it is time consuming if you don't correctly
.
Let's not forget although not socialists we had a number of labour mayor's over the years who could have come from Any party and often that was the problem the fight was bigger about who's going to get the chain around there neck, than what they will do for Dover !
Jim hood didn't do that bad as chairperson of technical services as it was then.
Of course we can't forget Jackie good who said it as it was .
I recall sitting next to her on housing committee where she said she hated the French
I had to disassociate myself from that comment as I could see that being headlines in local papers (at that time reporters attended meetings !)
It was front page .
A meeting a few months later she said she had no time for homeless and I had to again disassociate myself as it was to hit local papers ..
But I found Jackie to have a heart of gold
I was in a school governor meeting with her and I happened to mention my wife was away and she wanted to make sure I ate and invited me to dinner !
I didn't go but the thought was there .
So looks like labour opposition long term as I say .
Iv seen the failed labour parliamentary candidate at last election on TV and interestingly still quoted as ex parliamentary candidate , does that mean she's still going to be the candidate?
I hope labour has learnt it's lesson on that one