UKIP Councillor Chris Wells has been elected as Leader of Thanet District Council at last night’s (Thursday 21 May) Annual Council meeting.
This was the first council meeting following the 2015 elections held on Thursday 7 May which saw UKIP win 33 seats taking overall control of the council. The Conservatives secured 18, Labour four and one seat went to an Independent Councillor.
The annual meeting saw elections and appointments of all of the key council positions with Cllr. Lin Fairbrass elected as the Deputy Leader.
The Leader of the Opposition is Conservative’s Cllr. Bob Bayford and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is Cllr Jason Savage.
Chairmanship of the Council is now held by UKIP’s Cllr Rev. Stuart Piper, with party colleague Cllr Alan Howes as the Vice-Chairman.
Formal appointments for 2015:
Leader of the Council
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Cllr. Chris Wells
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UKIP
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Deputy Leader of the Council
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Cllr. Lin Fairbrass
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UKIP
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Leader of the Opposition
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Cllr. Bob Bayford
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Conservative
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Deputy Leader of the Opposition
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Cllr. Jason Savage
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Conservative
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Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairman
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Cllr. David Saunders
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Conservative
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Overview and Scrutiny Vice-Chairmen
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Cllr. Glenn Coleman-Cooke
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UKIP
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Planning Committee Chairman
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Cllr. Peter Evans
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UKIP
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Planning Committee Vice-Chairman
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Cllr. Edward Jaye-Jones
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UKIP
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Licensing Board Chairman
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Cllr. Linda Potts
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UKIP
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Licensing Board Vice-Chairman
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Cllr. Bertie Braidwood
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UKIP
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Governance and Audit Committee Chairman
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Cllr. Vince Munday
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UKIP
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Governance and Audit Committee Vice-Chairman
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Cllr. John Buckley
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UKIP
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Joint Transportation Board Chairman
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Cllr. Gary Taylor
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UKIP
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Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet appointments:
Portfolio
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Cabinet Member (UKIP)
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Shadow Cabinet Member (Conservative)
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Leader of the Council
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Cllr. Chris Wells
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Cllr. Bob Bayford
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Community Services
Includes:
Community Safety, Margate Task Force, Events, Community Development, Indoor and Outdoor Leisure, Safeguarding Children, Sport, Youth, Your Leisure Kent Ltd, Land Charges, Licensing, Environmental Health including integrated Pollution Control, Street Nameplates, Statutory Nuisance, Food Safety and External Health and Safety, Health and Wellbeing Board, Housing Intervention, Private Sector Housing, Housing Needs/Homelessness, Housing Strategy, Client-side East Kent Housing, Building Control, Strategic Planning, Planning Applications, Planning Enforcement, Conservation.
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Cllr. Lin Fairbrass
Also Deputy Leader of the Council
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Cllr. Lesley Game
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Corporate Governance Services
Includes:
Business Information and Improvement, Information and Communications (including Public Relations, Marketing, Press relations, Internal Communications, film locations and Records and Data Management), Business Support and Compliance (including Corporate Governance and Business Continuity), Policy and Business Planning (including Performance Management), Business Transformation and Options, Procurements and Contracts, Risk Management.
Customer Services, Customer Access, Human Resources (including internal Health and Safety), It.
Democratic Services including Electoral Management, Member Services and Legal Services.
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Cllr. Helen Smith
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Cllr. Rosanna Taylor-Smith
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Financial Services and Estates
Includes:
Budget Setting, Monitoring and Final Accounts, Treasury Management (Revenue, Capital and HRA), Insurance, Income Payments, Systems Control and Improvement, Commercial Property, East Kent Audit Partnership, Property Management (including asset disposal, acquisition and asset management), Housing and Council Tax Benefits, Revenues (including Debt Recovery).
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Cllr. John Townend
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Cllr. Ian Gregory
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Operational Services
Includes:
Cemeteries and Crematorium, Emergency Planning, Coastal Engineering, Grounds Maintenance, Parks and Open Spaces Management, Playgrounds, Public Toilets, Street Cleaning, Recycling and Waste, Off Street Parking, On Street Parking, Street Scene Enforcement, Temporary Road Closure Orders, Thanet Coast Project, Water Safety and Beach Services, Foreshore, Allotments, CCTV.
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Cllr. Suzanne Brimm
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Cllr. Ken Gregory
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Regeneration and Enterprise Services
Includes:
Economic Development and Regeneration Policy, East Kent Opportunities Ltd, Tourism, Business Engagement, Town Teams, Strategic Conservation Policy, Media Centre, Kent Innovation Centre, East Kent Regeneration Board, Invest Thanet, Business Engagement, Kent and Medway Economic Partnership, Port of Ramsgate, Ramsgate Royal Harbour Marina, Broadstairs and Margate Harbours.
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Cllr. Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing
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Cllr. Jason Savage
Also Shadow Deputy Leader of the Council
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Regardless what one thinks about UKIP as a party, it will be interesting to see whether anything is going to change to the better, meaning less technical incompetence and more proper public engagement work, or whether things are getting even worse as they were before - the latter would be difficult to achieve. I am almost certain that the people have not voted UKIP in because they like their anti-European and anti-immigration policy but because they had been fed up with the incompetent backroom deal mentality of the local labour party and also still remembered the same bad times when the conservatives were in power... I assume they simply had enough and wanted something new. One can only hope Chris Wells and his friends are not going to disappoint that hope for the better for Thanet. I am saying this as someone who is certainly not a UKIP fan.
ReplyDeleteopenness and honesty will be the way to go,
ReplyDeleteI guess the real issue now will not so much be people’s reasons for voting but the new councillor’s reasons for standing. Apart from Chris Wells, who was a member of the previous Conservative cabinets led by Sandy Ezekiel and Bob Bayford we do have a break from the past. We also seem to have better representation in terms of the geographical spread across Thanet of where councillors live.
ReplyDeleteTwo issues with the councillors have been the animosity that has developed between different councillors over the years and a sense that cabinet and committee posts being handed out as though the allowances were prizes