Tonight saw an explosive meeting of Tamworth Borough Councillors for a ‘Budget Scrutiny’. It’s a meeting at which members of the council can question the executive members (cabinet) of the council and make suggestions for improvements. You can watch It online or below this post if you wish to see just how badly the Labour party will run the town from next year, you’re in for a shocker Tamworth. It became clear from the off that Labour and Independent Future had no idea what their remit was. The first stumble was the appointment of a chairperson which for reasons only known to themselves passed on down the Labour side until a clearly startled Councillor Chris Bain took on the job.
Rather than make helpful suggestions it seemed that the Labour Party and Councillor Danny Cook were hell bent on portraying the Conservatives as uncaring towards the vulnerable in our town. A narrative their national parties try to push, and unfortunately for the Tory party mud sticks. Frequent mention was made of a gentleman who appeared at the back of last night’s full council meeting who apparently shouted out to the meeting that he couldn’t afford to put his heating on. If you were any kind of conspiracy theorist you’d think the guy was planted so that they could make reference to him continually during this meeting. We don’t actually think they’re that well organised, and as usual opportunism was their friend.
The meeting descended into anger from a Tory Councillor who has been dubbed by a certain troll we all know and love as being the ‘Mr Angry’ of the council, Councillor Martin Summers, who vehemently hit back at suggestions the council was not doing enough, pointing out the help available to those in need. In particular Councillor Peter Thurgood (who if you’ve ever seen his contributions you’d wonder how he ties his shoes, and we can only describe as a wet lettuce) drew fire from Summers for suggesting that it would be convenient for him if the elderly and vulnerable were to die, since according to Thurgood, telling people there is help and where they can get it is apparently not good enough. This prompted a call for an apology from Councillor Summers which Thurgood denied him. Naturally when a Tory is being attacked there wouldn’t be any intervention from a Labour chairperson, instead Summers was himself rebuked by Bain for his outbursts instead.
Unfortunately not one of the Councillors in the room had anything constructive to bring to improve the councils budget. Labour it seems just wanted to cancel outdoor events and promotions such as the fireworks, among a few other confused and contradictory contributions from Councillor Carol Dean. As was pointed out to them, cancelling fireworks isn’t going to help anyone who can’t afford to put their heating on.
Councillor Danny Cook who presided over Tamworths finances as leader of the council for a decade, as usual failed to see the irony in questioning things he had once set in motion. We actually think perhaps he knows exactly where he failed and likes to point those things out now he’s not attached to them, for his own political gain. Co-leader of the Council Councillor Thomas Jay trudged on through figures, that to your average person is just white noise, until the meeting mercifully ended with no-one any further forward. If you’ve not watched a meeting before, this is the one for you. Debunking actually got a letter in to the Mailbag after the meeting which we will feature as it about sums it up.
Well we heard it tonight…Labours Carol Dean wants less outdoor events for the people of Tamworth and our Conservative come independent past leader Danny Cook has found his new heart and wants more spent on the those suffering from the cost of living crisis while he keeps himself nice and warm in his big multi roomed detached house when not driving around in his greenhouse gas busting car. For goodness sake, the Conservatives are proposing a sensible budget and way forward.
