Can incoming Tory leader convince it’s time for change?
THE local Conservative Party this week announced a change at the top. Leader Brian Essex is standing down after 18 months in charge, with fellow councillor Peter Steen stepping up for the next six months or so.
For local Tories, the last couple of years have surely been a frustrating experience.
They have much to celebrate in terms of their work, but it hasn’t been reflected in the ballot box.
Cllr Essex’s column in the Free Press has become required reading for anyone who wants to understand what is going on about the Spinning Point development in Rawtenstall, as it veers from housing a hotel to flats, from shops to a spa, and it feels fair to assume his readiness to talk directly to voters via his column has resulted in the ruling Labour group being more open.
The local Tories have also worked hard to try and shed light on the council’s borrow-tobuild- to- earn- revenue strategy, which has seen the council take on many millions of pounds of debt, which has the potential to be very risky.
Labour, understandably, argue they have no choice in the face of falling council support from government.
Indeed, local Labour councillors get very frustrated at the ability of Tory councillors to criticise the spending decisions of the council, while not taking accountability for their tacit support of national funding cuts to councils.
In his departing press release, Cllr Essex talks about holding the council to account over the Empty Homes Scheme scandal, which centres around a Government-funded initiative to bring poor houses up to scratch.
The company the council hired to deliver the scheme on behalf of East Lancashire councils went bust, and Rossendale Council has had to pick up the multi-million pound cost since.
That cost, according to Cllr Essex, has now topped £6m - an incredible amount for a council with an annual budget of just £9m (and falling thanks to Government cuts). The council handed over a file of evidence to the police two years ago, and senior leaders continue to restrict what they will say about it on the grounds there is a police investigation going on.
Overall, this column would argue Cllr Essex’s legacy as leader will be that he led an opposition which forced the council to be more open.
The challenge for his successor is to turn that into votes.
It seems remarkable that, overall, Labour has barely felt the impact of the Empty Homes Scandal, the closure of Haslingden Baths, the never ending saga of the bus station and the ‘what next?’ strategy for the Spinning Point development in the council chamber.
While it remains in control of the council, Labour has seen itself lose the popular vote in recent local elections.
The challenge for the Tories is that its votes aren’t quite landing in the right places. On that basis, they are probably a victim of voter apathy. Local election turnout remains stubbornly below 40%.
To secure power, the local Tories need to convince the other 60% of the need for change.
Even getting a few hundred new voters out to vote for them would turn Rossendale Council blue.
But as Cllr Essex, and at least four of his predecessors have found out, that’s easier said than done.