Not happy at use of our money

Tuesday’s South Kesteven District Council cabinet meeting was a bit of a mess.

The discussion about the Thatcher (statue in Grantham) event began with a parade of cabinet members (all Conservatives) saying what a great idea it is. This included Council leader, Kelham Cooke, who works as a constituency officer for Gareth Davies, MP for Grantham and Stamford.

He said: “This presents a unique opportunity to celebrate our heritage & harness national and international interest to promote South Kesteven as a visitor destination and attract investment, all of which support plans to boost the local economy and regenerate the local area.” (Quoted from @southkesteven Twitter account)

Cllr Cooke also said: a) that he had spoken to the national chair of the Conservative party about the event;

b) he would continue to report progress on planning and fundraising for the event to the culture and visitor economy committee;

c) that the event will not take place until ‘post-Covid’.

Three non-cabinet members then asked questions, namely Amanda Wheeler (Lib-Dem), Phil Dilks (Ind) and me (Ind).

My comments were along the following lines: Nothing says more about the council’s attitude to the legacy of Margaret Thatcher than three recent decisions of this Conservativemajority council:

Firstly, we have taken the management of ground maintenance operations and our leisure centres back to ‘inhouse’ companies run by the council;

Secondly, we have a plan, albeit a very slow moving plan, to build hundreds of much needed new council houses;

Thirdly, the fluttering of an LGBT rainbow flag on the council’s flagpole…

The [cabinet] report shows that £50,000 will be spent via an ‘external management events management organisation’. Will this organisation be appointed via an open and transparent procurement process or will the council be using the recent Conservative tradition of awarding contracts to friends and family?”

Cllr Cooke chose to take the last comment personally and invited me to retract the statement. He would not allow me to add any context to my comment and shortly afterwards muted my microphone.

He then suggested moving to the vote. Cllr Phil Dilks interrupted to request that the questions from the noncabinet members should be addressed but Cllr Cooke said that the meeting was not a ‘Question and Answer’ session

and moved to the vote which was, of course, unanimous.

Disappointed with the lack of answers to legitimate questions about spending and procurement, I have submitted an FoI request on the matter: https://www.whatdotheyknow. com/request/thatcher_unveiling_external_even.

As the councillor who led the ‘call-in’ request, I would offer the following comment: It is not the statue of Margaret Thatcher that irks me, nor the concept of an unveiling event, rather it is the nonchalant, arrogant and disorganised manner in which the Conservatives seem willing to commit residents’ money to underwrite the event”.

Cllr Ashley Baxter Market & West Deeping

Ward