Is this the laziest administration ever?

Here is a list of all the working parties at Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

	Last met	Chair	Meetings since May 2016
Biodiversity and Environmental Awareness Working Party	18 April 2016	Cllr Holland	0
Conservation Working Party	14 March 2016	Cllr Holland	0
Cultural, Tourism and Events Working Party	3 March 2016	Cllr Holland	0
Grants Strategy Working Party	17 December 2014	Cllr Moring	0
Holocaust Memorial Day Working Party	5 September 2016	Cllr Moring	1
Housing Working Party	1 March 2016	Cllr Flewitt	0
Joint Place and Policy and Resources Programme Working Party	Never	Cllr Ayling	0
London Southend Airport Monitoring Working Party	20 September 2016	Cllr Cox	1
Member Advisory Forum (RE Trading Companies)	Never	Cllr Lamb	0
People Management, Accommodation and Digital Strategy Working Party	Never	Cllr Lamb	0
Public Transport and Buses Working Party	16 March 2017	Cllr Aylen	6
School Places Working Party	6 February 2017	Cllr Courtenay	1
Southend-on-Sea Local Development Framework Working Party	6 September 2017	Cllr Flewitt	1
Traffic and Parking Working Party	9 March 2017	Cllr Cox	5
Waste Management Working Party	30 November 2016	Cllr Cox	1

·         15 working parties in total

·         Only 7 have met since the UKIP-Conservative coalition took over last May.

·         None that Cllr Holland chair have met at all. The same is true for Cllr Lamb.

This does make me wonder why the UKIP-Conservative coalition's record is so poor. Are they attempting to become the laziest administration ever?

Of course it could be worse, which may be tempting fate for the coming civic year.

https://portal.southend.gov.uk/,DanaInfo=southendintranet.moderngov.co.uk,SSL+mgListCommittees.aspx?bcr=1

It comes to something when even your own side have to be induced to support you

With no one party managing to achieve a majority in the Council chamber in Southend-on-Sea it was inevitable that an amount of horse trading would ensue. Whilst I take no pleasure in seeing the Tories back in control, the marriage of two right-wing parties to make this possible was inevitable.

At least those who allowed themselves to believe that UKIP was an alternative to Conservatives will now be somewhat disabused of this notion.

What was surprising, though, was sight of a Conservative Leader effectively bribing his own members to support his challenge for leadership of the council. Weak leadership now characterises the top of the local Conservative Party.

Cllr Lamb has expanded the size of the Cabinet (in spite of pledges to do the exact reverse) so that dissident voices could be bought off. The only other explanation is that it takes eight Tories to do what the Joint Administration managed with seven (which may be true in any case).

For the record I have never had to be seduced into showing my loyalty, nor offered support in exchange for either filthy lucre or the baubles of office. I support my party as that is where my principles lie.

As for some in the Conservative Party, it seems that their attitude to principles mirrors that of Groucho Marx ("Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.")