Category: Government

BASILDON LOCAL ELECTIONS 2019 Well, here we are once again. The wheel has turned and I am sitting down to write my annual ‘Runners & Riders’ blog for our seemingly ceaseless cycle of elections. Normally the main problem is ‘voter fatigue’ and apathy but this year’s local elections will be like none we have witnessed…

At the February meeting of Full Council, the Leader of Basildon Council, Cllr Andrew Baggott (Con, Burstead), moved the following motion: “Council notes its strong association with the armed forces through the Civil Military Partnership Board and having awarded Freedom of the Borough to the Royal Anglian Regiment. Council deplores the persecution of any Basildon…

Once again, we find our community blighted by illegal encampments. On Monday 29th January a group of caravans pitched up at the car park on Hannakins Farm Community Centre in West Billericay. Billericay West councillors were immediately in touch with Basildon Council officers and the Essex Countywide Traveller Unit (ECTU) and kicked off the whole…

Regular readers will recall that I was vehemently opposed to the 2014 application to build a solar farm covering over 26 hectares on Green Belt land off Outwood Farm Road in Billericay. This was granted permission by the Planning Committee, despite an officer recommendation to refuse and opposition from Billericay Town Council, Chelmsford City Council…

I start with my customary apology. I have not had time to blog for a while and I never got around to writing up the July meeting of Full Council but I want to write up the meeting of Full Council held Thursday night. MAX WHITLOCK The evening started with tributes being paid to Olympic…

Well, that is all she wrote. It is 3:30am on Friday 6th May and I have just got back from the Count after what was a mixed night for the Conservatives. Heaven only knows why I am typing this up now but it is all swimming around in my head. Ultimately, the Tories won six…

There has been a lot of adverse comment, both on social media and elsewhere, regarding the recent cut to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) – much of it in the form of tedious memes about Tory MPs’ expenses claims (which now pass through an independent authority and, when looked into, usually account for paying staff). But such…

Unfortunately, due to the guillotine being reached, I was unable to deliver my backbench speech on the 2016 Budget for the Borough of Basildon but below is the full text of the speech I would have given: I cannot say I rise to greet this budget with the same enthusiasm I have previous budgets because –…

Below is the full text of my speech at the meeting of Full Council on 11th February 2016 on the Grammar Schools motion: Almost everyone but the most ardent Left-wingers generally acknowledge there have been problems with our comprehensive education system – they just haven’t been able, historically, to agree on a way to combat…

Apologies that is has taken me over a week to pen this blog about the budget-setting meeting of Full Council on Thursday 11th February but I have had a lot on. The meeting was preceded by an extraordinary meeting of the Council to vote on a proposal from the Deputy Mayor – Cllr Danny Lawrence…