Category: SMITH, Cllr Kerry (Ind, Nethermayne)

As I come to write up last Thursday’s meeting of Full Council, I would just ask readers to bear with me, as this was a mammoth SEVEN-HOUR meeting that went on until two o’clock in the morning. The meeting started at 7pm, earlier than usual, with a special Extraordinary Meeting to consider two nominations for…

Well, it was only a matter of time and all of us in the Conservative Group predicted it would eventually happen – how could it not with such a motley assortment of waifs and strays? – but the inevitable has finally officially been announced. The UKIP Group on Basildon Council has split. Councillors have formally…

As regular readers will know, I do not generally write up meetings of Basildon Council’s Planning Committee, but last week’s meeting held on Tuesday 30th June turned out to be an unusually controversial affair. Firstly, a bit of background on the new enlarged committee, which now has ten members: four Tories – Cllrs Carole Morris…

So, thought I’d write-up the Basildon Council Annual Meeting held on Thursday. These are normally quite civil, set-piece affairs, where we elect our Mayor and Deputy Mayor for the municipal year and also pass the winning party’s Order Paper, enabling them to form an Administration. The Order Paper confirms the Leader and Deputy Leader of…

It is now officially Polling Day and chronic insomnia allows me this opportunity to make some election night predictions and speak briefly about the elections before us – not just the General Election to Parliament but also our own local borough council elections. Every politician says at every election that it is “the most important…

The events at last week’s meeting of Full Council were fairly hum-drum, considering the backdrop and the huge changes to the Council’s composition over the past few weeks, and I therefore anticipate this blog will be more ‘gossipy’ than usual. So, if political gossip and intrigue does not interest you then read no further. First,…

My last blog on Full Council (sadly since disappeared due to technical issues) proved popular, so I thought I would do another quick write-up of last Thursday’s meeting of Full Council, which proved almost as hot-tempered as the last one. We knew from the get-go that it was going to be a long meeting because…

I just wanted to record some thoughts on last Thursday