Election News Roundup

Of course, too late to make this week’s edition of the Herald, the big news of the week (well, we live in a small town after all) is the result of the Surrey County Council elections.  No surprise that the Conservatives have retained control, indeed they have increased their majority by four seats, despite losing Haslemere and  Shalford (where they screwed up and managed not to field a candidate).  A couple of UKIP candidates made it, one in Shalford .

In Haslemere, Nikki Barton beat Stephen Mulliner by a mere 20 votes - 1,208 to 1,188.

The Surrey Advertiser's on-line edition has the results here.

 

On the front page of the Haslemere Herald an article and photograph reporting the awards to the “Magnificent Seven” for services to Haslemere.  Among them Michael Dover, honoured for services to Hindhead and the Heavy Brigade.  Is this, I ask,  the same Michael Dover, member of Haslemere Town Council, who was recently censured for infringing the Councillors’ Code of Conduct?  Did he recuse himself when HTC voted to pay grants to the Heavy Brigade – we shall never know because, unlike almost every other council, HTC holds its grants panel meetings in “exempt” (ie excluding the public and keeping the minutes secret)?

Also in the Herald, this piece on the formation of a UKIP “opposition” group on Waverley Borough Council.

What a topsy-turvy world we live in when the Conservatives form the Left Wing on our local council!  The council leader, Robert Knowles, welcomes the new group – as well he might, because surely it is good for him as well that he has at least someone to stand up and hold him to account, even if it is just the court jester.

On the same page, the Haslemere Vision launch in the Haslemere Hall last Saturday is hailed a great success.  I trust you all went and looked at the exhibits, and wrote your comments on post-its to let them know what you think, whether supporting or critical.

Further on, this gem in which we learn that “Being Mayor is easy as ABC”. 

 

To be fair, those are the Herald’s words, not Ms Lancaster’s but from the meeting I attended, she didn’t seem to find it that easy:  muddling the order of agenda items; forgetting to deal with councillors’ disclosure of interests at the start, as required by law; missing items out altogether, and; ostentatiously placing an “egg-timer” on the table for the address of neighbouring councillor Anne Bott, of Godalming Town Council who was updating HTC on the revised Code of Conduct for Councillors, and cutting her short – a solecism which I understand earned her a formal complaint to the standards officers at Waverley under that very same code of conduct.  (Not, I hasten to add, from me – nor do I know who it actually was).

Finally, on the letters page this from Longdene Rd resident Chris Cook, including a valdeictory to our retiring Surrey Councillor Steve Renshaw.

Who on earth can he be referring to who might have earned himself a tweet on the twitter account of @YPLAC (and I am not going to spell that out, it’s rude)?