Support Your Local Sheriff

This video is dedicated to all local government officers trying to satisfy councillors' and residents' demands with inadequate resources!
In this film, James Garner plays a new sheriff who is provided with a brand new jail - the only things is, the bars haven't arrived yet. So he has to manage by using a little bit of red paint and his strong powers of suggestion....

Battling Barry Aspinell

When I became a council group leader back in the 90s, one of the first things I did was to visit the Brentwood Lib Dems to learn how they did things. I learned a lot in one evening, and incidentally met Barry Aspinell.

He's still battling away, and has been involved in a difficult social work issue that seems to have been upsetting for all concerned and devastating for the parents involved. It's highlighted here in the Daily Mail.

I don't know all the details on this case, so it would be foolish for me to comment on the rights and wrongs of it. Essex County Council put their point of view here.

But what I can say is that it's important for councillors to remember that they are there to be the residents' representative to the council - not the council's representative to the people. It's clear that Barry Aspinell hasn't forgotten that.

Meanwhile, it's been revealed that our neighbouring ....

... Southend-On-Sea Borough Council spent more than £1,700,000 last year on consultants fees, which seems excessive, to say the least.
The story is covered in depth in the Southend Evening Echo. It's good to see their political reporter Geoff Percival being given adequate space for once. I was also pleased that opposition Lib Dem councillors Peter Wexham and Graham Longley got good coverage.
The implications for the council where I live is that if we had been absorbed by Southend a few years ago , local services in Rayleigh and Rochford might have been cut to pay for stuff like this.

I thought MY council had financial problems but this is dreadful...

The 11,000 residents of Galion, Ohio, seem to be particularly nice people.
But they now have a big problem, after their finance director embezzled at least $87,000 and through mismanagement left the town about $11 million in debt. Civic savings are having to be made by such means of selling police cars, and local utility charges have had to be increased.
The wretched man himself, 51, tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head, has survived, but blind, and is now facing a possible 50 year prison term. The explanation he has given for this is credit card problems and gambling debts.