The Council is asked to note any statements made by the Leader of the Council.
Councillors may then ask questions of the Leader on his statements.
Minutes:
The Leader of the Council made the following statements -
New Prisons
“The Government has committed to creating 10,000 modern prison places by 2020 backed by £1.3 billion to transform the estate. As part of this review the Ministry of Justice wrote to all local authorities in early 2016 to enquire whether they had any sites which matched certain criteria and which may be suitable for a new prison.
20 local authorities responded, of which Tendring was one, on the grounds that a new prison would secure inward investment and economic development as well as creating many, many much-needed jobs. Three employment sites in the District were put forward which came closest to matching the Ministry of Justice criteria.
We received no further communication, or reply, from the Ministry of Justice and doubtless all Members will be aware that last week the Justice Secretary announced that sites at Full Sutton, Hindley, Rochester and Port Talbot have been earmarked for development of new prisons. There are no plans to build a prison in Tendring.”
The Leader of the Council then responded to a question asked by Councillor J Henderson.
Douglas Carswell MP
“The Member of Parliament for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, announced over the weekend that he has quit UKIP and will now sit as an Independent MP.
There has understandably been much speculation about whether there will be yet another by-election following this decision, and there has been much national and international press coverage of the issue and hence of this District, and the Clacton constituency in particular, as a result.
For the benefit of clarity there is no vacancy and hence there will be no by-election, and there appears to be no likely prospect of one occurring unless and until Mr. Carswell chooses to resign.
So, in the meantime, I would advise all residents in the Clacton constituency to continue to go to Mr. Carswell as their member of Parliament for help and support on any issue that they see fit.”
Use of Council Resources and Comments about Essex Police
“My third and final statement relates a little bit to the previous one, in terms of some of the subject matter, but not entirely.
In particular, I was less than impressed with the large number of emails that populated my official Tendring District Council inbox over the weekend – sent from Members to all other Members, and sometimes including an even wider audience as well.
It is not my position to lecture Members on their obligations under the Code of Conduct which we all signed before taking office and nor is it my position to comment on the appropriate use of Council resources; I will leave that to others, although I might be tempted to remind Members that we have all agreed to certain standards of behavior and maybe some Members might be well-advised to refresh their memory as to what those obligations and duties are.
I make this statement tonight to commend and congratulate the vast majority of Members who admirably refrained from hitting the “reply-to-all” button when I am sure that like me, it was sometimes getting very hard to resist.
I can understand the excitement surrounding the shenanigans of Mr. Carswell but I really didn’t need to be copied in on all those angry little messages.
But what concerned me much, much more disturbingly though was the email that was savagely critical of the Police, and with a recipient list that even included senior Police officers, sent out let us not forget, just two days after the Police lost one of their own in the line of duty, protecting the very heart of our democratic institutions at Westminster.
If we want to challenge or question policing in Tendring or anywhere else there are ways and means of doing it but we do not publicly bash the very men and women who put on the uniform to protect and serve, on behalf of us all, and immediately make themselves a target. We can attack the Government for its policies or its funding of the Police, we can criticize the Home Secretary or the Minister for Policing and these days of course we can even call to account the Essex Police and Crime Commissioner – and as a Council we have done. But we must never seek to undermine the serving officers of Essex Police.
So I want to make it absolutely clear as Leader of Tendring District Council that I and this Council absolutely support and applaud what the men and women of Essex Police do for us and for our residents and our communities.”