Here at Pitsnpots we always publish articles written by our elected representatives and those who would wish to represent us. Shaun Bennett has been a regular contributor to our site and judging by the reaction his articles have created, we know that readers appreciate his thoughts, vision and comments. In this article Shaun raises some valuable points and shares with us the results of his recent communication with all our city councillors…………………

“Almost a month ago, I used the site to argue for a full council election
to be held in 2009. Naturally the debate became tangled up in all sorts of
other issues surrounding single member wards, elections by thirds and the
governance commission. At the same time, I also contacted every single one
of the city’s sixty councillors (except for the elected mayor, but of
course, he doesn’t really count anymore does he ) So nearly a month on,
and with the New Year rapidly approaching, I thought it would be a good
idea to keep you all updated as to my results. I know that Santa’s coming,
and that Christmas is the time for light-hearted debates, but stick with
me, and I will try to be unusually brief”¦

When I wrote to each of the councillors, I outlined all of the arguments
for a full council election to be held before the appointment of the new
council Leader in 2009. Without this, I said that the new Leader would
have no democratic mandate for up to two years, would not be able to show
public support for their decisions and would in effect have no moral
authority to support their decisions with. The full rehersal of the
arguments can be found in the ‘older posts’ section of this site.

My main concern was that with the council consultation on the electoral
cycle still ongoing, councillors may try to ‘dodge’ the issue of a 2009
election by confusing the issues and claiming that they could not give an
opinion at this stage for fear of pre-judging the consultation (they do do
that sort of thing you know). So I sought to make it quite clear that the
arguments for a special, one-off 2009 full council election had absolutely
nothing to do with the consultation process, or what we chose to do in the
future. I also warned them that their responses (or lack of them) may be
publicised unless they requested confidentiality.

The question was: ‘Would you support a full council election to be held in
2009 if it were possible to have one?’ I accepted that this was not a
decision for the council, but I argued that if councillors came on board
and supported a special election, it would give weight to the arguments
for one, and could help us along to achieving one. So what were the
results? Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed by the response rate.

Out of 60 councillors, only a handful could be bothered to reply at all.
Cllr Ian Mitchell (Ind, Hartshill & Penkhull) takes the award for the most
speedy reply and he said that he would have no objection to an early
election. I remember standing against Ian in 2006; he is a true democrat
and it came as no surprise to me to find that we were of similar mind on
this. Next up was Cllr Janine Bridges (Ind, Chell and Packmoor), who
replied with similar speed and of similar opinion. I wasn’t sure whether
she addressed the 2009 issue, but she did make it quite clear that she was
opposed to cancelling the 2010 election, and I settled for that. It seemed
that she would want to see an election in 2010, and if that were to be
cancelled, then she would probably be favourable to a 2009 contest
instead.

So far, so good. Then came Cllr Brian Ward (Ind, Blurton). He did not
express an opinion on my preferred option of a 2009 contest, stating
instead that he was generally not in favour of all out elections. I found
myself in complete agreement with him on that point, and it would seem
that he was at least opposed to cancelling the scheduled 2010 contest. It
was beginning to look as though all of the Independent councillors would
either be in favour of a 2009 election, or at least would not be opposed
to one so long as the 2010 elections were to go ahead as planned. I
started to think that my replies may be able to be divided down party
lines.

Then my suspicions began to be confirmed. Cllr Joan Bell (Lab, Longton
South) said that she would be concerned that by having a 2009 all out
election, there may be a shortage of candidates because they may not want
to stand if the term of office was only going to be two years. It was an
interesting concern, but not one that I can accept. There are ALWAYS more
candidates than vacancies in local elections, and I really can’t see that
interested local people would be put off by a shorter term. Indeed, we
have experienced councillors terms cut short in the past due to boundary
changes. When Cllr Bell herself stood for election in 2000, she surely
gave no consideration to the fact that she would be up again in 2002 due
to boundary changes? And how many of the 155 candidates that stood in 2002
were put off by the fact that if they only won second or third place in
their ward, then they would be forced to fight the seat again in either
one or two years? Clearly, Cllr Bell was just trying to find a good excuse
to be against a 2009 election.

I then heard from Cllr Paul Billington (LD, Stoke and Trent Vale). Paul is
one of the very few Liberal Democrats either locally or nationally that I
think I could claim to have any sort of respect for. He is a very able and
thoughtful councillor who is quite clearly wasted in this city. If he were
Lib Dem leader instead of ‘Aunt Bessie’ Bowers his party may be more
formidable at a local level. True to form, Paul left no doubt as to his
answer: he would not be able to support a 2009 election. Furthermore,
copying the reply in to the party group leaders Garner, Bowers and Ibbs, I
would presume that Paul probably spoke for all of them.

His reply was a heartfelt defence of the cross party coalition and the
things that they have done. He also said that those who wanted a 2009
election would face a battle with the Secretary of State, and that it was
a battle that could not be won. I agreed. Certainly, with councillors
against a 2009 election, the battle would be VERY difficult to win. But
just because the odds are against you, is that reason not to try? Does
Paul and his colleagues not continue to argue for electoral reform at
Westminster even though they surely know that its never going to happen so
long as those of us who support FPTP still draw breath? Of course not.
They believe that their arguments are right, just as I am convinced that
the arguments for a 2009 election are overwhelming.

Nevertheless, Cllr Billington has the guts to stick to his guns,however
unpopular it may be. As I said to him in my reply: I do not support the
cross party coalition; I do not recognise it as a genuine coalition of the
parties; I am in opposition to this administration, and I have no issue
with continuing to oppose it when it is wrong (as I’m afraid it usually
is).

And that was that. I did have one other reply from the BNP’s Steve Batkin
(Bentilee & Townsend) but as he chose to completely ignore the question
and chose instead to use his reply to berate me for not speaking to him at
the last election count, I can’t take too much from it. Now I should make
it perfectly clear (and indeed I did) that if Cllr Batkin had spoken to me
I would not have ignored him. I’m not so petty as to refuse to talk to
someone just because I disagree with them. Clearly Cllr Batkin is a
sensitve soul…but as he also accused me of really being a secret
accomplice of Roger Ibbs, I have to call his political judgement into
question!

And that really was it. The VAST majority of our elected representatives
couldn’t be bothered to reply; and while I’m sure most of the Independents
are prepared to stand by democracy, it was clear that the other groups
were not. Perhaps the failure to reply is another example of how local
government is not working in this city? Do they also not reply to
residents after their assistance? Judging by what other people have told
me, some of them do not. Its another example of the servants and masters
mentality that many councillors slip into once they are elected: they
stand for election as the peoples servants, but they then choose to view
themselves as their masters.

So having taken up far more of your time than I promised I would, I will
end with a final thanks to all those councillors who took the time to
reply to my question (yes, even you Cllr Batkin. It is the season of
goodwill after all). Clearly the chances of getting a 2009 full council
election is absolutely zero so long as some of these counillors have any
say in the matter. But as the time approaches to appoint the new Leader,
we may well find the moral case becomming intense. There is still a chance
for them to give a democratic mandate to their choice of leader by
supporting an election first. However, given that they clearly will not,
and that they also plan to remove the peoples democratic right to pass
judgement in 2010, I really do fear what the peoples wrath may be.
Needless to say, there will be many a council career brought to an
untimely end in May 2011…”

Shaun