The forgotten west!

I see that having reached the same conclusion as Labour Cllr Julian Ware-Lane in his blog on the premature announcement of the new leader and cabinet we also seem to have both identified the geographic unbalance of the new cabinet with only one representative of a ward to the west of the town namely Graham Longley. In my cabinets I was always careful to try to ensure a geographic spread as inevitably all members are particularly attuned to the issues and problems effecting the area they represent and to have this input round the cabinet table was positive. This misbalance is further aggravated by the new Leader championing of the interests of Thorpe over other areas of the town and I still wait with interest for confirmation as to whether he is now breaking his formal links with BERA. It does seem inconsistent with the position of Leader to continue to retain an active presence in an interest group which is primarily concerned with the protection of one specific part of the town. This is the argument which has resulted in many councillors with resident association positions relinquishing them on election as councillors. As it is the only “west” voice round the cabinet table will be Cllr Longley in his position as Leader of the decimated Lib Dems – hardly a power base. It will be for the councillors representing wards in the west of all political hues to work together to ensure that the demands of this part of the town are not regarded as secondary. In the meantime perhaps I will have to race to ensure that my thoughts are posted before Julian’s to avoid the risk of plagiarism. I will allow you to decide whether this is an example of great minds thinking alike or fools never differing!