Mid Suffolk elections 2023 - if you thought that 2019 was bad for the Tories...

The 2019 District Council elections saw our local Conservatives take something of a hiding but, with the aid of the friendly "Independent" from Combs Ford, they retained control of Mid Suffolk District Council on the casting vote of the Chair.

Now you might have thought that they would then display a degree of humility and at least show some respect for the combined opposition parties following such losses but alas, it was not to be. And thus, on Thursday, they paid the price, courtesy of our local Greens.

In truth, everything favoured the Greens in Mid Suffolk, with an invisible Labour Party fielding just eight sacrificial lambs in predominantly unwinnable wards at the best of times, and the Liberal Democrats effectively trying to do little more than retain their five seats won in 2019 under the disadvantage of losing four incumbents to well-deserved retirement. And, apart from two Reform UK candidates who barely stirred public consciousness, that left twenty-nine Greens facing twenty-eight Conservatives.

And, when an early result saw the demise of the Conservative Group Leader in the Stonhams, Friday promised to be grim for Mid Suffolk Conservatives. As it turned out, grim really wasn't sufficient to describe their fate.

Stowmarket went from three Conservatives, two Greens, a Liberal Democrat and an Independent to six Greens and a Liberal Democrat, whilst Conservative councillors were also ousted in Claydon & Barham, Debenham, Eye, Palgrave, Thurston and Walsham-le-Willows.

Amongst the Conservative losers were Tim Passmore, the County Police and Crime Commissioner, despite moving to Palgrave from Claydon and Barham, and Nick Gowrley, the former Group Leader, who lost his Combs Ford seat in 2019 and re-appeared in Claydon & Barham in an attempt to return. The Deputy Group Leader bit the dust too, effectively decapitating the Conservative Group. 

From a Liberal Democrat perspective, the loss of one of two seats in Needham Market (to a Green) means that the town has a non-Liberal Democrat District Councillor for the first time since 1991, when Ros was elected as a rookie councillor.

So, Mid Suffolk ended up:

• Greens - 24 seats (up 12)
• Conservatives - 6 seats (down 10)
• Liberal Democrats - 4 seats (down 1)
• Independents - no seats (down 1)

which makes it the first Green majority administration in the Northern Hemisphere and only the second globally.

It will be interesting to see what they do with power, having very little experience of it anywhere, and having never had to have sole responsibility for decision making. If I were a member of the Liberal Democrat Group, the prospect of constructive opposition to a ruling Group with whom relations are good would be a potentially enticing one, offering a possibility of gains for those we represent that probably didn't exist under the Conservatives.

Finally, these elections results represent an outcome that the "Local Conservatives" thoroughly deserved. They don't campaign in any meaningful way, relying solely on the historic record of Suffolk voting Conservative. And even though they knew that the Greens were coming for them, they still seemingly couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. If the Greens dig in as I expect them to, whilst they'll probably lose seats in 2027, they may not face much organised opposition.

Indeed, the best prospect for a Conservative recovery in four years time is for the national party to be thrashed in the next General Election and for an unpopular Labour administration to emerge from it. But I sense that it will come despite the quality of local Conservatives rather than because of it.

A community governance review is announced… sort of…

I suspect that there aren’t that many people who actively seek to be on the e-mail list for local government press releases. But, for a Parish Council Chair, they often serve as the easiest means of finding out what is going to happen to you next. Indeed, it slightly surprised me that more of my colleagues don’t do likewise.

For, whilst they are sometimes irrelevant - I’m not sure why I get Babergh’s press releases, for example - you get the odd one which might be of genuine value to some of our residents, if only they knew. Grant schemes, school transport programmes, new services, news of which seldom reaches the general public unless they catch a story in the local press or the grapevine picks up on it. I can pass it on to our village Facebook group and perhaps enable someone to benefit.

But last week, I was checking the District Council’s website for timings for its upcoming Full Council meeting when I noted the agenda included a proposal to initiate a full Community Governance Review, covering the entire district. The idea is to examine the town and parish councils to see if boundaries need altering or if mergers (or demergers) might be appropriate.

I was slightly surprised. After all, I’m on the Board of the Suffolk Association of Local Councils, the representative body of Town and Parish Councils across the county, so you’d think I’d have heard something. But no, not only had Mid Suffolk District Council not given SALC a heads-up, the briefing paper for councillors made no reference to us at all.

Having checked with our highly capable Chief Executive, and discovered that not only had we not been told, that similar reviews were being initiated in East Suffolk and West Suffolk too and in neither case had we been informed either.

It isn’t good enough, if I’m honest, but I contacted an old friend and proposed member of the committee intended to oversee the process, Penny Otton, to see if something could be done. I was also somewhat unimpressed by some of the drafting, which was of the “cut and paste” variety - the briefing paper suggested that information would be published on the Lichfield District Council website, for example, and started the consultation timeline in January, some two months before the process would be approved by Council - and asked her to raise this.

Penny was as good as her word, the paper was redrafted and she sought, and won, our inclusion in the consultation process.

So, my next job is to attract the attention of the designated Council officer and arrange a briefing for SALC and its member councils. And time is short, the intention is to wrap up the review by the end of the year, in time for elections on new boundaries (as need be) next May.

Creeting St Peter - an evening with Helen and Simon (and Jennie)...

It's been a pretty hectic year as Chair of my small, but perfectly formed, Parish Council. The impact of the pandemic on our community has been challenging enough, but a string of controversial planning applications affecting the village have made life that bit harder.

I was therefore slightly perplexed to receive an e-mail via our Clerk offering a meeting with the two members of the newly formed Communities - Planning and Engagement team, who wanted to talk to us about the Gateway 14 project and planning application. A bit late in the day was my initial thought, and there was a temptation to give the thing a miss - I'm busy and a bit stressed, and given that the consultation period is now closed, there seemed on initial reflection to be little point. But they were keen, and I'm a kindly soul (occasionally), so I asked Jennie, our Parish Clerk, to arrange a get together.

I admit that it had somewhat slipped my mind when my iPhone buzzed with a reminder an hour before the assigned time. We're gracious hosts in the Creetings, however, and I made sure to be in front of my desktop in good time.

As it turned out, it was just the four of us, Helen and Simon from Mid Suffolk, Jennie, our Clerk, and me, which rather let me take most of the scheduled hour bemoaning the fate of small Parish Councils in the face of large developments and District Councils who occasionally give the impression that we're a bit of a nuisance.

And there is a problem. How does a volunteer Parish Council of five, with a budget of £5,500 per annum and a very part-time Clerk properly scrutinise and respond to a planning application of the scale of Gateway 14? How can we consider elements like environmental degradation, traffic plans, design codes and planning policy without training and, most importantly, time? Is it reasonable to expect five people, all of whom have full-time jobs and families, to give up hours and hours of their time to review 155 documents, develop sufficient understanding of the technical arguments and meaningfully consult village residents in, potentially, four weeks?

Fortunately, it wasn't just me kvetching about Gateway 14 (and yes, it is stressful, and yes, I fret about it more than perhaps I should).

We did talk about how the District Council communicates. So, for example, the Council decides to offer grants for small businesses affected by the pandemic. I signed up to the Council's press releases some years ago, and so I get the press release and, because I'm public-spirited enough, I publicise the information via the village's informal Facebook group. If you're a resident of Creeting St Peter, how would you find out otherwise? Do you read the local newspapers? Possibly. Do you check the Council's website frequently, just in case? Really? How sad are you?

I likened it to the theory that a Parish Council can simply rely on the Parish noticeboard to inform and advise. It's static, you have to go to it and, if you don't have to walk past it, would you really stop to check it frequently?

We discussed some ideas for getting messages from the Council to a larger audience through Parishes, and I'll be interested to see if anything comes of it. In truth, most reasonable people understand that, when any organisation is struggling for resources, communication tends to fall by the wayside - officers are, not surprisingly, trying to do their core jobs and communicating to the public doesn't usually fall into the category of essential in so far as it is a mandatory requirement.

In the end, it became more of a feedback session than anything else and, as I'm a relatively thoughtful soul, I have given much thought to questions of governance over the years. I only hope that I haven't scared them...

When Freeports attack... and why I'm annoyed with Mid Suffolk District Council

So, what do we now know? A hybrid planning application was submitted for the Gateway 14 project a week or so ago, and the one hundred and fifty plus documents are awaiting our attention, with a current publicised deadline of 17 February for responses. As you might understand, that feels rather daunting.

We now also know that Gateway 14 is intended to form an integral part of the Freeport East bid, centred on Felixstowe and Harwich, which is due to be submitted to the Government by Friday, February 5th (i.e. today). it even comes with a rather snazzy video...

Does the planning application make any reference to this? No, of course it doesn't and, as a result, I've had what I would describe as a challenging conversation with Nic Rumsey from the developers, Jaynic, who appear not to have known anything about this until a week ago. I've had a very good relationship with him so far but he gives the impression of attempting to tapdance on the head of a pin, as he can't honestly give any guarantees about what Freeport status might imply. I don't blame him for that, because how could he? 

Have the owners of Gateway 14, effectively the District Council, mentioned this at all? Not to us, they haven't. One must assume that they have been talking to other interested parties about this - East Suffolk Council, Suffolk County Council and the like, and that the bidding team for the Freeport proposal will have at the very least mentioned potential adoption of the Gateway 14 site as the location for a customs site.

And yet, they have allowed the planning application to proceed thus far as though none of that was happening.

I am not impressed.

I have been concerned for some time with regard to the conflict of interest between Mid Suffolk District Council as owner and 100% beneficiary of the profits accruing from Gateway 14, and Mid Suffolk District Council as the planning authority responsible for consideration of the planning application. I am assured that no such conflict applies, and that the planning process is entirely independent. Of course, that is legally true, although many local residents don't believe it for one minute, fairly or unfairly.

From a personal perspective, as a professional bureaucrat myself, I tend to the view that Council officers will do the best that they can. Indeed, given that other developers may wish to make applications for similar projects, setting the wrong precedent makes their lives more difficult going forward.

But, if it is the case that someone at Mid Suffolk District Council is negotiating with the Freeport East team over inclusion of the Gateway 14 site, they might reasonably have an idea as to the potential impact, but are choosing to remain silent. That might be due to commercial confidentiality - the Freeport bids are competitive, after all - but if there is an impact on the site, and adjustments need to be made that affect residents of Creeting St Peter, it would be nice to know now, rather than later, so that we can respond appropriately.

So far, the discussions revolving around the Gateway 14 project have taken place within a promise of openness and transparency, and local residents have engaged in that spirit. And so far, whilst there are elements that are unpopular, there have been useful adjustments and improvements to the original plans which have gone some way towards reassuring us.

It now seems apparent that Mid Suffolk District Council might not be able to be relied upon to uphold their end of that bargain, and my fear is that the sense of mutual respect might be jeopardised as a result. Residents of Creeting St Peter are, I believe, realistic about the likely outcome, but want their concerns to be heard and at least acknowledged, and for credible mitigations to be offered, so far as is practical. 

Therefore, my next task will be to seek reassurances about the impact of potential Freeport status on the development in advance of the Parish Council's Extraordinary meeting on Monday week.

It's a very steep learning curve for a small Parish Council and its Chair...