Arms and fists all up in the air again?

Last night was again the Council's AGM, we wouldn't have bothered to write a post as apparently it was very similar to last years. With councillors awarding themselves different jobs which have already been decided in closed door discussions. The Tories and Lib Dems made their usual plea for a more impartial mayor as it is constitutionally supposed to be an unbiased position, and not the former Labour Deputy Whip as the Council administration got.

Like we said we wouldn't normally bother to write about this, as it is about as regular as the tides in the Thames. However at the very end of the meeting we are led to believe that the often outspoken half of the dynamic duo, Cllr Paul Webbewood managed to lose control of his senses again. By all accounts he got up at the end of the meeting, marched over to the Labour front bench and threatened the Labour Councillor and Chair of Licensing Cllr Ray Walker. Why you may ask? Was it because his local watering hole was refused a late license? No, apparently it because Cllr Ray Walker wouldn't let Tory Councillor Eileen Glover be on the licensing committee.

So let's just go over that again, a Lib Dem Councillor tried to get into a fight with a Labour Councillor over the views of a Tory Councillor. An all-party Royal Rumble!

Greenwich Time get's a facelift

Following on from our last post about Greenwich Time and the role that it plays within Greenwich its interesting to note that this week sees a relaunch of the viewspaper. It would appear to be trying to mimic the style and front page content of a real local newspaper albeit with a strong tabloid influence. The front page has as its lead story a photo of Charlton Athletic's Zheng "Zizi" Zhi along with a tired, emotional and unshaven looking Cllr Chris Roberts. This is along with numerous competitions on the inside pages; there is still some space left over for what the communications budget is supposed to be spent on, that being informing the public about various official council activities, such as Council Housing and Jobs.

The front page also hosts an editorial from Peter Cordwell, the editor and publisher from Community First Journals, which by all appearances earn a vast amount of their income from Greenwich Council. It says "GT will find the people who are already beavering away behind the scenes to improve their neighbourhoods." along with "We'll also be promoting Greenwich Council services and initiatives working to make Greenwich greater". We can't but help remind ourselves that who pays the Piper, picks the tune.

The final passage of the editorial really caught our eye though, "Cynics like to say there's no such thing as communities, but we're having none of that... and we'll prove it every week in the new GT". In our view a real community would welcome it if people pointed out their flaws, afterall how are they supposed to improve otherwise, that and it keeps them honest. So we look forward to seeing the minimum 2 photos of Council Leader Chris Roberts and the photo of a random cabinet member for each edition. What will be interesting is if any of the reports will cover both sides of the story, as real local papers try to do, or even if these problems ever get a mention;

• Negitive Equity in Theamesmead
• The Ferrier fiascoes
• John Roan School
• Compleate Educational Failure
• - amongst other things

At the same time as all of this it looks like the Council are also conducting yet another survey, this time into Greenwich Time, take a look.

Informing the public?

Looks like the nonpartisan, kitty litter liner that is Greenwich Time was being delivered on the Polling Day for the Mayoral and GLA elections. Along with the usual pro Council stories and smiling photos of various Council Cabinet members there was also a piece covering the elections. Now, was it that Greenwich Council and the newspapers' controller in chief (Cllr Chris Roberts) wanted to help promote a candidate in the election, or was it incompetence?

The Council knew the date of the election, and did the normal thing any council would do and tell people how to vote but still failed to allow time for the newspaper to be delivered? When they realised that the election was on Thursday they called up the company that delivers Greenwich Time and at short notice got them to rush out the viewspaper?

So either incompetence, corruption or just yet another funny coincidence? You decide.

Either way, we wonder if Chris Roberts will let there be a photo of the new Mayor of London, the Conservative Boris Johnson? Or if only the GLA Representative, Labour's Len Duvall, will get any coverage?


Hat Tip: Indigo and Dizzy Thinks

GLA and Mayoral results in for Greenwich

Here are the final results for Greenwich for the Assembly Member;

Len Duvall	LAB			53,174
Andy Jennings	CON			37,040
Brian Robson	LD			18,174
Susan Luxton	GRN			15,607
Tess Culnane	NF			8,509
Stephen Hammond	CPA			5,079
Arnold Tarling	UKIP			3,910
Jennifer Jones	LL			2,045
Johanna Munilla	END			1,716
Chris Flood	SOA			1,587

The Turnout at 42.4% was, as we reported yesterday, much higher than in 2004.

So it looks like Len Duvall gets to keep his job, although now with Boris Johnson elected as Mayor he will presumably be leader of the Opposition Labour group instead. If this is the case, and with his experience from Greenwich Council as Labour being in control it is going to be interesting to see if he able to function well in opposition?

We shall have to see.

High Turnout in Greenwich

We're getting reports of a very high turnout in Greenwich for yesterdays elections. The count is being done today and the result should be out by around 6pm. We'll post as soon as we know what's going on.
Looks like this has been an interesting election afterall.

To be noticed, you need to vote!

Today is polling day for the London Mayor and Assembly, we have covered this election a little bit, here.

As we have said before we will not tell you who to vote for, but we will say this, if you want to be noticed and listened to, you need to vote. Otherwise the politicians and their parties will continue to thrive on apathy.

Go on vote, polls close at 10pm tonight.