Mark Pack

Defending your plans for cuts at a local council by comparing your management style with that of Toyota doesn’t really sound the smartest move any more does it? Step forward, David Burbage (Conservative Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead).  »

Last summer we reported that Peter Chegwyn, Lib Dem leader on Gosport Council, had been banned from being a councillor on both Gosport Council and Hampshire County Council for two years in a dispute over a local music festival. However, Peter Chegwyn has taken that Standards Board ruling to the Hight Court and this week won a [...] »

With so much political attention on the next general election, it’s easy to forget that there are a large number of council seats up for election on the first Thursday in May. Many of those wielding power after the local votes are counted will have far more power than MPs or even junior ministers. What’s up [...] »

You may have been following some of my travails trying to get repairs made to some of those telephone, broadband, traffic light etc boxes which appear on many pavements. Although  my own local council (Islington) is very good at dealing with them either directly themselves or passing on to the relevant company and ensuring the work [...] »

Stockport’s Mayor, Colin MacAlister has switched to the Liberal Democrats from Labour (via Independent), whilst the Conservative deputy leader also recently switched to Independent. That’s not the only bad news for the Conservatives though. In Aberconwy the local Conservative president (and councillor) Dennis Tew has also quit the party, switching to Plaid. Meanwhile in Southend, Jason Luty’s [...] »

The January edition of Total Politics had the third in a series from me on councils and communicating. The first part, Yes, council websites can, looked at lessons from the Obama campaign for local council use of the internet. The second part, Adding some colour to council emails, looked at ways to make better use [...] »

Here’s the proportion of local election candidates of the three main parties who were female over the last twenty-five years. As you can see, proportions for all three parties grew in the late ’80s and since then have stalled (Lib Dems, Conservatives) or only crept up (Labour), all remaining under 40%. The dips every four years [...] »

Strange goings on in Lancashire: ‘Hyndburngate’ spying allegations EXTRA CCTV is being installed at the borough council officers amid claims of a ‘Hyndburngate’ involving bosses being spied on. At Hyndburn’s full council meeting leader Coun Peter Britcliffe accused the Labour group of behaving ‘like the Richard Nixon administration’, claiming documents were being searched during ‘internal break-ins’. However the Labour [...] »

From the Camden New Journal: THE Mayor of Camden, Councillor Omar Faruque Ansari, has been suspended from the Liberal Democrat group tonight (Monday) after he was questioned by benefit investigators. Council leader Keith Moffitt said he would remain suspended until “a serious investigation” was complete. It is understood Cllr Ansari was questioned by investigators from the Department of [...] »

Following on from the switch of Keith and Diane Bennett from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats, a third Conservative councillor in Cannock Chase has now also joined the party: Councillor Mark Green has resigned from the Council’s Conservative Group and has been accepted as a Member of the Council’s Liberal Democrat Group. Mark represents the [...] »