As the Labour Party won a landslide election today, Northamptonshire voters firmly rejected the Conservatives with five constituencies turning from blue to red
Well we certainly had "Change". Congratulations to all newly appointed MP. However, who would had believes that the Reform party would have so much votes. Wherever you look in the county they are the third party with the most votes. And now Danielle Stone who apparently needs a Deputy Commissioner which was never required previously in Northamptonshire. This will add to the already bloated staff numbers of 128 which is five times bigger than the nearest comparable neighbours. Is this "Value for Money" for the tax payer? It does not appear that way in my opinion.
the total staff of the OPFCC is just over 152 full time equivalents, plus the Commissioner herself. Which, I would agree, seems rather a lot, and worthy of having its value for money investigated by the Police Fire and Crime Panel, I would have thought.
I also looked at the details of the confirmation meeting for the new Deputy Commissioner, next Friday - see here
This is presumably separate from the other meeting on the same day, to allow the room to be cleared of press and public and the meeting to be held in camera - despite what I understand is a legal requirement for these confirmation hearings to be held in public.
The information provided by the Commissioner names the candidate for Deputy Commissioner (Marianne Kimani, recently unsuccessful in the G.E., and presumably, therefore, "unexpectedly re-available"). It does not provide any justification for the creation of the post of Deputy Commissioner, any indication that the post was advertised anywhere, any job description, any description of the selection process, or even any details of the CV of the candidate. It does however, contain an assertion, which you can believe or not at your leisure, that the candidate is well-qualified for the job (the exact nature of which is unspecified) as a result of her previous work experience (which is unspecified).
So, I am rather getting the sense of "deja vu all over again". Those who voted for Ms Stone mainly on the basis that she wasn't going to be anything like Stephen Mold, would be quite justified in starting to develop a sense of disappointment.
Well you are right. I was asked by Stone at various time to supply her with data on the working of the Commissioner office and to do presentations on her behalf. It became evident that her knowledge of the Commissioner Office was none existence in spite of being a Councillor for 12 years. I know now I was conned. She is just a corrupt replacement for the previous Commissioner. I just hope that the Panel will have some spine for a change and start to look at the numbers of staff in that office and ask is this necessary when you compare against other Counties. All the data are available on line.
One other thing. During campaigning yesterday I came across 2 voters who fell foul of the requirement to have voter I/d and another who didn't receive her postal vote.
Where there many other instances of voters being disenfranchised?
Something that a bit of investigative journalism would explore?
Excellent NNJ reporting as usual. Detailed figures of results would have been nice to see how Reform and some Independent votes dented the Tory figures. Good numbers for Greens in Kettering.
Well we certainly had "Change". Congratulations to all newly appointed MP. However, who would had believes that the Reform party would have so much votes. Wherever you look in the county they are the third party with the most votes. And now Danielle Stone who apparently needs a Deputy Commissioner which was never required previously in Northamptonshire. This will add to the already bloated staff numbers of 128 which is five times bigger than the nearest comparable neighbours. Is this "Value for Money" for the tax payer? It does not appear that way in my opinion.
With regard to your remarks about the Commissioner, in fact, according to this,
https://northantspfcc.org.uk/category/opfcc/policies-opfcc/staff-office/staff-structure/
the total staff of the OPFCC is just over 152 full time equivalents, plus the Commissioner herself. Which, I would agree, seems rather a lot, and worthy of having its value for money investigated by the Police Fire and Crime Panel, I would have thought.
I also looked at the details of the confirmation meeting for the new Deputy Commissioner, next Friday - see here
https://westnorthants.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=151&MId=1624&Ver=4
This is presumably separate from the other meeting on the same day, to allow the room to be cleared of press and public and the meeting to be held in camera - despite what I understand is a legal requirement for these confirmation hearings to be held in public.
The information provided by the Commissioner names the candidate for Deputy Commissioner (Marianne Kimani, recently unsuccessful in the G.E., and presumably, therefore, "unexpectedly re-available"). It does not provide any justification for the creation of the post of Deputy Commissioner, any indication that the post was advertised anywhere, any job description, any description of the selection process, or even any details of the CV of the candidate. It does however, contain an assertion, which you can believe or not at your leisure, that the candidate is well-qualified for the job (the exact nature of which is unspecified) as a result of her previous work experience (which is unspecified).
So, I am rather getting the sense of "deja vu all over again". Those who voted for Ms Stone mainly on the basis that she wasn't going to be anything like Stephen Mold, would be quite justified in starting to develop a sense of disappointment.
Well you are right. I was asked by Stone at various time to supply her with data on the working of the Commissioner office and to do presentations on her behalf. It became evident that her knowledge of the Commissioner Office was none existence in spite of being a Councillor for 12 years. I know now I was conned. She is just a corrupt replacement for the previous Commissioner. I just hope that the Panel will have some spine for a change and start to look at the numbers of staff in that office and ask is this necessary when you compare against other Counties. All the data are available on line.
Congratulations to the new MPs.
I hope we can look forward to you all working positively for the people of Northamptonshire.
The county as a whole is in a poor state so there is a lot to do to bring about improvements.
One other thing. During campaigning yesterday I came across 2 voters who fell foul of the requirement to have voter I/d and another who didn't receive her postal vote.
Where there many other instances of voters being disenfranchised?
Something that a bit of investigative journalism would explore?
Excellent NNJ reporting as usual. Detailed figures of results would have been nice to see how Reform and some Independent votes dented the Tory figures. Good numbers for Greens in Kettering.
What was the Daventry vote breakdown?