Tag: Martin Goode

Havering’s Cabinet Meeting, 10th January 2024

Scrutiny of council policies and contracts depends on councillors doing their homework. Scrutiny is hard work and can feel like a waste of time. At this meeting every decision passed without a vote. Was that reasonable?

Item 5 should have been the virtually silent Paul Middleton’s great moment. Astonishingly, the item wasn’t *ready*. The current IT contract ends on 7th March 2024. Delay could mean the contract will be renewed without scrutiny. I hope the delay isn’t a way of avoiding scrutiny. The Horizon scandal has shown cosy relationships can be disastrous and expensive.

At this meeting every decision was passed with virtually no discussion. Only Keith Darvill chipped in on an item that wasn’t his.  

Martin Goode attends meetings, despite not being a cabinet member. He does his homework, asks hard questions and isn’t fobbed off. He identified a difficulty in the NHS partnership for rehabilitation services. NHS have committed £900,000 but only for one year. This is crucial as the contract lasts three years plus extensions. “What happens in year 2 if the NHS don’t continue the £900K?” The unfortunate answer is that those benefitting would cease to receive the service.

Keith Prince believes the rehabilitation service saves the NHS and LBH money. This might be wishful thinking as there’s nothing in the papers about savings.

Keith continued on another item by asking about the lack of toilet facilities for bus drivers at terminus points. The answer was ‘tough luck’. He let it pass.

Note

1 Annotator Player (sonicfoundry.com) This webcast is about 30 minutes long

Havering Councillor: Martin Goode (Harold Wood)

Martin leads a splinter group of Resident councillors.1 He’s traditional RA, remorselessly focused on apparent trivialities. Pot holes, uneven pavements, overhanging bushes, inconsiderate parking and so on. Martin, unlike most councillors, isn’t a ‘world statesmen’, or, less lovably, on a ‘nice little earner’.

Martin’s Havering’s most diligent backbencher councillor. He doesn’t flick through his papers at meetings. He reads his documents, forming opinions and is unafraid to share them at committees. He’s a hard-core Conservative with a myopically narrow-minded approach to finance. He’s also hard-core RA. This means that where street cleaning is concerned he wants more expenditure.2 It’s difficult understanding his four years of support for the Conservatives, 2018-22, unless it was the allowances.

Uniquely, Martin attends cabinet meetings, even though he isn’t a member. In brief, he’s a one-man scrutiny committee. Given his diligence he’s treated with respect by the chair with whom he shares so much. They sing from the same hymn sheet on most things. More councillors should exercise their right of attendance, especially if they’re going to challenge pre-emptive mindsets. However, if they do, they should do their homework first.

Martin is a role model. He works hard in the Town Hall and, presumably, in his constituency.

Notes

1 East Havering Residents’ Group

2 Needless to relate he didn’t object to the subsidy to motorists with 30 minutes free parking in Hornchurch and Upminster.