Last Tuesday was the start of the new civic year in Rochford. There are few new faces this year as there are only 2 new councillors. But as most of the committees have been changed there has been a big change in people’s roles.
The new chairman of the council this year is Mavis Webster (succeeding her husband Peter)
Because the Tories are so overwhelmingly in control, they get nearly all the committee places, and are taking all the chairmanships. (They could offer us a chair of a committee if they wanted to). On most committees , there is just one Lib Dem.
Terry Cutmore remains as the Conservative Leader of the Council . Chris Black stays as the leader of the Lib Dem Group.
Terry Cutmore also chairs the main policy committee – the clumsily titled Policy, Finance and Strategic Performance Committee. The Lib Dem member on this one is Ron Oatham.
One of the biggest changes is that the Planning Services Committee has been renamed the Development Control Committee. It still has all 39 councillors as members, and the new chairman is Simon Smith
The new Review Committee – which we hope will be a high-powered investigating panel – will be chaired by Tory Keith Hudson. . The Lib Dem member on the Review Committee is June Lumley
The Planning Policy and Transportation Committee will have an important role in deciding which sites are allocated for future building. It will be chaired by Phil Capon, with Chris Black as the Lib Dem member.
The three other policy committees of the council are:
Community Services Committee – chaired by Richard Amner
Environmental Services Committee – chaired by Michael Starke
and Leisure, Tourism and Heritage Committee – chaired by Tracy Capon
The Lib Dem on all these committees will be the very busy Chris Lumley.
The Licensing Committee deals with , well , licensing of pubs etc. It will be chaired by Tony Humphries with Ron Oatham as the sole Lib Dem.