As the title says, on my 21st birthday I’ll be making sure you get a fair deal.

The next full council meeting of Lymington and Pennington Town Council is on Wednesday 11th January 2017. It just so happens to fall on the day I turn 21.

At this meeting, Lymington and Pennington Town Council will vote on the budget that was approved at the Policy and Resources Committee on Tuesday 6th December 2016.

Here are the main points that jump out at me from the budget:

• £12,000 has been set aside for bus shelters. I made getting a bus shelter at Peacocks one of my main priorities after my election and I am ecstatic to see funding set aside for it. Therefore, if it is kept at £12,000, we will have a bus shelter at Peacocks after March 2017.
• Increase of £17,000 in office staff salaries to ‘reflect office organisation’.
• A decrease to the Playgrounds Equipment budget of £29,967.
• An increase in spending on the Sea Water Baths of £15,000.
• No money for Woodside Skatepark. I want to see some funds set aside to provide lighting at the skate park.

 

I will certainly be raising some questions of the budget when it comes up for debate.

My 3 questions:

1. Why are we spending an extra £15,000 on the Sea Water baths? The Town Council leased the baths to a private company, Lynx Sports Management, in 2013. The lease runs out in 2018. Will the Council then take over full management of the baths again?
2. Why has the Playgrounds Budget been decreased? Is this taking into account the delay in getting the Common Play Park done. Could the Town Council invest in a new Play Park to cater for families in Efford Way?
3. Why is the Council paying £17,000 extra into the staff budget? The Town Clerk gets between  £37,483 and £45,129 a year (LC3 spinal column 43-51) but works only 37 hours a week.*

 

*This question originally mentioned the Town Clerk’s salary being £40,000 per year for 3 days a week work. I have changed this after the Town Clerk issued me with a legal letter requesting this be taken down. As my readers can see, though £40,000 is a rough average between the two extremes, we cannot know the exact amount because the Town Council refuses to make the pay of senior officials transparent. As far as I am aware, the Town Clerk works the stipulated 37 hours per week and I will apologise for any distress I may have caused her and the Town Council staff. I have no quarrel with the staff at the Town Council. I do have quarrel with the Mayor and his response. I do have quarrel with the lack of transparency in our council. I do have quarrel with being sent a solicitors letter designed to shut me up. Those are the sorts of tactics that come straight out of a despot’s playbook. I will not be bullied into silence. I will continue to ask whether the town council can prove that it did not pay for the letter. 

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