onionbagblog

To Colchester Town Hall! …on Wednesday evening.

Cripes, Comrades, ‘n all that.

The occasion? Not a late night shopping session at M & S for a pair of oversized Y-fronts (although that was on the agenda for later in the evening) but a meeting of the Colchester Borough Council cabinet.

LibDem Cllr Manning of the Cross ward in Wivenhoe was taking up a side seat in the cabinet room. He was more than just an interested spectator, and wasn’t there to simply tweet away the meeting, having singed up as the first Wivenhoe CBC Cllr to have joined the twitterati.

Instead, the good Cllr was rather concerned about St Osyth - aren’t we all, Comrades?

In particular, it is the non-political issue of the Conservative led Essex County Council deciding to close the re-cycling centre at Britain’s Driest Village.

That’s quite some claim - Britain’s Driest Village, not the suggestion of the non-political decision taken by the Conservative led Essex County Council to close the great pilgrimage to all things plastic and re-cycable.

Anyway, Cllr Manning from this parish put forward the view that Britain’s Driest Village is a far easier destination for his residents to reach than Britain’s Oldest Recorded Town. The drive out to the Clacton coast is also a lot more enjoyable than getting clogged up down Clingoe Hill on the way to Shrub End, the nearest Colchester alternative.

This was a good point and well made. There was even a dry sense of humour in keeping with the St Osyth hyperlocal climate as well:

“Has Colchester Borough Council been consented on this decision to close the facility at St Osyth? Can Shrub End handle the expected increase in demand? And what of fly tipping?”

And what of the suggestion that a LibDem Cllr was quizzing a LibDem dominated cabinet, propped up by two lone Labour Comrades, all about the non-political decision taken by a Conservative led County Council that clearly holds the overall power in the County?

Like I said - it’s only a suggestion.

The on the record response from the CBC cabinet was at temperate as the St Osyth seasonal weather. Council Leader Anne Turrell pointed out that this wasn’t a decision taken in Colchester; Labour cabinet member Cllr Tim Young added:

“No consultation was taken with Wivenhoe Town Council. The impact on Wivenhoe was not canvassed with the locals either. This is the wrong decision.”

Best tell the wife, then Cllr Young (male variety) who just happens to be a member of Essex County Council.

Whoops.

[...although I can't see Cllr Young (female variety) propping up the County Council Conservatives in the same way that Cllr Young (male variety) manages to prop up the LibDems back at the borough level.]

The final word on Wednesday went to LibDem cabinet member Cllr Smith:

“This is not joined up thinking. In the week in which we as a Borough are trying to promote food banks, a re-cycling centre used by our residents is being closed. We are protecting public services - that’s the difference between us and Essex County Council.”

Which led to the conclusion that the non-political issue of the Conservative led Essex County Council deciding to close the re-cycling centre at Britain’s Driest Village causing something of a stink at the LibLab coalition at Colchester, after a LibDem Wivenhoe ward Cllr asked the bleedin’ obvious.

Try squeezing that into 140 characters, Comrade.

And so it seems that re-cycling has become something of a political issue. How else to explain the streets of uncollected garden and plastic bags from the streets of lower Wivenhoe on Wednesday?

Just don’t play the political blame game please.