Gallomanor, the company that organised "I'm a Councillor, get me out of here", have sent us their evaluation of this year's event. I have copied it below.
As you can see, Darlington kids and councillors were the hardest working of all the participating Councils and together we did "stupendously well".
Much of the credit for this goes to Paul Dalton from Democratic Services.
No doubt one Labour Councillor in particular will have something sarcastic to say about the fact that I gave the best answer to the cookie question. For the record, as far as I can remember it, my answer to the question, "Do you like cookies?" was:
"I love 'em. In fact, I make them and sell them in my shop...and flapjacks and cakes and cookies and strawberry scrunches and cookies and flapjacks and...no, stop , I can't go on, I'll have to go and eat one now." It must have been that answer that provoked his anonymous attack on my performance in this event.
Event Evaluation 2008
Darlington Borough Council
Key facts
Event: I’m a Councillor, Get me out of here!
Website: www.bigvote.org.uk
Purpose: Improving the relationship between young people and local government
Dates: 6-17th October 2008 (to coincide with Local Democracy Week)
Participating Councillors:
Cllr Chris McEwan 46%
Cllr Jenny Chapman 24%
Cllr Mike Barker 17%
Cllr Kate Davies 10%
Cllr Cyndi Hughes 2%
Cllr Gill Cartwright 0%
Winner: Cllr Chris McEwan
1) Statistics
Your Council Ranking (out of 21)
Registered users 498 1st
Votes cast 562 1st
Questions asked 524 5th
Votes per user 1.13 5th
Questions per user 1.05 17th
Log ins per user 2.78 5th
Page views 13,479 1st
Live chat, lines by students 11,115 1st
Live chat, lines by cllrs 1,618 1st
2) Commentary
Darlington did stupendously well this year. As you can see from the statistics, you had more young people registered, more page views and more said in live chat than any other council. Often you’ve got more than double the average activity levels – nearly five times the average for chat by young people. When you consider that this was Darlington’s first year of taking part, and that your population is a fraction of many of our councils, it’s even more impressive.
Frankly, we can’t praise you highly enough. We are certain that much of this success was down to the dedication and organisation of the staff responsible for the event at the council. As an example, in the run up to the event Gallomanor needs various information from councils – logos, names of competing councillors, etc – Darlington was usually the first to supply this, always in correct formats, etc. Staff were always good-humoured, organised, paid attention to details, took responsibility and knew what they were talking about but were also willing to
learn from our experience.
The success in Darlington must also be partly due to the sterling efforts of councillors, who were committed, cheerful and down-to-earth and did a great job of communicating with young people at their level, without patronising them. And of course, teachers and young people themselves put in a lot of effort. We wish all councils were like you!
The young people of Darlington were fiery and made sure their personalities shone through in the chatrooms and in their line of questioning. The same can be said for the councillors too though! The councillors notably had fun, and worked well together to act as a team. We saw in Darlington some of the most adoring fans emerge over the fortnight and the finalists had a lot in their inbox to, in their own words ‘make their heads grow big.’
Topics
It was almost certainly local facilities that were of biggest priority for the young people of Darlington. Not only was there demand for more youth clubs in ‘Darlo’ but for ones with the right music, facilities and clientele. Students protested that whilst they recognised investment in such schemes in the past, they just weren’t cool enough, or they were full or ‘undesirables’. What became apparent was that the council needed to provide different services and facilities for different types of young people. There was an obvious frustration that different identities are not recognised in the current council provision.
Sadly too there was a lot of concern in Darlington about safety. Rather than objecting to a watchful eye, young people were calling for more, better CCTV.
Many wanted to share their stories of feeling scared and various confrontations. It
certainly gave the councillors food for thought.
Some students thought of different insightful questions. Username ‘Pickles’ asked Cllr Cyndi Hughes (of American origin) how she felt about the BNP ‘saying all people who came to england should go back to where they came from.’ A regular in the chat-room Zachri made sure he asked all the councillors whether they liked cookies. When asked by the moderators why he had chosen to vote for Cllr Mike Barker- Zachri simply stated he had given the best answer to the cookie question!
Maybe something to think about for their future manifestos!
Analysis of the result
Cllr Chris McEwan romped home to victory in Darlington. He won with a large share of the votes, because we are told, he promised the young people things that they wanted such as the scheme ‘small trees’ and cheaper bus fares on Saturdays.
Jenny Chapman was the runner up and was not short of her own admirers. As username ‘Jenny Lover’ so enthusiastically puts; “Dear Jenny. Your views are amazing I take in everything you say... your the best Councillor. I would follow you on your ideas everywhere you go. Your my idol!”
Jenny had been especially committed to the event, spending a great deal of time in the chat room engaging warmly with students, patiently answering their questions and showing an interest in their opinions. We feel sure that this commitment has paid dividends in terms of how those young people feel about the council and whether they feel included and valued in their community.
3) What was the breakdown of questions asked in your council?
Question Category % National Average
About you and being a councillor 32% 24%
Crime and Anti-social behaviour 13% 11%
Education 13% 10%
Transport and the Environment 7% 13%
Youth Issues 3% 8%
General 11% 16%
Local Facilities 23% 17%
4) Which schools and youth groups participated?
Schools/youth groups with more than ten registered users:-
Hummersknott School 145
Hurworth Comprehensive 136
Education Village 118
Branksome Comprehensive School 35
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College 18
Schools/youth groups with fewer than ten registered users:-
Carmel RC
Harrowgate Hill Primary
Heighington Primary
Springfield Primary
Darlington Youth Service
Friday, 31 October 2008
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Council to "defer" almost £2m capital spend
Darlington Borough Council's Cabinet meeting next week will be asked to approve the "deferment" of £1.723million of capital expenditure in the current financial year. You will recall that the Council recently went £1.9million overbudget in building the little-used Eastern Transport Corridor.
Schemes which will go include £400,000 of unspecified environmental improvements, £700,000 on a new Skerne Park Community Centre, £159,000 on various town centre improvements and several other smaller projects.
The effects of this will vary and in some cases will mean on-going repair bills will increase, which will put further pressure on the Council's Revenue Budget.
This Council has not covered itself in glory over the past few years when it comes to controlling its capital budget, with several examples of over-spends and wastefulness. Some chickens coming home to roost here, methinks.
However, it behoves all individuals, businesses and government organisations to carefully review their expenditure in the current economic climate. I do not envisage any improvement for some time, unless, of course, Gordon Brown decides to pump money into public projects in order to re-stimulate the economy in a desperate bid for votes in 2010.
Saturday, 25 October 2008
Make a Difference Day
Today is Make a Difference Day, when community volunteers across the country take part in projects in their neighbourhood. It's Britain's biggest volunteering day of the year.
Cllr Fred Lawton and I went along to join in a riverside litter pick in the North Riverside area of the ward: an event organised by the North Road Community Partnership. We took our by-election candidate, Anne-Marie Curry (pictured above), along to meet the local volunteers. Unfortunately, none of the other by-election candidates turned up, even the Independent candidate, who is also the Chair of the Community Partnership. But then he's only managed to attend one CP meeting in the last six months (one more than the number of Council meetings he managed).
While we were filling our plastic bags with rubbish, I had a quick chat with the Labour candidate, John Vasey, who was out in the estate with a couple of councillors delivering leaflets. I like John, but I couldn't help thinking that, as fast as we were collecting rubbish, he was shoving more through letterboxes.
Cllr Fred Lawton and I went along to join in a riverside litter pick in the North Riverside area of the ward: an event organised by the North Road Community Partnership. We took our by-election candidate, Anne-Marie Curry (pictured above), along to meet the local volunteers. Unfortunately, none of the other by-election candidates turned up, even the Independent candidate, who is also the Chair of the Community Partnership. But then he's only managed to attend one CP meeting in the last six months (one more than the number of Council meetings he managed).
While we were filling our plastic bags with rubbish, I had a quick chat with the Labour candidate, John Vasey, who was out in the estate with a couple of councillors delivering leaflets. I like John, but I couldn't help thinking that, as fast as we were collecting rubbish, he was shoving more through letterboxes.
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Dinner with Lembit
Taking a break from canvassing, writing and delivering leaflets in our North Road ward by-election, I went with some colleagues from Darlington Lib Dems on a short jaunt along the A67 to Yarm, for a "hot fork buffet" with Lembit Opik.
Readers who are not part of the Lib Dems will not be aware that we are in the midst of a Presidential election campaign. Lembit is one of the candidates, together with a couple of people I hadn't heard of before, though one of them, Baroness Ros Scott, has been very successful at getting delegates at Conference to wear badges supporting her.
Lembit is a real star, pitching his speech just right for his local audience, raising spirits and inspiring us all to get out there, painting in primary colours, as he puts it. My vote is going to him. With Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne and Vince Cable providing superb leadership of the Parliamentary party, we need someone with Lembit's personality and drive to lead the party in the country.
My photo shows Lembit with our North Road ward candidate, Anne-Marie Curry, and in Question and Answer action at the Parkmore Hotel.
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Well done, Chris
Although the Darlington page of the Big Vote website still does not show the local result, I can reveal to an impatient world that the duly elected winner of "I'm a Councillor, get me out of here", and Youth Champion for the coming year, is bookies' favourite Cllr Chris McEwan.
Since Chris is also the Borough's Play Champion and portfolio holder for Children's Services he has rather cornered the market.
Most of the secondary schools in town participated with great enthusiasm, though it's a shame that neither Carmel nor Eastbourne Academy joined in. I'd be interested to know how many kids voted: it must have been in the hundreds. One chat room session had 45 kids all online at the same time (and then wondering why me and Jenny, the two councillors online at the time, found it difficult to keep up!).
One sad Labour councillor tried to make political capital of the fact that the Labour councillors in the event did better than the Tories. He also took the opportunity, on a publicly available website, by quoting one of his Labour colleagues anonymously, to personally criticise my performance, (for reasons I still cannot fathom, other than that the person who broadcast them is an intellectual bully). He was in a minority, however. What he failed to understand was that the point of the exercise was not for one party or other to win, but for 13 and 14 year old kids to participate in and learn about the political process. In that respect, it's a bit like youth football, where the purpose of taking part should be to enjoy the experience and learn the skills required to play the game well, rather than to win at all costs and by whatever means.
I am certain that many young people, and the participating councillors, gained a great deal from the experience. Hopefully some way can be found to enable these kids to continue to play a part in discussing youth provision in the town. It will be of benefit to us all.
Since Chris is also the Borough's Play Champion and portfolio holder for Children's Services he has rather cornered the market.
Most of the secondary schools in town participated with great enthusiasm, though it's a shame that neither Carmel nor Eastbourne Academy joined in. I'd be interested to know how many kids voted: it must have been in the hundreds. One chat room session had 45 kids all online at the same time (and then wondering why me and Jenny, the two councillors online at the time, found it difficult to keep up!).
One sad Labour councillor tried to make political capital of the fact that the Labour councillors in the event did better than the Tories. He also took the opportunity, on a publicly available website, by quoting one of his Labour colleagues anonymously, to personally criticise my performance, (for reasons I still cannot fathom, other than that the person who broadcast them is an intellectual bully). He was in a minority, however. What he failed to understand was that the point of the exercise was not for one party or other to win, but for 13 and 14 year old kids to participate in and learn about the political process. In that respect, it's a bit like youth football, where the purpose of taking part should be to enjoy the experience and learn the skills required to play the game well, rather than to win at all costs and by whatever means.
I am certain that many young people, and the participating councillors, gained a great deal from the experience. Hopefully some way can be found to enable these kids to continue to play a part in discussing youth provision in the town. It will be of benefit to us all.
Friday, 17 October 2008
"Ludicrous" screams the Echo
Front page lead story, huge "Ludicrous" headline: today's Echo lays into Steve Jones for his decision to stand again in the by-election he caused.
"Totally ludicrous" were my words to Paul Cook last night when he phoned me about it, and totally ludicrous it is. Steve must have a hell of a thick skin. He probably doesn't realise what some of the Council's officers and councillors are saying privately about his decision to seek re-election.
Well, if I was Steve, with a headline like that about me, I'd think twice about standing. He has til next Wednesday to withdraw his nomination. He can continue to represent his constituents as Chair of the North Road Partnership and Chair of the Friends of North Park. But he obviously isn't interested in attending Council meetings, so why is he wanting to be elected as a councillor again?
Update: My friend Alan Macnab has posted this elsewhere, but I thought it was so good that I'd reprint it here:
The fact is Mr. Jones failed to attend a single Council meeting for six months and as a result he was disqualified from being a Councillor. He must have known the rules about this. I am sure that if he had broached the subject at his job interview with his prospective new employer some arrangement could have been found between them and Darlington Council to allow Mr. Jones to attend Council meetings.
All employers are legally required to give employees reasonable time off for public duties. Employees in this position will normally make the time up by coming into work earlier or in other ways. Darlington Council bent over backwards to contact Mr. Jones in the intervening period and he did not contact the Council. Therefore he was rightly disqualified as a Councillor.
The fact that Mr. Jones is standing for Council so soon after being disqualified and because his actions caused the by-election in the first place is extraordinary, it does make a mockery of the democratic process and is a flagrant waste of public money.
Not only that, it deprives children of a day’s education, employment for teachers and support staff in schools used for the election, working parents their wages which they can ill afford to lose in this present economic climate and for employers the loss of money and production as a result of employees being absent.
Perhaps Mr. Jones should consider these facts and then decide what he wants to do.
"Totally ludicrous" were my words to Paul Cook last night when he phoned me about it, and totally ludicrous it is. Steve must have a hell of a thick skin. He probably doesn't realise what some of the Council's officers and councillors are saying privately about his decision to seek re-election.
Well, if I was Steve, with a headline like that about me, I'd think twice about standing. He has til next Wednesday to withdraw his nomination. He can continue to represent his constituents as Chair of the North Road Partnership and Chair of the Friends of North Park. But he obviously isn't interested in attending Council meetings, so why is he wanting to be elected as a councillor again?
Update: My friend Alan Macnab has posted this elsewhere, but I thought it was so good that I'd reprint it here:
The fact is Mr. Jones failed to attend a single Council meeting for six months and as a result he was disqualified from being a Councillor. He must have known the rules about this. I am sure that if he had broached the subject at his job interview with his prospective new employer some arrangement could have been found between them and Darlington Council to allow Mr. Jones to attend Council meetings.
All employers are legally required to give employees reasonable time off for public duties. Employees in this position will normally make the time up by coming into work earlier or in other ways. Darlington Council bent over backwards to contact Mr. Jones in the intervening period and he did not contact the Council. Therefore he was rightly disqualified as a Councillor.
The fact that Mr. Jones is standing for Council so soon after being disqualified and because his actions caused the by-election in the first place is extraordinary, it does make a mockery of the democratic process and is a flagrant waste of public money.
Not only that, it deprives children of a day’s education, employment for teachers and support staff in schools used for the election, working parents their wages which they can ill afford to lose in this present economic climate and for employers the loss of money and production as a result of employees being absent.
Perhaps Mr. Jones should consider these facts and then decide what he wants to do.
Out of the jungle
Well, I didn't make it to the final day. Eviction from "I'm a Councillor, get me out of here!" came five minutes early yesterday at 2.55pm.
It had been a hectic day in the jungle, with two long chatroom sessions booked by the Education Village and a number of informal sessions where students just logged on themselves to see if anyone was there. At one point there were kids from a number of different schools in town all chatting on line with each other, me, Jenny and the moderators.
I wish you could have seen some of the chatroom conversations: some were just pure fun while occasionally we caught a glimpse of the vulnerability and awkwardness of some of the kids. At the same time, others were so confident, clued up and interested in the world around them.
I'm sure that appearing behind a nom de plume made it easier for some of the kids to express themselves, without fear of personal humiliation or being laughed at.
It's been a real eye-opening experience and I hope the Council get involved again some time, so that other councillors can enjoy it to.
Congratulations to Jenny and Chris. I would have put them first and second at the start of the exercise. But when I heard their plans: for a £6m youth centre near The Forum, a mini-Glastonbury in South Park, Darlington's own version of Tall Trees and an amusement complex at Feethams, I knew the rest of us were sunk!
Good luck to both of you on the last day. I hope you find time to do some of your "proper" work today! And good luck with turning those plans into reality.
It had been a hectic day in the jungle, with two long chatroom sessions booked by the Education Village and a number of informal sessions where students just logged on themselves to see if anyone was there. At one point there were kids from a number of different schools in town all chatting on line with each other, me, Jenny and the moderators.
I wish you could have seen some of the chatroom conversations: some were just pure fun while occasionally we caught a glimpse of the vulnerability and awkwardness of some of the kids. At the same time, others were so confident, clued up and interested in the world around them.
I'm sure that appearing behind a nom de plume made it easier for some of the kids to express themselves, without fear of personal humiliation or being laughed at.
It's been a real eye-opening experience and I hope the Council get involved again some time, so that other councillors can enjoy it to.
Congratulations to Jenny and Chris. I would have put them first and second at the start of the exercise. But when I heard their plans: for a £6m youth centre near The Forum, a mini-Glastonbury in South Park, Darlington's own version of Tall Trees and an amusement complex at Feethams, I knew the rest of us were sunk!
Good luck to both of you on the last day. I hope you find time to do some of your "proper" work today! And good luck with turning those plans into reality.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Another young death
The news tonight that a 21 year old soldier has died in Afghanistan sends a shiver down the spine of all of us with sons fighting in that country. Will is the same age, just a couple of weeks into his first tour with the Royal Marines.
Yesterday I got his first letter home, full of the sort of stories any father wants to hear (not!), Apparently, while on guard duty, an rpg whizzed over his head, exploding 100 metres behind him. And then he was riding shotgun in the last vehicle in a convoy when it came under attack. Will told me he let loose at anything that moved.
And, in this modern age, despite being at war in a far country, Will and his colleagues still get to go on Facebook and keep in touch with home. It's a strange world!
Yesterday I got his first letter home, full of the sort of stories any father wants to hear (not!), Apparently, while on guard duty, an rpg whizzed over his head, exploding 100 metres behind him. And then he was riding shotgun in the last vehicle in a convoy when it came under attack. Will told me he let loose at anything that moved.
And, in this modern age, despite being at war in a far country, Will and his colleagues still get to go on Facebook and keep in touch with home. It's a strange world!
It beggars belief
Former North Road Independent Councillor Steve Jones, thrown off the Council recently for not bothering to attend any Council meetings for six months, is to stand again in the by-election he caused!!
Steve, expelled from the Lib Dems in May 2007 for supporting a BNP candidate in the local elections, must have the hide of a rhino. The cost of this election to the Council is estimated to be £11,000. On top of that, hundreds of parents of pupils at North Road Primary School are going to have to take time off work to look after their children because the school must close for election day. The Pupil Referral Unit at the Phoenix Centre will also close for the day.
How Steve Jones has the nerve to stand for election again, having shown what he thought of the people of North Road by not representing them for six months, when he was perfectly fit and able to do so, is beyond me.
I hope the people of North Road ward ask him what facilities they have lost because of this waste of tax payers' money. I hope the parents of local school children ask him to repay their lost wages on November 13th. And I hope the voters of North Road show what they think of him by giving him a derisory vote.
Why, then is he standing again? Obviously it has nothing to do with the £7,000 a year he lost when he was expelled from the Council, so it must just be that he loves his Council work.
But why, I hear you ask, do you have a photo of Police Station 11 in the Nania District in a Far Eastern country at the top of this article? Well, if you type "Beggars Belief" into Google Images, the first image that appears is this photo. No, I don't know why either, any more than I understand what's going through Steve Jones' head.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Pants to Poverty.
Today is Blog Action Day, the day in the year where bloggers are encouraged to post about a specific subject. This year the theme is poverty.
Bloggers around the world are today posting earnest comments on poverty, so I thought I'd stick to the theme but give you something different: Pants to Poverty.
Here's a bit about these guys:
The Pants Story
Well, it’s been a crazy, beautiful, exciting, inspiring and gorgeous journey so far! We started out as the young people’s group from Make Poverty History in 2005. Remember Live8? That massive rally in Edinburgh? Remember the white band that 8 million people bought? Well that’s where we began.
and if you want to know the rest of story, check it out here
Bloggers around the world are today posting earnest comments on poverty, so I thought I'd stick to the theme but give you something different: Pants to Poverty.
Here's a bit about these guys:
The Pants Story
Well, it’s been a crazy, beautiful, exciting, inspiring and gorgeous journey so far! We started out as the young people’s group from Make Poverty History in 2005. Remember Live8? That massive rally in Edinburgh? Remember the white band that 8 million people bought? Well that’s where we began.
and if you want to know the rest of story, check it out here
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