Thanet District Council Hung, Election Special

 The, were do we go from here? Question must be surfacing in the minds of several of our councillors.

Neither party has a clear mandate to run Thanet, nor do the independents have any real mandate as we have three independent councillors now the same number we had before the election.

I suspect that I am going to make some mistakes in this next bit, so any corrections or explanations in the comments please.  

 What comes next is the council elects a new style strong leader, because of the legislation laid down by the last government, the old weaker leader or leader for one year isn’t an option.

There is the new Localism Bill coming soon, probably about a years time, but I don’t think that this will make much difference to the new strong leader business.

 The new strong leader will then be responsible for:

Determining the size of the Cabinet;

Appointing the members of the Cabinet;

Allocating portfolios or areas of responsibility to the various Cabinet Members;

Allocating decision-making powers to the Cabinet and to individual Cabinet Members; and removing and replacing Cabinet Members.

When the council decided against the unanimous results of the public consultation to have a leader chosen by the other councillors and not a leader elected by the local voters, they made a definite decision between two leaders who were already in place.

The Labour councillors decided they would have Bob Bayford for leader if they lost and the Conservative councillors decided they would have Clive Hart for leader if they lost. Perhaps this was a case of better the devil you know.

 Now their decision has created a rather unusual position, the new stronger leader of the council won’t be chosen by the voters in an election, won’t be chosen by the majority party’s councillors, but will be chosen by three independent councillors, Jack Cohen, Robert Grove and Thomas King.

Hopefully, the three wise men.

This leads to the interesting thought that one or both of the two main parties may put up a different leader as candidate, one that would either be more acceptable to the other main party, or indeed the three wise men.

Looking at the national trend I wouldn’t say that the local Conservatives did that well and certainly they don’t seem to have any seats in the two main Thanet towns. When it comes to Ramsgate and Margate Labour do indeed seem to have a strong mandate.

In a general sense I think that both parties prospective leaders were chosen with that party having a strong mandate to govern in mind, a problem here is that the leadership job is really a full time one with low pay and really needs someone in their prime to do it. By this I mean someone who would already have a full time and reasonably well paid job, it isn’t really a job for someone in retirement.

With a strong mandate this can be overcome by having a figurehead leader supported by a group of councillors who are in their primes. Strong organisational and communication skills being required, in short a team effort. There is sense where this may not work so well where the leader hasn’t a strong mandate and may have to give out positions of responsibility to stay in power.

I should point out here that there is one way to remove a new strong leader and this is by a full council vote.

My recent experience of writing to the leader asking why the maritime museum hasn’t opened and getting no reply or even an acknowledgment of receipt, suggests that all is not quite well in terms normal organisations skills and keeping ones finger on the pulse.

It is in fact more suggestive of a muddled operation where council officers are expanding their own domains within Parkinson’s law, rather than a leadership ensuring timely and appropriate benefits to the area.

I intend to ramble on about this one today as thoughts occur to me, the results are in the post below and on the council’s website although the comprehensive breakdown of who got how many votes hasn’t appeared there yet.   

The detailed results are now published at http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/mgElectionElectionAreaResults.aspx?EID=49&RPID=1265874

An interesting one for me was that Payam Tamiz got 312 votes, was this based on the fact that it said, The Conservative Party Candidate, next to his name on the ballot paper?


Update the parish and town council results are out, with all of Ramsgate’s independents gone, the results hardly seem believable.  

Parish of Acol

Sheila Mary Patricia Bransfield No description


Jonathan Henry Inchley No description

Helen Mitchell No description

Bob Norris Other

Elizabeth O'Reilly Other

Parish of Birchington -

Birchington North

Ward Bill Furness Liberal Democrats

Steve Hayden Independent

Bernard Anthony La Roche Independent

Parish of Birchington - Birchington South Ward

Josh Coombs Other

Amelia Marie West Independent

Linda Ann Wright Other

Parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's - Bradstowe Ward

Bill Epps Conservative Party

Bill Hayton Conservative Party

David Saunders Conservative Party

Parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's - Kingsgate Ward

Robert William Bayford Conservative Party Candidate

Parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's - Viking Ward

Jo Gee Conservative Party


Mave Saunders Conservative Party

Timothy Bernard Seed Conservative Party

Chris Wells Conservative Party Candidate


Parish of Cliffsend

 Emma Louise Best No description

Maureen Fiander No description

Philip Griffiths No description

Beryl Florence Harrison No description

Vera Ellen Hovenden No description

Ratna Ratnasingham Other

Parish of Manston

William James Bell No description

Jennifer Mabel Fletcher No description

Linda Samme Other

Parish of Monkton

Gilly Brown No description

Nick Cole Independent

Tony Davies No description

David John Spillett No description

John Alexander Way No description

Parish of Ramsgate - Central Harbour Ward

Peter Campbell The Labour Party Candidate

Mary Dwyer The Labour Party Candidate

Tony Ovenden The Labour Party Candidate

Parish of Ramsgate - Eastcliff Ward

Rick Everitt The Labour Party Candidate

David Green The Labour Party Candidate

Corinna Huxley The Labour Party Candidate

Parish of Ramsgate - Nethercourt Ward

Steven Alexandrou The Labour Party Candidate

Kim Gibson The Labour Party Candidate

Parish of Ramsgate - Newington Ward

Pat Moore The Labour Party Candidate

Richard Russell Nicholson The Labour Party Candidate

Parish of Ramsgate - Northwood Ward

Kay Dark The Labour Party Candidate

Ian Driver The Labour Party Candidate

Elizabeth Green The Labour Party Candidate

Parish of Ramsgate - Pegwell Ward

Patrick Edward Doyle Conservative Party

Parish of Ramsgate - Sir Moses Montefiore Ward

Michelle Fenner The Labour Party Candidate

Alan Poole The Labour Party Candidate

Parish of St Nicholas at Wade and Sarre

Bernard Eric David Clayson No description

Richard Charles Garrett No description

Terry Robson No description

Terry Waterton No description