Which way to turn?

Bank holiday and stuck at home with a hideous cold and throat infection, not unusual occurrence for me and the beginning half term. This enforced inactivity, has given me time to think about council and its new regime.

If revenge is dish served cold then Cllr Goss the so called independent has bought a portable freezer……….

Her decision to support the conservatives for the administration of the council was based entirely on revenge for neither the Labour nor Libdem group supporting her for Mayor a second time. She was also, according to the Libdem group, isolated and friendless in her own group.

So now the city has a conservative administration that I fear will be radical. One thing the tories are committed to is change the way the authority operates;

Fewer employees
Fewer services provided by the authority – with services being run by private companies and voluntary organisations.

In fact I have included a communication to the Southampton Partnership and council staff and I have added a translation.

Message from Cllr Alec Samuels, Leader of the Council

As the newly elected leader of the City Council, I wanted to write to you to introduce myself and to outline my group priorities for the coming months.
This is such shock we never expected to be the council we have not thought about policies, we were always just anti everything.

I have been a councillor with Southampton City Council for over 20 years and I am looking forward to contributing to the continued development of this great city. A strong local economy is important to its continued growth and we are keen to work with businesses to help them grow and contribute to the city as a whole. We will sell any services to the highest bidder.

I welcome the opportunity to work with people such as yourselves who are committed to delivering a high level of service to the best of your ability. Staff are the greatest asset of this council and your continued support is essential if we are to deliver our priorities for the city. I am keen to ensure business as usual and continue to develop staff for the benefit of the organisation as a whole. Do it out way or find yourself redundant or in the private sector.

However, I know that the development of our staff and investment in our services comes at a price. This is why I am still committed to exploring options with a strategic service partner, provided we can negotiate acceptable terms and protect the interests of our staff. We are going to give away important support services including property and human resources to the private sector.

Partnership working is important for the city, and I am clear that working together with our city and regional partners is beneficial for us all. I know that there are many people in the city who are committed to delivering better services for our residents and a better future for the city as a whole, and I look forward to working with these people to continue and strengthen these partnerships. I want the council to become an umbrella organisation with charities, private companies and any other organisation we deem suitable running services.

My group has been carefully considering key service priorities over the coming months. We have agreed that they will include the following: We will continue to invest in our roads and transport to keep the city moving and in a good state of repair. At the expense of public transport and the community, the private car is paramount in transport/environment issues. We remain committed to improving the performance of our children and will continue to support the outcomes of the secondary schools review. Bearing in mind that Tory national policy is to support Academies and independent schools.
We want to increase support for the elderly, particularly in relation to their care in their own homes, and make this a higher priority than before. Huge discounts to the elderly in all areas particularly council tax, at the expense of priority areas and the other poor in the city and remembering our grass root support is among this proportion of the population. We know that the safety of our citizens is important, and we will continue to support this area to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, and help Southampton remain a safe city. However this group did not support the building of modern division HQ for the police on city owned land.

This is a change for the council and I am working with my group to ensure that we continue to deliver high quality services for the benefit of all our residents, businesses and visitors. You are key to helping us deliver our priorities and we all look forward to your continued support over the coming months. We are the cabinet now and there is sod all you can do about, so you will have to support us won’t you……?


Cllr Alec Samuels
Leader of the Council. Until Royston gets his act together and I am ousted by the young Turks who are slightly left of Genghis Khan.


I now wonder for the first time in my politicial life, if it is worth finding some common ground with the LibDems and forming a joint administration..............................? Just to prevent melt down.

The only hope is that the tories inexperience will see them not move very far in the council.

Good luck to all because I think we will all need it.