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The Forest of Dean District Council full meeting on July 27th , was for those of us in attendance confirming the troubled waters the Forest of Dean faces for as long as there is a Green party administration in place, supported by what was once referred to as the Labour group.
Be in no doubt , as far as the Council is concerned there is NO Labour group.
What there is , is a group of Labour members who act and vote as a Green Party seconds team, and they are led by a drop in wannabe candidate whose only ambition is to be named as the Parliamentary candidate.( he obviously enjoys losing elections)
The previous leader of the Labour group, once highly respected, has unfortunately damaged her record as a keen and powerful advocate for the community and for the Forest by being no more than voting fodder for the Greens in exchange for a chain of office.
It is very sad and frustrating.

But we must face the fact that if there is an environmental angle to a question , or to a motion, Labour Cllrs will be instructed by their Wannabe Leader to vote with the Greens, however damaging and however hypocritical .
This was never more prevalent than last Thursday concerning a motion about MOTOCross or scrambling events that many young people enjoy.

This motion, calling for more Council enforcements on such events that will undoubtedly mean such events don't happen and those youngsters will instead revert to riding their bikes in the Forest, was originally put to council debated and rejected just 6 months ago.
At that time, that very same motion was voted against by the Labour Group, very vociferously by their current leader and by the now Chair of council.
Miraculously, 33 weeks later and following all the deal making over positions in Council the Labour group now support the Green Party's suppression of motorsport in the Forest of Dean.They alongside the Greens won the vote
How very convenient for everyone , apart from those who enjoy motorsport.
Similarly. The Conservative Councillor for Tidenham, produced a motion that seemed sensible to everyone except the Greens and Labour.
He wanted the Council to extend and commit to working with MPs and government to alleviate the traffic issues that face Sedbury , Lydney and Tidenham as well as Chepstow.
A long standing issue, Our administration was really vocal on the issue for 6 years and everyone knows its something that needs sorting. Labour candidates even campaigned on the subject in the recent election.

The Greens , fearful that traffic alleviation may mean new roads or bridges went into full no more road building mode. We had talk of fire and pestilence, disease and death. Well not quite but they really don't like road building.
Nothing new there, we all know that the Green Party's idea of stopping traffic issues is to sit in front of said traffic
Labour , this time voted with the Greens and quite clearly believe the issues in the area are not important enough to have discussions with other organisations and sort the issue.
How convenient for everyone, unless you're from Sedbury, or Tidenham.
The Labour Group ( Green second team) leader is already fighting a general election that hasn't been called, and doing nothing for the Council. Preferring cheap soundbites to policy, smart arse comments to substance and all the while doing exactly as the Green party tells him to , only allowed his own view on licence.
The Progressive Independent Leader, Cllr Julia Gooch reminded the new Leader of the Council about his comments concerning the salary of the chief executive that he made last year when an interim was hired.
Amongst must gnashing of teeth the Leader back then said how terrible it was that the council was paying so much, it was wrong morally and he and the Greens would do things much more cheaply and in a very different way.
Under questioning on Thursday he admitted he had been wrong and he now knows the salary is correct and proper.
So all that fuss? All that nastiness and all the abuse shown to the previous administration due to the comments made by members of the new cabinet including the Leader was all unnecessary .
There were some high points. The Progressive Independents did get a motion put by Cllr Tim Gwilliam, calling for fairer fuel prices for rural communities.
Cllr Jamie Elsmores motion asking for Green Party support for the retention of Cannop Ponds was successful as he gave the Council Leader no wriggle room.

The team also managed to get committment that our Leisure services will be considered a statutory service and that the Council should work to ensure each of our towns have youth clubs open at least three nights a week.

But we have worries. Cllr Bernie O'Neill is hugely concerned by the autonomous public decrees by Extinction Rebellion member and current Cabinet member for Finance, Cllr. Moore, that they will be disinvesting from anything to do with Fossil fuels.
While admirable, this would cost the council in its very first stage and on the very first investment over a quarter of a million pounds , as well as nearly sixty thousand pounds in interest.
That is massive for the Council.
Will the Labour Group support that ?
Will their skilled U turning also allow them to now support the single settlement at Churcham? A much despised Green plan which is already starting to resurface and will do doubt be put forward by the Green administration by the Autumn.

The “other Independent group are having similar issues with their leader being part of the Green coronation.
There is much to worry about, we know many genuine Cllrs are getting worried and we are aware that internally there are real concerns about the direction the Council is being placed by the Greens and their second team.
However, there are some chinks of light, people are seeing through this sham, they are seeing the incompetence and the one eyed ideology.
There is still hope.
As a footnote, one Green councillor brought their poodle to full council on Thursday.
That's how highly they regard your Council, however the poodle did at least make a little bit more sense. than many of the Cabinet members and Green Councillors We suspect it may have a position as the leaders special advisor  by the end of next week.

Thursday 27th July will see the next meeting of the Full Forest of Dean District Council . Here we post the questions and motions that our Councillors will be putting to that meeting. We always welcome your views and requests for future questions or motions and you can contact us throught this website or via email. Remember thanks to Progressive Independents you can watch a live stream of the full council meeting via the council web page. 

Britain 2023
We were told that privatising water companies would make the water we get through our taps cleaner and cheaper.
instead
We have rising bills, leaks all over the place , sewage in our rivers and millions being paid to shareholders including Foreign owned companies
We were told privatising the electric companies would make our energy bills cheaper, make our service more reliable and create investment.We still get power cuts in poor weather.
instead
We have rising unaffordable bills, energy crisis, companies forcing prepayment meters on the most vulnerable of society.
We were promised an NHS fit for purpose where everything would be free at the point of use and where everyone could get the care they need.
Instead
The NHS is being allowed to die, ambulances take an age to get to patients because they cannot drop the patients they already have off in hospital as the hospital beds are full of patients in need of social care. There is not enough or adequate social care so there is nowhere for the patients to go.The care homes are being closed .Mental health facilities have been reduced to near zero and the police will no longer respond to issues involving mental health because they are so low in numbers they simply don't have the manpower.It can take weeks to see your GP and if you haven't already got a NHS Dentist , your going to have to go private
We were told that the planning system was designed so that everyone could own or rent their own home.Councils would replace the homes they sold off and the right to buy would ensure homes for everyone.
Instead
Development after development ignores local need and are allowed to build high profit executive homes,as slowly or quickly as they like, timing it to maximise profit. Council housing has been slashed as housing associations sell off inefficient or expensive to repair homes and right to buy continues to reduce numbers. Mortgage rates are becoming unaffordable for many and house prices are such that affordability is beyond most people.
Also
We now have to work for longer before we can retire.Many of our schools are now privately run , this means someones making a profit. We see lack of investment in schools.Youth Clubs and young people's services have been closed, cut or removed meaning young people quite often have literally nothing positive to do in rural areas.
Our roads are a national embarrassment. Potholes and decay that damages the cars you pay a fortune for. If you can run a car the fuel prices are so expensive you may not be able to fill the car with petrol to even get to work to earn the money to pay for the car.
You can't catch a bus or a train because we were told that privatising the buses and the trains would mean cheaper , efficient and modern services.
Instead
We get reduced or no services , on poor quality transport , where you often have to stand up and that's if it turns up at all.It also cost a small fortune to travel a few miles and when to get to the station or hub there's no further infrastructure to take you to where you wish to go.
Food prices in supermarkets are at all time highs, there are security tags on Cheese.
Food banks have become normal and are being used by people working full time,

 
Health
Water and water ways
Housing
Schooling
Childhoods
Policing
Transport
Energy
Roads
And even being able to simply feed our families.

All these fundamental things, things for society, things society needs are failing

This is Britain in 2023, is this what we want ? Is this what we deserve ? Is this the way forward ?
We are not attacking the Government or on any party
We are saying that the current political system , the party system has had its time and is now failing Britain.
We need a reset, we need to admit that the path we have travelled has made the few very rich but made the majority worry and stress.
It doesnt have to be party v party, ideology v ideology.
We need a new way of doing our politics, just because somethings always been there doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't change change

.

In February this year The Greens put a motion to Council that it shoule disinvest in anything that had any link to fossll fuels. An admirable target and somewhere the Council needs to get to it was explained very clearly by officers that to do it straightway would have catastrophic effects on the Councils finances and viability.

Heres how Glos news centre report the issues at the time .

"Councillor Mark Topping (G, Lydney West and Aylburton) called on the council to disinvest from the Schroders Income Maximiser Fund which is currently providing the authority with a return of 7.8%.He told the meeting in Coleford on February 16 that the council is giving money to the very thing they are trying to fight.“It’s crazy. It is not just ironic that we give money to the fossil fuel industry and declare a climate emergency on the other hand, it is pure madness,” he said.Finance cabinet member Richard Leppington (Progressive Independents, Bream) said the fund invests in Shell but it constitutes just 3% of the fund. The big oil and gas companies pay a lot of tax which supports services like the NHS and are investing in renewable energy technology, he said.“Selling up at this time would lose the council money. I cannot support an action which would damage this authority and in the future we may reconsider the investment,” he said.Officers also explained that it would cost the council £259,504 pa to disinvest. Councillor Philip Burford (I, Hartpury and Redmarley) accused the Greens of grandstanding. He said they would have the council lose its investment return to “do the good green things the council wants to do”.He asked how people are supposed to get to work and look after their families without fossil fuels if electric vehicles are also bad.He said: “It irritates me that members will come to this meeting and not think about our residents. We are all committed to a climate emergency and doing the right thing for the environment but it’s my belief that we should also be committed to doing the right thing financially so that the people of the Forest of Dean can live and prosper.”Councillor Andy Moore (G, Pillowell) said climate change was at the top of the council’s corporate priorities but is nowhere when it comes to where the council invests its money. He said: “We have to take our money and put it where our mouth is.”Conservative Cllr Nick Evans (C, Tidenham) asked why the Greens had not while they were in the cabinet. And council leader Tim Gwilliam (Progressive Independents, Berry Hill) defended the work the authority has done to reduce its carbon emissions over the last five years.“Much of it was pushed by the two [Green] former cabinet members. I find it disingenuous that they should slight us in the way they are doing.“There is a climate emergency. We are trying to take it seriously but we have to do it in a way we can afford to do it.”Cllr Gwilliam said the return from much of the investment may have gone towards carbon reduction such as solar panels."

So over a quarter of a million pounds would be lost to the council budget ,without any equal or near equal replacement. Devastating to a Council the size of the Forest of Dean and would almost certainly mean cuts to other sevices.

Please note in the text the quotes in bold. In February Cllr Burford was open in his anger at the Green party proposal.

The Green Party in May, when positioning themselves to take over the administration following the election ,supported Cllr Burford for the position of Scrutiny Chairman ( a paid position). Cllr Burford as Leader of the second largest group supported a Green administration at the same meeting,ensuring the Greens took control of the Council

In their first Cabinet meeting on Thursday The Green Cabinet stated their intention to totally disinvest from Fossil Fuels and were taking steps to do so immediately. The Cabinet member announcing the move was the Deputy Leader of the Council  who on dis declaration of interests page lists "Extinction Rebellion" and his work as "Climate Activist"

So in supporting and putting a Green Cabinet in place Cllr Burford (alongside the Labour Group of Cllrs) has created the very thing he was so angered about just six months ago . It "irritated" him that The Greens wanted to do such things and not consider the communtity and the effect such fiancial ruin would have on the Forest of Dean.

It will be interesting to see Cllr Burfords reaction to the announcement on Thursday and whether the issues that were there just weeks ago and caused him such anger and angst remain or whether the assurance his finances and his ego recieved when securing the Chairman of Scrutiny Role has now tempered his concern.

More importanltly we will work with our Progressive Independent Councillors and supporters to ensure that local services are damaged as little as possible and that disinvestment is achieved in a sustanable and sensible manner.