Claygate Elector @claygatelector

The meeting was scheduled for Thursday (25th) as usual. All the notices on gates & fences in the area are wrong. Can't see anything about it on Facebook or the CPC homepage. It's just hidden away under the Meetings tab of the CPC website. A poor start for this regime #claygate

Urgent! For whatever reason, the Parish Council has just changed the date of next week's Planning Meeting. This is the one that discusses 2 of Claygate's biggest projects: Raleigh Drive & Crown House. It's now on Wed 24th. Spread it around!

In 2019 we were denied a vote because there weren't enough candidates. On Thursday we're asked to participate in what will be a coronation which gives Connecting Claygate a majority at every meeting for four years. The only solution would seem: spoil your ballot papers. #claygate

It's galling to read one faction saying NO PARTY POLITICS when the only parish councillors standing for a second term are those with political aspirations. The others, innocents lured to stand by ads saying they will be 'heroes', drop out disillusioned. #claygate

As for factions and block votes, well, just wait for the acrimony that will ensue on the Parish Council. #claygate

I'm much more against factions than politics. One needs policies. How, for example, can one be a Claygate NIMBY without, for consistency's sake, also wanting to severely curtail immigration? #claygate

Another leaflet drop. So many mailshots in pursuit of power over almost nothing except our money. This week's anti-faction position is: Elmbridge: vote LD. Parish Council: vote only for Herbert, or spoil your paper in protest. #claygate

Just received a flyer for another faction: the Residents 4. Is forming a rival faction the only way to combat another faction (the Claygate 8)? Do their goals differ? Perhaps, under the covers, this is a Tory grouping. Geoff Herbert as the one outsider looks electable. #claygate

One of the issues for us as the electorate is this: do we want to re-elect some of the Parish Councillors responsible for the atrocious interpersonal behaviour that characterised the recent term of office? #claygate

In a normal, balanced parish council, each councillor knows they have to argue their spending case with the other 9. But in a CPC where one faction has a 6+ seat majority, no debate need happen. Only the Clerk stands between the faction & whatever it wants.#claygate

As established in previous tweets, the only important function of CPC is spending our money, raised through levies and council tax. Each request by a 3rd party is reviewed, but once the cash is handed over, does anyone review how well it has been spent? #claygate

I suspect the two LibDem candidates in the Parish Council election are trying to be in two parties at once: the LibDems and Connecting Claygate. As others say: NO PARTY POLITICS. #claygate

I'm not ascribing any malice to Connecting Claygate, but the potential for corruption in any dominant faction is contrary to the democratic motive that got them into power in the first place. #claygatr

If the Connecting Claygate faction gets a majority, then what determines Claygate's future will be the unminuted non-public meetings they hold, not Parish Council meetings. #claygate

Let's suppose 6 of the Connecting Claygate faction get in. They will always have a majority over the other 4 on the Parish Council. So they can always get their proposals voted through. Council meetings will be almost pointless. #claygate

13 candidates are standing in the Parish Council elections. With 10 seats up for grabs, 3 candidates will be unlucky. So at least 5 of the 8 Connecting Claygate faction will get in. They only need one more seat for a majority. #claygate

What faces us now is nothing like what Jean Griffiths, Brian Rhodes & Steve Wells intended when they set up the Parish Council in 2000. #claygate

One week further on, this journal's recommendation remains: Vote LD in the Elmbridge poll; abstain from the CPC vote. The emergence of the 'Connecting Claygate' faction is hugely worrying; at least 5 of them will be elected. #claygate

If you actually want to DO something for Claygate, more than spending many tedious hours in a financial approval role of minimal significance, for goodness sake join the CVA, the Flower Show, Gardening Society or the Scouts. #claygate