A vote for a new leader of Thanet council – and possibly a new political administration as a result – will take place next Thursday, June 3.
Council and Labour Party leader Rick Everitt resigned from the role on May 13 to thwart a Tory bid to use a vote of no confidence to retake control of the council prior to the local elections on May 6.
Parties on the council are invited to make nominations for leader which will be voted on. This could mean yet another change of administration if a Labour Party member is not appointed as leader.
Since 2018 the council has been led by UKIP, Conservative and Labour. UKIP’s control came to an end in February 2018 when party leader Chris Wells resigned due to a rebellion in his party over the Manston airport site.
Conservative Bob Bayford then took up the role. But a motion to remove him as council leader was last put forward in October 2019 with a vote of no confidence being passed. The motion was put by Thanet Independent Group leader Stuart Piper and resulted in councillors voting Labour’s Rick Everitt in as the new leader, meaning the end of the Conservative-led administration.
The attempt to oust the Labour Party from administration then came but Cllr Everitt’s resignation from the role meant a takeover was not possible.
Thanet has 56 councillors in total. The political composition is: 26 Conservative; 17 Labour; 6 Thanet Independents; 4 Green and 3 Independents. The political numbers mean which ever party takes control will still need to rely on support from others, such as Thanet Independents group, Thanet Greens or independent councillors, to gain a majority vote in decision making.
The leader nominations and vote will take place during the meeting which is being held at Ramsgate Leisure Centre from 7pm on June 3.
What a shambles Thanet Council really is. Time to really get to grips and people to vote for a whole new council that will do the will of the people that vote them in. Thanet is beautiful and has so much to offer. We have the most beautiful beaches and villages. Fields that grow food and a community that does us proud. We need a strong council now that will support us, not cut all our trees down and sell our farms to developers.
I don’t think a change of council will make much difference to what happens to trees and farmland in Thanet.
it’s THE FARMERS THAT SELL THE FIELDS NOT T.D.C. THEY ONLY GIVE THEM PLANNING CONSENT
Slim Jim, you are assuming that all the farmers own the land they work on.
Try St John’s College Cambridge as one of the distant ‘don’t care’ land owners – they and the predatory developers see TDC as a weak council where there is money to be made.
With decent leadership, a competent executive and some stability things could be very different. Instead we have a bunch of self serving halfwits runnung TDC who would sell their mother for the right price.
People in Thanet don’t seem tp have cared much who owned the land locally until the government said that they wanted thousands of houses built here.
Thanet “independents” are the tory reserve team in reality, so don’t be surprised if they vote with the tories to form an extreme right wing council
So who was it that supported Labour to form a minority ruling junta the last time around Mr Lewis ?
It is the political toxicity, sniping and point-scoring that gets in the way of elected members carry out their duties of local governance.
At the end of the day, you are all no different regardless of the colour of your rosette.
For instance, Labour opposed the sale of Dreamland when they were last in opposition – and yet when they came to power they sold it off at a loss (and had to sell the car park to make up the shortfall !).
You reap what you sow, Barry.
“Thanet independents” are the councillors who pulled of the coup and instated Labour into the leading of the district council. The worst decision ever made in local history and most of them now realize that, and have been hounded for that in the polls.
Labour aren’t even fit to lead at a local level, nevermind any other level.
Labour: a bunch of rich people convincing poor people to vote for rich people by telling poor people that ‘other’ rich people are the reason they are poor.
That’s rich Barry.
I seem to remember you signing a letter in support of Jeremy Corbyn who could be described as extreme hard left.
Rather insulting to describe the Tories as extreme far right.
However, you are doing a great job campaigning for the Tories.
Very well said. Mr Lewis cannot help himself with insulting comments at any opportunity but ignores failure of his own party locally. John had it spot on with description.
Good responses to Barry’s inane comment.
Making excuses already
The Tories are just UKIP with a Union flag. They even threw out Churchill’s Grandson.
It’s a “vote leave” government by nature except local politics do not have the endless borrowed money to cover the mess ups. One day the people of Thanet will take priority over party politics.
What is the name of Churchill’s grandson? The one the Tories “threw out”.
Nicholas Soames…
By voting for non professional councillors we in Thanet yet again will be led by the management team which so far has been disastrous for the residents. The management and Mayor only want houses for Thanet and not prosperity.
Is there a mayor of Thanet?
It makes no difference which elected councillors we have here in Thanet, it is the poor decision making by the management in charge of Planning that accounts for all that is wrong with environmental issues and more. Trees allowed to be felled in conservation areas during nesting season without penalty. Land and scrubland being cleared for development during the same period, land being sold off by TDC with added consents to destroy the protected woodland, consent given to developers building on greenfield and agricultural land thus closing up the green wedges between our towns. So much more too. We need a new administration with people who care about what is happening to Thanet and to reverse the bad decision making. The present climate emergency declared by council means nothing and the residents are sick and tired of being lied to by them.
KR well said
Totally agree – rotten to the core and they think they are invincible but they will make a big enough mistake one day and will be toast – much to the delight of many of us.
What lies are the council telling us?
Look at it more as a case of what we’re not being told.
Financial libilities
Appalling state of the councils housing stock and lack of compliance
Cosy bback room deals allowing councillors to pursue pet projects
The reasons behind the considerable numbers ( and cost of non disclosypure agreements)
Rumours regarding issues in the planning dept and use of outside contractors.
Add your issue of choice.
Ex tories are alive and in thanet independents who are the rump of ukip . Many tories were ukippers. Same team, different shirts.
I cannot really make my mind up whether these posts are a spoof with someone masquerading as County Councillor Barry Lewis or not. If they are the posts of a county Councillor they just about sum up what’s wrong with local government in Thanet at all levels. Clownish is putting it mildly!
Barry, maybe you should focus on making Labour more electable?
From your comments on this article, it looks like you’ve a way to go.
Insults are a poor way of winning an argument and rarely succeed.
Cllr Lewis: There you go again – any excuse for a bit of political sniping.
Please get to grips with the fact that you are no longer in the school playground. Name-calling to your peers is not acceptable.
Try acting your age instead of your shoe size . . .
If you have a problem with the current council, then vote for a different one when the time comes.
But what difference do you think it will make?
Much of the planning regulation is imposed by central government. TDC can’t do much about that.
Not every tree is subject to a TPO. How many trees were chopped down to make space for the house you live in, or the street you drive down, or the supermarket you shop at?
Where did your floor boards and rafters come from?
Don’t blame the council out of hand. The government have decreed that if a contractor cannot make 20% profit they can forget about providing Social Housing. Thanet of course has no need of social housing with over 500 on the housing waiting list.If you do not know how to make a profit on 450 houses to be built ,perhaps you should try another occupation
Labour have had 2 years to improve the area and improve the senior management of the Council. They have not achieved either of these things.
Time for change.
To be fair , 2 years is probably only just about long enough to discover the extent of the areas problems. Plus the dire financial position of the council means little can be done in such a short period, not that any of that matters as any new council leadership will only force through at any cost the measures they have as pet projects. Councillors Whiteheads behaviour in respect of the old british legion being a case in point, will there ever be any financial report on what this is going to cost the district along with the overall relationship with Paramount. ( must be said this started several years prior) .
A shame as much zeal and financial generosity is not directed at the issue of public toilets etc.
Not sure I agree with all of that. Everyone knew what a dysfunctional management team have been in place for a good number of years, the financial position was in the public domain, it was very apparent the waste and recycling service was in complete meltdown as we’re a good number of their other services. My expectation is that a party who were so hungry to take over would have at least had some bright ideas on how to change things within the first part of the electoral cycle. The reality is they have allowed the senior executives to run the council and just wave everything through like nodding dogs.
Things have got worse. Certainly not better.
The reality of waste and recycling is that far too many resources are spent on tidying up after the irreponsible residents in the district . Recycling should be ignored and concentrate on just collecting everything properly, but the eco lobby won’t have that.
When you have big bills and little income there’s not much you can do in a short period, plus the new crowd always have their own priorities. Usually adding to the issues rather than solving anymin the financial sense.
The council officers are again trying to make a broken system work without enough money , a thankless task that is never going to attract real talent.
Thanet needs a 10 year basic masterplan that is agreed and from which deviation is very limited, once that has been implemented then you look at the “wish list” and see what can be done.
You’ve only to look at the farce of Labour objecting to the sale of Dreamland then happily waving it throughto see that the pathetic reality of politics is a bunch of numpties on either side saying the opposite of the other coloured rossettes just because they can’t be seen to agree.
The SMT currently at TDC is the one bequeathed by the tories when they lost power.
True – but they have had 2 years to get a new bunch in and have failed to do so.
The Tories have been in power for 10 years and look at the state the country’s in!
1997-2010, labour had the big seat, if they’d being such a good job they’d not have been voted out by the electorate. An illegal war and spending all the cash just two of their achievements of note that alienated the voters. Plus not choosing to have a 7 year pause on access to the UK by the accession countries, leaving the UK as the only strong economy for eu freedom of movement, as a result we had the huge influxes that were never planned for again alienating voters and giving UKIP a free ride, eventually resulting in Brexit.
Is that a record to be proud of from your viewpoint?
I wish all local councillors would act in the interest of Thanet and its residents rather than along political lines. The sooner all local councillors are independent and can vote freely on all topics, the better!
I have just had another look at the original article with the list of numbers of councillors per Party.
There are only 17 Labour councillors so there can never have been a “Labour administration” for the last two years.
There can only have been an administration run by some Labour Councillors making decisions but only with the permission of ex-UKIP Independents. An odd situation as the ex UKIP types would naturally agree with the Tories on most issues. But they seem to be so peeved about the Tories for some reason (Boris messing up Brexit, maybe) that they would rather let Labour take over than join in with their natural allies.
Either way, we haven’t had a labour Council with Labour policies at all. We have had a minority Labour-led group, only able to pass anything with the agreement of ex UKIP people, all under the central control of a Tory government at Westminster that effectively controls the purse strings and imposes housing numbers regardless of local needs.
Britain is a very centrally controlled country. Everything is decided in London and local Councils twist and wriggle to try to do their best but, in the end, the government is committed to reduce their budgets year-on-year.
Here in Thanet we have a wide range of political Parties to vote for on TDC and we seem to have chosen a very mixed lot from about 5 or more groupings.
So be it, but, in the end, the Conservative government has been in power in Thanet for 12 years.
Whoever is in power they appear to waste money right, left and centre.
Toxic Councillors and Officers IMO.
Who ever takes over. You will hear those famous 2 words We inherited. They all come out with that. Gives them an escape root down the line. Why not all get round the table and sort all these problems out. Jo public can’t. Only you can
What a sensible post Supachippy, but we all know it won’t happen sadly.
Thanetian Blind has hit the nail on the head. The Management at TDC is a disgrace. It is they who rule the councillors when it should be councillors getting officers to do the work of the residents’ requests, like it is in other councils across the UK. The sooner the councillors get a proper grip of the council, the better. Time to get rid of the rot!