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Local Government
Rochford District Council
Rochford District Council
Part of the Interview with District Councillor Keith Gordon (5th Nov. 2010)
RL: Keith, can we consider the District Council? A political animal in some ways?
Keith: Yes, in some ways but we do go against what Government says sometimes. We have been known to do that. We don’t tend to think of it as politics; I don’t anyway. OK, we’ve got two Independents, five Liberals and the rest Conservatives.
RL: So you’ve got over thirty Conservatives, so it is a Conservative Council. What does that actually mean?
Keith: Not a lot because everyone is working as they normally are. Yes, you have each of the groups and they all have their own meetings and we’re lucky that the leader that we have at the moment doesn’t have a whip at all, so if we don’t like something we say it. However, what we usually do is we’ll say it in a group meeting, so before Executive meetings or before Council meetings there is a group meeting where, for us, all the Conservative Councillors go and we’ll shout and scream at each other if necessary, if we don’t like something, and we’ll thrash it out and things have been changed in group and been rejigged. When it comes to full Council then it all goes through serenely, because as long as that issue has been changed as agreed, there’s no problem.
RL: Surely there must be political biases though? Otherwise why have political parties?
Keith: I think it is just banners that people fight the election under. I mean there are certain things the Liberals support us on and things we support the Liberals on. I think that mostly though, you’ll find it is just for the local people and that’s why the Council has been successful. There will be things we’ll go up against and there will be things we’ll fight for the local people. We don’t get much money and what we do with it, we do quite well, so it does grate sometimes that when you get a whip from up high, you will do this, and then we’ll try to think of some way that we’ll conform ... but! For most of us it’s more local concerns but we have to take notice of what the masters in Whitehall say because they control the budgets and if we’re not doing it correctly they’re going to send the grey suited men in and it will just go, so we have to show we’re toeing the line in some measure at least.
RL: You are on the Executive of the District Council?
Keith: Yes, I am portfolio holder for Culture, Art, Heritage, Leisure, Tourism and Business, which means around our area we’re mainly rural so what have we got to offer people? Tourism. We’re a very old area, so what have we got? History, or heritage. Then you have the leisure. We have miles and miles of coastline around here, lots of open space so people can use that facility.
RL: Hasn’t the leisure been farmed out though?
Keith: That’s a different part. Those five all come in with the Business because if you’ve got those there, the Business can thrive, partly on that. We have our leisure contract with Virgin which has been very successful. They charge us an amount a year for managing all the facilities – that’s Rayleigh Centre, Clements Hall, The Mill, The Freight House, Wakering Leisure Centre, and also Castle Road. They manage all those for us, and it’s been a very successful thing and the amount of money that Virgin put into updating and maintaining the buildings is fantastic. I think that the Rayleigh manager has just come back from a four day holiday in Turkey which was a prize by Virgin; she came top of her region. I have meetings with Tony Hudson who is their contracts manager every six months and get a three monthly report. Yes, that’s been let out but it’s been very successful. When we had the last major audit from the Government and we got a comprehensive review, one of the things that had been fantastic was that we had let out the leisure and there was such a partnership between the two. There is a profit-sharing thing in there as well so if we reach a certain level we get a share of the profits as well. It does work out very well for all of us.
RL: Is there ever an overlap there between what you do in those things and planning?
Keith: Yes, there can be. We had one last month that was a Garden Centre which I was fighting for under Business. We’ve managed to get the Planning Department to take the Economic Development Officer’s comments on board as a kind of consultee. When I went through the report and went and saw the facility myself, I couldn’t see why we couldn’t allow what they wanted to do, so with discussions with councillors we called it in and I led the fight on it and was successful.
RL: How far do these things go? For instance would dealing with the area of the Roche from the Mill to the town come under your jurisdiction, or would that be Planning?
Keith: No, that would be more likely to come under Environmental. I usually tend to get it when they’ve had ideas about it and then they want to use it, and then it will come to me. But the management of it, for maintenance, will come under Environmental. It comes in our Parish and so we can get involved that way and it comes in my ward so we can get involved in that way, so there are lots of different ways of getting involved with things.
To go to the part of the conversation where Keith speaks about his role as a PARISH Councillor, please CLICK HERE
To go to the part of the conversation where Sandy speaks about her role as a PARISH Councillor, please CLICK HERE
Councillors Keith & Sandy Gordon
5 Willow Walk, Hockley, Essex, SS5 5DQ
01702 207470
RL: Keith, can we consider the District Council? A political animal in some ways?
Keith: Yes, in some ways but we do go against what Government says sometimes. We have been known to do that. We don’t tend to think of it as politics; I don’t anyway. OK, we’ve got two Independents, five Liberals and the rest Conservatives.
RL: So you’ve got over thirty Conservatives, so it is a Conservative Council. What does that actually mean?
Keith: Not a lot because everyone is working as they normally are. Yes, you have each of the groups and they all have their own meetings and we’re lucky that the leader that we have at the moment doesn’t have a whip at all, so if we don’t like something we say it. However, what we usually do is we’ll say it in a group meeting, so before Executive meetings or before Council meetings there is a group meeting where, for us, all the Conservative Councillors go and we’ll shout and scream at each other if necessary, if we don’t like something, and we’ll thrash it out and things have been changed in group and been rejigged. When it comes to full Council then it all goes through serenely, because as long as that issue has been changed as agreed, there’s no problem.
RL: Surely there must be political biases though? Otherwise why have political parties?
Keith: I think it is just banners that people fight the election under. I mean there are certain things the Liberals support us on and things we support the Liberals on. I think that mostly though, you’ll find it is just for the local people and that’s why the Council has been successful. There will be things we’ll go up against and there will be things we’ll fight for the local people. We don’t get much money and what we do with it, we do quite well, so it does grate sometimes that when you get a whip from up high, you will do this, and then we’ll try to think of some way that we’ll conform ... but! For most of us it’s more local concerns but we have to take notice of what the masters in Whitehall say because they control the budgets and if we’re not doing it correctly they’re going to send the grey suited men in and it will just go, so we have to show we’re toeing the line in some measure at least.
RL: You are on the Executive of the District Council?
Keith: Yes, I am portfolio holder for Culture, Art, Heritage, Leisure, Tourism and Business, which means around our area we’re mainly rural so what have we got to offer people? Tourism. We’re a very old area, so what have we got? History, or heritage. Then you have the leisure. We have miles and miles of coastline around here, lots of open space so people can use that facility.
RL: Hasn’t the leisure been farmed out though?
Keith: That’s a different part. Those five all come in with the Business because if you’ve got those there, the Business can thrive, partly on that. We have our leisure contract with Virgin which has been very successful. They charge us an amount a year for managing all the facilities – that’s Rayleigh Centre, Clements Hall, The Mill, The Freight House, Wakering Leisure Centre, and also Castle Road. They manage all those for us, and it’s been a very successful thing and the amount of money that Virgin put into updating and maintaining the buildings is fantastic. I think that the Rayleigh manager has just come back from a four day holiday in Turkey which was a prize by Virgin; she came top of her region. I have meetings with Tony Hudson who is their contracts manager every six months and get a three monthly report. Yes, that’s been let out but it’s been very successful. When we had the last major audit from the Government and we got a comprehensive review, one of the things that had been fantastic was that we had let out the leisure and there was such a partnership between the two. There is a profit-
RL: Is there ever an overlap there between what you do in those things and planning?
Keith: Yes, there can be. We had one last month that was a Garden Centre which I was fighting for under Business. We’ve managed to get the Planning Department to take the Economic Development Officer’s comments on board as a kind of consultee. When I went through the report and went and saw the facility myself, I couldn’t see why we couldn’t allow what they wanted to do, so with discussions with councillors we called it in and I led the fight on it and was successful.
RL: How far do these things go? For instance would dealing with the area of the Roche from the Mill to the town come under your jurisdiction, or would that be Planning?
Keith: No, that would be more likely to come under Environmental. I usually tend to get it when they’ve had ideas about it and then they want to use it, and then it will come to me. But the management of it, for maintenance, will come under Environmental. It comes in our Parish and so we can get involved that way and it comes in my ward so we can get involved in that way, so there are lots of different ways of getting involved with things.
To go to the part of the conversation where Keith speaks about his role as a PARISH Councillor, please CLICK HERE
To go to the part of the conversation where Sandy speaks about her role as a PARISH Councillor, please CLICK HERE
Councillors Keith & Sandy Gordon
5 Willow Walk, Hockley, Essex, SS5 5DQ
01702 207470
In order to compare Parish and District Councils, we spent some time with Keith & Sandy Gordon, both Councillors. Here is the part of the conversation where Keith speaks of his role on the DISTRICT Council. (To see a subsequent interview in 2011, please CLICK HERE)
To see the part of the conversation where Sandy speaks of her role as a Parish Councillor, please CLICK HERE.
To see the part of the conversation where Keith speaks of his role on the PARISH Council, please
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