Thoughts on Christmas and the Wizard of Oz

This week it’s Conservative leader Stuart Dark’s turn to write the Friday Politics column...

As someone who grew up in an emergency services family and then went on to serve for 30 years in the police myself, I am acutely aware that every Christmas there are so many people at work, snatching time with loved ones as and when they can, to make our celebrations the best and safest they can possibly be and to help the sick, vulnerable and lonely amongst us.

So, my article, at this time of year, has to start with a huge ‘thank you’ to all those in our emergency services, our armed forces, the NHS and care workers, our council staff, our local charities and our hospitality and retail workers who are out there currently hard at work for us. You and the families and loved ones whose enjoyment of the holidays are impacted upon by your work are truly our ‘Christmas stars’.

In preparing this piece, I have read with interest and the occasional raised eyebrow, the recent ‘political columns’ in this paper immediately before it and have been struck by the zealot-like preaching of strong one-sided political beliefs focussed on international and national and not local political issues and sometimes convenient distortions of long-past history (the new local Labour Group leader last week singling out ‘Dickensian’ Sir Robert Peel, I mean, really?... a man widely recognised as one of this country’s most impactive politicians who has apparently offended our modern local ‘Labour’ leader through his leading repeal of the ‘corn laws’ causing widespread relief from hardship/famine for the working classes, who introduced the ‘Mining and Colleries Act’ preventing young boys, women and girls working down the mines, the ‘Factories Act’ which protected the hours and rights of people working in industrial factories, led the emancipation of the Catholics from persecution, was the catalyst for the ‘Peelite’ movement whose members later established the ‘Liberal party’ and returning to an earlier topic in this piece, created modern policing with its long-held values of fairness and justice for all, irrespective of status – as an interesting fact UK police officers 194 years later are still widely called ‘Bobbies’ (for Robert) and ‘Peelers’ in his honour).

So you will not see an expansive moan, about ANY party or policy, in this piece. I got into local politics to try and make a pragmatic difference locally and that’s where my focus firmly remains. I believe our local future, our services and events and the money taken from us all in tax, fees and charges to deliver them are simply too important to wander off point. So, keeping the remainder of this piece local and on a festive theme:

The much-loved classic family film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was back on our screens this Christmas Day. One of the characters Dorothy meets in her adventures is the ‘Tin Man’ who famously sings the song ‘If I only had a Heart’ around all the things he could do, if he just had that missing, vital, ingredient.

One of the areas recommended for improvement in the recently published Local Government Association’s Peer Review of the Borough Council was, upon my group’s prompting, the need for a defined ‘value set’ to be created and embedded across the entire organisation from top to bottom, something we had been striving to progress when we were the administration. Such a ‘heart’ totem is standard practice in many large public bodies and businesses (for example if you go on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital website you will find sections on the services offered, but crucially the way staff will implement them and treat you, your family/visitors and each other). Whilst I and others see, on an almost daily basis, individual staff and teams at the council delivering fantastic service to residents, organisationally there will always be significant ‘mis-steps’ if those in charge, setting the ‘heartbeat’ do not have one clear unambiguous vision around the council’s role, support to those it serves and clear moral focus.

Sadly, these ‘mis-steps’ are seemingly becoming all the more prevalent with indicative issues, such as;

the needless ‘fight picking’ with partners who can help West Norfolk achieve (as evidenced in the previous local Labour Leader’s stinging criticism); the holding back of £30K funding towards ‘the Night Shelter’ this winter despite it being available in the budget alongside public criticism of that charity by the council in the media making that organisation’s fundraising foreseeably harder; the finance needed to support the ‘Gaywood Remembrance Service’ being taken out of the funding available to support other grassroots community initiatives in that area despite an extra £1.8m ‘windfall’ underspend being available; the inability of the current Leader to formally engage the Ukrainian Refugee support centre (sited two flights of stairs away from his office) for several months and his current unwillingness to commit support to it beyond April 2024; the lack of representation by the administration’s political leaders at the, 40 years of local public service, (Labour) Mayor’s civic inauguration and the national police memorial service in the Minster for fallen officers despite clear invites; the unilateral decision to move the Hunstanton ‘Soap Box’ derby back to September from April without regard to views of local businesses and most recently unwillingness to constructively engage a business in Hunstanton regarding a planning permission matter unfairly forcing them to close for the ‘Christmas Day Swim’ all occurring.

Let’s hope this acute need is picked up in the review’s impending associated ‘action plan’ in the New Year.

One additional area in the Peer Review that I’ll highlight here is, despite widespread public comments by the current Leader that the Council has ‘no money’, the external reviewers found, exactly what we have been saying all along, that the council is in a relatively strong financial position compared with other council’s with reserves and a funded budget for the next three years. Because of its strategic nature, their report did not detail the £1.8m ‘windfall’ underspend the new administration inherited from FY 2022/3 nor the £3m in the inherited budget for capital projects that would generate needed revenue in future years, effectively making the budgetary position even better.

Connected to this, the Peer Review highlighted a number of areas where the council has improved services, brought new teams online and delivered a significant programme of events. However, all of these were brought in under the previous regime’s two years of tenure or on budgets set by them for this year.

Now, to be perhaps more charitable, as it’s Christmas, than the outgoing local Labour Leader’s recent stinging public comments that the current administration are ‘tighter than the Tories and nothing new is coming forward’ it may be just a timing issue with the peer review report being released before their ‘in train’ plans become visible, but they have now had eight months, one third of the time that the previous administration sat and delivered all the work commented upon and we are as we hit January entering the period where they will set their first budget, which will outline the level of ambition, services and events for West Norfolk alongside what they will charge us in taxes, fees and charges for them. Given the peer review’s findings on the council’s budgetary position, it is clear these will all be voluntary decisions of the current administration and not through any forced financial necessity.

So after all of the promise and grandstanding by some, the defining ‘first budget’ moment for this administration is rapidly approaching (spoiler alert….) let’s hope for all our sakes it’s not like the ending of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ when Toto knocks over the great, powerful Wizard’s screen to reveal he’s not quite what everyone had thought or had hoped!.