Super Twinning Trip!

Have just got back from Germany where the new Mayor and Mayoress, Cllr Mike Shellie and Gloria and Cllrs Lynn Hyde and Fran Oborski represented Kidderminster at Ceremonies in Husum to commemorate the 30th signing of the Twinning Charter. Fran was the only Councillor present in 1977 who is still a Councillor today though Town Clerk Charles Talbot who was there with his wife Jean, had attended as a Councillor in 1977!

A group of the Twinning Assoc "Oldies" were also in Husum plus the Kidderminster Cricket Club youth team who have twinned with the local Husum Club (who I believe play in the Danish League!)

The trip was Mike and Gloria's First Civic Event after Thursday's Mayor Making and was a great success though the weather was a bit mixed!

German hospitality was, as usual, superb and a great many cream cakes were eaten and a great many Phariseers were drunk! (along with Tote Tantes, wine and beer!!) Fresh strawberries and asparagus have just come into season so most of us indulged!!

Now it is back to work with avengeance with a raft of Wyre Forest and Housing Company meetings to take up the rest of half term!! No peace for the wicked!

Mayor's end of year reception.

On Sunday around a hundred people, made up of fellow Liberals, members of the Buffs, people who had helped with various elections and friends gathered in the King Charles Room and Mayor's Parlour for an end of year Reception hosted by Town Mayor Paul Harrison to thank everyone for their help.

It was a super event and a great way to end the Mayoral Year! Well done Paul!!

Disgraceful behaviour of Health Concern!

Tonight's Wyre Forest District Council Annual Meeting witnessed a disgraceful attack on the memory of the late Councillor Mike Oborski by the pathetic spineless so-called Leader of Health Concern, Cllr Howard Martin!

Realising that his attempt to move an amendment to sack Liberal Deputy Leader, Cllr Graham Ballinger from his Scrutiny Chairmanship (and presumably replace Graham with himself) was doomed to failure; Cllr Martin resorted to an hysterical and totally inaccurate attack on Mike. Health Concern members then walked out of the Council Meeting.

We have always said that Dr Richard Taylor is a superb local MP and deserves the public trust he receives; sadly there are some VERY unpleasant and unscrupulous individuals who, by clinging to his coat tails, have got themselves elected to Wyre Forest Council, behaviour of the type we witnessed tonight betrays everything Richard Taylor stands for!!

Super HARRIERS Reception!!

Last night the Kidderminster Charter Trustees and Wyre Forest District Council came together to host a Civic Reception at Kidderminster Town Hall for Kidderminster Harriers!

It was a super evening with good food, good wine and good company!

Even though they didn't win at Wembley The Harriers have done a great job for the town!

A VERY wet Cannock Chase!

Today the Polish Community in the West Midlands commemorated the Katyn Massacre with a Mass at the  Polish Church, Stafford Rd. Wolverhampton and then a short Memorial Service at the Katyn Memorial on Cannock Chase.

We got completely soaked but it is only by remembering and commemorating those whose lives were snatched from them that we can ever hope to eradicate tyranny.

As usual the Chairs of Staffs County Council and Cannock Chase District Council were there and it was a really pleasant surprise to greet an very old Lib Dem friend, Cllr Ray Easton Chair of Cannock Chase!

Mike always spoke at the Ceremony as Honorary Consul but this year the Consul General Janusz Wach and his wife drove up from London to join us. We had a chat at the Reception held in the Wolverhampton Polish Club after the event. Hopefully my official appointment as Honorary Consul will come through in the next few months!!

Analysis of local Election Results!! Before ANYONE gets carried away..........!

I guess we are likely to get a lot of "spouting off" from certain quarters in Wyre Forest about which parties got the highest percentage of votes.

To start with you need to compare like with like:

As Liberals we had Candidates in 5 seats:Broadwaters, Franche, Greenhill, Habberley Blakebrook and Offmore Comberton. The percentage vote for ALL parties who contested ALL 5 of those seats was:Conservative 31.55%, Health Concern 27.84%, LIBERAL 24.41%....Labour did NOT have a Candidate in Greenhill, The Green Party had only one Candidate, in Greenhill so we have not counted either of their votes.

The LIBERAL Candidates in Franche and Habberley Blakebrook were "name on a ballot paper ONLY" Candidates i.e. NO CAMPAIGN at all.

If we look at the 3 Wards in which as Liberals we actually ran Election Campaigns:- BROADWATERS, GREENHILL and OFFMORE COMBERTON, the percentage vote is: LIBERAL 40.33%,Health Concern 28.24% Conservative 26.25%.

As a small Party we did not have the manpower to run full scale Election Campaigns across the District if we had, we think the Health Concern vote would have been put far more clearly into perspective!!!

Worse than watching paint dry, and even slower!!

Today was the Annual Meeting of Worcestershire County Council. It started at 10 a.m. and finished around 1.20. During that time we voted to appoint a Chair and Vice Chair (4 votes in total); then we appointed the Leader and Deputy (on the nod!) Then we voted on the cabinet with an amendment from Labour (2 votes) then we voted on not taking the full increase on member's allowances because many of us feel we should get the same % as the staff. Then we were allowed to ask questions, but NOT vote on a cabinet report, then we were allowed to discuss, but NOT vote on a Scrutiny Report then we had lunch! Some of us had a working group on the Integrated Transport Plan after that! Quite what the whole day achieved for the people of Worcs I really DO NOT know!!!

Congratulations Mike and June!

We are delighted that commonsense prevailed in Stourport and Mike and June Salter are now Mayor and Mayoress of Stourport! Well done both of you! Have a great year!

Another Policeman needlessly killed.

The senseless murder of West Mercia Armed Response Unit member PC Ricky Gray in Shrewsbury brings home to ALL of how the Police put themselves on the line for all of us every day!

Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family in their tragic loss.

Congratulations to Cllr John Paul Campion!

We congratulate Cllr John Paul Campion on his election as Leader of the Tory Group on Wyre Forest DC.

John always seeks to get a cross Party consensus rather than conflict and it has been pleasant to work on the District Budget with him in the last few years! Hopeful he will continue his relaxed approach as Leader.

NOT such a good night for Wyre Forest Tories!

David Cameron may be busy claiming victory for the Tories across the country but it wasn't such a good night for Tories in Wyre Forest.

Having failed miserably on April 12th when Liberals held Mike Oborski's County seat, the Tories saw their vote slip in Offmore Comberton where Mike Price easily held on to Mike Oborski's District seat with just over 44% of the vote and a 215 majority over the Tory. This was a greatly improved result on last year when Siri Hayward had 37.9% and a majority of 74!

In Greenhill Paul Harrison had a massive 52% of the vote with 971 votes with Health Concern 2nd and the Tories an ignominious 3rd.

In Broadwaters Shazu Miah, who was adopted as Candidate a few days before nominations closed and had no prior publicity achieved a very creditable 3rd place while Health Concern's Ken Stokes held the seat with an increased majority.

Elsewhere the Tories failed to unseat Lib Dem Pete Dyke in Aggborough and, although they won Bewdley from Health Concern they managed, stunningly to lose Mitton where June Salter, who had been a superb local Councillor, lost narrowly to Health Concern.

Tory Mike Partridge, this year's Mayor of Stourport, also failed to regain Areley Kings, where he had lost by 10 votes to Health Concern last year! This year he came 3rd! Sadly Jamie Shaw, the long serving Labour leader on Wyre Forest narrowly lost to Health Concern!

The Health Concern Votes were frankly strange!

They failed to make any impact in Kidderminster where they might have been expected to repeat their success in Habberley which they took from the Tories last year. Instead Labour veteran Mike Kelly hung on in there with a majority of 75!

Nigel Addison's much vaunted Health Concern fight in Wolverley proved to be a total damp squib as he came in a very poor 2nd.

They got no-where in Cookley and since Mavis Baillie had been ill they could not have been surprised to lose Bewdley!

Stourport Results are a complete freak! If Stourport is to become the Health Concern centre as it would appear perhaps they should choose a Stourport Councillor as their leader!

They are now the largest group on Stourport Town Council with a bunch of brand new, totally inexperienced Councillors.

Let's hope commomn sense prevails and Mike Salter still gets the Stourport Mayoralty next Tuesday! We will watch with interest!

Congratulations Rachel and Mike!

Let's get away from Politics!!

Congratulations to Rachel and Michael Akathiotis on the birth of their new son TODAY at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital. Charalambous weighed in at 7lbs.11oz.

Well done both of you!

Hello! Is the LABOUR PARTY out there?

Has anyone other than in Cookley, Habberley Blakebrook or Areley Kings seen the Labour Party?

There are some people who tell us they would vote for them......if they still exist!

BOGUS TAXI LEAFLET!

Some idiot who has NO Knowledge of Election Law has published an illiterate leaflet, purporting to be from the local Taxi Trade endorsing one Labour, one Lib Dem and all the other Health Concern Candidates!

This is an Election Offence and the Police are now involved.

We know it has been delivered in Sutton Park and Aggborough Spennells, we'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has seen this rubbish!

TORIES GETTING DESPERATE!

You can ALWAYS tell when the Tories are getting desperate in an Election Campaign. They become really DIRTY fighters!

Today our phones haven't stopped ringing from voters in Offmore Comberton, many of them known Tories, who are totally disgusted and sickened by the lies in the latest Tory leaflet! We gather that Cllr Clee is the likely author! We suppose we shouldn't be surprised by the content but frankly it plumbs new depths even for him!!

Meanwhile, having told the Bangladeshi Community that he is a Conservative and that the word Conservative means EXTREMIST, FUNDAMENTALIST! (HIS words NOT ours!) The Tory Candidate in BROADWATERS has so far this week:

Put out one leaflet which advertises a PACT meeting on the WRONG DAY in the WRONG MONTH!

Put out a second leaflet which claims credit for EVERYTHING that EITHER the local LIBERAL COUNCILLORS OR the Health Concern Councillors have done!

Obviously in Broadwaters the Tory Candidate has as much knowledge of FACTS as has Cllr Clee!