Issues that local campaigners Tony Richardson & Peter Joyce are lobbying locals for support on "are not within the powers of the local council to undertake" says HBC council leader.
Thursday 16th March 2023 06:56am
Calls for a public vote of no confidence in a local council branded by many locals as “corrupt” are being slammed down by the councils leader who claim the move is not within the councils powers to undertake even if the necessary signatures were gathered.
It comes following claims local campaigners Peter Joyce & former Hartlepool Councillor Tony Richardson are now close to amassing the required number of signatures they say are required to bring the matter to the local council for public debate.
High Taxes, No services !
Hartlepool Council is expected to reveal a further round of spending cuts as it struggles to address a massive ongoing budget deficit...
As one of the smallest Unitary Authorities in the country, Hartlepool Borough Council has come under much criticism of it increasing council taxes demanded to locals in the borough where child poverty rates are said to be amongst the highest in the country compounded with extraordinary low rates of home ownership & high unemployment.
The town sadly now boasts no less than TWELVE FOODBANKS, as locals struggle to eat whilst being reportedly threatened with legal action over unpaid council tax bills....
Council Tax debts are now said to be overtaking mortgage payments as locals in Hartlepool find Council Tax debts spiral out of control...
Hartlepool is said to rank around 5th in the country for eyewateringly high Council Tax rates, with a further increase set to be pilled on struggling households in April likely to see around £60 pounds added to the average yearly household bill.
Campaigners claim that continual mismanagement of the local council through a number of council backed “vanity projects” & poor decision making on budgetary items has led to the local council being almost completely stripped bare of local services, with locals paying almost £400.00 more in council tax than they did a decade ago & seeing far less services now than what they paid for previously.
Mr Richardson (Left) & Mr Joyce (Right) collecting signatures last month outside York Road in Hartlepool
Both Mr Joyce & Mr Richardson (a former elected hartlepool councillor to the towns Rossmere ward) have been out collecting signatures around Hartlepool's Middleton Grange Shopping Centre for the last month, as well as seeing an online petition campaign growi in significant popularity receiving over 1600 signatures.
Speaking to Sunderland Global Media last month, former councillor Tony Richardson said “You can ask anyone on this street what they think of the current state of the Council, and they will all tell you the same thing.”
Mr Joyce & Mr Richardson outside Middleton Grange Shopping Centre collecting signatures last month
“We currently have over 500 signatures so far, we need 3339 before they have to sit down with us.”
This equates to around 5% of the town’s electorate.
Hartlepool Borough Councils Conservative leader Cllr Shane Moore took a far more different stand on the matter saying that :
“We live in a free society where debate and scrutiny are good things but both must be accompanied with facts.
“Sadly, Mr Joyce and Mr Richardson are both fully aware that what they are campaigning for is not within the power of Hartlepool Borough Council.
“A fact that the Chief Solicitor has explained to them very clearly in a recent meeting.
“What I find most disappointing is that Mr Richardson was more than happy with how Hartlepool Borough Council was ran when he was a councillor, it’s only now the public have removed him from office that it would seem he wishes to pick the ball up and take it home.
One of the options campaigners have proposed is that Hartlepool Borough Council upon any petition for a public vote of no confidence being successful, the local authority be merged into a neighbouring authority in a referendum likely to be one similar to that which seen the end of the Cleveland County Council bak in 1996 creating the Unitary Authority of Hartlepool BoroughCouncil In the process.
In response to this Cllr Moore Added:
“The reality is that only the Boundary Commission and Parliament can merge Local Authorities and should that actually happen and Hartlepool is merged with Durham, the people of Hartlepool would find that their Council Tax would be raised even higher once the large precepts for Town Councils are added as in many areas of County Durham.
“I suspect this inconvenient fact is not being told to the residents these men are duping into signing this petition.”
But its not just locals in Hartlepool, who've had enough of Hartlepool Borough Council
Petitions of No Confidence put to HBC from the towns outlying villages have been "silenced" by the council.... at least for now
In May 2021, the parish council of Elwick alongside the parish councils of the outlying villages of Hart, Dalton Piercy and Greatham all issued individual votes of no confidence to Hartlepool Borough Council, expressing their desire to re-join the authority of County Durham.
Parish councils who submitted calls of No Confidence claimed that Hartlepool Borough Council was increasingly ignoring public concerns about the overdevelopment of the towns outlying villages following the councils approval to allow the consruction of new homes on land that many claimed would pile increasing pressures on the areas local infastructure causing significant problems for locals who lived there.
Hartlepool Borough Council subsequently responded to the petitions saying:
“We refute the vote of no confidence and we have pledged to provide a comprehensive response to the points raised.”
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