Grantham councillor and leader of the opposition at South Kesteven District Council Graham Jeal reflects on 2023 and what is to come in 2024
Christmas and New Year offer a time to catch up with family, to focus on those half-finished projects you accidently promised to complete by the end of the year, and through over-eating to rediscover any weight you may have lost, writes Councillor Graham Jeal, leader of the opposition at South Kesteven District Council.
I always try to find time and space to reflect on the previous year and what comes next. Is that the light at the end of the tunnel or the headlights of the oncoming freight train?
2023 was a dramatic year for South Kesteven District Council. Control passed to an uncomfortable alliance of Independents, Labour and others – united in the sole ambition of snatching power. Since forming a motley administration, tens of thousands of pounds have been spent in extra committee roles for councillors to keep the controlling alliance together and a purple plague of bins has been unleashed without properly engaging with residents to explain why. However, it is difficult to think of another “achievement” from the administration.
The council has benefited from our proposal for battery recycling, council tax relief for vulnerable veterans and attending to the rubbish on the A1. We blocked private healthcare for councillors and we have argued strongly against dramatic increases in parking. Holding down or even freezing the green bin charge makes a lot of sense.
Having put together a controlling majority, it seems that there are no ideas for saving money, improving the district or diverging from exactly what the previous administration was working on. If success were measured in self-congratulatory columns in the local paper and increased councillor expenses, there would be greater enthusiasm for the change of control.
It seems to me that too many councillors took precisely the wrong conclusion from the election results of May 2023. The election results gave no one group or party a majority and therefore the clear message from the people of South Kesteven was that we should all work together for the benefit of all residents.
In January, we face an avalanche of meetings around budgets, funding community groups in the Deepings and changes to the way local government is administered in Lincolnshire. The endless talking, I suggest, will cost you money.
To paraphrase Ernest Hemmingway – financial difficulty always happens in two ways – “gradually and then suddenly”. Our reserves went down by £7 million last year. My hope for 2024 is that there is less politics in local government and more recognition that our residents and the council both face financial difficulties in 2024.
A joke has been circulating among councillors that Deputy Leader Cllr Ashley Baxter must have received a copy of the Highway Code for Christmas as he appears to be unaware that U-turns are not permitted on the A1 (he dramatically changed his mind from being pro-litter on the A1 to being a strong advocate to actually doing something about it). We all hope that in 2024 the stalemate in the council is lifted and a budget focussed on our residents rather than political ambition is proposed. That's a U-turn we can all live with.
