It's Our City Campaign - Have you Signed?

[Annie Bynnol 611]

Either there are some serious technical errors on the published database of names and addresses or the information given is not accurate.

Either way far fewer eligible individuals have signed than it appears.

 

As the "Sheffield People's Petition" is sponsored by a minority political organization who advertise themselves as the guardians of democracy and accountability, they need to investigate and scrutinize and be publicly held to account for the huge number of errors appearing on their online petition- here.

 

 The petition that clearly states that the petitioners must be on the Sheffield electoral roll.

Why are people from Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, South Africa, Netherlands, Croatia, France, Morocco, Thailand, Morocco, Denmark, Finland, United States, Czech Republic, Korea, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Australia, Greece, Bolivia, Indonesia etc. signing it?

How many of the rest are actually Sheffield voters? How many of these have votes in other councils.

 

 

Why are their so many multiple entries? There are 14 people called  "m camp".

Are their really 9 Sheffield voters called "M******* V****".

One individual with a New Zealand address appears 18 times.

 

 

[RollingJ 1,993]

Interesting, @Annie Bynnol. As one who has a strong dislike of our current council, I am however even more worried if this crowd ever gained any more traction - they are apparently even more inefficient.

Edited June 27, 2019 by RollingJ

[Planner1 428]

3 hours ago, Cyclone said:

 specifically does propose a change to the style of "modernised committee system".  That seems fairly clear to me.

The person promoting this petition on here has been asked by me what they think a "modern committee system" entails and what difference they think it will make to actual decisions taken. There has been no response.

 

The make up of the committees which were previously used in councils all reflected the political makeup of the Council. ie the ruling party has the same level of majority on each committee as they do in the overall council. Any "modernised" committee system would have the same makeup. The ruling party will of course instruct it's Members how to vote, so how therefore are the decisions going to be any different?

[Cyclone 10]

At the very least it will allow some discussion to occur amongst the committee and whilst the ruling party MAY instruct its members to vote, they aren't bound to obey even if it does.

[Planner1 428]

1 hour ago, Cyclone said:

At the very least it will allow some discussion to occur amongst the committee and whilst the ruling party MAY instruct its members to vote, they aren't bound to obey even if it does.

Well, on my own 40 years of experience in local government, I've presented a lot of reports to a lot of committees and only seen a couple of instances where I'd think Members might have voted against instructions.

 

If the Members on a committee had reservations, they sometimes deferred the decision to next committee meeting, which gave them time to discuss it amongst the ruling group and agree what to do.

 

Anyone who thinks that changing to a committee system would mean individual Members would be free to vote as they wish on all decisions  is being very naïve.

 

People often complain that local government is slow to act and make decisions. I can't see that changing to a committee decision system would speed anything up. Quite the opposite I'd think, which is probably one reason why 90% or more of authorities have kept the current system. 

[Annie Bynnol 611]

10 hours ago, Cyclone said:

 

This is about as factually incorrect as it could possibly be.  It reads like some kind of mad conspiracy theory.

The majority of the "In our city" campaign steering group, co-chairs etc. are, or have been involved in STAG and/or the Green Party.

Having tasted success but with no hope of power under the current system they are attempting to gain influence by creating a system within which they can make a lot of noise and publicity.

The petition stalled  without the required number nearly a year ago. Adding to an old petition means that dead and no longer resident signatories will count .

The petition also includes many multiple entries and non-Sheffield voters (pointed out earlier).

Anonimity is possible so can these names be checked?

 

Changing the system is fine and should be ongoing.

But allowing unrepresentitive but vociferous pressure groups in through the back door is not right. 

[jbagley 10]

6 hours ago, Planner1 said:

The person promoting this petition on here has been asked by me what they think a "modern committee system" entails and what difference they think it will make to actual decisions taken. There has been no response.

Ha ha been working a long shift so couldnt reply. Have to work sometime.
New system committees have experts+people from communities+councillors from all parties on the committee. Some of the committee chairs are from opposition partys not always ruling party. So, can get more input from different angles so decisions made with better info.
There are about 3 different options for new committee system like that. The rules say council has to consult to choose the best one to suit.

[Longcol 594]

24 minutes ago, jbagley said:

New system committees have experts+people from communities+councillors from all parties on the committee. Some of the committee chairs are from opposition partys not always ruling party. So, can get more input from different angles so decisions made with better info.
 

Lol - bet you wouldn't say that if we had a Green'/Liberal council and the main opposition party was something like Brexit / UKIP.

Edited June 27, 2019 by Longcol

[Annie Bynnol 611]

1 hour ago, jbagley said:

Ha ha been working a long shift so couldnt reply. Have to work sometime.
New system committees have experts+people from communities+councillors from all parties on the committee. Some of the committee chairs are from opposition partys not always ruling party. So, can get more input from different angles so decisions made with better info.
There are about 3 different options for new committee system like that. The rules say council has to consult to choose the best one to suit.

'Experts' -no problem as long as they are professionally or academically qualified with significant and relevant experience. They meet the criteria of an expert witness. They must also have no link with any local political party or businesses or individuals (unless disclosed and under oath).

'People from  communities' - No community, locality, pressure group should be allowed to nominate  endless numbers of 'people from communities'-this is a direct threat to our elected system  and is exactly thewhat the STAG/Green backers want in order to promote their minority views.

 

[dave_the_m 61]

1 hour ago, Annie Bynnol said:

'and is exactly what the STAG/Green backers want in order to promote their minority views.

In the 2019 local elections, the spread of votes in Sheffield was: 31.6% Labour, 24.5% Lib Dem, 22.5% Green, 11.3% UKIP.

 

The Greens are indeed a minority party, but so are Labour. Add in the support from STAG sympathisers with the Greens and it probably about matches Labour. Julia Dore seems to have no problems imposing her minority views on the people of Sheffield.

[Longcol 594]

15 minutes ago, dave_the_m said:

In the 2019 local elections, the spread of votes in Sheffield was: 31.6% Labour, 24.5% Lib Dem, 22.5% Green, 11.3% UKIP.

 

The Greens are indeed a minority party, but so are Labour. Add in the support from STAG sympathisers with the Greens and it probably about matches Labour.

Didn't any STAG sympathisers vote Green then?

[Annie Bynnol 611]

6 minutes ago, dave_the_m said:

In the 2019 local elections, the spread of votes in Sheffield was: 31.6% Labour, 24.5% Lib Dem, 22.5% Green, 11.3% UKIP.

 

The Greens are indeed a minority party, but so are Labour. Add in the support from STAG sympathisers with the Greens and it probably about matches Labour. Julia Dore seems to have no problems imposing her minority views on the people of Sheffield.

There are 49 Labour Councillors and the combined opposition have 35 Councillors. This is called a majority. 

The Conservative Government is a minority government.

The way the Council elections work means that it is entirely possible to remove a ruling party over 3/4 years. 

That is how democracy currently works in Sheffield.

 

The current Petition is by an organization run by Green/STAG members to gain a voice by getting their unelected people and experts onto Council committees to gain maximum publicity.