New Duties

After my re-election, I attended the first Conservative Group Meeting last week and my new duties were discussed.  I then attended the first full Council Meeting on Wednesday, 18th May 2011 and I now inform you that, with immediate effect, my new duties for the foreseeable future are as follows:

• The Leader of the Council, Cllr Gary Porter, showed great faith in my abilities and I was given the new job of Junior Portfolio Holder (Finance).  This position means that I will learn a lot more about Council finance and how your Council tax is spent and, hopefully, in the forthcoming months I should be able to provide some positive input into finding ways of assisting Councillor Przyszlak to save the Council money in these difficult times.
• The Development & Control panel has now had a name change to fall in line with recent Government policy (the new Localism Bill due to be released very shortly) and it will now be called the Planning Committee.  This is also in line with our Council partners - namely Breckland - Breckland also have a Planning Committee.  I am staying on Planning and, again, I will look forward to carrying out these duties.

Past Duties

During my first year as a District Councillor, my work included carrying out my duties on the Policy Development Panel . My outside body duties, as a District Councillor, were for the Blind Society and also the Air Cadet Squadron in Spalding. I would like to say a hearty thank you to the committee members of both the Air Cadets and the Blind Society in making me feel so welcome. I would also like to compliment members on the success of these organisations which is, in the main, due to the hard work that’s carried out by such dedicated members.

To give District Councillors a broader understanding of civic duties our roles are changed every two years. This changeover means that District Councillors learn more civic duty skills and this, in turn, benefits you - the local council tax paying community.

I used to be on the IT panel and the Development & Control Committee which deals with planning issues. Because of my building background, I feel very at home on this Committee and I am looking forward to carrying out my new duties in the foreseeable future. I am equally looking forward to the challenges of the IT panel.  I also used to be on the Policy Monitoring Panel which is responsible for scrutinising Council policy.

In respect of Party Political work, with effect  from January 2011, I have been given the job to recruit young people to join the Conservative Party - this is called Conservative Future.   If you would like to know more, please visit the Conservative Future page on my website

Over the past two years that I've been a District Council, I've had to learn very quickly that it’s possible to please some of the people some of the time but it’s not possible to please all of the people all of the time.

Some of the constituency problems I’ve had to deal with during my first year have, I am pleased to say, had a successful outcome. I’ve received emails and letters from satisfied constituents thanking me for the course of action I've taken but, unfortunately, I’ve also received correspondence from constituents who were unhappy with the course of action that’s been taken. This is the only part of being a Councillor I find extremely difficult to deal with but there are two sides to every argument. I always feel slightly sorry for the proposals I’ve voted against but I think this is called Democracy.”