The Communications Team at SK have sent a reply to my e-mail. They have requested I publish it here which I am more than happy to do.

The response spends a lot of time defending the stories about Grantham and argues that perhaps they are relevant to residents of the Deepings. If that’s the case, I would argue that the main reason they are relevant is that Deepings residents help to pay for Grantham activities in one way or another. That would be fine if the Deepings was not ignored… but it is!

I am not really concerned about the plethora of stories about Grantham but rather the dearth of stories about the rest of the District and particularly the Deepings. Two of the reasons for the lack of stories from the deep south are: a) there isn’t much SKDC activity in the Deepings; and b) even if there was, many officers aren’t aware of what’s happening as they rarely find reason to venture out of Grantham.

Last year, if I am not mistaken, the Council published only three press releases specifically about the Deepings. All of them concerned the Literary Festival which took place last April (There may have been others about the Local Plan consultation and the Big Clean project in the Deepings but those related to District-wide projects).

I have personally tried to counteract this problem by sending e-mails (with various shades of grumpiness), suggesting stories for inclusion. These include the duck race, the carnival, the leisure centre, Jubilee Park and the Deepings Raft Race. The latter is one of the biggest and best volunteer events in the region. After speaking to some of the raft race committee I asked South Kesteven if they could support the event. After long exchange of e-mails SKDC offered to supply some bin bags and litter-pickers..  but only if they could be collected from Grantham! That story perhaps deserves a little more context but the gist reinforces my repeated argument that, for many (not all) officers at Grantham, the Deepings is out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

I have also proposed, since 2015, that the Council occasionally hold some of its committee meetings elsewhere than Grantham. In response to a motion I submitted to Full Council on 23rd November last year, the following was agreed:

“This Council encourages its Committee Chairmen to consider the venue for holding committee meetings to ensure that at least one formal meeting (e.g. an OSC meeting) is held in each of the 3 smaller towns (Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping) during each calendar year.”

Nearly six months on and, finally, the Council is planning for a scheduled meeting of the Cabinet to take place outside Grantham – at Bourne Corn Exchange to be precise on Thursday 12th April at 2pm. I hope someone takes a photograph!

Here is the text of an e-mail I have just sent to the South Kesteven’s Communications Team regarding the recent edition of SK Today…

“Dear [name redacted],

Today I received a bundle of marketing leaflets dropped through my letterbox and I was busily taking them straight to my recycling bin (provided by SKDC) when I noticed the Spring edition of SK Today was buried among them. Obviously I dropped everything and sat down for a good read.

I suspect a vast number of people in Market Deeping and West Deeping will be delighted with the two-page spread about Wyndham Park (in Grantham) and the two-page spread about the Gravity Fields festival planned for later this year in Grantham. I do hope you will find space for an update on these two stories later in the year!

And then there’s news of Grantham’s Southern Relief Road; and Grantham’s new cinema operator; and Grantham’s struggling hospital; and everything that’s happening at the Meres Centre in Grantham.

I’m particularly interested in the Christchurch Grantham Arts Break Out event. It appears to be a community event with no link to the Council. I’m all for this sort of story in SK Today although slightly bewildered as I have been previously been told by Cllr Goral that “…we don’t use council resource to promote non council events in Grantham, Bourne or Stamford, we don’t promote non council events in The Deepings.”  Can you explain the link between the Council and the ‘Arts Break Out’ as the weblink provided for more information is very short on detail.

The two-page spread on the RAF would be more interesting if it mentioned either of the two war-time airfields in the Deepings. https://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/remembering-when-frognall-buzzed-with-war-planes-1-6345786

A fascinating column about markets although no mention of Market Deeping’s existing market or the plans for a Saturday market in the town.

My personal highlight of this edition though, is at the bottom of page 7 where I have found what I think is the single solitary mention of Market Deeping. It’s good to know we’re not completely forgotten even if we have to share our sentence with Stamford, Grantham and Horbling!

Apologies if I sound narky but we have been having this conversation for well over a year now with precious little evidence of progress.

Kind regards,

Cllr Ashley Baxter

Market & West Deeping

SKDC”

***Update: The Communications team has replied and I have published their response here***

One often hears the old fallacy that “all politicians are the same”. This is simply not the case and the colourful characters at South Kesteven Council prove the point. Furthermore, some people also have the mistaken impression that an Independent Councillor is isolated and works alone. The groups at SKDC outlined below illustrate how Independents are perfectly capable of organising themselves and working together for the common good as much, if not more than, the old-fashioned Political Parties.

The following list of party groups is intended as an overview of the current political structure of South Kesteven District Council (as of 20th March 2018).

Independent Group – 6 Members
Seven people were elected as Independent in 2015, including one who stood as a Lincolnshire Independent. Six of us joined forces to form the Independent Group while the seventh chose to remain unaligned (Independent of the Independents)

The Group includes a very diverse range of backgrounds and opinions. Some members of the group have a regular pre-meeting before full Council to discuss the agenda but it there is no whip or block vote and members of the group often take different sides in a debate. The main glue holding the group together is the fact that by declaring ourselves a political group we become the second largest group on the council and therefore ‘the opposition’. Places on committees are allocated in accordance with the size of the various groups in order to acheived a ‘political balance’ and as second largest group we earn at least one seat on every committee. We all agree that having access to committees is far  better than working in isolation with limited influence on decision-making.

• Paul Wood – Group Leader
• Ashley Baxter
• Bob Broughton
• Helen Powell
• Bob Sampson
• Judy Stevens

South Kesteven Independents – 4 Members
At the time of the Tory coup, three sitting Conservatives were so outraged and disappointed that they resigned the whip and established their own group. They didn’t want to be part of the existing group of Independents possibly because having a separate group would give them more control over who should sit on committees. Having said that, they do work closely with the other independents, often comparing notes and sharing information,
Sadly, it is suspected that given the age and long-service of  each of the ‘SKindies’ it is unlikely that they will all stand again, let alone retain their seats, at next year’s elections.

• Nick Craft – Group Leader
• Mike Cook
• Frank Turner
• Felicity Cunningham

Independent (Unaligned) – 1 Member
Cllr Ian Selby has been a Councillor for an uninterrupted 20 years which makes him ‘Father of the Council’. Originally a Labour Councillor, he left after a fall-out within the group, won back his seat, but hasn’t yet succombed to the overtures of any of the other independent group making him the SKDC equivalent of the ‘Judean Peoples Front’.

Last year I nominated Cllr Selby as Leader of the Council in order that Cllr Matthew Lee would have to face an election to the post rather than enjoy a ‘coronation’. The vote was split 31-13 (I think) with several Tories abstaining revealing the ongoing civil war within their group.

Labour – 3 Members
In 2015 Labour had their worst SKDC election result for many years with only three Councillors successfully elected. Nevertheless, they have a Leader and a Deputy to maintain order among the rank and file (or Tracey as she is better known)!

Hopefully, next year some of the 200,000 recent converts to the Labour party might choose to mix things up a bit and fight for winnable seats in Grantham, Stamford and Bourne.

• ‘Fair Deal’ Phil Dilks – Group Leader
• Tracey Forman
• Charmaine Morgan

Conservatives- 42 Members
There are loads of them. They are factions and pressure groups within the Grantham and Stamford Tory Party but mostly they present a united front even though one can often hear mutters of dissension in the Members’ tea room.

Lib-Dems – 0 Councillors.
There used to be some at SKDC but Nick Clegg did for them when he sold our nation’s students down the river.

Stamford Group of Independents – 0 Councillors.
Stamford has a strong independent group on its Town Council, some of whom were incumbent District Councillors until 2015. At the 2015 elections the group put up a full slate of 8 candidates across the 4 Stamford wards. Unfortunately, all of them were beaten by the Conservatives. Hopefully, next year, they will be more organised.

United Kingdom Independence Party – 0 Councillors.
In 2015, Felicity Cunningham was the only UKIP candidate elected to SKDC. Her party membership lapsed in Spring 2017 when she decided to join the newly formed SK Independents Group. Despite jumping ship, I suspect she will be the last SKDC UKIP Councillor in history.

If you would like to know more about the personalities, Parties, procedures and politics at SKDC I would be happy to hear from you. If you would like to join in yourself, even better!