Though fairly tame by the standards of some past meetings, the first Basildon Council meeting of the New Year demonstrated the short-lived nature of the Season of Goodwill with Cllr Horgan calling a member of the public – our own Phil Jenkins – a “pompous arse” for asking the Leader of the Council if his bag-carrier, Cllr Luke Mackenzie, should not be given an opportunity to apologise in public for remarks made on Twitter about the ‘unwashed’ protesting against government benefit cuts. The ‘unwashed’ in this case including many disabled people. I am not an afficianado of Twitter, but it seems to have caused quite a stir, and apparently Cllr M did apologise and edit his comments. Hey ho.

Things warmed up with references and comments on Basildon Golf Course. The council sought agreement to a waiver of standing orders in order to procure consultants to advise on the procurement process for a new ‘developer’ for the course. Meanwhile, a working group of council officers has been set up to prepare for a “market-test exercise” to ” explore opportunities to develop some of the depot / car park area”.  Ironically, council members had recently been treated to a rather good training session on the role of Scrutiny in the contract procurement process. After all the issues surrounding the last lessee of the golf course and the Jack Barker débacle you would have thought that the administration would have avoided like the plague any suggestion of “waiver of standing orders” around anything to do with the golf course – however relatively insignificant this particular decision. However, in a glimmer of sunlight, Cllr Blake, with responsibility for leisure, did indicate (nudge,nudge,wink,wink) that interested, non-council, parties would be kept advised… Has the council taken on board that the Friends of Basildon Golf Course are not a force to be trifled with ?

The meeting concluded at a civilised time. A party colleague, an observer from a neighbouring borough, commented on the combative nature of the meeting. Despite assurances that it had been fairly tame by recent standards he opined that “It would never happen like that in ******* “