If this is the way the @bcpcouncil.bsky.social Meetings are going to be conducted during the 2026/27 session then they are going to lose more and more of their residents trust. #Openness #Integrity and #Democracy seems to be eroding faster than the coastline. 🤦

"Hands up if you're going to lose your seat in 2027!" BCP Lib Dem and Labour councillors - and John Beesley - vote to improve Bristol City Council's governance by appointing Tim O'Gara as BCP's monitoring officer. This followed 1 hour 16 minutes' debate, all of it in private session.

So - my email about Item 7 at tonight's Council was referred to the BCP CEO, who emailed all cllrs yesterday. Says the MO recruitment process was in line with the Constitution, & supported by Penna PLC; that pre-appointment checks were carried out, incl references; no change to the recommendation.

Huge pity seeing Cllrs Joe and Kate Salmon resign from the Green group on BCP. Wonder if this means tomorrow night's political balance paper could be deferred; which could also allow Cllrs Adams, Dove & Butt (all code of conduct cheats) to be removed from the Investigatory & Disciplinary Committee.

BCP COUNCIL LATEST - Tuesday's "annual Council" includes a recommendation that TIM O'GARA be appointed director of law and governance and monitoring officer - highly controversial MO at Bristol City Council since 2018. A provisional offer of employment has already been made ...

That didn't last long.

Bournemouth Town Council "contact us" page manages to misspell "Bournemouth" in its email address. I know some Reform voters have literacy problems, but this takes the piss ... www.bournemouth-tc.gov.uk/contact-us

At the BIC for the count for the Broadstone, Poole and Bournemouth Town Council elections .... Long faces, VERY large Reform turnout. First results being announced. Overall turnout per authority: Broadstone Town Council 49.77%, Poole Town Council 37.35%, Bournemouth Town Council 34.13%.

Anyone who votes for this party knows what they are voting for and every single one of them is deserving of our utter contempt. It should be as socially unacceptable to vote for them as it was to vote BNP 20 years ago.

Hi @reformexposed.bsky.social here's Reform UK (Bournemouth West) joking about male residents being raped as part of the, er, Bournemouth Town Council election campaign. Have sent this off to a couple of nationals because it's so unutterably sick. www.facebook.com/reel/3543726...

A measure of how corrupt BCP Council is - only 12 members supporting an investigations fund for the audit and scrutiny committees. Chair and Vice-Chair of Audit & Governance Committee voting against. Much defence of the hitherto-silent "Lead Member for Performance", who lives in Putney.

Beesley just revealed that the BCP Tory group DID submit alternative budget proposals - these were rejected on the grounds that they were "unsustainable and higher-risk".

Studying the Budget papers for tonight; none of the right-wing groups have submitted an alternative budget or a budget amendment. The Greens are looking to start a GOVERNANCE FUND for stuff like the Carter's Quay investigation (requested 1 year ago by the A & G Committee) which is awesome.

Wonder if that's the home he bought with the undeclared loan from the Paymaster General

I knew someone who used to layout newspapers. He would swap horoscopes between star signs to get a better fit in the column.

I'd forgotten how appalling this was, and wonder why the police didn't get involved - & whether she would have told the taxman about the £500,000. "He [her husband, then trade envoy] meets the most amazing people, then he throws them my way. And I throw them your way." youtu.be/EcBAMUxr54c?...

Posting on behalf of @bcpcouncil.bsky.social & #Councillors. The #Council is asking residents & businesses to share their views on how best to manage the dunes, enhance our #coastal resilience and protect the #natural #habitat. #Environment haveyoursay.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/en-GB/projec...

Oh look, Reform UK-led Lincolnshire council looking to increase Councillor allowance by 14%… Lincolnshire County Councillors could receive bump in their allowances - by £1,450 for basic rate

Meanwhile - good to see this warning included for the first time in the budget papers. Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act makes it a criminal offence to vote in a budget meeting if harbouring 2 months' worth of council tax debts or more. Wonder what prompted this reminder?

Pure madness - Poole and Bournemouth "shadow town councils" (consisting of all current BCP councillors, co-opted against their will), scheduled to meet MINUTES before the vital budget meeting of the 24th. Cllrs Gillett, Rampton & Logan are on both town councils so have to be in 2 meetings at once.

I note that the former #Conservative Councillor who was at the time a major player in the special measures, scandals & barely legal #Tory Mellor & Broadhead Administration has a very selective memory when it comes giving budgetary history lessons.

Just caught up with the #BCP #Council Cabinet meeting held this afternoon & there was a very interesting question from resident @alexmckinstry.bsky.social & equally interesting response(s) from Cllr @mikefcox.bsky.social. Press Leaks & deliberate misinterpretations ?? www.youtube.com/live/83VGlBk...

So glad The National have published this - A1 journalism. Mandelson blatantly misusing the Editors' Code here. IPSO caving in to protect a prima facie criminal and a traitor. This passes the public interest test in Clause 3 faster than the speed of light. www.thenational.scot/news/2583451...

Both BCP Reform councillors breached the Code of Conduct, then failed to comply with sanctions prescribed for them by the Standards Committee. EIGHT complaints upheld against Cllr Cameron Adams, including five complaints of bullying. Council to "note" their misconduct on 10 February.

Lord Mandelson, this morning: "I wish I was being investigated by BCP Council's Audit and Governance Committee."

Just noticed that #Reform have a new recruitment ad. Apologies to #Methodists

Looks like Cllr Mark Howell's quit the Poole People Party and is going it alone, rather than joining Bartlett and Rampton's "Independents" group. Counting him as a class of his own, there are now ELEVEN political groupings on BCP Council. democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/mgMemberInde...

Can’t be long before Christopher “object” Chope follows his mate Robert Jenrick and defects to Reform

“We’re gonna need a bigger bus”

The spitting image of Robin Best, one-half of Best & Warren, who ran the Cranleigh Road fish and chip shop (@ Southbourne / Tuckton) in the 1960s. Chip shop counter struck by lightning in 1965.

Wondering how much Bournemouth Christmas Events Ltd made out of this unlawful structure - and why BCP Council allowed it to trade, when it had already been recommended for planning refusal. FOI in gestation. This seriously stinks. www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/2574745...

Sorry to hear BCP Council's chief finance officer, Mr Adam Richens, is leaving - he kept the authority as far as possible from a Section 114 notice, despite paltry government finance settlements and some absolutely loopy decisions by local politicians. A sad loss.

Shocking bullying by security guard in Bournemouth Library this afternoon - accusing a dyslexic guy of being asleep (he had his eyes shut while listening to a talking book) then threatening to chuck him out. Same guard who tries to sling me out 15 minutes early most evenings. 2 complaints going in

“Never trust a Tory” Reform say as they welcome the least moral and least intelligent ex-Conservative politicians into their party in literal droves

I'm glad Echo readers are seeing straight through the Lib Dems' attempts to close down the FuturePlaces inquiry, just so they can protect their pet officer, ex-CEO Graham Farrant. Very difficult rewatching it last night, especially Tarling's line "There's no smoking gun" which is blatantly untrue.

Notorious BCP councillor John Beesley grins at officers, as Cllrs Michael Tarling and Clare Weight undermine and guillotine the investigation into FuturePlaces, the Council company that spent £7.2m with little to show for it except five draft business cases. Audit and Governance Committee, 3/12/25.

A mate who watched the full BCP Council last night says "I think the key thing from now on is for councillors to spend as little time as possible in the same room together."

Tories with their snouts in the trough Appalling corruption by Bournemouth Tories who left BCP on the brink of bankruptcy www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

@andyjolley.bsky.social Hey Andy - forgot to send you the FuturePlaces report! This is Part 1 & gets debated by BCP Council's Audit & Governance Committee tonight. (Part 2 debated on 16 October.) Section 3.1 is where it seriously starts hotting up. democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/documents/g6...

Not a word has come from this government, for a month, about Racist attacks in Britain: graffiti & intimidation The sewer of racism online These racist attacks on government ministers The world's richest man promoting fascists who want to eradicate minorities from the UK

If you want to know what went wrong with BCP FuturePlaces - BCP Council's multi-million-pound urban regeneration company - this thread from the other place is the best guide to date. Even here I've left stuff out e.g. work added "on the nod", governance documents not finalised. x.com/AlexMcKinstr...

The public comments on this Bournemouth Echo piece are in every sense on the money - overwhelmingly calling for an investigation (even "a criminal inquiry") into BCP FuturePlaces Ltd. Worth noting if members of tomorrow night's Audit & Governance Committee try arguing "The public have moved on"

Saw this on the other place - it's the building where Thomas Hardy trained as an architect in 1856-62. William Barnes lived next door at 40 South Street (now Fox & Sons). www.bbc.com/news/article...

From the other place⬇️⬇️ - overture to tonight's BCP Council Audit and Governance Committee meeting. Will we find out which CORRUPT councillor leaked the Wessex Fields sale documents to the Bournemouth Echo - & LIED about it being sold at a £4 MILLION UNDERVALUE? x.com/AlexMcKinstr...

There are so many questions to be asked about this. Greens asked for the meeting to be webcast as there is significant public interest in understanding whether this is incompetence, cronyism or corruption - but we were told no. I worry about the impact it is having on trust in local politicians.

Great to see you on here @leigh-hatts.bsky.social and many thanks for coming to my talk on The History of Bournemouth's Fish and Chip Shops at the Friends' Meeting House - that was my finest hour and yours were the most searching & erudite questions!

Latest of many public statements to be disallowed by Bristol City Council - against Nolan Principles, Article 10 of the ECHR, and the Heesom judgment. Plus which, the "member complaint" described by Mr Ackroyd (& the feeble outcome) is already publicly known. Some dire anti-scrutiny going on at BCC!

Do you know anyone sleeping rough within Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole? SWEP has been activated from today 👇🏼