McGuinness on Monday - Police Commissioner questions and a change of tone on the Love Medway app

McGuinness on Monday - Police Commissioner questions and a change of tone on the Love Medway app

by McGuinness on Medway Wednesday, June 27 2012

No sooner had news filtered through that Cllr Craig Mackinlay had been chosen as the Conservative candidate for police commissioner, questions began to be asked.

Word spread that the turnout was paltry - I was told that 145 people turned up for the final selection meeting in Hoo.

Cllr Mackinlay said around 300 people had voted over three meetings - one of which was held on the same evening as England v France.

Given that the membership of the Conservative party in Kent probably numbers thousands, eyebrows are being raised. This is Tory country, every single MP here is blue.

I've picked up murmurings of disquiet about the method used to select Cllr Mackinlay. Members had to rank each candidate out of three (with one being best) so the person with "lowest" score won. I’m told the final tallies were: Mackinlay: 495, Jan Berry: 585, Francois Gordon: 628

Labour don't emerge unscathed either.

Amongst the criticism it was amusing to read Labour's press chief Cllr Tristan Osborne claim 300 people had decided on behalf of the residents of Kent - seemingly writing off the chances of his own party's candidate.

Having made clear their opposition to the role and what they see as the "polticising" of the police force, they've still decided to put forward candidates.

Indeed, the country's most high profile candidate is a Labour politician - John Prescott. It's left the party open to charges of hypocrisy - wanting to have their cake and eat it.

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What a difference year makes.

When the Love Medway app was launched, community safety chief Cllr Mike O'Brien said it would "revolutionise the way residents are able to report environmental issues and the way our staff deal with them".

This past week, after it emerged the overwhelming majority of users are council staff (8,029 out of 8,809 uses) a council spokesman said: "The Love Medway app is primarily intended for council community officers on patrol but as it is downloadable to all Android and Blackberry phones we encourage residents to use it as well."

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Categories: Local Politics | Medway | Police | Politics

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McGuinness on Medway

News, views and analysis from Medway Messenger reporter Alan McGuinness.

I have a keen interest in the Towns’ political scene and write a column in the paper every Monday, but expect to find posts about a wide variety of topics here.

Email me: amcguinness@thekmgroup.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @Alan_McGuinness.




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