New Year's Message

I would like to wish all the people of Grange-de-Lings, Nettleham and Riseholme, the people that I am pleased to represent on West Lindsey District Council, my best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2016.

Edinburgh, Scotland

In January I was pleased to represent the district council at the Association of Public Service Excellence's (APSE) Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh. Despite having written my dissertation at university on devolution of the Scottish Parliament, this was my first visit to Scotland, and post the independence referendum of the preceding autumn, it was with a renewed sense of pride that I arrived in the capitol of this part of the United Kingdom.

By February the processes for both local and general elections were well underway. Having been appointed by Sir Edward Leigh and the Gainsborough Constituency Conservative Association to be Agent for their campaigns I found myself particularly busy running a parliamentary campaign, and thrity-seven district council candidates - including myself - in elections. Fortunately the alignment of general and district elections being held on the same day will not happen again until 2035.

Above: Giles McNeill enters the polling

 station at the Old School, Mill Hill,
Nettleham

It was, on a personal level, my highlight of the year that I was re-elected as a district councillor. I was proud to top the poll with 54.5% of those who voted backing me. It was the first time that a Conservative had topped a poll in a district council, local election for our area since 1979. I am particularly grateful to so many people who supported me, helping me secure re-election as one of the Nettleham ward's two district councillors. I will continue to work hard for all residents.

Local government continues to face a tough financial settlement with central government and your local councillors are very much on the front-line. West Lindsey is well placed to adapt to the changes that reducing monies from central government will necessitate. But it means that we are having to make genuinely difficult choices about what services stay and what services have to go. I do not envy colleagues who are less well placed. County Councillors are consistently and continually criticised for cutting services; yet it is a triumph, albeit not necessarily one of their own making, that there will be more libraries open in Lincolnshire, for longer periods, than three years ago. Nevertheless with responsibilities to an ageing population the county council must choose to provide services to the vulnerable and elderly, fulfilling statutory responsibilities.

I was very pleased to be offered the opportunity to continue my service as Chairman of the Governance and Audit Committee by the Council's Leader, Cllr. Jeff Summers and also to continue in the role as the administration's Chief Whip.

In October I had the good fortune to have lunch with the Prime Minister, David Cameron MP, and we spoke in congratulatory tones on the successes of the election campaign.

Above: (Left to Right) Nettleham Parish
Councillors Joe Siddall, John Evans and
Terry Williams present the Nettleham
Neighbourhood Plan to West Lindsey
District Councillors Steve England and
Giles McNeill.

I was pleased with the progress that has been made in tackling issues in the district council's planning department. As a member of the Planning Committee and a Nettleham Parish Councillor I have been engaged in and followed the process of the emerging Nettleham Neighbourhood Plan. On Thursday, 28th January 2016 local residents will be able to have their say on the plan in a referendum. Then in May we will once again be invited to go to the polling stations to vote in elections for the county's Police and Crime Commissioner. I am certain that participation will be higher than the paltry 15.3% achieved in the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections. Decisions are made by those who show up, so I would encourage everyone to go and vote and if circumstances require I would urge you to consider if obtaining a postal vote is the right thing for you. I am backing Marc Jones for the post as he has the passion and vision to really move Lincolnshire Police forward, unlike the lack-lustre, poor performance of the current incumbent, widely expected to retire at the election.

In 2016 I hope we can renew our commitment to make our communities better, putting aside partisan tendencies, and working with one another on the many things we agree upon. For each and all I offer my sincere wish for health, prosperity and happiness.

Giles McNeill
Working hard for the Nettleham Ward

'Shock and Anger' As Labour Council Candidate is Convicted of £100,000 Fraud

Labour Parliamentary Candidate for the Gainsborough Constituency, David Prescott (son of former Deputy Prime Minister John (now Lord) Prescott), has taken to twitter to distance himself, and party leader Ed Miliband, from a convicted fraudsters' standing as a Labour Council Candidate.

Above: David Prescott (Labour Parliamentary Candidate

for Gainsborough), Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband and

Ms Charmaine Bowers, Labour Party Candidate for the

Gainsborough North Ward

Mr. Prescott tweeted:

"I'm shocked & angry one of our council candidates has pleaded guilty to fraud. She has been suspended by the party."

The Grimsby Telegraph reported yesterday that Labour District Council Candidate Ms Charmaine Bowers, of Laceby Road, Grimsby and her mother Mrs. Tina Bowers, both pleaded guilty at Plymouth Crown Court to six counts of fraud by false representation and has been jailed for a festival ticket fraud involving more than £100,000.

Prosecutor Andrew Maitland said the pair, who came from Tavistock but now lived in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, were involved in the "sophisticated" fraud between December 2012 and July 2013.

He said Charmaine had falsely claimed on a Facebook page she modelled for Nuts magazine and had access to promotional tickets. He said she had also claimed to earn £8,000 per month modelling for Dior and MAC cosmetics. He said:

"This was a carefully constructed fraud" and the former Face of Plymouth contestant "presented herself in this glamorous life".

Mr Maitland said records seized by detectives found there were "at least 311" people who paid up-front for a unique entrance wristband and confirmation slip.

Victoria Atkins Chosen as Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Louth and Horncastle

Local people from the Louth and Horncastle constituency have chosen the next Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for their area in an open primary.

The fresh face of Mrs. Victoria Atkins has emerged triumphant from a hard fought primary battle and will replace long-serving parliamentarian, Sir Peter Tapsell, who is retiring at the 2015 general election.

Spilsby's Franklin Hall was the venue where three rounds of voting eliminated James Browne, Sarah Macken and Kelly Smith. Mrs. Atkins said:

"I am really excited and feel very honoured to be chosen as the Conservative candidate. I will take it a step at a time and look forward to learning from Sir Peter as well as doing things my own way.

"The three main concerns of local people are housing development, wind farms and flooding and my role is to continue Sir Peter's campaign on these issues and making sure we build on the good work of local councils."

Mrs. Atkins is married to her husband Paul and has a son Monty. She specialises in fraud and criminal regulatory work, with a practice in serious, complex crime.

Each candidate was interviewed and then subjected to a questions and answers session. A ballot was then conducted. The winner requiring fifty percent support to be selected. A number of ballots were held and if no candidate secured fifty percent support then the candidate with the least support was eliminated and another round of balloting conducted.

Chairman of the Louth and Horncastle Conservative Association, Mr. David Andrews, was pleased with Mrs. Atkins' selections, saying:

"We are very happy. All four would have been excellent candidates but Victoria is very good. She has a lot of hard work to do but we are more than confident she will be able to do it."

Lincoln Council Elections 2014: UKIP Exceed Expectations But Fail To Win Any Seats

The overall result of Lincoln's City Council's 2014 local elections have been a reassuringly predictable affair. However the detail shows that the UK Independence Party performed better than expected, whilst Labour and the Conservatives both underperformed. 

There were only one set of local elections taking place in Lincolnshire yesterday. Lincoln City Council is the only authority in the county that still retains the system of electing it's members by 'thirds' - the process where each year one third of the seats are elected and in the fourth year elections take place for Lincolnshire County Council.

Click on the table above to enlarge.

The table above shows the predicted result for each party, in grey, based on a standard uniform swing calculation generated using data from ukpollingrport.co.uk on 5th May 2014. The second column for each party shows the actual result and the third column the difference between the two.

Lincoln is a key battleground in the coming General Election between Conservative incumbent Karl McCartney MP and Labour's Lucy Rigby who have been slogging it out for over two years now and have a year ahead of them of an increasingly bitter rivalry.

The net effect of the elections to Lincoln City Council was a loss of two seats by the Conservatives to Labour in the Birchwood and Minster wards. This means that the council now consists of 27 Labour members and 6 Conservatives.

The UK Independence Party failed to make any gains, despite polling a respectable 23.33%. This will be a substantive disappointment for them for two reasons; firstly that with such a healthy share of the vote they were not rewarded with any representation; and secondly that their share of the vote is down slightly on the local elections in Lincoln last year to Lincolnshire County Council.

Labour, despite success in securing new members on the council, have nothing to be happy about in terms of their share of the vote. Their share of the vote is down 2.13 percentage points on last year's county elections in the city and 12.62 percentage points on the comparable local elections of 2012. Since the 2010 local elections this would mean that Labour has only improved their share of the vote in the city by 4.68 percentage points. Given that Karl McCartney MP's majority is 2.32%. It is now possible to say, with some certainty that either could win the seat in 2015. However, on the basis that governing parties usually recover as an election approaches this poor performance by Labour is likely to prove insufficient to ensure Ms Rigby's election. Mr. McCartney will in all likelihood be Lincoln's Member of Parliament for at least the next six years.

It was surely a disappointing night for the Conservatives. Despite campaigning hard they struggled to convert votes into seats. Their share of the vote was up three quarters of a percentage point compared with the previous county elections in 2013. The loss of Cllr. Yvonne Bodger in Minster Ward means that she will not become Mayor of Lincoln for the coming civic year; depriving Lincoln's Conservatives of a significant platform in the run-up to the general election.

The Liberal Democrats performed much better than the prediction; however, this is more likely due to the fact that they are now only getting votes from their most ardent supporters. Nevertheless their share of the vote was down two thirds of a percentage point when compared with last year's county elections, and down 2.20 percentage points compared with the local elections of 2012.

Of the other parties and independent candidates contesting these elections, the Trades Unionists Socialist Against Cuts underperformed and continued to slip in terms of their share of the vote which was down 0.60 percentage point from their hight of 2.42% in 2012. The Greens performed considerably better than expected having fielded candidates for the first time in the city since 2011. The two independent candidates underperformed against the prediction.

Karl McCartney MP Re-Adopted to fight Lincoln at the Next General Election

At the meeting of the Lincoln Conservative Association's Executive Council, held after a Special General Meeting, on 28th May 2013, Karl McCartney MP was re-adopted as its candidate for the Lincoln Constituency at the next General Election.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. McCartney thanked members of the Association for their continuing support and pledged his full commitment to fighting the next election.

Mr. Kelly Smith, Association Chairman, said:

"I'm delighted that Karl has been re-adopted and will be our candidate at the next General Election. Nobody works harder for Lincoln, standing up for our local interests on the National stage. We look forward to the election campaign with great enthusiasm."

GE2015: Lincoln's Labour Party Select General Election Candidate

Lincoln Constituency Labour Party have held a closed primary and selected their candidate for the next General Election.

Members of the party have selected Cllr. Ms Lucy Rigby, Labour (Halloway Ward (Islington Council) to be their candidate. Cllr. Ms Rigby was first elected to her local council in 2010, and is reported to have helped campaign for Labour candidates in the Lincoln City Council elections last year, which saw the authority return to Labour control. She is a lawyer by profession, with experience in Private Practice and the Office of Fair Trading as well as having worked at the Hague and practised EU competition law in Brussels.

Criticising the selection, one local activist, Mr. Edward Mayers, on the Labour List website, said:

"It would have been a much easier sell for Labour to select a local candidate in my opinion.

Lincoln's previous Labour MP, Ms Gillian Merron (1997-2010), had a background as a local government officer, and as a UNISON and NUPE trade union official, before becoming involved at a senior level with the Labour Party's 1992 general election campaign.