Cllr Colin Aldred has passed away

UKIP councillor Colin Aldred has passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Cllr Aldred represented Great Yarmouth on Norfolk County Council since 2013. He had been ill for 18 months but continued to work for the local community until he became bed-ridden.

The leader of the UKIP group on Norfolk County Council, Toby Coke, said:

He will be sorely missed by all members, especially in the Ukip group. From my point of view I’m happy to say he survived long enough to see Brexit.

UKIP Councillor worked so hard his family reported him as missing

A UKIP councillor in Norfolk spent so much time on council business that his family reported him missing to the police!

Cllr Denis Crawford spent two days in back to back meetings and hadn't realised he'd missed frantic phone calls from his daughter who was so concerned that she called the police. Cllr Crawford was a little bemused and said that working from 7am to 10pm on council business is normal for him.

UKIP councillors take key positions on Norfolk County Council

UKIP councillor, Rex Parkinson-Hare, has been unanimously elected as chairman of Norfolk County Council.

The UKIP group on Norfolk County Council successfully abolished the undemocratic cabinet system in 2013 and replaced it with the cabinet system that ensures the views of the majority are represented rather than the biggest minority.

Cllrs Toby Coke, Paul Smyth and Jonathon Childs have all also been elected as chairs and vice chairs of committees.

Norfolk councillor being harassed over past mistakes

A newly-elected UKIP Norfolk councillor is being put under pressure to resign over a past mistake.

Cllr Peter Georgiou - who beat his Labour opponent by just 1 vote in the elections last month - was arrested for an alleged theft from Poundstretcher last year and had to pay HMRC £4k in unpaid duty.  Georgiou was on anti-depressants at the time and in his own words "was in a bad place".  He thought that he had paid for the items from Poundstretcher but when he realised he hadn't he paid for them and the matter was dropped.  The unpaid duty he owed HMRC was also paid and neither incident resulted in arrest or conviction.

There is a difference between dishonestly concealing something about your past and just not talking about it because it's not relevant.  Cllr Georgiou made the party aware of both incidents and made no attempt to cover up what had happened when asked.  Quite the opposite in fact - he has been completely open about what is a very personal thing.

It's time the relentless personal attacks on UKIP councillors stopped.  If the Tories put as much effort into fixing the problems with local councils and the country as a whole as they have into trying to dig up dirt on UKIP then they might not be suffering so badly in the polls.

UKIP brings undemocratic Tory cabinet to an end in Norfolk

The UKIP group on Norfolk County Council has successfully negotiated the end of the undemocratic cabinet system and formed a coalition with Labour and the Lib Dems.

The minority administration of 39 councillors was formed with the support of the Greens and independents and brings an end to the exclusive Tory control of the council under the cabinet system which excludes the majority of councillors and concentrates power on the largest minority.

Tory supporting blogs like Guido Fawkes and ConHome have unsurprisingly criticised the loss of a council claiming it as evidence that a vote for UKIP means a vote for Labour, referring to the fact that the council now has a Labour leader.  The council isn't Labour controlled though, it is jointly controlled by UKIP, Labour and the Lib Dems and because it's a minority administration (39 UKIP, Labour and Lib Dem councillors versus 40 Conservatives) it will need the support of some or all of the Tories, Greens and independents to implement policy meaning most people in Norfolk are represented in the decision making process, not the biggest minority in political terms.

UKIP isn't an offshoot of the Conservative Party and it's ridiculous to assume that a group of UKIP councillors would automatically support the Tories as the lesser of two evils.  There is no whip in UKIP so councillors are free (and expected) to determine what is right for their local area.  If that doesn't involve the Tories then tough, they should have done a better job when they had the opportunity.

The cabinet system of local government, like the First Past the Post system that supports it, is an undemocratic anachronism and hopefully more councils will change back to multi-party committees.