Reform UK have done particularly well in what elections were not cancelled by the Government and I welcome the fact there are now more folk like myself who are councillors within local government.
Currently I am the only Reform Councillor on North Yorkshire Council (Unitary) and consider myself a ‘scout’ for what will happen going forward.
Many around me questioned my decision to switch to Reform and have said, and I quote ‘the party is going no where’. My policies have never changed, I do try and act on behalf of the residents in my ward and most of Reforms policies align with them.
People have been rightly fed up with tit for tat decisions by what were the 2 main parties and thankfully I can say a big THANKYOU to all those who went out and voted for Reform. I also want to say a big apology to all those in my ward who had hoped to vote but couldn’t because there were no elections. That opportunity comes in 2027 for North Yorkshire and I hope to see the current situation continue.
Further to that the next General Election will be interesting in the Selby area as I see our current polling has Reform UK with a slight lead. I can understand a labour government trying to get the worst bits out of the way right at the start in the hope we will have forgotten by the next election—I have news for them—‘we will not forget’.
There needs to be changes at North Yorkshire Council and for me that cannot come soon enough. Spending needs to be more focussed and we really do need to look at costs. Here are some examples:
- At Full Council heads of service, chief exec, and solicitor all sit at the meeting which goes on all day. The only one who speaks is the solicitor, but between them there is over £1m in salaries sat there.
- Most of the actual heads of services earn as much as our Prime minister with the chief exec on more than this.
- They keep changing their mind about how to deal with council housing in maintaining the stock.
- We have a significant number of illegal immigrants kept in hotels in North Yorkshire and they cost £54,000 each according to the latest audit figures produced.
- The council own a building company called Brierley Homes. That company has consistently lost money and it was over £1.6m in the last financial year, with our own head of service being a director.
All I can do presently is monitor the situation at North Yorkshire but hopefully people will come forward to stand at the next elections to make a difference.
I see that the unions are already warning of issues at the councils now run by Reform. Those unions need to be mindful of the fact that members of the public voted for Reform and expect them to act on their mandate.
Cllr Mike Jordan
Camblesforth and Carlton