Add your comments
News RSS feedNews
9 Mar 01JULES JOLLIFFE REVEALED!
The Borough of Poole finally owned up today to the ‘Who is Jules Jolliffe?’ campaign.
Over the past ten days, mysterious posters and advertisements posing the question ‘Who is Jules Jolliffe?’ have been springing up around Poole. Buses, newspapers, car park barriers, roundabouts and newsagents have all been carrying the strange message, which until today no one could trace the source of.
So who is Jules Jolliffe? Not even the Council know that yet - that’s for the people of Poole to decide. Jules Jolliffe is a fictional character, representing the leading political figure of a future new political structure for the Borough of Poole. The name was chosen because Jules can be male or female and Jolliffe is a historic Poole name, with two Jolliffe Mayors serving the town in 1754 and 1829.
The new ‘Jules Jolliffe’ could be one of three people chosen by Poole people in a special vote (see Editor’s notes for more details):
· Directly elected Mayor and Cabinet
· Leader with Cabinet
· Directly elected Mayor and Council Manager
The options for change are fully explained in the next edition of Poole News, the Council’s newspaper, which will be delivered to every household in the Borough by the end of March. This will be followed by a special leaflet at the beginning of April, together with a freepost voting card, for residents to register their favourite option. Poole businesses and community groups will also be eligible to vote.
To provide further information about the three options, Councillors and Officers will be available to talk to residents at a series of roadshows, hosted at various venues around Poole. Residents will also have the chance to register their vote at the roadshow with a new high-tech electronic vote counter.
Voting ends on 27 April 2001. A special ‘judgement board’, appointed from amongst members of the local community, will then consider the results. Councillors will make a final decision about which option Poole should adopt, by the end of June 2001. The new system will be put into place no later than the end of 2002.
Cllr Chand Ewart (Lib Dem), Chairman of the Community Information Policy Advisory Group, said: "The whole idea of the ‘Jules Jolliffe’ campaign is to generate awareness of the major changes facing the Council. In the coming year alone, the Borough of Poole will be spending over £111.3million of public money, delivering important services like roads, schools and social services. It’s therefore vital that as many local people as possible have a say in how their Council should be run."
Cllr Don Collier (Cons), Chairman of the Community Information Scrutiny Committee, said: "The Government wants councils to modernise their decision-making processes, to make them quicker and more transparent and has presented councils with three options for change. The ‘Who is Jules Jolliffe?’ campaign is the start of the process to get Poole residents, businesses and community groups to help decide which is the best option for Poole."
Cllr Jason Sanderson (Lab), Community Information Policy Advisory Group member, said: "Interest in local government is dwindling throughout the country. We see this in the low turnouts at local elections. We thought a teaser campaign like this would recapture people’s attention and hopefully get them involved and asking questions."
-ends-
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The three options for change are:
· Directly elected Mayor and Cabinet: Poole residents vote for a person (the Mayor) to be in charge of the way the Council is run. The Mayor then chooses a small group of people (a Cabinet) from among the Councillors, to help him or her lead the Council. Councillors continue to be elected by residents as they are now.
· Leader with Cabinet: The elected Councillors choose a Leader, from among themselves, who will be in charge of the way the Council is run. Either the Leader or the Councillors then choose a small group of councillors (a Cabinet), to help lead the Council. Poole residents continue to vote for local Councillors as they do now.
· Directly elected Mayor and Council Manager: Poole residents vote for a person (the Mayor) to be in charge of the way the Council is run. Councillors and the Mayor recruit a Council Manager (i.e. a paid professional who is not elected) to share the leadership of the Council with the Mayor. Residents continue to vote for local Councillors as they do now.
The Council’s current political management structure, the Poole pilot scheme, has been running since September and is based on the ‘Leader with Cabinet’ option. The pilot scheme was introduced to gain experience of the Government’s modernised way of working. This experience will help the Council when they consider the results of the public consultation and decide how to implement the future way the Council is run.
Dates and venues for roadshows:
· Tuesday 17th April - Broadstone Library Car Park
· Wednesday 18th April - St John's Church (Ashley Road)
· Thursday 19th April - Tesco Tower Park
· Friday 20th April - Dolphin Shopping Centre
· Saturday 21st April - Dolphin Shopping Centre
Bob Harris, Head of Democratic Services, Tel: (01202) 633021
Directgov