Latest news with #countycouncil
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Planned speed limit cut for West Willoughby wins backing
Plans to reduce the speed limit on a Lincolnshire road in response to an increase in "anti-social driving" have been backed by councillors. Members of the county council's planning and regulation committee discussed reducing the limit from 50mph (80km/h) to 40mph (about 65km/h) on the A153 in West Willoughby, near Ancaster, during a meeting on were told there had been a large number of accidents on the voted for the proposal to be put forward to the executive member for highways and transport to decide whether it should be implemented. "As we are all aware, sometimes anti-social driving is a problem," said councillor Gary Taylor, according to the Local Democracy Reporting fellow member Martin Hill said he was sceptical about whether drivers would keep to the new speed limit."My concern is that this happens a lot and the problem is that some people are starting to ignore them," he said."I'm concerned that the more speed reductions we put in, the more motorists won't follow them." Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
The Independent
12-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Reform UK selects 18-year-old to run county council with multimillion pound budget
Reform UK has selected a teenager to permanently run a major county council, overseeing hundreds of millions of pounds of public spending. George Finch, 18, took over temporarily after the previous council leader, also a member of Reform, resigned just weeks after being elected. Now the 18-year-old has been selected by Nigel Farage 's party to head Warwickshire County Council, which has £1.5bn of assets and a budget of around £500m. The Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, Preet Gill, has criticised the decision, saying the people of Warwickshire "frankly deserve better". "This is not work experience," she told the BBC. "This is not about learning on the job." Mr Finch, a former Tory, was installed as the full-time leader of the Reform group after a vote on Friday. Reform is the largest party on the council but does not have an outright majority, meaning he will need the support of other parties when a vote is held later this month to officially appoint him council leader. However, since May's elections the local Conservative group has helped Reform on political appointments. Last month Reform's Rob Howard said it was with 'much regret' that he was quitting as council leader, citing health challenges which he said prevented him from 'carrying out the role to the level and standard that I would wish'. His resignation came in the wake of chaos that followed Reform's surge at the local elections, when it took hundreds of seats across England. One newly-elected councillor resigned from the party just days after being elected. Firing a parting shot as she left, Donna Edmunds also called for ousted Reform MP Rupert Lowe to establish a challenger party on the right of Reform and said Mr Farage 'must never be prime minister '. Another councillor, Wayne Titley, elected in Staffordshire, quit the council after just two weeks, following criticism over a Facebook post about small boats arriving in Britain. And a Reform councillor's failure to declare he worked for the council forced a by-election to be announced in Durham just a week after the local elections. The chaos appeared to do little to dent Reform in the polls. But a leading pollster recently suggested that support for the party has 'topped out', and that the momentum that was leading it to soar in the polls has ground to a halt. Conservative peer Robert Hayward told The Independent that the results of recent council by-elections which Reform lost while defending seats, coupled with a small fall in the party's national polling figures, suggest that the march of Mr Farage to Downing Street at the next general election could be facing a setback. It came after business leaders and senior figures in the Labour Party urged Sir Keir Starmer to 'stop obsessing' about the rise of Reform.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Decision to slash sheriff's salary assailed by county council critics, 'lack of foresight'
Martha Foster believes Spartanburg County Council's decision to slash the salary of the future Spartanburg County Sheriff will make it more challenging to attract the right person for the job. 'It is disgusting to see the lack of insight, the lack of responsibility, and the lack of foresight' on the part of council members, she said. Foster was one of several community members who spoke at Monday's county council meeting to criticize the decision to cut the sheriff's pay in half. Speakers drew raucous applause from some of the attendees. 'You cannot get good, qualified people if you don't pay them properly,' Richard Burch told council members. Former Sheriff Chuck Wright resigned in May amid controversy that included allegations of misuse of a county credit card and an ongoing FBI investigation into the sheriff's office. A special election will take place in November to choose his replacement. Last week, county council voted unanimously to set the first-year salary of the new sheriff at $100,000, plus a $15,000 stipend. Wright's salary had been $219,000 with a $15,000 stipend. 'It was quite a difficult discussion,' Chairman Manning Lynch said last week. The decision to cut the salary was a way to begin getting some control over a sheriff's office that many believe had gotten out of hand. Lynch said last week that council members 'feel so betrayed and let down' by Wright. He said he expects the sheriff's salary will be increased after the first year. Council members voted to approve the funding of an outside audit of the sheriff's office staffing as part of its roughly $334 million 2025-2026 fiscal year operating budget. The budget received third reading approval on Monday night. The sheriff's office is 'our largest department, our largest cost, so we want to make sure that dollars are going to people doing the right job,' said Monier Abusaft, who represents Spartanburg County Council District 1. Several council members raised concerns about the sheriff's aviation program, which includes two helicopters and personnel to operate them. Last week, Interim Sheriff Jeffery Stephens said he is reviewing the program. The helicopters 'are very, very expensive to maintain,' he noted. Attendees at Monday's meeting seemed unimpressed by the council's efforts to get a better handle on the sheriff's office. Woodruff resident Chris Young said council members shouldn't be too aggressive in exerting control over a sheriff elected by the county's voters. 'The idea of a county council overseeing the sheriff's office is wrong,' he said. Frank Tiller, who was recently elected to serve as chairman of the Spartanburg County Republican Party, said he thinks the move to slash the sheriff's salary was 'ridiculous.' However, he took a broader aim at the council, alleging that meetings often feel scripted, decisions are frequently made outside the public's view, and the common fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements with businesses lack transparency. He asked audience members to raise their hands if they shared his concerns. Many did. 'We're not happy – we're not happy at all,' Tiller said. Abusaft, the only Democrat on the council, took several minutes to respond to those who criticized council members. While he didn't address issues such as fee-in-lieu agreements, he did push back against the logic that lower starting pay for the next sheriff will diminish the quality of the candidates. He noted that the field of Republican candidates in the special election to replace Wright has remained crowded, even after news of the reduced salary. 'It's not like Sheriff Walker, Texas Ranger, was coming, but now he's not,' Abusaft remarked. This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Comments at Spartanburg council meeting focus on cut in sheriff's pay
Washington Post
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Wonder how free buses will fare in New York? Watch these Md. counties.
I read the June 29 Metro article 'Buses now free in Md. county,' about Montgomery County's free bus program, with interest. In neighboring Prince George's County, we eliminated fares on TheBus, our county's transit service, on June 30. While scrutinizing the county's budget in the spring, the county council found that the amount of money it cost to collect the fares was greater than the amount being taken in. Not only is eliminating bus fares a better deal for riders and a stronger encouragement to choose transit, but it also will save the county $4 million over the next several years.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Several options presented to transition Luzerne County Council to nine members
Jul. 6—Now that a Luzerne County Government Study Commission majority has settled on a recommendation to reduce the 11-member county council to nine members instead of seven, it must decide how the downsizing will be implemented if the revised home rule charter is approved by voters in November. Voters currently elect council members on a rotating schedule of five or six every two years, and the next future election in 2027 would be a six-member selection. Three options have been proposed to transition to nine members: —Choose six in 2027 and three instead of five in 2029. This keeps council at 11 members until the start of 2030. —Elect six members in 2027, with four-year seats for the top five vote recipients and a two-year seat for the sixth highest vote-getter. Four members would be elected in 2029 instead of five. This option also keeps council at 11 until the start of 2030. —Pick four members instead of six in 2027, which means the reduction to nine would take effect at the start of 2028. Commission members debated the pros and cons of these options last week. A vote on the matter is expected at the next regular commission meeting July 17. Commission hearing Although only one study commission public hearing was required and held, the commission agreed to hold a second one on Wednesday in Hazle Township, particularly to accommodate southern county residents. The hearing will be at 6 p.m. in the Hazle Township Commons Building, 103 W. 27th St. in the township. Instructions for the remote attendance option are posted in council's online meetings section (scroll down) at Voting system demonstration Also on Wednesday, from 5 to 7 p.m., the county election bureau will hold a public demonstration of county voting system options at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Attendees may complete a brief feedback survey to assist the election bureau with its recommendation of a voting system to be used in the county starting in 2026. Reconsideration of the voting system is appropriate at this time because the five-year maintenance and support contract with the supplier, Dominion Voting System, expires at the end of this year, county Manager Romilda Crocamo has said. In consultation with the county election board, the administration will eventually present county council with options on systems and pricing in case it wants to change, Crocamo has said. Another option for council would be negotiating a new maintenance and support contract to continue using the Dominion system for a set number of years. Four vendors responded in February to the county's request for proposals to provide a new voting system, and all have been invited to participate in the public demonstration: Dominion, Clear Ballot Group Inc., Election Systems and Software (ES&S) and Hart InterCivic. Ethics commission The county ethics commission will meet at 3:30 p.m. Monday in the county courthouse. Chaired by county Controller Walter Griffith, the commission is set to vote on the appointment of Attorney William Lawrence as commission solicitor and discuss the topic of proposing ethics code revisions to council, among other matters, the agenda said. Council meeting Council will hold a voting meeting and work session at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the courthouse, with remote attendance instructions posted in the online meeting section at Position posting The county has publicly advertised a new consolidated GIS/Planning and Zoning Director position at $92,000, according to a posting in the human resources department career opportunities section at Council voted earlier this year to merge the county Mapping/GIS Department and Planning and Zoning, with the administration saying the change will enhance decisions related to planning and development. Staff for both departments will remain the same with the exception of reducing department heads from two to one, officials had said. County GIS/Mapping Director Dan Reese has been serving as acting planning/zoning executive director since Matthew Jones resigned last May. Applications are due July 15. Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
