The true extent and consequences of RMBC laziness and apathy were laid bare last night at Anston Parish Council, Brian Lewis asked the following question:
“Chairman and Councillors, until the independent enquiry called for by the leader of Rotherham Borough Council into child grooming in Rotherham is complete, shouldn’t Councillor Burton stand down from Anston Parish Council and Rotherham Borough Council?
The leader of Rotherham Borough Council has given an unreserved apology to the young girls in Rotherham who have been let down by the Council’s children’s agencies. The Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Panel failed completely these young girls. In 2007 and 2008 Councillor Burton was vice chair of this panel, in 2009 she was an ordinary member. This is the period that is being investigated, the government gave this panel along with the rest of the Children’s Department a damning report. As vice chair what was Councillor Burton doing? Nothing.
She chaired some of the meetings of the Scrutiny Panel that failed to deal with the problem of child grooming of young girls for sex in Rotherham. These girls were in the care of Rotherham Borough Council Children’s Services. Councillors, this is why I call on Councillor Burton to do the right thing and stand down.”
Councillor Burton replied that she didn’t know of any abuse taking place at the time and was trying to make sure such abuse could never happen again.
The question remains, what was she doing at the time?
LoveDinnington.com 
Following the Labour party line that everything is wonderful in Labour La La land.
To address the question: what was she doing at the time? She either doesn’t know what she was doing (Apart from claiming her expenses) or she’s not going to tell us.
You decide.
Either answer doesn’t really do it for me!
Will Stuart Thornton be standing against her at the next ward council election?
We really need to stop Jo Burton getting re elected as a ward councillor next year. But this will only happen if we get a decent candidate who lives in Anston, the UKIP candidate who lives in Woodsettes and won’t be the best choice for Anston. The candidate has to be a true Independent and not part of a large body, their No1 aim to serve Anston.
yes we need an independent candidate if poss. Can anyone in the community come forward to replace the bloodsucking dross and rubbish we have at the moment?
Both the Labour candidates claimed about 13K last year in expenses. Daren Hughes an awful lot more. I would be concerned the money was only spent on doing the job, not for publicity to get elected or for anything else. I would be interested in a break down on what their expenses was spent on, as it sounds an awful lot of money. They both get paid about 13K a year for being ward councillors.
If Joe Burton had an allowance of 12K for being a Anston ward councillor, a further 1K for additional responsibilities and about £30 for travel. Then I have no issue with this. I can’t see the issue.
I would have no problems paying that money to an effective ward cllr who is knowledgeable and represents their constituents, even if they disagree with me. Jo is none of these things.
It is the nail on the coffin for me being ward councillor, if you get 13K a year and then have to pay all your expenses out of that, then I won’t be standing. To be an effective ward councillor you need to spend 50% of the year doing the job and that isn’t any where near the right financial compensation for the work required. Pay peanuts and get monkeys as they say.
I don’t think it’s something you do to get rich. I can’t believe these people sell their souls for 12k but they do!
we are not paying peanuts and we definitely have a monkey. Where are you getting your info. from? Not APC meetings.
To be an effective ward councillor, you need to spend at least 50% of the working week doing the role, that is why we get such a poor return from them. An MP gets £66K a year and an awful lot of expenses to help them do a job. That our ward councillors get about 13K a year including expenses, just shows why we don’t get the right person to do the job. We need professional people to be ward councillors, but they need to be rewarded as such.
I think you hit the nail on the head, when you said people sell their souls for 12K a year to be a ward councillor. Imagine some of the phone calls they get from people.