After lengthy conversations with our friends at Basildon & Southend Housing Action (BASHA) and Vange Hill Community Group (VHCG), towards the end of last year we wrote this piece: A few thoughts on local councillors… – https://southessexstirrer.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/a-few-thoughts-on-local-councillors/ We understand that if a councillor is going to do their job properly in serving the ward they represent, it will mean a heavy workload. This is something that should be made perfectly clear to anyone considering standing as a candidate in local elections.

It doesn’t give us any pleasure to say we’ve heard anecdotal evidence from various sources indicating that the two ward councillors for Vange, Cllr. Block (Lab) and Cllr. McGeorge (Lab) are falling a fair way short in what residents can reasonably expect from their local councillors. Life has a nasty habit of going wrong when you don’t want it and can seriously impact your ability to discharge a responsibility. We don’t know what the circumstances are with Cllrs. Block and McGeorge but if external factors are impacting on their ability to effectively discharge their responsibilities as councillors and that’s likely to be the case for some months to come, then in our opinion, they need to consider their positions.

We’ve seen the work that community activists in Vange have been putting in to make the area a better place to live in. They and the residents they’re working for deserve better than they’re getting at the moment. The next elections for the Vange ward are not due until 2019 and in our opinion, that’s too long to let things drift on as they are.