Why Berman must go
The recent selection of Nigel Howells by Cardiff Central Lib Dems for the Assembly elections is bad news, very bad news, for Rodney Berman who also applied for the job.
Berman is deeply damaged by this.
He failed to persuade his colleagues, many of them in his own Council cabinet, that he should be their candidate at the 2011 Assembly election. Having led Cardiff Council since 2004 one would have thought he was their obvious choice having had the experience of running the capital city. This lack of confidence from his own party casts doubt on his own future at the helm of the capital city’s local authority.
Secondly and perhaps most seriously is that we still have a Council leader who had decided by applying to be an Assembly candidate that he no longer wanted his present job after next year. I have always believed that Berman lacked the vision and ambition for the capital city, it’s now obvious that he also lacks the stomach for the top job.
As the AM for Cardiff North I have long believed that the Lib Dems are only interested in their Cardiff Central stronghold, and Berman’s wish to represent one part of the city is further indicative of their and his mindset. Perhaps they should be reminded that Cardiff is made up of four constituencies, not just the one.
Over the past few months I know that many people throughout Cardiff have called into question the direction our capital city is heading and whether the leadership is strong enough to give the vision and ambition for the capital of Wales. The decisions taken, for example, over the transport infrastructure and the resulting chaos on our roads, the proposals to reorganise school places and close popular schools demonstrates the poverty of leadership that the people of this great city are having to experience.
Running a local authority is not just about collecting bin bags, for Cardiff it means having a leadership which can see where our capital city needs to be in the next 10 to 20 years. We simply don’t have this.
I do not believe that he can continue in his role, but if he does I hope the Lib Dems will at least show some guts by replacing him.
July 26th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Can I add to your list of failed opportunites brought about by poor leadership: the withdrawal of Cardiff’s Local Development Plan. The most important strategic document for the city has now to go back to the drawing board – we face a situtaion where, even if they are successful second time round, Cardiff will have taken 8 years to produce a strategic plan for its citizens and their city.
Wherever you lay the blame, the buck stops: councillors were mostly ill-informed and disengaged with the process, Berman and his deputy blamed the process, officers failed to deliver.
Politics and policies aside, in any terms this was a performance failure. Most people get sacked for such things. Not politicians, apparently.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Lib Dem action in Cardiff North…
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2010/07/15/council-serves-up-a-tennis-court-revamp-91466-26856376/
July 26th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
You have to wonder why Liberal Democrats in Cardiff Central have snubbed their council leader who has led the capital city of Wales for over six years.
Jonathan Morgan is right to highlight the fact that it seems that this present Liberal-Democrat Council ignores other constituencies in Cardiff where their support is noticeably smaller.
In East Cardiff Rodney Berman’s wish to build the new Eastern High School on parkland at the Rumney Recreation Ground has caused such anger for over three years now. The refusal to build the new school on any of the three presently available school site, Llanrumney High, Rumney High and the St. Mellons School site has eroded trust between the council and its citizens.
At first Berman claimed that the Welsh Assembly was not forthcoming with additional monies. It later transpired, after a Freedom of Information of Request, that Cardiff Council were making no bids to the 21st Century School Programme for the new Eastern High. It left the impression for many that bids were being submitted on party political grounds to benefit sitting councillors of either the Liberal-Democratic Party or Plaid Cymru.
An 8,000 signature petition was submitted to save the parkland. There then followed a local community poll held in Llanrumney and Rumney that saw a near 94% No vote to the council’s plans on a turnout higher than the 2009 turnout in the European elections in the constituency of Cardiff South and Penarth. This was even more impressive when you consider that the community poll was held over a mere 5 hours without any postal votes allowed or polling cards issued.
So today the Council leader still intends to build a secondary school for a potential 1,650 students on an inner-city park against the wishes of the local communities. It should be noted that the new school’s catchment is served by 10 councillors. 5 Labour, 4 Conservative and 1 Liberal Democrat. Only one of the ten supports Berman’s plans. I’ll let you guess which.
Rodney Bermam, if he intends to continue to be Cardiff’s leader needs to reflect on the mistakes that his council has made and continues to make.
Jonathan Morgan if you truly believe that Rodney Berman should step down then let us hear you say loudly and clearly that following the 2012 local council elections in Cardiff the Conservative Party should and will not go into any form of coalition arrangement with the Liberal Democratic Party whilst it is led by Councillor Rodney Berman.
July 26th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Add Cardiff & Co to failures….only interested in failed policies of promotion and organising dinners or attending them…no vision or experience-naive.Business people look on with horror at the £500k plus budget…spent on hospitality and leaflets.
July 27th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Funny that Cardiffian. The 150 business people who turned up at a Cardiff & Co event yesterday weren’t looking on in horror – far from it in fact. See http://bit.ly/doiy6j . In fact the media and creative sector business leaders were extremely positive about Cardiff & Co’s ability to secure such an important person to deliver what one person in the audience called an “historic speech for the media industry”.
July 27th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Oh dear! Mr Bean sorry Mr Berman, no community savvy with you is there, no ability to bow to the public democratic vote regarding your plans to bull-doze the historic Rumney Recreational Grounds. What a polictical mistake to think you can seize this park when there are 3 alternative more central sites, two of which have schools sitting pretty in a vast swaythe of land itching for learning development .
Ah! but there is the heart of the matter the plot to sell off these sites to fill the council coffers but adding insult to injury, the cash you and your oppo’s will snatch will be spent in another part of Cardiff, anywhere but Cardiff East.
Now let me take an educated guess – there goes ! what a long word to use ‘Education ‘ little ‘ol me coming from Llanrumney , dear me, and that is the crux this 3 year battle , you Sir are dealing with the intelligent and the civilized of Cardiff East !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not at all what you and your lynchman McEnvoy bargained for
August 2nd, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Still waiting for you to call for David Melding to stand down now he has been snubbed by the Conservative party in his own selection contest. Or do your principle not apply to other Tories?
August 14th, 2010 at 2:08 am
Nonsense, cardiff smiply could not do without Berman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!