Summer 2009

www.achanceforchange.co.uk
Please accept my apologies for the delay in producing this edition of the
Beacon. This is due partly to the volume of work I do on your behalf and the fact
that I wanted to produce and deliver my first annual report to every household
in the ward. I have been encouraged by your initial response to my report and
would like to thank those of you who have contacted me with your comments
(good and bad) – it makes it all worthwhile when I receive so many positive
comments. Once again I have set the standard by becoming the first Councillor
to compile an annual report and hope that others will follow my lead but I
somehow doubt it! Finally I would like to extend my best wishes to the new
Mayor of South Tyneside, Cllr John Anglin, whilst I don’t share his political
views I hope he enjoys what is rumoured to be his last year before he heads off
to retirement in Portugal.
Allegations of Common Assault CHAOS AT COUNCIL MEETINGS
Some of you may have read the allegations in the Gazette Once again the Labour Group on the Council
regarding an alleged common assault. The allegations were has attempted to muzzle the Independent
made by a close associate of John Szymanski, (Gazette editor), Alliance and have now stooped to personal
and Cllrs Anglin and McMillan. I will be robustly defending myself abuse to do it. These tactics have been
against these allegations and I will work tirelessly to clear my adopted to stop us challenging
name. Inspite of the Gazette’s efforts to muddy the waters, I can Labour’s cosy little club and raising
confirm that I went to the Police Station voluntarily to discuss serious issues on your behalf. At the last meeting of the
this matter and left of my own free will. I WAS NOT ARRESTED, Council on Thursday 25th June we saw another example of
Labour’s attempt to silence the Independent Alliance. The
CHARGED OR BAILED. I have since received a statutory
Mayor allowed the Leader of the Council, Cllr Iain Malcolm,
summons to appear at South Tyneside Magistrates Court at
to speak but refused to allow Cllr Jane Branley to do likewise.
2.30pm on August 5th. The hearing is open to the public, so
This was totally unconstitutional and Cllr Branley refused to
why not come along? sit down and shut up. As she spoke she was met with a tor-
rent of abuse from Labour, Conservative and ‘Real’ Inde-
Residents Parking Schemes pendent councillors, their howls and shrieks reminded me of
a pack of rabid dogs. The Mayor suspended the meeting for
The Council is beginning to apply its new policy for 10 minutes and on returning Cllr Jane Branley refused once
residents parking schemes and it’s proving less than again to sit down and shut up. I repeatedly asked for consti-
popular - the idea of having to pay £50 a year to park tutional proof to support the Mayor’s stand, this was not pro-
in your own street is causing uproar! The fact is that this vided. I also questioned the validity of their attempt to force
policy has been approved by the council and despite mak- through a motion to remove Cllr Branley. The abuse became
ing strong representations on your behalf, the council took more hostile with threats being hurled at us from across the
no notice of them. The only way to get this policy overturned Council chamber. The Mayor then abandoned the meeting.
is to use your vote in May 2010 and get rid of those However this was not the end of the incredible behaviour of
responsible for the policy. For now though, you can opt out Labour, Conservative and ‘Real’ Independent councillors. A
of the scheme if more than 50% of re- ‘Real’ Independent councillor yelled racial abuse at me and
spondents to the Council’s questionnaire told me to ‘Get back to where you came from’! This astonish-
say no. If you feel strongly about this ing incident of racial hatred was clearly heard in the public
issue, make your views known when gallery and throughout the Council chamber. Cllr Geraldine
you receive your questionnaire, if you White was physically assaulted by a Labour councillor in front
don’t the scheme will go ahead. of a reporter from the Gazette, the Council’s press officer and
Cllr Branley. Both incidents have been reported to the Police
and are now with the Crown Prosecution Service.
PLEASE READ AND RECYCLE
 AND WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE GAZETTE?
Some readers may have seen this picture in the local
‘newspaper’, this was a deliberate attempt by its ‘editor’
John Szymanski to tarnish my reputation. Now the Labour
party has used the same picture in their Westoe newsletter
in a desperate attempt to blacken my name, a bizarre act
by desperate people - I live in, and represent the Beacon
and Bents not Westoe! Well it’s time I explained the events
behind the picture and unlike Mr Szymanski, I believe that the
vast majority of fair minded people will not be fooled by the
disgraceful behaviour and antics of the local rag. But if the
picture offends anyone, please accept my sincere apologies.
On Friday June 17th I contacted South Shields Police station following allegations of
common assault made in the Gazette, something I knew nothing about until a Gazette
reporter contacted me after the paper had gone to print to ask me for a
comment. I then contacted the police and made an appointment to see them the
following day at 11.30am, I told only 2 people. The only other people that knew about
my appointment were the police. Given the Gazette’s tendency
to stalk people, I decided to arrive early and not park my vehicle
at the police station (I used the Wickes car park). Gazette photog-
raphers often get sneaky pictures of people leaving the station and
Expenses
the courts by hiding in a variety of locations. I was at the station for MPs expenses have rightly been in the headlines
about 4 hours before leaving of my own free will, without being ar- and just about everyone I speak to is appalled by the
rested, bailed or charged. As I left the building I looked around to see disgraceful and shameless antics of some of our poli-
if I was being stalked by a Gazette photographer. I headed towards ticians. Well it seems the greedy pigs in Westminster
Station Rd and as I crossed the road (I was in the middle) I noticed are not the only ones with their snouts in the trough!
a green car with its window down and a camera lens protruding Not to be outdone by their Parliamentary colleagues,
from it. The car was tucked in a corner of the car park and was some of your local councillors appear to have rather
partially obscured by shrubs. I looked directly at the vehicle and large snouts too. The 3 Conservatives claimed £7214,
recognised the person as a Gazette photographer. I was shocked Labour councillors claimed £15,604, compare this to
to see him as no one other than the police and the 2 people I the £1,406 claimed by 9 Independent Alliance
councillors (I claimed nothing).
told knew I was there. This could only mean that the police or
These amounts relate to expenses and do
someone associated with the police had tipped off the Gazette.
not include any allowances paid.
No one knew how long I would be at the station for, so the
photographer must have been either stalking me shortly after I
arrived or had been following me. The photographer was clearly
acting on the editor’s instructions and I wanted to make sure that
Mr Szymanski knew exactly what I thought of his devious and un-
derhand tactics which some would construe as gutter journalism.
A CHANCE FOR CHANGE
It’s this sort of behaviour that may explain the Gazette’s decline! The Independent Alliance is putting the finishing touches to its
new website and hopes to launch it by mid August. The new site
I had no doubt that the editor would use the photograph and thank includes much more information about the Alliance, incorporates
him for doing so - at least people know exactly what I think of his a blog as well as several other features which we hope will allow
editorial style and judging by the Gazette’s dwindling readership the Independent Alliance to engage with local people and raise
(circulation has almost halved under his ‘leadership’) many of you their awareness of local politics and its impact on our everyday
are of the same opinion. lives. For more details visit www.achanceforchange.co.uk

OUTDOOR PLAY
Every Monday between 4pm to 6pm the council runs a FREE outdoor play event for
5 to 14 year olds at North Marine Park (top end). Activities include outdoor games as well as
arts and crafts. For further details contact Adam on 0191 4234580 or turn up on the day.
Gazette Watch
It’s right what they say; standing up to the local Labour councillors and their ‘allies’ is a tough
task especially when the local press are in the pockets of the council. But that doesn’t mean we
should shy away from it. The common perception has always been that if you speak up you’ll
suffer, particularly if you are a council tenant, run a business or if you are a council employee. This
fear is so widespread that when council employees want to report fraud, electoral irregularities,
management abuse or a waste of public resources, they often don’t for fear of victimisation.
Whistle-blowing legislation is scant protection and the local now just another tool for the local Labour party to use to silence
media is so far up the backsides of the ruling Labour group that it the opposition.
can no longer be trusted to protect the anonymity of its sources. When the Labour Group cannot interfere in your life directly,
This means that people are forced to give anonymous briefings they will stop at nothing to damage your reputation and the best
or leak information to opposition councillors. way of doing this is to use the Gazette. To use a political
Most people cannot help but notice that there has been a marked metaphor, they must first kill the name before the person.
shift in the Gazette’s editorial policy which has left many people South Tyneside Council is one of the biggest spenders with the
wondering whether the Gazette is just an extension of the Gazette (it spends around £100,000 a year on advertising etc).
council’s press office. You will have noticed how ‘pro Labour’ and The Gazette reporter has a privileged seat in the Council chamber
in particular how ‘pro Iain Malcolm’ the local rag has become, it’s right by the centre of the action yet the coverage of scrutiny of
even referred to as the Malcolm Fanzine in some quarters! the Labour Group by opposition councillors is barely evident.
In fact the editor of the Gazette has allowed our once proud paper Can you find any references in the Gazette to the £10.9 million
to get so embroiled in the Labour party machine that neither he pounds lost in council contracts? Or the £6 million payment made
nor the Gazette no longer pretend to be fair and unbiased, it’s to 2 former employees of Newcastle Airport approved by the
council leader? What about the £3 million pounds that should

join me on have been spent on a flood defence scheme and was moved to
another budget? Then there’s the small matter of a council

TWITTER
Back in March I became the first councillor in South
Tyneside to use Twitter in an effort to engage with local resi-
dents and to provide people with regular updates about my
work as a councillor, upcoming meetings, personal opin-
ions and a few snippets about what else I get up to. You can
find me on Twitter at www.twitter.com\councillorkhan
Unfortunately my enthusiasm for Twitter is not shared by
everyone in the town hall, senior officers, no doubt under
instructions from the leader, have decided to ban access
to it from council owned computers because and I quote
“it can expose the Council to negative publicity”.
In other words, if they can’t control it they don’t want it!
employee selling millions of pounds worth of Tyne and Wear
pension assets so the money could be reinvested elsewhere, all
done without any reference to elected members? What about
the overspend in Adult Services? Or the imaginary 1000 jobs
that was going to be created at the Garlands Call Centre? These
issues (and dozens like them) were raised by me and other
opposition councillors at numerous council meetings, all to no
avail - so why bother sending a reporter?
Of course, for an individual to criticise the Gazette, like criticising
the Labour Group, is an action not to be undertaken lightly! Lets
face it, Labour has ran this town into the ground and no matter
how much spin and gloss they put on it and no matter how many
‘awards’ the council wins, they are not going to stop me standing
up for what is right, nor criticising them or holding them to
account no matter how much they attempt to blacken my name.
If your going to ‘wrestle with pigs, you must expect to get
covered in muck’.
From now on I will be keeping a close eye on everything the Gazette
does. I will be monitoring the stories it publishes, the mistakes it
makes, the half truths and innuendos it reports on and will publish
details in my newsletters and on the Alliance website.
I will provide details of the letters it refuses to publish and let
you know about the stories it fails to cover, like the one where
the council held a civic reception for the Gazette at your expense
but then deliberately kept silent about it. I will also provide you with
details of the editor’s ‘troughing habits’, he loves nothing better
than a plateful of sausage rolls, providing someone else is paying!
 Double STANDARDS
Until 2008 the Standards Board of England (based in London) was responsible for administering the
Councillors Code of Conduct. In May 2008 this responsibility passed to local council standards committees
who became responsible for receiving complaints about a councillor’s conduct. People expressed concern
that the new system would be used by the ruling group to silence the opposition and stop any criticism.
Others were concerned that the new system would be used for political purposes by those in power.
In South Tyneside the only effective opposition to Labour is the Independent
Alliance & you’ve guessed it, the Alliance has been deliberately excluded ADVICE SURGERIES
from the Standards Committee and is not allowed to play any part in After a year of experimenting with different
implementing the code. Could this be because the ruling Labour group times, days and venues for my Advice
and their ‘allies’ are afraid we will find out what they really get up to? This Surgeries I have now implemented my
committee takes a secretive approach to public standards and holds all it’s findings. With immediate effect, my weekly
meetings concerning the conduct of individual councillors behind closed Advice Surgery will be held every Saturday
doors. It never reports it’s finding publically and despite provision in the at South Shields Town Hall (please use the
council’s constitution that allows any councillor cleared of misconduct to ask for Beach Rd entrance) between 11am - noon.
a press release to be issued, they won’t. The Monitoring Officer (the council’s If you can’t make it, don’t worry I am happy
solicitor, Brian T Scott, the same person responsible for the missing ballot box to make home visits on request.
debacle) wriggles like a maggot on the end of a hook in an effort to get out of
issuing a press release in case it upsets the ruling group.
Now compare this to these allegations made against Independent
You will not be surprised to learn that since the responsibility Alliance Councillors: the editor of the Shields Gazette, John
for the code passed to South Tyneside Council, there has Szymanski lodged a complaint after his biased reporting was
been a huge rise in the number of complaints and most criticised in our newsletters. Ironically he was appointed regional
of them involve members of the Alliance. If by challenging the chairperson of the Society of Editors whose core beliefs include
ruling group, as we do, by asking searching questions, refusing recognition of the universal right to freedom of expression, the
to accept Labour’s deliberate and calculating manipulation of importance of the vitality of the news media in a democratic
the system and by giving you an alternative view to the verbal society, and the promotion of Press and broadcasting freedom
diarrhoea and spin that emanates from the town hall, it means and the public’s right to know. We were also reported for
we get reported to the Standards Board, then so be it. The people talking about a local political blog called www.mrmonkeysblog.
elected us to challenge the cosy little member’s only club wordpress.com which attacks the ruling group, its supporters
and we intend to do just that! and exposes things that the council would rather you didn’t know
In the past year or so these are some of the allegations made about. Other complaints included spreading rumours, taking part
against Labour councillors: wife beating, assault, bullying in protests, failing to respect fellow Councillors and commenting
disabled members of the public and council officers, about a ‘Labour friendly’ resident’s group in a newsletter.
victimisation, intimidation of council officers, drink driving, Guess what? The Standards Committee decided to
election fraud, financial irregularities involving multi million investigate all these allegations!
pound payments to 2 former directors of Newcastle Airport, I have now decided that enough is enough and I am sick and
failure to respect councillors, members of the public and council tired of the double standards that appear to have been adopted
officers. What action did the Standards Committee take? by those charged with ensuring fair play. I have asked for a
Absolutely nothing. review of the role of the Standards Committee and have made it
clear that whilst I accept the need for a code of conduct its time

Old Asda
For nearly a year I have been constantly asking questions
about what will happen to the old Asda car park once
Asda moves. The answer has always been the same, it
will remain as a car park because of a planning condition
attached to the site. Judging by the barriers that have
been erected the ‘condition’ appears to be worthless
unless the council takes enforcement action and this is
not going to happen, instead it looks as though it will
remain closed.
these ‘kangaroo courts’ were stopped and that the whole process
was opened up to public scrutiny to stop the cynical manipulation
and political gerry mandering by the Labour party. I have
nothing to hide from the public, but I will no longer be party
to a system that was designed to increase public confidence and
accountability in local government yet does it’s upmost to keep
things hidden from them.
The Standards Committee will continue to have my 100%
co-operation providing the details of any complaint against me
are made public and that any subsequent investigation and
hearing is held in an open forum so that anyone that wants to
attend can do so.

YOU CAN CALL COUNCILLOR KHAN ON: 07827 305162 or 0191 456 0326. Email him at: beaconandbents@hotmail.co.uk