Photo: Kent County Councillor Tim Prater, Liberal Democrat from Folkestone West
Prater finally sat down at the Providence Inn in Sandgate just after 7 p.m. with his wife Season and mother-in-law Ann Rimmer, both of whom were recently elected to Sandgate’s parish council. As the Liberal Democrats’ lone county councillor from Shepway District, Prater had already made a name for himself after winning election to the Folkestone Town Council in 2006 and the district council a year later. His victory Thursday over Robert Bliss, the Conservative’s leader on the Shepway council, came by 11 votes and three recounts, erasing a 1600-vote margin from 2005.
Prater’s victory, one of two LibDem gains from the Tories, drew the Tories’ ire over the weekend.
“I’m happy to find a letter from the chair of the local Conservative Party on their Web site which claims that I had stolen the seat from the Conservatives,” Prater said “I don’t believe I could have stolen that seat because it wasn’t his [Mr. Bliss’s]. I don’t believe it’s mine either. I believe it’s their [the voters’] seat. They lend it for four years on trust to the person that they think is going to do the best job for them.”
Prater said that Shepway’s ranking as least improved local council in the England and front-page coverage of Tory MP Michael Howard’s expense claims for £17,000 of gardening work factored into his win, as Conservatives experienced negative swings in Folkestone.
The state of Kent’s roads, particularly in the eastern half of the county, was the top issue residents brought to Prater’s attention, he said.
“They’re full of puddles, they’re not even in a fit state,” Prater said, adding that the current estimate has Kent crews needing almost 300 years to bring the county’s roads up to standard.
Prater said that the previous county council, which had a 37-seat Tory majority, increased funding for this year, but did not budget that increase for next year.
“Suddenly in an election year, they found a few extra pounds for it,” Prater said. “Something that we’re very clear on is ‘OK, they put more money in it this year. I want to see it next year, and the next year as well.’”
Prater has shown in interest in politics since he became old enough to vote in 1991 and said he works by the mantra “don’t get mad, get even.” While attending Aston University, Prater became involved with the Liberal Democrats, writing a news letter and setting up phone fundraising operations during the late 1990s.
Since 2002, Prater has operated Prater Raines Ltd. with Web developer Matt Raines. The company has developed over 350 Web sites, principally for Liberal Democrat groups and candidates across the United Kingdom and Europe.
As a member of three councils, Prater says that it will be a challenge to manage his time between the three but that he will be able to provide a shortcut for discussing issues between bodies.
“I’m planning to go to those meetings as well so that when they’re bringing up issues that need assistance from Kent who deal with things like the highways–there’s a lot of road issues, a lot of parking issues, a lot of street light issues down here–they are things that I can take from those meetings and go back up the chain and say ‘here’s a real problem,’” Prater said.
Prater said that councils often don’t communicate with one another. As a short circuit, he adds, he will be able to communicate discussions from the county and district councils to his district’s town councils.
Following the slashing of the Labour Party’s representation on the county council from 20 to two, Prater’s arrival adds to the LibDem’s count of seven councillors, placing them in the official opposition. With only ten of Kent’s 84 councillors not affiliated with the Tories, Prater says he and his colleagues will do their best to ensure their residents’ concerns are properly voiced.
“You can only bring up the issues which are in front of you and just make it as clear as you can,” Prater said. “Often these things are not political. They are issues about management, they are issues about making sure the right thing is done. It’s often not a fundamental difference in opinion on some of these things.”
Prater has experienced a similar minority situation on Shepway District Council, where the LibDems also have an official opposition with six members to the Tories’ 36.
“What you’re doing is watching what for the majority group is doing and pointing out when they’re making mistakes, and doing it in a way that is hopefully constructive but is equally forceful.” Prater said. “Just because there are a lot of them doesn’t mean that they are right. Groupthink quite often sets in on these things, and it becomes very easy as a very big majority to think that because you come up with the idea that it has to be right, and there is always another way of doing something.”
Prater said that several ideas the Conservatives will propose will be right for Kent or almost right but need some tweaking from the opposition.
“We’re going to be the ones who are sitting in the room who are reading things and going, ‘is there another way of doing it? Is there a problem with this? Would people understand this, and if they understand this, would they like it?’” Prater said.
Prater said that with the word expenses mentioned often the past three weeks, he and fellow Shepway District councillor Tom McNeice have not been involved with excessive reimbursements.
“People say ‘you can claim expenses at district council, you can claim mileage allowances, you can claim food and subsistence allowances,’ and we can say ‘yeah, we can,’” Prater said. “In the last two years, neither of us have claimed a penny. And that does kill an argument very quickly.”
Prater added that he does not plan to seek reimbursement for mileage and believes the basic allowance as a county councillor should cover mileage to and from Maidstone. He said that expense claims at the county and local level also should be made available for public review to determine whether a councillor’s claims are reasonable for the amount of work he or she does.
Prater maintains an office on Sandgate High Street and operates a personal Web site at http://prater.org.uk/. He says he can also be reached via Facebook or through his Twitter user name @timprater.
For the remainder of the week, The Missouri Expatriate will also upload audio clips from our interview with Tim Prater.
Technical edit: Technorati Profile
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