History of the PAB Group
The People Against Bureaucracy Group was formed in February 1976 following a public meeting in Up Hatherley. At that time, a group of concerned ratepayers wanted to see an end to the many ‘secret’ meetings held behind closed doors, reduce Council bureaucracy, achieve better value for the money they were paying in council taxes; and the group wanted to constructively criticise the policies and expenditure of the Council.
At the time, PAB support was mainly in the former Cheltenham Rural District Council area, which later became part of a newly formed Tewkesbury Borough Council.
Within nine weeks of its formation, the voters of the Tewkesbury Borough had elected five PAB candidates to the Council. From that point, a lot of progress has been made.
Following years saw PAB councillors being elected at local Parish Councils, Borough and Gloucestershire County Councils and their presence was respected for their independence and common sense approach to matters concerning both the Council and the ratepayers.
As a result of further national boundary changes in 1991, the periphery parishes around Cheltenham were transferred from Tewkesbury Borough Council to the now enlarged Cheltenham Borough Council area.
Since 1991 the PAB Group has fought and successfully won seats on the Borough and County Councils and as a result of the polarisation of Cheltenham into two main political groups, Cheltenham has become a ‘hung’ council with PAB councillors holding the balance of power whichever main party takes over the administration.
We believe this is a good thing for Cheltenham and the democratic principles.
The PAB Group has grown to a membership of over 500.