My absence was more to do with Cllr overload as case work reached record levels, it seems as ever the more you do, the more you will be asked to do. The problem with being an Independent though is that frustrated voters from across the town contact you when their own Councillors have failed to deliver for them! One such case I am dealing with at present has been ignored by the two local Lib Dem Cllrs for over two years now. Well when I say ignored I don't mean totally ignored, as they did manage to make an initial visit and talk the elderly couple involved into donating £40 for Liberal Democrat funds!! More of that later. And how about the other Liberal Democrat Councillor who borrowed £150 from an old aged pensioner in their ward two years ago and still hasn't paid it back? That will loosen my keyboard strokes in the near future no doubt! The leader of the Council Cllr Brian Hoare is aware of the above of course and I even gave him the chance to get his group to repay the elderly gentlemen the "Loan" so as to save the council any future embarrassment. But like most other requests for decency and compromise it fell on death ears.
February also saw me very busy assisting an old friend and comrade Ann Timson who so bravely tackled six smash and grab robbers outside Micheal Jones Jewellers with just her handbag as a weapon.Having promised An I would deal with the press fro her I was perhaps not surprised but overwhelmed when with worldwide media frenzy that followed. Ann gave limited dignified interviews, ignored the press pack and refused to take a penny for her troubles, as a result a lot of local and national charities will benefit. More of that too later.All that coupled with two councils at the Town and County Halls both cutting services to the bone and both blaming the other party in power/opposition for doing so whilst conveniently forgetting that it is their own Tory/LibDem coalition at Westminster who is really responsible in the first place for their cuts agenda.
Oh and apologies I took a week off in beautiful Dubrovnik during half term with my wife to boot so a very busy 21 out of 28 days of February, but a silent blog.
It's now time to make up for the gap in normal service!
"...fell on death ears" - Nice Freudian slip there Tony! :)
ReplyDeleteIf i had a penny for every evety time i heard complaints about lib/dem councillors, i would be able to go shopping in america......as one likes to boast
ReplyDeleteBoring blog, with the same sycophantic contributors. yawn yawn yawn.
ReplyDeleteand continued anonymous rants from people too timid to declare an identity or unable toas they are polticly tainted!
ReplyDeleteWell I can try my best!
ReplyDeleteSurely that falls under theft laws and said councillors should be reported to the police?
ReplyDeletePete, unfortunately it is viewed as a private arrangement between two individuals, but it is still so clearly wrong, see my latest blog for more details
ReplyDeleteNicky, negativity is subjective and depends on if you believe the glass half empty or half full.
I am a member of the opposition, which means that my job is to oppose. But when the Lib Dems do something good, I will be happy to praise them, but they are running out of time fast.
The Lions were good, so were 210 Rhinos in Chester, and the 253 Penguins in Liverpool, Newport had dragons and Norwich if I remember Elephants. This is a national campaign raising much needed money for local and national charities. If you want the truth though our 57 Lions raised less than most other cities and were mainly sponsored and brought by the council themselves together with their partners. This is not a but it is acknowledging that such schemes are good but are not blue/yellow sky thinking from the Lib Dems.
ReplyDeleteAnother example "Britain in Bloom" NBC couldn't want to profile and recieve praise for the work of George in Spring Boroughs and his community garden which eventually featured on the front page of the Royal Horticultural Societys magazine. But the truth again is that George and his neighbours started the garden because they were fed up to the back teeth of the Council not maintaining the gardens outside their flats despite them being paid to do so.
I Love my town, and I Love my parks, but again if you are unfortunate to live in a part of town not srtegic enough to the Lib Dems election chances you get none of the £250,000 alloocated for the programme spent in your ward.
Likewise check which parts of town have benifitted so far from the councils spend on the Decent Homes Programme whilst my constituents in Castle Ward remain in the most unfit housing in the Borough.
I would love to run the council, on behalf of all its people and not just for the benifit of some of the town or for party interest.