Local Democracy

The recent Parish Council Newsletter included the paragraph "It has been a stressful year after demands were made by a resident to obtain private details of Councillors, and also questioned expenses paid to them. In the 8 years I have been Chair of the Council, there have not been any expenses claimed, and the only money paid out has been to refund costs for equipment etc for the Village. It's amazing how we have been judged after the MP's expenses scandal."

As the 'resident' mentioned was me and I had already been named in the Parish Council minutes, I objected to the suggestion that the matter I had raised had been going on for a year when it lasted for just two months. I was also annoyed that Mr Salisbury chose to highlight a very minor issue - expenses - when the main point of my correspondence was local democracy, elections and co-opting of Councillors. Therefore, I challenged the Chairman, Mr Paul Salisbury, about this statement to which he replied " We have had a stressful year this term compared with recent years. This started with the withdrawal of funding in May by RBC, whilst we were only part way through the recreation ground project. This was followed by a serious incident at the pavilion which is still ongoing. Councillor Pearson's death in November left all Councillors shocked and distraught.

On a personal basis during this period my wife was waiting for major surgery, and had been in extreme pain for some time. This surgery took place on 27th January ans she is still under the specialist surgeon at present. Something I think you would understand having had surgery yourself. During this time I attempted to approach a 'business as usual stance'. Something I now regret"

Mr Salisbury went on to add "If you have taken the content out of context, then I apologise for any ambiguity in the newsletter."

The Clerk to the Parish Council has written to me saying that after legal advice a statement will appear in the next Parish Council newsletter. As this is likely to be a year away, it is important that the statement appears without delay:

"In the previous newsletter the statement in the introduction could have been read as meaning that the Chairman and the Parish Council had been stressed by a request for information, whereas the stress was brought about by an accumulation of issues throughout the term. The Parish Council is always willing to provide any information to residents providing it is not of a personal nature. As Chairman, I found it frustrating that the MPs expenses scandal had caused people to think that Parish Councillors may be similarly taking advantage of expenses. Coupled with this was the withdrawal of funding for almost 8 months, and also the situatian that we were down in numbers of Councillors. This meant projects within the village had to be put on hold. If this ambiguity caused offence to residents, then we apologise. The newsletter is merely a means of communication and we would not like to see it ceased." '

To read the letter in full, click here. This document and all that follow are in PDF format.
 
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For more in depth background to this matter, please click here.