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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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8th March '09
Coming so soon after the alarming figures on Torridge’s spending on consultants the news that Devon county council has lost over £1/2 million in consultant’s fees on the aborted selling-off of 24 care homes to the private sector is shocking. Bideford councillor Hugo Barton who was in charge of this defended himself in the Journal – but this hasn’t cut much ice amongst those posting comments on the Journal’s website. I won’t embarrass him by reproducing them here but given that the privatisation never seems to have had any popular support and to many seemed an abrogation of the council’s responsibilities one can only wonder why this ill-fated scheme was pushed ahead. Clearly the county was out of touch with the voters on this issue and one has to wonder that if a private firm was willing to take them on (pre- credit crunch) and presumably make a profit then why is it apparently beyond the ability of the very highly paid council officials to run them economically? The fact that the county is going for a 3% increase in council tax – probably above the real rate of inflation by the time the bills go out – only highlights how dear their service provision really is.
Every month the Bideford Town Council meetings begin with a 15 minute period put aside for ratepayers to raise issues with the councillors but I am always surprised how few people exercise their democratic rights and speak. One stalwart who does is Mervyn Sweet – indeed so often does he do it that the Mayor refers to him as ‘councillor’ Sweet. Each speaker is given 3 minutes and at this month’s meeting Mervyn managed to compliment the man who cleans the toilets on the Quay, denounce the Council Tax as unfair and unjust, suggested purchasing a nebuliser for one councillor’s son and highlighted the leakage of sewage from the walls bordering the walkway up to Devonshire Park! Indeed Mervyn often manages to say more than some of the real councillors. If you do feel strongly about something then why not contact the town clerk at the town hall to see how best you might bring it up?
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