I recently told you
of a village controversy concerning the demolition of a row of
perfectly good small houses available for rent to make way for a few
very large ones to be sold for a fat profit., well the storm created
by this action still rages.
This morning my
letterbox was damaged when the Local Councillor and chief architect
of the atrocity stuffed through it a large glossy pamphlet, which
remunerated her recent “triumphs” and catalogued all the hard
work she claims to have carried out on our behalf during the past
month.
This epistle, known
locally as” The Monthly Liar” is filled with photographs of our
lady councillor as she flits about the borough like Batman doing good
deeds(sic).
It is filled with
glaring inaccuracies, overstatements and self aggrandising tales of
the ladies deeds of daring do! She uses every local problem as a
photo opportunity, rocks up, has her picture taken, promises to take
action and then……...does nothing.
Irritated beyond
measure I sent an e mail to her office asking them what it cost to
publish this news letter and where the money to pay for it's
publication came from.
I recently crossed
swords with the lady in question and found her hectoring and evasive.
Unable to answer most of my questions she blustered and prevaricated,
but said nothing to the point.
The few comments she
did make turned out, on investigation to be, shall we say,
inaccurate?
Her tactic is to
bully people into agreeing with her, she was most put out to find
that it did not work with me and was obliged to retire worsted from
the field.
I was particularly
angry today as I discovered this morning that a young family of our
acquaintance are being forced to leave the village as their tenancy
of some years standing has been terminated and they have been unable
to find affordable accommodation locally. This sad event is taking
place at a time of year which makes their circumstances even more
poignant.
Their little boy
will have to go to a strange school and the family will lose a much
needed support network of friends and relations and the mother will
lose her part time job, it is tragic.
The contrast
between our smug councillor and this sad little family was, I fear to
much for my temper and I “Let rip” I do not regret a single
word..
By the time
Christmas comes they will have moved from their pretty little cottage
in the village, to a dreary flat in a nearby town and I am not just
angry, I am incandescent.
When the Housing
association sold the land to a local builder they made a good deal of
money, The Local Authority claim that this decision was not their
responsibility, but the decision to build large expensive houses was.
The entire affair has been suspect from start to finish!
As always it is the
little people who suffer when politics goes rogue and even when
everything is above board the amount of red tape makes dealing with
the Local Authority almost impossible, as any attempt to communicate
with them via their web site will prove.
It is time that
Local Authorities in general and council officials in particular were
made to understand that they are the servants of the rate payers, not
their masters!
