"Most Councillors, of whatever political colour, are honest hard-working people who receive a very modest stipend for the hours they put in."
I am not tarring everyone with the same brush - but speaking from (very) bitter experience we here have been systematically ignored, fobbed off, given the runaround and lied to. The Freedom of Information Act is a very handy tool that can shine a light in some murky corners as we know. Worse than all that not content with the biggest cock-up imaginable these morons haven't even got the nous to try and put things right, preferring instead to tough it out and bluff with the support of the Leader of the council. I also have been told that they no longer feel they need to attend their local ward meetings to let their party colleagues know what they are doing and be held accountable. Seems they got selected, got elected and are now so arrogant they don't have to answer to anyone. I don't know the last time you tried contacting a councillor, but given all the modern technology at their fingertips, they are mostly pretty unable or unwilling to use it to reply, and several times my contact has resulted in an officer replying. If I'd been able to get some sense out of the officers I wouldn't have needed to go to a councillor in the first place! They are abdicating their responsibility to the community, and we are mightily brassed off. Our councillors in the two wards around here are more concerned with bloody horses and going around just depriving local areas of their precious green open spaces without any attempt at speaking to local people, they are an utter disgrace to local government and to the party they represent. |