If you have read the East Anglian today or the Bury Free Press last week you will have seen two stories that spell trouble for Bury St Edmunds and local democracy.
The first was:
http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/news/Town-council-is-all-but.5018976.jp
not really news worthy, the town council has been dead for years. But its interesting that there is some Conservative infighting.
The resigning Conservative Councillor is quoted as saying "It's purely lack of leadership and direction” interesting considering the leader is also a Conservative.
The second was:
as always David Nettleton managed to grab the headlines with a colourful quote. But I was appalled that the majority group would just go ahead and make such a decision, without even a debate on the issue, even if they have had the debate before.
Yes Bury Blogger. Isn't it easy to get a colourful headline when you have no responsibility to do anything and place stories 'knocking' those who do?
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you read the story itself it becomes clear that disposal of the Borough Offices had already been decided many months ago and was well known about to him and others. Only the price fetched was new to councillors, and such a negotiation can hardly be the stuff of a public meeting!
As for the Town Council BFP news, it wasn't all bad. Further information on my own website @ www.PaulFarmer.com which the aforementioned normally loquacious cllr boycots, for reasons best known to himself.
"As for the Town Council BFP news, it wasn't all bad." i diagree, i think its terible news, it says that the councillors themselves think the council is a waste of space not just the public.
ReplyDeletePaul didn't you resign from the Town council yourself in 2006? for similar reasons to councillor Turner, and the Town Council is doing less than it did then.
For the record, this was the statement I made, faithfully reproduced here in the BFP, in July 2005:
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, Paul Farmer, who represents Abbeygate ward, announced he was going for political reasons.
In a statement, he said: "Over recent months, my personal view has increasingly been that the council is trying to do and spend too much.
I now feel it has come to the point where I can no longer share responsibility for developments which I do not support and, therefore, I reluctantly feel it is only right
for me to resign."
From then until my re-election last March I made no further public comment on the Council.
Paul Farmer ran away from the fight with those who deluded themselves into thinking that the town council was fit to run Bury. His timing was impressive, though, 'piggybacking' on the resignations the same week of Frank Warby, Terry Buckle and Pat Warby - Wilson, Keppel & Betty - who went for an entirely different reason. However, the issue over which Paul chose to take his ball home was the sponsored swim bus transporting Bury children to Haverhill following the Leisure Centre fire. As the swim bus was one the few successes in the early days of the town council it seemed a strange decision at the time.
ReplyDeleteBorough Councillors - and anyone else who takes an interest in local politics - was aware that the Borough Offices was for sale. What we were not told until two-and-a half before the Council meeting on 24 February 2009 was that the building had been sold and to who and for how much. As the statement said that contracts were exchanged in January, my question is: why didn't a borough official inform all the Members of the Council straightaway?
Paul's wrong to say that I'm boycotting his website. First, Paul, there are two 't's' in boycott not one - it's bad spelling is that. Second, I made a New Year's resolution for 2008 not to bother with time-wasters like Paul. He calls me 'loquacious'. I had to look it up; it means 'talkative'. That's rich coming from Paul Farmer; he's got more 'gob' than me!
I was told earlier today that Tory HQ at Woolpit are furious with Paul for publicly criticising fellow Tory Chris Turner on his blog. If he's not careful he might get kicked out this particular gentleman's club. Tory councillors like me better than Paul - and they don't like me at all.
Good to know David will still rise to the bait, even if his contribution continues to be full of fantasy. Why does he hide behind anonymous people from whom he has "heard" something, and equally anonymous councillors who "hate" me more than him?
ReplyDeleteDavid’s 2008 resolution extended to completely ignoring me whenever we met; happily that has stopped and we're back to being friendly adversaries. He even laughed at my recent suggestion that I could join with the LibDems or Labour to form the Former Firm Adversaries Get Together borough council group, or FFAGT. (I have still found no one who knows what the first L in LLINK means.)
If what he has "heard" is true then several of us (see BFP letters), will be "kicked out the party" (ouch...syntax David!) so maybe it's not so much of a joke after all?
And by the way isn't it "borough councillors WERE aware"? It's bad grammar is that, rather like saying the borough offices WAS for sale - tut, tut David.
i hope no councillor would "hate" another councillor, i am happy for councillors to dislike or disagree with each other. In fact i wish more would disagree....but "hate" seems very strong.
ReplyDeleteCorrection. I was wrong to use the word "hate"; I should have written "dislike". My apologies.
ReplyDeleteOne of Paul Farmer's tactical ploys is to divert attention away from the uncomfortable truth by 'marking' someone else's essay. To some extent that's the school teacher in him but he has been 'retired' for an inexplicably long time so he should be over it by now. He also bears imagined grudges. I must have once waiked passed him in the street without saying hello and that has been chalked up as a snub. Strange.
ReplyDeleteHow do six people write a letter? Did they meet and contribute a sentence each like a literary version of pass the parcel or did one of them write it and send it to the other five for approval? I suspect the latter. Given it's dullness and deliberate inaccuracies the authorship is obvious.
I'm more interested in who hasn't signed the BFP letter and what the town council hasn't done. Apart from Stefan Oliver, who stood as an Independent, the other five are Conservative. But so is Richard Rout and James Dinsdale but they haven't signed. Why? As the letter is an attack on a fellow Tory politican I suspect they are both too smart to be associated with yet another Farmer own goal.
While establishing links with various local groups, cutting administrative costs and attending hundreds of boring meetings are admirable in their own way, where is the campaign to widen Market Thoroughfare to five metres as promised by both the developer and the borough council, where is the statement opposing the hike in market stall rents and car parking charges 'in view of difficult economic situation' - the one word 'recession' would have done there, Paul - and where is the support for a long overdue permanent park and ride scheme?
The answer is 'nowhere' which leads me to the same conclusion as Chris Turner that the town council is stagnant, unproductive and all but dead. RIP.
I too noticed that certain members of the Town Council did not sign the letter. It is clear that there is a massive party political split on the issue of whether the Town Council should exist.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of any letter to the Bury Free Press, the first I knew of such a letter was when i saw it in the newspaper on Friday afternoon.
ReplyDeleteAlso David, what were you doing up at 5.48am reading blogs, surly you have better things to do at that time of day? like sleep?
James Dinsdale
I get up at 5 every morning. Old timers need less sleep than young whippersnappers like James Dinsdale.
ReplyDeleteThe main point here is that James wasn't asked to sign the letter. Apparently, he has missed a few meetings and this has annoyed his Tory chums. The next meeting is this Wednesday at 7. Will James be there? I hope so - for his sake.
Looks like unless it supports one particular borough councillor's agenda the town council must be doing everything wrong.
ReplyDeletenot sure what you mean Anon? please explain?
ReplyDelete