IS there really nothing you can do about Cllr Ian Barker and his neverending supply of propaganda swelling your columns?
I'm sure your readers are depressed enough as it is following years of Labour's mishandling of the local economy without having to face the nauseating prospect of the group's financial guru throwing in his ten cents every now and then just to let us know that the Labour corpse, while on a life-support machine, is still not clinically dead.
His latest attack on the Conservatives and Independents is flimsy even by his own poor standards. Nobody can deny the rate of Council Tax increase in this area but what can be denied is Cllr Barker's interpretations of who is responsible? His timing too appears deliberate - I have noticed whenever Barker, or any member of the Labour group for that matter, come under the cosh, they attempt to divert public attention away from the subject. Just recently we had a number of letters asking for information from Hilton Dawson, asking when he was told by Henig and Barker about the side-letter not being signed - as far as I can read he has not answered the question. He just bangs on endlessly about any positive story which gets his grinning mug into the Press. Cllr Barker too has offered us nothing on this, why not? Don't tell me they can't be bothered to contact the Press, because they're never out of the papers, when it suits them. Just the other week we had Cllrs Barker and Yates calling for my resignation - I said I'd be happy to resign... after they did. For their group has cost the rate-payers of this area more money than can be imagined, yet despite this, they still carry on - dismissive of public concern, deliberately misinterpreting the facts and always trying to divert attention from the real issues. Have any of them answered these questions? No they haven't.
After only a year in office we have uncovered a frightening catalogue of financial incompetence, but for the loudmouth Barker and his cronies there's always some excuse, no matter how lame.
We got outsmarted by Edmonds' sharp lawyers over Blobby, we were the victims of an aggressive contractor on Salt Ayre, we 'lost' documents during the Civic Illuminations legal fight. We were, no doubt, picked on by the chairman at the employment tribunal for David Christley and now, it appears from what I am told, we may have to pick up the tab for another mouthy member of the Labour-group, Stanley Henig.
So determined was he to justify his group's weak position over Christley that he risked your money and mine by issuing statements that could cost thousands.
Let's not forget too, that we were landed with a bill for six-figures when the Labour group oversaw the departure of former chief executive, John Burrows, who lasted just 18 months. If Mr Burrows wasn't up to the job then why was he taken on and why was he paid a single penny? I assume of course, that he was up to the job, otherwise we would have been told - so what was it exactly that Labour didn't like about him? Maybe he showed genuine concern over the handling of the public purse and that just wouldn't suit our colleagues in the Labour group would it? They are not sorry for any of the above and insult current councillors and the public with their transparent attempts at political point-scoring. The MBIs are at least trying to do something about the constant flood of money that has disappeared from the council coffers over the years. These losses were usually through incompetence and overseen by a Labour group determined to keep the public ignorant of how poorly they were handling the authority's precious cash.
I am not pretending that the MBIs have all the answers but we are trying, along with other groups, to address these inherited problems. The likes of Cllr Barker, his Labour cronies (whipped into compliance?) and of course let's not forget Labour's very own Liberal Democrat assistant, Cllr Pat Quinton, who just make the problems currently faced by this authority, doubly difficult.
They may argue that the likes of me don't know the ropes fully and that they've been on the council for years etc. Well they're right in both cases, but look at the mess we're in following their years in power and I'd like to think that if I'd been responsible (even partly) for the dire financial state we find ourselves in, I would have done the decent thing by now. Too much to expect from the Labour group though.
We will have no answers to the above from these people because that's just the way they are. At least the public can see what expensive mistakes they have made and they paid the price for that. They will continue to pay the price as the public realises that the only thing that comes cheap with the Labour group, are snide remarks made by gutless councillors with no conscience.
Cllr Nick Westwell
Harbour Ward
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