It's a vocation not a vacation!

This office has been buzzing with letters and calls from many people who are appalled with the state of affairs at the town hall. No nutters just genuine folk with real concerns. For the most part people seem to think there's a lot of secret dealings going on... people have got the impression that the council looks after itself and not the people it represents. This may or may not be true but it is not good if people think that it is. Maybe as a paper we are partially responsible for this negative impression but we have only reported facts and the facts speak for themselves. Mr Henig and his allies have never been backwards at coming forwards and yet we have had no direct response from them to the stories we have carried - apart from one limp effort from Cllr Ian Barker in a vain attempt to camouflage the cost of losing the town clerk - you would think that, given the pounding they are getting at the moment they would at least stand up for themselves.

I know why they are not...

They are hoping it will blow over... they are thinking it's just paper talk... just the Citizen and they'll leave us alone soon then we can get back down to business.

Let me assure you Mr Henig that will not happen!

As long as certain other papers don't even go to meetings where allowances are debated (let alone report them) we shall be the public's guardian.

Last week I attended the meeting where allowances were discussed and was horrified. Apart from one or two notable exceptions (Cllr Geoff Wilson and Cllr Trevor Tattersall) who were prepared to voice dissent it was sorry state of affairs. Mr Henig declined to speak on the allowance issue "in order to avoid any embarrassment". Where's the embarrassment Mr Henig? If the 635 per cent increase is justified you should be leading from the front. If you deserve so much more than most of our neighbouring councils then feel free to explain why with gusto! The tory leader of the opposition (Cllr Geoff Hannah) ought to be ashamed at his performance... he described the £5,000 as a "chicken feed" and actually called for more cash for the Labour leader to run the council's complex fiscal policy... funny I thought the expert work was left to the officers - that's what they're paid for isn't it?

And speaking of officers I have never seen such involvement from officers at a meeting than I did at Lancaster - practically running the show and not waiting in the wings until called on to illuminate murky issues as they've done at every other council meeting I've ever witnessed.

Just for the record no councillor should be out of pocket through phone bills etc but every councillor gets a members' allowance (Lancaster's recommendation is currently £700 per member) and nearly £25 for every meeting they go to - so for the most part legitimate expenses will be covered. For those more involved then extra work should be recognised but to the tune of £100 a week? It is a vocation not a profession and most councillors get involved because they want to change things for the better and to be honest for most of 'em it's a bit of a thankless task for which they should be better supported by the public - somehow I can't see the public supporting this mob for the way its behaved recently! Smoking gun Surprise surprise New Labour - old scapegoats. Smokers get slammed again in the budget... why? Burden on the NHS perhaps? Well aren't fatties too? (prone to heart attacks). So why don't they put up the price of sticky buns and lard? For years the Government has claimed that nicotine is addictive... so we're addicts for pity's sake - these days I thought that qualified you for help in the form of extra government cash and schemes not punitive price increases!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.