TO me, it seems that the art of communication is lost on most councillors who cross my path.

Just two weeks ago, in this very column, I protested about the dreadful state of Peel Street.

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather when I saw that the county council had started re-surfacing the road. I puffed my chest out with pride and exclaimed “it’s the power of the press. If you want something doing in Rossendale, ask an LT columnist.”

Then the phone rang. An indignant county councillor, my good pal Tony Winder, ripped into me. Apparently, he has been working on getting the street re-surfaced for 18 months.

A tad crestfallen I said I would let him take the credit this time, especially as he is a very hard-working chap.

However, as I keep telling him, it is no good beavering away quietly, you have to let the people know what you are doing, or at election time you face the order of the boot.

I’m sure that you know by now that I am not a fan of party politics at a local level. I have an especially-large grievance with those councillors who like to play at ‘mini-Westminsters’ while picking up reasonably decent expenses.

I have had reason this week to have an exchange of e-mails with a Labour councillor that literally had my jaw dropping with incredulity.

I have a love of words, and often like to find a way to work them into a column. Well this particular councillor, if typical of their group, gives me the opportunity to use one that I have been dying to try out.

Holophusikon, the crude definition of which is ‘a collection of curiosities’.

I know I’m pushing it a little, but what a great word. I wish I could say the same for this councillor’s e-mails.

As they say e-mails make the brave foolish and the foolish brave, this councillor falls into the latter.

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