But no option to change to the Committee system. The change will take place in 2019.
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/OPINION-elected-mayor/story-29245448-detail/story.html
Category Archives: Democracy
Democracy is in the gutter and being kicked while it is down
MPs who represent constituencies on the HS2 route (and many, many others who will be affected) are deemed by the government not to have a “direct and special interest” in the matter.
“HS2 has been accused of “dictator-like arrogance” after demanding that
more than 600 people and groups – including the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, and the Commons Speaker, John Bercow – be banned from objecting to the controversial high-speed rail scheme.
In a document slipped out on election day, the Government has applied to bar residents close to the route, anti-HS2 action groups and even MPs on the line from making parliamentary objections as the legislation to build the route passes through the Lords.
Eight MPs for seats along the proposed route, four of them ministers, are covered by the ban. It also includes a member of the London Assembly, 13 councillors on the route, all the local anti-HS2 action groups along the line, the national umbrella groups Stop HS2 and High Speed Action Alliance, and 607 local residents.
The Department for Transport says they should be denied their normal right to “petition” Parliament because they are “not directly and specifically affected by HS2.”
Individuals are being barred unless they live right on the proposed route. Many living only a few hundred metres away, within sight or earshot of the new line, are not deemed to live close enough to have a direct interest.
Joe Rukin, campaign director for Stop HS2, one of the banned groups, said: “The principle of representation for the common man has been established for 750 years, but in HS2 Ltd we have an organisation so arrogant, dictatorial and so distant to the people whose lives they are devastating that they can overturn one of the oldest fundamental human rights.
“These challenges are being made because HS2 Ltd want to speed up the process, and shut up hundreds of people who have genuine concerns about the feasibility of this badly thought out plan, and the competence of those running it.”
Under the form of parliamentary bill being used to authorise HS2, individuals and groups have the right to submit objections, known as petitions, and be heard in person, if they wish, by a committee of the House of Lords.
A total of 827 petitions have been submitted, many covering objections by more than one person. However, the Government is arguing that 411 of the petitions – some of which include more than one person – should be excluded from consideration by the committee.
They include petitions submitted by seven Tory MPs along the route, four of whom are ministers – Jeremy Wright, the Attorney General and MP for Kenilworth, Nick Hurd, the international development minister and MP for Ruislip, Andrea Leadsom, the energy minister and MP for South Northamptonshire, and the Europe minister, David Lidington, who is MP for Aylesbury.
The Government is also trying to bar the former cabinet ministers Caroline Spelman and Cheryl Gillan, the backbencher Craig Tracey and the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, who is MP for Buckingham.
In its objections to their petitions, the Government claims that simply being the MP for a constituency affected by the route is not enough to demonstrate a “direct and special” interest in it.
Mr Hurd said: “I represent an area where more people are affected by HS2 than any other area, apart from Camden, and it seems ridiculous that I should not be given the chance to represent my constituents. I regret this move and I will be making representations to be allowed to do my job.”
The committee, which is chaired by the former Supreme Court judge Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, has the final say on whether it will hear the petitions or not. During the same procedure when the bill passed through the Commons, the Government applied to bar only a handful of petitions.
HS2 has been hit with a mounting series of problems in recent months. Plans to rebuild the line’s London terminus at Euston have been scrapped on cost grounds and replaced with a partial redevelopment that will take seven years longer than before.
The announcement of HS2’s second phase route north of Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester has been delayed amid a row over the lack of a city-centre station in Sheffield.
Safety experts have warned that the track could break up and trains derail at the very high speeds proposed, the highest of any service in the world using conventional track.
The government spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, which has long been sceptical of HS2’s value for money, is conducting a further review of the project. A Cabinet Office review is also in train.
A Department for Transport spokesman said that some of those it was seeking to bar had already been able to petition Parliament during the Bill’s Commons stages.
“Over 2,300 people and organisations have already been given the opportunity to have their say on the HS2 Bill in the Commons,” he said.
“At this stage of the process, it is within parliamentary rules that only those whose property or interests are directly and specially affected can put their case to the Select Committee.”
A healthy local press?
Remember those business tax cuts that George Osborne offered to the (few) owners of regional press titles (see post a few days ago)?
Not one regional newspaper has covered the Channel 4 news story that Conservative PCC candidate, Alison Hernandez, is embroiled in a police investigation about election expenses and, if elected, could be in a position to sack the person who would be in charge of it.
One of them has, however, covered a story about the UKIP candidate who, if elected, says he would campaign to get rid of the job – whilst collecting a big salary for “doing” it.
It remains to be seen today if the regional TV stations do the same thing.
Hhhmmm.
Osborne promises Business Rate cuts for local newspapers but …
“…. Just five companies control some 70% of regional daily newspaper circulation.
Out of 406 Local Government Areas, 100 (25%) have no daily local newspaper at all while in 143 LGAs (35% of the total) a single title has a 100% monopoly.”
Click to access ElephantintheroomFinalfinal.pdf
Our View from … titles are truly independent but Archant Press (Herald titles) which gets a whopping 80% of EDDC’s £400,000 p a advertising budget has been under investigation by HRMC for £6m in unpaid tax:
“The company’s chairman, Simon Bax, revealed the inquiry into potential tax avoidance by Archant in a letter to shareholders. It centres on a “legal reorganisation” carried out by the Norwich-based group in 2011 when some 40 trading companies were reduced to three.
Bax wrote: “In the event that HMRC were to prove that the company had a tax avoidance motive in putting this structure in place… there could be adverse cash outflow of up to £6m. …
… Archant has been locked into a dispute with HMRC since December 2012 over unpaid taxes, which led the company to suspend its dividend payments.
But the tax headache was only one of the “critical matters” in the 2014 company accounts mentioned by Bax in his letter dated 18 March.
He also referred to “a large adverse tax movement of £24m in the company’s pension scheme deficit” due to “volatility” in the gilts market.
It means that Archant’s net assets have been reduced to levels that could lead, according to Bax’s letter, to a revision of the company’s credit rating.
Furthermore, it could lead to the company being required to pay additional pension protection fund (PPF) fees. It is already slated to pay a £700,000 increase in the levy and Bax revealed that the company has instituted a review of its pension strategy. … ”.
http://gu.com/p/47v3v
Oh, and those same newspapers have asked the government to get the BBC to pay £14 m for 364 extra regional journalists because they say the BBC has an unfair advantage in local newx and should be made to pay for the “democratic deficit” they say that engenders.
The person charged with this decision is John Whittingdale:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-whittingdale-faces-fresh-questions-7826908
Not the First Time Whittingdale Has Enjoyed the “Perks of the Job” a Little Too Much!
Doesn’t look quite like the “preserve the freedom of the press” policy it started off as, does it?
Buying off criticism and oiling wheels, perhaps?
Thank your lucky stars for rebellious bloggers who wear their political hearts on their sleeves and answer only to their consciences …
Government opposes requirement for sustainable drainage
” … With the government promising hundreds of thousands of new houses in the next few years, this problem [surface water flooding] is likely to accelerate. At present, housing developers are able to connect new homes to existing sewage and water networks without having to upgrade them, which puts new houses and nearby existing ones at the threat of overload and flooding, and the unpleasant effects that come from sewage outflows.
An amendment to the housing and planning bill, to be discussed in the Lords on Monday, would remove this right and require builders to use “sustainable drainage systems”, which can include incorporating vegetation and other features to allow water to be naturally absorbed.
The government opposes the amendment, but a cross-party group of peers may muster enough votes from rebel Tories to defeat ministers.”
Another voice on the unreliability of party politics
“… Our electoral system reliably herds voters through the old party gates at general election time, regardless of where we graze mid-term. Traditional allegiances have proved resilient enough in the past that the safe bet is on their endurance. We probably won’t get a grand political realignment out of this referendum, but we might learn how much we need one.”
Remind you of anything?
Should anyone find this disgraceful and wish to draw it to the attention of the council’s MP, then write to George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in whose constituency this is taking place.
Perhaps he and Hugo Swire could have a little chat about their experiences.
“Councillor Sam Gardener, who was initially the Conservative-run [Cheshire East] council’s deputy cabinet member for finance and assets, resigned after revelations that he failed to disclose that he was barred from being a company director when CEC gave him responsibility for the local authority’s finances in May 2015.
The ban relates to charity donations that failed to reach the intended charity but were transferred into the account of a company in which Mr Gardener was a director. That company subsequently went into liquidation owing creditors £440,000.
You might think it prudent for any prospective cabinet member, let alone one involved in finance, to be closely vetted for any fiscal irregularities but apparently Cheshire East did not.
“I was not obliged under Council rules to disclose the matter of my disqualification as a company director when interviewed for my Cabinet position and the disqualification is in no way incompatible with my duties as a portfolio holder,” said Councillor Gardener.
Mmm… let me consider that for a moment: disqualification from being a company director for financial irregularities is ‘in no way incompatible with my duties as a portfolio holder.’
Councillor Gardener may have had some difficulty selling that to taxpayers (had they known).
So how did CEC react on discovering his disbarment?
“The Council and the residents of Cheshire East have lost the services of a highly talented, sensitive and dynamic young man who has chosen to step down,” said Council Leader Rachel Bailey.
It sounds somewhat reminiscent of the statement made by managing director of the CEC loss-making CoSocius who claimed the company ‘made progress in a number of areas and contributed to the success of other areas.’
(What he didn’t say was that his company somehow managed to lose £800K of taxpayers’ cash in only eleven months trading and notch up a pension deficit of £8.5M.)
Only in Cheshire East could the resignation of a cabinet member disqualified from being a company director for financial irregularities be described as a ‘highly talented, sensitive and dynamic young man.’
Clearly Councillor Bailey was not one of those creditors left with debts of £440K who I suspect would have an altogether different opinion.
I really don’t know what point of reference the CEC leadership uses for evaluating its performance. Undeterred by its mammoth losses at CoSocius they launch two new identical trading companies and describe a disbarred company director as a ‘dynamic young man.’
Residents financing this political circus may use another vocabulary.”
Parish councils don’t need the right to appeal planning decisions says government
“The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Give parish councils the right to appeal planning decisions.”.
Government responded:
The Government places great importance on community involvement in the planning system. Parish councils have statutory rights to contribute their views in the planning process.
The planning system is centred on community involvement. Communities, including parish councils and individual members of the public, have statutory rights to become involved in the preparation of the Local Plan for their area, through which they can influence development in their area. The local community can also come together to produce a neighbourhood plan, which sets out how the community want to see their own neighbourhood develop. Neighbourhood plans are often initiated by parish councils. Local and neighbourhood plans form the basis for decisions on planning applications.
In addition to input on local plans and neighbourhood plans, which set out the local development strategy, communities are also able to make representations on individual planning applications. Interested parties can raise all the issues that concern them during the planning process, in the knowledge that the decision maker will take their views into account, along with other material considerations, in reaching a decision.
The right of appeal following the refusal of an application is an important part of a planning system which controls the ability of an individual to carry out their development proposals. The existing right of appeal recognises that, in practice, the planning system acts as a control on how an individual may use their land. As a result, the Government believes it is right that an applicant has the option of an impartial appeal against the refusal of planning permission. This existing right of appeal compensates for the removal of the individual’s right to develop.
However, the Government does not believe that a right of appeal against the grant of planning permission for communities, including parish councils, is necessary. The Government considers that communities already have opportunity to guide and inform local planning issues via Local Plans and Neighbourhood Plans, and it would be wrong for them to be able to delay a development at the last minute, through a community right of appeal, when any issues they would raise at that point could have been raised and should have been considered during the earlier planning application process. The Government does not think that the planning system would benefit from the grant of a community right of appeal which would lead to added delay, uncertainty and cost for all those involved.
Department for Communities and Local Government
Click this link to view the response online:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/110489?reveal_response=yes
Monday 18 April 2016 – last day to register to vote in local voting and EU referendum
Use this service to apply to register to vote or to:
update your name, address or other details on the electoral register
change your voting preferences, eg to vote in person or by post
change whether you’re on the open register
It usually takes about 5 minutes.
You may need the following, if you have them:
your National Insurance number
your passport if you’re a British citizen living abroad
You need to be on the electoral register to vote in elections and referendums.
“Conservative MP likens proposed East Anglian mayor to Nazi official”
“A Conservative MP has likened a proposed directly elected mayor for Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to a “Gauleiter”, a regional Nazi party leader in 1930s Germany.
Sir Henry Bellingham, MP for North-West Norfolk, made clear his opposition to the plan, which is designed to devolve greater power to the regions.
“What we don’t need is a really expensive, costly elected mayor with a fourth tier of local government,” he told local TV.
His comments were criticised by Conservative councillor John Fuller, the leader of South Norfolk Council, who claimed it was “wrong” to compare East Anglian devolution with Germany under Nazi rule” …
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/east-anglia-mayor-to-nazi-official-a6985661.html
How to become a “high achiever” the Alan Duncan MP way
“The fees office began insisting that MPs provide documentation to prove that they have a mortgage only in 2003. In the last six years, Mr Duncan has claimed £127,658 under the second home allowance – £126 short of the maximum. Mr Duncan is rich thanks to his career as an oil trader before his election as an MP.
He worked with Marc Rich, the disgraced commodities trader, and has maintained his connections with the energy industry. He declares that he still owns Harcourt Consultants, which advises on oil and gas matters. Last year, it emerged that Mr Duncan’s private office was being funded by donations from Ian Taylor, the chairman of Vitol, a controversial oil company. Mr Duncan was shadow business secretary with responsibility for energy policy at the time. He later declared the funding in the register of MPs’ interests.
In the 1990s, Vitol paid $1 million to Arkan, the Serbian war criminal, to act as a “fixer” on a deal in Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbia that had collapsed. In 2007, the company was fined over the oil-for-food scandal. Vitol pleaded guilty to larceny in a New York court and paid $13million to the Iraqi people in restitution.
Mr Duncan’s main home in Westminster has also attracted controversy in the past.
Mr Duncan bought his first house on the street in 1986 and lent it to John Major as the base for his leadership campaign. In 1992, Mr Duncan was elected and was soon made a minister under John Major.Within weeks it emerged that he had lent his elderly next door neighbour money so that he could buy his home under the right-to-buy legislation.
The neighbour bought the 18th century council house at a significant discount and sold it to Mr Duncan just over three years later. In the ensuing furore, Mr Duncan resigned from his ministerial position.
He then combined the two properties into one. Mr Duncan said yesterday: “It was me who raised the issue of gardening costs with the fees office. “Although it was a legitimate claim, we agreed that it might be seen as too large a single item and therefore I did not claim it.”
New book lifts lid on what it is like to be a council officer
“Local government worker ROB TAPE decided to write a book based on the experiences of his council work career. He called it Sorry, It’s Not My Department. …
… Response to the book to date has been mixed. The public seem to actually quite like it and are positive about the messages it contains. On the other hand, councillors and council managers seem to be somewhat quieter. For example after sending information to more than 10,000 councillors across the country, most – including all 70 of Croydon’s councillors – have ignored my correspondence entirely.
That being said the number of independent and smaller party councillors who have been in touch has been impressively high in comparison to those from the main two parties. Read into that what you will.
But given that it is the public who deserve a clearer picture about council management, it is the public that I want to read the book.”
https://insidecroydon.com/2016/04/12/whistleblowers-book-ignored-by-all-croydons-councillors/
Tory MPs worry that revealing their tax affairs might cause problems for their divorces!
“MPs do not want to publish their tax returns because it could cause problems for those going through a divorce or with a complicated family life, the Telegraph understands.
Senior Conservatives have warned that making politicians publish their tax returns could put some off standing for parliament and force others to quit because of the impact on their personal relationships.
One senior backbench MP told the Telegraph: “You would have to look at some of the implications for family life and I’m thinking of people with step-families or people who might have been involved in complex divorces.
There are lots of things which might become apparent from someones’ tax return which makes it easy to see why people might not want to have that in the public domain.”
A second MP, Mark Garnier, claimed forcing MPs to disclose what they earn and pay in tax could ultimately force other family members to publish their income to avoid money being shifted between partners.
He said: “There are a number of issues; what are you trying to achieve out of publishing tax records that you’re not already achieving through the register of members’ interests?
“If you do want more clarity you’re going to have to look at the family’s tax returns.
“You may well have an MP who basically shovels everything that they want to hide into their partner’s name in order to avoid having to disclose it on their own return, so you then have to ask does it apply to their family too?”
During divorce proceedings where financial remedies are requested by either party partners must provide information about their income and shareholdings.
But some MPs are concerned that final settlements made as a result, how much they pay to former partners and their total income could be disclosed and used against them if forced to reveal their income and tax affairs.”
Ex-Leader and Tory MP William Hague tells us how we should deal with the Panama papers
“To extend transparency in careful stages”
Evening Standard, Quote of the Day
Careful for whom? So careful that nothing changes, perhaps, Mr Hague?
Bet your tax returns are interesting …
Another new political movement – this time in the USA
HUNDREDS FLOCK TO US CAPITOL TO PROTEST MONEY IN POLITIC
“Hundreds of protesters flocked to the U.S. Capitol Monday for a demonstration against the role of money in politics, prompting mass arrests by the Capitol police force.
The peaceful demonstration is part of a series of protests in Washington this week by a coalition of groups and is called “Democracy Spring.”
The demonstrators chanted slogans like “one person, one vote” and “money out of politics” as they sat on the East Front of the Capitol.
Many of the protestors marched from Philadelphia to Washington over the past week. One sign read “Things go better without Koch,” a reference to the billionaire businessmen David and Charles Koch, who have promised to lead an almost $900 million campaign to back favored candidates this election cycle.
The demonstrators also protested state voter ID laws, saying they suppress voter participation. Another chant protested about Democratic “super delegates” — party figures such as members of Congress who are given votes at the Democratic National Convention but are not elected by primary elections or at party caucuses.
Police led dozens of protesters away in plastic handcuffs into a bus and shuttle vans, prompting cheers from the two groups of protestors, which were separated by a large police response.
Source: Associated Press
“Devon New Economy Gathering”
More signs of discontent – this time very local
“WHEN
Saturday, 16 April 2016 from 10:00 to 17:00
WHERE
Exeter Community Centre – 17 St Davids Hill, Exeter EX4 3RG
(Beside Iron Bridge)
Devon New Economy Gathering
organised by Exeter Pound and Exeter Transition
Tickets: £20 / £10 / £5 . Please select tickets according to what you can afford. £10 and £5 tickets are intended primarily for students and claimants.
A day to link organisers, activists, practitioners, and others working for economic change, and to hear about local and regional initiatives.
Join us in making the big shift happen!
There are exciting community-led economic solutions to austerity emerging across the region, as well as effective strategies, innovative projects and energetic collaborators. This is a chance to find out who (else) is working on a new local economy one that is more inclusive, democratically accountable, ecological and creates more wellbeing.
Find collaborators – How can we make it happen (more)?
Share visions for the wider economy to see how our local work fits in, and ways we can work together locally to move forward change in the big picture
Keynote session: launched By Stewart Wallis, Senior Adviser at New Economics Foundation
‘A new economy and how to make it happen’
Topics for discussion could include:
What needs to grow and what doesn’t? Well being and better indicators
Relocalizing money and finance – local currencies and financial institutions
Food for all – affordable and local?
Positive Money, a Green New Deal, banking reform
Fostering local enterprises – Local Enterprise Forum
Management of land for greater equality
Engines of inequality and how to interrupt them
Social enterprises – why are they different; starting them and teaching about them
If not austerity what? What to do about the national debt
Potential of the Devolution agenda
Fossil free Devon – Disinvestment from fossil fuels
To pay in Exeter Pounds or Exe’s, or to request a free ticket, please contact the organiser by email or tel 01647 24789/01392 348105
A childrens workshop will be available for the morning only: Please contact the organizer to enquire or book (by 8th April please)”
There are some things the French do with more flair than us!
“French police started to evacuate the Place de la Republique in Paris on Monday morning (11 April) after a protest movement that started there extended to more than 60 towns and cities over the weekend.
But the move is unlikely to stop the protest movement.
The so-called Nuit Debout movement, which can be translated as “stand up at night”, began on 31 March as protest against a labour market reform presented by the left-wing government.
The El Khomri law, named after the labour minister Myriam El Khomri, mainly makes it easier and less costly for employers to lay off staff, and requires workers to be more flexible on working hours.
Inspired by the 2011 Indignados movement in Spain, the Nuit Debout is a makeshift camp where people talk about the reform, but also about politics in general in committees and a “popular assembly”.
Music is played, artistic happenings are created and a library has been set up. The Nuit Debout has its own website and media – Radio Debout and TV Debout – and even its own calendar. Today is 42 March. …
… Several politicians asked the government to stop the movement. Former centre-right prime minister Francois Fillon said he was “shocked” that the movement was “tolerated” under the state of emergency imposed after the November attacks.
Last week the centre-left mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, objected to the movement’s “privatisation” of the public area.
Criticism from politicians from the left and right is a reflection of the Nuit Debout’s opposition to the political parties as a whole.
“Politics is not something for professionals, it is for everybody,” the movement’s manifesto says.
“The human should be at the core of our leaders’ preoccupations. Vested interests have overridden the general interest.”
Nuit Debout has no leader and has been wary of support from any politicians. Instead, it has been wooing trade unions.
However, although the unions are broadly critical proposed labour market reform, they do not seem to be interested in a wider movement that they would have difficulty managing.”…
“Developer tries to stop ‘anti-housing’ councillor from voting
Story in today’s Times, page 29:
Babergh Council, Suffolk. Developers Knight Developers threatened to take legal action as the accused a councillor of being “ideologically opposed to greenfield/greenbelt development” and having an “ideologic hostility to developers and the planning system as a whole”.
Amongst other things, the councillor was said to have made a Twitter comment saying “Write to your MP to stop the bulldozer and the concrete mixer shattering our country life”.
He is also alleged to have said “Wake up everyone. Did you know that local government financing is now predicated on a bribe to build more new homes threatening our village life”.
The developer said that he should be stopped from voting as he was “incapable of considering the proposals objectively”.
The councillor said “It shows that developers will take any step they can … to interfere with democracy”. … It is my prerogative and duty to comment on policy. I have been consistently against the New Homes Bonus which totally distorts planning procedures and is going to be another poll tax for the Conservatives in the countryside.”
The council ignored the threat and the councillor voted, though the application was eventually approved. Villagers are considering a judicial review.
Next scrutiny committee agenda published – rural broadband down the pan
Really worth a full read but here are some highlights:
Broadband (or lack of):
“I regret that our application was unsuccessful as you will see from the two letters that are appended to this update.” (Twiss quote)
The exchange of correspondence between EDDC and the grant funders who turned down the application is VERY enlightening and should be a major embarrassment to lead councillor Phil Twiss.
Having pulled out of the Devon-wide consortium that has just been granted extra funding we are – precisely nowhere, in fact worse than that, much further back with rural broadband provision than ever before.
Public engagement (or lack of):
A risible attempt to produce a (very brief) report that pretends that EDDC consults appropriately and widely – but listing examples where the public has the exact opposite opinion!
Website (or lack of)
Boasting that more and more forms are going online and how wonderful the industry insiders think it is (so it’s a pity you can rarely find what you are looking for as an outsider and with many documents missing. But how you can get gold stars from your colleagues when your search function is described only as “fairly good” beats Owl!
and the committee’s draft report for the council’s own annual report all up for scrutiny.
Stop complaining, residents of a Dorset town are told!
Residents in a Dorset town have been told to stop writing to their council about its decision to reduce a speed limit – because the complaints are ‘stressing out staff’.
Ferndown Town Council, Dorset, received an influx of letters and emails after residents in the neighbouring parish of Longham felt their views had been ignored about plans to reduce the limit on a stretch of main road which runs between the two communities.
In response, the council’s traffic working party chairman Cathy Lugg, wrote to residents to explain the decision but also asked them to stop writing to the town council and instead write to her directly as the volume of letters was ‘causing extra stress for staff’.
But the response left some residents feeling even more exasperated. Mandy Willis, from Longham, said: ‘It’s just ridiculous – our council tax rates are going up and yet as residents we are being told to stop hassling the council because the staff are stressed.
‘Surely the job of the town council is to communicate with residents who are there to hold them to account for its decisions.
‘If we can’t write to the town council where are we supposed to turn to get issues in the town sorted?’
In her letter to residents Councillor Lugg wrote: ‘The town council is working on a skeleton staff due to sickness and holiday at present and the large number of emails has caused extra stress for the staff.
‘If you wish to respond further, may I request that you contact me directly through the town council website.’
The town council employs six members of office staff – a town clerk, an assistant clerk, a part-time finance officer, an administration officer and two customer services assistants.
It is one of the largest Town Councils in Dorset and includes the main community of Ferndown, plus the distinct communities at Longham, Hampreston, Stapehill West and Tricketts Cross.
Residents were encouraged to write to the town council by East Dorset District councillor George Russell, asking it to resubmit the request to Dorset County Council to lower the speed limit along a further stretch of Ringwood Road through the village.
Councillor Russell even provided advice on how to make sure the letters had the ‘desired impact’, informing residents that ‘the town council is obliged to acknowledge your letter’.
East Devon Watch 