STUFF
THE PEOPLE
February 1st 2002
Martin Clarke
EastLeigh House
118 East Street
Sittingbourne
Kent
ME10 4RX
Dear Editor
It is not often that I agree with you but your editorial in this weeks Gazette was spot on. I was only a councillor for a few years 1992/94 I became one because I had a genuine interest in the community and I thought I could do the best job as a Conservative councillor. In most cases those councillors from other parties thought the same, the only difference being that we had a different philosophical approach to getting the job done. There is common misconception that people only enter politics to feather there own nest that may not be the case with EU but being a local councillor used to cost you money and a lot of time. No councillor went into the job for the wages I can assure you.
Council and Government used to be a slow moving machine, this is a must if the democratic process is to survive and we get best value for money. When I was on the council we used the old system of committees who then reported back to Full Council meeting, this allowed all the councillors to have a say and represent the views of their constituents, this was democracy at work, it also had a happy council work force something they have not got now. If your councillor was to your choosing you voted him of, which could affect the way council operated. Not so today you have one person who has a specific portfolio (i.e. responsible for a certain department) they can come up with a decision and if agreed by the rest of the 7 person Executive Committee the decision stands, yes there is the odd occasions when these matters have to go before full Council but very rarely. The hands of your council and all its money are basically in the hands of 7 people yet there is I believe 40 councillors for Swale, 33 of them are an irrelevance. This also can lead to abuse of the system (not that I am saying it is) as the Executive is not answerable to the Members. Most of the position on the EC I would suggest are those councillors who have safe seats so we cannot even vote them off.
Tony Blair and his New Labour cronies have ordered this system on us according to the editor’s comments, as they want a better class of person. This I presume means more so called experts, yet look at the mess they are making of the Health services, Roads, Railways, Asylum, Education, Law & Order, the Dome I could go on, and do not blame the Tories this mob have had 5 years making so called changes all of them have been bad ones. The old style of council relied on their Officers (Council employees) who were the experts in specific fields giving the councillors detailed advice, they in turn would make a decision, democracy in action.
This government has totally disregard for Parliament and they want the Councils to be run the same way, we no longer have democratic government, we now have corporate government, government run by a board of directors. STUFF THE PEOPLE
Martin Clarke