Hello again,
I do hope you are all still safe and keeping yourself and your families well during these very trying times.
I write this a little downhearted today as we are heading into another lockdown (in England) and more uncertainty.
I am also more than a little downhearted that things continue to go from really worse to gob-smackingly even more unbelievable in Winsford Town Council and back to the same old nonsense at CWAC.
Where to start then?...is the big question...hmmmm
Maybe the WTC as it's right here on my doorstep and so easy to point out the ridiculous state of affairs when a man called Jeremy comes to power and drags half the North Wests most fervent Marxists along with him.
Ahhh... that Jeremy eh? What a lad, working class, leads from the front, always supportive of his own bosses and so beloved by some that they bring him to Winsford and persuade him (and Labour Voters in 2019) that having far leftie views and often not living in Winsford is enough to get you elected to WTC (and CWAC) so that you can declare "Corbynism is alive and well in Winsford" AFTER Keir gets elected!
Where is he now?...you all ask (well, maybe five of you)...is he in Winsford? At the "Red"? NO???? - That's right - NO, he is probably drinking a camomile after Keir suspends him and he "hopefully" goes quietly into the night. Maybe, just maybe, there is a hope Cllrs, L, E, H, S and C will follow him when he goes as "I only joined because of Jeremy" is a frequent repost from them.
Until then, the reality is that in WTC there isn't an effective opposition to the lefties - as much as I support the independents (I consider each one of them decent, honest people), they need to form a group to get committee places, as our two Lib Dem Cllrs seem to go with the flow locally.
The nastiness of the hard left was on show a couple of weeks back when they publicly berated an ex-councilor, who is now commenting as a RESDIENT , on a community forum, because he dared to ask for more facilities in the town. Their notions of decency were laid all to bare. Most Cllrs I know would never speak to residents in that manner and residents should never accept that behaviour from their elected representatives.
And so it continues as they flex more powers by co-opting their cronies onto committees, stitch up all the committees so that they control them all, move everything controversial into Part B agenda items - where it's out of sight of members of the public (whose money it is that funds the budget and should be able to scrutinise all Cllrs), change the standing orders (buried in 84 pages of text) so that each Cllr can only speak once and then don't declare their interests correctly when communicating to the public or indeed other Cllrs (more to come on that one again sometime).
I will blog separately more gory details over the greedy pig site (bet you can't wait for that stunning installment) as it'll take a few paragraphs and I'm sensing you may be having enough already.....
The tragedy is that while this group continues in its efforts to control everything.....things in Labour controlled CWAC are not much better. The "leader" is busy playing the fiddle while Rome burns (so to speak). the Councils communications team has become her megaphone to the world - inane self promoting videos are now the norm, alongside faux criticism of the government when she isn't consulted over something that she has been calling for during the last 4 - 6 weeks.
I would offer advice to the Labour leader of CWAC - please use your time at the phone waiting for the call from Boris, at least while doing that you can't be messing up the bus lanes in Chester (introduced without consultation and now being asked by residents to rethink it due to the traffic chaos it causes) or delivering wonky cycle lanes in Winsford that appear to have been laid down with by a worker a bit too reliant on cheap "plonk".
I also know that it will be a long time before Boris gives her a call - I am after all still waiting for mine and I at least, voted for him :-)
My other piece of advice for Labour would be - don't be afraid of questions at Council....no need to vote against extending the time so we could get to them...unless of course you are afraid.....yes, afraid of actually upholding democracy and being held to account for your inactions....erm...actions.
That aside though - at least plenty of good honest people are willing to take a stand against Labour in Winsford and Chester. In Winsford, there will be more trials and tribulations ahead as this group drives the reputation of WTC into the ground through their actions - the real shame is that the CWAC monitoring officer is pretty toothless in dealing with poor behaviour from our Parish (and Town) Councils so it's up to you as residents, including myself, to keep all of this in mind at the ballot box.
Until then, keep safe...keep well.
