I am totally stunned by the behaviour of the Mayor, Phil Lister, the majority of the councillors on the Ulverston Town Council and by the chairman of the Ulverston Community Partnership, Paul Jarvis.
The councillors vented their anger on me for something I had nothing to do with.
One councillor that stands out from the rest is Colin Williams who took the trouble to find out the background to their anger so that he understood what was happening. The rest were eager to jump to the wrong conclusions.
The mood in the council chamber was close to a Lynch Mob ruled by irrational high emotions. "Let's get Geoff Dellow" was the order of the day.
Colin Hodgson jumped up and challenged me to come outside and explain myself. He quickly came to his senses when told to calm down. To his credit he suggested to the councillors at the end of the meeting that he may have over-reacted. He had. The disturbing thing is that some councillors still felt he was justified in his behaviour.
Colin Williams showed his concern by rushing out of the council chamber as I left early, totally shaken in disbelief. He was concerned for me and reassured me by stating that the councillors had got it all wrong. I believe he then pointed out to them later in the meeting that they were totally mistaken.
My immediate reaction was to prepare myself for legal action to clear my name.
I had three independent witnesses to what had happened. Even more important the clerk of the council was taking notes of what was happening. I believe I have a cast iron case and could force an apology and win my expenses by using Panonne, one of the best legal firms in the country based in Manchester. I have used them before and they are worth every penny of their high legal fees of over £200 per hour.
Now that I've had time to reflect I realise that what these mistaken people think is to their discredit and will have very little impact with people I respect in my life.
I find that the people in Ulverston have very little respect for most of them and their opinions are of little consequence to the vast majority of the people in the town.
Should they wish to regain my respect in a small way again (I truly believe that all of them have elements of their characters that can be repected)then the speed at which they determine the facts and then apologise to me will be important.
In the mean time I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the Ulverston Town Council and the Ulverston Community Partnership are not the places to expect leadership in hard times.
We are far better assuming, that far from helping, they raise false expectations and in fact stop us doing things for ourselves and thus have a negative influence in the town.
A network of independent people - people who are doers - is rapidly forming who will achieve far more than puffed up councillors who do little other than talk.
Lets focus on the future of working together and enjoying achieving things ourselves.
The next exciting thing will be a repeat of the Candlelit Walk up Gill Banks on Halloween on Sunday 31st October using the wax and 1000 candles donated by Wax Lyrical of Lindal.
The group behind this are meeting this next Monday evening to plan the activity.
Another successful project is the renovation of Mill Dam Park - thoughts are already turning to what flowers we want their in the Spring. To start with how about a real show of tulips and crocusses this time? A start was made this year - next year will be a lot better as we benefit from what we have now learnt.
Let me know if you want to be put in touch with the real doers in the town that operate independently of a failed Council.
10 comments:
Sounds exciting, but what were they so upset about?
They had all received abusive emails from someone who claims to my Second in Command.
They ignore the fact that I have also been subjected to the same type of abuse elsewhere on the internet.
This person, who I don't know lives abroad, was initially abusive to me because I encouraged him to do something positive with his life by buying a few kites and giving them to kids in the park to play with, instead of being so preoccupied with wrongs that had been done to him in his past.
In spite of his behavior I tracked down someone who had supported him when he was at school here in Ulverston. It turns out she is now dead.
Because I did what I said I would, even though he was being abusive, he has now decided to switch completely and has appointed himself as my second in command and is taking on all my perceived enemies that he finds on this blog.
He seems to be targeting others in Ulverston who he believes is inhabited by a load of hicks.
This should not concern anyone in their right mind as he feels the same way about the vast majority of the human race.
This preoccupation with the wrongs of the past is something that can take hold of any one of us - which is why I have dropped thoughts of combating those that wish to malign me.
Rather - get involved with the present and enjoy the company of the many very positive people that live here in Ulverston - the Candlelit Walk up Gill Banks for instance - and let the negative councillors rot in their misguided attitudes of hitting out at others, avoiding action and not providing leadership.
We should be thankful that there is one councillor, James Airey, who is being positive and trying to provide leadership. People like Colin Williams could do well by working with him and forget party differences.
As for the rest - roll on the elections - and hope other people will get involved to get rid of cardboard cutout councillors and change the way things do NOT get done in Ulverston.
If we all pitch in we can avoid all the posturing and have people who achieve. Meetings would be a lot shorter - or none existent - and things instead would start to happen.
Ulverston needs men and women of action, not the people we have at present.
Council out of order to accuse you of being in any way responsible - anyone can send an email and if they know anything about you (which they should by now) then they'd know you would ask any questions / make any accusations directly yourself instead of getting others to do it on your behalf.
What I find worrying is that people can send emails that appear to be from anyone they choose.
So someone can receive an email that has the appearance of coming from Ralph Spours, Phil Lister, or Prince Charles for instance and all the time it could be a malicious third party.
Best to check ones facts these days before jumping to conclusions.
Increasingly things are no longer what they seem.
In the raw email will be details of the real source of the email which the police if they thought worthy on persueing could go to the source ISP via court order to get the details of the internet user connection.
The right course of action would of been to speak to you privately to get a fuller picture or pass emails onto the police.
Who chaired the meeting ? Name the chairman.
Your actions seem to have hit a nerve or two.
It seems a very poor example of our local democracy and representation if you cannot chalenge and question.
Where would children be without the questions WHY and HOW.
Its makes you wonder what goes on behind closed doors.
I would send personal invites for your candlelit event to all councilors
PAX
I see you haven't posted the mayors comment, why's that
I'd love to if I could remember what it was.
I was so shocked that my memory didn't function.
I asked you to make a note next morning so what was it he said?
Remind me!
Not nice to be accused of something you haven't done. I've had some of it myself by people who should know better. But the past is past. The sad thing is that people (who should know better) are more than willing to accept bad things about people without seeking the truth.
At least it brings out who your friends really are.
Spot on Gladys.
The contrast between the majority of councillors and my friends is vast.
Which is why the behaviour of the councillors is such a shock.
Just walk up Gill Banks to find out what my friends are like - What a team!
All to give pleasure to a few hundred people.
Best to forget the councillors exist. . .
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