Yes James Airey, I am being negative

 For too long, our councillors have been doing a superficial job so that Local Government officials are able to run rings round them and often do an inept job. This is true to life "Yes, Minister".

Do our councillors stand up solely to give us the impression that they are working hard on our behalf? No doubt this may occasionally be true but too often they think that the mere act of raising an issue is enough.

To achieve a good result, a lot of hard work of communicating with officials needs to be done to see what is actually happening behind the scenes.

Local officials need praise when they work well and criticism when they don't. Most of the time our councillors are only out to give the public the impression that they know what is happening when in fact the officials are left to get on with it without supervision. On some occasions officials can be plain arrogant as was the case with Nick Raymond , now moved sideways, I suspect as a result of me contacting all the town and rural councils in South Lakeland.

With a job as demanding as this how is it that some councillors can imagine that they can act effectively as Town Councillors, District and County councillors as was the case of James Airey until recently together with his wife a District Councillor.

Ultimately it is our councillors that are in charge of our councils and are responsible for the highly paid civil 'servants' doing their job. However instead of tackling the top paid officials, the councillors all team up when they are under fire from someone like me because it makes them feel uncomfortable being shown up as ineffective.

More now than ever before we need honest and hardworking councillors who coordinate the energy of the whole community : too often they ignore local people who can show them up by doing the job better than they can. It's time for change - we in Ulverston need to work as a team - councillors working with the local community.

James wrote:

Dear Geoff

I don't think your constant negativity helps anyone . I think we have a good team of Councillors in Ulverston , Labour and Conservative. None of us are perfect but we simply want to do our best.

Kind regards

James


My reply:


Thanks James,

Yes we've got some promising Councillors who I believe will steer the Councils Town and District in new directions where there is more resolve to be more proactive.

It's very encouraging to see.

Lessons need to be learnt from the past and until we have councillors who are willing to admit that errors have been made and are still being made, we won't move forward as a town.

Too often Councillors cannot cope and refuse to recognise people who achieve things that they were unable to achieve themselves.

I do not accept that I am constantly negative but am very positive whenever Councillors do good work.

How often does Jack Rice's name get mentioned in connection with his fight with SLDC over Car Park Charges and using the freedom of information act to squeeze the figures out of them with the result that now I understand there is talk of the UTC regaining control of the Car Parks ourselves. This is such a vital issue that I will be full of praise for the councillors behind this if this is achieved or even attempted.

It seems however that we still have some very timid and obstinate Cllrs who avoid taking risks that would benefit the town.

No. The councillors are not all united. It could be the unity is amongst the timid whatever their political persuasion and that there is a growing self belief amongst those with new energy that see things differently. These are the people I and many others support strongly. How united are they over Sainsbury's, Robinson Brewery, the saving of the CAB, getting the cobbles sorted quickly at low expense?

Perhaps what is needed is for people like John Lawrence to get involved to work along with those already in place,  alongside the risk takers : a man with good judgement, used to dealing with people in difficult situations and resolve to steer through difficult changes in policy as he did when head of Glaxo.

I'll be campaigning for all I'm worth if he stands again - hopefully  as a County Councillor for North Ward in the elections this next May.

I shall step in and be full of praise and being positive for those that take risks to sweep away the cap doffing attitudes that are so prevalent here in Ulverston - something from the 1960s when I arrived here. No James it's time for change - our whole political system at local level needs a real shake up by some brave and hardworking people

Best wishes

Geoff