COUNCIL OPINION

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
 

DEMOCRACY NOT WORKING
Anyone visiting a Derby City Council meeting recently hoping to see democracy at work would have been sadly disappointed. Let us initially consider the biased and unacceptable behaviour of the Mayor. Firstly, she failed to show the common courtesy of welcoming the newly-elected councillor for Mackworth ward to her first full council meeting and was reluctant to do so even when pressed.

Secondly, she harangued the Labour group for protesting at untruths uttered by one of her fellow Liberal Democrats, yet she allowed a loud-mouthed Tory to continually interrupt and barrack the speeches of almost every Labour speaker without a murmur. Thirdly, when she had omitted to include a Labour speaker on her list, she refused to admit her mistake, choosing instead to lean forward and scream at him like a fishwife.

If the mayor's behaviour was far less than one would respect from Derby's number one citizen, then that of Councillor Leeming was cowardice in the extreme. After three months of deliberations with his fellow members of UKIP, and in spite of being presented with a catalogue of the mistakes made by the incumbent administration, he reneged on his duty and abstained; he knew that this was a tacit acceptance of the Lib Dem/Tory alliance, whose continuance was then delightedly perpetuated by the Mayor's casting vote.

Had he voted directly for the alliance that, at least, would have been honest. If Councillor Leeming cannot decide on such a vital issue as who runs the council, perhaps he should resign and let the voters of Boulton choose a councillor who will get off his elbows and take an active part in the decision-making process for which he was elected. Tony MacDonald

DEAF EARS
Complaints against the proposed building of 10 or more apartment blocks in Chester Green have fallen on deaf ears. But then scores of reasonable objections by Chester Green residents have been ignored. Time and time again, Chester Green has been targeted by property developers who build as many properties as they want, regardless of height or size, in the minimum space.

On the Coach and Horses car park it was decided to build three houses and five apartments, even though the space is used as a recycling deposit and collection. The over-development will overload utilities, such as sewer systems, water, and schools and roads. There has been a history of these problems throughout the last century.

After the floods in 1965, for example, many closely-built properties suffered and it became a clearance area. Why do Derby City Council planners bother to give residents and tenants a chance to lodge their objections when the plans go through regardless?

Who has overall control on the authority over this area of decision-making? Certainly not the councillors, many of whom know little about the area they vote on at planning committee. If the councillors have no power, and the planning department can't say no, who gives the go-ahead for the property to be developed?

Is it a who or is it a what that has the power? If it is a person, group or government department, could we be informed? If it is a what, we would still like to know. All I can say for certain is that the democratic system doesn't seem to work for Citizen Derby. Elwyn Kitchen

CAN THE COUNCIL EXPLAIN?
Perhaps someone from Derby City Council could tell us just how deep our pockets are supposed to be? With what justification can the council increase parking charges by a massive 25%? Council spokeswoman Carol Mee's pathetic "a rise was due last November" isn't good enough. This increase is so way over the top, it's nothing short of barefaced robbery. Could she or someone else from the council tell us just how much the council rakes in every year from car parking charges? After all we the motorists (mugs) are also part of the electorate and as such I think have a right to know.

The fire service settled for a 16% national pay rise only last year. Then they have the gall to ask the council tax-payer to cough up another £4m. The fact that they are under-funded, according to Mat Lee, and that from this year are now allowed to set their own budget doesn't give them the right to ask for a totally unrealistic increase. If £4m is needed (due to under-funding) then why do they intend to spend £3.5m of it on their pay and pensions? If they didn't need to spend that amount of money on their own pay so soon after a pay rise, then the fact is they would only need £0.5m to put the modernisation into place in Derbyshire as required. There's a big difference between £0.5m and £4m.

The truth is that Derby City Council gets more than its fair share of money from the Government and the council tax-payer yet it continues to squander it on useless projects, such as the Five Lamps fiasco and the Alvaston speed humps. How much did they cost us again? And then there's the free fireworks display and the free open-air music concert with yet more fireworks etc, etc. Spending other people's money is easy isn't it, especially when you can just demand more again next year? If there's so much to throw around, at least throw it in the direction of essential services, such as the fire service or the police. Derby City Council, get your priorities right and stop wasting so much of our money. S Radford