It is common practice for political groups on a district council to meet as a group prior to a meeting of the full council to hammer out common group policy. This saves council time, generally avoids splits within the party, and determines each party’s policy on specific issues.
The Conservative group on Fenland District Council follow this practice of group meetings. As the Conservatives hold 39 out of 40 of the seats, quite why they do this is unclear. It can’t be to form a united front against the opposition - there isn’t an official opposition. Perhaps it is to form a united front against the alleged real power brokers - the Officers of the Council, or it could be to bully the back benchers into toeing the leadership’s line.
Word is that the last meeting of the Con. group was dominated by angry discussion on two subjects - the ever growing number of wind turbines in Fenland, and this blog ! Advice may be being sought !
This raises two intriguing questions:
1) are councillors really considering paying for legal advice over whether they can reverse their own decisions to grant planning permission to a reported 35 turbines within the district ? I’ll save them some money and explain: “no you can’t bend over backwards encouraging turbines, and then challenge your own decisions. It would make you look ridiculous !”
2) As to this blog, the author is truly complimented to learn that it compulsive reading to our august body of conservative district councillors. She also wonders what chortles of amusement and hoots of derision will emanate from the chambers of the lawyers tasked with studying it. However she will continue to sleep easy at night, even with the Democlean sword of legal action hovering over her head. A statement can’t be considered defamatory if it is true. This blogger has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the content, and through the comments facility continues to invite any one to challenge the veracity of anything said.
Any message from this sad little story ? Is this how our senior councillors spend their time, trying to reverse the own decisions and quash freedom of speech ? I have borrowed from Chaucer for the title of this blog, but perhaps should have quoted Shakespeare - “a comedy of errors” or “much ado about nothing”?
Walter Burnett is a pen name.
Literary note: the title of this blog - “Parliament of Foules” is a reference to a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?-1400) (also known as the "Parliament of Fowls" "Assembly of Fowls" or "Assemble of Foules").The word ‘parliament’ is derived from the french verb ‘parlez’ - to talk. Any inferance that a conservative district council group meeting might be described as a ‘parliament of foules’ - ‘the talk of idiots’ is not intended.
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3 comments:
Well done Chris, er, Walter or whoever you are! ;-)
First, I'd like to say that I didn't vote for the Liberal Democrats at the last election (Though I admit that when I was young and foolish I used to) - and I am certainly no supporter of Mr Howes.
I've lived in Chatteris for 8 years and I'd say that this has to be one of the most rotten of boroughs.
I've already seen some of the activities of this mob of self interested Chatteris notables at first hand. They all claim to work hard for the town. Sadly this is not the case. Chatteris continues to be the poor relation in Fenland. It's quite stunning and utterly disgraceful how this place is so under resourced. Where does my council tax go?
With the exception of the one stop shop (Chris, you may like to dig into the contract for that work as well...), what new investments have been/are being planned for the town. A sports centre? - promised 25 years ago - don't hold your breath. KEC/Grove house returned to the community - STOP! THIEF!
That I think they're no good, that should be clear - with the honourable exception of Sue Elam - who really does work hard for the good of the town, and whose efforts over the skate park should be more widely appreciated.
What we need Walter/ Chris/ Christine is a cross-party consensus of good people of this town to kick out the “allegedly” corrupt old guard. I'm guessing that most will be "new" (as in over 5 years) residents of the town. It's about time that the council tax payers of Chatteris stood up to be counted. Perhaps this blog is the start of real people power.
In the meantime, I'm sending your blog address to Private Eye - I've thought Chatteris and FDC was a suitable candidate for "Rotten Boroughs" for some time...
I believe it was Damocles with the sword, not Democles. But that aside, continue the good work Mr/Mrs/Cllr. The more people who read this the better.
And when more "real" people like Alphonso start commenting (as opposed to scared politicians) then the Tory FDC will need to seriously worry.
Just a flippant thought - is there any way we could secede from Fenland and join Huntingdonshire? Maybe they would be quite keen on the council tax and growth potential of the town.
Unlike Fenland - according to this document
Funny that the thought of improving the transport connections doesn't seem to occur to them. Perhaps they like being isolated..?
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