Council secrecy is an absolute disgrace

As I opened my KE last Thursday, I was in my usual upbeat mood. Things began to go slightly downhill when I read that Cllr Jill Britcher had resigned from the Labour Party after 30 years because she lacked faith in Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

She had therefore, it seems, supported Tony Blair in the unforgivable adventure in the Invasion of Iraq – whose repercussions are still being felt and which, many authorities claim, contributed greatly to the rise of Daesh.

But Blair, of course had charisma, which apparently counts for more than honesty in politics.

But I wasn’t going to let that spoil my day, and everything was going along nicely until I arrived at the letters page.

I don’t know if you read it but, if not, dig out last week’s paper and read what councillor Peter Davidson had to say about the way in which our council works.

I have complained many times about council doings, but I’m an uninformed outsider.

Peter Davison, formerly an elected member of the council tells of ‘pink paper’ (ie: secret) decisions and council members being sworn not to reveal certain goings-on.

He points out, as I have in the past, that the proper function of the council, any council, is to serve the public, yet he talks of ‘... a council of officers apparently reluctant discuss their plans face to face with parish councils.’

This is a disgrace.

‘Council members being sworn not to reveal certain goings-on’

On a slightly different tack; how do we get rid of slugs?

Last autumn I read about nematodes. These are jolly little microscopic beasties which wage biological warfare upon slugs in an environmentally friendly way – though the slugs might not agree.

I trotted along to a local garden centre with a view to purchasing some. ‘Not allowed’ I was told. This was apparently something to do with the fact that they are living organisms. Back home and onto everybody’s friend – Google.

Google told me what they are, what they do and where to get them. A couple of days later a small package arrived. It contained something like damp, white sawdust. The accompanying leaflet informed me that it also contained 12 million nematodes.

The stuff had to be mixed with water and sprinkled over the garden. I repeated the process in March and so far our garden has been slug-free. Not bad eh?