We’ve paid parish council £85k to investigate itself
GOOD morning my mighty Maxonians. Do you ever wonder where your council tax goes? Read on…
I do believe parish councils perform a very important role.
If run well they provide an excellent sounding board of parish issues.
Larger council’s such as Cheshire East will seek advice from parish councils (whether they follow it or not is another matter).
Parish councillors usually live within the community they serve and have their finger on the pulse of local opinion.
Larger councils have far less understanding of community issues and by the time you reach government level politicians are hopelessly out of touch with individual parishes.
So…if a parish council is run well it has an important part to play in the community. If it isn’t run well it can be an absolute nightmare with councillors spending more time fighting each other than representing their residents.
You may recall the infighting in Cheshire
East Council when Cheshire Police had six live investigations filed by the council against its own members and others. You can imagine the cost to taxpayers of having police officers bogged down in this political quagmire.
The investigations lasted more than five years and as far as I can ascertain not one case resulted in a conviction.
What a ridiculous way to throw away your hardearned money?
Finances of every household are now under pressure like never before and low and behold residents are faced with another bill for the investigation of three Handforth parish councillors.
No formal findings have been made against any councillor.
No doubt you will recall the now infamous slanging match conducted by Handforth parish councillors during the pandemic when they yelled at each other like kids in a playground.
Well you, my long-suffering friends, are now expected to pick up the bill, which currently amounts to £85K, which coincidentally is 100% of the Parish precept (the amount you pay towards running the parish council.)
In effect, every single penny taken from council taxpayers to fund Handforth parish council for the year 2021/2022 has been spent investigating their own councillors. Maybe you can see some sense in this. I cannot. Every time you hear a councillor bemoaning their lack of funds I want you to know how your money is spent.