Administration puts party over people

The RBWM pre-election PR posturing is now underway, led by Cllr Johnson.

However, this necessarily exposes the grotesque and incompetent nature of an administration with party first and people not even last.

Seen throughout the BLP, but now witness last week’s full council meeting.

“I don’t want to see another waste of money on a botched legal challenge,” he disrespectfully pronounced with totally misleading statements on courts decisions.

I went, as an observer, to the BLP High

Court Challenge, paying for my own peak rate train ticket, as did the supporters of the Great Park who had raised money from the community for the challenge.

It’s called democracy. Respect it.

RBWM defended itself with our money. Culture spreads.

Not six feet in front of me in court room 2, a senior RBWM staff member (I’ll save your embarrassment), so excited that RBWM hadn’t supported residents to be judicially heard, vigorously patted their barrister on the shoulder with a gleeful thumbs up sign of ‘we’ve stopped the people’.

As Cllr Baldwin stated, the judge’s only ruling was not to hear the case.

Now it’s politically expedient, not so before they allocated BLP sites, to support the significant 2,000+ petition of determined resident Tom Wigley to improve air quality monitoring.

However, in agreeing the right principle, they lined up supporting the wrong and very expensive Cllr Cannon amendment which will largely be a waste of 10s of thousands.

The only scientifically advised approach, at much lower cost with better data, was voiced by Cllrs Davies and Brar, not only not listened to, but Cllr Clark took a political arrow with a spurious high and mighty comment on not stopping traffic but failing to support his own ward for appropriate monitoring for just £600.

He couldn’t, otherwise there would be danger in acknowledging the real traffic issues with the BLP.

In any event no product, location or budget was defined, so don’t hold your breath, or perhaps you should, if you see what I mean.

I don’t care for party politics but put issues and community first.

There are a couple of reasonable cabinet members, but removing this administration, including the cabinet member that has brought ‘the council into disrepute’, is an imperative.

A wider exposure of the way residents have been treated, with incompetent and improper decision processes, is needed to inform even the naturally blue.

But there must be credible alternatives. I call on those with experience and expertise who want to listen and back their ward constituents, not a party, to come forward, as preferably independent candidates, in May’s election.

Try not to get dizzy with the spin and posturing.

PAUL STRZELECKI Berries Road

Cookham