Hitting a brick wall on council governance

By now many will have read extracts from a leaked RBWM report, purporting to be a catalogue of my misconduct in office.

A single letter could never rebut it on a point-by-point basis, so I will limit myself to asking why, if that many officers were so incensed, so often, only one incident led to a complaint?

After all, it’s not as if I were a Burbage, a Dudley, or a Johnson with the power to alter career paths and block promotions.

As for my views on the conduct of our planning panels and whipping, those present in Maidenhead Town Hall on the nights of August 18 and November 17

2021, the Deerswood hearings, saw what I saw and heard what I heard.

As a result, hundreds of our own residents were forced to go to the Secretary of State for protection against a body that is meant to be their local planning authority.

Twenty of them submitted Code of

Conduct complaints against the former Conservative vice-chair, which were upheld. I supported them and was proud to do so. Thanks to these efforts we can all enjoy a precious and beautiful green space, and have been spared an ugly, flood prone housing development.

That RBWM was to benefit by circa £10million from the sale of that land might explain a lot.

The source of the rest of my frustration was the governance function.

When it came to the balance between the administration and the opposition, it consistently acted like a faulty traffic light.

Permanently green for the former, permanently red for the latter.

Its mantra was ‘The officers work for the administration’ and that was rigidly adhered to. I can only beat my head against a brick wall for so long before perspective is lost. In short, that’s what happened.

By the by, the residents might want to ask what purpose is served in compiling this report, no doubt at great expense?

I had already resigned as a councillor and had chosen not to contest a seat as an independent in the recent elections.

I very much doubt the many thousands of residents I have met and listened to will recognise me in their account and I look forward to putting that to the test at the earliest possible opportunity.

JOHN BALDWIN

Maidenhead