A Tory Question — And A Lib Dem Answer

February

24

8 comments

question mark

The latest Conservative leaflet says:

“WHAT COULD YOU DO WITH ?70,000.00″ ? That is what Linda Kendall has cost us the tax payer for taking Rochford District Council to the High Court! Just think what these funds could be spent on.”

Our answer is :

  • The council’s Core Strategy cost more than ?2,000,000.00 of public money – about 30 times what Linda Kendall’s court case has cost the council !
  • For that amount you expect a MUCH better plan.
  • The Conservatives really should have listened to the public more, and should have listened to the Lib Dem and Independent councillors more.
  • Instead they relied on their massive majority in the council chamber to force things through.
  • When you can’t get satisfaction in the political arena, one recourse is to try the legal arena, and that’s what Linda Kendall did.
  • She lost, but there was evidently a case for the council to answer-? to quote the? judge in paragraph 83 of his judgement “I can see some force in those submissions”

– the onlineFOCUS team – Chris Black, Ron Oatham, Bruce Smart, Chris Stanley

About the author, admin

  • Well said Admin and, if the Lodge Ward loyalists are so concerned with spending, perhaps they would like to explain the recent article in the ECHO – ?……..
    Apparently Tory Councillor Glynn is the first one to make use of a brand new ( £50K )
    Pet Cemetary facility , apparently championed by fellow Tory Mr Gordon out of our RDC finances. WHY – they are long standing / pre-existing facilities in the area and given the ‘hard times’ we are going through – something of a luxury item I suggest.
    Who voted that one through what committee ? It took two years it seems.

  • Jim (@ no 2) I have been asking questions about the Pet Cemetery for a while – To no avail! As far as I can see, it appears to be a nonsense pet project (pardon the pun) initiated by a couple of Councillors but without any support from residents or the ‘Friends of Cherry Orchard Park’! I raised a question about it in the recent Review meeting and was told that it did have support and that a pets ashes were to be interned there soon (the first one)… I couldn’t believe it when I read The Echo and discovered the pet in question belonged to Cllr Heather Glynn (especially as she was in the Review meeting and hadn’t batted an eyelid when I raised the question (perhaps she was too busy day dreaming about concreting over the green belt!) The Pet Cemetery has been a complete waste of (public) money but at least it has provided Cllr Glynn with a nice resting place for her pet so I guess that makes it alright then!

  • Jim, Toby,

    Can you please tell me where the figure of £50K for the cemetery comes from. I have looked at the RDC web site and I can only find this:

    The cost of interring pet ashes at the Pet Memorial Area is £60.00 plus VAT.

    Over to you……unless you believe everything you read in the papers….

  • What the Tories are failing to say is that they didn’t have to go to the high court to fight the action, they could have reopened the consultation on the Allocation Plan and re-issued it, rather than fighting the court case.
    Also over £10,000 were costs awarded to Linda Kendall due to delays and mistakes by the RDC legal team, who was responsible for those?

  • Oz @4 – my faith in the Papers is equalled only by my faith in the Council website, I suggest a FOI request if you are keen to endorse the article – I’m impressed that you did’nt mention your own Pet Subject. ( Cleggy ) this time????.

  • Jim @ 7,
    Like your little pun re Pet Subject, anyway,I have been applying my Mighty Oz brain to compile a top 5 of the greatest ever oxymorons and here they are.

    5. Airline food
    4. Police intelligence
    3. Vegetarian food
    2. Russell Brand, comedian
    And the greatest of all time at number 1
    Nick Clegg, leader…..

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