Preston Parish Council Fury at this Blog.

We would just like to remind readers, this blog is not run by any one person, it has a number of residents as members and we work as a team, no single member has full control on what appears. If you wish to comment on anything on this blog you should either comment through the normal channel or email us direct, If you would like to join our group please email us, thank you.

6. Preston Parish Council fury at this blog.

During the council meeting held on 16/08/13 a council member was incensed and beside them self because of the comments on this blog, the member was extremely animated and indignant that something was happening which the member so strongly objected to which was beyond their control and the council has no redress. The member used words like infuriated, irate, disgusted and enraged and there is no one to vent their frustrations on! The member very strongly expressed the opinion that this blog is entirely wrong in saying some council members had been dishonest, we had no right to say such things and that we are cowardly for not putting our name to it.

The member went on to say that if they were able to do anything about it they would……….. That member described the feelings of some residents to a tee? That’s why this blog exists because we feel infuriated, incensed, irate and disgusted at how we have been treated by the parish council and we have no means of redress.

That member should understand how some residents feel under the circumstances of being continually ignored or brushed aside without consideration! Being lied to and lied about, having malicious gossip spread about us, being bullied, intimidated and attacked during council meetings. We hope most councillors feel the same way and we hope over the coming months that frustration increases to the point where you feel you must do something, anything, then you will begin to appreciate how strongly some residents feel about how the council has behaved.

Another point worth mentioning is that the few councillors who have done almost all the damage we outline never spoke during the ‘debate’ in their own defence (they never do!), they chose to remain silent again and hide behind someone else, nodding their heads in agreement, that’s cowardly, some ‘new’ councillors are clearly happy to cover up for them, so much for new councillors creating change! Those councillors who won’t defend themselves are using other councillors to do the job for them, that’s cowardly! Maybe the vocal speaker would like to comment on that cowardly act?

As for us being cowardly by not putting our names to this blog, some councillors displayed the same trait by,

1. Giving false statements to cover up what they had done to avoid having to apologise, that’s cowardly!

2. Having fellow councillors submit false statements to cover their tracks for them, that’s cowardly!

3. Half of the our parish Councillors failed to give witness statement when requested to by the Standards Committee, in the knowledge that truthful statements would criticise a fellow councillor, that’s cowardly!

4. In giving false statements some councillors were happy to wrongly accuse a resident of dishonesty to cover up their own dishonesty, that’s cowardly!

5. Some councillors who refused to give witness statements where happy to allow their fellow councillors to accuse a resident of dishonesty, that’s cowardly!

Would any councillor care to comment on the acts listed above?

On being requested by ERYC to give a witness statement we understand one councillor’s opinion was “that’s none of my business”. Sorry but you were a councillor at that meeting and an incident of such proportions taking place during a council meeting is none of your business, why on earth are you a councillor?

A number of councillors refused to give statements to the Standards Committee because they would have needed to put their names to those statements and any honest statement would have criticised a fellow councillor, we view that as cowardly. Ironically, the member who was very vocal on the subject of not putting names to things was one of those councillors. We can only assume you consider it to be ok if residents feel so frustrated at the hands of the council as long as the council don’t have to bear the same feelings at the hands of residents? Sounds a little narcissistic to us!

As this councillor didn’t reply to the Standards Committee with a witness statement we again can only assume its ok for councillors to not have an opinion on the incident when it suits them but plenty of opinion when it backfires on them!

In 2010 quite a number of residents were constantly at the home of one of our members specifically asking to view letters that had been written to the council, saying things like “spot on”, “you’ve hit the nail on the head” and “your absolutely right” and “its about time the council got a dose of its own medicine”. Those same people would not put their names to those letters or say anything themselves in their own names, they were so cowardly they left it for someone else to put their name to those letters and they’re now accusing us of being cowardly?

The council really need to look inward not outward towards us!!

If there are any residents with similar experience of the council do please contact us by comment or email. If you wish we will post on your experience without your identity being released, or not post anything if you simply want to share your experience it’s entirely up to you. We would love to hear your story, your not alone, there are a number of us, let us compare notes and grow as a group.