Council Meetings/Special Projects.

Council Meetings/Special Projects

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Written for the blog by a Preston resident

Hi Graham.

My being difficult to deal with is a myth usually promoted by Preston Parish Council, though I fail to see how they would know that, as they have never tried to deal with me.

The councils position has always been one of bullying, intimidation and ignoring me, under such circumstances I’m sure most people would react in an undesirable way. I published a posting  recently with extracts from a letter to the council from October 2010, its quite clear from those extracts the council’s answer to any contact was to intimidate the contacting person in an effort to prevent them making further contact, that policy does not appear to have undergone any major changes. 

The posts that have appeared on this blog very clearly show that from before I ever wrote to the council, a councillor angrily knocked on my door and gave me a good telling off because someone else in the village had written to them asking for information.

It would have been far better for the council to respond to that resident’s enquiry in a pleasant manner and deal with him through a position of respect instead of generating a conflict over it and choosing to ensnare other people in their web (myself). If they were then unable to accommodate him or his offer of assistance or take on board some of his comments they should have informed him in a reasonable manner with a degree of understanding and appreciation for his interest!

In my opinion the council’s judgment was entirely misguided and continues to be so to this day. After all, the council is there to listen to residents and take their views to council for consideration, at this point it could have been settled amicably and without ill feeling to everyone’s satisfaction.

The issues I have with the council do not originate from a position of wanting a conflict, my concerns, whether they are right or wrong (that hasn’t yet been determined) are non-the-less genuine and are voiced from a position of concern for our Parish and its residents.

As for my style of writing giving away my feelings, it sometimes does, particularly if I feel someone is treating me unreasonably without cause. It they have cause, then that’s a different matter I would try to mitigate and get on a more reasonable footing with whoever is involved.

You ask why I don’t ‘apply’ to go on the council? I wouldn’t survive five minutes on the council so for me that’s a non starter.

It has been said by a number of people that I attend more council meetings than some councillors and thinking about it I suppose that’s true, but I can leave the meeting any time I chose and not cause offence to the institution.

Whenever I attend council meetings I know before I leave home the content I am likely to encounter, it’s the same old thing month in and month out! It can be mind numbing at times, but I attend meetings for a particular reason.

If you would like to check the agenda’s and minutes from past meetings you will see they are all very much alike with very little in the way of variation in fact the main and in most cases the only change is that the Planning Application notified to the council change and ‘special projects’ are seldom included, in short there is nothing of interest and the council does not appear to have any foresight in any direction that could be viewed as interesting. I see council meetings at present as a holding exercise with only the same old items with the same old answers. Members turn up and go through the same monthly motions of raising their hands to vote when requested and then all go home having, I’m sure in their view, done their bit.

I’m sure I will be criticized for that view but that’s how I feel about council meetings at present, even since a new administration took over there has not been one single item that has undergone any change. Given those circumstances I’m afraid I would have to say there is virtually no reason to have gone to the trouble of voting for new councillors when judging by the differences in council (of which there are none) you would never know they are there!

I happen to believe that it is essential for the council to get its house in order on many fronts and I believe they need to do it sooner rather than later. In June 2011 (following the inaugural meeting) the council should have put in place a 12 month plan with responsibilities clearly identified, that plan should have been defined and actioned within a three month period following groundwork and research leading to a full Council Systems Audit (could easily have been a bespoke system formatted in council) and understanding of council business and methods of operating, identifying areas that needed attention and identifying the attention needed, all finalised in a 12 month period. In effect the council is now 21 months behind in putting in place any improvements, in fact they haven’t even started to get any sort of plan together, that’s not for me!

I would not possibly be able to sit on a council that had no forward vision or plan to improve the council for all parties concerned including councillors and residents. In my opinion that would be a total and absolute waste of my time and effort every month of the year, it would be far more productive to sit and watch paint dry! I really don’t intend that to offend but after attending council meetings for the last few years it just happens to be my honest and inescapable impression.

There are no apparent projects in Preston (the Community Hall is a Charity project and has nothing to do with the council). Those that do, by some miracle, actually see the light of day are invariably neglected and left to go into dereliction, a good example would be the Preston Parish Website which is given great hype and write up promising us ‘lots of useful information’, ‘crucially, this would make it a lot easier to follow the deliberations of the village’s decision makers’, ‘download the latest minutes and newsletters’ and you can ‘find out lots of useful information about the parish’ and there is a calendar which will be populated with local events’.

Apart from Agenda’s and minutes the site is mainly full of empty pages with absolutely no information on them. When residents view this after such promising words from the council and are then left with the reality I fully understand when people say to me ‘what’s the point’!’

Could the council at least start to populate their own website, please.

We would be interested to know how many page views the council website has had from going live?

Do you think the council will tell us, with verification?

The ‘HU12 Online’ article of the Preston Parish Council website from 19^th April 2012 is Reproduced below.

PRESTON PARISH COUNCIL is now online! The website was first published in February and is currently being filled with lots of useful information.

Crucially – this should make it a lot easier to follow the deliberations of the village’s decision-makers.

Through the website you will be able to download the latest Minutes and Newsletters as well as find our lots of useful information about the parish. There is a calendar which will be populated with local events.

We have included the Minutes of the last meeting here for you to download: Preston Parish Council Minutes – Wed 14th March 2012 but do visit the new website.