Response to Jan, Hull.

Response to Jan, Hull.

Comment from Jan, Hull,

Wheres your list of problems with council can you make a list?

The list is long and I would be repeating a lot of what I have already posted in this blog. Can I respectfully suggest that you read the postings and you will hopefully have some detail to the main headings I have listed below but this is by no means exhaustive.

1.  Illegal use of public funds.
     Thousands of pounds of resident’s money has been illegally spent without council authorization.

2.  Wasting of public funds.

     To date the council has wasted more than £20,000 of public funds by starting ill thought out                   projects, spending thousands of pounds of public money to get them started and then promptly               abandoning them.

3.   Unlawful Council Activities.

      The council simply fails to observe the legal requirements placed upon them by the legislation that          governs how councils can and can’t operate. The list is long and the potential consequences can be        enormous.

4.   Dishonesty in Public Office.

      There are a few councillors who gave false statements to an Official Investigation by the Standards         Committee. This in my view brings Preston Parish Council into disrepute and highlights all that is           bad about the council. I would probably list this as my major problem because they made me out to       be untruthful.

You might ask “why do you bother”, I bother because I care and I happen to think Preston deserves better than this and could be so much better off financially if the mistakes of the past are recognised and Council Policies developed to ensure they can’t happen in the future.

Residents would be far better off if the council included them in the governing process and worked with residents on how Preston can be improved rather than have the pompous attitude of “leave it to us we know best”. Prior to 2011 residents were simply dismissed out of hand as unimportant and a great irritant to the process of how the council wished to govern our village. It isn’t quite that bad now but the council under the influence of surviving councillors from the previous administration still don’t include residents to the extent they are actually required to. That may be a contributing factor to the election that never was, scheduled for 18^th July 2013. I believe very few residents know what they are or are not able to do because the leadership from the council is so poor and there is virtually no information released by the council, it simply isn’t in their interest to release information, the less you residents know the less you can pull them up on!!!.........it just happens to be a fact and still appears to be councils unwritten policy!

To-day Preston is a small village of approx. 3,200 (Preston North I believe is about 1900) residents and although I disagree with how the Play Park project that has been progressed so far I am convinced that if the council were more inclusive and connected to residents there would be a Play Park in place today and the village I’m sure would be rejoicing.

As a resident 3 years ago who hadn’t been to a council meeting in his life, I was blissfully unaware of how our Parish Council operated. I started to attend council meetings in 2010 when we as a group of residents were opposing a development.

The more meetings I went to the more appalled I was to find just how the council operated and treated residents as opposed to how it should operate (I didn’t know then how it should operate it was just so obviously wrong and the council was so arrogant and dismissive) and how as a consequence residents missed out on so much. I was also disgusted at how the council treated me as an individual at that time, I responded in kind so I can’t claim any moral high ground!

Some people say the finer details of Local Government Administration are of no interest to them because they have more important things they wish to do in the village. I was guilty of that mistake too, it’s when you find out just what those details are you also realise how bad thing are and how much better they could be if they were tackled and put right. If you take the trouble to get to know those finer points you will get to where you want to be much quicker. Residents can be all powerful and have huge influence on a council but to achieve that they have to get to know the rules (that way you won't be fooled) and organise themselves.

Faced with such strength of opinion the council would have little choice but to release information and your understanding would from this point bound ahead, there should be no stopping you as residents.

In any event if we leave those fine details to others we will never know whether or not they’re doing their best for us within constraints or just taking us for a ride. In my opinion Preston is being taken for one big ride by the Parish Council and, it’s costing you a bundle of cash to boot!! If you knew how it should be the chances are you would agree. I shouldn’t really bother because I don’t have the power to change things but I’m shouting about what I see as an injustice to me personally, I’m not trying to change the council. I’m certainly not making friends doing this, so if it means I take some stick along the way, that’s fine at least I had the gumption to oppose them and speak out.