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A number of HELP Campaigners attended the Council Meeting on 23rd April to follow up the Parish Poll results two days earlier.
Unfortunately, we were only able to witness a charade of a civic meeting. The councillors went to extraordinary lengths to prevent any public discussion.
The meeting was started early, presumably to get past the "Open Forum" part at the beginning before the public were likely to arrive. As it turned out, this was the only part of the meeting where the public were given opportunity to contribute.
Fortunately some members had arrived early. However, when directly asked about the Parish Poll result, Cllr Ross (chairing the meeting) merely responded that the matter would be covered by an agenda item later in the meeting.
One member of the public was able to question Cllr Ross on his grossly incorrect assertions about the Heritage Foundation's charitable contributions within Letchworth, which he had made on BBC Three Counties Radio. Councillor Ross refused to acknowledge his mistake. He was then presented with a copy of the Heritage Foundation's accounts clearly showing the £3million charitable contributions. Even in the face of categorical evidence, Councillor Ross refused to acknowledge his mistake.
When the appropriate agenda item arrived later in the meeting, the proceeding deteriorated into pantomime. The chairman, Cllr Ross, read out a lengthy prepared statement, mis-representing the meaning of the voters' intent, dismissing the result as insignificant, deriving baffling conclusions, and talking at length about his Heritage Foundation question. He also stated that the HELP Campaigners should go back to the Kremlin - We were unable to determine what Cllr Ross meant by this bizarre statement.
Following the chairman's statement all the councillors present were given opportunity, in turn, to express at length their corroborating opinions. With the exception of Cllr J Webb, and partly Cllr P Sayers and Cllr M Bee, all re-iterated, and added to, Cllr Ross' deluded message. A number of unsupported accusations and threats of legal action were levelled against HELP Campaigners.
Finally, Cllr J Webb asked that the public be allowed to contribute to the proceedings. This call for fair debate was unanimously declined by all the other councillors, and the chairman moved the meeting on to the next agenda item!
All in all the meeting just went to reinforce HELP's assertions that the Parish Council does not represent the views of Letchworth residents, is ineffectual, is expensive, and most of all is unnecessary. Their total disregard for accountability is deplorable. Their delusion of democracy is an embarrassment to the First Garden City.
Other recent Parish Council meetings:
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