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Hounslow Liberal Democrats |
Our councillors need to grow up
November 11, 1999 12:00 AM
By Cllr Ray Fincher, Liberal Democrat Group Leader in Feltham Chronicle/Hounslow Chronicle
By Cllr Ray Fincher, Liberal Democrat Group Leader in Feltham Chronicle/Hounslow Chronicle
We had a committee of the council meeting last week which was, in many ways, a very disappointing experience.
We talked about the distribution of additional capital resources that were available for this current year.
Much of this additional funding was due to property sales, something Liberal Democrats had promoted at budget time two years ago.
Nice to see a decent result, however it was somewhat amusing to recall the abuse poured over us at the time by the knockabout artists in the Labour group at our radical proposals.
We thought the recommendation to spend £60,000 of this hard-won resource on a council chamber sound system inappropriate but, right or wrong, it was pushed through.
Also before us was a report on the housing repair service. The substance of this was the proposed transition from compulsory competitive tendering to the Best Value process.
The debate was, to put it mildly, rather childish, the worst example of Tory and Labour nonsense. Somehow I think that the empty public gallery said it all.
We councillors need to grow up if we want the people of Hounslow to re-engage in local affairs and I suggest spending big bucks on a sound system to shout abuse at one another is not on most people's wish list.
Perhaps the debate should have concentrated on the fact that our customer satisfaction levels for repairs are so low. Hounslow results appear in the bottom ten per cent of councils nationally.
We also had serious reservations in the debate on distribution of Millennium funds. We thought the priorities were flawed. Credit is due to the leader, though, for announcing during the discussion that minority parties would in the future be involved in the allocation process.
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