Cheshire East councillors must feel an abused group. They undoubtedly enter local politics because they want to serve the community. New members are usually full of optimism and enthusiasm that time erodes.
Sometimes it's disillusionment with their own party or the mass of bureaucracy taking over their lives but more often they blame the local media. Once-upon-a-time that simply meant the local press but now they have online publishers and social media to contend with making it impossible to stem the tide of negativity.
Town halls like Westminster are self-contained communities where members influence each other and share common opinions. It's a lot more comfortable than embracing public opinion, which they come to regard as malicious criticism.
Sometimes it is, but councillors rarely discern branding all criticism unfair and mischievous. (unless it's made against the opposition.)
Hence the credibility gap where the public are viewed as mischievous and the Council are seen as ineptly arrogant.
Sadly, Cheshire East do not help themselves by making statements sufficiently absurd to deny credibility.
Initially they claimed their plan to turn off street lighting had 'proved' it to be 'safer' in those locations. How any intelligent individual would think that reintroducing a blackout was an act of safety defies explanation.
They have since abandoned that piece of idiocy in favour of 'reducing carbon emissions' a pretence even our dog wouldn't buy.
The commercial extraction of peat from Lindow Moss apparently creates no problems to the local environment at all while keeping runners, cyclists, pedestrians and road users safe at night is too big a threat to the planet. (Obviously it's just a coincidence that one creates revenue while the other is a direct council cost.)
Isn't it just this kind of juvenile spin that destroys council credibility. Instead of treating residents like idiots would it not be better to credit them with a modicum of intelligence and state the truth?
Selling huge redundancy packages as 'savings' and describing a senior councillor disbarred from being a company director in glowing terms just adds fuel to the fire of incredulity.
I'm not even going into the insanity that leads Cheshire East to believe they can run successful commercial ventures on taxpayers' money after the colossal losses sustained to date.
Contrary to town hall opinion the public are not stupid and addressing them as though they are is at the centre of the resentment felt towards the Council.
If Cheshire East want the respect they feel is due they should treat residents with equal respect and not spin ridiculous asinine stories in an attempt to disguise the truth.
It's not big and it's not clever.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of wilmslow.co.uk.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I'm sure most councillors when first elected by their voters believe they can & will make a difference for the better for their electorate..
And then they meet their respective party bosses, who read the party equivalent of the Treason Act when all party councillors are required to adhere to the respective Whip. If you want to get ahead, do as you are told, could well be the mantra.
Hence the loss of real & meaningful accountability of the controlling party's maladministration.
This is why Residents of Wilmslow acts as a non partisan, non- political voice within both CEC and Wilmslow Town Council. What the voters desperately require are voices who will speak for them first not for a particular party.
RoW acts as that lone voice for the people of Wilmslow. We hope more communities across the borough will follow RoW by electing increasing numbers of Independent councillors over the coming years. This is the way accountability will be returned to the electorate, as we have seen with the recent Referendum vote to Leave and with the US election a couple of weeks ago.
When is this false economy approach going to end?
The local authority is now playing a very dangerous game and should be made accountable for these mad-cap notions as they continue to claim that they are 'saving' the planet by cutting emissions from the lighting that they chose to install in the first place
If the lights were erected in the first place they were clearly deemed a necessity, especially at this time of year
Councillor Martin Watkins
Chairman Wilmslow Town Council
Hi Martin, thanks for picking up on this. I walked across the bridge this evening with a friend over the bypass adjacent to the high school this evening and with the glare of the traffic below us we had problems trying to find our way across the bridge as the lights were out
We would have been safer on the ground trying to cross the road at ground level, it was that dangerous
This is a bridge that High School pupils use after school clubs and is not fit for purpose under these circumstances
There is an urgent need to switch on ALL lighting on roundabouts NOW before there are accidents to both motorists and pedestrians
Here is the genius idea which caused this situation: http://bit.ly/2gLAeO2
Peter, I was unaware that this issue has been creaking on for 4 years now as I contacted Cllr Menlove personally when my local streetlights were switched off at 10pm
The response to that was the replacement of more eco-friendly lighting in the area after which the lights stayed on
However, this is a much greater problem with far-reaching safety issues especially where pedestrians and cyclists are involved. The local authority has a duty of care to the community they serve to reverse the decision with immediate effect as this is a critical problem that could be resolved at the flick of a switch
'All the lighting (with the possible exception of literally 1 or 2 columns) is to remain and should be lit. There have been issues with loss of service and underground cable faults that need to be rectified. The Lighting team is inspecting the faults/issues over the next 2 weeks and will then affect repairs. Some repairs will be provided immediately but others may take several weeks to complete due to location and accessibility etc. Once the inspection reports are completed then timings can be confirmed.'
This is the factual situation but I am concerned about the length of time the repairs will take. So I will press for whatever resource is necessary to shorten the timescale. All roundabouts must as an urgency have some lighting and the WHS roundabout needs priority in the interests of pupil safety.
My wife tripped recently on builders debris left on a badly lit section of Knutsford Road and has suffered a great deal of pain and inconvenience as a result.
Could Rod Menlove please advise me who I should contact to make a formal complaint?
The fact that faulty streetlights and builders debris on pavements should combine to cause a normally fit and active person to suffer (not insignificant) personal injury, might seem like collateral damage to you, but if CE Council are going to start playing "Logans Run" then I think that the least we should expect is fair warning!
It's common sense something CEC dpi not appear to possess.