Councillors should focus on the local issues!

In his latest letter to the Tameside Advertiser (12/09/13) Councillor Taylor says 
that he doesn't agree with "hitting the most vulnerable first and the bedroom tax
needs to be abolished." Much as I would agree with him on this, I
would however like Councillor Taylor to explain then why the Labour
Council decided to increase the Council Tax by 3.5% at a time when the
Coalition Government were introducing the Bedroom Tax?

Tameside's Deputy Labour Leader also wrote about payday loans - though
he forgot to mention that many of these payday loan companies started
off under a Labour Government and that there were already 4.1 million
of these loans being taken out by 2009 - and he then went on to
comment about the financial crisis caused by the banks, who incidently
were also given free rein by the last Labour Government.

Yet Councillor Taylor still does not see fit to comment on recent
revelations that Tameside Labour Council have under-spent in their
budget by £7.5 million. Or why 346 council employees needlessly lost
their jobs? Or why libraries and other facilities ranging from
community centres to public toilets were closed down when the Labour
Council could have kept them open?

Nor has Councillor Taylor attempted to answer any of the questions
asked by myself and other readers over recent weeks, regarding the
dire state of our local democracy, such as why everyone can vote for
whoever they wish next year, but Labour will still have control of the
council - is that democratic? Or what is so wrong with having all the
councillors standing for re-election at the same time, every time to
give people a genuine chance of changing the council, if they so wish
- which surely is democratic. Perhaps he could comment upon why he
thinks it is ok to have so many couples on the council? Or why
councillors should have unlimited terms of office - preventing even
people within their own party from standing for office with fresh
ideas?

Surely, it is high time that Councillor Taylor and his fellow
councillors actually began to focus on local issues and the concerns
of local people living in Tameside over which they do have control -
instead of constantly rambling on about national issues that they can
do nothing about, constantly telling us about their favourite hobbies
or letting us know what a marvellous time they had at the last tea
party they went too. Although hopefully, if they do carry on this way,
they may actually start helping to convince the majority of Tameside
voters that self-interested national political parties really should
no longer have any place in 21st Century Local Government!



Carl Simmons

Denton South Independent
13th September 2013