At 22.52 last night I received this email from Councillor Steven Watkins. I am considering my response!!
Richard
Being 25 I do work full-time, and work commitments have meant I have not been able to attend council the last three meetings. Perhaps you would prefer a council full of the retired?
I stand by my attendance for the previous four years.
Funny, I didn't see you bring up the repeated absence of Cllr Kerfoot dufing the last year of the last council term, and you take interest in matters for the whole town , so don't use that as an excuse.
I have gone out of my way to answer your questions, so your lack of respect and gratitude is a disappointment.
I remind you that town councillors give up their time free of charge.
Cllr Steven Watkins
P.S Feel free to post this on your blog
__________________________________________________________________________
Being 25 I do work full-time, and work commitments have meant I have not been able to attend council the last three meetings. Perhaps you would prefer a council full of the retired?
I stand by my attendance for the previous four years.
Funny, I didn't see you bring up the repeated absence of Cllr Kerfoot dufing the last year of the last council term, and you take interest in matters for the whole town , so don't use that as an excuse.
I have gone out of my way to answer your questions, so your lack of respect and gratitude is a disappointment.
I remind you that town councillors give up their time free of charge.
Cllr Steven Watkins
P.S Feel free to post this on your blog
__________________________________________________________________________
PREVIOUSLY
Have you seen this man?
Have you seen this man?
His name is Councillor Steven Watkins.
The last time I actually saw him was at the Biggleswade Town Council meeting on Tuesday 26th July 2011. It was announced by the Mayor at the Town Council meeting of 23rd August 2011 that Councillor Watkins would be coming later, but he never arrived.
In May/June of this year I had an exchange of emails with Councillor Watkins.
On the 4th August I emailed Councillor Watkins following up three points we were discussing:
1. Him to hold a Councillor surgery in July
2. The contaminated land soil survey for the Kitelands recreation ground play equipment.
3. The repairing of Kitelands lights.
On the 19th August I emailed him again:
Its now over two weeks since I emailed you concerning the issues listed below, and I have had no response.
1. Councillor Surgeries
You said on 23rd May - “There are no excuses for TC surgeries not being held, I will arrange one for July when I return from holiday and make it a regular thing.”
Have I missed it?
2. Kitelands New Play Equipment
You said on the 23rd May - Council needs to approve the costs of a soil survey for the plans to advance on the new play equipment. I will be pushing for this to happen as I see no reason for this delay.
It was not on the agenda and the play equipment was only brought up in the public open session at the end of the meeting. The minutes say –“The Town Clerk advised that he was currently waiting 2 forms of information for a survey to be undertaken to move forward. This item would be brought to the next Council Meeting”. The TC also advised that he would send an email to all Councillors updating them. Have you received this yet and can you update me?
You said on 23rd June – “The soil survey will be on the agenda of the Public Lands and Open Spaces meeting of the 9th August.”
It was not on the agenda and the play equipment was only brought up in the public open session at the end of the meeting. The minutes say –“The Town Clerk advised that he was currently waiting 2 forms of information for a survey to be undertaken to move forward. This item would be brought to the next Council Meeting”. The TC also advised that he would send an email to all Councillors updating them. Have you received this yet and can you update me?
3. Kitelands Lights
You said on the 23rd May - The lights will not be repaired until the evenings draw in again (I am not happy with this answer, the money is there and so again I will talk to him tomorrow evening)
You said on 23rd June – “The lights are still not due to be repaired until August and it was not thought necessary to bring this forward by other councillors so it will just be a case of sitting it out.”
Has anything happened yet ??
I would appreciate a response on these matters.
If anyone comes accross him I would be grateful if you could ask him to respond to me as he is one of my Ward Councillors.
Pistols at dawn?? Obviously not a very happy councillor!
ReplyDeleteCllr Watkins does have some valid points, but seems to have sidestepped your 3 questions. Perhaps he's working on those but he doesn't say so.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprises me is that he got drawn in in the first place. As a regular reader of this blog I know that you can be quite blunt (or, more bluntly, rude), persistent (but not consistently) and seem to enjoy nothing more than winding up councillors and civil servants. He's not your only ward councillor, he could have ignored the blog like the rest of them, but he put his head above the parapet and he we are.
As they say on the internet, don't feed the trolls ;-)
What an arrogant young man. Some of us have devoted a lifetime to serving our community as well as holding down a demanding job, bringing up a family and coping with all of the other things that life throws at you. Councillor Watkins seems unable to answer three questions. I'm glad I don't live in Biggleswade.
ReplyDeleteCouncillor Watkins, I'm so glad you work full time, many others would like to say the same!
ReplyDeleteYou comment about attendance, don't use what as an excuse? Did I miss something?
As regards respect and gratitude, shouldn't that be shown to the people of
Biggleswade who elected you by dealing with their problems and concerns when they come to you?
Yes Town Councillors do give up their time free of charge, but they are not forced to do that - they volunteer!
p.s. By the way, regarding the lights and soil testing on Kitelands Recreation Ground, does anyone have any idea what's happening?
While I think it's a poor excuse to say that working full time is affecting his attendance at council meetings (this is Cllr Watkins' second term in office, he should be aware of the conflict between being a councillor and working full-time) it is slightly unfair to single his poor attendance out when two of his Conservative colleagues - Cllrs David and Jane Lawrence - take the summer off every year to spend time in France. I think you can safely say they aren't taking their duties as seriously as they should be, without the excuse of a full-time job.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteCan I point out that my attendance is not 'poor', and is no better or much worse than any other councillor. I simply state that on occasions I may not be able to attend a council meeting.
I have no intention of responding to anonymous posts or even engaging with this negative blog in future but I will say this: I always answer any queries to the best of my ability, within a reasonable time frame. I have answered Mr Mason's questions time and time again, alas he is a difficult man to please.
Finally, it is grossly unfair to question the commitment of the Lawrences. They do not hog the limelight but do a hell of a lot of work for this town which goes unrecognised, and simply take a holiday over what is a traditional quiet period. Lets not forget that one Labour councillor did not turn up at all for the last year of the last council term, once they had decided that they would not run again - a more clear-cut case of somebody not taking their duties seriously?
Anyone who wishes to contact me can do so on: 07967 150399 or watkins.steven@hotmail.co.uk
But I will not be corresponding through this site anymore.
Cllr Steven Watkins
As usual, a case of 'how dare we!' when it comes to questioning our Councillors actions.
ReplyDeleteYes, they undoubtedly have very busy lives, but I have heard many Biggleswade residents say that questions and queries asked simply go unanswered without the decency of a reply. All this will acheive is a feeling of 'them and us' thus widening the gap between both parties.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteYou may or may not read this but I actually meant it was unfair to single your attendance record out as poor when there are others on the council with worse attendance.
I do think, however, your continued mention of former Cllr Kerfoot's attendance - which was pretty much non-existant - is poor form. She didn't stand for an extra term.
As for the Lawrences. They may well not hog the limelight, but it's not that long ago that Mr Lawrence wrote a letter to the Chronicle telling us what good value he was as a councillor. Of course I'm not suggesting they shouldn't have a holiday, but to take more than a month off from their positions as both town and district councillors to me looks like a lack of respect for both their positions and the people they have been elected to represent.
I'm sure most people reading this blog will be well aware what they have done to - rather than for - the town.
Paul, the attendance record at meetings of Cllr Watkins was raised by him. On the blog I made a simple statement that at the last Council meeting (you were there) the Mayor announced, under apologies that Cllr Watkins would be coming later, but he never arrived. I presume something will be recorded in the minutes. I had been hoping to talk to him before or after that meeting.
ReplyDeleteRichard, I'm not disputing that, and I appreciated the irony as much as you did
ReplyDeleteWell I'll dispute it :-D
ReplyDeleteRichard, do you seriously expect me to believe that your missing person themed post was not intended as a comment on Cllr Watkins' absence from meetings? Or that there is some difference between that and commenting on his attendance record? I enjoy your style of feigned naivety and unfounded optimism ("I presume something will be recorded in the minutes") but I'm not stupid.