Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Councillor David J Lawrence - "I hope my service h...":
Cllr Lawrence may work as hard as he says he does but he's not the only one. But is it all for the good of the community?
I have more than once come across the 'we know best' attitude of the Town Council and the Cllrs Lawrence team seems to excel at that.
Of course none of this is recorded in the Council Minutes - you need to be there to see what really goes on.
Here's an example - all the more relevant as we approach 'Fairtrade Fortnight' (12th March)...
At the Town Council meeting where the Biggleswade becoming a Fairtrade Town proposal was being 'discussed', Cllr Lawrence adopted a point-blank 'over my dead body' and 'not while I'm a Councillor' stance. Does he really have this power?
For Cllr Lawrence to use statements like 'I am a member of the Adam Smith Institute' as part of his reasoning for blocking the proposal is at the very least a 'strange' excuse.
Also quoted were the requirements for becoming a Fairtrade Town - one of which highlighted was that the Town Council must offer Fairtrade products (eg tea and Coffee) at its offices for meetings etc. He seemed upset that Fairtrade 'rules' were telling him/The Council what to do. (An obvious way around this might be simply to offer both Fairtrade and other makes but that wasn't discussed.)
Neither was the fact that, even with Global Warming, you can't for example buy locally-grown bananas in Biggleswade - at least not yet (or perhaps Cllr Lawrence knows of a local source?).
Nobody locally is going to go out of business directly as a result of Biggleswade becoming a Fairtrade Town. In fact Fairtrade status is very likely to be of more benefit to Biggleswade - and not only from the 'feel good' factor.
And, in any case - as the BBC keeps telling us - 'other products are available', so the Lawrences won't feel obliged to shop somewhere that doesn't have Fairtrade status on principle ...
Posted by Anonymous to Biggleswade OnLine at 2 March 2011 15:52
Cllr Lawrence may work as hard as he says he does but he's not the only one. But is it all for the good of the community?
I have more than once come across the 'we know best' attitude of the Town Council and the Cllrs Lawrence team seems to excel at that.
Of course none of this is recorded in the Council Minutes - you need to be there to see what really goes on.
Here's an example - all the more relevant as we approach 'Fairtrade Fortnight' (12th March)...
At the Town Council meeting where the Biggleswade becoming a Fairtrade Town proposal was being 'discussed', Cllr Lawrence adopted a point-blank 'over my dead body' and 'not while I'm a Councillor' stance. Does he really have this power?
For Cllr Lawrence to use statements like 'I am a member of the Adam Smith Institute' as part of his reasoning for blocking the proposal is at the very least a 'strange' excuse.
Also quoted were the requirements for becoming a Fairtrade Town - one of which highlighted was that the Town Council must offer Fairtrade products (eg tea and Coffee) at its offices for meetings etc. He seemed upset that Fairtrade 'rules' were telling him/The Council what to do. (An obvious way around this might be simply to offer both Fairtrade and other makes but that wasn't discussed.)
Neither was the fact that, even with Global Warming, you can't for example buy locally-grown bananas in Biggleswade - at least not yet (or perhaps Cllr Lawrence knows of a local source?).
Nobody locally is going to go out of business directly as a result of Biggleswade becoming a Fairtrade Town. In fact Fairtrade status is very likely to be of more benefit to Biggleswade - and not only from the 'feel good' factor.
And, in any case - as the BBC keeps telling us - 'other products are available', so the Lawrences won't feel obliged to shop somewhere that doesn't have Fairtrade status on principle ...
Posted by Anonymous to Biggleswade OnLine at 2 March 2011 15:52
Councillor Lawrence is a member of Biggleswade Town Council and this should outweigh membership of other organisations, especially when it involves a potential benefit to the town - he should be putting Biggleswade first not the Adam Smith Institute.
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