On the 8th September 2011, I published, with his agreement, an email I had received from Councillor Steven Watkins. This link should get you to it:
I emailed my response to him on 13th Sepember 2011.
Cllr Steven Watkins
Biggleswade Town Council
I am responding to both of your emails, the one you sent late on Wednesday night (7th September), and the other one you sent Thursday morning, which you don't want published.
Firstly let me remind you what you said on 11th May when you contacted me:
My point is that I do not know of a single town councillor or Central Bedfordshire member who avoids answering questions from the public.
Attendance at council meetings by members of the public is sadly quite poor, but we will answer any question put to us or find the relevent information.
My personal pledge is that I am happy to be contacted at any time by members of the public and during my first four-year term I had many conversations with townspeople on various subjects regarding the town.
I find it extremely humbling that people would give me their vote and have no intention of taking this support for granted.
- The lights will not be repaired until the evenings draw in again (I am not hapy with this answer, the money is there and so again I will talk to him tomorrow evening)
- 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?
I will update you when I hear from Cllr Mrs Smith.
I intend to ask the clerk to the town council to put members contact details on the website to make this easier.
My personal pledge is that I am happy to be contacted at any time by members of the public and during my first four-year term I had many conversations with townspeople on various subjects regarding the town.
I find it extremely humbling that people would give me their vote and have no intention of taking this support for granted.
I took you up on your offer on 18th May and asked you:
1. When are the Kitelands Recreation Ground lights going to be repaired and working?
2. When is the project for the new play equipment over Kitelands going to be progressed following the fiasco last year?
You informed me on the 23rd May:
There are no excuses for TC surgeries not being held, I will arrange one for July when I return fron holiday and make it a regular thing.
I have asked the Clerk for answers to your questions:
- The lights will not be repaired until the evenings draw in again (I am not hapy with this answer, the money is there and so again I will talk to him tomorrow evening)
- 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.
At that time I asked if I could publish your emails.
Your response was:
I have no objections to mine being published, not sure why anyone would object but they must have their reasons.
On the 19th June I asked you for an update on the Kitelands issues.
On the 23rd June you said: 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. The soil survey will be on the agenda of the Public Lands and Open Spaces meeting of the 9th August.
On the 4th August I asked if there was any update on the Kitelands situation and if I had missed your July surgery.
On the 19th August I asked for a response on the three issues as it was over two weeks since I had emailed you.
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.
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 have to say that having not heard from you since 23rd June, the tone of your emails was surprising and appear to be out of character with previous correspondence and how you conduct yourself at Council meetings.
I have never questioned your attendance record at meetings so I don't understand your comments on that subject and why you think I should not use Councillor Kerfoot's repeated absence as an excuse. For what ?????????
I am not sure how I have shown you lack of respect. Given the comments you have made in these emails, especially the one you do not want me to publish, I think you may have overstepped the mark and breached the standards in the Local Authorities (Model Code of Conduct) Order 2007. I will take advice on this.
Looking back over the last couple of months, the majority of the posts have nothing to do with Biggleswade Town Council. The ones that do involve BTC are factual.
In June when I spoke to the new Mayor, I asked if there were any achievements / successes and good news from BTC, past and present that I could publish on the blog. Nothing was forthcoming at the time and I have not seen or heard anything since. That offer still stands.
I now have to presume you will not be conclusively answering the only three questions I have ever asked you.
regards
Richard Mason
I have received this response, which is being published with Councillor Steven Watkins agreement.
With the Clerk being away I will speak to Cllr Mrs Smith as head of PLOS committee to look into the lights and equipment, since it appears that the information I have been given in the past has not been wholly reliable.
Hold this space for news on a surgery, which I have had to delay due to personal reasons, thus not allowing me to set a fixed date.
Hold this space for news on a surgery, which I have had to delay due to personal reasons, thus not allowing me to set a fixed date.
I will update you when I hear from Cllr Mrs Smith.
Regards
Cllr Steve Watkins
Cllr Steve Watkins
No comments:
Post a Comment