I came across an interesting piece of journalism in today's Barnoldswick & Earby Times.
It was a report from the most recent full meeting of Earby Town Council, entitled 'Earby Doubles Precept To Pay For Loos'.
With all due respect to the Journalist Will Cook, whom is a fairly decent reporter for our area, I must voice my personal unhappiness at the way in which the story was reported and report myself on what I believe to be an important omission from the said report.
Now let me start off by saying I certainly support the idea of taking over and renovating the public toilets in Earby, if Earby Town Council don't take over the running of them they will close and that's that, no public toilets in Earby.
My main concern is that the other Councillors who sit on Earby Town Council with me are so happy to levy a 100% precept rise on the already overburdened British tax payer without so much as an awkward blink. Furthermore, When I made it clear that I was uneasy with raising the precept without first providing the opportunity to the very people who would have to swallow this increase to have their say, in true democratic style, I became startlingly aware that my view was not wanted.
My proposal was to defer a decision on raising the precept until the next full Council meeting and offer the people of Earby the chance within that month, via the website and by post, to have their say on whether or not THEY would like to have nice shiny new toilets in exchange for an increase in Council Tax. Fair?
I was rather alarmed at what I felt was a veiled vicious rebuttal by a certain politically aligned group of Councillors who it seemed had already decided that without doubt, regardless of what any other Councillors had to say, this was happening.
On that basis, with zero consultation of the public and with an overbearing feeling of my opinion being an annoyance to the other Councillors I felt my only option was to, for the very first time in my political career, abstain from voting.
I want the toilets but I can't be sure, with the already absurd cost of living, that the people of Earby would support being taxed even more and so couldn't possibly support nor vote against.
The article in question has been put together in a very positive way for Earby Town Council and mentions the fact I abstained at the very end of the article in quite a negative manner. I spoke on this item heavily and made a very sensible suggestion yet the reporter didn't include ANYTHING I had said in the report.
Luckily, through the power of social media and the internet, I can have my side of the story heard.
Whilst not the most important thing in the world, it is important to me that I am not misrepresented in the local media.
