In my one man attempt to bring clarity, openness, and honesty to local democracy I have been looking again at ‘In Touch’ the Conservatives attempt at honest communication.

They say they are working with:

• Parish, Town Councils and Community groups to support local services and enhance assets.
• ERYC to improve leisure facilities at Francis Scaife Leisure Centre
• Parish Councils to improve speeding in villages.
• Others to improve the A1079 at Wilberfoss.

All this really cheered me up as I go to almost every Town Council meeting and none of this has been mentioned, so I wrote to our three ward Councillors to ask if they could provide me with more information. After two weeks I had not received a response.

I don’t give up easily, so I wrote last week to the promoter of the newsletter Cllr Leo Hammond. Last night he emailed to say he’d seen a draft response and he asked Cllr Kay West to reply to me.

At 8.45pm last night I was thrilled to see incoming mail from Cllr Kay.

Sadly, I cannot share the information with Bugle readers as she has gagged me.

THESE ANSWERS ARE NOT FOR PUBLIC DOMAINS AND ARE CONFIDENTIAL.

ONLY FOR THE RECIPITANT AND NOT BE REPEATED ORALLY OR WRITTEN.

I have to say that having seen the responses you aren’t missing much as she does not provide any evidence to support the claims in the newsletter.
It’s all rather vague. Meetings with officers are mentioned but no details given. There is certainly no indication of any leadership from any of them.

Some of you might find the above boring. Some will see it as an attack on long standing Councillors. I see it as a failure of local ward councillors to represent and engage with their community.

As always, your contributions and comments will be most welcome. Especially if you have evidence to support the claims of our three existing ward councillors.