Thursday 4 September 2014

The poisoned chalice - maybe the first of many!

I must admit to some sympathy for Labour councillor David Norman who has responsibility for Adult Social Care and Housing in the Rainbow Cabinet. It now falls to him to placate the justified angst and worries of the residents of the Town’s Tower Blocks following the premature, ill advised and self promoting quotes made by some of his cabinet colleagues, to include his Leader Ian Gilbert, on the apparent aspirations to demolish the blocks. As I am sure David will be the first to accept these comments and the linked posing for photographs in the local press were at the very least unwise! As I have mentioned previously these blocks represent home to a significant number of residents and to start making public pronouncements as to their possible demolition at a stage where no plans have been prepared, funded or discussed is simply unfair. Quite rightly the residents are calling for clear and detailed clarification of their position and I am sure that David will be suitably comforting but to the best of my knowledge he did not cause this problem and perhaps we should expect an apology from those responsible for causing the distress in the first place. Of course any administration worth its salt will consider whether the blocks provide suitable accommodation and will consider all options. However this should be done confidentially until any viable alternatives have been established and worked up on at least a preliminary basis at which time residents can be properly consulted – preferably before the local press! I would like to think that this situation will not happen again but with some members of cabinet having an obvious thirst for self publicity I fear that it may.

2 comments:

  1. "...perhaps we should expect an apology from those responsible for causing the distress in the first place."

    That would be one Cllr Flewitt, who leaked council emails and put about leaflets claiming that the tower blocks were to be demolished, then...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matthew

    Thank you for your comment. I have not seen the e mails/leaflet you are referring to and in particular do not know when they were sent/distributed however I previously commented on the issue in my entry on 18th July which followed Ian Gilbert's photo session. If the members of the Administration put a proposal like this out then it is wholly appropriate for the oppposition to draw this to the public's attention and to rasie their concerns. What members of cabinet must understand is that as leading members of the administration in power they have an obligation to avoid a situation like this happening. With power comes responsibility!

    ReplyDelete