October 14: Consulting without talking to us
Apparently there has been a consultation between the WNJPU and Northamptonshire residents about the Emergent Core Strategy and its thousands of houses.
I struggled through a lot of the strategy documents and found that I then had questions to ask about it (not least as to whether the authors of the document actually know how to write plain English).
Along with interested friends, I have attended meetings about the plans, but have never heard any member of the WNJPU answer a single question straightforwardly about them.
Neither would they consent to meet representatives of over 300 protesters who handed in petitions on September 29.
On September 6, 2009, I wrote a letter addressed to "all WNJPU Committee Members" asking for answers to the questions I have.
So far I have received neither acknowledgement nor reply. So I copied the letter personally to Councillor Tony Woods asking for answers. Guess what? No reply!
No-one I know has received any answers to letters either.
In my dictionary part of the definition of "consultation" is "a meeting for discussion".
Why is Councillor Woods so afraid of communicating with the people he is selling down the river? (Literally, considering the flooding problems of Northampton.)
Anne Jones,
Holbein Gardens, West Hunsbury, Northampton.
The great fire sale is a disaster
History records the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675 and nearly 350 years later the Conservative administration makes history again with the Great Fire Sale of 2009.
Both started by bright sparks, the latest known as the Conservative Party at the county council. While the effects this time are not quite so damaging it is, nevertheless, nothing short of another disaster.
Failure to listen to anyone else is the strong suit of this administration and it is costing Northamptonshire's council tax payers dear. Liberal Democrat advice to get on with the sale of redundant school sites as individual lots was ignored and what should have been sold for over 90 million is now going for a comparative song, while the staggering level of debt continues to mount up (2,400 per Northamptonshire resident and rising).
Heaven help us if interest rates start to rise!
Land sold for a fraction of the price that it could and should have, makes cuts to services inevitable and of a scale that will become clear over the next four years.
This is something they chose not to tell the electors about in June's elections. I wonder why? Closing residential care homes for the elderly is just the beginning.
Yet another major failure from the Conservative council's poor management of the county council but one which compares so similarly to the mess they made of Northampton's finances when they led the "World's Worst Council". Let us hope that the unconvincing George Osborne does not learn anything from Northamptonshire's Tories!
David Garlick,
Liberal Democrat Councillor, Headlands Ward, Northampton Borough Council.
Forget academy, try discipline
After reading all the arguments over the introduction of the academy system in Northampton, I think that the spurious reasoning for introducing them really beggars belief.
The reason for bringing them in (so the pro-academy lobby reasons) is to up the level of learning. This is just not the case.
The reason why a school fails is usually down to one main reason, the lack of discipline and order in that institution. Whenever a failed school has been turned round, the head responsible always gives the same reason: Discipline.
Since the PC brigade and “guardianistas” have prevailed in this country, respect and discipline have become dirty words. If a child comes home moaning that their teacher has done or said something, the parent should first ask why did the teacher admonish the child, not spring to the child’s defence like a robot.
Usually there has been a good reason for the admonishment.
I can remember that if I was late home from school after being kept back for detention my father would require an explanation from me, then invariably he would punish me as well.
What happens now is that the parent immediately wants to sue the school. In the meantime the teacher is suspended and the other parents jump on the bandwagon and blame them as well, as the recent case in Suffolk proved.
So, forget academies or anything else. Let’s bring back some order and discipline into the education system.
Doug Buckle,
Kentstone Close, Northampton.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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