Fighting Back

Written by Ian Galloway - County Councillor for Minehead and published in Publication - The Editor, West Somerset Free Press on Mon 21st Jan 2008

Dear Editor,

Last weeks edition of the Free Press (Your Letters) graced us with a contribution from Anthony Trollope-Bellew. He was bemoaning the financial management of the Liberal Democrat Administration at County Hall. A few weeks earlier Ian Liddell-Grainger had invited Free Press readers, via his column, to send him any of their horror stories about the Liberal Democrats at County Hall. Did the election start early and somehow I missed the starting pistol?

I know it's been said I am over fond of quotations, but both Anthony and Ian's contributions just beg comparison with the parable which teaches "do not take the splinter out of someone else's eye before you have removed the plank from your own" I can only assume that they are both desperate to divert attention away from the "pig's ear" that has been the Conservative's attempt over many years to prudently manage the relatively modest finances of a small District Council. Heaven knows what they would do if they were let lose on the County's finances.

As for Unitary; yes it did cost money to draw up a case for it, but this followed an invitation from central government, which made it quite clear that even if we were not selected we would still be expected to make the same savings that a Unitary Council would have provided. We owed it to people to try. At least we would have had five less, very expensive Chief Executives.

So in the one corner we have an independently assessed "Excellent" four star County Council and an award winning financial team and in the other corner, a now virtually bankrupt District Council whose future services to our community are likely to be severely constrained. The price for the latter will be borne by all of us who live in West Somerset.

I leave the readers of the Free Press to form their own conclusions about Anthony and Ian's considered financial opinions.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Galloway - County Councillor for Minehead