Don't you just love councillors!
Volunteers 'cut off' from having a say on Great Harwood regeneration plans (From Lancashire Telegraph)
A group of volunteers work hard for years to improve their locality and just when they finally start to get things moving, officialdom rears its ugly head and tells them that 'they are subsidiary', and that 'they are a sub group' of something called 'an area council'. For the unenlightened, an area council is a sub group that is subsidiary to the borough council, (which is pretty much, as a councillor, something else you can put on your expense forms for attending), unlike the subsidiary, sub group, local volunteers who are paid nothing yet are prepared to get their hands dirty, go out in the rain and try to do things that benefit the area where they live.
Now I know who I would trust between :-
a) a bunch of unpaid people who want to better their community and give their time and effort for free
and....
b) a bunch of overpaid planners and think tanks paid for and overseen by paid jobsworth councillors with a minority mandate (using my money, not their own)
I hasten to add that I have nothing to do with the community volunteers, I'm far too lazy, but I know that Great Harwood has a nice little thriving town centre with a nice variety of shops, a very cheap petrol station, three supermarkets and a mini supermarket. It's free from all the malaise of Accrington town centre, the local police station is active, high profile and very responsive, because in the main the council have left it alone, except when they decided to close the tip against all advice.
The market leaves something to be desired, but recently the monthly farmers market appears to be going from strength to strength...no doubt the 'subsidiary' and 'sub group' councillor Molyneux will claim responsibility for this, after all him and the Jones boy are always around for a photo shoot when things are going well but mysteriously disappear and go quiet when things do not.
Funny how a couple of years ago the usual labour suspects were on this board slagging off Britcliffe for using everthing as a photo opportunity, but it's all gone quiet since the labour council leader, and our MP are doing exactly the same, but in Spades!!