Dears Sir,
Cllr. J.D Clare considered the bin collection debacle a, “drama”. I consider it a FARCE! Further, in almost 17 inches of column print he FAILS to apologise on behalf of himself, the Cabinet, the Council, or the local controlling Labour Group.
The residents and taxpayers affected by the debacle deserve better (than they have come to expect)! Instead, he thanks the Waste Service for running additional collections to recover the situation, to hide the Council’s incompetence (to our additional cost).
On the assumption that the operatives involved got paid for any additional hours worked, I think that local taxpayers have thanked them enough! Again, it is us who have to pay for the ruling Labour Group’s incompetence.
In World War I the soldiers at the front were described as, “Lions led by Donkeys”. Given the way that they responded to this farce, the Collection Operatives are the lions in this matter. Enough said?
For the record, I was advised in the Newton News to expect a letter if my bin collection dates were to change. That is, no letter, no change. Since most of the bins in Aycliffe Village were put out on the old, ‘wrong date’, I can only assume that most of the residents, like me, did not get a letter.
I resent the implication in Cllr. Clare’s letter that we all got a letter, but, we are illiterate! He admits having got a letter and having not read it properly! This is easier than doing the proper thing and saying, “the Council I sit on is not fit for purpose and as I can do nothing about it, I resign”.
This current farce is only the first in a long line of expensive farces overseen by the Unitary Authority (DCC) established by a Labour Government and constituted with a Cabinet System.
1) DCC found that, due to their incompetence it cost them about three times as much to run a care home than it did the profit making private sector. They shut the Council Care Homes.
2) They have installed inadequate ‘Tony Blair street lighting’ (Nice but dim) making a bus stop in Aycliffe Village probably the most dangerous place in the county to board a bus. Access to the bus being via. rough stone steps that are now completely unlit!
3) The Teaching Assistants ‘Over-payments’ farce.
By way of apology for the current bin fiasco perhaps Cllr. Clare could tell the tax paying electorate how much DCC’s ‘over-paying’ teaching assistants has cost the public purse, including over-paid salaries, NI contributions and index linked pension contributions. This, instead of blaming Government cutbacks for all of the DCC failures the taxpayer has endured under this Labour run Unitary Authority.
Yours sincerely,
Alastair P.G. Welsh,
Aycliffe Village
