Dear Sir, I feel obliged to respond to a letter by former Labour Councillor Arun Chandran who twice made reference to a serving Councillor living in Darlington. It is clear he was referring to is me. The stance he is taking on this matter amazes me as he has never raised it as an issue, even saying so personally to me just weeks ago because, in his words, I was an active Councillor regularly attending meetings.
In his letter he mentioned £9,000 of taxpayers’ money being spent on a possible future by-election. This comes from a man that once submitted to Newton News an artist’s impression of a large greenhouse with a proposal to the Council that money be spent building one and placing it in West Park. Another of his proposals was that up to a whopping £48,000 be spent on already existing pathways around Simpasture Park. Regarding comments made about myself and where I live, I have in the past dealt openly with this issue and made it clear to the public in this very paper what the rules are for out-of-town Councillors. When elected back in 2013 I was and had been a resident of this town for 40 years but in late 2014, due to personal reasons, I had to relocate to Darlington. There was no wrongdoing in this as Council rules state that Councillors should either live OR WORK within 3 miles of the town they are serving. For the past 7 years I have been working for Tesco.
This in fact ensures that I am working closely with the people of Great Aycliffe, keeping up to date with everything that goes on around our town, at the same time listening to people’s views and opinions and ready to help whenever I can. In addition I am also the founder and chair of the local group looking after the safety of the town’s children trying to deal with speeding and parking issues outside the town’s schools. Thus, over the course of my 4-year term I have been very active as a Councillor. This has been an honour. I will be standing in the Town Council elections this year and I hope to be able to continue to do so.
Cllr Paul Kjenstad
