Dear Sir

I deliberately chose not to respond immediately to the (to put it politely) misinformation by Labour Leader Bob Fleming until after the By-election, but a response is required. Lest people think that false allegations go unchallenged. Facts do not cease to exist just because Bob tries to rewrite history and ignore them.

Fact 1 Bob Fleming did not became Leader in 1993 and Chairman of Finance replacing me.

Fact 2 John Dormer was Chairman of Finance 1991 to 1994, so when Bob said in 1993 he inherited a parlous financial situation in 1993; He was in fact Leader from 1991 through to 2000 and inherited it from himself and John Dormer.

I was Chairman of Finance 1994 to October 1995, Bob’s late and delightful wife Angela was my Vice Chairman at that time and she took over as Chairman in October 1995, when I resigned prior to leaving the Parish for a short while. So Bob neither myself nor your late wife Angela left the council’s Finances in any parlous state.

At the Full Council on 29th January this year Bob and his Labour cronies suspended Standing Orders so he could deliver a personal 21 minute sustained attack on me (and by defacto on Eddy Adam), immediately after that personal attack, they re-introduced standing orders so that no one else could speak for more than 5 minutes. To their credit, some Labour members did not vote for suspending the rules of debate.

Bob droned on at punishing length, you’d think that the law of averages would dictate that he’d have to say something interesting eventually, but somehow he defied mathematics.

I am also in full possession of the minutes and reports on the Council’s Finances before, after and including the 1993/94 accounts, which were set by Cllr. John Dormer, Angela Fleming and Bob in December/January 1994 before I and Angela took over and whilst Bob was Leader throughout.

Neither Angela nor myself took out any loans of 17.3%.

Nowhere does it state that any Councillors did anything wrong at anytime. Under Bob, Labour’s recent ignoring of Council rules after over 40 years of full observance has disconcerted staff and Councillors alike.

I proposed Bob for Honorary Freeman but as you can see we are no longer friends!

Dealing with a one party dictatorship is not easy. (Billy, I understand that WD40 is good for dealing with superglue if you find your lips stuck to someone’s posterior. I would suggest anyone interested, might ask Billy about mobile phones when he ran the Cubby Charity in the Town Centre).

Fortunately County and Town Council elections next year will enable the residents of Great Aycliffe to drain the swamp, again, like they did at the general election.

But beware, Labour will not give up without fighting very dirty, you only have to see the recent By-election to notice that.

Cllr Arun M Chandran

Independent