Email to ECC Assistant Chief Executive
This email, sent 9th December 2010, was in reply to the letter dated 1st December from Bindu Arjoon, the Assistant Chief Executive. The email was copied to the Chief Executive, the Director of Community and Environment, and the Leisure Manager, as reference to these officers was made in the email. The Leisure Manager’s copy failed to be delivered.
Dear Ms Arjoon
Clues to Underlying Causes of Public Apathy
towards Government
Thank you for your well-
I hope your letter is not regarded as the sum total of Mr Bostock's response to my concerns. The Chief Executive has passed you a hot potato. While not being able to attend the meeting of the Executive Committee on 23rd November was indeed an issue, my primary issues are the discrepancy between what should happen and what does happen, perceived contradiction between the Council's words and actions and the way we have been bullied.
Before the events pertaining to the Summerway Junior LTC, I had no idea of the City Council's capacity for wanton destruction and damage to children and community. I was aware of public attitudes towards local government, but they didn't hit home until the Councils' debacle radically affected my life. I had been helping at the Club since 1981 as a volunteer, John and Linda (the honorary coaches) even longer, and Exeter City Council certainly showed how much it disparaged our services to the community. Consultation has been claimed, but no meaningful consultation took place with the Club. Officers were dictatorial and inflexible on issues essential to the Club's viability. Only an understanding of what has been lost to the City and a thorough investigation of all existing documentary evidence will reveal the extent of the Council's mishandling of this issue, an investigation no doubt unwelcome to those responsible.
The Leisure Manager's and the Environment and Community Director's repudiation of rigour and refusal to respond to our points and questions precluded a satisfactory solution. This unwillingness to deal fully with issues, the cosy relationships revealed, the closing of ranks and unilateral burying of matters without closure ensures that the Summerway saga continues to fester. Council officials seem guilty of a serious lack of professionalism.
The letter to the Chief Executive requires proper homework. In view of past failures, it isn't good enough to extract and respond to a tiny minority of its content and consider the matter concluded. This would only reinforce the earlier laziness and poor understanding shown by officers in Community and Environment. I request again that Mr Bostock thoroughly investigates the democratic failures and items to which I have pointed. There are wrongs which need to be set right. These require a rigorous and reparative approach. The utopian and unrealistic actions adopted by the Council towards Summerway smacks of folly and bad judgement. Please examine the facts.
My letter of 23rd and this present one should be taken together in their entirety. An arrogant or strictly authoritarian response is unlikely to be helpful in the circumstances. I seek your goodwill in dealing with these matters.
Yours sincerely
Jim Harle
SJLTC Membership Secretary