Unitary Status Disgrace
Objection to Exeter City Council Tactics
(Sent 14th May 2009)
This email included scanned images of the front and back of a City Council card distributed throughout Exeter. While it was necessary for the Boundary Committee to see it in order to make sense of my objection, I hesitate to display the images here. Tens of thousands were delivered to the public by local government funded by taxpayers, so it would be reasonable to assume the card is in the public domain. Nevertheless, to be absolutely certain there is no breach of possible copyright, description of its content replaces the images on this website.
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From: Jim Harle
To: reviews@boundarycommittee.org.uk
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 4:54 PM
Subject: Objection to Exeter City Council Tactics
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Dear Review Manager,
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Unitary Status Options Within Devon
Objection to Exeter City Council Tactics
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MAKE YOURSELF HEARD
www.letskeepitlocal.co.uk
SPEAK UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
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Below this is the Council’s name and logo.
To the right of the text above is an image of a seated lady holding a placard bearing the words, “REAL PEOPLE”.
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To the left is a panel consisting of two panes.
The upper pane contains explanation.
The lower pane has two tick boxes:
o I support the case for two unitary councils -
o I agree to my details being added to the Let’s Keep it Local on-
(Followed by space to enter Name, Address and Postcode -
In the bottom margin -
On the right is the FREEPOST address:
Let’s Keep it Local, FREEPOST EX523, Exeter City Council, Civic Centre, Paris Street, Exeter EX1 1AZ
Below this is the Council’s name and logo.
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I am uncertain about the legality of the distribution of biased cards throughout Exeter by the City Council, but I strongly object to this tactic whether within or outside the law. It strikes me as an attempt to pervert the democratic process. The use of taxpayers’ money to fund the Council’s own political interests to which I, and many others in Exeter, cannot agree, seems highly immoral. The front and back of the A5 card are shown above.
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It may be that Exeter City Council (ECC) is acting within the rules, but if this is the case, I am convinced the rules are wrong. Expenses claimed by MPs might have been ‘within the rules’, but the damage done to public confidence in democracy by those rules when inappropriate or abused has been immense.
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The Boundary Committee has been given rules by central Government which similarly mock democracy. In Devon, we are not given a democratic choice, but are forced to choose between two options. Neither fits the current economic climate, and both are buying a pig in a poke. Practically everyone with whom I speak who has an opinion seems keen to maintain the status quo at this point in time, yet we were told this is not an option. We are being coerced and rushed into ‘change for change’s sake’. What sort of democracy is that?
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The Boundary Committee itself seems in a most unenviable position between a rock and a hard place. Central Government will not allow it to offer a full range of options, and the public does not respect dictatorial government presiding over the demise of democracy. Government is showing all the signs of a death wish.
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The cards distributed in Exeter are totally undemocratic, offering only the option
to ‘support the case for two unitary councils – one for the Greater Exeter area and
the other for rural Devon’. Were ECC even-
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Unsurprisingly, there is only one option available from the ‘Have your say now’ tab on the Council’s ‘letskeepitlocal.co.uk’ website. We can have our say, but only if we say what the Council wants us to say. It is profoundly deaf to all else.
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Those who return the FREEPOST cards pay nothing, but such postage is not free. It is taxpayers’ who foot the bill, whether they like it or not. As is usual with ECC, we get no choice in the matter. The Council does whatever it likes, at times doing terrible damage to the community and our children. That is why the Summerway Campaign exists. For details, please click this link and access our YouTube videos from my website.
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Just out of interest, what proof is there of ECC’s assertion on the cards that, “A single Devon unitary of 750,000 people would give you the worst democratic representation in the country”? I would have thought that nothing could be worse than the complete lack of representation experienced by Summerway Junior LTC and myself, as displayed towards us by our bullying City Council. It’s not the quantity, but the quality of representation that counts. If it exists at all, that is.
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Yours sincerely,
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Jim Harle.