Derby TaxPayers’ Alliance Organiser Dave Black has taken the fight to Derby councillors over their incompetent management of Derby council. In a letter to Derby newspapers he slates the council’s “barefaced effrontery” in claiming “they are improving services, when the most comprehensive cuts for a decade are ruthlessly imposed”. Again it’s a case of councils spending our money on bureaucrats and apparatchiks and not on services that make taxpayers lives so much better.
Dave is also calling for a directly elected Mayor, with executive powers, so taxpayers can know where the buck stops. Under the current system councillors pass the buck to the regional assembly who pass the buck to the MP and return you to the council. With a directly elected Mayor holding reserved powers over local policy, we can have more transparent government to know where our money is being spent. I will be meeting with Dave this week to organise a petition in Derby in support of an elected Mayor!
Dave’s full letter is below:
"Dear Editor,
BAREFACED EFFRONTERY
Councillor Williamson 3rd Sept in your opinion column, appears to be at odds with what is happening on the ground as Home Helps and Old Peoples Live at Home Services are pared to the bone. It is barefaced effrontery to claim they are improving services, when the most comprehensive cuts for a decade are ruthlessly imposed. Maybe it is because they are strapped for cash and the pigeons are coming home to roost, as I predicted as a candidate at this year's council elections.
It might also be pertinent to enquire at this point, what the hapless tory supporters in his cabinet are doing about this. If they had any gumption they would resign from the cabinet enbloc and bring down this useless bunch of self-serving hypocrites by voting with the wishy-washy lib-dems and so-called independents, these councillors who only appear to be there for the attendance money. They need to prove they can be useful for something.
Doesn't all this go in favour of my continuing campaign for an elected mayor with executive powers, someone who could sort out this bunch of no-hopers at a stroke. Bring on the next election, bring on the Taxpayer's Alliance, who will be endorsing candidates to make sure our taxes are spent on the real priorities and not on the grandiose schemes they have cooked up with the high rollers who are causing the daily gridlock in our city centre, in anticipation of a vast jackpot at our expense.
Dave Black,
Derby Organiser for the Taxpayer's Alliance."
Well done Dave! Dave is one of hundreds of TaxPayers’ Alliance activists who are standing up for taxpayers by getting involved in public debates. Whether it’s by writing a letter, calling a phone-in radio show or handing out leaflets, it all helps and keeps tax and spending issues on the political agenda.