On Friday we blogged here and sent out an action alert to all our supporters to lobby those responsible for Town Hall mismanagement. The two stories that caught our attention involved Three Rivers District Council giving their chief executive a day off a week, whilst on full pay, to ‘enjoy his musical interests’ and Herefordshire Council who had ordered a local resident, Brian Hubbard, to stop cutting ‘council’ grass.
Already this morning we have had replies from Cllr. Roger Phillips, leader of Herefordshire County Council, saying the following in response to our complaint that Herefordshire County Council was actively preventing a local taxpayer from cutting some public grass near his home:
“I was unaware of this situation and am following it up Monday morning. If people want to mow grassland and verges outside their homes as a general principal common sense would indicate no one or body should have a problem.”
Result! Thank you to Peter Anderton and Dennis Boot for lobbying Cllr Phillips and sending us the replies. It seems Cllr Phillips had no idea Town Hall busybodies were hectoring Mr Hubbard who merely wanted to cut some grassland close to his home. Hopefully Herefordshire Council will now get off Mr Hubbard’s back and allow him to continue his generous act of public service.
This just shows how we can quickly and effectively hold politicians to account as well as alerting senior councillors to the actions of their officer corps. If you know of any instance where your council is being heavy handed or wasting your money, email us so we can chase it up and hold the politicians to account.