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Thursday, April 16, 2009

By Alan W Collins on Thursday 16th April 2009 14:12 / 3 comments

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Serve the taxpayers

I READ with sincere anger the failure of Medway Council to uphold its own motto to “serve” its residents in Twydall.

I fear that the decision to refuse alley gates to residents plagued by antisocial behaviour is entirely political and a disgusting way to treat law-abiding, yet suffering, taxpayers.

Having recently seen the state of the alley in question myself, it is immediately obvious that there is a serious problem.

The obvious and most logical answer would be to gate the alleys at night – when most of the problems occur – whilst keeping them open during the day as a short-cut for residents.

One has to wonder why Medway Council has been dodging the best possible option for residents for eight years. Indeed, one has to wonder why it has not already changed its motto to, as someone once suggested, “serving who?”, as in this case it certainly is not those who need its help the most!

Alan W Collins,
Goudhurst Road, Twydall

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3 Comments

John Ward says:

Thursday 16th April 2009 at 21:15

Well, as we’ve been pedantic here recently, the revised motto might be proposed as: “Serving whom?”?

I hope that both the Portfolio Holder and one of the local ward councillors respond in the paper. It will be interesting to read what they say about this matter.
Paul Tring says:

Friday 17th April 2009 at 18:53

I hope that both the Portfolio Holder and one of the local ward councillors respond in the paper. It will be interesting to read what they say about this matter.”

John,
Yes there are quite a few residents who would also like to hear from the ward councillors especially given that in 2003 they claimed to support night time gating yet can’t quite bring themselves to support it now.Their concerns regarding a public right of way has also been addressed so it would be interesting to learn exactly what they are aiming to achieve by opposing every attempt to find a solution.
Likewise I wrote to the Portfolio Holder recently to explain the situation and gave details of the problems and what we have done in order to bring this to a close. His reply?

“Thank you for your e-mail, in which you raise a number of points, which i totally disagree with”

There was no attempt to discuss the points I raised, he merely trotted out the often repeated mantra of council officers that we hadn’t met the criteria for gating.This is obviously false because we have it in writing that we met the criteria for alleygates (2001) and council officers have also confirmed that the more recent crime survey supported a gating order.

It is always possible that Medway Council have a good reason for not wanting to find a solution to this problem in which case it would be nice if they could let the residents in on it.
A good example of the indifference shown to local residents was the article in last weeks paper in which a resident from outside the immediate area appears to have been informed of Medway Council’s intention to pursue a public right of way over the alleys.Unfortunately they have not shown local residents the same courtesy. So it looks as though Medway Council are prepared to spend taxpayers money taking this to the inevitable public inquiry to achieve something that residents had already agreed to.
Perhaps someone could explain how changing the status of the alleys from private to public will make any difference to the crime and anti-social behaviour that has been going on for years.The one certainty in all this is that residents will continue to push for measures to address these issues until something is done to address them.
For their part Medway Council have shown no interest in tackling these problems.
John Ward says:

Monday 20th April 2009 at 01:29

I am grateful for the further information in the foregoing comment.

This does make things a bit tricky, as I don’t wish to blunder in with general advice when they are specific matters on the go regarding this location, and I do not currently have access to council inside information.

A suggestion: perhaps Alan could liaise with a nearby Conservative Councillor who also sits on the relevant Scrutiny Committee for this subject ? Cllr Vaughan Hewett of nearby Rainham North ward. Alan’s local knowledge, and Vaughan’s proximity, could between them find a way forward that ? whatever happens in the end ? at least it will incorporate a remedy for the residents’ long-standing problems.

It’s what I’d do in the same circumstances, inviting Vaughan to visit the location in question (with Alan, in this case) and meet just a couple of local residents who could represent the affected people.

Any more than that and experience tells me that it would be too many voices and too little able to be achieved: two-on-two is perfect, as I have found in similar situations in this ward (well done, Ray and Eric, in one such situation, for working so well with us to get a good result. They know who they are!)

It’s just an idea; and you’d benefit from having a non-executive member of the council on-side.