Fresh from my in-box

Which South Tyneside councillor did we waste the money on?

Yes, I know I don’t find a great deal of time to pop in here these days to offer my thoughts, I guess it needs something of significance before I am stirred into action.

These emails which I received yesterday (see below) got me thinking – just how much cash have we spent in South Tyneside setting up e-government, equipping our elected councillors with a suite of PCs in South Shields Town Hall, another to take home, and even Blackberries so they can “stay in touch” when on the move? How much did we spend on training and advice for elected members?

Over the course of the years, I believe that I have written some things that I have been passionate about, issues which have stirred emotions and stirred others to take some action, amongst those issues some have sparked bigger reactions in the wider community and some may have had a little influence over the decisions which our council eventually took (certainly once TV cameras got involved). I refer to the threats to develop Temple Park, the cleaning up of Trow Quarry, and the cleaning and re-opening of Readhead’s Landing, with all of these topics I regularly emailed each and every one of our elected councillors, giving my views and seeking theirs in return.

Take a look at the screen grabs of these which arrived in my email in-box yesterday and try to figure out which Councillor cherished my emails so much that they held on to them for about six years, without even reading a single one! You will find the date that I sent them on the penultimate lines.

How well stuffed was their in-box, and how much money did the tax payers of South Tyneside waste on this councillor?

I won’t cause embarrassment by naming names, but just think on the next time you accuse South Tyneside Council of dragging it’s feet and taking years to make decisions – that there is probably a very good reason for it.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::