Hi All, Following yesterdays Boycott of the meeting, to explain the reasoning ..... we knew that they would vote down the motion to force the Council to look at the Impact of the Implementation of the Policy, in respect of the significant financial impact on families, numbers of passes purchased in comparison to free passes purchased in previous years, the impact of the removal of the subsidy has had on provision to all students and how bus and train operators have responded, the impact on the take up of spaces at Northumberland Schools and Colleges in comparison to those taken up out of County, by numbers of children, by each ward, and the actual savings made in comparison to those predicted by the powers that be at NCC. They do not want to look at this, they do not want us to have this information. They will not act on it in any event, as there is no democratic process in existence in the current council leadership. they refuse to lose face, admit their mistakes in rushing through this policy. yes savings need to be made but there are other non mandatory areas where savings can be made. As a peaceful protest group acting on behalf of all Parents in Northumberland, we have persistently attempted to meet with the leader of the council and be heard- to no avail. In spite of meetings with Officers of the council transport dept. many families in real need (ie those not on benefits, those who are in receipt of small amount of working tax credit, or those who work, receive borderline low income and in receipt of no other help, are still struggling, and are still not being heard. We have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in the current NCC leadership who are running our public services like a dictatorship. All labour councillors have to toe the policy line, the so called independents either abstain, fail to turn up, or indeed follow the labour party line for fear of removal of extra responsibilities or on the promise of gaining extra responsibilities. Corruption is rife within the current council. Parents, teachers, youth workers are being bullied and threatened (some in relation to their continued employment) for being active members of this group. We have submitted many complaints through scrutiny committee, the monitoring officer, corporate complaints officer, Ombudsman - none of which seem to have either any interest in the parents, the public, the electorate. Its high time this council was presented with a motion of No Confidence, and overall we need different people as Councillors, we need more younger members, more members who are parents, who live in the real world and who are directly affected by decisions made. We, the public will never be heard until these changes take place. It appears that all our efforts so far have simply been going through the motions so to speak, it didnt matter what we did, how much whining or harping on (in the words of our council leader) we did they were going to run mock debates to pacify us, but nothing was going to change. In an effort to move forward, I call on all opposition parties to help us change the council.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 07:47:06 +0000
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