Dear Robert Ronson, Stephen Rock and Barbara Ronson…
Mar 26th, 2009 by David
I’ve just used www.writetothem.com to send my local councillors the following email:
Dear Robert Ronson, Stephen Rock and Barbara Ronson,
I’m emailing to express my concern at the lack of support for the Friends of Lever Park in their efforts to stop the commercialisation of Lever Park.
Bob Dootson has led a magnificent campaign to try and stop the Go Ape development and he has been very publicly supported by Lindsay Hoyle MP and Ruth Kelly MP. However, grassroots support from local councillors in Horwich, Rivington, Chorley and Adlington has been poor.
Indeed, lack of vigilance by local representative groups (especially Rivington Parish Council, Rivington Heritage Trust and Rivington and Brinscall Advisory Group) allowed the development to proceed when clearly a large majority of people were very much against the development.
Despite providing the local government ombudsman with a dossier of written evidence which provided damning evidence of maladministration by Chorley Council, and which was only countered by evidence even Chorley had to admit was ‘here-say’, it looks like the ombudsman will not hold Chorley to account.
You will be aware the Lever Park was gifted to the people of Bolton by Lord Leverhulme. Although it lies within the boundary of Chorley, most of the visitors are your constituents from Horwich and Chorley.
At the moment, none of the users of Lever Park has any voice in its future.
So I’d like you to contact your colleagues in Rivington, Adlington and Chorley and join forces with the local MPs and start to work together to ensure that the people of Chorley and Bolton have an effective voice in the future development of this peaceful and tranquil area.
Yours sincerely, David Pott
I’ll let you know if they respond. Meanwhile, why don’t you email your councillor, MP or even MEP? Its very easy and its free!
Well done David. It would be pointless me writing to the councillors involved because I live outside the area and they do not represent me. So I’ve been on to the “writetothem” website as you suggested and have chosen to write to Baroness Andrews in the House of Lords as she seems to have an interest in local government issues and the Ombudsman. I have asked her to let me know who else would be interested in this “alleged maladministration” and I shall then write to to them. If she doesn’t respond then I shall just “blanket cover” all the Lords who appear to have an interest. The more the merrier and I hope that everyone who cares either writes a letter or sends an email in support of the campaign to either a local counsellor, a minister or a member of the House of Lords.
Local government and former local government officers may be closing ranks but that doesn’t mean we have to give up.
It had to be said David, and I think a very succinct email, one which should prick a conscience or two if not provoke a reply. I would very much like to echo your sentiments and add that I too am extremely dissapointed by the lack of support during our campaign, and moreover the empty gestures that “they were working behind the scenes on our behalf”. Well I for one can’t think of anything that came from behind the scenes to help us. Better luck next time with a new set of councillors that have some b###s.
I’ve sat in on Planning Application considerations and heard comments from so called democratically elected Cllrs. who are supposed to be unbiased either way. Comments such as ‘We’ve messed these applicants about long enough’ and ‘We’re going to lose this one if we’re not careful’. What sort of unbiased attitude is that?