Charles Street meeting refusal was not democratic (From Dorset Echo)

Charles Street meeting refusal was not democratic

10:41am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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POLITICS is all about how politicians choose to spend our money and there is to be a General Election within the next few weeks.

Given that, I find it both extraordinary and undemocratic for the leader of West Dorset District Council to refuse to attend a public meeting to explain the decision to spend millions of our pounds on a new office block in Charles Street.

More so that it is on the grounds that the meeting ‘politicises the issue’ and is only being held as an election gimmick.

All political parties are electioneering because the General Election is imminent. What a sad apology for a democracy we’d be living in if they weren’t.

The public, who have never been consulted on the issue of new offices, have every right to hear a real debate from all parties on this major local issue as much as the many national ones.

It’s a pity that there isn’t a district council election this year too, because five minutes spent in Dorchester town centre would be more than long enough to confirm to any councillor just how important this issue is to all council tax payers in the county town and beyond.

Alistair Chisholm, Friary Hill, Dorchester