Cllr Richard Gale Rutland Council unedited letter Rutland Times.
BELOW IS THE LETTER SENT TO THE PRESS, BOLD ITALICS WERE EDITED OUT BY THEM. IS THIS HONEST REPORTING?
Cover-up, lies, avoidance and concealment are all words that easily come to mind with this current Rutland County Council dispute.
There are good reasons why we need to know the circumstances for a senior employee to be “suspended for an indefinite period” and then within hours takes his own life. We need to see that the process had been correctly followed for his suspension and that the services we provide are not affected.
There are good reasons why we need to see the recorded minutes of arranged meetings with outside organisations, particularly when there is discussion of land transfers, sales and substantial planning approvals. Good reasons that we have the necessary information in order to make a decision that could result in spending £Millions.
There is NO good reason for this dispute to have escalated to its present level. If we had had leadership that insured ALL councillors were fully informed, leadership that does not continually attack those asking the ‘difficult questions’. Councillors have a duty and responsibility to ask such questions to satisfy themselves that they are being given all the correct and relevant information to make decisions to spend public money.
It is very unfortunate that we have lost trust with the Council Leadership and those that seek privilege in order to attack us without good reason. We can demonstrate that lies have been told, this was shown on the TV program ‘Inside Out’ when the public were wrongly informed we had been given the documents we had asked for.
The police seem to be cosily ‘in bed’ with the Council and give support to its harassment of us. Yet no-one has found us guilty of anything. We have spoken with the Police and all they seem to want to do is send us threatening letters. Do they understand that we do not yield to threats when we are doing nothing more than represent the community.
The Minister for Communities states that it is illegal to use public money to take us three councillors to court for alleged defamation. We know at least £46K has been used, who gave that advice? Who is going to repay the money? Or is that too going to be written off?
An Independent external open and transparent Investigation is the only way to get the truth and honesty we seek. We are very tired of Cllr. Begy’s mis-use and mis-interpretation of information that the public do not have access to.
