General Discussion

For months now, the minutes of Dawlish Town Council – hang on, this is gripping stuff! – have recorded that members of the public who attend council meetings do nothing but complain.

In fact, the handful of electors who bother to turn up have raised a lot of issues, such as SKATE PARK for the kids, the fate of the ‘missing’ SWANS and the iniquitous spy cameras.

They have all been recorded in the minutes as ‘complaining’ about this, that and the other.

How very odd, therefore, that in January the Local Government Ombudsman – an organisation staffed entirely by former senior local government officers – told councils how to silence ‘difficult’ complaints. This advice gave councils, including Dawlish, official licence to marginalize or ignore ‘complaints’ who won’t go away.

Councils now have official sanction to brand such taxpayers – who are also electors, of course – as ‘unreasonably persistent complaints’. Once that has been done, neither councillors nor the town clerk need answer any more questions – not that Dawlish does now.

But don’t bother going to the next council meeting to complain about these draconian measures; you will not be allowed to speak. At least not until the meeting has officially closed and members have gone home.

Such is democracy in this neck of the woods. But at least the 16 members of Dawlish Town Council can point to the fact that they enjoy the support of 8.5% of the electorate. None of them ought to complain about that.