We have received some complaints about this blog.
Cllr Glazier felt the references to him were "untrue, misleading and disrespectful" and "misleading, offensive and disrespectful".
The parish council objected that (1) the blog did not make it clear that it was not published by the council and that it represented only the views of the authors, (2) it did not offer the right of reply and (3) there were factual inaccuracies.
On (1), it appears that the notice displayed at the top of the blog went unnoticed. This says "The latest news on the activities of this Council from Winchelsea ward councillors, Ben Chishick and Richard Comotto. These are not necessarily the views of other councillors or the council."
On (2), the comments function was also unnoticed.
On (3), we were subsequently informed that: (a) the cost of the recording equipment was not £1,100 but £746, (b) the cost of the community noticeboards erected in Icklesham and Rye Harbour was not £280 (this was an extra cost of installation): the total was in fact £1,520! and (c) the Asset Register has been "maintained" since 2005/06, having been shown to councillors for comments in October 2005.
We apologise for the error on the cost of the recording equipment and accept that the council spent £1,520, not £280, on two community noticeboards. But on the Asset Register, we beg to differ. This was shown to councillors but was never seen again until the last meeting. Nor does it appear to have been finalised, given the corrections that were still necessary.
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The comment concerning the asset register is incorrect. The Parish Council has had an asset register for at least the last six yaers as confirmed by the Deputy Clerk who has maintained it for this period of time. One of the major reasons for maintaining an asset register is to ensure the Parish Council is adequately covered by its insurance in respect of those assets and this has been correctly done for many years now. It should alos be noted that an asset register is always subject to change as the Parish Council acquires new assets or makes alterations to others. It is quite wrong to imply any mismanagement as in fact assets are well managed and the Council has had a programme of improving these as resources and Council tax allow. Steve Foreman, Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer to Icklesha Parish Council
ReplyDeleteSteve
ReplyDeleteThe asset register was not signed off by councillors, so it was in draft form only. Surely, best practice is to for the council to review the register annually and for the register to be easily available to councillors, if not also the public. The corrections made recently were not new assets. As for the management of council assets, this has improved enormously under your stewardship but it has not always been so. For example, look at the time it has taken to get round to cleaning public benches. More than 12 years! And what happened to the council's laptop, brushcutter and strimmer? Also look at the appalling state of Pear Tree Marsh, the fence around the Cricket Field allotments and the Strand bus shelter (even before the current spate of vandalism). All from before your time of course and so no criticism of you.