During the past few months I’ve had casework that involves Lincolnshire County Council and it’s not been a happy experience.
Information is hard to extract, sometimes misleading and the default answer to any request seems to be a polite form of “No, go away and stop bothering us”.
This is admittedly not entirely their fault.
Government financial support given to Lincolnshire is being heavily cut.
I’m told that our county budget in the next year may be half what it was just two years ago and that Lincolnshire is one of the worst hit councils in the country.
This is a terrifying prospect, libraries and local rubbish recycling points will be just the tip of a very big iceberg.
There will be knock on effects for district councils too. All this at a time when our population and thus demand for services is rapidly growing.
We have a Conservative MP and a Conservative-led council, even a district council leader who heads the Local Government Association in London.
They are fond of saying that this is some sort of advantage when it comes to funding from central government.
It seems to me that being a strongly Conservative district in fact does exactly the opposite. We are taken for granted, in the same way that banks, energy suppliers and insurance firms regard loyal customers as prime targets for price increases. Ordinary people are being punished for the ineptitude of politicians and the greed of the financial industry.
Local politicians who claim they have influence in high places must start to use it, even if it goes against their party policy and all of us have to become a lot more vocal in our opinions about how poorly the present administration treats rural areas like ours.
This boat is one that needs rocking.
Coun Paul Foyster
Chairman
UKIP South Holland and District
