On the front page of The Voice on February 26, the headline article was titled ‘Hayes: Spalding has too many off-licences’.
That article indicated to me that our MP was clearly at odds with recent decisions made by the licensing committee, who are his local district council Conservative partners, which to mu mind was a very thinly-veiled rebuke of their recent granting of licences to sell alcohol, especially the one on Bourne Road, adjacent to the junction with Hawthorn Bank.
Given that there were numerous valid reasons to deny the application, not least of which were issues of safety, lack of parking opposite a busy T-junction, plus the fact that it would exacerbate the ongoing litter problem in Spalding.
Why did the licensing committee not take these issues into consideration when it was staring them in the face?
Lo and behold, in the following week’s edition of The Voice (March 5), up pops an article with Malcolm Chandler (chairman of the licensing committee) welcoming John Hayes’ offer to review legislation.
That is sheer unadulterated political spin, which could easily rival that of Alistair Campbell, who was Tony Blair’s arch spin doctor at the time of the Iraq war.
On reading that article, the word hypocrisy immediately sprang to mind. I hope I was not the only one having that opinion.
Now for some inconvenient truths regarding the licensing committee:
- the committee comprises of ten councillors and is led by Malcolm Chandler
- of the ten councillors, only two actually live in the PE11 (Spalding) postcode area, and neither of those live near to the off-licences
- Coun Chandler himself lives in Saracen’s Head, and along with the majority of the committee lives in the PE12 (Holbeach) postcode area, and are therefore unaffected by their own ill-advised decisions
During my research, I have contacted a number of local councillors to ask them about their stance on any controversial issue, an example being the Halley Stewart Playing Field. The replies I have received clearly indicate that many councillors are ‘territorial’, ie, unless any controversial decision affects their immediate locality, they will ‘nod’ it through without hesitation, and are unwilling to put their heads above the parapet.
Still on the subject of Malcolm Chandler, he is a member of the secretive South Holland District Council cabinet, headed by Gary Porter, who hatch their plots in camera, then present them in a brief overview to full council, following which they call for a vote.
The cabinet system was introduced into metropolitan, county and district councils during the Blair years, and was the brainchild of that Labour buffoon John (Two Jags) Prescott, enough said!
One final titbit of information about Chandler – in the financial year 2013/14 (the latest figures available) he was the fourth highest paid councillor, having received a total gross of £17,417.46 from the public purse (you and I).
Is he worth it? My answer is a resounding no.
Future bulletins will concentrate on other members of the cabinet.
I repeat once more that my ideal for the outcome of the elections in May would be a hung council. We, the electorate, have the power to achieve that by means of tactical voting.
However, remember, we only get this chance once every four years.
Finally, as per normal, all statements made above are in the public domain.
Gerry Hutchinson
Willder’s Garth
Holbeach
