With reference to last week’s article “Row over park funding.”
Let’s make one thing clear – Surfleet Parish Council has never given Glen Park a penny. How could it? With an annual income of only just over £100 from the parish precept (22p per household per year) it relies on regular hand-outs from Surfleet United Charities to pay its bills.
So the parish council acts as a middleman for an unelected group who hold the Parish Council purse strings, effectively deciding how the money should be spent irrespective of what residents decide they want.
And since the majority of Surfleet United Charities’ trustees are either former or present parish councillors who have always been hostile to Glen Park, no surprise that the park has been denied proper financial support for 20 years.
As well as the obvious conflict of interest, this arrangement is undemocratic, wholly unsatisfactory and of questionable legitimacy.
However, there is a glimmer of hope that the new group of parish councillors, who don’t have a foot in both United Charities and Parish Council camps, might agree to support Glen Park through the parish precept – exactly as residents had voted for it to do two years ago.
Doug Whyles
Surfleet Play and Recreation Charity
(SPARC)
