Yet again you make a fair point about party politics and local government Condate.
I wouldn't place too much credibility in Wheels's definition of the role of a local Councillor. All on this forum know that he has a heavy, vested, personal pursuit in preserving the local political status-quo. His situation in local government terms would undoubtedly be described as having..."a conflict of interest." Even, bearing this in mind it is often beyond the wit of most of us, to decipher his philosophical, Joyceian, meanderings.
As for your allegation Franz, that this forum is full of moaners and whingers. There are many amongst us I am sure ( I am such a one) who feel eternally grateful to the people who set up and manage this website, as it is the only vehicle that gives us the opportunity to engage with our neighbours in a free and candid interchange.
Neither should it go unmentioned that this forum was set up independently by our own neighbours in our own community and that the council (to their shame) have never made any kind of contribution to it.
Which once again reminds me. It has been said many times before, I know, but why in all the years, with all the vast and various issues that we have had in Marple, have our local representatives been conspicuous by their absence on this forum? It is nothing short of disrespect to their own electorate.
Perhaps with your IN position, you know the answer Wheels?
Even better, perhaps one of our six elected representatives, sitting out their could offer a view.
Or perhaps you do admin?
That's an old but interesting question
@simonesaffron. Worth breaking out into a new thread I think.
I know that some of our councillors view the site as they have spoken to me about particular threads. I think the overriding reason they don't use it is fear of being drawn into nonproductive arguments with unknown (anonymous) people that would drag on and on and they couldn't (be seen to) win. Some of them are also not confident with the IT side of things.
The answer to those problems I think is to have some clear guidelines.
We do have exceptions though. Former
@Councillor Kevin Dowling did (does) have an account and posted 4 times in 2012.
In the past we have also had candidates use the site to promote themselves coming up to election time.
@Carl Rydings was one and
@OliverJohnstone was another.
In this day and age when councillors have their own web sites, Face Book pages and twitter accounts, and are much more Internet savvy, I think it's a shame that they don't make a better use of this platform. It is especially disapointing to me that I've seen at least one using Streetlife, which has the potential to destroy this community forum and many others like it across the country.
I was very pleased that
@William Wragg,
@Michael Taylor and
@DarranPalmer did use the forum during last year's elections and I would like to offer help and support to any of our existing councillors and any prospective councillors taking part in the May elections, when we face significant changes to the dynamics of our team of 6 with the retirement of Cllrs Alexander and Candler.
One of our May election candidates
@JohnBates has registered as a user and of course it is possible that others have personal accounts on here that I wouldn't expose even if I knew.
Note: to view the posts of the individuals I've named click their @name hyperlink in the text of this reply.
