Manor Leisure Consultation

You may have read that Fenland District Council recently chose to cancel the consultations about the proposed redevelopment of the Manor Leisure Centre which were due to be held on the Market Square and at the Leisure Centre last week. This is the message that was posted in a number of different social media posts and on Roy Gerstner's excellent blog: (please scroll below this for more comment)

There are a couple of questions that need to be asked about this including, sadly, about the leadership at Fenland District council.

Firstly, why was the consultation cancelled? The important phrase in the statement above is "necessary pre-election period restrictions". These pre-election periods are called purdah. I can't find Fenland's purdah guidance online (no surprise there), but you can see West Suffolk's here and they are the same across the country; they basically forbid Councils from "publicising the views of political parties, issuing press releases or promoting initiatives with quotes and photos from a particular councillor, which could be seen as unfairly promoting one political agenda over another."

I cannot in any sense see who was likely to be promoted in this consultation that would have created advantage to any party or candidate. We deserve a better explanation, including the specifics about why an election justified the postponement of the consultation. This can only delay any redevelopment that does take place (if it doesn't delay things, they aren't consulting properly). I know people are sick of the amount of time it takes Governments at every level to get things done - and this is an example of why.

Secondly, the statement here says that FDC forgot to let the Town Council know that they had decided to postpone the consultation. Firstly, it is an unforgivable oversight which on the surface is a comment about FDC's views of Town Councils in general or maybe just about Whittlesey Town Council. However, something does not ring true here. I remind you that we have a number of Cabinet Members at FDC that are also members of Whittlesey Town Council. I am willing to accept that the decision to cancel the event on purdah grounds was made by officers (even if I think it was a wrong decision). However, I cannot believe that the political leadership were not briefed, for that not to happen is simply unfathomable. So why didn't those cabinet members who are from Whittlesey tell the Town Council about the decision, especially as one of them is currently acting as the "Temporary Proper Officer of the Town Council"?

I have a leaflet going out in the next few days about my decision to stand for the Town and District Council by-elections. In it, I make a point that we don't need people that make promises about what they might or might not do, you all will have seen them and at the right time and place, they are important. This election is different, we urgently need to get on top of some of the issues at Fenland District Council and our Town Council NOW, and that takes somebody with experience. Who else amongst the candidates will understand what purdah is and would be able to challenge a decision like this?