Coun Benson Ferrari, Independent town councillor for Leominster, says hard to get answer from our council (From Hereford Times)

Coun Benson Ferrari, Independent town councillor for Leominster, says hard to get answer from our council

3:00pm Monday 7th May 2012 in Letters

MANY residents are becoming increasingly concerned by the difficulty they are having in getting answers from many of Herefordshire Council’s newly contracted partners.

As town councillors, we respond to residents’ concerns, often by referring issues onto the relevant local authority. We continually follow these up on behalf of residents until a resolution is provided.

With the increasingly chaotic and disjointed structure of Herefordshire Council, and the many ‘partner’ organisations to which it contracts out services, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get answers to residents’ queries.

I have failed to receive responses from a number of services and partner organisations on important town issues, yet it is even more complicated to challenge the performance of these services when they fail to meet reasonable standards.

Contact details that are provided are vague, many staff seem unaware of their exact remit and issues are passed from person to person without resolution. This is not a failure of hard working grassroots staff, but rather that of strategic leadership. Where is our value for money?

We need a change in democratic governance as soon as possible, to begin opening up Herefordshire Council to the scrutiny of the local public again.

Our elected representatives know that they are letting us down in these areas, being caught up in petty squabbles. We need individual conscience and collective transparency, freeing up decision-making from party allegiances.

COUN BENSON FERRARI, Independent Town Councillor for Leominster