Formal investigations have been launched against 14 Waverley Borough Councillors – and the list is growing by the day!
The council’s monitoring officer Herr Taylor has been investigating complaints, ‘we have ways and means of making you talk,’ the council’s standards panel heard recently. Some are still being investigated, including those against borough and parish councillors
Some have been accused of not disclosure of pecuniary interests which mean they were not in a position to make unbiased decisions!
However, the most common allegation levelled against Waverley councillors is their failure to “treat others with respect,” with the majority of complaints coming from one councillor against another, either verbally or in e-mails, or comments posted online. No prizes offered by the Waverley Web for guessing who this is?
Mr Taylor said, “electronic communications can be treated, and widely transmitted in just a few moments and then read and shared with an audience the original author may not have intended. This combined with the absence of tone of voice and context makes electronic communications far more likely to lead to complaints, than any other form, especially when sent in haste.”
Independent Investigators – are currently looking into three of the most severe allegations.
The Chairman of the Standards Board, Councillor Michael Goodridge, who prides himself on never having to stand in an election in his Wonersh ward, and regularly falls asleep during council meetings, doesn’t believe there is a problem at ‘Your Waverley.’ Surprise, surprise!
But then he can always be relied upon to sweep almost every Waverley wrongdoing under Waverley Tower’s carpets!
Our spiders are finding it difficult to find enough space to breathe under them, let alone procreate and increase our little band of arachnids.
Will it be the old boys club again, I have no faith that anything will come out of any investigations because there is no new brush to do a clean sweep as they say.
And there we were at the Waverley Web believing the new chief executive Tom Horwood when he said he would be dealing with complaints himself, if necessary to get at the truth.