| Topic: | : STENCH of the TORIES PREVAILS | |
| Posted by: | Steve Taylor | |
| Date/Time: | 26/09/11 12:46:00 |
| " I have no doubt that all Councillors voted in a manner they thought best at the time: they just didn't have the best advice to hand to make an informed decision and deferral would have been the best option while they equipped themselves with this. They also allowed themselves to be bullied by the Thames Water rep. " Jon - I would 'possibly' agree with this if the Tory Group hadn't in fact all voted NO initially. They were provided with the best advice from an environmental scientist and a statement from residents' solicitors which could be construed as an escape clause for them if in any doubt. They were fully aware of the facts of the mismanagement over the previous two decades and the fact that the environment dept had not addressed the problems so it it inconceivable that they allowed themselves to be bullied by the two Thames reps and indeed by the LBH senior officer recommending approval when it was clear to all that she had not raised the most important issues with Ofwat prior to recommending approval. But lets also not forget that this thread was started by Cllr Todd in a futile and rather pathetic attempt to goad Phil Andrews. This backfired terribly and proved yet again that Cllr Todd has limited understanding of the issues and did not quite understand what was going on at the public meeting regarding the Entec survey. He clearly missed entirely the points raised by Barry Edwards, Phil Andrews and myself at that meeting where it was elaborately stressed by Barry that there was supposed to be resident and independent expert participation in drawing up the parameters for the survey. The survey was in fact conducted contrary to what was agreed for the S106 and is in itself not fit for purpose. It is not what residents expected and not what was agreed. It was paid for and conducted effectively by Thames Water. Cllr Todd has been repeatedly asked if he supports residents or if he supports Thames Water but he refuses to answer this simple question. One can only question why he spent so much time in the High Court of Justice watching the trial and X-exam of expert witnesses and Thames Water executives and why he refuses to reveal his true colours. |