The Leader of Gateshead Council is very angry. His response to Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association at the last council meeting reflects that. He said that he answered 24 questions from residents in November 2005, 18 in February 2006, 7 in March 2006 and this month a further 22 had been submitted. Curiously enough none had been ruled out of order by the Mayor.
So Gateshead's leader wants a limit on democracy. It is understandable from his perspective. Few of the supine elected representatives dare to ask constituent questions and most matters go through with barely a nod and wink. Residents questions on this occasion amounted to the same question but categorised to make it easy to answer. Basically we wanted to find out how much the council had paid for demolition versus renovation with pathfinder funds, how many houses had been bought and how many council officers were being paid by pathfinder.
We got one answer. The council had bought 37 houses this year in Saltwell and Bensham - so only 403 and left to buy!
However the leader then went off piste with a series of meaningless eye watering statistics that were neither specific or anything to do with the questions. He said £50 million this and £200 million that and 95% of the other. The £50 million referred, it seems, to all of BridgingNewcastleGateshead up to 2008 but how much would be spent in Saltwell and Bensham was, shall we say, a little vague. Some 1340 properties would have "improvements" but this could just mean the local environment rather than a grant for double glazing.
He said things like all the neighbourhood plans were agreed by residents without mentioning only 25% of residents in Saltwell and Bensham supported the plan.
The leader concluded with a range of sweeping generalisations.
He was so angry. The subtext of the statement was that councillors know best and how dare you ask us questions.
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