One of the problems is that as soon as t'council is mentioned most of us immediately think of T Dan Smith-like corruption and backhanders.
Even the postman suspects that the regular delivery of brown envelopes he makes to councillors homes are full of used tenners rather than yet more agendas for even more meetings.
The problem I would suggest is not what t'council has actually been doing at Fort Whitfield but what the public's perception is of what has/has not been going on.
Look at what happened with flight MH370 where on May 1st the Malaysian government published a much-heralded report on the disappearance of the plane.
This turned out to consist of just five pages, containing little new information. But, as one government adviser admitted: "If we had got this out there in the first week, there wouldn't have been a nine-week drumbeat of everyone calling us lying bastards."
I really can't believe that members of our 'representative body' are purposefully trying to slow down/stop the redevelopment, although whether the erection of two sheds, one showing movies and the other selling M&S coffee, will pull Dover out of its economic death spiral is another matter!
Whilst I'm sure that Cllr Mills would have loved the opportunity to hang the Tories out to dry, both he, and the rest of his class warriors agreed that scrutiny would be the best way to investigate, in the open, what has been going on.
Though a public meeting with questions from the floor without notice would have had great entertainment value I suspect it would have generated more heat than light.
Cllr Mills has asked Shirley and/or others to contact him with details of what questions they want answered and by whom and is readily contactable (
cllrkevinmills@dover.gov.uk ).
In the words of the late great Tommy Cooper:-
Doctor, I can't pronounce my F's, T's and H's.
'Well you can't say fairer than that then'
Off to bathe in the tears of poor children who have had their toys taken away due to unnecessary austerity measures .............
