I was saddened yet not surprised to read your story in last week’s publication about the row that erupted in the Peasedown Parish Council meeting recently. 

However I’m not surprised because this is the kind of behaviour Peasedown residents have come to expect from their Parish Council. An institution that is increasingly out of touch with people, makes decisions without any public consultation, has no mandate whatsoever from the electorate and a group of people who seek to call themselves ‘councillors’ when none of them have earned the title. 

I think as we progress further into the 21^st century Peasedown residents need to ask themselves certain questions – does Peasedown still need a Parish Council? Does this 52 year old institution fit in with life in modern Peasedown? Could the £82,000 they get each year be better spent? – for instance an extra £20,000 for the School, £10,000 for the Youth Club and £10,000 for Highways improvements etc. People are turned off politics because of the amount of bureaucracy that evades public life – is this a layer of bureaucracy that could be cut?

Peasedown St John has changed radically in recent decades and is not the same place it was when the Parish Council was formed in 1955. I’m sure that at the time the new creation was relevant to public life and served a worthy purpose but we are now approaching 2008 – the world is a different place and people’s needs have changed. The residents of Peasedown St John need to make a decision – is it now time for that much needed change?

Your faithfully,

Nathan Hartley (Cllr)

Liberal Democrat, Peasedown St John