Council transparency row: Rother ‘is a democratically elected dictatorship’

Cllr Sam Souster, Leader of the Labour Group says the ‘damning’ letter has damaged Rother District Council and says Council Leader Carl Maynard should ‘come out and explain’.

The Rye councillor told the Observer: “Cllr Maynard should be accountable to the council and local electors and come out and explain this.

“It is a damning response from a Government Minister.

“The future of the council has been damaged by this.

“There is arrogance on the part of some councillors. People have never held their hands up.

“You can see how serious this is when you have a Conservative Minister slamming a Conservative-controlled council.”

Cllr Souster went on to criticise Cllr Maynard’s reply to Mr Hopkins’ letter.

He said: “It is outrageous that Carl Maynard is complaining in the letter about the Minister raising this close to an election.

“The fact is that if they have done something wrong the Minister has to make it known, whenever that happens.

“If someone asked me how much the council has spent on redundancies, I wouldn’t be able to tell them.

“I can tell you that the word going round in Bexhill at the moment is that Rother is a democratically elected dictatorship.

“Anyone can make their views known, but they are likely to be ignored.”