LETTER: Out of touch with their area

I arrived having read the agenda and understood the items for discussion.

County Local Committees consider a range of issues concerning the local area and allow residents to make comment.

My understanding of these committees is for the council to be able to make decisions with local people present.

I was very disappointed to see that two senior councillors were not present and other councillors in attendance had little understanding of some of the topics under consideration.

It, in fact, appeared that some councillors had not read the papers and where only there to ask awkward questions far from trying to help their community.

There was a long discussion regarding Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) where clearly some councillors failed to understand why they were being proposed and had little understanding of the roads being discussed.

Some councillors did understand and gave the fellow councillors reasonable explanations.

The officers in attendance had too often to advise the councillors that they would undertake some research.

Surely they should have had the answers already and the councillor should have been better prepared.

(I could have told them exactly how many houses were affected on Salthill Road and the reasons why speeding cars continue to be such a problem.)

These committees are so local people can feel involved, I came away feeling that too many councillors were out of touch with their local area and I had wasted my time.

Even worse there were very few other councillors, be they parish, city or district, in attendance. I applaud those that were.

If improvements are not made to knowledge and attendance then they will become a pointless expense in these austere times.

Adrian Moss

Bosham Hoe

Bosham