Council guilty of gross arrogance

This gross arrogance leads one to believe that the councillors continue to consciously ignore the people who elected them and to whom they are accountable.

I refer, of course, to the disclosure by Nick Herbert MP, of Arun’s draft “Angmering Vision brief”.

The parish councils who received copies of these briefs have also been subjected to this arrogance, as they were threatened by Arun not to disclose the contents of these “visioning briefs”, otherwise other documentation may be withheld from them.

What is odd is that these briefs were voted through despite a challenge from a number of councillors last October, way before Arun had even got around to discussing the draft local plan and the public consultations that were held over the summer of 2012.

Having seen these vision briefs, Arun would have been better off commissioning a local sixth form college project team to prepare them. They would have been just as good, if not better and they certainly would not come up with the idea of an Angmering Garden City. They are of little substance and, frankly, a waste of the voters’ money.

It’s time to rein in these megalomaniac numpties, particularly the planners, who for some reason think they know better than the electorate what is good for Arun.

Whilst there has to be a balance between the various elements of the community in terms of housing, employment, leisure, infrastructure and all the other issues that go to make a community work in harmony and for the benefit of all, with Arun it’s more to do with some animals are more equal than other animals; a rather hackneyed metaphor but none the less highly relevant down at the ADC farm.

So, perhaps a little less disgusting and despicable behaviour and a bit more transparency would be good from our glorious council. Perhaps the leader could show some leadership, too, for a change, and that more of the unelected officers could be a little less ambivalent to the major issues which confront our community wouldn’t go amiss, either.

Robin McDonald

Ashmore Avenue

Angmering