LETTER: Growing alarm at cabinet system

Another day and yet another revelation about how Cllr Ray Dawe sees himself as leader of Horsham District Council. Your article (15.1.15, p80) ‘Leader ‘makes mockery’ of Scrutiny panel work’ would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. Cllr Dawe engaged in emails with Cllr David Sheldon (Ind, Denne) which resulted in Cllr Sheldon concluding ‘this email exchange re-emphasises the level to which the cabinet at HDC considers itself above scrutiny’.
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There is growing alarm that the cabinet system which operates in HDC is an overpaid cabal that leaves ordinary councillors feeling they are excluded from the decision-making process. Some councils have gone back to the original arrangement where individual councillors were all allocated to committees of the main council.

When this applied in Horsham and especially when there was a virtually ‘hung’ council between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, there was much more meaningful debate around issues and reaching consensus was much more in evidence than the autocratic ‘them and us’ attitude that currently prevails.

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If Cllr Dawe and his clique reject the statutory Scrutiny Committee, where does that leave us? The only scrutiny they will have to subject themselves too will be the elections on May 7.

Voters should think very carefully when voting and consider the record of these people who have ruled us under a leader who ‘mocks’ scrutiny.

R. BAKER

New Moorhead Drive, Horsham