LETTER: HDC has become a laughing stock

Wow! Your Editorial ‘Courage and determination’ (19.2.15, p34) in last week’s edition said it all. I have been reading your paper for a long time and not for the first time has your Editorial expressed such strong sentiments – not least since last March and June when you reported on the ‘shenanigans’ at HDC over the whipping of planning policy and the sacking of Christian Mitchell as chairman of council.

No doubt Mrs Croft and Mr Rae now wish that they had taken heed of these warnings over the past 12 months since Conservatives members de-selected them on February 14.

‘Open, transparent and inclusive’ – our local council is none of these under Cllr Dawe’s leadership.

The person who leads the council must be accountable – for a situation you describe as ‘lamentable’.

The disease has afflicted the whole council – the symptoms are secrecy, use of the whip, kangaroo courts, poor and wasteful decision making using our money (e.g. West Street, £22,000 spent on a QC fighting the residents). HDC has become a laughing stock.

No doubt there is more to come out about how the council has been run. Hopefully Mr Rae will help us as he seeks ‘revenge’.

As you say, Mr Dawe is answerable to the South Downs equivalent of the Horsham Conservative Association that ‘dumped’ Mrs Croft and Mr Rae.

It is to be hoped that the electors in Cllr Dawe’s ward will be rigorous in their assessment of this man as a councillor and potential Tory leader again.

R. BAKER

New Moorhead Drive, Horsham