NEWS

Is local democracy working? The next NDAC meeting will be held at Wallbrook Primary School off Bradleys Lane in Coseley on Tuesday 9th September at 6.30pm. Buses 546, 530 and 680 pass close by. The agenda includes Robert Street and Gornal waiting restrictions, as well as the usual public forum. Here at Yampy we have covered the Area Committee's deliberations for well over a year now, and have always urged our readers to go along and see democracy in action. However, our faith in Councillors and Council Officials alike has been all but destroyed by the distortion and deception of the last Special Meeting (click here), when the promised discussion on the car park was removed from the agenda by Council officials, with the apparent collusion of the Committee Chairman, in a cynical though fortunately unsuccessful attempt to get the Council's double yellow line proposals passed without hindrance. Since that meeting we have tried to get to the bottom of "Gornalgate", by asking key figures to tell us whose decision it was to restrict the meeting to a single item agenda, eliminating the car park from proceedings. We have emailed Councillor Stanley, Councillor Millward, John Millar the Director of the Urban Environment, John Freeman the Area Liaison Officer, and Charles Fraser MacNamara, Conservative colleague of Cllr. Stanley, and his predecessor as Committee Chair. In reply, Councillor Stanley and John Millar have completely ignored the question we asked, while Councillor Millward attacked our reporting as "tripe", in a bizarrely illogical diatribe (click here). Most disappointing was the refusal of Cllr. Fraser MacNamara to even reply to our emails. He is a solicitor, who seemed to demonstrate during his time as Chair that he was fair and even handed. Yet, asked by Yampy simply to confirm that - in front of dozens of Gornal traders at February's NDAC meeting - he proposed the Special Meeting (months before Cllr. Stanley and Millward claim that it was their idea) the Sedgley Councillor is strangely silent. It would be awkward for his colleagues if he told the truth, of course! We're thoroughly disillusioned by the whole affair.

Next: Community Safety Officer initiative..