Tony Rooth claims that Guildford Borough Council is not a secret society (letters, Surrey Ad 21/10/11) but he has done his best, with the help of his Conservative colleagues, to make it as secretive as possible. As a "strong leader" I feel that he has stifled debate and concealed the way that decisions are made.
At a council meeting last year some students asked very politely if they could film a discussion on tuition fees - I watched this from the public gallery and was disgusted at the way the Conservatives, including Mr Rooth, treated the visitors (as detailed in my letter printed on 17/12/10) . All but 2 of the Conservative councillors voted to refuse the request. The Liberal Democrats voted unanimously to allow the filming but were outnumbered by the Conservatives. I am unable to think of any reason, other than wishing to maintain a shroud of secrecy, for refusing permission to film.
If they have nothing to hide, isn't it time that all council meetings were broadcast on the internet so that we can see what our elected representatives are up to? Surely the cost would be substantially less than that of the regular glossy propaganda brochures that we have delivered to our doors saying what a great job they're doing. What could they be up to that is so terrible it can't be broadcast in an uncensored form? Plenty of other councils manage this.
Recent changes to the way the council is run have resulted in one man (a "strong leader") having a huge amount of power and influence over how our money is spent running our town. Questions from the public are no longer debated and there is no opportunity to ask supplementary questions or query any reply. The system is an affront to democracy - and the council leader providing a URL for a load of dry, wordy & dull documents (as he did in his letter last week) would be funny if it was meant to be a joke.
Ollie Clokie
Guildford
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