DEMOCRACY AS NEW LABOUR DO IT

This is the text of Borough Soliciters "GAGGING ORDER"

06/09/2006 - TEXT OF COUNCIL SOLICITOR'S LETTER


Dear Councillor

Council Consultation on Redevelopment of the Feethams/Town Hall Site – Position of Members of Council

I am writing to provide some advice in order to enable you to alert Members of your group as you consider is appropriate.

I have already provided advice to each member of the Council’s Planning Applications Committee about the forthcoming public consultation exercise, in their capacity as members of that committee.

I understand that a decision will be made by Council whether or not to proceed with a proposal to proceed with the redevelopment of the site. Although decisions of Council are not quasi judicial, when Council is making a decision on particular places or individuals as oppose to broad policy decisions some of the rules relating to planning committee decisions do apply. Any Member who makes a definite statement of their position in relation to the proposal which is yet to come before the Council risks an allegation of bias and pre-determination. This is not any casual statement about the proposal, such as ‘I’m not sure I agree with what’s suggested’ but definite statements about the individual Member’s position on the particular decision under consideration, such as ‘this (proposal) goes ahead over my dead body’.

If a Member decides that he or she does want to express very definite views about whether to proceed with the redevelopment or indeed join a campaign or lobby group then that Member may need to declare an interest at the Council meeting and consider carefully whether they can take part in the Council decision. I am writing to give you the opportunity to alert Members of your group to the consequences of this approach so that individual Members can seek advice and decide which route they would like to take.

Members can take part in consultation meetings and express views, but if they want to reserve the ability to take part in subsequent decisions on the proposal they should avoid making definite statements about whether the redevelopment should go ahead. Manifesto or group decisions are statements of intent and are not binding on individual Members and would therefore not prevent a Member of that group from taking part in a decision.


Yours sincerely,





Catherine Whitehead
Borough Solicitor

Well they do not listen and they do not want listen, at last proof positive.

Myself, and my collegues Kate Davies and Tim Hinton-Clifton, prospective Tory candidates for Pierremont are against the Tesco plan.

Why it should matter wether planning committee members speack out is a nonsense, because New Labour Councillors are told how to vote by the militant one and therefore block voting occurs.

IT IS A DONE DEAL, MAY GIVES YOU THE PEOPLE OF DARLINGTON A CHANCE TO RID YOURSELVES OF THESE SELF SERVING FOOLS