Self and that bench…….

I am afraid that last night, at EBRRA’s AGM, I got rather annoyed with Cllr. Self over his dilatory attitude to the re-installation of a bench at or about the wayside garden at the Ellerton Road/Ditton Road junction.

What really grated on me was the way he seemed to ascribe the non-appearance of this replacement to (a) the failure of officers to produce further work on the matter following a SNC meeting in February; (b) inccuracies in the Minutes both of that meeting and the earlier one in 2009, which originally decided on having the bench;  (c) supposed anti-social behaviour there in the past – of which the Police have no record at all and of which I, who have been associated as resident and councillor with the area for 26 years, have never heard; and (d) the failure of the community to come together to sort the issue out.

The fact that he and his colleagues have done nothing to bring the community together since the February meeting did not seem to occur to him. In fact they have done nothing but obstruct the provision since the 2010 election, if not before!

I know from experience that, if the local councillors want something to happen which has been agreed upon and doesn’t cost much money, then RBK officers will make it happen. The unadmitted truth, then, seems to me to be that the current councillors don’t want this to happen for some reason I can only guess at, but they also don’t want to admit to EBRRA members that that is the case. Hence my exasperation with himSelf last night.

Cllr. Ayles maintained his habitual discreet silence throughout the meeting. Elmbridge resident Neil Houston maintained his habitual absence!