I am fuming re the minutes of our Parish Council meeting, I want to write a stroppy email

[harman]

Message withdrawn

send a letter to the local paper, shame him in public

Message withdrawn

there are some very talented writers on here that could help you i reckon (not me!). custy may be good for this situation.

Message withdrawn

Blimey. Our parish council is pushing hard for more local needs housing. Sadly of course, they have very, very little say in how planning pans out.

Message withdrawn

Is this the bloke on the corner?

Def local paper. What a twat.

I think you should borrow a white van for the next meeting

Happy to help but more details needed - can you draft a rant and we'll help you edit it?

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

No - he has no right whatsoever to see police records, under DPA, unless of course he is planning to employ them in some sort of delicate position (such as childcare) and then he could do a CRB check. But i think the person being checked still has to agree to it!

It sounds like my friend's area, where they weren't allowed to take part in village activites because they were outside the village's social envelope! This is things like M&T groups, by the way, and they have a HA house as her dh is disabled and she is the main carer for him and their 3 year old.

Some people are such enormous bigots it's not true!

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

let me get this straight - is this a letter to teh PC or to the local paper?

tbh I would send it to both (obv put at the bottom that a copy had been sent to the local paper)

wouldn't single out the particular councillor twice, bit too much that. In fact I would probably junk the third para for a more positive para about why you think there should be local needs housing

and do it on paper, not email

twiglett isyour girl actually she writes amazing letters.

but i have a few questions.
social housing on its own being built is extremely rare these days - is it part of a bigger development with a compulsory social housing part?

has the housing assoication been chosen?

if so i am sure they would be very helpful in explaining to you their lettings policy.

this policy cannot be changed for Councillor F.

and it willnot be unless Councillor F has amazing pull with a large borough who will get the HA 'prefered partner' status in up coming larger developments

I think it would be a Victory on your part if you could perhaps attach a copy of their lettings policy.

Message withdrawn

Harman - don't take this the wrong way...

• This guy is elected, if you think it's a ninky nonk (and clearly he is) why not stand yourself? We had similar probs and now we are both on the council and are doing something about it.

• The council, generally take bugger all notice of anything that the parish council says. They blocked every single one of our planning applications and the council just overruled them every time. One objection they made was to someone building a downstairs loo because she was in a wheelchair - the objection - 'well I don't have one and I live next door so it's not in keeping' blah blah blah

• The other side of affordable/social housing in a village is that it can bring massive benefits. Utility companies can be forced to improve infrastructure - we managed to get some of our dodgy overhead cables buried on the basis that we'd added ten homes to the village and therefore no longer fitted into the category where they could leave us with shonky old wires hanging in the trees because the capacity used was potentially too high. It's worth writing in support of planning cases like this personally including this sort of info, it counters the bigots and raises practical issues.

Orbit is massive btw. They are good folks.

Come on, if you are that annoyed about it, how about getting active?

Message withdrawn

There is always one old duffer who feels it's his job to protect the 'sanctity' of the village though Harman. Mostly they are roundly mocked and reviled by everyone else.

Keep going to the meetings and putting your point across - lobby the chairman. It is important to keep a sense of balance and that means taking external views as well as the (often quite insular ones) found in the village.

Our PC is trying to make a rule that you must have a family connection to the village to get the social housing. Which is absolutely bollocks IMHO, the only folks who live here and have for many years are loaded otherwise they've been forced out already. Luckily they have no jurisdiction.

I'd email something like ... (yes I searced on my name, cheers custy ) .. feel free to ignore it's off the top of my head

Dear Chairman

I am becoming increasingly concerned at the nature of the requests that are being documented in the minutes of the meetings with regards to the Social Housing Project.

I understand that is has been agreed that there is a requirement for this Social Housing Project to be progressed and yet it appears to me that certain elected representatives are attempting to ensure they are able to vett potential tenants.

Surely Housing Associations are trained to ensure that those in most need of housing are those who will have the highest number of points.

Beyond that, unless we are returning to a feudal system, we can surely have no say in who occupies the housing.

I would be grateful if these issues of untrained officials requesting personal details of members of our community are quashed as a matter of urgency. It would be very embarrassing if any members of the press decided to take up this story as I fear our community would become a laughing stock.

I would appreciate a response to this email within 7 days.

You could also add something along the lines of:

I am surprised that it is within the remit of parish councillors, elected to represent the views of the village, to vet the backgrounds of people wishing to be housed in the village. How long before this Orwellian tendency extends to other areas of the village? How does one decide what is an acceptable salary? Or permitted motor vehicle? And presumably if the councillors are demanding the right to view this information, they will be providing their own personal details for others to peruse.