Owen Temple

I’m sure you are familiar with the mushroom principle. “Keep them in the dark and feed them manure”. Well, that’s not quite the phrase, but this is a respectable website.

Unfortunately the mushroom principle has been applied to Consett’s proposed new sports facilities  for far too long. And it’s about to be applied again.

The next full council meeting of Derwentside District Council is due to discuss, and decide on, what goes into the new sports centre. There are some very hard decisions to be made. With a limited budget it simply will not be possible to provide everything that people want and some people are going to be angry and disappointed.

That makes it all the more important that people are able to watch the process and read the papers. They need to know what the choices are, why the decisions are made the way they are, and they have the right to know who argued for what.

Last time misrepresentation was rife. It’s easy to blame the other guy when there are no witnesses. I fear that may be the motive again.

I shall be seeking to persuade the people who hold power in Derwentside to ditch this secrecy before the meeting. Please join me by emailing your own councillor, the leader of the council and the chief executive urging them to open this meeting to press and public.

All councillor’s email addresses are on the Derwentside website at http://www.derwentside.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=379 . For your convenience you may wish to know that the council leader, Councillor Alex Watson, can be contacted via a.watson@derwentside.gov.uk and the Chief Executive, Mike Clark, via m.clark@derwentside.gov.uk . Let them know that you are no mushrooms.