……………MY BIN was emptied; and I am grateful for the men who came a week ago last Saturday before 8 a.m. to take away my green bin’s dry recycling waste and my brown bin’s compostable food waste. “So what’s the story”, you may ask? Sadly, the story runs over the past 5 weeks and, as […]

In recent months and days, the very existence of Uttlesford District Council seems questionable. I am kicking off this trilogy with a slightly shortened account from the Bishop’s Stortford Independent by reporter Hollie Ryder. Uttlesford District Council: Residents for Uttlesford-led authority says it is facing ‘tough but manageable’ financial challenges ahead Uttlesford District Council is […]

I last wrote about this ongoing issue three weeks ago, just prior to the adjourned Council Meeting on July 21st. That Thursday’s meeting got off to a disgracefully bad start when the Chair, Cllr Heather Asker, announced that the number of councillors allowed to speaker would be limited to a strict quota to ensure business […]

Mystery and cover-up surrounds Uttlesford’s mishandling of the 2021 planning appeal by Stansted Airport against Uttlesford Council’s refusal to raise the passenger limit at the local airport. I FEAR THAT UTTLESFORD’S POLITICAL LEADERS ARE TRYING TO SCAPEGOAT THEIR OWN PLANNING COMMITTEE BY PUBLICLY PILLORYING ITS COUNCILLOR MEMBERS. A recent “independent” report commissioned by officers at […]

This week I came across an old Turkish proverb. It describes the national and local situation so well. “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that today’s political culture is not one of integrity and honesty to get the […]

Uttlesford District Council faces job cuts and service decline because the Residents for oUrselves (R4oU) [aka R4U] political administration has now put UDC in debt to the tune of  £275,000,000 to prop up their wasteful spending plans. That’s forty-five times the Council’s basic tax income; a massive mortgage on the shoulders of local residents and […]

Integrity. Here is an online definition: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Such as “a gentleman of complete integrity”. Synonyms: honesty · uprightness · probity · rectitude · honour · Yesterday we saw the Prime Minster of the United Kingdom make an apology. Today it is reported that a few hours later Mr Boris Johnson was telling Conservative colleagues that he was really […]

Last weekend I wrote to the MP for Saffron Walden, Mrs Kemi Badenoch, about the controversy about MPs’ additional earnings and the Parliamentary Standards Committee.  Yesterday our Member of Parliament sent me a reply. It can be read here:   From: Kemi Badenoch MP <Kemi.badenoch.mp@parliament.uk> Fri 12/11/2021 15:19  Dear Cllr Dean  Thank you for contacting […]

The following words are in italics because they are not my words. They are frightening analysis of a man who should never have found his way to his present job.   Boris Johnson should look Richard Ratcliffe in the eye. If he did, he would catch a reflection of himself that might prove painful but […]