News

Dear Editor

Re: Nobody has 'stepped on my toes'

Jean James should really check her facts before committing to paper.

She is wrong when she writes that I am still a member of the Lib Dems, that membership finished when I declared myself Independent.

My reason for doing so was, as I stated at the time, that the problem with Shepway District Council was party political dogma and political egos which led to such things as the closure of the toilets etc.

She is also wrong, as is johnslawrie, in the assumption that I do not 'fight my corner'.

I have a reputation for just doing that in Group Meetings, Full Council, Scrutiny and Development Control Committees.

'To jump ship' implies desertion, and to imply that is well below the standard I would expect from Gazette correspondence. Indeed to leave a political party and colleagues I have known for some time required me to think long and hard and did not come easy, but when I witnessed party politics and dogma actually destroying the basic principle of Local Government, I came to the conclusion that the system had to change if Shepway District Council was ever to recover from it's present situation, and the best way of doing that is by having councillors whose first duty is to their electorate and not to any `party political machine` or the party whip.

Cllr Dave Callahan