By Isle of Wight Observer
Dear Editor,
I agree with your article in last week’s paper (Can our councillors behave like adults?). Many of us are utterly tired of the plotting and scheming that seems to have become routine at County Hall. Why can’t our councillors simply work together? The rest of us manage it every day. We all deal with people we disagree with – at work, in our families, in daily life – and we get on with it because that is how things function. Why should councillors be exempt from the basic expectation of behaving like adults?
If any of them feel they cannot work alongside people who hold different views, then perhaps they should consider whether they are in the right job. Being a councillor requires co-operation. Residents want solutions, not point scoring.
I had hoped that the newly-elected council would mark a fresh start, with members putting the Island’s interests ahead of their own political views. But it already feels depressingly familiar. The same arguments, the same grievances, the same refusal to accept that democracy sometimes delivers outcomes we may not personally like.
If this is the best they can offer, then perhaps it really would be just as well if the government abolished the whole lot. Local government only works when those elected to serve us remember why they are there.
R Clarke, Newport