Resident's outrage at the Letter from 'Ruling Group'

By Susie Latham - Riverside Gardens

Stratford Herald - 23rd September 2010

Dear Sir,

I read the letter in last week's Stratford Herald from a number of Henley & Beaudesert Parish Councillors and take objection to their comments that members of the Reform Group, who are working hard to bring back Democracy to local government in our town, are actually people who just cause trouble but don’t actually do anything.

Yes there are one or two voices that are relatively new to the town but the vast majority are residents who have worked tirelessly over many years (and are still doing so) in many areas of the town’s life that are not so much in the limelight and don’t hold so much power as the JPC but are nevertheless doing work that is an important part of what makes Henley Special. The fact that the JPC don’t know what they do is because, with one or two exceptions, all that most of them do is turn up for JPC meetings and nod through the spending of our council taxes.

My husband, who I am proud to say is a member of the Reform Group because he has a genuine concern for the way the JPC behaves and manages matters, has been involved with running the town's facilities and raising funds in Henley for nearly 40 years; he would not wish me to list them here, or the many, many thousands of pounds he has helped to raise, but I would ask if any member of the JPC could compare with the commitment of another Reformer, Peter Crathorne. He is too modest to mention that he is a former chairman of High School governors (that raised £500,000 for the new Performing Arts facilities), Chairman of the War Memorial Trust which runs the Memorial Hall and the Playing Fields (who are putting together a £400,000 package for a new sports pavilion), is chair of the Hub Youth Centre and also of the elderly group called the Henman.

Don’t the JPC know this? If not, why not? It makes a nonsense of their letter and does them no credit to rubbish people who are in so many practical ways doing far more for the grass roots of the community than they are themselves. Perhaps it’s time “they stepped up to the plate”.