IN REPLY to OAP Taxpayer the editor said " Take the party politics out of local government and you stand a chance ---" and in reply to S.

Rigby; regarding who was at fault for the Blobby fiasco "This was done by officers who were (at the very best) out of their depth and by councillors not up to the task".

The editor's first comment, with which I disagree, tilts at the wrong windmill; but the second comment is spot on!

But it is how you overcome the inability of both councillors and officials to deal with multi-million pound schemes; of whatever kind; that is the problem.

As I see it councillors and officials are very good at scrutinising relatively low value schemes; say up to £100,000; because they are sums of money they can understand and relate to.

However get past, say, £250,000 and suddenly they all freeze and reach for grandiose concepts of what this will do for Lancaster or Morecambe.

Blobby, Salt Ayre, the bus station, the Millennium Bridge are all examples of grandiose schemes going hopelessly wrong.

Because councillors have; generally; no experience of judging high value schemes they look to officials to appraise its value and they judge it's worth in "publicity" terms

Rarely do they ask, what good is this for the residents of Lancaster and Morecambe; what difference will it make to their lives; how much do they need it? They see themselves as enterprising entrepreneurs (with our money), attracting praise and honours for themselves by putting Lancaster and Morecambe "on the world map".

This is an arrogance born of ignorance!

I think a local Hansard, plus documents, should be produced for every meeting; such that all debates/discussions are fully reported.

These can be scrutinised by you; or us; to see who said what and when; and what copies of papers were made available by officials.

The idea of "confidentiality" in certain items must cease.

These officials and

councillors are acting on our behalf and in our interest.

I cannot see why public scrutiny from such actions should be hidden; whether the subject is a planning application or disciplinary action against employees.

At this stage, encouraging local government to be run by independents would simply hand the power to the officials.

In this electronic day and age the need for reams of

paper Hansards is unnecessary.

Make laptops available to councillors and copies of debates and documents available on disc, on request to us.

At this stage this can be no better than an idea.

But at least I can see benefits for local people in open access and public scrutiny of the conduct of our councillors and officials, now it needs to be

costed.

Barry Bell

Croft Avenue

Slyne

But then you see what you get is power with responsibility Barry and for too many of them that would be just too much! - Ed