Letter from Cllr Arnold Woolley, CANK Chairman
11th March 2002
Prime Minister Tony Blair, MP
10 Downing Street
Westminster
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister,
Getting it Wrong, Big-time!
What follows you may find a harsh judgement. If it is, then all that I can say is that you should try being where I am. Down among the ordinary working people. Working with a team of half a dozen individuals, of which 5 voted for Labour at the previous general election, 3 voted for Labour at the last general election and none intends to at the next one.
I am a Labour Party Member, a Town Councillor, School Governor and Chair of a local environmental campaign group. I am not a sycophant, nor am I, at my age, bucking for any political office. That means that I cannot be bought off, cannot be bullied and cannot be bent to any cause inimical to the community in which I live.
I have my ear to the ground in no uncertain manner. What I hear at this time gives me concern that, having gained a second term in office, you are now embarking on policies that will guarantee that Labour does not achieve any third term.
I am not going to harp on about public services, nor sleaze and spin. You are, sadly, regarded by most citizens that I have daily contact with, as a control freak, surrounded by “Tony’s Cronies” and presiding over a cabinet, the members of which immediately tumble into fawning postures upon the mere sight or sensing of anyone with millionaire status. That does you, the Party and the Nation, no good at all.
I became involved in the anti-incineration movement when I was Chair
of Planning at Buckley Town Council in 1999. Then I was concerned
and somewhat puzzled. My constituents were voicing opinions at an
eight to two ratio against the process.
Three years on, I am much better informed. Now, I am concerned and horrified. As a result, I have to say this to you. Either the Labour Party leads the way and harnesses the groundswell that is building over the mismanagement of the disposal of the nation’s domestic and industrial waste material, or it will pay the price of ignoring it.
The population does not want incineration, nor co-incineration, as the way forward and politicians at all levels that advocate or support it will eventually pay the price at the polls.
There are alternatives. Not quick fixes. Not cheap solutions. To implement them will take courage. It will take the need to fly in the face of some vested interests and to be innovative. Try looking at the Zero Waste Campaign for a start.
Try looking also at the impression created by your government’s latest proposals to tinker with the Planning Guidelines, Nationally and Locally in order to force through without full public scrutiny any development the government might decree as being in the national interests.
It is escapades such as this proposal that reinforces the population’s perception as I set it out in paragraph four above.
Yours sincerely,
…………………………………..
Arnold Woolley, (Cllr)