Meanwhile I can inform your readers that, unsurprisingly perhaps, Paul Holmes did not take up my invitation to join me in the main market square on the May 5 bank holiday to count the number of stalls being run by market traders.

In fact, as the photograph shows, the vast majority of the stalls were completely unoccupied. Pehaps this is Cllr Morgan's idea of being "successful against the national trend?" Your readers will draw their own conclusions.

And, of course, it will take more than a letter from Cllr Morgan to persuade your readers who visit the market that they should stop believing their own eyes!

Graham King,
58 Dukes Drive,
Newbold, Chesterfield.

SIR — Cllr Morgan is correct in some of what he wrote in one sentence of his letter. I may have been unsuccessful against one Lib Dem councillor, however, I was successfully elected against a failed Lib Dem candidate in Brimington.

On the more important issues of the council's record, yes the Lib Dem council has had a better report this year than it did last year. But that's not difficult given the tremendous criticism that the Audit Commission heaped on the council a year ago. It's not all good news this year. Indeed the Audit Commission has expressed concerns about the risk management of Chesterfield Borough Council, saying that the 'underdeveloped' risk management has led to Lead (Lib Dem) councillors making decisions without having asked the right questions and not adequately thinking about the consequences of their decisions.

There are numerous examples of bad decisions having been made by Chesterfield Borough Council. One only has to look at the coach station, which has cost more than double its estimate, the massive increases in car parking charges which are making people stay away from the town centre, the shop charges and lease terms that are keeping town centre shops empty and the rent increases on Chesterfield market which are keeping the traders away.

Cllr Scott Lomax
Brimington Parish Council.
Address supplied.

SIR — Cllr Morgan in his attempt to portray the Chesterfield Liberal Democrats as a successful council, omits to answer any of the points placed in my letter the previous week.

No defence is provided for doling out millions of Chesterfield Council taxpayers' money into the open pockets of two private companies, nor is any explanation given of the financial arrangements in place for the coach station that was built by the Liberal Democrat's raid on the council's capital balances.
Typically oblivious to reasonable questioning as any Chesterfield Liberal Democrat seems to be, Cllr Morgan attempts to use non relevant, non accurate diversions to avoid the main issues that were raised in my letter. He rants about selection, non-selection and non candidacy as if the practice of selection in any democracy is a bad thing. Let me remind him that any party that runs a democratic selection process during which one candidate (myself) was selected for a different seat from that previously served, and where another candidate is selected but is not elected, they are both part of genuine democratic processes that the Liberal Democrats would do well to incorporate into their own processes. His condemnation of a third person for not putting himself forward for selection is bizarre — unless, of course, the Lib Dems wanted a particular Labour candidate to be elected. Unlike the Lib Dems, the Labour Party has an open and understandable process for selecting candidates.

Paul Holmes, MP, protested about the exercise of free speech to which I responded. Cllr Morgan now protests about the exercise of democratic selection processes. My response to that is that the Lib Dems have much to learn about the value of open democracy.

Cllr Morgan's appeal to the logic of choice by a) the voters, and, b) the Audit Commission has two fundamental problems. In the very same paper that his own letter was published, a report on the Audit Commission appeared on page 27. The summary there did not carry the same elevated spin that he put on the same Audit Commission report, and any resident of Chesterfield who would like know the truth should ask the Audit Commission for a copy of that report. All who read it will see that Chesterfield has serious problems.

No intelligent person would deny the outcome of votes in two borough council elections in 2003 and 2007. However, the same intelligent people could look at the financial mismanagement of Chesterfield since 2003, the ridiculous spin put on various reports about how well the council is being run, and whether the basic interests of Chesterfield residents are best served by cutting grants to voluntary organisations and ending decades of cultural services, and those intelligent people might not agree with Cllr Morgan. I certainly do not. Eventually the voters of Chesterfield will deliver their verdict.

All of the business based developments that Cllr Morgan refers to are independent of his party's influence. The most that can be said is that the few dedicated (and non political) officers in the Economic Regeneration section of the Borough Council staff have more influence than any Councillor in any of the business decisions to locate within Chesterfield. Keith Morgan, Paul Holmes MP et al should stop taking credit for other peoples achievements.

As a piece of free advice, may I suggest that the Liberal Democrats begin to look at the real issues instead of trying to divert everyone's attention from Lib Dem mistakes. Oh, and perhaps they might like to answer significant questions when asked, instead of ranting off about the nature of the questionner.

Paul Barry, MA,
Mayor of Chesterfield 2002-2003,
70 Hambleton Avenue, North Wingfield.


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