LETTER: Residents are being denied our say on key issue

For all John Burrows and all our councillors may tell us of the benefits, we haven’t been consulted at all over this major decision on the town’s future in my opinion.

The whole country is soon to be allowed a vote over our future in the EU but our councillors seem to think that they are in some way better qualified to decide the future of our town.

Can I remind them that they, and the senior council officers who have obviously prepared the meticulous reports before the vote, are all actually employed by the very same people who they are denying a say on the issue.

Can we have a guarantee over where and how the service provisions currently split between Chesterfield Borough Council and Derbyshire County Council will lie and be funded (and more to the point if we’ll have a rise in the already extortionate council taxes we pay to fund the regional mayor and layers of bureaucracy)?

Gone are the days when local councillors gave of their time for free (minimal expenses only excepted) and in fact a good living can now be made by being on both, especially when members of cabinet etc.

WE pay you to represent us but in my view YOU are denying us our say on whether we choose to remain proud ‘Derbyshireites’ or throw in with South Yorkshire.

Give us a free referendum and obey the wishes of the electorate who put you in place to start with, regardless of which way the vote would turn out.

Steve Smedley

Hasland