Letter: Breathtaking Hubris and Arrogance

Published on: 2 Oct, 2023
Updated on: 2 Oct, 2023

From: Patrick Oven

GGG leader and borough councillor for Lovelace & Send

In response to: Angry Reaction to Political Press Release Proclaiming GBC’s Success in Avoiding Effective Bankruptcy

I have made my stance clear on trying to avoid politicising the GBC finance issue. There will come a time for an investigation into who was at fault, but that is not the objective for the moment. So, in my view, we should keep politics out of the primary objective of finding a solution.

But this Lib Dem response really does take the biscuit.

Avoiding politicisation of the financial crisis in the attempt to avoid bankruptcy is laudable, but then, as leader of an all-party working group trying to find a solution, for the council leader to announce that the Lib Dems have solved the problem, is quite another.

It shows breathtaking hubris and its timing shows arrogance. The council Executive should have been told first. It was clearly done with a view to political gain with The Horsleys county council by-election looming and a general election around the corner.

In any event, we are far from out of the woods, we have merely crossed the first hurdle. There are plenty more ahead where we could fall. My sympathies are with the officers, who are the ones who have put the real hard yards in. Not so much as a mention for them, let alone a word of thanks.

From the responses of some of the members of the working group it would seem the idea of a non-political all-party group is now dead in the water. All for the sake of a headline-grabbing sound bite. Cheap.