Letter: I Am Relieved That Cllr Reeves Is Leaving

Published on: 13 Mar, 2021
Updated on: 13 Mar, 2021

From: David Roberts

In response to: Dragon Interview – Caroline Reeves Departing Lib Dem Councillor

I’m prepared to believe the positive comments from readers about Cllr Caroline Reeves’ qualities but, having watched this interview, I’m immensely relieved she is leaving.

When asked what she would change about the council, she said she can’t really think of anything. But it seems her dissatisfaction with the public knows no bounds. They “lack understanding” of the Local Plan, they “don’t seem to register or engage” with issues, they don’t know the difference between GBC and SCC, they are “only interested when things go wrong”, they are “obnoxious and hurtful” to councillors and guilty of “outrageously bad behaviour”.

I do remember a tiny street demo during the Local Plan process, and a certain amount of mild heckling at council meetings, but why is Cllr Reeves surprised? At the time, she was supposed to be leader of the opposition. But she supported, and says she still supports, the odious Local Plan, the Tories’ flagship policy that is bringing misery to the borough.

Above all, however, I will remember Cllr Reeves for gratuitously co-sponsoring the Tory council leader’s politically motivated complaint against GGG Cllr David Reeve. She says Cllr Reeve leaked a “confidential document that shouldn’t have gone out into the public domain”.

This is false: no such document ever existed. What Cllr Reeve did was produce a masterly analysis of data demonstrating that the Tories’ Local Plan housing targets were inflated.

He accidentally included one statistic, allegedly protected by commercial confidentiality. Despite writing to Cllr Spooner to say that she didn’t have the “brain space” to understand the analysis, she supported the complaint anyway.

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