Saturday 11 February 2012

when you're in a hole...



stop digging, of course.  Cllr Matt Rodda (Lab, Katesgrove) said he had lobbied the Planning Inspectorate over a local planning issue.  Cllr Warren Swaine (LD, Katesgrove, defeated Dictatorship Dave "moronic members of the public" Sutton) did a FoI request which indicated that he hadn't.  Cllr Rodda had, of course, done plenty of media, including the hackneyed "open a bottle of champagne on the site", which I remember doing in 1993, and not since.  Caught lying to the electorate, Cllr Rodda sprang into action.  His Master's Voice faithfully copied out Cllr Rodda's protestations that the dog had eaten the emails he said he'd sent, thusly:
His Master's Voice





















the Chronicle actually talked to both sides:
Chronicle





















notice two things here: (1) Cllr Rodda expresses "sadness" that Cllr Swaine would stoop so low as to "criticise a local councillor".  Diddums.  That's politics, matey.  It's not all champagne and Martin Salter's bottom and hagiographic pieces in the Reading Evening Post.
(2) the person actually standing for election for Labour in Katesgrove ward is Rose Williams, a fine person in my view and a former Mayor of Reading, one of the best.  She is nowhere to be seen in all this.  In her place I wouldn't be, either.  But why did Cllr Rodda, in his creepy little stunt based on lies, never mention Rose or include her?  He must have thought the whole thing was a good idea to have gone to the bother of making up a story that he had lobbied for local people, so why not try to give the candidate a boost?  She's a girl, after all, and Reading Labour have got some ground to make up on misogyny.

Oh.

8 comments:

The other Warren said...

Why is someone who lives in Southcote standing for Labour in Katesgrove?

They are hardly neighbouring wards.

Anonymous said...

Isn't the candidate to succeed Swaine a woman too? Two peas in a pod....

The other Warren said...

I believe the Lib Dem candidate is a woman yes but she lives in the ward not 3 miles away!

Was said...

Matt must surely realised that he is making a very serious accusation against a public body regulated by law.

The only grounds to object to the actions of the Planning Inspectorate is to appeal to the High Court. He has categorically said that his communications have been "lost".

If Matt Rodda is correct in his assertions then there is a bona fide case for maladministration.

So, in order to clear this up, I will send copies of Matt's public statements to the Planning Inspectorate and ask for disciplinary action to be taken against anyone who, given his clear assertion that he has writtren to the inpectorate, that they have failed in their public duty.

Of course, if Matt would like to tell me that he may have been mistaken, failed to contact the appeal and publically apologise to the residents of Katesgrove for misleading them then I might not wish to pursue his serious allegations further.

janestheone said...

go for it Was - other possibilities: he sent the emails to the wrong address? Why does he not publish his sent items, showing the emails with their date and time? The Planning Inspectorate misfiled them, ditto? Er, can't think of another one...

Was said...

Where you are wrong is that Rose is implcated.

If he'd let it lie, it would have been a dead story by now. Instead each week he makes it worse for himself.

Someone from the old guard should have a word in his shell-like and tell him that the trick to being a successful Labour councillor is not to get caught.

GIDEON MACK said...

The fact that any of you would even suggest that a person in politics albeit local or national would not be 100% honest at all times is disgusting.

Anonymous said...

Gideon. LOL.

WV dipsy