Bet you've been wondering what I've been up to. No?. - you should have been.
Unfortunately I can't Blog about this at the present time.
When I started off my little campaign for stopping and reversing the decline in Little Lever Village Centre, I really and naively believed that Bolton Council was run by the 60 Elected Councillors, - whichever party having the majority being 'in charge' at any particular point in time.
So, if the Labour lot were in charge we could expect a dose of Labour policies etc.
Perhaps this perception arose from my memories of the halcyon days when it seemed that Councillors were from the 'great and the good' of the Borough, selflessly giving their time and energies from a sense of civic duty and pride.
More than this, the Aldermen were, amongst the Councillors, the 'wise men' of the town whose prudence, self discipline and moral rectitude was reflected in the decisions made on our behalf, thus allowing us all to sleep soundly in our beds in the sure knowledge that all would be well in the Town Hall.
My contacts with everything 'Town Hall' over the last eighteen months have only confirmed to me that whilst I have spent the last forty years believing the above, things have been ' a-changing'
This is not to say that any of today's Councillors have fewer good intentions for the well being of the town and its inhabitants or are more self serving. No - I can't say that.
What does appear to have changed however, as with National Government, is the pernicious introduction of the structures and strictures within which the Elected Members operate and the plethora of rules, regulations, protocols, concordats and such like straight-jackets which, having forced out common sense and invited in political correctness and all the elf'n safety nonsense, leave the poor ward Councillor as emasculated as a eunuch in a knocking shop.
So, I thought I would take the lid off the Town Hall and, in an occasional series of Blogs, investigate and examine how it operates today and where the centre of power lies.
I don't know where this will lead me but I'm pretty convinced that should the Town Clerks of old trouble themselves to read the end result, they will be spinning in their graves.
Paul Richardson
