Councillors resign from their seats

TWO Gainsborough Town Councillors have resigned from their posts, calling for the council to be abolished.

Liberal Democrat Coun Trevor Young, who leads the political party in Gainsborough, made the shock announcement before the council’s annual meeting last Tuesday.

Second to stand down was Sean Brennan, who had been in his east ward seat for just six weeks before resigning on Monday.

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He said ‘personal integrity’ would not have allowed him to stay.

“I was motivated to stand for election by both a desire to serve my local community,” he said.

Mr Brennan said in the short period he served, he had become convinced the public body was ‘a horrifically poor waste of public resources’.

“The only way value for money can be achieved is by the town council being abolished,” he said.

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“In the meetings I have attended I have seen pure maladministration and an embarrassing level of incompetence.”

Coun Young, who still represents the south west ward on West Lindsey District Council, said the town council was ‘drowning’ after ‘years of previous mismanagement.’

He said that even despite a £4,000 governance review aimed at improving the council, there was still a ‘lack of commitment to change’.

“Less than half the councillors and officers turned up for the workshops,” said Coun Young.

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He also said there was a lack of openness and transparency between officers and councillors, which had created ‘major concerns’ over financial issues.

“No-one on that council knows if the accounts show significant over spending or under spending at any one time,” he said.

“The only option, I believe, is for the council to self opt into special measures, so that the district council can take over for 12-24 months,” he said.

“This council is in crisis. Other bodies desperately need to intervene to get it back on track.”

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New mayor Coun Lesley Rollings said she appreciated the hard work Coun Young had done to ‘reverse the downward direction of the council’.

She said his leadership had led the council to move toward putting the recommendations of the governance report into action, and using a ‘workable’ new set of rules.

Coun Rollings is asking for complaints about the operation of the town council to be sent to her by 25th May.

“This applies to anyone - councillors, staff or members of the public,” she said.