Honiton hero pens open letter to Town Council

Honiton is a superb market town with many people putting in a huge amount of voluntary work in many ways.

It is part of the reason my wife and I decided to move our business to Honiton from Sidmouth in 1992.

Honiton then, as with other towns, was in the doldrums of a recession but we had confidence in the town and were inspired by the people who live here.

Our faith in the town has been totally justified.

I do a fair bit of travelling with the Baton charity affairs and can say with confidence to those that don't consider our town special, that they should spend more time out of it, then perhaps they would understand just how lucky we are to live here.

Being recently retired I've had more time to walk through the town and chat to people.

I have to say that I am truly saddened to hear so many conversations, from all walks of life, commenting on the quality of the Town Council and some of the people on it.

Disillusionment is very much the general feeling, which was also a constant topic of conversation in the shop when I was there.

Being elected onto any Town Council should not be treated lightly.

No councillor should be there to put personal or political views above the town's interest and public trust should never be betrayed.

I know that there are many good councillors, who do have the town's best interests at heart and are trying their best to take it forward, but they can't if others are obstructive, bullying or just not doing the job and taking the easy route.

All that will lead to is good and much-needed people becoming frustrated and leaving.

Our town deserves and needs a caring, supportive and progressive Council to take it forward at the same time preserving it's history.

On social media a while back, I saw a report of over £120,000 being spent on council legal fees over five years.

This compared to Exmouth and Sidmouth's £5,000 for a similar period is very disappointing when considering what that amount of money could do for the small town projects, clubs and societies desperately needing help with funding.

With all that is being overheard and the awful accusations and comments on various social media platforms sadly, and with respect and no ill feeling, I think we have come to a point of necessary action where our town council is concerned.

A motion needs to be put forward, so that all seats are put up for re-election to endeavour an input of fresh blood that has the town's best interest at heart.