It is a matter of personal regret to the Chairman of LOSRA that the Surrey Herald saw fit to edit his fortnightly community column in this week's edition, most especially as it was a valedictory piece on one of our local ward councillors. For those of our readers who bought a copy and could not make sense of it, the following is the original unedited version:
Apart from what I’ve read in the paper I can’t be sure of the reasons that lay behind the recent changes within Spelthorne Council’s political landscape but I do find the whole business just a little unsettling and the electorate will doubtless hope that the internecine warfare will quickly subside; and that our elected representatives will get on seamlessly with the business of local government.
In my experience, I don’t see much public interest in the credulously malign accusations or innuendo which ebb and flow between one party and another. Yah-boo politics is as dreary as it is self-serving. A committed councillor, regardless of party affiliation, is one whose pre-occupation is the next generation rather than the next election; and those whose philosophy embraces the former will more usually be rewarded by the latter.
I discovered that coincident upon, though quite unconnected to, the recent political upheavals, our local ward councillor, Caroline Nichols is to resign her seat on both the Borough and County Councils.
She was a very committed, resolute and hard working local councillor who exhibited precisely the quality which I have described and one, I guess, which we should have a right to expect from all our local councillors of whatever political hue. Oh yes.... and she also had the virtue of not being house trained. Party politics was always secondary to her primary concern of what she believed to be right for the Lower Sunbury community and beyond. She took the capital ‘P’ out of politics and she was loved for it. She goes for personal and family reasons and it’s typical of her that she would not be content to continue in a job to which she could not give her full devotion. Farewell Caroline.
