Councillor – we can't nanny every resident
RESIDENTS can't be "nannied" to help them afford houses and get jobs, Cotswold District Council's leader said.
Councillor Lynden Stowe hit back at a public question from former Cirencester College students' union president Sean Davey, 19, who posed it at a full council meeting.
He said: "With a massive lack of affordable housing, swingeing cut to youth services from the county council and a cabinet whose youngest member is approaching half a century, what assurances can be given that young people aren't being forgotten or abandoned by the council?
"Please give particular detail of how the district council is giving local communities the resources to engage and empower young people, and also steps being taken that will help the next generation establish themselves within the Cotswolds in areas such as housing and employment?"
Councillor Stowe said: "We can't nanny every single person in this district.
"There will always be a demand from people who want to live or stay in the district.
"We don't go around dictating how they can live.
"We can't go around holding their hands at every stage in life – through the seven ages of man –- from start to finish.
"People have just got to go out and do their own thing."
3 Comments
by Cotswold Cynic, Cirencester
Friday, February 25 2011, 2:23PM
“What a small minded, blinkered man Cllr Stowe has shown himself to be. This comes from a leader whose administration has presided over the great holiday home gold rush in the Water Park with planning consents handed out like confetti for 1,200 homes that locals are actually banned from living in.
And when the Council Leader's publishing company isn't busy accepting advertising from these property developers another of his businesses makes a nice return delivering fine wines door to door to these well-heeled bankers and hedge fund managers weekending from London while hard working families are left homeless.
Surely there must be some decent, caring Tories at CDC who are prepared to depose this uncaring dinosaur. I guarantee it won't need the sort of courage shown by the people of Libya but there may still be blood on the carpet at CDC”
by Sean Davey, Fairford
Wednesday, February 23 2011, 2:06PM
“I found Cllr Stowe's response patronising and totally dismissive of local young people and a sustainable local economy. Is he really claiming that providing an opportunity for hardworking people to buy houses in the Cotswolds is "nannying" them?? Try telling that to people who have grown up in the area, or aspire to live here and do go out to work, but simply can't afford the ridiculous prices - driven ever higher by the building of holiday homes. Cllr Stowe and the local Tories really need to wake up and start talking to the public, to local people or they are going to isolate the local community, turn the Cotswolds into an exclusive holiday resort and suffer considerable losses in May's local elections anyway!”
by Robert, Cirencester
Wednesday, February 23 2011, 8:35AM
“And don't ask us even to think about young people....”