Gloucestershire County Councillors refused information by Shire Hall

“This is why so few people bother to vote at elections. The country is run by unelected beaurocrats who are only interested in their own agenda at the expense of true democracy. Try getting an answer to even a simple question ........”

“The headline is wrong. Civil servants work for central government not for local councils. More sloppy Echo/TiG reporting.”

“People who work for local authorities aren't civil servants.”

“There seemed to be a lot more information in this story this morning.

Anyway, I see that Dave Prince is an independent, and Klara Sudbury is the councillor who defected from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats a couple of years back.

This brings two thoughts to mind. One is that these two don't have the clout to get answers from the council, although their political status shouldn't really matter.

The other is that this could be a ruse to embarrass the Conservative-led council right before the Eastleigh by-election. Not that it should have much impact on that contest, but they might be trying to keep their hand in. The Lib Dems in particular have good reason to create distractions in the media at the moment...”

“Judas, could you enlighten us to the other side of this story ? Intrigued.....”

“@Judas I agree this may well be gossip, but interesting all the same from how bad things must be between county councillors, elected by us, and the county council itself. It seems a strange situation that these councillors have had to go to the stage of voicing their frustrations to a local paper because of what they perceive as barriers from the county council.

It does go to highlight how bad the processes are if these councillors feel they will not get anywhere with this matter internally.

The county council did have a quote in the article, so not one-sided. Just nice to see that the unelected employees in the county council do not trust information to the elected councillors that are there to ensure that things are being done properly.”

“I think we all know the answer to that one,Judas.”

“Can the reporters at TiG be bothered to establish the other side of the story before going to print, or they just interested in gossip?”

“One part of local government not talking to another, did we expect anything different?”

“The County Council has a history of being evasive.
I feel that some of the reaons given to not impart information are false are the same as lying.”