I'm guessing that everyone has received this consultation on whether we'd like to pay more council tax to receive services that the Borough Council already provides? I'm not really sure why the Town Council should be trusted with more money - it goes from people wanting to abolish it one minute to trying to expand it the next (and it's the same people!).

Most worrying, however, is the fact that the voting form has several indentifiers and 'references' on it - this means they will be able to tell preceisely who voted and how they voted. I crossed the codes off on mine but I imagine most people won't even realise what they are.

We have not yet received ours here in the historic centre yet, but good call on the identifiers, lets hope some well meaning officials dont decide its a spoilt vote>.........

We've just had ours through and it's pretty disgraceful - there are several as you put it 'identifiers' all over the form you return split up into different bits at the top bottom and, presumably, via the barcode at the bottom. Hardly an anonymous ballot!

I think someone should question the Town Council over this. I can understand that they don't want someone photocopying lots of returns but they shold be more up front about the indentifiers and what the purpose of them is. Personally I think they should have been printed in a way which was difficult to forge or photocopy.

We received our 'consultation' paperwork. If we return it, I too will be crossing out the identifier at the top and the bar code at the bottom.

However, as Squirrel pointed out, it's disgraceful that a group that gets elected to abolish the Town Council and reduce its costs (stand up the ABC group) now want more money. They can't even honestly explain what they want to do with this extra cash. More CCTV - that's a joke. What's the point? Who uses it and who monitors the cameras? Who pays the salaries of these CCTV people? Is there a face recognition system in place? If not, how do you track down people who may be committing a crime?

How many more services will the Town Council get? They are currently managing flowers, bins, allotments and Christmas lights. Will the Borough or County Councils agree to relinquish control of some services and let the Town Council manage them? How do we know this will happen?

I remember a Town meeting that allowed residents to hear about the development of the Cattle Market. The Corn Exchange was filled and people could make their voices heard (admittedly not much changed). This consultation process is a travesty of all democratic principles. It's being railroaded through to meet budget deadlines - with little consideration for us mugs that have to pay.

It's a waste of money. It's a waste of time. It's pointless and it's a disgrace.

It's a shame that the Town Council Chairman doesn't read this page.

I'd been short of things to discuss on here recently but no longer thanks to the Town Council! Why doesn't the Chairman read this forum? Does he consider himself above it?

The lack of anonymity, not to mention the huge waste of money, is truly shocking and a total indictment of our elected representatives. We elect them on their respective platforms and expect them to make decisions based on that. We do not expect them to come running back to us if things prove too difficult for them. ABC won the elections, we voted to abolish it - they can't do that so the next best thing is to save money and cut costs, perhaps even reduce the tax we pay! Instead they're voting to spend £35,000+ per annum on shiny new offices, upwards of £10,000 on this consultation, another £5,000 (on top of the existing £15,000) on Christmas decorations.

They should all resign, it would be cheaper.

I think to be fair they did cut some of the costs and administration, but not enougth in my opinion, the private tory block seems to have managed to ensure the ABC and their replacements did not get their way, It seems only by political chance that we have a newly elected non party chairman. This may well be a way to seek a mandate for the future, if the vote is by majoirty to keep the £14 then we need to wait and see.
Unlike some others David Nettleton is in touch with his local electors and is not a fool.

If we are to have a town council then the office move makes sence, both politically, and financially, at least we will have some services in the centre of the town. As to the christmas lights if the"BID" is successful no doubt the town contribution could be used else where.

Personally I think St Edmundsbury have a lot to answer for, least of which is the cost of their administration, perferring to pay paper filling managers rather than "traffic wardens" ( some body will no doubt tell me its not st edmundsburys responsibility) If I had to pay more ( and I dont see why I should with so much waste in council at present) it would be for blue light services.

The ABC lot had a majority - for a year! If they didn't achieve anything it was their own fault. As far as I am aware, for the following year everyone was united and working to deliver savings, it's only been in the past few months that the huge spending on administration costs has returned.

I used to have a lot of respect for David Nettleton but let's be honest he's spent all his time building a reputation in opposition, which is easy, and as an independent, which is even easier! Now that he's actually running something it is quickly turning into a shambles. It's much easier to criticise everything, make a fuss and jump on every little issue that is brought to you - you can do that in opposition but once you have to make decisions it is much more difficult. This has been his first major move as Chairman of the Council and it's a disaster.

This is beyond a joke...why should we pay this lot any more money? They can't even decide if the want the council or not. One minute they're trying to abolish it, the next they're renting lovely new offices...but wait a minute! They've no money! So they need to come cap in hand to us with offers of 'street wardens' (what about PCSOs and the fact the BID is providing these?), more bins (wow!), some events (like what?), day centres (give me a break)...where are the costings? The projected budgets? How much will go on even more staff? This lot couldn't run a raffle, let alone plan one.

Well seems they got their mandate. option 1 ( what ever that was) decent turnout as well around 25%. Cant find any info other than on Paul Farmers blog site. 200 plus spoilt papers, one wonderers if crossing out bar codes invaluadates your opinion.