Dawn Stobbart

I am VERY concerned; not just a little, not a bit, but I am actually frightened for Eden.

I am not stupid, I know that what is reported in the media is not necessarily what is 100% truth – but this week has seen two news stories jump out with nothing but potential pain for EDC.

The first thing was the News and Star report that Carlisle City was not wanting just a shared chief executive with Eden (you may remember that I and the Lib Dem councillors of EDC were opposed to this in the first place) Carlisle City Council, according to press reports are wanting a wholesale merger with EDC as sharing a chief executive will not be financially beneficial for either of us, despite the assurances we were given in EDC’s council chamber that we would be saving money by doing this. This would mean becoming one council. This would mean sharing assets, jobs and debts – absolutely…

OK, so I and my team are opposed to this, this is NOT good for Eden, its residents, its businesses or its future. A shared Chief Executive was hard to swallow, but we lost the vote for this, and made the decision to do what was right for Eden and move on with the Transformation Process.

THEN

Today’s Cumberland News has a story that Carlisle City Council are so strapped for cash, so desperate for money that it is selling of a vast amount of its assets. According to the article, they are already selling these assets off to raise money.

So, realistically, what are we getting into? A merger with a council so desperate for money that it is selling off all the land it can (right down to empty fields) How would we benefit from this. If we merge with Carlisle City, then we share their debts and they share our assets.

I think this needs to be looked at again. Quickly and as a matter of urgency, for the good of all residents, business and most definitely its future.

A big meeting this week- with some big decisions and some big challenges.

The most important thing on the meetings agenda was the ‘management of succession’ or choosing a new Chief Executive for the council. This was heard behind closed doors, after the press and the public had been excluded from the council chamber. I, and the other Lib Dems have a fundamental problem with some of the agenda item being taken in secret. The fact that the Chief Executive at the moment is temporary is something that has been in the local paper and so the discussion about appointing a new one seemed to be something that did not need to be a secret. Obviously, things like people possibly losing their jobs needed to be discussed with them before it became public knowledge; I would hate to read in the Herald that my job was at risk.

Eden District Council has had problems before with secrecy – and with the release of secrets into the public domain. If something is already public, what is the point in trying to keep it secret?

I am not giving away secrets when I say that EDC decided that it was going to ask Carlisle City Council if it would like to share a chief executive – Gordon Nicholson, the leader of the council has already given a statement in the Herald. I don’t think this is the right thing to do -not at this point in time anyway. There can be no denying that the council has a spending deficit which needs to be fixed; but I, and a number of others, believe that this entails a radical restructuring and this could be best achieved by having our own chief executive to oversee this, rather than one that is in charge of two such differing councils. However, we lost this vote, and so we need to get on with things now, and do what we can to make sure that the interests of Eden are served, no matter what.