FEBRUARY’S full Bromsgrove District Council meeting was well attended because most of the public present had come to hear councillors speak about the need for a public inquiry into years of unauthorised dumping on the Marlbrook tip.

As the Conservative councillors did not want this embarrassingly long saga raked over, they claimed that seeking a public inquiry was politically motivated. So their majority numbers instead voted for setting up a crossparty group, to include local residents in order to find an acceptable outcome.

An unusually long meeting of three hours 10 minutes – 45 minutes of which was devoted to debating the tip – and even then being terminated by a deadline set by the chairman. Much longer meetings being the result of cutting back the frequency of these meetings to save money, which meant that three important cabinet meeting proposals had to be discussed and voted on, even if discussion time was restricted.

So it was a great pity that the unfit- for-purpose and unreliable audio system did not allow all speakers to be clearly heard by all who were there.

We did, however, hear that some council staff had annual salaries exceeding £100k and consultants were being paid £30k. Yet upgrading or replacing the council chamber’s audio equipment, I was told, would be far too expensive.

When the Labour Group pressed the council leader for more information on what had taken place at cabinet meetings he made clear that he was not prepared to do so, while the Labour leader claimed that they were not being given sufficient financial details to know where money was actually getting spent.

Yet when pushed about money the parish councils were entitled to, the council leader said that at the next full council meeting he wanted details of where they were actually spending their money. So how much does the council leader really know?

Apparently he had no idea why the start date for work at Parkside had been put back. Yet more importantly, does he know if there will be finance available to replace the Dolphin Centre and our large swimming-pool? When regeneration of the town centre was discussed the council leader used the words ‘bringing vibrancy back to the High Street’ – a place now dominated by discount merchandise, charity and coffee shops. So what is the likelihood of major retailers coming back to Bromsgrove?

Out-of-town superstores and the likes of online retailers such as Amazon have changed people’s shopping habits. The Artrix is an example of what is successful in Bromsgrove, so will we get a new leisure centre, cinema and leading retailers? I am not yet convinced.

Malcolm Guest The Flats