No secrets please

Councillor Roger Giles has been treated shamefully by his colleagues on the Ottery Town Council, and if anyone deseves an apology it is him.

It seems that the planning committee/council can treat as ‘confidential’ any matter that it decides and thus exclude the press and public and forego the trifling necessity of an item appearing on an agenda or one minuted at a meeting.

What sort of democracy is that?

There is no place for secrecy in local goverment – even more so in the hotly debated issues of development. The council was wrong in deciding in secret to meet Persimmon Homes and wrong in going ahead and doing so.

The residents of West Hill and the other communities which he serves are fortunate in having a man of principle likes Cllr. Giles (and Cllr Claire Wright) to represent them.

Margaret Hutchesson

Tipton St John