Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

How WWDC is forced to spend some of our council tax.
WWDC recently dealt with the first of these, which related to two Westbury town councillors.

One person, out of one hundred and eighty attendees, at a meeting made a complaint which was deemed (by SBE) worthy of further investigation and so the process swung into motion. It concluded with an hearing at the WWDC offices a while ago.

At the next meeting of the WWDC Standards Committee, which I sit on, I asked for a breakdown of the costs involved.

Last night the figure was provided to us - £12,830.

WWDC will approach the SBE for re-imbursement of this money, but with no real hope of getting it. It is anticipated that WWDC may have to conduct upto six of these investigations a year.

Many people already see the SBE as a folly which is manipulated for political ends; it would now seem to be going to cost council tax payers a possible 2% hike in council tax to pay for this exercise in 'democracy'.