Letters / I shall not bother voting
Now the prospective new and standing SIC councillors register their intentions to stand in the forthcoming local authority elections – we need to ask them all what they stand for.
There are 23 seats up for grabs and apart from some party candidates, the rest are mostly independent (politically hiding) with no joined up political cohesion or direction and just a jumble of personal manifestos all being whispered out from around the new debating chamber.
We all know the town councillors stand for Lerwick but the rural ones need to explain how they intend to support their rural Shetland communities.
Past, previous and current rural incumbents have to a lesser or greater degree failed their communities as the Town Hall drive to push people ever closer to Lerwick and its overcrowded satellite townships of Gulberwick, Tingwall, Whiteness and Weisdale etc has continued to hammer in the wedge.
We have the planning system choking and pricing out rural sustainability, the ridiculous building control and planning regulations that are far too expensive, unpredictable, way too complex.
Preventing affordable housing or new businesses whilst embracing pedestrian and draconian conditions that have made the whole process utterly unaffordable and now so dysfunctional, the very word “planning” strikes terror in the faces of the very best and bravest builders.
Why anyone would even want to waste their time being an SIC councillor is beyond me after most of the interaction I and many others have had with elected members over many years, has usually drawn answers like “our hands are tied”, “it’s not SIC policy”, “the officials wouldn’t allow that” and other pretty negative answers.
I shall not bother voting at all as I know what’s coming, just more of what we have seen over the years. Bluster, jollies, hands tied behind backs and the tail wagging the dog.
Vic Thomas
Catfirth
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