Broxbourne's new Mayor, Councillor Mark Mills-Bishop, has announced details of his charity for the new municipal year.

 

Mark has decided to support "Teens Unite" a charity based in Broxbourne.

 

Mark has published this personal message which eloquently explains why this charity is so deserving of our support.

 

We would like to wish Mark & Teens Unite a every success and hope that they enjoy a rewarding fund raising year.

I haven't had a chance to blog in the last week or so - too many other things happening at the moment.

 

However I will try to resume (fairly) normal service by the weekend.

I couldn't resist posting this - with thanks to Dave Hewitt.............

 

 

I have to admit to being slightly surprised with Dan Peter's article on page 2 of last weeks "Mercury" concerning the Freedom of Information item I submitted to the last Scrutiny Committee.

 

 

Why surprised - well the story isn't exactly timely.

 

The last Scrutiny Committee meeting and the blog Dan refers to were both about 7 weeks ago on 16th March!

 

What didn't surprise me is that the story isn't entirely accurate.

 

Starting with the bits that are right:

 

(1) I did submit an agenda item concerning Freedom of Information requests to the Scrutiny Committee held on 16th March.

 

(2) This item was originally omitted from the committee papers published to the Borough of Broxbourne website - although this has now been corrected and my item appears on this page as an additional report.

 

(3) I did post a blog comment to this website on the 16th March about the item not appearing on the Borough website.

 

Now for the bit that isn't accurate:

 

Dan's article gives readers the impression that the FOI report wasn't discussed at the Scrutiny Committee - sadly nothing could be further from the truth.

 

This report was fully discussed at committee, forming item 7 of the final agenda.

 

As a result of the discussion, the Committee has indicated a desire to receive detailed quarterly reports on FOI requests made to Broxbourne Council.

 

Although the formal minutes of this meeting won't be agreed and published until the next Scrutiny Committee meeting (scheduled for 15th June). The evidence that the item was covered can be seen in the published information sheet on the Council website.

 

I appreciate that a subject like Freedom of Information is, inevitably, of interest to the media - I am sure that they can glean useful background detail for their stories from such requests.

 

However, it does seem a shame that the accuracy of this article left something to be desired.

 

Just as a final thought - isn't it curious that "The Mercury" chose to publish this article on Election Day rather than in any other edition in the last 7 weeks?

 

One might almost suspect they had an agenda.....................

Just a few lines to say thanks to Virgin Media for successfully losing TV, internet and telephone services to the EN7 postcode area on election night.

 

Great customer service - a real quality company...................