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07
Oct
Ripon councillor immediately resigns from new committee
A Ripon councillor has resigned from a newly formed committee he was elected on to last night.
Councillor Gary Camplejohn, who did not attend the Ripon City Council meeting, was one of six councillors elected to the civic events committee.
Cllr Camplejohn emailed Councillor Barbara Brodigan, the mayor, this morning asking to be removed.
His email, seen by the Stray Ferret, said no one “had the courtesy to discuss this with me beforehand”. It added:
I am not a supporter of this civic events committee, as we already have a functioning events committee and I don’t believe duplication of our precious time is needed or justified.
I would go as far as saying that the introduction of a separate committee is likely to cause conflict with the existing events committee and their excellent work.
‘Civic events are going downhill’
The city council already has an events committee, which will continue to organise events on the market square.
The new committee, which councillors voted 5-3 in favour of creating, will focus specifically on civic events.
The move further reduces the influence of former leader, Cllr Andrew Williams, who sits on the existing events committee along with Cllrs Peter Horton, Stuart Flatley, Chris Hardisty and Tony Duncan, none of whom were nominated for the new one.
Cllr Pauline McHardy said:
We have had remarks made that our civic events are going downhill and also that the main events that we are having are taking over.
We have reduced in numbers, we no longer visit the churches. This is something that needs resurrecting where we go out to the public not them coming to us.
I’m sure a lot of the public will agree that the traditions of this city are being reduced continuously and we have to resurrect it.
Cllr McHardy added a separate civic events committee previously existed until the two events committees were merged and this move would bring things “back into line as it used to be before it deteriorated”.
‘Meddling for meddling’s sake’
Cllr Peter Horton said it was a “completely misguided idea” that merely “added an extra layer of bureaucracy” and Cllr Stuart Flatley described it as “meddling for meddling’s sake”.
Cllr Williams, said:
Nobody has approached me and complained about the quality or the standard of any civic events held by this council, in fact quite the contrary.
We have had reduced civic numbers attending mayor making and that’s because we had to balance the budget. Entertaining people from far and wide at public expense is not best use of council taxpayers’ money.
He added he was “not responsible for the fact that most of the council does not want to turn out on a Sunday morning and go to church anymore”.
Cllr Julie Ann Martin-Long supported the new committee but said the existing committee had “put on some excellent activities” and this should be recognised.
Cllr Brodigan said:
“This is not a criticism of what’s going on in the events committee. It’s just to reinforce the importance of civic events and to take that forward.”
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