Things have come to a very sad state of affairs when a Residents Association Officer has had to take the leader of the Conservatives, Cllr Mary Mears, to the County Court in order to get a very simple, easily solved problem sorted out.

The problem was centred on the fact that a number of Tenant Association representatives told Cllr Mears that they were unwilling to attend a vital and important housing meeting because it was due to be held in the Tenant Association room at Essex Place. 

The submission was that some tenants within the Lavender St jurisdiction were afraid to go because of intimidation, threats and bullying carried out on tenants by a representative of Essex Place Tenant Association. 

A very nasty threat was in fact recorded by the person who was threatened and this led to the Essex Place Tenant Association representative being put on a "Notice before Proceedings for Demotion of Tenancy and Notice of Seeking Possession" from the Anti-Social Behaviour unit of the Housing Dept. 

This Essex Place representative has since instituted a horrendous, libellious series of posters which have been illegally placed on both Tenant Association notice boards in the East and West lobbies of Essex Place. 

The tenant who had been libelled so publicly took the matter to the police who served a “First Course of Conduct warning" personally given by Inspector Rob Leet (Head of Central Area policing).  It is because of such behaviour that other Tenants and Residents Associations discretely asked for the meeting to be relocated to another venue.
 
So simple one might have thought.  Not so according to Cllr Mears who insisted on going ahead with her first choice of venue despite the fact she was told that in doing so it would disenfranchise tenants who wanted nothing to do with Essex Place but wanted to exercise their legitimate rights but were afraid of the Tenant Association representative there. 

She would not budge thereby resulting in court costs claimed by the council of over £1,500 being refused by the sitting Judge.  The judge refused to award costs in favour of the council, because he felt that the case was of such importance that it was quite right for it to be aired in the public arena, in his words the case was brought 'in the public interest.'

Just what is it with grocers daughters?  Why are they so authoritarian and self righteous?  Margaret Thatcher, Shirley Porter and now Mary Mears.  Do we have some sort of dysfunctional gene manifesting itself here?

None of this however gets to the real root of the underlying problems within this community. 

The Lavender St Mob, better known as an outpost of the council housing department, grossly overpaid by the citizens of this city, are refusing to take full responsibility for their inaction over a long period of time and are allowing the said Essex Place representative to carry on with the tactics of bullying and intimidation. 

They are hoping that this will all die down so they can then kick the whole business in to the long grass once again.  We have been here before quite recently.  Many of the same grossly overpaid players, did similar things over a period of 5 years when 2 men were being violently abused and harassed in Tilstone St. 

The Lavender St Mob did nothing to help them until they were forced too despite the fact that the violators were found guilty by the courts.

I think it high time, when in these days of austerity and potential job/wage cuts, that these ineffectual high flyers were reminded by every citizen of this city that we employ them.  We pay their wages.  If there are any redundancies to be made it is they, who grovel near the top of their particular fields, who should face the sack first.  Not the dustbin men or anyone else lower in the pecking order. 

The Lavender St Mob not only needs to apologise to local residents for their tardy behaviour but quite frankly the whole lot of senior so called management needs to be cleared out, relocated elsewhere, like the Job Centre, so we can start all over with a new set of our employees who hopefully we can trust to take our safety as first priority.                  

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