MORE FACES THAN THE TOWN HALL CLOCK!

There’s no doubt that dealing with people can be difficult. In fact, I believe some people enjoy being confrontational and condescending and if Councillor John Taylor has ever paid to have lessons in  tact, diplomacy and/or community cohesion and harmony, then I think his next letter should be to Common Purpose or some other such group concerned with controlling the levers of power, and demand his money back.

The Dukinfield Ward councillor writing his usual condescending epistle in this week’s Tameside Reporter, tells us he has a great deal of affection for the Longdendale and Mottram area.

Despite the Longdendale Community Group sending over 3000 letters objecting to the building of the under-used giant TESCO store in Hattersley, he would now have us believe he leaves Dukinfield, drives past, Morrison’s, Aldi and Tesco in Stalybridge, so he can ‘drop-in’to Tesco in Hattersley, to do a little shopping!

He then has the effrontery to tell the local residents that while he’s in their area, he’s so impressed with the obvious tranquility of the historic village of Mottram and the surrounding area, that he takes time to drive around and take in the views!

He writes, ‘…it’s such a picturesque part of the borough, nestled beneath War Hill, and goes on to inform us, that  ‘it’s a timeless scene that seems a million miles away from the Tame Valley’ where he lives, which he tells us, is basically an industrial corridor of mills!

John Taylor has almost become a metaphor for everything that goes wrong and refuses to listen or see things from someone else’s point of view.

This man who tells us how lucky we are to live in such a picturesque area, is currently the Deputy Leader of the draconian Labour controlled Tameside council who are not only about to remove Hattersley’s Recreation Centre, together with its large area of sports fields, but again despite fierce opposition from local residents, two local councillors and the combined voices and over 500 letters of objections from the Longdendale Community Group, have gone ahead regardless and produced detailed plans to build on Mottram’s ‘Green Belt’ and turn the historic and picturesque part of the borough into a duplication of two-faced Taylor’s very own Tame Valley, - a concrete corridor of industrial units!

One of the curses of modern life is how people like John Taylor can not only get regularly published, but be catapulted from lowly ward councillor who rarely answers direct questions, to become the council Deputy Leader whose ghost writer now dominates our local media pages, and twitter streams.

The Local Government Association are running courses on Role Mentoring specifically for councillors wishing to improve their personal effectiveness, internal and external relationships, and strengthen their community leadership role.

It costs between £4,400 and £6,900, depending on the amount of consultant support required.

In John Taylor’s case it would be money well spent!