The letter below was published in the Bishop's Stortford Independent - 27/5/21
Dear Sir,
TIME FOR THE TRUTH TO COME OUT
In your issue last week of the Reporter and Broadcast you quoted an R4U statement that “a personal complaint, filed over a year ago, against an R4U Councillor at UDC was dismissed by the Police last autumn”. However in a Council meeting on Tuesday, Cllr Lodge, Leader of R4U at Uttlesford admitted “there has been no progress” in signing off the Council’s accounts because “we are awaiting on the Police to come forward with any information or decision. It is purely in their hands”
This all raises several points of serious concern. First is the current Police Inquiry a second Inquiry for a different reason to the first? If so it is even more shocking that there should be the need for Police involvement regarding Uttlesford’s affairs twice within a year. But if the present Inquiry is for the same reason why have R4U previously tried to mislead by denying the Inquiry is ongoing? The whole situation is totally unacceptable. Moreover it raises a fundamental point of principle about the way in which R4U operates.
In presenting themselves to the electorate R4U have always argued they are free of any link with a national political Party. As such they report to nobody nationally. They are a law unto themselves. If a Council controlled by one of the national Political Parties had been unable to have their accounts signed due to a failure of governance necessitating a formal Police Inquiry then that Party would have intervened and heads would roll. Cllr Lodge as Leader of R4U must take responsibility for the failure of governance. It has happened on his watch, under his control. He must resign. Independence from a major Political Party is not a licence to abuse the electorate. It is time for an end to obfuscation, for the truth to come out and those who have failed us to be held to account.
Yours faithfully,
[Name and address withheld]