In excess of thirty people have written to the Isle of Wight Chief Executive Steve Beynon after VB highlighted that he had blocked the council from answering any of the nine questions that VentnorBlog put to the council after learning of the possible sale of the car park above Blackgang Chine and it’s much-loved view across the Island.
Each of them was met with the same, stock email reply:
Thank you for your email. Your comments have been logged and the chair of Overview & Scrutiny will be made aware prior to its meeting held in public this Thursday. Any member of the public is entitled to submit a question to the scrutiny committee in accordance with our council procedures, as previously indicated to Ventnor Blog.
View of a journalist
Veteran journalist Mike Stark, whose dogged determination was instrumental in exposing the Undercliff scandal, was one of those leaving interesting comments on VB about it, part of which was …
News is NOT reporting council meetings AFTER the event. That is the duty of the council minutes clerk and provides a record to gather dust in the archives.
It is entirely proper (in most cases) for issues to be aired in public by media outlets before the “great and good” deliberate on them and reach a decision. To that end, I believe answers from County Hall to VB’s nine questions could have enlightened the public whose money the council spends.
Meeting tonight
The meeting that Steve Beynon has forced the questions to be asked him is being held tonight at 5pm at County Hall.
If you have concerns about Steve Beynon trying to restrict the freedom of the press on the Island to receive answers to their questions, feel free to use the form below to write to him.
Image: eamoncurry under a CC BY 2.0 license
