The news is out and it is good news. Good has triumphed and justice has prevailed. Six former female community staff of Letchworth Town Council have won their employment case against the new HELP-run council. This crisis for the council led by solicitor George Ritchie will prove an embarrassment not just to be them but to the town. Since not only has the case gone against them but it has revealed the dark murky and spiteful workings of the group.

This is the question that the TCS will be asking next week. Does anyone know if its a criminal offence to interfere with the electoral process- any advice from any Letchworth resident who might know will be welcome!

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Public question for the Council Meeting 17th May 2011.

TCS and people of Letchworth call on town councillors to show their disgust with the way that Mrs Mantle has been running the council and calls on her not to stand again as Chairman and for any HELP councillors (with any sense? are there any?) to pressure her into standing down according.

It is time to go Mrs Mantle, there is only such much small mindedness that the people of the town can take

while we can't forget the Con-Dem coalition or the Tory-led Government that we have nationally, locally in Letchworth we have Help-LibDem coalition which has acted as a mini blueprint for the national cuts taking place. Though it may be the case that the cust are nastier in Letchworth. As everyone knows local Lib Dems Julie Winter and Martin Penny were leading lights in HELP's campaign to cut funding from the Dial-a-Ride service and help for groups such as the downs syndrome group as well as cutting funding for ethic groups in the town and stopping them from meeting at the council's old offices.

HELP block election : No demcracy for Letchworth?

HELP, NHDC and their supporters all face a possible enquiry from the Electoral Commission over the miss-handling of a by-election for Letchworth Town Council. During their time in opposition HELP were well known for disrupting council meetings from throwing papers at the chairman and to others shouting abuse. In power they have rolled back the ability for members of the public to ask questions about things they don't want to reveal. For instance what has happened to all the money???

How much has been spent on legal fees? What is the latest tale of mismanagement? Is it the paying of too much money to the landlord or in rates? Is it losing the town crest? Or just generally not knowing what they are doing?

The front page of the Comet this week has a strange claim from Valerie Mantle Chair of the HELP-run town council that is pledged to do nothing for Letchworth except protect the Heritage Foundation. Mrs Mantle says that she can't find the town council minutes approving the purchase of the town crest, we say its the truth you can't find Mrs Mantle, but not for the first time. Have a look at this here

As you can see Mrs Mantle, 12,832 people saw this on your website.

Town council supporters are being urged to back Tushar Shah and Richard Harman in the limited Heritage Foundation elections
He is a Pharmacist, owns Moore’s Pharmacy in Leys Avenue for the last 21 years and wishes to improve what’s on offer to all shoppers.

Richard Harman was a town councillor and leads the Jackmans Improvement Group.

The Foundation has six elected governors the rest of the governors are appointed by the Foundation themselves or come through some 'community' organisation, many of which are dominated by H-E-L-P members.
In a recent town wide poll residents voted to have the Foundation governance reformed so that all members would be democratically elected.

HELP councillor Kate Thompson must be celebrating the demise of the dial-a-ride for users in Letchworth. The district council pulled the plug on helping the disabled in Letchworth, but the old town council stepped in to save it. However among the cuts that Kate and the other HELP councillors were voted in to scrap was that and help for the down syndrome group. And scrap it they did, people must be patting Kate on the back to thank her for being so committed to her local community. Or maybe not? Maybe it is just her friends at the Foundation who have thanked her.

For the General Election voters are being urged to vote on national issues and to disregard the behaviour of local politicans. Many people are disgusted by the behaviour and policies that ex-Labour councillor Ian Mantle and his wife have followed. Such as axing a community police officer, stopping support for ethnic groups and removing support for Dial-a-Ride service that helps the disabled. Liberal Democrats on the council, such as Bruce Carr were behind plans to sack staff and to cancel grants to groups such as the Downs Syndrome Group.

The North Herts Monitoring Officer and team face an internal enquiry and then a possible external enquiry over their handling of standards board enquiries raised against ex-town councillor, all of which were dropped.

Nationally guidelines suggest that enquiries should be expedited to concluded as quickly as possible (6 weeks is suggested), yet North Herts enquiry dragged on for 16 months.

Doubts have been raised about the quality of information used to make decisions and also how inpartial it has been. Points that the enquiry will hope to uncover.