Letter: What is being hidden?

Having just read The Star, July 21, front page headline What don’t they want you to know’ and accompanying article by Lucy Ashton, relating to an ‘Extraordinary cover-up of information relating to millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money pumped into Sheffield International Venues by council’, I commend the newspaper for bringing this matter to the attention of the Sheffield community and also Lucy for her investigative journalism.

As someone who has elected our councillors to office for many years, I crave the indulgence of The Star to allow me to offer my uninhibited thoughts on the matter. H.G. Wells wrote The Shape of Things to Come. James Bond won the day yet again in For Your Eyes Only, Shakespeare’s Hamlet quotes the line ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’.

What can be directly associated with the theme of these three avenues of entertainment? – step forward and take a bow the Labour controlled Sheffield City Council! With the disclosure of this very disturbing information, even though most of it is redacted by the council, the public have not had to wait for things to come as they are already here and have been for some considerable time.

While James Bond finally saw the For Your Eyes Only message the people of Sheffield have been denied that opportunity by the very same councillors who they elected into office and pay for their allowances.

There is no need to go to the state of Denmark to smell something rotten – look/smell no further than the Sheffield Town Hall, the supposed citadel of those working on behalf of an electorate which they feel unable to be open and transparent with when it comes to the spending of taxpayers’ money.

I am very alarmed that a sitting council can go against a Freedom of Information request to redact nearly all the information on the relative document – what have they got to hide which they cannot share with the people who elected them – unless it be that they feel disclosure of such information would be detrimental to them at the next council elections?

While some people may see Councillor Shaffaq Mohamed, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, as climbing on the political bandwagon to register a protest, in this case he has my full support.

In asking for the council to be more transparent the remedy lies in the hands of his party and the newly elected Green councillors – step forward their Leader Councillor Douglas Johnson

For many years your party has been striving to gain a foothold in the SCC, you and your 12 colleagues are now firmly ensconced in the full council and with your coalition with the no overall majority Labour party hold the voting reins for any of their proposals.

What better example of the Green party being open, transparent and democratic than for them to exert their influence on their Labour colleagues, to insist that the redacted information be made available to anyone lawfully requesting it?

If Labour refuse to do so, their Green Party colleagues have only to withdraw their support and side with the Liberal Democrats for this to be agreed at a vote – I am sure that Councillor Mohamed would welcome them with open arms to get this done.

The colour ‘green’ has always been associated with getting things done and moving ahead – in this instance I respectfully request that Councillor Johnson and his colleagues exercise their influence in the current SCC Labour/Green coalition to have this information made public, to investigate what has happened and put measures in place to avoid a future financial repetition.