Army of volunteers – but for what?

Published: 1 October, 2010

• I AM afraid your correspondent Troy Wear has misunderstood what Westminster Conservatives are really about when they call for Westminster Council to be run by “an army of volunteers” (Letters September 24).

Of course, there should always be a place for volunteers helping to support their local community and individuals in a variety of local projects. Indeed, as a “volunteer” councillor I would encourage more people to come forward.

But that is not what Westminster Conservatives actually mean. They want to replace experienced and paid professional council officers who carry out important and difficult jobs with unpaid volunteers right across the council.

In his recent speech council leader Colin Barrow explicitly said that his vision is for council services to “be delivered through volunteers giving their time and effort for free”.

This is a million miles from Mr Wear’s notion of residents “keeping an eye out for others”, which I support wholeheartedly.

Finally, Mr Wear needs to check his facts before asserting that “getting around 300 people to vote for you is hardly a qualification” for giving opinions. For the record, the three Queen’s Park Labour councillors (including me) all got more than 2,500 votes each in May  – an all time record.

CLLR PAUL DIMOLDENBERG
Leader of the Labour Group