Hyperlocal blog sparks councilors to quit jobs

By Bob Toovey - 30 October 2009

I previously wrote about hyperlocal sites being taken seriously by local Government. But it seems they can get too serious. This article published today on the BBC website reports that the CJ site Muck and Brass blog in Somerton (UK) has upset local councilors so much that most have resigned their posts.

From 'Blog sparks mass council walkout'

Ex-vice chairman Anthony Canvin said 11 of Somerton Town Council's 15 members resigned at a meeting on Tuesday.

On his Muck&Brass blog Niall Connolly called members "jackasses" and said a leaflet was "like a Nazi call to arms".

However, Mr Connolly rejected the idea that the councillors had resigned as a result of his blog. He attended the meeting himself on Tuesday.

He said: "If blaming Muck&Brass helps these ex-councillors to sleep at night then that's fine but it ignores the truth.

"These councillors had, for too long, ignored the community which they were meant to serve."

The council will have to hold new elections as there are now too few councillors to make decisions.

There is a posting about this meeting on the Muck and Brass site, 'Doing the Berlin wall'.

Niall Connolly said on 05 November 2009

When I started the blog it was driven by outrageous statements made by the Chair of Somerton Town Council with regard to the manner in which public money would be spent in the construction of a community hall. The Chair of the Council explained that the community would be excluded from the fundraising process and all monies would be handled by Vice Chair Cllr Canvin who would use his business contacts to ensure the best value for the community. There would, of course, be no competitive tendering. The second phase of the blog was driven by a property/land swap whereby the community of Somerton exchanged land near the centre of the town (purchased as the site for a community hall) for an industrial unit located as far from the centre of town as possible. This unit is located on an industrial estate owned or controlled by ex-Vice Chair Canvin. Today, the community of Somerton don't use the hall, partly because of its awful location and partly because the Town Council set a tariff which no local community groups could afford. So the town is left to clear up the financial mess that those councillors engineered. Anyone who is interested could have a look at the blog, especially the analysis link, to judge for themselves if the blog is fact or fantasy.

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