14/05/2018

Dear Sir

The sudden and unannounced closure of Panshanger Community Hall after the council demanded a massively increased rent was a shocking betrayal of the community, the groups who used it and the local population. At the protest meeting, we were told by senior councillors that the issue had been being discussed for around 3 years.

What exactly did the local councillors do in that time? Nothing was claimed on their behalf, but to add insult to injury, a defeated Tory candidate has apparently claimed that we, the Liberal Democrats, knew about the threat all along and kept quiet. Not only totally untrue - if we had, we would have intervened to try to get some common-sense inserted - but crudely trying to avoid the question of what they did as councillors. Noticeable that none of them spoke at the protest meeting. Not good enough. No wonder local people voted them out.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Cowan

LibDem councillor