2,700 sign petition
A PETITION set up to oppose plans by Cornwall Council to transfer services to a new private company has attracted more than 2,700 signatures in less than a week.
Cornwall councillor Andrew Wallis set up the online petition after his motion against the council's shared services plan was supported by fellow councillors before being ignored by the council's leading Cabinet, which said it would continue with its plan.
Since it was launched last week, the petition has collected 2,734 signatures online and Mr Wallis has sent out dozens of paper copies which have been signed by hundreds more people.
The Porthleven and Helston councillor said that he had been "amazed" by the response.
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He said: "I am bowled over by how many people have got involved with this, the response in less than a week is nothing short of amazing."
Under council rules, if the petition collects more than 1,000 signatures, the motion has to go before one of the council's overview and scrutiny committees. If it reaches 5,000 signatures, it will trigger a full council debate on the subject.
Mr Wallis said: "To be over the halfway mark already is brilliant and it shows that the public are interested in what happens at County Hall.
"Some people say they are signing it because they don't want their services privatised, but others are signing it because the Cabinet ignored the council vote last week.
"It has turned into a debate not just about the future of council services but about local democracy as well."
Comments
by expect_us
Thursday, September 20 2012, 10:58PM
“Good progress for the petition. I think it shows how passionate we are about our services and that we are not naive as regards to the agenda of the Unitary's made men.
The corporations appear to run our councils, our CEO was ex CEO of Serco solutions, who are not a solution to our doctors service.
We have a group of amateurs proposing a far more credible solution to the incineration project, but the result was never in doubt.
Privatisation is creeping through the NHS, to reiterate the privatised cleaning contracts resulted in MRSA running rampant costing far more financially and the human cost was incalculable.
Let the experts run the services, the ones that have done it for decades and don't farm it out to a private company who only care about keeping the shareholders happy and the balance sheet.
You can never pay someone to do a job cheaper than you can do it yourself. Fact.
We are faced with an agenda to privatise it all and those people won't be happy until they own us too.”
by dee_2
Thursday, September 20 2012, 9:03PM
“The cabinet's disgraceful overruling the decision of the full council is a kick in the teeth for anyone who believes in democracy. But it goes beyond that given that the same cabinet are falling over each other as they rush to hand our money to big business. The proposed destruction of protected maerl beds in Falmouth harbour - £10Million or more on dredging - is just one example.
It's time the national press looked into what is going on. Our MPs, all of them, don't appear to be bothered in the slightest.”
by Olly_Gark
Thursday, September 20 2012, 5:13PM
“3061 for the online version.
It's here if anyone missed it:
http://tinyurl.com/8rjxrvl”
by cheekyman_jr
Thursday, September 20 2012, 4:33PM
“I signed it because I don't want services to be privatised, if fact I'd like to see the services that have been privatised in the past to return to being public services.
I'd also sign anything which stands up to Robertson and Lavery...neither of them are any good for Cornwall.”
by Phil_lip
Thursday, September 20 2012, 3:31PM
“The online version is now over 3000 and it is great to hear the total is actually higher as I mentioned on the other story.
Petition is here for any that have not signed it yet.
http://tinyurl.com/6fff99f
I hope the guardian (and voice and any other local paper) get behind this and support democracy in action and show what a sham Lavery and his cronies are for trying to do what the councillors and people DO NOT WANT for whatever personal reason they have.”