Wasps protesting over council sting

From the Echo, first published Tuesday 14th Oct 2003.

PENSIONERS warned councillors to 'beware of the grey vote' as they took to the streets of Weymouth.

They assembled in St Mary Street to air the grievances of the older generation and fire a warning shot across the bows of a council they say is complacent and wasteful.

The OAPs are members of Wasp, (Weymouth Area Seniors' Project), a group of over-55s who believe that older people need a united voice in the community to tackle issues like crime, transport services, pensions, rising council tax and disabled access.

But many protestors were fired up by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

Vice chairman of the group and former borough mayor and Honorary Alderman Mike Jewkes said: "Councillors are costing us taxpayers £125,000 a year. Are we getting value for money?

"What has happened to the money the council got for selling off the Prince Regent and the Russell hotels? The amount of money that is being wasted is colossal."

Wasp spokesman Hugh Douglas-Noon said: "What angers me is that the council just refuses to answer questions about money. I don't think it has ever disclosed what has happened to the money that makes up the deficit in the budget," he said. "We are still contributing to the pensions of people who have made all these mistakes, and I think that's just wrong."

Members of the pressure group are also turning their attention to national issues. Retired marine engineer Richie Peck said having lived abroad and witnessed the way that other governments tackled pensions, he believed the British government had made a terrible mess of them here.

"I would like to get Tony Blair to listen to us.

"Otherwise at the next election it's goodbye Mr Blair," he said.

Wasp chairman Rosemary Fisher-Crewe said it was time for an independent inquiry into the financial state of the borough council, asking: "What has been going on with the money there? What has happened to the missing millions?

"I know there are a lot of people in the community who feel strongly about these issues and I would urge them to come along to our meeting and make their voice heard."

Members of Wasp will be electing a management committee at the group's first annual general meeting at The Old Rectory in St Thomas Street at 2pm on October 22.

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