A few weeks back, becoming concerned at delays in getting action from Wiltshire Council departments on behalf of my residents, I wrote a general letter to the local press. In this I cited that often when I raised a matter needing attention, the reply would be that unfortunately there was a “capacity issue”. Basically this meant that there was not sufficient staff to attend to all demands from councillors and the public. This can be explained by the rolling series of redundancies, with more to come.

The letter was published in at least three local papers. It produced responses from past and present staff, saying how they welcomed and agreed with my analysis. Understandably only a few gave me their names – there is something of a climate of fear at County Hall.

This week, in the Melksham paper and the Chippenham/Devizes one, there were two responses from senior Conservative councillors at County Hall. As was to be expected they were critical of my comments; saying that I was just a “maverick” and always moaning.

However, what was really enlightening was the fact that these two letters – one from Councillor Stuart Wheeler, the other from Councillor Jonathon Seed – were largely identical; word for word, paragraph for paragraph. There were repeated mentions of “maverick” and “moaning”, plus how successful the Conservative administration was in everything it did. There was one slight difference. Jonathon Seed’s letter combined the attack upon me with a similar one on Councillor Terry Chivers – another maverick moaner.

I think that I detect the hand of Wiltshire Council’s public relations department in this. My original “capacity issue” seems to have touched a raw nerve at County Hall. As for being labelled mavericks, this is something that Coun Chivers and I proudly welcome. Maverick means independent and not afraid to speak out. “Moaning” we see as actively representing our residents and not falling for public relations spin.

We would far rather be mavericks than political hacks or clones; repeating word for word, paragraph for paragraph, a prepared corporate party line.

Jeff Osborn, Wiltshire councillor (Ind).