17/06/09 - Readers Letter To Southend Echo

Sir Whilst I welcome Mike Assenheim's public admission of flip-flopping over the issue of Shoebury East Beach (Echo Letters 12/06/09) I find it incredible that he criticises some over 'Openness & Democracy' when he taken four different positions on this same issue.

On the 12th January when the scheme was first in the public domain in the Echo newspaper, he said he gave a cautious welcome to the proposals. After his own admission of then supporting the scheme and then objecting, he then told the local press on the 27th May that there was good and bad in both scheme's and hopeful that a compromise could be reached.

I agree that people who have a mind have the right to change it but on four separate occasions? As a so called 'Independent' Mike Assenheim maybe feels that his comments or actions don't warrant the same level of scrutiny as any of the other political parties.

It does not mean in my view that as an 'Independent' you can't have an opinion on an issue but morally it isn't right to might be for it, for it, against it and then like both schemes depending on which way the wind blows on any given day.

In the spirit of openness and democracy, maybe Mike Assenheim in his next newsletter to Shoebury residents will apologise for his behaviour after telling local residents in a newsletter he supports the scheme? I wait with baited breath.

Yours Faithfully

Tony Cox Councillor West Shoebury Ward West Road, Shoeburyness