ON JUNE 28, 2017, Gloucestershire County Council met to consider the Ofsted report that declared the Council’s Children’s Services Department not fit for purpose. 

I attended that meeting expecting that those ultimately responsible, i.e. the chief executive and every councillor, would have the decency at least to stand up and make a brief statement of contrition. Instead, there was no chief executive, a brief ‘apology’ from the council leader and, with a couple of laudable exceptions, a series of councillors complaining about being lied to. 

Now I learn that four councillors, safe from being seen by those of us at the back, considered the meeting of such import that they treated it as an opportunity for their afternoon nap. 

I cannot find the words to express my disgust that these people should have so little regard for the children of Gloucestershire, so I must borrow those of Oliver Cromwell: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

DAVID MARCER
Maisemore, Gloucester