Western Morning News: Letter: Townhall bureaucrats fight freedom of speech

IT IS disgraceful that a town hall bureaucrat would work as hard as Cornwall County Council's head of "equality and diversity" to shut down a local community newsletter.

A taxpayer-funded bureaucrat working - on our buck - to close Mr Denis Lusby's voluntary community magazine in Bodmin shows exactly what is wrong with our town hall bureaucracy.

They want to regulate every aspect of our lives.

Mr Lusby spent a decade building up a community magazine without asking for a penny of taxpayers' money.

Other councils spend millions of public funds sending out second-rate propaganda.

Yet Cornwall County Council persecuted Mr Lusby's magazine which, given this hate campaign from Cornwall's "equality and diversity" inspectorate, may never face publication again.

Why couldn't the council see that Mr Lusby was performing a public good?

Cornwall County Council should apologise to Mr Lusby and to the people of St Breward and Bodmin, who face losing a valuable community magazine.

Moreover, Cornwall's taxpayer-funded, politically correct bureaucrats should put our money into front line services and not nosy council officers who want to rule our lives.

Tim Aker

Grassroots Coordinator The TaxPayers' Alliance London