Readers letter

On Monday a clearly rattled Cllr Woodley took to the Echo letters page to defend his precarious position and attack hard working West Shoebury councillors following my expose on his stewardship of Burges Estate Residents Association (BERA).

The Echo did allow me a right of reply in today's paper albeit a heavily edited version. So for my regular readers here is the letter that I sent to the Echo in full:

Sir

I find it incredible that Ron Woodley continues to use the Burges Estate Residents Association (BERA) as a decoy to mask his true motives (Echo Letters 07/11/11). The real reason for the expansion of BERA into other areas from their Thorpe Bay base can be found in BERA's last statement of accounts which shows a fall in their membership subscriptions by over a third.

With a falling membership, Mr Woodley tries to deceive residents of West Shoebury and Southchurch into joining their ailing organisation by implying in their latest newsletter that only joining BERA will stop over development in these wards. It is also disingenuous of the BERA Chairman Mr Woodley to suggest that BERA stop councillors becoming complacent in the areas it represent, currently Thorpe ward at present, when Mr Woodley and BERA treasurer Mike Stafford are local Thorpe ward councillors! You really couldn't make it up.

I find it incredulous that Mr Woodley dares suggests that West Shoebury councillors do not care about residents who live in areas covered by Burges Estate in West Shoebury, especially as one of my fellow ward councillors lives in an area of West Shoebury that is covered by the Burges Estate.

To reassure Mr Woodley, Instead of trying to hide behind BERA for political purposes or use the Echo letters page to run nasty smear campaigns against political opponents I will be getting on with what residents of West Shoebury elected me to do - tackle the issues that matter to them most.

Yours Faithfully

Cllr Tony Cox
West Shoebury Ward
West Road
Shoeburyness