[gondola]

Originally Posted by Gayle

You are quite right, I am a member of a number of community groups but at no point have I had any contact with Cllr Siddique - however, I doubt whether he'd want to join Hyndburn Women's Forum or be involved with a drama group.

I suppose the one you would imagine that he might get involved in would be the Mela and Community Festival - he has not attended any meetings of that, however, Cllr Brian Roberts has been a regular attendee so we have had council representation.

And, in all fairness to Brian, he has been a valuable member of the committee lately and has delivered when he's said he would.

Well you seem to be reinforcing the view that his contributions to the community are negligible. Surely other Councillors need to vent these concerns to those that have afforded him the role of Portfolio holder for Community Cohesion. After all, if it is your view that he has failed to get involved at functions at which someone with his responsibility could make a positive impact then surely the role ought to go to someone with a more active interest in such matters.
Furthermore, I lift verbatim from the response by Mr Jones on the other thread a few days ago (which he later edited though I have saved). In it he stated that Mr Siddique does not speak much English. As portfolio holder for Community Cohesion part of his remit is to promote integration of different community groups. If he cannot speak English, then how can he achieve such a goal? Surely ‘community’ represents all the different strands of people in Hyndburn, and not just those loosely termed ‘Asian’.
I appreciate that such a role would require an appreciation of the culture of the Indian Sub-Continent. However, it also needs someone with the necessary skills set to engage the wider community. Perhaps most importantly, it requires someone with a tenacious attitude, something Mr Siddique clearly does not have.