The yellow ribbons around Southend are for the residents living in this out-of-control dictatorship of a town!

They carry a message – Our Voice, Our Choice – which conveys the simple fact that although we are being run by nine cabinet members who seem to have no comprehension of what we want, the future is in our hands and we have the opportunity to reject the cabinet and return to the fairer committee system.

This would give every elected councillor a say in what happens in Southend and surely no one would disagree with that – even the cabinet if they were really on our side?

Unfortunately, the evidence this is not the case is all around us and our days of blind faith and burying our heads in the sand are over.

The yellow ribbons say no to the mindless and wasteful destruction of our town’s precious resources and our public money.

No to the takeover of Southend by big business such as Tesco and Stobart, no to the cuts in our public services and the destruction of our small businesses, to the ripping out of our beautiful mature trees and their expensive, unnecessary and unsuitable replacements, and no to the power-hungry and arrogant condescension which keeps us all downtrodden and in our place!

Mark Flewitt, the cabinet member responsible for transport, understands this perfectly well, which is why he wants the yellow ribbons gone.

Are cabinet members cutting their own huge salaries to help plug the deficit and support the local people? Are they talking and listening to us? No!

The yellow ribbons will therefore stay until Mr Flewitt and his cabinet members are gone. Don’t cut them down – put more up! They send out a clear message of empowerment and unity to the fed-up residents of this town and they show the cabinet that we have had enough.

They are a symbol of hope and lawful rebellion and they brighten up what is otherwise a stark and miserable concrete jungle.

Jackie Callow
Cambridge Road
Southend