Members irreconcilable differences cause Social Services Minister to dissolve LaPlaine Village Council

Social Services Minister Catherine Daniel has explained why the La Plaine Village Council was dissolved recently. Speaking on state-owned DBS Radio, Daniel said the decision was based on the fact that it seemed that the people on the council were not able to work together, and there were shortcomings in the performance at council level, which some people found to be very disturbing.
 
Daniel said “You would think that the people who offer themselves to serve their communities are interested in the well-being of the community, and you would expect that in the interest for the development of the community, people would do all that is necessary to work hard for the development of their community. And like all other councils, we expected LaPlaine to follow that same practice, but apparently that was not meant to be.
 
She said it appeared that there were irreconcilable differences between members of the council, “So we had no choice”. Daniel further noted that different approaches were tried to address to issue. “We tried”. The local government commissioner & other officers went up there, they held meetings with the people, they tried on numerous occasions to see if they could iron out the problems. There were personality problems, management issues, project issues, and it seems there was no end or solution for this problem, and so we used the last resort.”
 
Daniel said, having received different reports from different people, “we consulted the Attorney General’s office, and based on the information we received, we had no choice but to dissolve the La Plaine Village Council.”
 
She is advising other villages in Dominica, that when people offer themselves to become councillors, their purpose and intent must be the communities the well-being. Meantime, she called on candidates for the next La Plaine Village Council, to put community first. A New Council election will be held on January 9, 2017.