Local News 
letter to the local press
I read with interest the article and interview with the new Manager of Elstree Film Studios in last week's Borehamwood Times.
It was surprising that Mr Pelzer felt he should comment on his belief that the studios shouldn't be a 'political' issue. If correct the Studios would join a long list of other issues, like bin collections, parking and Councillors giving themselves plum jobs that we can't discuss due to a desire to 'keep the politics out'.
When the then Labour led Council rescued the Studios in 1996 by using significant amounts of tax-payers money the council had a vigorous debate on the issue. The Labour Councillors were determined to save the Studios but the majority of Conservative members of the Council were vehemently opposed to the plan. There were good and impassioned arguments on both sides of the debate, some if not all based on each side's political convictions. Afterwards a vote was taken and a decision made. Discussion - vote - decision; the very model of the political process.
To maintain now that questions over recent events at the Studios should be dismissed because they are deemed 'political', a term almost universally used in the pejorative sense, is nonsense and serves only one purpose; the denial of the public's right to know what is done on their behalf.
What Mr Pelzer fails to appreciate is that Council Tax payers own the Studios; they paid over a £1 million to buy the site and have continued to invest a further £10 million since then to secure its future. It is on our behalf that Mr Pelzer and the Council are custodians and as such are responsible to local Tax payers for their actions. All residents and local tax-payers want true openness and honesty about the governance of our Council's single greatest asset.
I have lost count of the number of times that members of the Council's Conservative Executive have expressed a desire to 'keep the politics out'™ of something. This has always been a thinly veiled attempt to prevent discussion on anything they are embarrassed about or are trying to hide or. It is a problem for open democracy when the Council operates under such a strict regime of secrecy.
It may well be that nothing untoward happened at the Studios, but the recent events surrounding the coming and goings of several senior managers at the Studios and the Council itself are, again, shrouded in secrecy. By trying to stifle debate and hide the facts there will always be a suspicion that our Council has something serious to hide.
I think most residents would agree that we want the Studios to prosper and grow in the future, but it's on the back of our taxes that the Studios exist today and it is to the residents that the Council and Studio Managers owe their loyalty.
Jon Galliers
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