SORRY to do this, but for a second week running we are back considering the (mis)conduct committee of Fenland District Council.

Rarely in the 40-year history of this council can there have been a time when so much mess was created by so few for the perplexity of the many.

The agenda for next week’s meeting is a mish-mash of anonymity, half truths, ill-considered, ill-thought-through and illogical propositions.

We have always campaigned for greater transparency in local government. But this is not simply a step too far, it’s a monumental leap that strikes us as being disproportionately unfair to those caught up in its machinations.

Even the Government minister who oversaw the demise of the former standards regime and the introduction of a lighter touch philosophy has expressed bewilderment at the zealotry that some monitoring officers at some councils have adopted.

Quite why chief executive Paul Medd allowed such unbridled and puerile invective to be churned out by the ream at Fenland Hall has not been explained but perhaps should be.

His stewardship of this committee has been woeful. His officers have blundered through an apocalypse of damning innuendos and ill gotten gossip more suited to the sewer than to mostly decent councillors who must wonder whether the pittance they’re paid and the public service they provide is worth it.

Mr Medd’s claim that councillors and officers welcome the “new streamlined committee” is poppycock.