Dennis the tennis

I start my first blog with an apology to outgoing Liberal Democrat Councillor Dennis Brown.

He, quite rightly, put a flea in my ear for getting the spelling of his name wrong in a news article earlier this week. He said it was Dennis with two t's as in tennis, not Denis.

He said it was worth pointing this out otherwise people might jump to the conclusion that I was careless.

Quite right, Denis (Oops! I mean Dennis) especially as I was reeling at the time of writing the said article at the legal complexities of Castle Park being used by people "by right" rather than "as of right". (I could write acres about this but none of us would be any the wiser).

Anyway, dear old Dennis got a rousing cheer when he announced during a debate at full council on Tuesday night that it was the last time he would be speaking as a councillor.

I, rather naively, believed the exceptionally enthusiastic applause was a thank you for all his endeavours during the past 500-odd years or so that he has served.

But afterwards it was suggested by a Tory councillor who shall remain nameless that the rapturous reaction was more to do with joy at his departure.

You must remember that Dennis has been a stickler for detail during his entire tenure.

So much so, that some of his contributions in the council chamber had a soporific effect on poor hacks like me and on more than one occasion, I admit to "resting my eyes".

Dennis pointed out in his last speech that he had been very disappointed that debates had so often degenerated into party politics.

Of course, Dennis never engaged in such unsavoury antics. Even when, for example, he would table a battery of questions on a given issue that reduced progress to less than a snail's pace.

Cynics might have muttered that this was nothing more than a political tactic to bog down an issue so that it never passed muster.

But I put this attention to detail down to Dennis's academic brain, his boffin-esque conscientiousness to drill down to the finest minutiae of any given topic.

Dennis, you will be sorely missed for all the windows of opportunity you gave me for a treasured nap. Zzzzzz.