A Labour councillor launched into a foul-mouthed rant after becoming fed up with horse manure on a bridge in his area.
Long-serving Derby city councillor, Martin Repton, made the comments during a public meeting which was being broadcast live online while discussing a temporary bridge at the city’s Darley Abbey Mills.
His comments came after the council had viewed a presentation on a new online system which allowed councillors to report issues in their area.
But Mr Repton was clearly annoyed by the system which he was concerned could be bureaucratic and see issues take longer to get fixed.
He said: “The initial feel is it is less personal and there’s a more bureaucratic feel to this. I speak as a councillor with really high casework – I get literally dozens (of enquiries) a week and have a high turn-around rate.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating and I’d certainly be reluctant to turn a winning formula into something that gets delayed.
“I want to know how the sausage machine works and I wish to compare it with how I work. I refer to the colourful case of horse s*** on the temporary bridge in Darley.
“I’ve had people report dog mess but never horse cr** on the bridge.
“I contacted Streetpride, it was removed in a few hours. If I fill this form in, who would pick it up? Where would it go?
“So there’s horse cr** on the bridge – how much time does it take to deal with this horse s***?”
The presentation host remindeded Mr Repton he was live on the internet to which he then apologised and said he had meant horse manure.
He then said he could not guarantee issues would be dealt with quicker via the online system but reassured Mr Repton that complaints would be dealt with by a human being rather than AI.
