Alas! Poor taxpayers' £4,500 drama bill (From Stroud News and Journal)

Alas! Poor taxpayers' £4,500 drama bill

EBLEY Mill has paid experts from RADA nearly £4,500 to teach district councillors how to ask questions, it was revealed yesterday.

Elected members are taught breathing and singing exercises by the top theatre school and take part in role play designed to improve their questioning techniques - at £187 a head.

The sessions are part of a drive by Stroud District Council to improve the way their scrutiny committees grill cabinet members and guests on local issues.

Cllr John Marjoram (Green, Trinity), a member of the community services scrutiny committee, told the SNJ: "I think it is a rather extraordinary way to approach politics.

"We do need to get ourselves better organised but I am not sure if RADA will improve our confidence. There must be a different way to look at it.

"It may make us better orators when it comes to the council chamber though." All 24 members of the two committees are expected to attend one of the two sessions.

One of them took place in February, with the second set to take place on Thursday, March 31.

Labour leader Hilary Fowles (Dursley), who attended the February session, said she was all in favour of it and added that it had "dramatically improved" her performance. "I think it is a fantastic idea," she said.

"When you have to question somebody from outside it is actually quite a difficult thing to do.

"We split into groups and did roleplays and we could see ourselves getting better and better at it."

She added: "It should save money in the long run because it enables us to do our job better."

Stroud District Council spokesman Dave Marshall said the classes were simply to help members debate issues professionally and non-politically. "It is really to help them and make them more effective," he said.

The government-approved thespian masterclasses are conducted by RADA in Business, the corporate training arm of the world-famous Royal Academy for the Dramatic Arts.

None of the other five district councils in the county, or Gloucestershire County Council, said they planned to give members RADA training yesterday.