Month: June 2015

Michael Russell asked some written questions in the Scottish Parliament about the way Argyll & Bute Council has been operating recently. His questions and the replies he got from Marco Biagi are shown below. Readers can judge for themselves whether the secretive manner in which the council’s budget is being handled meets with the government’s… Continue reading How Argyll & Bute Works: Michael Russell’s parliamentary questions and replies

I decided it might be nice to drop Dick a wee line or two so here is what I sent him today: From: Breslin, Michael Sent: 18 June 2015 17:49 To: Walsh, Dick Cc: Dance, Vivien; Marshall, Bruce Subject: questions Cllr Walsh, please reply to the following questions: 1              Why did you choose to create… Continue reading How Argyll & Bute Works: some questions for Cllr Walsh

Having had a couple of interesting days in Oban this week, mostly meeting businesses for the SJ Noble Trust of which I am a trustee, it’s back to the painful council stuff. I now know that since January 2014 I have been overlooked completely on 16 occasions for vacancies on council committees. This will, no… Continue reading How Argyll & Bute Works, or not

Alan Stewart of South Cowal Community Development Company has written again to Mrs Loudon the chief executive of the council. He has also written again to Cllr Walsh. These letters are on Facebook and are reproduced here for information. Dear Ms Louden Disappointingly I have not yet had a response, other than an acknowledgement, from… Continue reading Castle Toward, the aftermath continues.

[polldaddy poll=8928503] The poll above will expire a week from today, ie on 20 June. Castle Toward I am continuing to seek some clarity on why Cllr Walsh insists this property sale will not be handled by the area committee but rather by the full council. I have been told it’s a “strategic” property and… Continue reading How Argyll & Bute doesn’t work: yes folks there’s more!

I have had 107 responses to the survey but the free version of Survey Monkey only lets you see responses to the first 100 results. So, for the moment, the survey is closed but here are the results: 2 people said they were completely satisfied with the way things were being handled. These may well… Continue reading Your views on the council and its budget process

In a post here, I told you about the farce last Friday at the seminar for councillors on the budget. Here’s an update and it’s beginning to look like I am being further marginalised by denying me access to information I believe I have a right to access. You may recall that they took the… Continue reading How Argyll & Bute Works: more budget secrecy

I have been unable to get a satisfactory reply as to why the Bute & Cowal Area Committee will again be bypassed when any sale of the Castle Toward estate comes up. I have been told that it’s a “strategic” property and that some years ago the council agreed it would handle the sale of any… Continue reading How Argyll & Bute works: Castle Toward raises its head again

Cllr Walsh certainly has an aptitude for doing the wrong thing. In fact, he excels at this. His latest wheeze is to sack a hard working and highly competent councillor from council committees. Cllr Vivien Dance was today removed from 2 council committees, Policy & Resources and Environment, Development and Infrastructure. There wasn’t even any… Continue reading How Argyll & Bute Works: The latest nonsense from Cllr Walsh

The seminar held for elected members on Friday was, well, better than nothing but by trying to cram everything Cllr Walsh’s secret committee has produced into a day left far too little time for discussion and debate. We were talked at for most of the time and we weren’t able to discuss any of the… Continue reading Update on the budget, the People’s Council and the complaint