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 discussion with Vivien by anyone from the junta. Her removal came in a revised list of members of committees that was sent out this morning. The sender of the email, Mr Hendry, marked the email as OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE which means that if I did as I had planned to do and attach it to this blog, there might be another complaint against me because this classification states: “Unauthorised disclosure (including within the council) would cause harm to the interests of the council or other parties by virtue of loss of opportunity or reputation, or cause embarrassment.”
I have asked Mr Hendry to justify the classification of this email because I think this should all be public knowledge. After all, do the people of Argyll & Bute not need to know which councillors are on which committees? I think so.
Cllr Walsh doesn’t like to hear anyone disagree with him which was why he threw me out of the administration and why he immediately sacked Cllr Marshall from a committee when Bruce walked out in support of me.
The sad thing is that in all of this there is no recognition given to either the willingness of councillors to serve on committees or to the talents they may bring with them to these committees. The key issue is getting rid of dissenting voices come what may. I have repeatedly said to Cllr Walsh I would serve on any council committee but for some odd reason I have been overlooked every time there has been a vacancy. In January this year Mr Hendry confirmed that there had been 10 appointments made in the preceding 12 months and not once was I asked if I wanted to be considered. My guess is it’s now well in excess of that number but I will ask.
You don’t need to make this stuff up; it’s happening for real in the Lalaland of Dick Walsh, the council leader who brooks no dissent! If you want to make your view known, please do but I would like the survey completed. It will take 2 minutes to do and can be found at this link:
Update: I have been told that marking this email as Official Sensitive was simply a mistake.
Hi Michael
I know you don’t need my verbal agreement about the actions you are taking re trying to develop transparency and accountability in Argyll and Bute but, just in case you have had even one nanosecond of doubt, I support what you are doing wholeheartedly.
Regards
Harry
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Thanks very much Harry. Regards
Mike. I find it incredible that other Councillors do not have the courage to stand up against Walsh. It makes one wonder that they either agree with his actions, are too afraid of him or possibly could not care as long as Walsh leaves them alone to see out their time. There are some very good councillors but some seem to give the impression of being too old and or not interested…I hope I’m wrong on this last point.
Your point about the electorate of A&BC having a right to know who is representing them on various committees is very valid and I fully agree that this behaviour and attitude of Walsh should be brought to the attention of all willing to listen.
You have my full support and do hope that great changes within the Council will come about as a result of all this nonsense.
Very best regards
Alistair
In what building is Room 101 located?