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 doubt, be an oversight by Cllr Walsh and couldn’t possibly be deliberate, or could it?
I was interviewed yesterday by 2 auditors from Audit Scotland as part of their work in reviewing what the council is doing. I have today provided them with the email trail that shows the extent of the council leader’s behaviour regarding membership of committees etc.
Readers may recall I asked to get the papers sent back to me following their withdrawal at the recent seminar on the budget. I still don’t have them and it’s clear I won’t be getting them so a complaint has been lodged with the chief executive. My suspicion is that she and other officers are acting on the direct instructions of you know who, but we’ll see. It is truly woeful that I am being denied information that enables me to do my job properly.
The council’s audit committee meets tomorrow and it will be considering a number of issues which I hope to inform you about over the weekend.
Thanks for the update Mike. My paperwork sent to Edinburgh today for their attention (if any).
Alistair