In my last post here, I referred to the sorry saga of Mr Calum McMillan and what he endured as a resident of the Island of Bute and as a customer of Argyll & Bute Council at Rothesay Harbour. If you didn’t read Calum’s affidavit, here is the link again.
He was eventually allowed to get his vessel back into the harbour in the summer of 2013 but the issues did not end there. Rather than me give you lots more detail, you will get a flavour of what happened from another affidavit, this time from one of Calum’s crew, Nathan Williams. This affidavit was one of many Calum and his solicitor obtained prior to taking his case to the Court of Session.
A number of councillors provided affidavits and the ones used are all set out below. These, together with Nathan’s, demonstrate the extent of the issues. They won’t take long to read and are well worth the effort. You can imagine how it went down in Kilmory when they heard that councillors were giving affidavits in support of someone making a claim against the council. However, we all firmly believed we had to tell the truth and we all believed Mr McMillan had been treated appallingly. That’s why we provided the affidavits.
Cllr Robert McIntyre knows more about this story than anyone and over a longer period. His affidavit is a cracker because it not only tells the history, it also refers to the fact that a number of councillors put time and effort into an investigation into what had happened, only to then be denied access to the report! To this day we have not seen it so secrecy continues to rule.
As for councillors, the attitude seems to be that we can be treated any way officers like. After all, we’re only the elected representatives of the people and we don’t really matter.
Then we have the affidavits of Cllr Isobel Strong and myself.
There will be more to follow in a few days.
How much did this cost the council in total???
The answer is a lot. See next post for some firm figures plus an estimate.
ABC mafia at work; nothing to see here, move along.
Yet again the cabal at the top of the council both the elected and unelected showing that they are unsuitable for high office. They specialise in conflict.
This should have been resolved at source by staff management.
There continues to be a problem in Argyll and Bute with lowly front line public servants behaving like tin pot dictators. It won’t change until the top change.