A number of readers have asked why Audit Scotland has refused to investigate the scandalous waste of money in defending the Calum McMillan case. Remember that in previous posts I said that for an outlay of £50k in cash, this could have been settled in May 2014. Instead, the council has probably spent around £300k… Continue reading Audit Scotland & Calum McMillan
“Behaviours”, Part 1
To complete the story about Calum McMillan, Audit Scotland has refused to look into the expenditure incurred by the council defending his claim. Further approaches have been made to Audit Scotland by myself and Michael Russell, but we doubt they will heed them. Anyway, I have just sent the following to all councillors, the 4… Continue reading “Behaviours”, Part 1
Rothesay Harbour, again
The previous posts on the goings on at Rothesay Harbour are to be found at these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 The request for internal audit to investigate the council spend on defending the action by Calum McMillan is available again here: request-for-an-internal-investigation-into-the-possible-misuse-of-council-funds This straightforward request was rejected with the… Continue reading Rothesay Harbour, again
Rothesay Harbour, Part 4
I have published 3 posts on the story of Calum McMillan and Rothesay Harbour. These are to be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 As I made clear in Part 3, Calum McMillan had little choice but to abandon his claim given the potentially huge costs of going to a proof in the… Continue reading Rothesay Harbour, Part 4
Rothesay Harbour, continued
This is to continue with the saga of Calum McMillan and Rothesay Harbour. The 2 earlier posts on this are here and here. The long period of being banished from his home port of Rothesay cost Calum McMillan a lot of money. He had additional berthing fees at Ardrossan and then there was the time… Continue reading Rothesay Harbour, continued
Councillor’s council tax arrears
More and more questions are being asked about the above issue which I covered in a post last week. The National covered the matter for a 2nd time last week, telling us that the police had been notified: Police are called in as council crisis deepens An article in the Helensburgh Advertiser last week is… Continue reading Councillor’s council tax arrears
Council Budget tomorrow
As per past year, Cllr Walsh will produce his budget on the day. That means none of us has had the opportunity to see it, so we have no idea what’s in it. Worse, the Provost has stated that the budget motion will be read out and seconded then any amendment to be read out… Continue reading Council Budget tomorrow
Councillor votes while in arrears over council tax
Before I return with more on the Rothesay Harbour saga, there have been rumours for a while that a councillor had council tax arrears but continued to vote on the council budget, something that is illegal. The National covered the story very well today and you can read it here: http://www.thenational.scot/news/15107732.Exposed__Cover_up_by_Argyll_and_Bute_after____illegal____vote_on_council_tax_rates/?c=eo7sv Because I sent out… Continue reading Councillor votes while in arrears over council tax
Argyll & Bute’s Budget
Thursday coming is the day the council sets its budget for the coming financial year. At the moment, the papers for this meeting indicate a budget surplus of £2.893m, assuming a 3% increase in council tax. We have no idea as yet if the administration intend to produce a budget on the day or if… Continue reading Argyll & Bute’s Budget
Rothesay Harbour, Part 2
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. affidavit-calummcmillan-v2 He was eventually allowed… Continue reading Rothesay Harbour, Part 2