Emergency Council meeting
I understand that 19 Councillors have now requested an emergency meeting of the Council, to be held on Tuesday, to discuss how to bridge the funding crisis caused by the recent decision not to close the schools until 2011.
It appears that the entire capital budget of £12m may require to be committed to schools and the schools PPP, meaning that roads, care homes and a million other things will have no capital expenditure for the many years.
I've not seen the report for the meeting yet (hint, hint!), but I believe it will outline the catastrophic financial impact of the decision/non-decision, and will confirm that there will be nothing left in the pot.
And you wonder why the Vice-Convener is tearing his hair out.
18 Councillors (out of 31) voted to close the schools in 2011. 19 now want to understand and debate the impact of their decision. By any reckoning, there is a substantial overlap between the two camps, implying that some apparently took a decision without any understanding of the impact.
Isn't that fabulous news.
The lack of political leadership on this issue seems to be matched by a collapse of morale amongst the officers, with an exodus of qualified staff to the mainland, and an all pervasive sense of doom and disaster.
One Councillor confided that the failure to elect Donald Manford as Convener in June 2007 was a massive missed opportunity; and that the refusal of the MP and MSP to engage with the Council on almost any issue meant that the key issues were not being pushed with Government.
Another u-turn anyone?
It appears that the entire capital budget of £12m may require to be committed to schools and the schools PPP, meaning that roads, care homes and a million other things will have no capital expenditure for the many years.
I've not seen the report for the meeting yet (hint, hint!), but I believe it will outline the catastrophic financial impact of the decision/non-decision, and will confirm that there will be nothing left in the pot.
And you wonder why the Vice-Convener is tearing his hair out.
18 Councillors (out of 31) voted to close the schools in 2011. 19 now want to understand and debate the impact of their decision. By any reckoning, there is a substantial overlap between the two camps, implying that some apparently took a decision without any understanding of the impact.
Isn't that fabulous news.
The lack of political leadership on this issue seems to be matched by a collapse of morale amongst the officers, with an exodus of qualified staff to the mainland, and an all pervasive sense of doom and disaster.
One Councillor confided that the failure to elect Donald Manford as Convener in June 2007 was a massive missed opportunity; and that the refusal of the MP and MSP to engage with the Council on almost any issue meant that the key issues were not being pushed with Government.
Another u-turn anyone?
16 comments:
"the refusal of the MP and MSP to engage with the Council on almost any issue meant that the key issues were not being pushed with Government."
You mean the refusal of the MP and MSP to bend over and do whatever the council wants.
Please, finally, can the Comhairle (and the WIE) take a large axe to the obscene amount of OUR money it spends on "The Arts".
Like just about all other businesses, musicians, painters, sculptors and so on should stand on their own two feet in terms of selling their wares. When you look at the fine detail, the amount of support - read, free handouts - they get here is just immoral.
Worse, it attracts more of them. It's much much harder to set up here as a plumber or electrician, in terms of local handouts, than as someone who paints "art" so abstract you can't tell which way up it's supposed to be!!
More important to keep the lights on, schools open, buses running and roads safe than pay a bunch of people to pretend they're talented.
SLASH LOCAL ARTS FUNDING
I voted in the council elections for this?
Can I change my vote, please - if the councillors can do it over schools, then I can do it over councillors?
What do you expect? Islanders are voting in inept people not because they are capable or committed to addressing difficult issues but because they will toe the church line.
Sorry, that is the truth of it. So why scream now when our home care has to be cut and road mending is about to halted for five years?
It is apparent that there are a majority of councillors in there perfectly happy to bury their heads in the sand because they know they will get back in if they keep things shut on Sundays?
Still, if that is the will of the majority, that is fine. We will always get what we truly deserve. It is called karma.
Re Schools farse
'The parents', who ironically throughout this campaign were frequently referred to by the, oh so pompous Cllr Angus McCormack as 'amatuers' knew exactly what the impact of the comhairle's decision to move their children from in most cases exceptional campus's (campi?)to a frankly wholey inadequate, unsafe, unsecure and certainly at lunchtime, unsupervised environment would be. As far as that battle with this current bunch of Councillors is concerned...people power WON. They now have the well deserved hangover for their own collective and indeed their appointed offical's incompetence. And that to 'the parents' feels very sweet indeed.
Now all we we need is a couple of substantive planning type objections to the new NI site and we can confidently add another year or two onto the whole nastly unnecessary debacle.
ps. attempts by 'the parents' to engage the MSP on this one were of the chocolate fireguard variety! - sorry.
and after the arts cuts, lets continue with the gaelic mafia industry- every scrap of paper at the whitehouse duplicated in english and gaelic?
Anon for obvious reasons!
Angus,
How much truth is there in the rumour that as they can't sack the Convenor his peers are going to get rid of him by creating a Mayor position to 'promote' his to?
I have to agree with 3.15 on the karma thing - this backward island is getting what it deserves - but I can't help wondering who else we could have elected. Enlighten me, if there are some saviours lurking amongst us, and let get behind them now.
And there's nothing wrong with cultural funding per se but there is something wrong with the way it's being allocated. You ranters fail to see the economic argument - as of course does the council - that, much as you may support local culture (or not), the argument for funding it has to be economic and it CAN make good sense but not when you've got a whitehouse full of goons.
Anon 09:22
That was a really cruel thing to say. What have goons ever done to you?
9.22
yes I agree, burst the over-bloated council workers. CNES dont realise that our economy is lacking due in some part to their decisions to allocate work to mainland companies which can easily be done more effectively on the island.
They say in the white house, workers arent allowed to look out the windows in the morning - as the need to save enough work to do in the afternoon!!
As for the saviours - there are many many talented people out there, but who would want to go near the CNES in its present state.
Why did Stornoway Councillors hijack the provision of a new school for my children. They should have been representing their electorate not their roots.
Now my son will go through secondary education in a second rate campus.Thank you very much.
Philistine in the House! [10:42 am]
Its on then led by Toad and afraid to go for a vote of confidence the Convenor is being forced to become Provost.
The King is dead long live the King.
But who is the next King will Brutus -aka The Toad, take Caesers crown?
I realise that with decent arts funding/education, 1.36 would not mix his literary references quite so amusingly... ooh, torn now.
Anon 10:42
What are you saying? Surely you believe that An Lantair was worth every single cent that was spent on it....
It's okay, they all get an extra day's holiday this Wednesday when they go out on strike, again.
Closing our schools for the day and make the hardworking of us out there suffer by having to find childcare whilst they persist in trying to get ever more money out of us taxpayers.
The rest of us are just glad to be earning a living.
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