Who knew what and when?
Cllrs Morag Munro and Charlie Nicolson are doing their dinger following the CalMac announcement about Sunday sailings, and demanding to know who knew what and when.
They have seen through the waffle and know that there is more to this than meets the eye.
And - believe it or not - there is!
CalMac broke the news to the Comhairle in a letter dated 14 May and apologised for the short notice in trying to call a meeting. This gives the clear impression that everything was being arranged at exceptionally short notice.
So why did the Finance Working Group discuss the CalMac plans privately on Monday 11th?
Attending that meeting were Cllrs Angus Campbell, Norman MacDonald,Donald Manford and Roddie MacKay, and I understand that at the end of the meeting all the officers were asked to leave and then, and only then was the Sunday sailings issue discussed.
More and more mysterious... SO just when did the Council know?
(Incidentally, I did Angus Campbell a dis-service by suggesting he went away to COSLA early. He was away on Thursday discussing Sgoiltean Ura funding.)
After the original post above went up, I was contacted by Donald Manford indignant that I had got it all wrong. He said that he was not at any meeting where the Sunday ferries issued was discussed.
However, he phoned back later to say that he had been in the meeting by video conference, and he now understands that it was only after he left the video conference that the matter was discussed. He is, as you can imagine, livid.
They have seen through the waffle and know that there is more to this than meets the eye.
And - believe it or not - there is!
CalMac broke the news to the Comhairle in a letter dated 14 May and apologised for the short notice in trying to call a meeting. This gives the clear impression that everything was being arranged at exceptionally short notice.
So why did the Finance Working Group discuss the CalMac plans privately on Monday 11th?
Attending that meeting were Cllrs Angus Campbell, Norman MacDonald,
More and more mysterious... SO just when did the Council know?
(Incidentally, I did Angus Campbell a dis-service by suggesting he went away to COSLA early. He was away on Thursday discussing Sgoiltean Ura funding.)
After the original post above went up, I was contacted by Donald Manford indignant that I had got it all wrong. He said that he was not at any meeting where the Sunday ferries issued was discussed.
However, he phoned back later to say that he had been in the meeting by video conference, and he now understands that it was only after he left the video conference that the matter was discussed. He is, as you can imagine, livid.
14 comments:
This is a complete red herring. Who cares what discussions took place in the ivory towers. The point is that running Sunday ferries is (and always has been) a commercial decision for CalMac based on expected demand (and of course compliance with legislation). We should welcome the fact that they've finally seen sense, and ignore the bleating emanating from Sandwick Road. We should be focusing on getting this service in place to maximise the tourist potential over the summer.
weekends away without breaking the bank or taking the monday off.
bring it on!!
Interesting to see that Morag Munro is prepared now to jump up and down when events challenge her own bigoted religious principles. Yet she and our two other indifferent Councillors said nothing in Council to support a community in their Ward which is against the plans when the Pairc Windfarm went through on a nod and a wink.
What the advocates of the 4th Commandment forget is that their equal disrespect for the 10th Commandment has brought about by their greed one of the major reasons why there will be 7 day a week sailings.
Their love of the filthy lucre will necessitate creating profit 7 days a week from turbines that will turn and be maintained 7 days a week probably built 7 days from shipping arriving 7 days a week.
Sorry Mrs Munro but putting your collective hands out for easy cheap money was always going to mean big business and commercial activity. Foolishly you thought that they too only work 6 days a week!
Laughing out loud.
Praise be to Allah, Jehovah or whoever or whatever floats your religious boat! The Hypocrites at the Lords Day Observance Society have been well and truly stuffed.
If they (LDOS) had had the good sense to keep religion out of their quest to keep Sunday Special, i.e. promoted it as an Islanders day rather than a Gods day they may not have been in the pickle that they are now regarding the Equalities Act. This serves LDOS right for trying to impose their myopic view on all of the residents of Lewis and Harris.
Congratulations to those who mentioned to Calmac the Equalities Act so that they could help LDOS see the light. :)
I don't want to appear premature but what's the betting that very soon Sunday sailings will be the busiest day of the week, not just in the summer but all year round, and that bookings will have to be made weeks in advance to guarantee a car place. To deal with this 3 crossings on Sunday will be the norm which still will not cope and then their will be a call for 2 ferries to operate on a Sunday.
Maybe to make more space on the ferry lorries will not be carried on a Sunday, maybe that's how they intend to curry some favour with LDOS.
Has anyone one opened a book on this yet? I reckon within 12 months of Sunday sailings starting.
They had it coming. Now for the cancellation of the windfarms in Lochs and they're completely sunk.
Any truth that fossy was tipped off to chuck the Calmac Board prior to this to save face in Carloway.
In response to 'Living in the Pairc', the community isn't actually against the windfarm. It's only an unelected (although correctly installed) community council with no moral mandate that are against it.
Could 1:07 explain exactly what a 'moral mandate' is?
1:07
And the previous Community Council led by an ardent wind farm champion had a ballot which was 70/30 against. Get your facts right.
Let's put 1.07pm straight on this matter. Anyone can put their name forward for a community council. If more people than places are put forward, then there is an election. Simple. The community council do not get paid or any expenses (apart from clerical). They give up their time and deal with all matters relating to the community.
Interestingly some members of the pairc trust were not elected because of a dearth of other interested bodies. So stick that up your windfarm.
1.07 Do you live in Pairc because you clearly have no idea what is going on?
As noted above, a democratically run windfarm ballot open to ALL Pairc residents found two to one against, I repeat, in case that is difficult to comprehend - 2 to 1 against.
I think the current Pairc Community Council has done an extremely good un-biased job of representing the mixed views of the community.
What about the interconnector as well. Gravir has been balloted twice and is very clearly opposed to the location of the converter station next to the village and yet Pairc Trust, the Council and neither MSP or MP has lifted a single finger to represent them.
So I say well done Pairc Community Council for amply fulfilling your moral mandate, by being the only body democratically representing the people in the Pairc area.
And just for the record it took three attempts to get the Community Council convened this time around. We should be very grateful to those who did eventually stand in sufficient numbers to get it off the ground.
Maybe you would like to go back to the good old days when people were being thrown out of community council meetings for expressing their opinions, and consultations were carried out in secret by some councillors, while everyone else had no idea what was going on.
Long live democracy in Pairc !
Thanks to 1:07 we have got carried away with the wee Council my beef is with the 3 expenses paid Councillors who like the 3 wise monkeys hear nothing, see nothing and particulalry say nothing.
Even a token speaking out on behalf of the majority of Pairc who do not wish industrilization would have helped.
What have we got: Two from Harris who think that Harris is the centre of the world and one whose main remit is the LDOS and the other the Caravan Club. Our local man Teflon MacLean talks a good war but bats straightly where the local SNP group want him to.
If the Pairc CC lead the fight so be it but it is a wasted cause as Petrol Campbell and alike are determined to sell the soul of the Islands and its futre for a few coins.
Our pious few should reflect on what happened in the Bible to those who sold for a few pieces of silver.
I care little one way or the other re trade on a Sunday but do care for my environment and its future. Any campaign will be lost on the fuss a wee baot has on the we few.
Cal Mac Continuing have broken the mould.
I suspect 1:07 is a member of the local Pairc Trust mafia who I know tried to prevent a Community Council by a policy of indifference well it did not work and as a previous correspondant recorded a few folk led by Paul Bailey actually got it going and by its represntation of community views has been a thorn in the Pairc Trust policy of overt and covert support of wind farms and cash.
Sorry I suppose for that rant but our Councillors and people like 1.07 piss me off.
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