Urgent Council decisions
If my sources are right, The Bridge Centre has had to be bailed out by the Council to avoid being wound up by the Inland Revenue.
I am told that £9,000 had to be transferred to the Inland Revenue last week, at the very last moment, to prevent the Court being petitioned or other legal action being taken.
As the organisation is also a Charity, there are all sorts of questions arising over the financial management, but mainly how it all managed to get so bad so quickly that such urgent action was necessary.
But perhaps the most intriguing element is that the Council decision didn't need to be made so urgently in the first place; and that emergency powers didn't need to be taken by a small cabal of Councillors at the last moment.
All the information was - apparently - in the hands of the Council since April, but a decision was taken not to advise Councillors or seek their opinion at the last series of Council meetings, as it was deemed to be 'political', and could have been used in the election campaign to attack Donald John MacSween. Instead, it was delayed until recently, when it suddenly became an emergency.
Perhaps this was the kind of event that the good Councillor was referring to 'hiding' from other Councillors and the public?
I'm told the future for the Bridge lies in the hands of the College, and will be resolved very shortly. I am sure that we all agree that such a provision needs to continue, albeit with a new budget and new controls.
I am told that £9,000 had to be transferred to the Inland Revenue last week, at the very last moment, to prevent the Court being petitioned or other legal action being taken.
As the organisation is also a Charity, there are all sorts of questions arising over the financial management, but mainly how it all managed to get so bad so quickly that such urgent action was necessary.
But perhaps the most intriguing element is that the Council decision didn't need to be made so urgently in the first place; and that emergency powers didn't need to be taken by a small cabal of Councillors at the last moment.
All the information was - apparently - in the hands of the Council since April, but a decision was taken not to advise Councillors or seek their opinion at the last series of Council meetings, as it was deemed to be 'political', and could have been used in the election campaign to attack Donald John MacSween. Instead, it was delayed until recently, when it suddenly became an emergency.
Perhaps this was the kind of event that the good Councillor was referring to 'hiding' from other Councillors and the public?
I'm told the future for the Bridge lies in the hands of the College, and will be resolved very shortly. I am sure that we all agree that such a provision needs to continue, albeit with a new budget and new controls.
8 comments:
So what makes this different from all the other decisions which are taken without 'due process' - or at least a full exposure to democratic consideration ?
Has anyone yet requested under s.23 (1) (a) and (b) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005
* a copy of the charity's latest statement of account
* a copy of the charity's constitution.
Angus - as if you didn't already know - the Councillor who wanted to keep everything quiet, may very well be the same Councillor who is a Bridge Trustee. Oh, yes, and sits on An Lanntair also.
Perhaps there is a need for referral of the 'secrecy' agenda to the Audit & Scrutiny Committee. Except he sits on that Committee too.
Oh yes, and didn't his missus have something to do with the Labour election campaign?
And he was being ably assisted in covering everything up by the Councillor for Hypocrisy N, S, E & W - a major cross-party exercise in ignoring democracy.
Is the brown stuff about to hit the fan...time for the tabloids to get involved?
Tell me Anything in these Islands costing £Millions which DOES wash its own face?
Estate buyouts cannot subsist without never ending handouts - witness Gabshain this week.
The Slaughter House is down the Swannie, the Auction Mart is down the Swannie, HIE or at least WIE is down the Swannie. Arnish is damn near down the Swannie - the list is endless.
9 grand not exactly the national debt is it? Maybe we should get on to our MSP, after all it is only a lunch and a half with the First Minister in the Scottish Parliament.
try C23... we save the council's money!
9.54
Is it not Swannie that has Stornoway Memorials on Church St.
I didn't realise he had his fingers in all these pies.
Thon Cove's a busy Man
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