Give it a rest guys and get on with the job eh?
23 August 2010 by Paul Rhoades
As you'll know by now, I'm not a big fan of the local council, but I do believe in giving credit where its due, and I am opposed to biased reporting and political point scoring.
This is why I've been a bit surprised over the last few days of the general tone and attitude in our local Scunthorpe Telegraph. Now I know they've had a couple of key reporters leave and move away (court reporter and politics reporter), and this may give reason to the change in tone, but I would expect more of our local paper in terms of giving a clear unbiased picture.
Club 2000 reporting
My first concern regards the reporting of the demolition of Club 2000 last week. Investigations have revealed that the club was purchased by the former Tory council from its owner using money from Yorkshire forward.
The club was purchased at the same time that the Tory group were in the process of closing the Baths Hall as the refurbishment and running costs for the venue were too high. Why could the council afford to buy Club 2000, but not keep the Baths in a good state of repair?
Money to purchase Club 2000 came from Yorkshire Forward, along with another �45,000 per year to cover running costs. Now that the ConDemocrats have closed down Yorkshire Forward, there is no money available to continue to fund the venue.
In my opinion the former Tory council should have gone to Yorkshire Forward for money for maintaining the Baths Hall as it was; once it had been closed down its downfall was inevitable.
I'm perplexed with this as considering all the interesting aspects of the case, the Scunthorpe Telegraph choose a provocative headline "Scunthorpe's Club 2000 to be demolished after costing taxpayers �800,000", followed by a poll on "Should Club 2000 have been used as an entertainment venue instead of rebuilding The Baths Hall?".
All in all on this matter I think there's been a bit too much council bashing, and not enough journalistic research by the ST, we should be calling for a public enquiry in to why this was allowed to happen in the first place, not making pointless political spin stories with no real content.
Consultant Costs
It is ridiculous to expect that the council maintains in house all the various skills and expertise required for one off projects such as the baths hall, Lincolnshire Lakes and the Pods. Now I know that a lot of readers are opposed to these projects and the local Tories see them as a waste of money, but it would seem that the local paper has used this as an opportunity to put another nail in the council's coffin as opposed to trying to help, support and develop growth in the region.
I find it difficult to understand how the local paper can in one article claim to be supporting the region with the Forging Our Future campaign and then in another article accuse the council of wasting money on consultancy for projects which by there very nature forge the future of the region.
It is a fact that when you are developing projects you need specialist help and advise, these consultants are not necessarily individuals pocketing large slabs of cash from the tax payer, they are firms such as architects, structural engineers and construction specialists.
So come on guys, lets be a bit more positive about where we are and try to encourage business, commerce and jobs, not be negative.
Update
Local councillor Mick Grant has picked up with this on his Blogg and adds a few words of his own. Cheers Mick, every one's comments (positive or negative) are always welcome here! If you'd like to leave a comment, or use this site to publish your own news and views on Scunthorpe and North Lincolnshire just click the Join link in the above menu.
Update 2
More comments and discussions on related article on Scunthorpe Telegraph web site.
You might find this slightly more light hearted article written back in February of interest as it concentrates more on the political motivation of local politicians
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Comments
I agree with you there Judas, this episode does raise more questions than it answers, and I think the points you raise are valid and require further examination.
I think that some of the readers of this site may be able to shed light on them and provide more detail as to the decision making stages that NLC went through in coming to its conclusion.
As most the minutes from the council meetings are available on line so I may have a trawl through them this week depending upon how busy work is to see if I can back track to when the decisions were made and by whom.
I also support your call for more accountability from our local government representatives, this is something I've blogged about several times and am sure that I will again!
There are in total 43 local councillors, of which scant few maintain any form of public blog or means of interaction. I think that this must change and councillors should do more to embrace social networking sites and blogging tools.
On a personal note I do get increasingly concerned about the level of party politics which invades the local council, and would dearly like to see party membership "banned" for local councillors.
Gullible on my part I know, but such a restriction would focus elected representatives on putting the concerns of their electorate first before political posturing.
Armed with those four points and the many more questions that need to be answered about the purchase of the former OptionsClub 2000 Nightclub maybe someone could start an e-petition on North Lincolnshire Council's website requesting a public inquiry.
I know these e-petitions are tucked away on the councils website so usually get little response but hyper-links can be attatched to certain websites to lead people to them.
If any agency or individual needed any more proof what a farcical pantomime and Fred Karnos army NLC has become check out the staggering statements and admission by one of its generals and local Labour councillor Grant in response to a post on his blog from Nostrodamous:
http:mickgrant.wordpress.com20100823being-positivecomments
I just cannot believe my eyes, that any local politician and councillor would actually and publicly admit to "setting traps for residents to fall into"!! What devious and abhorrent lack of openness, deceit and arrogance from a supposed local community representative?!
A Mark Twain quote comes to mind: "When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people."
By my book, only one "conceited fool" has fallen and been well and truly caught in the trap. And who has ably blown the cover on the calibre and integrity of one of NLC's key movers and shakers and a Labour disciple now exposed for what they are and worth, at even a local level.
Firstly, Thoades - great site. Always enjoy reading from afar.
Secondly I want to state I am not a councillor, not a member of council staff nor am I a member of the Scunthorpe Labour Party as I've been accused on the Sc Tel website. I am sure the site owner would be able to verify that if he so wished. I'm just a "normal" taxpayer with an open mind and no set agenda. Unlike some.
With that out in the open I really do wonder why any councillor would want to blog or "embrace social networking sites" as Thoades points out when all they get is abuse. Whether or not it's brought on themselves is open to question, but some of the keyboard warriors who continue to attack them, no, provoke them, means there's no surprise some come out with the comments they do. All the continual prodding some of these people do will put off other potential councillors from keeping open channels with residents. I've always found that if I have a problem and ringemail a councillor - of different political colours - they are helpful and polite. Is it a surprise if you abuse them they react as they do? Anyone can set behinf a veil of anonymity and slag off others to kingdom come. It takes someone a bit braver to put their name to it, stand for election and to explain their decisions. I wish all 43 councillors would be more open but for whatever reason they're not. This continual bashing by the usual suspects isn't going to encourage anyone to be more open and constructive, is it?
As an aside, has anyone actually emailedphonedwritten to the council regarding the four points above, or are you all talk and no trousers?
Glad,
Nice to see some one posting on this forum with the same user name they have on the ST Site!
Like you I am not affiliated to any political party, the council or similar, I'm just a self employed techie guy who's proud of where he lives and spends spare time running this site.
I agree completely with your point about public figures getting abuse, and perhaps this does answer my question as to why fewer choose to engage publicly.
While I don't know him personally, and don't always agree with everything he says, I do have a lot of respect for Mick Grant having the balls to stand up and say what he's thinking.
One of my reasons for setting up Visit Scunthorpe is to try to encourage people to engage more openly on matters of local interest without what may be seen as the bias political censorship which does happen from time to time in the local paper. Any one here can publish what ever they want as long as its not breaking any laws.
Obviously there's always going to be some thoughtless comments and I do wish that people would put more thought in to the offence they may cause before they make them.
With regards to addressing the 4 points laid out in Judas' comments above then I do think they need addressing. However I also think that a lot of people having had run-ins in the past with the council don't necessarily want to raise their head's above the parapet so to speak. I think this probably accounts for the use of aliases on the ST site.
I did look at setting up a petition about the increase in car parking charges, it attracted 6 signatures which was disproportionately small considering the interest on the ST site on this matter. Again I think this is because the petition required people to be identified personally.
If you are interested in setting up a campaign for an enquiry in to the purchase of Club 2000 then I'd happily work with you and make resources available, if so drop me an email surprisingly its Thoades at Hotmail dot Com
Intriguing that some like to dish the dirt, slurs and attacks and or be a silent spectator while seemingly harbouring and condoning all forms of vindictive retaliations, intimidations and defamation.
A parochial and devious mindset of resentment, prejudices and crude tactics intended to try and suppress democratic scrutiny of the calibre and performance of our councillors and local government system. As previously blogged:
Should Political Bloggers be Anonymous
But yet these self same people do not seem able to accept and cope with themselves, and other supposed sensitive souls!, being caught up in any crossfire. Or indeed others playing by their rules and them being given a taste of their own medicine?!
Nothing quite like the vagaries and inconsistencies of human nature?!
Judas, the problem as I see it boils down to party politics.
Mr Grant tends to spend a lot of time on his blog point scoring against the Tories. While this may be fun and entertaining to some it's not really moving anyone forward in a positive manner.
I also acknowledge how hard Mick does work, and believe this does deserve some degree of respect.
However, with all politicians its always a case of Politics First, People Second.
I really do hope that at the next election we see more independent candidates making it through to be elected so that the entrenched attitudes of all our local political leaders (yes the Tories too!) can be challenged in a constructive, constitutional manner.
With regards to the points you raised earlier, I have managed to discern that the demolition and renovation work to the square is being paid for by Yorkshire Forward, but I have been unable to find out the cost.
The why, when and who in your first point is a matter of public record, and when I get the time I will put in a request for that information (work permitting) and will publish it here.
Not sure how to go about getting a public enquiry, so I'll probably drop Nic Dakin an email on that one. I'd imagine there'd be reluctance to that due to cost but all we want are reasonably straight forward answers to reasonably straight forward questions.
Judas or BC or however many other names you go under - translate into English please. Not everyone speaks Esperanto!
Thoades,
I agree with most of your points and thanks for the moves on getting to the bottom of the Club2000 debacle. I will today equally submit an information request to customerservices@northlincs.co.uk asking them to forward onto the relevant Service Head/s and cabinet member/s.
Hopefully both our efforts will get things moving to resolve the significant doubts and outrage. AND possibly stem any widening of my own credibility gap?!
I would only add to your typically even handed and fair minded post; that in the first instance, our supposed community leaders and representatives have to earn our respect, confidence and trust if they are perceived as being fit for public duty and office. And unfortunately in certain quarters of Nth Lincs, many do not deserve that respect.
Glad
You may wish to consider doing your homework and get up to speed by reviewing the many posts on this site; ST online archives including www.forums.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk; and the records of complaints and investigations by Standards Board for England and NLC Standards Committees.
These will all provide you with an 'esperanto' guide to the standards of conduct, performance and calibre for certain of Nth Lincolnshire's parochailly inept, arrogant, devious and vindictive local councils' and supposed community representatives.
If you have any problems in obtaining or interpreting the information or would like clarification of my stance in tackling and trying to influence the dire need for improvements in the parochial standards of Nth Lincs self serving systems of governance; I would be more than happy for you to request my email address from Thoades or the ST. I look forward to hearing from you.
I'm fully aware of who you are Judas. I've read so many of your diatribes in the last 12 months on various platforms I don't think there's a North Lincs resident who isn't aware of your run in with certain Brigg councillors! I just don't understand your need to a) use about 5 different psyeudenins to converse with yourself and b) why you feel you can criticize and put forward defamatory comments to other councillors and then moan and act surprised when they retaliate!
Anyway, this isn't about you (and I won't use your real name) it's about Club 2000. I don't see the need to send emails to customerservice accounts, I'll just ring up and ask and pass on the info when I get it.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond and to clarify my 'agenda'.
I do not give one iota to others' judgments. Even moreso from those of a parochial and apathetic mindset and seemingly prepared to condone and accept unacceptably inept and poor standards of service and treatment from certain Nth Linc's councillors and its services.
However, I must admit to being somewhat satisfied when the Standards Board, Tax Payers Alliance and both recent Brigg MP's are all perceived to go all or part way in confirming and validating my judgment and utter contempt for certain councils, officials and individuals! Even the local conservatives and NLC Tory group eventually smelt the coffee, to have triggered the sidelining and the forcing out of cllr John Berry over the previous 18 months?!
With respect, best if we left it to the judgment and conclusion of clearly far more impartial, fair minded and even handed observers.
And especially to the consideration and assessments of other unwary outsiders and potential newcomers, who may be wondering if North Lincs is such a fantastic place to live, work and do business and necessarily the right relocation to secure and maintain theirs and their families' best interests and prospects!!
"Give it a rest guys" the most apt part of this,it's bogged down badly
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