Sunday, January 28, 2007
The best laugh of all...
The best laugh of all came on Wednesday when I walked into a meeting atthe Coatham Bowl that I thought was for the general public.It was infact a meeting for council employees.It was so funny to hear Colin Moore tell about 200 council employees that "Global warming was taking off in a big way", that "you only had to watch the film the inconvenient truth to see that we had to cut down on our carbon emissions" and that "rising sea levels were a frightening reality".
"Rising sea levels are a frightening reality" I thought? If he is really concerned with rising sea levels then why does he want Persimmon homes to build houses right on top of the beach in Coatham? I asked the lady next to me who was busy scribbling down notes."No comment" was her reply.
It was at this point that finance officer Ray Richardson got up from the front row of the room and came over to me at the back of the room,he had obviously been alerted that I was there."You'll have to leave he said,this is for council employees" "Oh Im sorry,I thought it was for the general public too" I replied.As I got up to leave I asked him aboutthe email that Colin Moore had sent to the whole council telling them to cease non essential spending.Smiling he said "he hasnt sent one?" "well thats funny I replied because I have a copy that someone in the council gave me? along with the contracts register for Redcar and Cleveland borough council showing that youve spent £920,000 on coke and britvic orange,£900,000 on moblie phones,£1.6,000,000 on business travel and £3.6,000,000 on food can you tell me about these things" Still smiling he said "the fact is we havent spent any of those sums theyre all contract values for councils in the whole of the Northern region". I said "but hang on it clearly states at the top of those sheets that they were the contract register for Redcar and Cleveland borough council not anyone else?".By this time we were outside and he turned to me and said "thats it now, off you go" and smiled once more as he made a shooing gesture with his hands."Thanks for the bullshit" I said.
He made one thing clear to me.That even though at first he denied that Colin Moore had sent that email with the contracts register attached,he knew all the time that he had sent it,thats why he went straight into his patter about the figures being the contract values for councils across the North.Why do certain people within the hierarchy of Redcar and Cleveland borough council deny out of hand things that they know are true.Why do they deliberately fail to tell the truth when they are asked questions that they have not prepared their answers to for a couple of weeks before.
Soon we'll all be able to see exactly where the money is being spent when I request a break down of the figures next week.
"Rising sea levels are a frightening reality" I thought? If he is really concerned with rising sea levels then why does he want Persimmon homes to build houses right on top of the beach in Coatham? I asked the lady next to me who was busy scribbling down notes."No comment" was her reply.
It was at this point that finance officer Ray Richardson got up from the front row of the room and came over to me at the back of the room,he had obviously been alerted that I was there."You'll have to leave he said,this is for council employees" "Oh Im sorry,I thought it was for the general public too" I replied.As I got up to leave I asked him aboutthe email that Colin Moore had sent to the whole council telling them to cease non essential spending.Smiling he said "he hasnt sent one?" "well thats funny I replied because I have a copy that someone in the council gave me? along with the contracts register for Redcar and Cleveland borough council showing that youve spent £920,000 on coke and britvic orange,£900,000 on moblie phones,£1.6,000,000 on business travel and £3.6,000,000 on food can you tell me about these things" Still smiling he said "the fact is we havent spent any of those sums theyre all contract values for councils in the whole of the Northern region". I said "but hang on it clearly states at the top of those sheets that they were the contract register for Redcar and Cleveland borough council not anyone else?".By this time we were outside and he turned to me and said "thats it now, off you go" and smiled once more as he made a shooing gesture with his hands."Thanks for the bullshit" I said.
He made one thing clear to me.That even though at first he denied that Colin Moore had sent that email with the contracts register attached,he knew all the time that he had sent it,thats why he went straight into his patter about the figures being the contract values for councils across the North.Why do certain people within the hierarchy of Redcar and Cleveland borough council deny out of hand things that they know are true.Why do they deliberately fail to tell the truth when they are asked questions that they have not prepared their answers to for a couple of weeks before.
Soon we'll all be able to see exactly where the money is being spent when I request a break down of the figures next week.
// posted by Chris McGlade @ 2:26 AM 
