Wednesday, February 14, 2007
OVER TWELVE FUCKING GRAND!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry for the use of language in the heading, but these are the words that came into my mind when I learned, after we had asked under the freedom of information act,that this council had spent in excess of TWELVE THOUSAND POUNDS paying for top London barrister George Lawrence QC,to come up to Teeside magistrates and represent the council in what was supposed to be a non-contested hearing regarding the stopping up of footpaths on Coatham common. A non-contested hearing that should have been dealt with by rights by the councils own legal department.
£12,150 + VAT to be precise to bring this legal heavy weight up to Teeside magistrates to represent them with something that was,until we found out that we had the right to object, always going to be a formality.
What makes this shameful waste of public money even worse is that the decision to spend all this public money in such a manner wasnt even made by ANY COUNCILLOR OR THE CABINET.It was made by senior council officer Simon Dale who instructed the councils legal eagle Richard Frankland to employ Mr Lawrence under delegated powers.What makes me laugh about this is that Cllr Chris Abbott informed a resident of high street west that both he and SIMON DALE knew nothing about work being carried out on the common to create alternative footpaths to the ones they want to stop up, but theres Simon Dale then instructing the councils legal man to employ a QC from London over the issue of the stopping up of the footpaths? One word comes to mind,LIARS. This weak,useless,coalition have handed all power in the council over to the unelected officers who are abusing their positions and our money for their own purposes.
We asked what the total cost was going to be win or lose and we were told that that information was witheld because it was speculation!
If it cost £12,150 + VAT for Lawrence to prep up and come up here to represent the council at what was supposed to be a non-contested hearing expected to last 15 - 25 minutes then we can only guess how much money is going to be committed by these unelected officers to get him up here for the two day hearing on the 7th and 8th of March?
Lets not forget too that he was probably put up in Gisborough hall how much did that cost? How much will it cost to accomodate him when he comes up here next month for two or three nights? Not only that,how much is his legal assistant costing? The equally respected Miss Ros Crail wont come cheap. And how about all the representatives from Eversheds,the councils 'other solicitors',who were at that non-contested hearing aswell? What did their bill come to?
This flagrant waste of public money makes me sick.They are making over a 100 people redundant to 'save money'.They have closed public toilets in our town centre because they 'dont have the money to maintain them'.They have closed the councils canteen for ordinary employees because of a 'lack of funding'.They tell us we cant have a baths, that we now know would only cost £5,000,000 because our chain swinging cabinet member for hahaha, culture and tourism Dave Fitzpatrick,has already stated in the newspaper article below that thats how much a baths in Gisborough would cost to build, without having 359 houses built on our coastline because theres 'no money', yet they can throw thousands and thousands of pounds at the legal fees of the biggest and richest builder in the country in order to try and force through a housing scheme that will benefit the same builder massively financially.
Just what relationship do some of these officers in RCBC have with Persimmon homes? A relationship that sees them throwing so much public money, that by rights should be spent by Persimmon homes, at something just to stop Persimmon homes from pulling out of the whole deal? More than this why are they doing it.It is absolutely unheard of and it is the clearest indication that all is not how it appears over the issue of Coatham.
I appeal to all ordinary council employees who like us are as angry and sickened by this sheer waste of public money when services and jobs are being cut,to come forward and if you have any information that will expose this councils shameful behaviour further to tell us.Your anonymity is assured.
My contact address is 5 High Street West,Redcar,Cleveland,TS101SQ.
To everybody else you have the opportunity in May to rid our borough of this weak,shameful coalition and replace it with a new council who will take the power back from the unelected officers.
£12,150 + VAT to be precise to bring this legal heavy weight up to Teeside magistrates to represent them with something that was,until we found out that we had the right to object, always going to be a formality.
What makes this shameful waste of public money even worse is that the decision to spend all this public money in such a manner wasnt even made by ANY COUNCILLOR OR THE CABINET.It was made by senior council officer Simon Dale who instructed the councils legal eagle Richard Frankland to employ Mr Lawrence under delegated powers.What makes me laugh about this is that Cllr Chris Abbott informed a resident of high street west that both he and SIMON DALE knew nothing about work being carried out on the common to create alternative footpaths to the ones they want to stop up, but theres Simon Dale then instructing the councils legal man to employ a QC from London over the issue of the stopping up of the footpaths? One word comes to mind,LIARS. This weak,useless,coalition have handed all power in the council over to the unelected officers who are abusing their positions and our money for their own purposes.
We asked what the total cost was going to be win or lose and we were told that that information was witheld because it was speculation!
If it cost £12,150 + VAT for Lawrence to prep up and come up here to represent the council at what was supposed to be a non-contested hearing expected to last 15 - 25 minutes then we can only guess how much money is going to be committed by these unelected officers to get him up here for the two day hearing on the 7th and 8th of March?
Lets not forget too that he was probably put up in Gisborough hall how much did that cost? How much will it cost to accomodate him when he comes up here next month for two or three nights? Not only that,how much is his legal assistant costing? The equally respected Miss Ros Crail wont come cheap. And how about all the representatives from Eversheds,the councils 'other solicitors',who were at that non-contested hearing aswell? What did their bill come to?
This flagrant waste of public money makes me sick.They are making over a 100 people redundant to 'save money'.They have closed public toilets in our town centre because they 'dont have the money to maintain them'.They have closed the councils canteen for ordinary employees because of a 'lack of funding'.They tell us we cant have a baths, that we now know would only cost £5,000,000 because our chain swinging cabinet member for hahaha, culture and tourism Dave Fitzpatrick,has already stated in the newspaper article below that thats how much a baths in Gisborough would cost to build, without having 359 houses built on our coastline because theres 'no money', yet they can throw thousands and thousands of pounds at the legal fees of the biggest and richest builder in the country in order to try and force through a housing scheme that will benefit the same builder massively financially.
Just what relationship do some of these officers in RCBC have with Persimmon homes? A relationship that sees them throwing so much public money, that by rights should be spent by Persimmon homes, at something just to stop Persimmon homes from pulling out of the whole deal? More than this why are they doing it.It is absolutely unheard of and it is the clearest indication that all is not how it appears over the issue of Coatham.
I appeal to all ordinary council employees who like us are as angry and sickened by this sheer waste of public money when services and jobs are being cut,to come forward and if you have any information that will expose this councils shameful behaviour further to tell us.Your anonymity is assured.
My contact address is 5 High Street West,Redcar,Cleveland,TS101SQ.
To everybody else you have the opportunity in May to rid our borough of this weak,shameful coalition and replace it with a new council who will take the power back from the unelected officers.
// posted by Chris McGlade @ 4:07 AM 
