Councillor’s “callous disregard for patients” 5/3/14
Sir,
At the last council meeting, 30 councillors voted to give officers the green light to restore the Stornoway/Benbecula flight to five days. Nine of these 30 councillors voted (by way of amendment) to include Benbecula/Barra also.
Cllr Angus MacCormack in his letter of 19th February argues that these councillors
must therefor have opposed the Benbecula/Stornoway flights. This plainly preposterous
interpretation is his most desperate and cowardly attempt yet to avoid responsibility
for destroying inter-
Not satisfied with that he goes on to deny that
the air service is "lifeline." This callous disregard for the patients and their
families denied this lifeline, is probably the most ruthless display yet by this
Labour activist.
His bizarre diatribe on the budget setting process displays what
might be considered remarkable ignorance of the democratic process. The process for
agreement is arrived at by, an administration presenting its proposals to council,
with the opposition offering "amendments."
Indeed it is the recognised constitutional process for all democratic institutions.
Cllr MacCormack considers bizarrely, that such amendments are "disrespectful" -
While poor Angus
may be practiced at the black art of dissembling, he does not appear terribly skilled
at it; whether he considers his efforts to be robust political debate or something
rather more sinister requires further consideration.
His most striking assertion is
in relation to the planning debate they insisted must be held in secret. My amendment
asked for future applications to follow the letter of the law and the council's adopted
supplementary guidance. Were the public to have insight into to the secret discussions,
the reason for the amendment would be self-
Events however, threaten to overtake his administration. Following
receipt of information supportive of the approval of North Uist Community Turbine
and, ultimately, the decision of the Comhairle to approve the application notwithstanding
the objection of the MoD, Angus MacNeil MP questioned the Secretary of State for
Defence who confirmed that in November 3013 the MoD had signed a contract for the
upgrade of the air defence radar at Benbecula. A regional newspaper has also published
that the new "windfarm-
This particularly relevant information
totally contradicts the stated position of the MoD to the Comhairle at mid November
3013, and indeed, is replicated again in legal papers that have recently been served
on some of our constituents. The administration while espousing a desire to secure
greater autonomy in its decision making processes clearly is inadequately advised
despite the fact that Cllr Angus Campbell as the Leader of the Hebridean Range Task
Force welcomed the MoD's capital investment programme which included this radar upgrade.
The
Comhairle was, with the benefit of hindsight, or perhaps, foresight if the detail
of the MoD's capital investment programme was made known to the Chair of the Task-
What is clearly missing
from Angus MacCormack's simplistic understanding of his responsibilities is that
the interests of all the people we are elected to serve must take priority in all
our decision making processes. We are not here as a Council to be fed inaccurate
or misleading information. When, as an Administration, this council steps outside
the four corners of the legislation the mess we now face not to mention the cost
of having to deal with it will be a reoccurring feature and one which I am totally
committed to avoiding if at all possible. It is unfortunate that Angus MacCormack's
grasp of the detail of the situation under discussion is clearly sufficiently inadequate
to found any meaningful comment let alone one exposed to public scrutiny.
Donald Manford
Councillor
29 Eoligarry
Isle of Barra