Councillor George Freeman has issued a media statement which exemplifies the anxiety felt by opposition councillors that they are being branded by views they do not hold. In a council polarised on the school closures issue and with an administration characterised by its inability to understand evidence and its practice of making claims unsupported by it, this is an understandable concern.
The press statement issued from the council’s communications office on 19th April 2011 begins: ‘Argyll and Bute Council today agreed a report which responds to allegations made by the Scottish Rural Schools Network. (SRSN)’.
While this is strictly true in terms of collective responsibility by majority vote, the state of affairs in this council makes the use of the all embracing collective noun, ‘the Council’ often redundant and misleading.
Councillor Freeman makes it clear that ‘The Council’ in this instance was no more than ‘the administration’, who voted en bloc.
He points out that of the 34 councillors who attended the meeting, all members of the current ruling coalition voted alone to refute the Scottish Rural Schools Network’s demonstration of misrepresentation of evidence by Cleland Sneddon, acting as Education Director. They refuted it on little more than simply agreeing to say it was untrue.
For the record, at the meeting on 19th April, an amendment was tabled by Councillor Freeman and seconded by Councillor Donald MacDonald. This underlined concerns that the ‘report’ refuting the SRSN evidence of misrepresentation was not produced by someone who was independent of the current school closure proposals in Argyll & Bute. It was in fact produced by Mr Sneddon himself. As the person shown in SRSN’s evidence to have edited information he provided to councillors in a way that radically misrepresented the thrust of the original, Mr Sneddon could not be said to be an impartial reporter.
This amendment, reproduced below, also called for the school closure proposals to be shelved until an independent review on the whole school closure process had been completed and a report provided to the Council.
The question of misplaced collective responsibility
The degree to which the current administration is discredited may mean that in future, press releases on utterly polarised issues should be published under the name of ‘the administration’ rather then ‘the council’ – where the votes taken reflect exactly that reality.
There is widespread anxiety about the automatic inclusion of a united opposition in statements on behalf of ‘the council’ on issues where opinion divides in this way.
The current anxiety would seem to reflect an awareness in opposition councillors that Argyll is not going to tolerate the bungled conduct of its affairs by this administration and will effect the necessary changes at the 2012 local government elections. Opposition councillors are clearly concerned that voters may simply regard all present members as involved in the now widely known shenanigans, which would be unfair.
For Argyll can reassure them that we will make sure that the necessary distinctions are drawn, without ambiguity and on detailed evidence, when it comes to the 2012 elections. Accountability is the heartbeat of democracy.
Text of the Freeman / Macdonald amendment tabled on 19th April 2010
Argyll & Bute Council notes with extreme concern recent statements that have been made by the Scottish Rural Schools Network (SRSN) relating to the ongoing Review of the School Estate within Argyll & Bute and which have been contained within recent reports that have been published by the media in Argyll & Bute.
Given the serious nature of a number of the statements that have been made by the SRSN, and the need to reassure all Council Members and the public of the veracity of the Review of the School Estate and the information that has been presented to Members throughout that Review, the Council agrees:
- To note the report by the Executive Director – Community Services.
- To record the Council’s disappointment that the report has not been produced by someone totally unconnected with the ongoing Review of the School Estate.
- That an independent review should be undertaken as soon as possible of the ongoing Review of the School Estate and the processes relating to that Review.
- That the independent review referred to at c. above should consider the veracity of the information provided to Members throughout the Review of the School Estate and in particular, the information referred to in the statements made by the SRSN that are contained within the SRSN reports that have recently been published by the media in Argyll & Bute.
- That the detailed terms of reference for the independent review referred to at c. above should be delegated to the Leaders of all six political groups within the Council to agree in consultation with the Chief Executive and the Executive Director – Customer Services.
- That the current Review of the School Estate should be suspended until such time as the independent review referred to at c. above has been completed and a report presented to the Council.
Mr Sneddon is accused by SRSN of having “sexed up” his private presentation to councillors. He then investigates himself and demonstrates to his entire satisfaction that he is completely innocent of these hurtful SRSN charges. Furthermore, he demonstrates conclusively and without the further need of any input from SRSN that the nasty Mr Sandy Longmuir is not only nasty to him but a serial deceiver of Directors of Education as they go about their solemn duty of closing down as many rural schools as they can get away with.
This is creating a sense of deja vu. Where have I seen this before? Oh yes: the dodgy dossier, where the Council seriously misrepresented studies on rural migration, attracting the ire of the actual authors of the reports. Mr Sneddon analysed the substance of the objections then forensically proceeded to demonstrate that HIS interpretation of these reports was superior to that of the authors. However, he didn’t want to enter into correspondence with the authors in case they were compromised. He also doesn’t seem to want to be drawn into an open discussion with Mr Longmuir “to avoid confrontation” and he is happy instead to effectively call Mr Longmuir a serial liar and leave it at that.
And ruling group councillors voted to support him in this?!?
I would remind listeners that SRSN consistently told the Council that it had its financial figures wrong in the original proposals. No, no said Mr Sneddon, the Council figures are correct and SRSN don’t know what they are talking about. Of course the figures turned out to be wrong, badly wrong and SRSN were correct. Not much mention of that on the Council website despite it being revealed that a raft of schools would actually cost the Council money if they were closed. Cue scrapping of original proposals.
However, despite this rather heavy blow to the Council and Mr Sneddon’s credibility versus statements from SRSN, we again see Mr Sneddon asserting that the Council (ie him) have it right and the evil Mr Longmuir is not only wrong but trying to deceive councillors on the issues of capacity and population projections.
Note the nice twisting of the narrative by Mr Sneddon: accused of misleading councillors he turns the charge on his accuser and for nice measure insinuates that, even if Mr Longmuir turns out to be right on any of these issues, they don’t matter as Mr Longmuir is trying to distract councillors from the pertinent.
I think it was Cllr McCuish that pointed out that we cannot just have two parties continually accusing each other of distorting the truth: it is necessary to bring someone external and impartial in to arbitrate. I laughed out loud (LOL for our younger readers) when I read that Cllr Morton was agin having an independent enquiry “as this would be seen as wasting money”. Coming from the people who have supported the vastly expensive “School Closures 1: The Cloned Proposals” and “School closures 2: the Empire Strikes back (but hasn’t learnt anything from School Closures 1)” – rumoured to be the most expensive school closure programme EVER! – this seems at the very least ironic.
Of course, if the Council is so in thrall to Mr Sneddon that it won’t back an impartial consideration of the facts to see in which side Justice’s scales tips then perhaps the rest of us can do better? It must be possible for us (the citizens) to organise (say) a small team of three sound individuals from outside of Argyll who have experience of sitting in judgement. There may be some ex MSP’s available soon. They could them consider written evidence from both Mr Longmuir and Mr Sneddon as well as brief presentations from both of them on the salient points. I’m sure this would not take more than a day of their time and they can then rule on who is correct. If both are so sure of their positions then how could they possibly object to this? Mind you, Mr Longmuir’s lawyers may simply want to issue writs for slander against Mr Sneddon and Cllr Morton, which has the same effect.
It would help matters considerably if Mr Sneddon and/or Cllr Morton would identify in simple language and single sentences a bullet point list of where they consider Mr Longmuir to have misled the Council. For balance, Mr Longmuir might want to do the same.
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DDM, If it comes to the stage of bringing in independent arbitration then count me in for a donation towards the costs. (You know how to contact me.) I’m sure there are lots of like minded people who would do the same.
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Councillor McCuish is right, this cant go on. The electorate are mixed up on this. Its sad its come to this but there is no other way. Its gone on too long so get someone in and on this occasion will be money well spent.
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The “evil” Mr Longmuir is more than willing to supply evidence to any independent enquiry on this matter. He would repeat his offer to debate in any public arena the suitability and accuracy of the information provided to elected members during the school closure process. He has absolutely nothing to hide on this or on his “serial” behaviour regarding senior education officials. Any quick internet search will prove that in these skirmishes he invariably has come out on the right side.
As a section of Part 4 of the Sneddon’s information serialisation a section will be included on previous challenges made by Highland Council, Cosla, Moray Council and, of course, Mr Sneddon himself. All will be referenced with documentation which show that the serial misrepresentations do not fall on SRSN’s side of the fence.
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If it were the case that, after much debate, there were two clear lines of direction for a council decision and, when that decision went to a vote, the vote fell in favor of a majority on the side of the administration, I would have no problem with such a decision.
However, when facts are presented, and ignored by the majority of members, the term “Council Decision” falls into disrepute. The term is being used here as a shield because The New Administration know how desperate their situation is, but like The King, they are “in the All-to-together! – it’s too late.
I relish the election campaign in 2012, the face of Argyll & Bute Council Will change beyond all recognition. The legacy of ConDemAll will be such.
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Now lets be fair to Mr Sneddon here… all the said he did to find the initial information was a “brief websearch”.
I wonder what a brief websearch on his name would turn up nowadays?
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Ooooh, I didn’t know you could use emoticons on this site! I’m now frantically looking for one that I can use as shorthand for “Mr Sneddon”, another for “Council fiasco” and one for “angry parents” (shouldn’t be difficult). I suspect I will struggle with “occupancy versus capacity – a bogus argument”. I might be needing “serious conflicts of interest” soon. You will need to show me how to do emoticons CSB.
In the meantime: a big applause for Sandy – he is obviously unafraid to debate the issues in open forum. This either indicates a large brass neck or a man who sincerely believes in his case (and my money is on sincerity). What is the betting if we ask Mr Sneddon to participate in an open and public debate he demures?
The longer this goes on the more you feel there must be a Deus ex machina who will appear in a puff of smoke and sort everything out. However, the word on the brae is that the Ombudsman is a picture of atrophied conservatism (with a small “c”: other political parties are available) and the Standards Commission is rather toothless unless faced with examples of gross moral turpitude (and even then they usually just gawk). Perhaps this should be a lead to the incoming Government and they can create a Citizen’s Czar who can intervene when things have clearly got out of kilter in the old Local Government v the Citizens tussle.
How has it come to this?
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Cllr Semple,
The perception that we have of the current Administration is that it is ruled with an iron rod by Dick Walsh with his ‘independent’ councillors firmly in the sheep pen. Now that the Con and Dem have joined in it would appear that Morton has the Dems barking her song and the two Tories are simply clinging on to very unexpected power (Mulvaney is becoming something of a laughing stock).
So my query is whether you, from your perio in the coalition prior to the November split, can shed any light on the way in which the Administration is run. Does Walsh really have such a stranglehold over the opinion of the independent councillors?
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There is a pattern emerging to cover up incompetence. The matter is brought to the Council or Executive and the Coalition all vote to put the council’s version of the ‘truth’ on the public record. This happened with the incompetence over Supporting People funding when the ‘Council’ unwittingly agreed to give up £5.6m. The ‘council’ then agreed that Mr Sneddon’s interpretation was the absolute truth. From that point on all attemps to pursue the incompetence and incompetent are met with a rebuffal – “no, you are wrong because the council has agreed”. This wil not change until some of the Coalition are brave enough to question Big Brother and vote with their intellect and conscience.
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The sooner a “recall” system is instituted the better..!
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If only all you politicians and cllr showed such passion when the Arrochar bus was taken away unfairly leaving children to walk a dangerous road to school….
Now it seems we are lucky to have a school to walk to!
Hopefully its your jobs that are next for the chopping block…. and the sooner the better!
Karma is such beautiful balancing act
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Colin brings up the old issue of free school transport. He fails to say that all children who are more that two miles from their school still receive free school transport. He should know that this change in policy applied to all schools in Argyll and not just Arrochar. It was forced on the Council as a result of the massive custs in funding to the Scottish Government from the Lib Dem and Tory coalition government in London.
I have recently checked out the situation at three schools in Argyll, including Arrochar, and it is clear that not one child is walking along the A83 from Arrochar to get to school. I suppose that Colin would probably prefer to see Luss Primary School close so that the money can be found to provide him with free school transport.
I am sure that the ConDemAll administartion in the Council would tell him that he is lucky to have a school. If they had their way, there would be 25 fewer schools in Argyll. Yes, the kids would get free school transport but they would not have a “local” school to go to.
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Oh that ‘old’ issue….
What an annoyance eh!
I know of at least one mother with no other option who does walk her son along that road and she is pregnant so get your facts straight before attacking my opinion which I am as entitled to as you are yours moron!
For your information, we car share to ensure the safety of our children as we true locals of the village show real solidarity. No one in their right mind with other options would willingly walk children along that road.
It should never have been deemed safe in the first place as well you know, if you do indeed know the are… the dirty tricks employed by the council to ensure it’s ‘safe’ status had NOTHING to do with Holyrood or Westminster so don’t give us your crap, we are not as dumb as you obviously are.
Forced on the council my back side… they (and from the sound of it, probably you too) voted for it….
People like you will still be blaming London for these cuts by next century, open your eyes condemall boy…. certainly conned you
Please do not venture to even assume that you would know what I may or may not prefer you troll stick to spouting your own nonsense please and refrain from judging others by your own vile standards.
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Colin, many thanks for your response. I am glad to note that you class yourself as a “true local of the village”. Unfortunately different folk have different ideas as to what a “true local” is.
Who do you class as a true local? Is it only someone who is born and bread in the village? If not, how many years do you have to live in the village (in your opinion) before being a “true local”?
Are you born and bread in the village or of not, how long have you lived there so we know what your criteria of a “truce local” is.
I have looked at a number of school routes in Argyll and there are three, including the Arrochar route, that I do not consider should have been assessed as being safe. That is one thing that Colin appears to agree with me on.
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Just for the record, do either of you know how much that bus cost at Arrochar? Will help me in comparing it with other transport.
To take this off in a little bit of a different path, you both mention about kids not having a local school to go to. I was talking to a 9 year old the other day from a school that wasn’t even on the original list of 26, yet this child (and others at her school) seem to be under the impression that their school is now under threat as well.
Seems as if the damage is reaching a lot further than the current hit list.
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Really Condemall…. talk about completely missing a point now.
For what its worth, and purely to humour your pathetic response…..
I’ve lived in Arrochar less than 4 years and the time a person is resident in a an area has no baring at all on whether or not they are a ‘True Local’
This is determined by how determined they are to fight an injustice on behalf of their children and the join shoulder to shoulder with other mothers and fathers who are also fighting till the last…
Sorry Crazy She-Bat… I trawled a good few of the hundreds of emails I have as I am pretty sure the council did state figures at one point during this struggle but I am at work and can’t use anymore time to locate it… I will look again tonight after I get the kids down for you.
The Ombudsman is due to speak with me in the next fortnight for the final time with a decision one way or the other on this matter so I will probably get all the hard copy documentation back from their Edinburgh office which will contain the cost / savings details no doubt.
I will let you know. You are very right, both my children 7 & 8 (even although our primary is safe) believe the council are ‘evil’ and ‘tell fibs’ and are trying to close their school…. our councillors really dont realise the rod they are making for their backs from the future generations of voters… these kids wont forget!
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Crazy, does this help?
Dear Mr Graham
The cost was calculated by the consultants who carried out the School and Public Transport Review last year. The rationale was as follows:-
The average maximum return fare for a journey of up to 2 miles is £1.15. Therefore a reasonable amount to charge is £1.00 per return journey. This was applied to the number of school days a child will attend in an academic year (190) and divided by the three main terms – £63.33. This was then rounded down to £60.00 per term for ease of administration.
If a parent/carer has more than one child the charge is £50.00 per child per term. In addition the means test which is applied for entitlement to free school dinners, also applies to free privilege rides.
I hope you find this information helpful
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Colin: who were the consultants who conducted the School and Public Transport review as a matter of interest?
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Sorry Dr McKenzie, the answer I got when I asked that very question was “this information is not for the public domain”
I did intend to request it under FOA to see if it genuinely was or they were just being difficult, but to be honest it’s importance wained as I accumulated other more important questions for ABC to answer….
Jackie Baillies office still holds all of the paperwork, minutes, agendas of meeting etc in relation to this so if you need to find out, that would be a good place to start?
Hope you have better luck bursting through ABC awkward armour than we did
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In fact….
“In August 2009, Colin Buchanan consultant was comissioned by Argyll and Bute Council to undertake a review of the councils public transport services.”
taken from Appendix 9 of:
http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/moderngov/Published/C00000376/M00004435/$$ADocPackPublic.pdf
Hope that helps Dr.
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Sounds like Colin might have benefited from an Argyll Rural Schools Network and Argyll Rural Schools Network could certainly use a Colin.
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On that note. Colin, I am the secretary for Luss Primary Parent Council and an ARSN member. If you do want to get in touch, please email me at friendsoflussprimary@gmail.com
Would be happy to have a chat or share information.
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Kintyre Too… I think you are right, the village of Arrochar could certainly have benefited from the backing/support of ANY organization that were willing to get involved and help to offer structure to our arguement.
As it turned out however… we were very badly let down by our Community Council and ABC which resulted in us being lied to and cheated… the result of which was parents gave in and only a 3 of us still refuse to accept what was done. Myself being the only one nearly at the end of a near year long battle through the red tape. Hopefully the Ombudsman will agree soon that ABC did not follow the correct process although even if they do and ABC are force to change anything back to the way it was, I have no doubt they will employ some other sneaky and underhanded tactic to do exactly what they want again!!!
The Provost, the councilors (community and regional) as well as the execs of ABC closed ranks and pulled off a cracking stunt on the people of Argyll & Bute IMO…
And purely ‘in my opinion’ it was a test run to gage the impact and backlash from local communities that was just around the corner!
And here we are….
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The Council’s mistake was to bring forward closure proposals for 26 schools, affecting over 500 pupils, across the breadth and width of Argyll & Bute. SRSN managed to provide a forum where Argyll & Bute parents could come together and they’ve done just that. For some reason the Council imagines that being a parent automatically means you’re a low IQ amoeba but in reality ARSN has some very clever members with a range of skills and expertise.
Now that ARSN exists it needs to build and broaden to take in issues like those at Arrochar which simply put children in danger. I very much hope you’ll get in touch with Fiona. We may not solve Arrochar’s problem in the short term but in the longer term ARSN has set its sights on ensuring that the Council changes its attitude after the 2012 elections and Arrochar might find a solution then if the Ombudsman doesn’t come good.
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As long as ABC are reminded right up until the elections that we are not here to be run ruff shod over and also (and even more importantly) that the people are not allowed to forget what ABC have done… then it is a good thing the ARSN are doing.
ABC are an extremely undemocratic organization behaving in a way that is very far removed from what the people of this beautiful part of Scotland elected them there to do. Even more so from the core values of our Nation and our democracy.
I am a divorced single father of 2 young children and a full time tax payer that helps to ensure these crooked eejits get paid. It’s not about the money for the school transport with me, its about the way they done what they did and the lies they told about the road! No child, accompanied or otherwise, should have to walk that road. I may not be the most intelligent man in the world, I’m certainly no lawyer or professional politician like most of ABC but I do hold a degree in my field, which in no way defines all of what I am, I just know what is right and what is wrong, the moral compass that my parents instilled in me tells me so…
For the council and its leaders to be so bold as to assume that I or any parent would idly stand by (after electing them and paying their wages) while they cheat us, lie to us and repeatedly insult our intelligence is simply beyond a joke Kintyre.
I honestly don’t expect Fiona Glasgow of the Ombudsman office to be able to get them to behave correctly but I can hope that she is astute enough to spot some discrepancy in they way in which they handled my complaint and the way it was suppose to be done according to their own published documentation on the complaints procedure which forces them to stop and think! They can’t be allowed to draw a red pen through services which impact peoples lives and then retrospectively cover up that the decision was made before getting the peoples views or offering any kind of constructive alternatives.
Even if the decision goes against us in the next couple of weeks, I will return to square 1 with what I have learned over this last year and start again!
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In a strange way,A&BC have done the people of Argyll & Bute a favour!!
We’ve woken big style.No more taking what the council say for granted!
They’ve been so inept,so deceitful,so secretive. The whole school closure episode has engaged so many parents,pupils,communities.
I even feel that I’m a part of a revolution!!!
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Too true Morag, so many people are now involved in the fight against the closures, if nothing else it’s made people question what else these elected members have been up to behind our backs with their slight hand tricks. Maybe todays results will give us the chance to see a change and ask
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