Natural justice denied to residents
In the dozen or so years I’ve been a pub owner – and the majority of them an Ayrshire Post columnist – many people have questioned my prudence in sometimes being critical of the same South Ayrshire Council who licence me to trade.
To be honest, it’s not something I’d ever seriously considered. To date, my response has always been that no judicious councillor would misperceive the pint pouring Bob from the outpouring variety. And although I rail regularly at their performance, I’ve always reckoned our councillors have too much class to visit the sins of one Bob Shields onto the other. Sadly, that opinion has changed. One councillor has exposed himself to lacking that class. And his name is Alec Clark.
In his letter to this newspaper last week, councillor Clark concluded that his home town of Girvan
“is more optimistic and forward thinking than the ‘Twa Dugs’ will ever be”. It was a cheap shot that says more about the person who penned it than the person it was intended for.
What kind of South Ayrshire councillor is it that will openly malign a rate- paying South Ayrshire business and businessman . . . for simply voicing an opinion that is different from his own? Well... a councillor like Alec Clark.
Is Councillor Clark’s maliciousness a breach of the Standards Commission or Councillor’s Code of Conduct? Absolutely. Would the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman find against him? Probably.
Is it even a breach of the Defamation Act (Scotland) 2013? Who knows? But to be quite honest – who really cares enough?
The pub in question is still trading after being closed for 12 months through a global pandemic that has claimed millions of lives. A handful of them were my customers and friends. If it can survive that – it can survive soor plooms from the owner of a sweetie shop.
Unfortunately, though, this businessman doesn’t have a £21,623 councillors’ salary to fall back on. And no £2602 for car mileage either!
His letter last week was the usual smoke and mirrors from a local politician who’s been found out. As usual, I don’t know all the facts. So let’s cut through Councillor’s Clark’s bovine brown stuff and get to the two facts of the Girvan Pitch stitch-up that really matter.
1 - The council’s own Leadership Panel Report of October 29, 2019 Section 4.9: reads “A consultation on the use of Common Good land produced a majority - 56.9% - against it.”. Do you dispute this fact, Councillor Clark? Section 4.10 continues “Community empowerment legislation requires councils to have regard to representations made in Common Good consultation.”
And Section 5 reads: “It would appear that South Ayrshire Council is the first local authority having to determine whether to proceed with a petition to the sheriff court contrary to the outcome of a common good consultation.”
Note the word “regard” in there, councillor? It doesn’t say “disregard”. And why would SAC be the FIRST in Scotland to go to a Sheriff WITHOUT full public approval? It’s because they are the first council in Scotland conceited enough to think they know better than the people who elected them!
2 – SAC’s petition to the sheriff included the wording “TO AWARD EXPENSES AGAINST ANY PERSON OFFERING OPPOSITION HERETO”.
Do you dispute this fact, Councillor Clark? Any assurances that SAC wouldn’t pursue these costs are not worth the paper they are not written on. The objectors asked for a legal disclaimer that costs would not apportioned. SAC refused to give that assurance. It left the objectors with no other option than to withdraw.
Anything wrong with these facts, Councillor Clark? As a result, residents were denied their access to natural justice. And that’s the issue that really SHOULD be going to the Standards Commission, the Ombudsman and any court willing to hear it! Councillor Clark’s letter is headlined “Fighting For My Area”
Where was the fight for the 56.9%?
However, there are some points in his missive that I did take on board.
I stood outside my humble pub and tried to looking “forward”. But all I could see was an Ayr Station Hotel that was derelict when Alec Clark took office in 2012 and probably still will be when he leaves it. Beside it, the gaping concrete maw of Burns House – and the traffic chaos around it – welcomes peak season tourists to our town in what could be our busiest “Staycation” summer ever.
At this rate - and as the heavy plant stays mysteriously motionless for a third week – councillor Clark will bring the FIFA World Cup Final to Victory Park before its finally demolished. Finally though, a promise to Councillor Clark.
Hand on heart, I’ll stop being “negative” the moment SAC give me something positive to write about.
But with you in the chair of the “Service and Performance Panel” – I’m not holding my breath.