No victory for voters

I am not sure if it is brazen arrogance, a deflection of the actual truth or a political side-step, but the fact that former council leader, Councillor Donna Jones and sidekick Councillor Luke Stubbs can pass any comment whatsoever about the final closing of the doomed Victory Energy is quite staggering.

The one comment they are both correct on though is that council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson was being ‘misleading’.

This is true as Cllr Vernon-Jackson states the council are ‘lucky’ to avoid losses of up to £60m, as demonstrated by other councilrun energy firms in Nottingham and Bristol.

There is absolutely nothing ‘lucky’ about losing £3.5m of taxpayers’ money or, even worth, offering and delivering sponsorship from a company that never traded or, equally as bad, paying costs to run a company that never traded.

There is absolutely nothing ‘lucky’ about losing £3.5m of taxpayers’ money DEAN KIMBER

The current leader of the council had no part to play in this game of entrepreneur gambling, merely pulling the plug on a ridiculous individual development which Donna Jones continued to boast ‘the company would be trading if I was still leader.’

However, the proper and right way to deal with this, the accountability and transparency to which Portsmouth City Council should be operating under, is to action an immediate public enquiry.

Of course, this won’t happen and the people of Portsmouth are asked to reflect on the fact that they have not lost £60m – just £3.5m and all for a company that you can buy for less than a tenner!

Dean Kimber

North Shore, Hayling Island