Power grab by officials

Sir, - With the recent plague of flytipping that is costing millions of pounds across Scotland and the clean-up squads in Angus unable to keep pace with the increasing tipping, it is almost laughable that the department heads in Angus Council are issuing video cameras to recycling operatives to record aggressive behaviour.

These cameras would not have been bought off the shelf and would not come cheap. The expensive video system installed two years ago at the Carnoustie recycling centre could have been used to record abuse of staff but curiously, it only covered the scrap-metal skip.

As The Courier reporter wrote in the last paragraph of the report, the councillors were asked are to “rubber stamp” this decision

This is the crux of the problem in Angus Council. Time and time again, councillors only learn of decisions when they are called in to “rubber stamp” decisions made by department heads who have carte blanche to make changes the elected councillors should have discussed and voted for, or against.

The abysmal turn out at local elections in Angus might be increased if councillors did what they were elected for instead of being rubber stamps for highly-paid council heads of departments. which you stated that “this year is a special one, marking the 150th anniversary of the Mcmanus”.

However, the museum which opened 150 years ago was called the Albert Institute which was paid for by public subscriptions to commemorate Queen Victoria’s husband.

Bearing that in mind, and with the imminent opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum, this would be an appropriate time to return the museum to its original name. funds for the council in the short term, it would surely end up lost in an ever-deepening void of government underfunding.

Under the SNP government, we have constantly had to cut back, save, even lose services across the board with even more gloom to come.

At the same time the Scottish Government laud how wonderful they are by giving endless freebies away to stay in power.

These freebies and freezes on council tax cost an absolute fortune to maintain and it is little wonder there is very little left to go around.

The number of free bus passes issued to non pensioners is at bursting point. You can get one if you are on drugs or an alcoholic.

Then there are free prescriptions. Most right-minded folk would