Parking ‘stitch-up’ fury
‘It’s a stitch-up,’ say Mull and Iona communities which are refusing to co-operate with Argyll and Bute Council’s inquiry into the parking charges disaster that led to a public apology from its top executive and the plans being scrapped.
Islanders are accusing the council of putting up a ‘spectacular smokescreen’ to hide its ‘misguided attempt to inflict punitive parking charges’ on them.
The communities are refusing to work with the council’s internal inquiry into the parking charge fiasco because the same council officials and specific councillors responsible for the ‘flawed’ management exercise would be carrying out a review of their own work – and that would ‘completely absurd’, says Adrian Stephens of Mull Community Council.
‘This is a spectacular smokescreen and a stitch-up. It is completely absurd. How can councillors and staff at all levels who got it so badly wrong possibly have any involvement in, let alone be in charge of, a review into their own failures?’ he said.
The decision on how to take the review forward was voted on by area committee members.
An Argyll and Bute Council spokesperson said: ‘It would be very disappointing if they turned down this opportunity to work with us for the benefit of Mull and Iona. We would welcome their input, and our invitation to get involved remains open to them.’
A letter has now been sent to the council’s chief executive, Cleland Sneddon, demanding an external inquiry led by ‘a competent neutral individual’.
Campaign
‘We are ready to agree terms of reference and help the council to turn this nightmare into a positive legacy,’ said Joe Reade from the Mull and Iona Ferry Committee.
The parking charge proposal, dropped after a nine-month sustained campaign by residents and businesses, would have seen huge fees imposed at the island’s lifeline ferry ports of Craignure and Fionnphort, and at Tobermory.
Islanders argued Argyll and Bute had not consulted them, had no understanding of their circumstances and was applying to fragile island communities a proposal designed for busy mainland towns.
In July, lawyers acting for the island communities advised the council its handling of the parking charges was wrong and unlawful. Mr Sneddon himself described it as ‘a flawed exercise’.
Shiona Ruhemann, convener of Iona Community Council, said campaigners never wanted to be in conflict with the council and had given Mr Sneddon a chance ‘to be as good as his word’.
‘But the council needs a complete overhaul of its systems, processes and culture so it listens to its communities and makes informed, responsible decisions. The council officers, the five area committee councillors, and the Audit and Scrutiny Committee, who caused this painful mess, cannot deliver those lessons,’ she said.
Argyll and Bute MSP Michael Russell said: ‘An independent inquiry is the only way to restore any sort of trusting relationship between the communities and those who are meant to have their best interests at heart, and I wholeheartedly support the people of Mull and Iona in their demand for one. Anything less will be a whitewash.’