Glad I don't live in the Argyll And Bute council area

[islaydarkblue]

Brilliant reply. Islay. You should be running things!

I certainly could not make a worse job than they have been doing for the past ten years.
Before we moved to live on Islay permanently in 2005 I was warned by several local Islay Golf Club members that we were making a mistake moving to live on Islay as Argyll and Bute Council was very badly run and it was the worst run local authority in Scotland.
We did not heed their warnings because we did not think that it could be that badly run.
Argyll and Bute Council is now far more badly run than it was in 2005.
The road surfaces in 2005 were in a far better condition than they currently are.
The only common denominator from 2005 is that the Argyll and Bute Councillors are still complaining about a lack of money for council services and Councillor Robin Currie is still hopeless as an Argyll and Bute Councillor.
More to follow.

[islaydarkblue]

About ten years ago I obtained a Freedom of Information request about Councillor Robin Currie’s expenses which confirmed that Councillor Currie had claimed for Dinner, Bed and Breakfast in a hotel near Lochgilphead paid by the Argyll and Bute council taxpayers when he could have taken 18.00 sailing from Kennacraig to Islay.
I complained to the Argyll and Bute Council Director of Finance based in Campbeltown.
She replied that Councillor Currie’s claim for Dinner, Bed and Breakfast in a hotel near Lochgilphead was within the Argyll and Bute Ciuncil rules for expenses claims.
This reply proved that the Argyll and Bute Council Director of Finance was only interested in ‘rubber stamping’ Councillors expenses claims and she did bother checking that Councillor Currie did not claim for an unnecessary overnight accommodation when there was a suitable ferry to get him home the same day.
There used to be two Argyll and Bute councillors representing Islay and Jura.
They both lived on Islay and travelled separately in their own car each claiming a separate return journey on the Islay to Kennacraig sailing plus mileage to and from their own home home on Islay to council meetings at the Argyll and Bute Council HQ at Kilmory beside Lochgilphead.
You would have thought that they could have taken turn about taking their car from Islay to Kilmory to keep the cost of their expenses down.
However that was too sensible as they appeared to be happy to fleece Argyll and Bute council taxpayers instead.

[islaydarkblue]

In September 2015 at about 4.30pm I took our dog for a walk into Bruichladdich.
As I passed the public toilets in Bruichladdich I noticed that there was someone working in the Gents toilet.
The light inside the Gents toilet had not been working for well over a year.
The person came out and he told me that he had now repaired the light in Gents toilet.
I replied that he had been very quick in repairing it as it was discussed at the previous evening’s Islay Community Council meeting in Port Charlotte Primary School.
The workman told me that he knew nothing about last night’s Islay Community Council meeting.
He was part of the Argyll and Bute Council two man team from Lochgilphead who came to Islay every fortnight to repair the street lights on the island and he had been asked to take a look at the light in the Gents toilet in Bruichladdich which was not working.
At that point another person turned up who lived in Oban and he said that he was contracted by Argyll and Bute Council to check the public toilets throughout their council area and report any faults.
He was pleased to see that the light in the Gents toilet was now working as during his previous visit in September 2014 he had reported in his report to Argyll and Bute Council that the light in the Gents toilet in Bruichladdich was not working!!
I said to person from the street lighting team that he better get a move on if they wanted to catch the 18.00 ferry sailing from Port Ellen to Kennacraig.
He replied “What ferry”!!!
The Argyll and Bute Council street lighting employee told me that both of them knew nothing about the 18.00 sailing from Port Ellen to Kennacraig because nobody in the street lighting office in Lochgilphead had ever mentioned it.
He further added they have often had difficulty getting overnight accommodation on Islay especially during the tourist season.
They had been taking the 9.45am sailing from Port Ellen to Kennacraig on the Wednesday morning with them not getting back to Lochgilphead until 1pm having lost a morning’s work.
I suggested that they picked up a copy of the current Kennacraig to Islay ferry timetable the next morning in the Calmac Port Ellen pier office.
Everything is slap dash and wasteful in Argyll and Bute Council despite their Councillors continually bleating about the Council being short of money.

[Deeranged]

Nobody, and I mean nobody, gives a monkey's about the politics of Islay.