DUMBARTON NOTEBOOK BY BILL HEANEY

The Post Office scandal is just the latest in a long list of such matters which have brought our public services into widespread disrepute.

Spin doctoring, obfuscation, lies and cover-ups are the tools used by so-called “public servants” to conceal the truth of what is really happening behind the scenes in our parliaments, health boards and local councils.

The most recent revelation came this morning that Post Office investigators hounded innocent sub postmasters and postmistresses through the courts and into penury, prison, mental breakdowns and even unto death is disgraceful.

If someone were to tell you that these Post Office investigators had their evidence written for them by their bosses and that they received bonus payments for convictions obtained in the courts you wouldn’t believe this could happen here in the 21st century.

The only bounty hunters most of us had ever come across were in cowboy movies on a Saturday matinee at the movies. They are the stuff of bad dreams, of people operating illegally in an area where there is no rule of law in place. They are vigilantes by another name, people who make their own laws.

They are part of a culture which has grown exponentially in West Dunbartonshire this century, particularly at the now Labour-run council, which spends nearly £400,000 of public money annually to deal with the press.

However, the people paid to do that job arrogantly refuse to speak to the press about matters of public interest and ignore our telephone calls and e mails.

They have no legal right to do what they are doing, but they are doing it anyway and bringing our editor’s name into disrepute while they are at it.

Their reason for this – although it has never been made official and approved by any committee – is that our editor told one of them to bugger off when she joined a band of officials surrounding him and threatening to throw him out of a public meeting.

Their allegation against him was that he interrupted a council meeting, which he didn’t. That is a lie.

The meeting had already broken up when he approached then then Provost and asked him politely for the  sound system to be adjusted in order that the press and public could hear properly the business that was being carried out in their name.

He also asked if there was any possibility of a press bench at which the press would be able to see who was speaking and where reporters could take notes.

This is no way as scandalous as what has happened at the Post Office, but it is yet another indication that senior officers in bodies such as West Dunbartonshire Council can treat the press and public in the manner they wish without scrutiny from anyone but themselves.

This begs the question:  Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

We are delighted at The Democrat that the Post Office have at last conceded that they were outrageously wrong and even vindictive in the way they treated their staff.

This would reflect the fact that they recognise that the ban (restrictions on access to information and events, referred to Freedom of Information requests and banished to the public gallery) imposed on The Democrat, which have been in place for years now were lifted immediately and we were officially informed of this decision.

If only our powder puff politicians had some guts.

New low for FOI

Government transparency looks set to hit a record low as public bodies are granting just a third of Freedom of Information requests. Reported by Press Gazette, a figure of 34%, which covers April to June 2023, is a fall from 39% recorded in 2022. 

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The Golden Globes are over. However, the Concrete Balls are very much with us. They are being premiered in Dumbarton’s Station Road.

West Dunbartonshire Council who can’t afford to keep a library in Balloch open for the weans, old folk and young mothers – not to mention the men and women looking for jobs – have embarked on a remarkable and extremely costly odyssey.

Why they have done this I have no idea and the Labour council in their own curmudgeonly way refuse to tell me or you, since you are a member of the public and part of our readership. You are entitled to know.

I was wondering if Balls Up in Station Road was a follow-up to the Road to Nowhere along the banks of the River Leven towards the Rock and how much it cost the Council. Or cost us, more like it.

And if the premiere showing would be held in the Rialto while the sweet smells from the cannabis farm clandestinely installed in there still permeates the air.

Was this one of the contracts being considered when senior officials of the Council were  wining and dining and playing golf on the manicured meadows of Loch Lomondside with an un-named contractor who has found a new life for himself in France?

I have never really understood why some of the senior officials involved in these booze-ups suddenly disappeared from the Council’s management team in Church Street with lucrative pensions and commutation payments.

I did ask, but I would be the last guy they would tell anything to, which is a badge of honour for me and a disgrace for them. They should change the wording on the council coat of arms to Mediocrity R Us.

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BILL HEANEY