DEMOCRACY IS A DISTANT MEMORY AT WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL

DUMBARTON NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY

They don’t do fairness at West Dunbartonshire Council where they are adept at being economical with the truth while clinging steadfastly to their misleading claim that they adhere to the basic tenets of democracy.

People have been complaining for years that they cannot hear what is going on at their meetings in the old Burgh Hall in Church Street.

When I did that at a lunchtime break councillors and officials, including the then chief executive Joyce White, lost the plot and demanded that I leave the chamber immediately.

The then Chief Press Officer Amanda Graham joined the band of suits surrounding me and I was ushered out into the corridor.

Since then I have been banned from speaking directly to their press officers or any officials for that matter on the trumped up charge that I broke up the meeting and was disrespectful to the Provost who was in the chair.

I have been deprived by them of the opportunity to do my job properly.

The truth of the matter is that I did neither of these things. I simply asked then Provost William Hendrie to do something about the sound system and explained that the press and public who were stuck up in the so-called public gallery – they don’t have a press bench – from which we could only see the backs of the heads of councillors and officials we had to identify and couldn’t hear what they were saying which we were entitled to do.

Those who have ever been inside the chambers will know there’s a staircase outside the door and we had a bit of a “stairheid row” over what had actually happened which was that I simply asked civilly for the sound to be turned up in order that the press and public could hear what was going on as is their inalieable right in law.

What followed was that the Council who do not like me because I delved deeply into what they – politicians on all sides of the political fence were up to putting out half truths and spin and becoming angry when they were exposed for doing so in The Democrat.

Well, thankfully, the truth will out.

Former council chief executive Joyce White, current CEO Peter Hessett, chief press officer Amanda Graham and the WDC headquarters in Church Street.

It was revealed in the past week that more than £52,000 will be spent on audio equipment to replace West Dunbartonshire Council’s old hybrid unit with an up-to-date model following months of technical difficulties.

During last Wednesday’s full council meeting, councillors were asked to approve the proposal to replace the 28 conference units and microphones at a cost of £48,436.77 and replace the hybrid unit at a cost of £4262.44.

In 2021, following the roll out of the government Covid-19 vaccination programme and lockdown, it was considered safe to return to meetings in person under strict rules on distance and hygiene.

This prompted the need for a hybrid solution which was quickly introduced in the Civic Space at a one-off capital cost of £12,000.

During last Wednesday’s meeting, questions were raised about teething issues during the trial period in August.

“However this hasn’t been the case during some of the recent committees such as housing last week where members online were only able to [do that] via the chat function.

“I am a little concerned that we are being asked to approve this spend only for us to then continue experiencing the same issues that we have going forward.”

George Hawthorn, manager of democratic and registration services, confirmed that there were some issues and officers are aware of that.

Mr Hawthorn said: “We brought in audio engineers to investigate the problem and they have discovered the cause of that particular issue.

“We are now confident that has been resolved and hopefully will not repeat again. Obviously with any new equipment you bring in, there are tweaks to get it absolutely right.

“We have only had three or four meetings to properly test it out, ideally we would have had more chances to do that and more meetings where we had success but at the moment our recommendation is that this is the best option.”

Let’s hope the Council now accept that the audio system didn’t work properly in the past. That they failed to check it when I complained, and they were economical with the truth and biased against The Democrat because we reported without fear or favour many of the mistakes they made – and there were many – when they threw me out on the basis of a load of baloney.

Time for an apology and a motion which says that in the light of this new information that the Council agrees to establish the time-honoured relations between the Council and the press, namely The Dumbarton Democrat.

@@@@@