Argyll and Bute

Welcome to the wacky world of local government in the west of Scotland. At the same time that it was revealed that Argyll and Bute had, 'The Worst Roads In Scotland.' there came a related piece of news that A & B Councillors had massively voted down a move to curb their pay. (Oban Times)

Now many folks will remember the days when being a councillor meant being a volunteer. Working for the community was seen as an honourable thing to do. Expenses were claimed and in a far-flung community they can be quite something. The principle that no-one should be out of pocket for helping their electorate was a fair one. 

And then quite recently (about five years ago) the move to paid councillors was introduced. Those not of high rank get just over £15000 pa (plus expenses). The higher ups get £24000 (plus expenses). 

Are the people of Argyll better represented? Are decisions based on good research, analysis and debate? Are decision-makers accountable? Do electors get value for money? 

Judge for yourselves by studying some recent Argyll issues.

Bruichladdich Pier: A&B spend £2.5 million to upgrade the pier to suit Shell but made it so difficult to use that the scheduled tanker was unable to berth. 

As one disgruntled distillery reported on their blog, "The pier-head never needed to be enlarged if Shell - or A & B for that matter - had bothered to look for a smaller ship. Instead the council, we are led to believe, was bullied in to spending £2.5m (that it did not have) on building a white elephant of a new pier-head that now renders the pier totally useless to any other ships whether commercial or pleasure.  It's too shallow for big ships and owing to the design, unusable for smaller ones. Brilliant!"

"Worse still - to finance the pier, all the island's oil users are charged a premium for the extravagant privilege. We will be paying for this useless white elephant for years to come. No wonder we have the highest heavy oil, diesel, and domestic heating oil around." 

The solution - a smaller tanker is now in use.

Port Askaig Pier: Upgrade costs estimated at £5.5 million before it began. Final costs over £12.5 million and rising as it is still not finished. The new ferry currently being built in Poland will not be able to use the pier. 

Throw Oban Airport, Rothesay Pier and Dunoon Linkspan into the cost pot and you have a litany of uselessness beyond belief. 

And who has been accountable for all these costly cock-ups? Why no-one! The Council used the cunning wheeze of engaging consultants on these projects. They then end up in a massive finger-pointing exercise. Council blames consultant who blames the contractor who blames the original brief from council. And they all sing, "It wasnae me."

And so Argyll ends up with the worst roads in Scotland, massive cuts to come and Councillors slapping themselves on the back. 

Where is the accountability? Where is the democracy? Where is the groundswell of public anger to rise up and throw these smug good for nothings out of office?