Letters / Time for party politics
Did mismanagement (largely under Morgan Goodlad as chief executive) really cause the SIC cash crisis (Mismanagement caused SIC cash crisis, SN, 3 May 2013)?
Wasn’t it instead ‘independent’ councillors (largely in Sandy Cluness’ time as convenor) failing to work together, failing to heed numerous warnings from the finance department and thereby failing to look to the future, who really caused the crisis?
The council’s eight point plan to avoid the financial mistakes of the past says nothing about how to strengthen local politics in Shetland.
What actually came first, council mismanagement or local political failure?
It is tempting to blame the councillors who in 1999 thought the SIC should be run be someone from the private sector. What about the voters who elected those councillors in the first place?
How about a report now to quantify the sum total of the missing millions: SSG, Smyril Line etc? Then perhaps there will be an agreed number to fall back on next time someone says there is no need for party politics on the council.
At least, when ruling groups stuff up on councils south there is a chance of kicking them out.
More helpfully perhaps, how about a local conference on sustainability to help focus minds on the real challenges ahead?
Peter Hamilton
Berlin.
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