I cannot be the only person who sat in the public gallery at the last Rutland County Council council meeting to hear in utter bewilderment at the latest goings on involving Rutland public money.
We have already had the county council’s staff car displacement fiasco, which has caused terrible parking displacement issues across Oakham, followed by the removal of a county councillor from cabinet.
We now hear that the council has now spent £42,000 of taxpayers’ money on solicitors defending its own #### #### and officers from claims made by three UKIP county councillors.
Yet the county council sees fit to allocate and underwrite a further potential £150,000 of taxpayers’ money should the #### #### and ### officers need it to take the case much further, even though there are no guarantees of winning the case and in which case the taxpayer could also have to stand the other side’s costs.
A short time ago we also read in the Mercury that the county council had overpaid some staff £83,000 to add more to the overall taxpayers’ bill.
As a band H taxpayer myself, if you already add what has already been lost in wage errors and the potential legal costs that will be easily used by officers defending themselves, we are already well over £250,000 of taxpayers’ money being diverted from essential front line services for the elderly and my ill mother for example, and not also including any on costs if the case is lost.
Is it not time that the few people responsible at the top now stood down.
The boundary split from Leicestershire County Council has cost this tiny county dear.
We are out of our depth financially and we are being continually financially micro-managed.
MICK JARVIS
Beaumont Chase, Uppingham
We have already had the county council’s staff car displacement fiasco, which has caused terrible parking displacement issues across Oakham, followed by the removal of a county councillor from cabinet.
We now hear that the council has now spent £42,000 of taxpayers’ money on solicitors defending its own #### #### and officers from claims made by three UKIP county councillors.
Yet the county council sees fit to allocate and underwrite a further potential £150,000 of taxpayers’ money should the #### #### and ### officers need it to take the case much further, even though there are no guarantees of winning the case and in which case the taxpayer could also have to stand the other side’s costs.
A short time ago we also read in the Mercury that the county council had overpaid some staff £83,000 to add more to the overall taxpayers’ bill.
As a band H taxpayer myself, if you already add what has already been lost in wage errors and the potential legal costs that will be easily used by officers defending themselves, we are already well over £250,000 of taxpayers’ money being diverted from essential front line services for the elderly and my ill mother for example, and not also including any on costs if the case is lost.
Is it not time that the few people responsible at the top now stood down.
The boundary split from Leicestershire County Council has cost this tiny county dear.
We are out of our depth financially and we are being continually financially micro-managed.
MICK JARVIS
Beaumont Chase, Uppingham
