Oakham Town Councillor Matthew Taylor ignores ward residents

Oakham Town Councillor Matthew Taylor ignores ward residents.

Hi Martin, Could you do a blog along the lines ... Matthew Taylor ignores the citizens of his ward. Matthew Taylor's not acknowledged receipt of Joanna Goodliffe's email of 22/01/11 calling for his immediate resignation, let alone replied to it. What a shoddy way to treat the citizens he's been co-opted to represent.

Town & County Councillors are not required by law to respond to the public, it may not be a legal requirement but surely it would be courteous.

Your MP is required by law to respond to all written correspondence. 

Local Rutland Business Woman asks Roger Begy leader of Rutland County Council to remove Helen Briggs

A Rutland Resident and Business woman has wrote to Roger Begy leader of Rutland County Council asking for the removal of the Chief Executive and then goes on to offer her service as a cost cutting measure.

From: #######@hotmail.com
To: rbegy@rutland.gov.uk
Subject: ######### meeting you in Foyer.
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:00:25 +0000

Dear Roger

Again, thankfully serendipity came to the rescue and I was able to talk to you in the foyer. 

#########

#########

##########

 

#########

 

I make you an offer: remove Mrs Briggs and I will be pleased to offer my talents to the RCC in her place for half her wages and work twice as hard as she does in reality.  Now that is a saving worth pursuing.

Your truly

######## (Hons)BMS

My Big Fat Gypsy Prejudice in the world of twitter

A local blogger has raised concerns relating to Twitter content during the showing of Channel Four's My Big Fat Wedding.

I strongly agree with the content of her blog.

Although the content of the Tweets locally don't surprise me, you only have to move into Rutland to become a victim of prejudice, nationally its a shameful picture of our country.

Below is the blog post for those who may not like to click on the Google warning.

The blogger has set her blog to 'adult content' don't worry this appears to be a mistake you won't see any naked plumbers.

http://lifeisaginandtonic.blogspot.com/2011/01/big-fat-gypsy-prejudice.html?zx=9233a00573889aeb

Big Fat Gypsy Prejudice

Tuesday evening sees Channel 4’s programme, ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ aired at 9.p.m. There is one thing for sure, it provokes reaction. Lots of it. I am not a voice for the Gypsy community and I have had more than one ‘run in’ with them. As plumbers, who work a lot with copper and lead, we attract the gypsy’s. They have stolen from us and had to be warned by the local police not to harass us. They can be intimidating. Conversely, I have also done business with them, on more than one occasion, all business was above board and they have proved to be good customers and very prompt payers.

The vitriolic tweets on Twitter, castigating the Gypsy way of life, their morals and dress sense is disheartening and downright vicious. It is prejudice and the passion behind the insults is quite frightening. The programme enthrals me; it shows some interesting aspects of their way of life and their view on the way they are treated. I do not agree with everything they do but it is not my position to criticise. If they choose to be a close knit, secretive, community that is their right and historically I can understand why they are that way inclined.

If the word Gypsy in some tweets were changed to Jew, Black, Pakistani or homosexual the majority of these tweets would cause outrage. The Gypsy community has always prompted prejudice and fear amongst those outside their community. Hitler murdered five million of them in the gas chambers. How can we make the world a better place for our children when as adults we attack what we do not want to understand? I wonder how many parents tweeting on a Tuesday evening would tolerate a similar outburst from their children towards any other ethnic group, or indeed, anyone of a different sexual orientation to themselves.

I am wholly in favour of free speech but it applies to all sections of society. Let the Gypsies have their say, after all they are giving us a tiny view into their way of life, we may lern something from them.

Rutland County Council Investments Hellen Briggs and Roger Begy

It would appear someone is not happy Rutland County Council's Investments are public knowledge.

It has prompted a response from Helen Briggs Chief Executive of Rutland County Council

The response to my e-mail from Mrs Briggs is gratefully received.

I am pleased to hear, the member of the public is receiving copies of statements.

 Please can I also be emailed copies FIO request.

At the meeting the member of public made a very public request, to see the statements and this request was refused outright by Mrs Briggs, why does the public always need to resort to FIO.

What does Mrs Briggs and our council  have to hide?

The Council does not listen to the public and it is not transparent.

The email does not explain why Council Leader Roger Begy lied.

 At  a previous public meeting "the council had received all the £1,000,000 invested in Iceland"

 I can not see how it is possible for either me or other members of the public to have heard incorrectly?

Rutland County Council does not listen to the public and it is not transparent. Councillor Gale seems to be the only Councillor listening to the public. At Wednesdays meeting he mentioned the majority of the public he meets, say their council is not listening.

From

Martin Brookes

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From: HBriggs@rutland.gcsx.gov.uk
To: martinjbrookes@hotmail.com;
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:53:05 +0000
Subject: RE:

The information quoted in Mr Brookes email of January 22 was provided as part of freedom of information request from a member of the public and reflected the position as at the 17 January.  At that time the amount owed to the Council from Heritable Bank was £546,000 on an initial investment of £1,000,000.

At the Public Budget consultation both the Leader and Chief Executive made the audience aware that we are advised the Council will get back over time 85% i.e. £850,000 and that to date we have received about 50% i.e. £500,000.

On 18 January a further repayment of £47,000 was received bringing the total repayment received to date to £501,000 and the balance owed £499,000.  We have therefore received just over 50% of the original £1m invested.

Surplus cash balances are invested in such a way to generate maximum income whilst leaving enough flexibility to bring cash back into the Council’s main bank account at short notice.  This is the reason for the range of interest rates earned, i.e. the longer the money is invested for the higher the interest rate.

The request made to see copies of bank statements has not been refused, the Council are in the process of compiling the information.

Rutland County Council £19.634.173.80 cash investements

RUTLAND COUNTY COUNCIL

INVESTMENTS AS AT 17 JANUARY 2011

Rutland County Council has public money invested with the following organisations:

HSBC - Sterling Liquidity Fund
HSBC - Money Market
Coventry Building Society
Lloyds TSB
Bank of Scotland
London Borough of Brent
Skipton Building Society
Santander
Nationwide Building Society
Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation
Barclays Bank
Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation
Clydedale Bank
Yorkshire Building Society
Principality Building Society
NMRothschild&Sons
Heritable Bank - ln Administration






£19.634.173.80 is the total sum invested and interest rates are very poor these range from 0.33% in the HSBC (a total disgrace) to the higher 1.8% paid by both Lloyds TSB and The Bank of Scotland.

What interests me the most is Heritable Bank this pays 6.09%

This is  a Landsbanki owned Scottish Bank,

The Leader of Rutland County Council Roger Begy said we had lost £1,000,000.00 in this bank.

Last year he told the public "we had got it all back"

This week The Leader of the Council Roger Begy said he never said such a thing?

He said Rutland County Council had recovered £850,000 and it was likely the Council will loose £125,000
This was confirmed by Helen Briggs Chief Executive.

Why are they lying?

A freedom of information request reveals there is only £546,096.29 deposited in this account where is the other  £453903.71

I am aware a member of the public has made a Freedom of Information request to see hard copies of Statements relating to all the above investments. Rutland County Council has refused to provide these. Why? What do they have to hide? This is public money.

I am not sure who Rutland County Council employs these days to control finances, but surely this needs to be looked into.

Why are the public being asked how should we save £650,000 of important service when there is this amount of money invested.

£650,000 is a small amount of the total sum the council intends to cut, another 100+ staff will be going soon.

Posted by Rutland Resident at 1/22/2011 08:18:00 PM

Read More: http://martinbrookes.blogspot.com/2011/01/rutland-county-council-1963417380-cash.html

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