Shetland News - 27/02/2010
Around 50 Shetlanders turned out on a freezing Saturday lunchtime to call for members of Shetland Islands Council to resign from office.
Anger has raged through the islands
after councillors agreed to a
£250,000 tax free pay off for the authority’s controversial chief
executive David Clark who had
spent just eight months in post.Two days after the settlement was signed, which is likely to cost the council closer to £500,000, Mr Clark was reported to the procurator fiscal in relation to allegations that he threatened Lerwick councillor Jonathan Wills with violence in September. An initial investigation by the police was laid aside, but now officers have interviewed new witnesses about the case.
A council investigation into the alleged threats found insufficient proof to uphold them, but councillor Wills complained that he had not received a fair hearing.
Yesterday’s turnout was a disappointment for the protesters, and less than half of the 120 who gathered last Monday and marched on Lerwick Town Hall in an effort to stop the council agreeing to any financial settlement.
Organiser Kathy Greaves said: “I am disappointed that more people did not turn out today, but it is very cold and many people are only just clearing their driveways of snow.”
Others suggested that people who worked for the council, by far the largest employer in the isles, had been deterred from attending the protest after a notice was sent to all SIC staff on Wednesday ordering them not to make any public comment on the settlement with Mr Clark.
Some people had come to protest about other issues, such as the decision last week to abolish free musical instrument tuition in Shetland’s schools as part of a broad programme of service cuts.
Mrs Greaves said that a group of campaigners would now press for a meeting with the council to air their grievances and to demand an explanation for recent events.
“There have been so many mistakes made, so much wilful waste of our money over the years, it must stop now,” she told the small crowd of people assembled at Lerwick’s Market Cross.
“The last few months’ series of embarrassments at the town hallhave been the final straw for the people of Shetland. Trust and confidence in the council are at an all time low and Shetland’s reputation has suffered.
“At the local elections almost three years ago we were promised fairness, openness and accountability; because of those promises we put Shetland’s future in the hands of those councillors who were elected.
“Because those promises have not been kept to, we are rallying here today, expressing our democratic desire for change.
“A few of our councillors have our trust, but until they all resign and stand again for re-election, the council will not gain the trust of the people of Shetland. Those who do not pass scrutiny should not be re-elected.”
Mrs Greaves and her fellow organisers are planning to create a website for people to register their comments. This follows a petition which raised 1,300 signatures calling for Mr Clark to be sacked last week.
Other protesters said they had lost faith in the council’s ability to take responsibility for the wealth the islands’ have accrued from hosting the oil industry at Sullom Voe for the past 30 years.
Ironically Mr Clark’s father Ian was the SIC chief executive in the 1970s who negotiated the deal from which the islands profited. In a letter to The Shetland Times on Friday Mr Clark senior staunchly defended his son, saying that he had been the victim of “a torrent of abuse” and the “orchestrated efforts of a coterie” determined to get rid of him.
Local government watchdog Audit Scotland are due to start an investigation into what has been going on at Shetland Islands Council shortly.
A complaint submitted in December signed by six councillors, more than a quarter of the membership, which raises 20 questions about Mr Clark’s performance has not been addressed.
Meanwhile the Standards Commission is investigating a complaint against councillor Wills after he protested about the council’s internal investigation into the alleged threats. The complaint was signed by the chief executive and council convener Sandy Cluness, vice convener Josie Simpson, depute chief executive Hazel Sutherland and head of legal Jan Riise.
Shetland police confirmed that they had submitted a complaint to the procurator fiscal about threats of violence which Shetland Islands Council’s former chief executive is alleged to have made against a Lerwick councillor.
Councillor Jonathan Wills submitted a complaint to the police on 10 September last year, claiming that chief executive David Clark had threatened to kick him in the teeth during a phone call the previous evening.
Initial investigations found insufficient evidence to proceed with any complaint, however this afternoon a police spokesman confirmed that a report had now been submitted to the procurator fiscal after new evidence came to light.
The development comes just two days after Shetland Islands Council agreed to part company with Mr Clark after a fractious eight months in the post, giving him a tax free settlement of around £250,000. The council is covering his tax and legal fees, bringing the cost to the public purse closer to £500,000.
An internal investigation carried out by Shetland Islands Council into the alleged threats failed to find sufficient evidence to stand them up.
This was followed by a complaint to the Standards Commission about councillor Wills’ behaviour following the investigation, when he questioned the way it was handled. The complaint was signed by Mr Clark, council convener Sandy Cluness, vice convener Josie Simpson, depute chief executive Hazel Sutherland and head of legal Jan Riise.
With new evidence coming to light after the police carried out further interviews with senior staff at the council, the matter has been placed in the hands of Shetland’s procurator fiscal depute Duncan Mackenzie.
The development has brought Shetland to boiling point over the issue, with a protest rally planned for noon today (Saturday) at Lerwick’s Market Cross. The rally follows a march on Lerwick Town Hall last Monday calling for the council to sack Mr Clark.
Protesters have called for the resignation of convener Cluness and his colleagues to allow the authority to make a fresh start.
However on Friday local government umbrella group COSLA leaped to the convener’s defence, saying that local people should stop persecuting him.
COSLA president Pat Watters said: "I can understand that the people of Shetland are upset, but councillor Cluness and the council took a decision that they felt was right for Shetland and the people of Shetland and the victimisation of councillor Cluness is not merited.”
He said that councillors had to make tough decisions “day in and day out” and they were held accountable at the ballot box.
“This was the correct decision to allow the chief executive to go on the conditions he did and contrary to media speculation COSLA is convinced that the council has delivered a solution that provides best value and we are sure that this will be borne out by the regulatory body that oversees such matters.
“In the absence of knowing all the facts I would urge the people of Shetland to stop the wilful persecution of a man who has served the island to the best of his ability and a councillor who has never knowingly taken a decision that was not in the best interests of the islands he loves so much."
Mr Cluness said: "I can fully understand the frustration felt by my fellow islanders. Hands up, it has not been the best period in Shetland's history - I am the first to acknowledge this. However the reality is that we now need to move on - what has been done has been done and lessons have to and will be learned.
"All of us must now move on and re-double our efforts. We must work together both islanders and the council for the common good of the island."
Local government watchdog Audit Scotland will be carrying out an investigation of the SIC shortly following the recent turmoil surrounding the chief executive.
Mr Cluness said that if they found that the settlement with Mr Clark did not represent best value then he would step down.
However one of the rally’s organisers, retired Lerwick businessman Ian Inkster, said the best way to move on was for the convener and the rest of the councillors to leave office as soon as possible to allow Shetland to make a fresh start.
“Mr Clark is only a side issue. The issue is the way the council has been operating, and we hope this rally will show the council the anger in this community about what they are doing,” Mr Inkster said.
“Sandy Cluness wants to draw a line under this and that’s what I would like to see happen too. I don’t want to see all the councillors booted out, because not all of them are bad, so the best thing would be for an election.”
People have been furious about what is seen as a waste of public money over issues such as the new secondary school for Lerwick, where more than £5 million has been spent without a single brick being laid, a recent decision to waive a debt of more than £400,000 from a local knitwear company, and budget cuts including free musical instrument tuition in the islands’ schools.
This week northern isles MP Alistair Carmichael said that the council had been suffering from a “systemic failure” and called for a change of culture at Lerwick Town Hall.
See also:
Council bosses 'hid' £15m tax debt owed by workers
Shetland obesity study dismissed
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