‘Arrogant’ council should ‘refund and apologise’
Bournemouth Echo
By Melanie Vass
OPPOSITION councillors have slammed Bournemouth council's "arrogant" refusal to accept a tribunal's finding that parking attendants dished out illegal fines over several years.
Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin, leader of the Conservative group, said instead of arguing about the employment tribunal's decision, the council should be apologising to residents and refunding motorists.
As revealed in the Daily Echo, an employment tribunal upheld claims by former parking attendant Arsenal Whittick that he was sacked after he refused to issue fines in roads not covered by valid Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs).
The tribunal was told that in one town centre street, motorists paid fines unnecessarily for four years with the council making no subsequent attempt to refund money.
But Bournemouth council has "strongly refuted" this and said that although it "strongly disagrees" with the tribunal's decision it has decided not to spend money on appealing.
Cllr MacLoughlin called this stance "outrageous" and added: "The council should accept the finding of the tribunal, should be contrite and should put things right.
"No council is above the law and as far as I'm concerned, the council has a duty and responsibility to do its business strictly in accordance with the law."
He said he was just as concerned with the tribunal's finding that enforcement and parking manager Gerry Bolland had bullied Mr Whittick and said an inquiry was urgently needed.
Supporting this call, Independent Cllr Ron Whittaker said the matter needed to be looked at by external traffic or engineering consultants.
"You can't just ignore the findings of this employment tribunal," he said.
"I do not think this matter should be looked at by a council scrutiny panel, it needs to be considered by independent experts."
But Cllr Richard Smith, leader of the council, said the matter had already been reviewed.
"The council could spend all day every day having inquiry after inquiry looking into this and into that," he said.
"We have the 15th fastest growing economy in the UK, that is what's important. The town is moving forward.
"But all that seems to happen is that everyone's interested in looking into the past.
"As it turns out, there's a technicality with one or two of the TROs but we issue hundreds of the things. It's human error.
"Yes an error has happened, the council has rectified the error, let's move on."
By Melanie Vass
OPPOSITION councillors have slammed Bournemouth council's "arrogant" refusal to accept a tribunal's finding that parking attendants dished out illegal fines over several years.
Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin, leader of the Conservative group, said instead of arguing about the employment tribunal's decision, the council should be apologising to residents and refunding motorists.
As revealed in the Daily Echo, an employment tribunal upheld claims by former parking attendant Arsenal Whittick that he was sacked after he refused to issue fines in roads not covered by valid Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs).
The tribunal was told that in one town centre street, motorists paid fines unnecessarily for four years with the council making no subsequent attempt to refund money.
But Bournemouth council has "strongly refuted" this and said that although it "strongly disagrees" with the tribunal's decision it has decided not to spend money on appealing.
Cllr MacLoughlin called this stance "outrageous" and added: "The council should accept the finding of the tribunal, should be contrite and should put things right.
"No council is above the law and as far as I'm concerned, the council has a duty and responsibility to do its business strictly in accordance with the law."
He said he was just as concerned with the tribunal's finding that enforcement and parking manager Gerry Bolland had bullied Mr Whittick and said an inquiry was urgently needed.
Supporting this call, Independent Cllr Ron Whittaker said the matter needed to be looked at by external traffic or engineering consultants.
"You can't just ignore the findings of this employment tribunal," he said.
"I do not think this matter should be looked at by a council scrutiny panel, it needs to be considered by independent experts."
But Cllr Richard Smith, leader of the council, said the matter had already been reviewed.
"The council could spend all day every day having inquiry after inquiry looking into this and into that," he said.
"We have the 15th fastest growing economy in the UK, that is what's important. The town is moving forward.
"But all that seems to happen is that everyone's interested in looking into the past.
"As it turns out, there's a technicality with one or two of the TROs but we issue hundreds of the things. It's human error.
"Yes an error has happened, the council has rectified the error, let's move on."
posted by Neil Herron at 2:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home