Have any of you been looking at the council website lately?
Robin's Blog has 'bloggered off" :D

Someone from Bridgnorth told me our Chief Executive was under suspicion !!! :o

All this playing politics with tax payers money over the Unitary Council has to have something to do with it, I should think.

I hope Private Eye get wind of all this and take him down.

Ha Ha, you mean like 'Scooper Dooper'
duper of the gullible councillors
and scooper up of the cash!!! <_<

Bye bye!

http://www.shropshirestar.com/2007/12/coun...ss-to-quit-job/

:lol:

My other half was speaking to someone from Oswestry council today and he said that if he was a SABC council taxpayer he would be fuming about this money wasted.

It looks like our council has arranged a nice voluntary redundancy package for him and a chance to be on a sunny desert island when the appeal is held at the end of January.

He should have been here until the appeal is over and then offered his resignation IMHO.

According to the report in The Chronicle last week, the package was worth well over £200,000. Not bad for eight years service.

The reason given for his moving on was that the Chief Executive's post would not be needed under the unitary authority which comes into being in 2009. Yet the council is going to the Court of Appeal in January over the judicial review of the unitary business. I'd have thought that the council would have wanted him to stay on for another few weeks until the appeal has been heard. Odd.

I read on the SCC website a week ago that Robin Hooper was to be involved in heading a transition team for the 18 mths to 2 yrs it will take to become Unitary so all this twaddle about him not being needed does not ring true.

The Labour group walked out of a 'behind closed doors meeting' last Monday I believe where offering the Chief Executive money to leave was being discussed.

I think some councillors and council officers are of the view they were misled regarding the potential costs of the Judicial Review. Being a barrister Robin Hooper would be expected to have a reasonable idea of these costs. There should have been more money 'on the table' from other councils who supposedly supported SABC. We only actually had £5,000 x 2 = £10,000 pledged from other councils towards what has ended up being a £200,000 or more bill.

I understand that there is around £190,000 pledged towards the appeal so SABC will not have to pay a 'bean' should it fail. We still have our own £190,000 to pay for the Judicial Review in this case scenario and then if there is a shortfall in the appeal costs and SABC and Congleton are the named appellants then someone will have to make up the difference surely?

My confidence in the unitary council has just plummeted having just read on the SABC website Councillor Nutting and Kenny waxing lyrical about Robin Hooper who has obviously already gone.

Hooper has just cost us taxpayers a whopping 1/2 million pounds. :angry:

But why does this dent your view of the new unitary authority? All this ridiculous palaver is to do with the soon to be wiped out Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council.

For those of you interested you can still access 'Robin's Blog' on the SABC website. Go to 'Have your Say' and then to discussion forums which leads to the blog.
The whole of this matter there to read and it is quite scary to see how our money is so easily spent by zealots and those with a vested interest in keeping local government the same.

Quite. As I've said all along, the whole battle SABC put up against the unitary plans was because of a few senior members of the civil service and some councillors who are now going to lose their cushy jobs.

Our posts must have crossed PS. I just found the sickening accolades on the SABC webpage attributed to our ex- Chief Executive by Kenny and Nutting really questionable.

Nutting as of late has been jumping to defend one side to the other like a manic monkey dependent on whose side it looked likely to come out on top. :rolleyes:

As pointed out by my other half they can both be voted out in 2009.

Interesting to see that the SABC Forum has been closed down it seems.

I 've just looked and it was ok???

Down at the moment due to a fault.

The green light for an unitary authority for Shropshire was given on the 5th December. What doesn't seem to have been reported locally is this

"In Cheshire, where uniquely two unitary proposals covering the whole county area meet all five criteria, the volume and detail of views and information received since July means the Government is giving the continuing consideration necessary to determine the best unitary arrangement. A decision on Cheshire will be made in the near future once this thorough examination has been completed."

This, of course, affects Congleton who SABC have signed up with in taking a case to the Court of Appeal in January.

Things are more complicated in Cheshire. I suspect the current area covered by Cheshire county council will be split into two unitary authorities.

Without the invaluable asset of our legally trained SABC Chief Executive! <_<

Has nobody told Congleton that Robin has disappeared in a puff of smoke?
Was it the trapdoor he went through under the stage?

One thing is certain he is not likely to re-appear when the final curtain comes down on the Sabc Panto. :rolleyes: