Defence – News Article As a result of the damage caused to Cumbria’s infrastructure by severe floods last week, Royal Engineers are to begin construction of a temporary footbridge spanning the River Derwent in Workington today, Friday 27 November 2009. Engineers from 20 Field Squadron, 36 Engineer Regiment, bridge the gap over the Vrbas River [...]
Posts under ‘Local Councils’
UK Parking fines: the £328 million council “cash cow” – Drivers Alliance
The latest research from the Driver’s Alliance partnership with the Taxpayers’ Alliance has been released. They took a hard look at parking fines levied by local councils across the UK and came up with some surprising results. Councils are making £328 Million a year from parking enforcement which is about three times the amount from [...]
Aberdeenshire Council – Greenbelt Group – Policy on open spaces unresolved
Mixed response on maintenance move Policy on open spaces unresolved By Leanna MacLarty – Press and Journal EFFORTS by Aberdeenshire Council to prevent a land maintenance company from gaining control of public open spaces has received a mixed response from housing developers. The local authority wrote to all big developers in the north-east asking them [...]
Caroline Flint MP fires devastating salvo into Number 10 as Gordon Brown struggles to survive
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is left to pick up the bits after another astonishing day in British Politics. New Labour blown away in council elections and Lib Dem’s fail to gain any ground on Conservatives who took control of council after council. As the bloodbath continued Gordon struggled to put a new cabinet in place [...]
Public Sector Expense Cost Transparency: Internet Technology
Public Sector Transparency: We have the Technology The whole MPs’ expenses scandal has reinforced the need for transparency in public spending. The entire sorry affair, from John Reid’s sparkly toilet seat to Elliot Morley’s phantom mortgage,is a textbook study of exactly how secrecy breeds deceit. Happily, the internet provides just the technology to change that. [...]
Scottish Highland Housing Fair – Brochure branded ‘fabrication of reality’
HUNDREDS of glossy brochures promoting a controversial housing project on the outskirts of Inverness are to be destroyed after it was discovered they contained misleading information. By Val Sweeney – Inverness Courier Copies of the 26-page booklet, showcasing the Highland Housing Fair, were distributed at the Scottish Parliament in a move by the organisers to [...]
Council Spending Uncovered: Councils spend average of £1 million a year on publicity
In December 2007, the TaxPayers Alliance produced the first ever examination of the growth of town hall spending on publicity over the last decade, which is itemised in the annual accounts of the 450-plus local authorities in the UK. It found that councils had doubled their spending on publicity, creating a £450 million publicity machine, [...]
24 Plus News – Greenbelt Group – More Headline Complaints
Firm ‘takes money for work it does not do’ Scottish government urged to probe residents’ claims over factor By Gillian Bell – Press and Journal Published: 01/08/2008 The Scottish Government has been asked to launch an investigation into north-east residents’ claims that a factor has taken money for work it has not adequately carried out. [...]