Prophesy comes true....
I have not bothered to post anything here for months. Manorbier Council has the effect of stifling the most energetic. However, occasion has arisen for me to put finger to keyboard and write about the most talked about of Manorbier Council's issues. This may well be of some interest to all Council Tax payers in Manorbier, with a few interesting straight forward facts.
Back on November 16th, 2005, this blog wrote at length about the legal case which was at the time about to engulf the Council. Well, it now appears that the prophesy has materialised.
At the time, this blog was quoting figures of £3,000 here, £5,000 there and £11,000 somewhere else. Well let me put your minds at rest....
At a recent council meeting, Councillor Davies asked the Responsible Financial Officer - Councillor David Neads - to confirm the amount already paid out in legal fees to Lowless & Lowless Solicitors. He advised the amount was in the region of £7,000. Here comes the eye watering part of the story - there has just been another invoice just received from Lowless & Lowless for a sum in excess of £11,000.
For the math geniuses amongst us, that is about £18,000 - in legal fees alone - to date. The case is not finalised yet, so the Council can expect a further bill for costs.
Now then, if the final figure can be guessed at being say £20,000 for the legal fees, there is the issue of the claim itself, which, with interest and filing fees, is a few pounds either side of £5,000. The interesting part, is this - if the Council wins it's defence, it will have proved no contract existed and as the grant was paid out by the WDA to furnish payment for that contract, then the money will probably have to be returned to the WDA. If the Council loses it's case, then the £5,000 claimed by ICT Marketing will have to be paid to them.
Either way, we can expect Manorbier Community Council funds to be smashed to the tune of £25,000.
Let's put that into some kind of perspective - Stackpole Community Council spends about £1,500 (one thousand five hundred) per year running it's whole council. £25,000 would run Stackpole for almost 17 years.....
We know that there are roughly 550 dwelling in the Manorbier Community area, so on a per dwelling basis, Manorbier Council Tax payers will be footing this bill to the tune of roughly £50 each. That's right, £50 each to pay for a case that should never have gone to court in the first place. The advice from the Solicitors was to settle. On the 18th October 2006, a letter received from Lowless & Lowless was advising the Council to settle. The day before the case was due to enter it's second day, the Solicitor was still unhappy at the Council's prospect for a positive outcome. Still, the council refused to accept the advice of its Solicitors.
On 5th January 2006, it was proposed by Cllr Neads and seconded by Cllr Coleman to instruct the Solicitor to go down the route of Small Claims. All councillors present were in favour of this action except Cllr's Davies and Calver, who were against.
As a result of this decision of the council, it is now faced with having spent something in the region of £20,000 in legal fees alone.
For a small Community Council in rural West Wales, this can only be described as a catastrophy. It is plainly clear from these facts and what has gone on in the past 12 months that there is one Councillor in particular who has been the driving force behind this action and that is the Responsible Financial Officer - Cllr David Neads. If anyone would like to make a donation to soon to be set up "Save The Council Fund", please contact Cllr Neads on 01834 871261 with your pledge, or write to him at 2, Windy Ridge, Manorbier.
A Christmas card might be nice - he may not have very many this year from within the community. He stands to receive even less if he presses the Council to pursue Cllr Pat Griffiths for repayment of the £20,000 legal fees incurred by the Council as he has already intimated at a Council meeting. Another court case - another shocking round of legal fees.
The last prophesy wasn't too far wide of the mark, so watch this space.
Back on November 16th, 2005, this blog wrote at length about the legal case which was at the time about to engulf the Council. Well, it now appears that the prophesy has materialised.
At the time, this blog was quoting figures of £3,000 here, £5,000 there and £11,000 somewhere else. Well let me put your minds at rest....
At a recent council meeting, Councillor Davies asked the Responsible Financial Officer - Councillor David Neads - to confirm the amount already paid out in legal fees to Lowless & Lowless Solicitors. He advised the amount was in the region of £7,000. Here comes the eye watering part of the story - there has just been another invoice just received from Lowless & Lowless for a sum in excess of £11,000.
For the math geniuses amongst us, that is about £18,000 - in legal fees alone - to date. The case is not finalised yet, so the Council can expect a further bill for costs.
Now then, if the final figure can be guessed at being say £20,000 for the legal fees, there is the issue of the claim itself, which, with interest and filing fees, is a few pounds either side of £5,000. The interesting part, is this - if the Council wins it's defence, it will have proved no contract existed and as the grant was paid out by the WDA to furnish payment for that contract, then the money will probably have to be returned to the WDA. If the Council loses it's case, then the £5,000 claimed by ICT Marketing will have to be paid to them.
Either way, we can expect Manorbier Community Council funds to be smashed to the tune of £25,000.
Let's put that into some kind of perspective - Stackpole Community Council spends about £1,500 (one thousand five hundred) per year running it's whole council. £25,000 would run Stackpole for almost 17 years.....
We know that there are roughly 550 dwelling in the Manorbier Community area, so on a per dwelling basis, Manorbier Council Tax payers will be footing this bill to the tune of roughly £50 each. That's right, £50 each to pay for a case that should never have gone to court in the first place. The advice from the Solicitors was to settle. On the 18th October 2006, a letter received from Lowless & Lowless was advising the Council to settle. The day before the case was due to enter it's second day, the Solicitor was still unhappy at the Council's prospect for a positive outcome. Still, the council refused to accept the advice of its Solicitors.
On 5th January 2006, it was proposed by Cllr Neads and seconded by Cllr Coleman to instruct the Solicitor to go down the route of Small Claims. All councillors present were in favour of this action except Cllr's Davies and Calver, who were against.
As a result of this decision of the council, it is now faced with having spent something in the region of £20,000 in legal fees alone.
For a small Community Council in rural West Wales, this can only be described as a catastrophy. It is plainly clear from these facts and what has gone on in the past 12 months that there is one Councillor in particular who has been the driving force behind this action and that is the Responsible Financial Officer - Cllr David Neads. If anyone would like to make a donation to soon to be set up "Save The Council Fund", please contact Cllr Neads on 01834 871261 with your pledge, or write to him at 2, Windy Ridge, Manorbier.
A Christmas card might be nice - he may not have very many this year from within the community. He stands to receive even less if he presses the Council to pursue Cllr Pat Griffiths for repayment of the £20,000 legal fees incurred by the Council as he has already intimated at a Council meeting. Another court case - another shocking round of legal fees.
The last prophesy wasn't too far wide of the mark, so watch this space.
posted by Manorbier at 10:58 PM
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