The P&J reports:
"Highland Council is to give Barclays Bank £33,000 towards staging the Scottish Open golf tournament near Inverness.
Critics say the expenditure is insensitive at a time when the elderly are struggling to pay bills and council services are being cut." More on the P&J site
Update 16/03 : the Gurn has received confirmation that the money does go to the Open costs but not to Barclays.
Free tickets and hospitality all round for the directors and councillors ?
ReplyDeleteMichty I canna fer the life o me
ReplyDeletewhen the cooncil workers, the elderly,social work departments,I gid go on but The Gurnie columns
havnae enough space to enter all those who will suffer fae the cuts, but the feel buggers at Glenurquhart Road dinnae think nuthing o geein 30thoosand pounds
to the privileged few who have already got enough babees to hit the wee white baa, Its just nae write.
Dont forget all the people visiting Nairn too.I'm sure they would all accept a freebie, or anything else that is going.
ReplyDeleteEquivalent to 2 days of Diamond Bob's bonus !
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting point is that donating to events like this was said to be part of the remit of the council. My question to Cllr Park would be, by way of getting a better understand of how these donations are legitimately endorsed, how many events have received contributions and which rules are used to support the endorsement.
ReplyDeleteIt might be quicker e-mailing him yourself anon rather than posting your question up in here.
ReplyDeleteIs the council really giving money to Barclays? I would have thought it was going to the event organisers. This story smells of spin.
ReplyDeleteYes Green Dad, very good point.
ReplyDeleteIt probably wasn't a good idea to donate the money in the current climate but good idea or not one wonders however, if Nairn might be getting more than 30K coming our way out of this event. Also from this article:
Council leader and golf enthusiast Sandy Park said: “We, through the same budget, supported the downhill cycling championship at Fort William, which makes a massive amount of money, and the marathon.
“Are you saying we should stop sponsoring those events?
“I’m led to believe there’s not a vacant hotel room in Nairn thanks to the Scottish Open.”
Will the traffic lights be ready in time for the Open?
ReplyDelete"Are you saying we should stop sponsoring those events"
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right - the HC should support events which directly bring money into the HC's coffers.
Events where all the profits go directly to the Scottish Government should be funded by the Scottish Government.
The 1st prize at last years Scottish Open was over 600,000 Euros, and even the guy who finished 70th got 6500 Euros !!!
ReplyDeleteIf the organisers can pay out these kind of prizes, I can't for the life of me see that this is an event needing any dosh from Highland Cooncil at all.
I have it on good authority, namely Castle Stuart themselves, that this report of HC money to Barclay's is completely untrue.
ReplyDelete