Rotten Boroughs
Private Eye - the fortnightly satirical magazine - has a regular column entitled 'Rotten Boroughs' which shines an occasional light on the behaviour of local councils in the UK.
Here's a interesting story from the latest edition of the magazine - a snip at only £1.50 every two weeks.
"Twits on Tyne"
"As if secret multi-million pound bonuses paid to bosses of Newcastle Airport as part of a refinancing deal hadn't cost councils in the region enough, South Tyneside council is now spenmding thousands in vindictive pursuit of a councillor who helped bring the scandal to light.
Newcastle Airport is majority-owned by seven councils in the north-east. When the £377 million refinancing deal was agreed in 2006, the aiprport's executive directors, John Parkin and Lars Friis, were each paid a percentage of the loan as a personal bonus.
Between them they trousered more than £8.5 million with the agreement of the airport's remuneration committee, which included South Tyneside's Labour leader, Iain Malcolm. The bonuses were not made public. The airport company recouped slightly more than half the money in an out-of-court settlement in 2008. Parkin is now chief executive at Leeds-Bradford airport; Friis has since died.
Much of the information about the deal recently reported in the Newcastle Journal was gathered by South Tyneside Independent councillor Ahmed Khan. The Journal's revelations prompted Newcastle MP and former minister Nick Brown to calll for a police investigation.
Last month legal action was launched by South Tynesdie council in California, trying to force Twitter, which is based in San Francisco to hand over information relating to accounts belonging to Cllr Khan and others, including all deatils of his communications with other users. Cllr Khan believes the council is trying to identify the whistleblowers who sent him information about the airport deal. The council has also filed a defamation action in the Californian courts against an unidentified Tyneside blogger "Mr Monkey", who ceased posting in 2009, because the Wordpress blogging service is based there.
South Tyneside's chie exec did promise to tell independent councillors how much all this legal action is costing, especially given the use of pricey international law firm McDermott, Will and Emery. So far, no information has been forthcoming."
Here's a interesting story from the latest edition of the magazine - a snip at only £1.50 every two weeks.
"Twits on Tyne"
"As if secret multi-million pound bonuses paid to bosses of Newcastle Airport as part of a refinancing deal hadn't cost councils in the region enough, South Tyneside council is now spenmding thousands in vindictive pursuit of a councillor who helped bring the scandal to light.
Newcastle Airport is majority-owned by seven councils in the north-east. When the £377 million refinancing deal was agreed in 2006, the aiprport's executive directors, John Parkin and Lars Friis, were each paid a percentage of the loan as a personal bonus.
Between them they trousered more than £8.5 million with the agreement of the airport's remuneration committee, which included South Tyneside's Labour leader, Iain Malcolm. The bonuses were not made public. The airport company recouped slightly more than half the money in an out-of-court settlement in 2008. Parkin is now chief executive at Leeds-Bradford airport; Friis has since died.
Much of the information about the deal recently reported in the Newcastle Journal was gathered by South Tyneside Independent councillor Ahmed Khan. The Journal's revelations prompted Newcastle MP and former minister Nick Brown to calll for a police investigation.
Last month legal action was launched by South Tynesdie council in California, trying to force Twitter, which is based in San Francisco to hand over information relating to accounts belonging to Cllr Khan and others, including all deatils of his communications with other users. Cllr Khan believes the council is trying to identify the whistleblowers who sent him information about the airport deal. The council has also filed a defamation action in the Californian courts against an unidentified Tyneside blogger "Mr Monkey", who ceased posting in 2009, because the Wordpress blogging service is based there.
South Tyneside's chie exec did promise to tell independent councillors how much all this legal action is costing, especially given the use of pricey international law firm McDermott, Will and Emery. So far, no information has been forthcoming."
