Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

The Scottish Information Commissioner has released the following decision in respect of my WPBR appeal which amounts to a well deserved 'boot up the arse' for Glasgow City Council. Now, as regular readers know,   Glasgow has an ambition to become a 'world leader' in terms of openness and transparency, but for some reason senior officials seem to ignore Council policy when it comes to explaining the mysterious arrangements surrounding the procurement, implementation, management and defence of its 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme. So the Scottish Information Commissioner has told the Council to get its act together, answer my FoI request and apologise to me for 'its failure to respond and for the technical issues surrounding receipt of my emails'. The thing that makes me laugh is that elected councillors, or some of them at least, insist that senior officials always act under political direction. In which case who is allowing seni

I thought my days of arguing with Glasgow City Council about 'Spam' were well and truly over, but I was wrong. I am now embroiled in a new dispute relating to one of my outstanding FoI Review Requests regarding GCC's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme which the Council failed to respond to within the time limits laid by by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. More to follow, but in the meantime here's a reminder from the blog site archive of   my previous encounter with Glasgow City Council and - Spam, Spam, Spam Spam.     Glasgow - Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam (15/12/18) My latest FOI row with senior officials in Glasgow revolves around the City Council's internet watchdog turning my emails into 'spam'. Now you've got to laugh at this nonsense because I've used the same email account for many years and never experienced any such problems. But to celebrate the complete absurdity of it all here's the clas

Here's a letter on Glasgow's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme which I've sent to the four Party Group Leaders in the City Council:  Susan Aitken - SNP  Frank McAveety - Scottish Labour  David Meikle - Scottish Conservatives  Martha Wardrop/Allan Young - Green Party Co-Chairs. The Council has a policy of becoming a 'world leader' for openness and transparency, yet GCC is refusing to release information which would explain the role of senior officials in procuring, implementing, managing and defending the WPBR over the past 13 years. Now some politicians argue it's unfair to criticise senior officials because they always act under the direction of elected councillors, but if that is true who authorised senior officials to overturn the 'unfit for purpose' WPBR decision in a further appeal to the Court of Session in December 2017?        The Council's senior officials are refusing to answer my FoI Request on the grounds that it would co