Pembrokeshire County Council is so cash-strapped that it is raising council tax by an inflation-busting 5% for the next several years and is planning to introduce full cost recovery for a large number of services. The uplift in council tax in 2017/2018 is set to raise £3.3 million with £4 million being pencilled in for... Read More »
Regular readers will recall that more than ten weeks ago I published a post about the grant-aided office block in Johnston in which I calculated that there had been an overpayment in excess of £100,000. Remembering Miss Tate’s instructions to “always show your working” I sent a copy of my calculations to the finance department... Read More »
The recent death of Lord Snowdon reminded me of the night some 55 years ago when I shared a bottle of whisky with Princess Margaret. I was a 21 year old student at the University of Keele where HRH was Chancellor. She was ten years older than me; a woman of the world, while I... Read More »
There must be better things to do on a wet Thursday afternoon than sitting in front of the computer watching the webcast of the latest meeting of PCC’s schools and learning overview and scrutiny committee. My reason for putting myself through this slow torture was that the committee was considering a report on “Outcomes and... Read More »
Just before Christmas all members of the council received a lengthy email from Cllr Rob Summons setting out his thoughts on the council’s pre-Christmas meeting, which, as I reported earlier, descended into a tangle of amendments and amendments to amendments to the point where nobody seemed to have the first idea of what was going... Read More »
The young upstart has put up a novel-length post cataloguing his skirmishes with the former monitoring officer, Laurence Harding. Part of his exposition deals with the events at the full council on 13 December 2013, which just happened to be the first ever webcast meeting. I had put down a notice of motion calling for members to... Read More »
Old Grumpy's online content dating back to 2000 is also archived on this newfangled website.
If you fancy a visit to Jurassic Park, you can exhume the old fossil’s philosophisings at...
