10 June (Part 2) - Apparently it’s a crime
It was Elwyn Bryant and I who were most heavily featured in that notorious blog and as you now know,
we went to the police about it last Wednesday. However
Nicholas Dowling who has pursued the council on several points, notably their
failure to justify the near tripling of the cost
of residents’ parking permits, also had his
good name besmirched. Whilst Elwyn and I were still debating our options right
up until last Friday afternoon, Nicholas decided to make a relatively low key
enquiry to the council’s IT department via their Contact Centre on Thursday
afternoon, the 2nd of June. Having done that he didn’t think it was fair not to
await their reply and therefore didn’t complain at a higher level as did Elwyn
and myself on 3rd June.
The council‘s published target is to reply to emails within five days but nothing
had been heard from IT by this morning. I am not certain if a chaser was sent or not,
but Nicholas received a response from the Chief Executive at lunch time. “Given the
gravity of the allegations contained in your email, and in view of the apparent
criminal nature of this matter, I am of the view that this should more
appropriately be considered by the police.”
Well done Nicholas, I have had no response to my letter but it does seem that
Mr. Tuckley has accepted that the situation is “grave” and that he is
sympathetic to the police’s statement to me that “there was evidence of a crime”.
It would be amazing if Mr. Tuckley and Teresa O’Neill do not know exactly who
the author of the website is, it was after all removed within hours of them being
formally notified of it. I find Mr. Tuckley’s response to Nicholas Dowling
reasonable in the circumstances but Nicholas is not pleased that it fails to
answer several questions not directly connected to any police enquiry.
The next logical step is that the Chief Executive and council leader O’Neill should answer the
obvious question the police must surely pose and maybe come out of this episode with
a tiny shred of integrity preserved. However their track record has always been to
play a devious game. What will they do now the stakes are raised and the law is involved?