Topic: Will 'Rikki Fix It' For Bathgate WiFi Before Work In Swindon Even Starts?

[ph1lc]

Sorry Muggins I disagree, Bluh, Perkins and Edwards must have an Independant candidate against them. That way we can make it personal.

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[Muggins]

Sorry, didn't make it clear what I meant, have as many standing against them as you like.

What I meant is that the message would be more powerful from someone/a group telling them the bare facts without asking to be voted in too.  I'm sure that the ordinary voter is sick to death of hearing what might appear to be political back-biting (see Mart's many posts) and it falls off like water off a duck's back/or on deaf ears/or in one ear and out the other.

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[Got Signal]

Political back biting did not cost tax payers £400k  did it? 

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[Mart]

Political back biting did not cost tax payers £400k  did it?

No, it costs far more than that.

A significant number of decisions at local and national level are not driven by need or a clearly defined request from the electorate. They are made to make a distinction in philosophy between the decision maker and those who desire to make the decision.

If not political backbiting then political point scoring at the very least.

If decisions made were clearly the will of the electorate the world would be a very diferent place, not necessarily a better place, but it's a risk I would be willing to take.

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[Muggins]

Got, I don't mind a bit of political  cut and thrust, but this is about getting a message over to people who may not - probably don't know - what's going on.

That message should be couched in terms, not what we will tolerate, but what will not put others off reading and inwardly digesting it, and if you listen to people they will say they are tired and switched off by the bat and ball of each side blaming the other.  The message that Des wants/needs to get across is more important than party politics. 

The nearly 1/2 a million lost was not necessarily lost because the people concerned were Tories, but because they were numpties.  Numpties that should not be given a second chance but look set to do it again and again.  And that they do not appear to have answered for the mistakes they made.  We can't get rid, only the people in their wards can do that -or their party of course, a party, I might add, that doesn't seem to see anything wrong with what happened. If they did, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

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[Des Morgan]

The Politics of SBC has so far cost £400k lost in the Wi-Fi deal with no one held to account for the spending and no one being upfront and honest about telling the public exactly where and on what the money went - even though Coun Perkins, who has it within his power to reveal all, expressly said he would have no objections to people knowing.

His failure to put into the public domain the detailed expenditure of £400k loaned to Digital City can only be down to a few reasons.

1. He genuinely doesn't know - in which case he should be ashamed of himself and recognise he 'failed' to perform as a competent director would be expected to perform.
2. He knows but is worried the revelation will shock the public - for example, just how much if anything did Mr Hunt take out as a salary.  For don't forget his role was remunerated and we know from experience that although he likes to play on the 'I'm free' in truth he always makes sure he is rewarded for his services.
3. The Political fall out will be immense - if the figures are made public it will demonstrate just how Coun Perkins was 'asleep' while Mr Hunt was engaged in an orgy of spending. It is also the case that it will show that Coun Perkins may well have been out of his depth when faced with a real business shark.
4. The role of officers will have to be re-examined in the light of new comments made which show quite clearly that 'it was not in the best interests of SBC to make the second payment of £250k'
5. Finally, he doesn't know becasuse the evidence has been destroyed.

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[Got Signal]

2. He knows but is worried the revelation will shock the public - for example, just how much if anything did Mr Hunt take out as a salary.  For don't forget his role was remunerated and we know from experience that although he likes to play on the 'I'm free' in truth he always makes sure he is rewarded for his services.

I thought he told Komodori he did it for free and yourself have stated in posts that he was Rikki for Free. You ask if he had any salary then assert he was remunerated. Which is it or have you not got a clue? 

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[Geoff Reid]

Bump.

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[Des Morgan]

The news that borough-wide 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network in the UK will be switched on in Swindon next week is very good for the town but needs to be considered against the background of past failure on the part of Council sponsored suppliers to deliver against promises.

What is being offered is nothing like the Digital City Wi-Fi network and as was widely forecast there is no ‘free use’ element attached to the programme being sold by UK Broadband.

In fact what is on offer is interesting but hardly life changing and it’s certainly not something many cash stretched households in Swindon will be splashing £30 per month to have.

The service is an alternative to fixed line broadband, something with which users are very comfortable with especially as fibre optic technology allows transaction speeds more than satisfactory for most applications.

What is a real plus is the potential savings to the Councils own network costs which Councillors claim will be in excess of £90,000 per annum, although it has to be said the evidence to support the savings claim has not been forthcoming.

Interestingly the mobile features of Wi-Fi, extolled as being critical to show that Swindon ‘was open for business’ are no longer the main draw as these are being announced at a later date as yet unknown.

I am sure all readers will be glad to know that Cllr Garry Perkins, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Culture and a director of the company which failed to fulfil its promise to deliver an ‘equally groundbreaking’ Wi-Fi project and which incidentally still owes the Council £400,000 - is “Really excited that residents, businesses and the public sector in Swindon are now in a position to start enjoying the benefits of both superfast 4G wireless broadband and ultrafast broadband connections”

Sadly the fine words accompanying the press release, suggesting this is the best thing to happen in Swindon, have been heard before, so I am sure Coun Bluh will understand if not everyone is taken in by phony expressions which are meaningless without actual delivery and performance. It will be interesting to see how many people prefer to wait for their existing providers to launch 4G – which many will do before the end of the year and others by the middle of 2013 given the Government’s decision to relax its previous hard line on 4G Spectrum availability.

The proof of the pudding is truly in the eating and hopefully this announcement will not leave a sour taste in the mouth

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[Des Moffatt]

Excellent Des
The “savings” for the Council is in fact proposed spending reduced.
The IT link up between the disparate sites of the Council’s activity can be done by directional radio data link rather than paying BT for the land line capacity.
The carrier pigeons will be redundant.

An unfortunate turn of phrase Jean, information is all, “keep gathering information until the solution becomes self evident.”

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