Finally receive list of businesses !!

The Commissioner has obtained for us the list of Largs eligible businesses. We first requested this in November from Elma Murray, North Ayrshire Council. Now, after almost 5 months and our Freedom of Information requests we can finally ascertain how many of us were deprived of a vote.
If, as I suspect, there are many more, they have been also deprived of appeal,  as were others who did not find out in time to be part of our appeal deadline of 30th November. This is unjust and will form part of our complaint now being investigated by the Scottish Parliamentary Ombudsman.

Ombudsman will investigate Largs BID

Today we received confirmation that the S.P.S.O will investigate both complaints re Largs BID   ie .
 our complaint against North Ayrshire Council and also our complaint against Scottish Government.
Obviously our so-called local paper, the Largs and Millport News will not report this, and will continue its biased coverage in favour of BID. Our fight for justice continues.

Letter sent to Derek MacKay in response to rejection of appeal;

I received your decision on 29^th March re our demand for a re-ballot of Largs BID. Now that you have finally rejected our appeal, I am taking the case to the Scottish Parliamentary Ombudsman, and hope he is impartial and will give us the justice we deserve.

I will, however, raise some points in answer to your letter of 28 March 2013.

Firstly, I note in the fourth paragraph a requirement not included in the letter of 12^th December from Christine Gresswell . Therefore the letter was confusing. The missing words were --   

The regulations “require complainants to specify reasons for a request that a ballot be declared void”

 My mother took the documentation to Kenneth Gibson MSP at his Largs surgery on 15^th December to ask him what exactly it meant. He advised her that each complainant had to choose which regulation applied to their complaint, and we should send it as soon as possible.

By the way, on hearing the testimony she had collated, he said he could see no reason why we would not get a re-ballot. However, in his letter to us of 19^th December, he stated “my ministerial colleague, Derek MacKay MSP will adjudicate on this matter. However, given the information supplied by North Ayrshire Council, it would seem to me that the BID ballot is unlikely to be overturned”. This is why we have protested about you adjudicating, totally inappropriate and a conflict of interest, as has been shown.

Despite this, we printed up letters naming the regulations contravened, and gave the choice to as many businesses as we could contact at our busiest time of the year, and posted 30 letters by recorded delivery by 18^th December before Parliament closed.

Your next letter of 10^th January was also vague, and as a result only six people submitted personal letters. There was anger and dismay that, without their permission, your office sent copies to all and sundry. They were entitled to an expectation of privacy.

Next I take issue with your claim that only “two complainants disputed the Returning Officer`s claim that ballot papers had been issued to all businesses”. When owners heard that my mother had written on 9^th November to Elma Murray, we were inundated with owners asking for copies to send also, and we gave out more than 30 copies.

Elma Murray`s assertions that we all received a business plan and ballot paper in the  post is contradicted by a letter from George Hunter, Town Centre Regeneration Manager, on 10^th December in a letter to Kenneth Gibson MSP in which he stated “ Largs Matters circulated a 20 page business plan which accompanied the ballot”.

Also, as your office chose to e-mail me at mid-day on 29^th November, not to my business address, but on my private e-mail address , which you held when I sent you an e-mail on 11^th November (which you ignored), it was purely by chance that I found it in time to comply with the deadline of 30^th November. You gave us less than 24 hours to submit sufficient numbers. This I was able to do only because I had already arranged a meeting for Largs business owners that evening.

We e-mailed 35 signatories that night. Yet, despite meeting the deadline, your office removed 14 complainants from this number, whom I had not managed to contact in time for our collective response to your confusing letter of 12^th December. So, you deprived them of their right to appeal.

One was in hospital having treatment for cancer. Another had voted `yes` in the ballot without knowing all the facts, and was entitled to demand a re-ballot. Another stated he  was duped by Mr Sunil Varu into voting `yes` in the ballot, and had sent a letter of protest to Elma Murray when he realised the financial implications, and asked to rescind his vote.

I could continue, but suffice it to say that you choose to base your decision on 14 complainants. I have a list of 54, some too late to appeal. Some, like Farmfoods who do not get involved in protests.  My mother spoke to Farmfoods Head Office and they confirmed that they had no knowledge of BID being in the west coast, and had not received documentation or a vote. Some like the undertakers who state they would not have ignored any letters from the Council, and did not get a vote. They did not get involved with our protest, but will pay the levy if forced, or not pay if they have an English Head Office and cannot be forced

Your next contention that we could have requested a replacement ballot paper is absurd, when so many of us knew nothing about BID or the ballot!

By the way, those, who did do that, received the ballot paper too late to vote.

But then, I believe you are aware of most of this, and have chosen to be selective and `fudge` the figures to justify rejecting our appeal. We expected nothing less from someone whose remit is to promote BID.

All of these facts we will now present to the ombudsman.  Our fight for justice continues.

Now fight taken to Ombudsman

Today we have sent an e-mail to the office of the Scottish Parliamentary Ombudsman in the next stage of our fight for justice.
One would have thought that with approximately 40 complainants disputing the flawed ballot in Largs that in a democratic society we would have been given a re-ballot. Derek MacKay MSP claims that there are not enough of us to significantly change the result of the BID ballot on 1st November last year. Well we all know otherwise, as does he, - the Minister responsible for BID is determined to prevent us having a fair and free vote here in Largs.
So our Freedom of Information request for the exact number and details of eligible businesses in the Largs BID is with the Commissioner for a ruling.
And now our appeal will go to the Ombudsman. Pity it is the Easter holiday, which will cause more delay. Perhaps that was deliberate. However we will fight on.