Bride Commissioners has accused its fellow northern authorities of “democratic sabotage” in the row over the Balladoole Amenity Site.
The authority withdrew from the joint committee and its residents now have rubbish collected by a private company.
The issue reignited when Bride’s commissioners received letters from the chair of the Northern Civic Amenity Site Joint Committee Karl Brew.
That letter said the committee’s board “feels that rates and how they are applied in levying costs incurred in running services such as NCAS has not been made clear to all parties involved”.
As a result, it wrote to “explain any confusion over potential misunderstanding and mis-information about the running and funding of the NCAS”.
The letter then goes on to note Bride’s continuing issues with how the site was financed and how much it was paying compared to other authorities, but that the proper way of doing so formally had not been carried out.
You can read the full letter below.
Mr New said: “Late August 2023 Bride, with the assistance of the committee chairman, wrote to the Joint Committee and submitted written alternatives.
“These were considered by the Joint Committee in a meeting in September 2023 and by democratic vote the allocation of costs by rateable value was retained.”
The letter essentially then explains that if it wasn’t for the quarry in Bride its residents would be paying more in rates and said that until there is “major rate reform across the island the present rates system and the various parish rateable values should be accepted by all parishes as an equitable method by which jointly incurred expenditure is allocated amongst the contributors”.
Relentless
Posting that letter on its Facebook page, Bride Commissioner accused the committee of committing “only the latest of a relentless public campaign to blame Bride for all and every ill at the site”.
It added: “The proposals that Bride submitted in August 2023 were summarily dismissed by Andreas and Ramsey at the next meeting. Since they were the only other Committee members who bothered to turn up, perhaps this does constitute a democratic vote.
“A definitive answer was not given to Bride until early 2024, and the final arbitration meeting at the Sea Terminal- delayed until 3 days before financial year end- failed to reach agreement.”
The letter, which can also be read below, added that the parish’s residents were paying “two and three times more than the other parishes to fund this facility” and said it had represented 85% of its total rateable income before it pulled out.
Sabotage
Bride then go on to say that major reforms of the rates market won’t change the fairness, as it sees it, of the funding arrangement given the low level of waste its residents contribute.
In a stinging attack, the letter added: Our rates are the lowest on the Island because we are a modest Local Authority with few facilities and no grandiose ambitions.
“We do not waste money or mismanage anything now that we have left the site. The NCAS Committee seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that the people of Bride do not understand the issue.
“Threatening to interfere in Parish affairs, and boasting of this intention to our National Parliament, is tantamount to democratic sabotage. Bride will not be bullied, cajoled, or brought to heel.”
Residents
Caught in the middle of this are the residents themselves, one resident commented on the Facebook post that he believed that the local authority’s claims of a “relentless public campaign” against it “appears overstated”.
He also called the “sabotage” comment, “unnecessarily emotive and entrenched” but did call for a solution to be found after a full consideration of the figures.
However, the authority said that this “has been done many many times for many many years”.
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