RED TROUSER GATE: They don't know what they're doing pt. 1,356

You can’t, of course, have a full-blown political scandal without a ‘gate’ suffix and logo. Bristol Indymedia have gone for ‘Bishopgate’ but at the Blogger we’ve settled for ‘Red Trouser Gate’ and a rather fetching logo.

Now on to the increasingly vexed question of Vowlsie’s ongoing complaint about dodgy council Planning boss David Bishop’s public land (that’s not for sale!) sell-offs.

Just to remind you, all Vowlsie wants to know is why the council’s own procedures on green space disposal appear not to have been applied to the sell off of park land to developers, Square Peg, at Greenbank on the Bristol to Bath Railway Path and why this strip of land now proposed for development has not been subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as apparently required by an EU Directive. Simple.

The complaint was originally made on the 18 September and he’s still awaiting a reply that should have been made within 15 days. We’ve now waited long enough for Barack Obama to go from being neck-and-neck with John McCain in the presidential race to winning a landslide. Surely Bristol City Council can explain a couple of simple administrative matters in this time?

Vowlsi’s even been away on holiday for a week, having been promised a full response on his return on Monday. But what d’ya know? It’s now going to take them a further two days to construct this response to these very straightforward questions.

Tim Sheppard, a very junior manager responsible for complaints, has been lumbered with having to reply to Vowlsie’s questions because the people that should be responding – Jan Ormondroyd, leader Helen Holland, Bishop’s political gimp Mark Bradshaw or that copper from Sheffield – who doesn’t even know where Easton is – who’s been put in charge of our city for some obscure reason – are too scared to put their signatures to anything to do with the matter. Shepard said yesterday:

I am not yet in a position to provide you with a comprehensive reply but would hope to have something within the next couple of days

So what’s stopping them answering now for chrissakes? They’ve had a further 10 days to work it all out while Vowlsie was away. Isn’t that long enough? What a fiasco. It’s now patently obvious they can’t answer the questions without revealing some extremely dodgy goings-on at the top of the council isn’t it?

Hmmm. I wonder, do you think the idiots actually devised a response last week with the help of Bishop only to have to rip it up on Friday when the FoI documents were released and revealed Bishop’s excuses and claims to be a complete load of fabricated, self-serving bollocks? Why on earth else can’t they respond after having a week to think about it?

Anyway, Sheppard’s ‘couple of days’ takes us to Thursday. And we want answers … Or we want Bishop’s sleazy bald head on a plate. Nothing else will do.