Bad losers of the year award

Take a bow Bristol City Council as more evidence of decrepit leadership and the collapse of moral authority at the Council House is revealed.

Another example of Bristol City Council blatantly bending and abusing the law and legal process to help their business friends arrives in the inbox. And once again it’s all about the council helping local developers make money at the expense of our green spaces.

The recent very costly five day public inquiry into ‘Town Green’ status for Castle Park brought by campaigners trying to prevent the city council’s developer friends Deeley Freed from building the typical office/retail/luxury flat mixed-use crap on part of the much-loved park staggered to a most unusual close on Friday 5 December.

Bristol City Council were represented by Leslie Blohm QC from Bristol’s St John’s Chambers who, according to his own publicity, “‘takes the other side to pieces”.

Oh yeah? Not quite. For it seems that the city council and Blohm got wind of the fact that they were on the verge of a humiliating defeat to the campaigners – generously represented by employment lawyer Daniel Bennett working pro-bono.

But Blohm and the city council – arrogant to the last and not being ones to quietly resign themselves to the inevitable – came up with a most intriguing – if pricey – strategy to temporarily fend off defeat … Filibustering!

Yes indeed. On the final day of the hearing held at the Old Council House on Corn Street, it turns out that Blohm deliberately spent the whole day summing up his case.

For three two hour sessions the QC rambled inanely on to run down the clock and prevent the campaigners’ summing up and the inquiry officially ending.

Now the hearing is adjourned until January 7 when Mr Bennett for the campaigners should finally get his opportunity to sum up and stick it right up the city council and their idiotic QC.

The Blogger understands that the reason for the city council’s expensive delaying tactics may lie in a House of Lords appeal decision due shortly, which the council are hoping may contain some unlikely shred of a ruling in their favour.

Let’s hope so for their sake as the inquiry’s Chair, Vivian Chapman QC, is said to be less-than-impressed with the council and their brief’s poor conduct.