“Why does everyone hate the council?”
It was a question asked with such a tone of disappointment and sadness that I didn’t really have the heart to retort: “Why do you think?”
How about the absolute refusal to listen to traders in the city centre watching their livelihoods teeter on the brink of the abyss created by the despised bus gates?
Aberdeen’s ‘minimal gritting’
What about the fact that scores of folk have ended up in hospital after going their length on sheet ice streets across the city thanks to the council’s decision that “minimal gritting” was a grand idea?
How about the Accounts Commission blaming “weaknesses in internal controls” and “no scrutiny” for allowing an embezzler to swick the council of a million quid? And that a year after the crook was banged up the council still has to have all the safeguarding controls in place, according to the Commission.
And how could we fail to mention the absolute farce that seems to play out whenever the council meets, with playground taunts, roaring and shouting and zippy-doo-da achieved? It’s an embarrassment to our city.
So, yeah, people have good reason to despair over the antics of those to whom we entrust the good governance of our beloved Aberdeen.
And why didn’t I launch into a litany of “here’s why” when asked that question?
Because the person asking – with that wistful note in their voice – works for the council. And as a social worker, they work damn hard.
Every day they are charged with helping the vulnerable, from children at risk to families in dire need. They do their utmost to safeguard the innocents and steer the lost back to where they should and deserve to be.
They change lives. How many of us can say we do that in our working lives?
Not just social workers, either, but teachers who nurture our children, carers who look after our elderly, the teams who empty our bins, the men and women who keep our street lights on, and, yes, the gritters who do their level best with dwindling resources.
These folk are the backbone of life in Aberdeen. You probably don’t give them a second thought, but by God, you’d miss them if they didn’t do what they do.
Hard-working people tarred as part of the ‘clowncil’
It is such a shame that this hard-working and dedicated army who are the lifeblood of so much that is good in Aberdeen is being let down by those at the top of the organisation. They are tarred as part of the “clowncil” (a cliché I hate but is now entrenched in the language when referring to the doings in the Town House).
These displays of shambolic pettiness, the lack of empathy, and the refusal to listen to the people they serve that emanates from the highest echelons is letting down the good workers of Aberdeen City Council who should be praised and thanked for what they do not damned and derided because of what others don’t.
So, for their sake alone, can those with their hands on the levers of power in Aberdeen sort themselves out?
Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired.
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