Peterborough city councillor Marco Cereste has defended the employment of expert consultants at a cost of £12m to the taxpayer in the last financial year. Cereste claimed that the controversial spending will be paid back “three to four times” by the use of financial advice to the council.
A former councillor from Birmingham has lost a bid for compensation following a row with British Airways. Businessman Mohammed Nazam claims to have been threatened by a BA employee at Heathrow Airport. He had been due to travel to Islamabad but missed the flight after being involved in a row with a BA worker. Allegedly, the BA worker had claimed he could get Mohammed Nazam kidnapped as soon as he arrived in Pakistan.
Port councillor Bill Wills from Dartmouth has announced that he will step down immediately after the latest town council meeting. He stated: “I am not prepared to waste my time and money just to act as an unpaid lackey and scapegoat serving our masters at district and county.” The resignation marks yet another incident in a series of internal rows that have rocked Dartmouth town council over the last few years.
Members of Workingham borough council are to launch an investigation following health and safety fears at a mobile home site in Twyford. Concerns about overcrowding have been raised, and now travellers living at the site are worried that they may have to relocate. However, council member Graham Ebers said that none of the families living at the Twyford site will be forced to move.