Borders Victor Meldrew told to stop complaining

A COMPANY director has been banned from making complaints to local government officials after bombarding staff at Scottish Borders Council with more than 700 e-mails, telephone calls and letters.

The decision to deny Hugh Hickman direct access to senior officers has been taken by David Hume, the local authority’s chief executive, who sought the opinion of a QC before imposing the ban.

Mr Hickman, of Innerleithen, told The Scotsman yesterday how he was now being denied his democratic right to question officials after challenging council policies, particularly the decision to sell its 6,700 houses to a community landlord.

His efforts in trying to bring the council to book have been likened to those of persistent complainer Victor Meldrew, the leading character in BBC Television’s One Foot In The Grave comedy series, played by Richard Wilson.

The local authority claims it has cost thousands of pounds in staff time and effort to respond to Mr Hickman’s allegations, many of which they say are "trivial, inconsequential and offensive".

As an example of the costs of dealing with Mr Hickman’s correspondence relating to the housing issue alone, Mr Hume has estimated the total to be 536.

In a letter to Mr Hickman, the chief executive wrote: "Responding to this correspondence has required staff to be redirected from other key priorities within the council.

"I am no longer prepared to sanction the continuing allocation of staff time to dealing with your correspondence in the normal manner."

Mr Hume said it was evident that none of the contact and correspondence had contained any matter of substance and that none of the issues raised by Mr Hickman had required any corrective or consequential action.

"In coming to my view, I have consulted with legal advisers, and in addition have obtained the opinion of learned counsel," he added.

The letter sets out special arrangements to deal with any future contact Mr Hickman makes with the council.

Mr Hume has told Mr Hickman that he must direct all e-mails intended for staff to the council’s general inquiries address, otherwise messages will be disregarded.

"You should be aware that the council will not reply to persistent ill-informed communications which do not require a specific response," adds Mr Hume.

"You are clearly entitled to bring to the attention of the council matters of legitimate concern and express opinions thereon. The council is concerned, however, to make it clear that it will not get involved in pointless or unjustified correspondence."

Copies of the arrangements have been passed to the council’s external auditors, and to Audit Scotland and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

But Mr Hickman, who runs a mail-order business based in France, claims he has never submitted frivolous or stupid queries and that the issues he raised were certainly not trivial.

"It is my view this council has been irresponsible in risking 1.5 million on set-up costs - including 600,000 in legal fees - for the housing association which eventually bought the Borders stock last year," he said.

"At the time, the proposed housing association and its building company had no assets, so were in fact insolvent. Yet the council decided to guarantee the money so that the organisation could be established."

The size of the transaction and the subsequent deal to dispose of the houses for 23.3 million could hardly be described as trivial, he added.

But Mr Hickman had found it difficult to get information as a concerned council taxpayer with anxieties over the social consequences of council housing policy.

He said the local authority had a statutory commitment to provide suitable housing for the disabled and the homeless. But without proper scrutiny of the business planning process of Scottish Borders Housing Association to define the risk of not fulfilling that commitment, councillors had been unable to make objective judgments.

Mr Hickman blamed Mr Hume for failing to ensure that elected members were in a position to provide social housing in the future for the region’s aging population.

"I may have been blunt and direct with council officials, but I deny Mr Hume’s assertion that I have been offensive," he added. "I will continue communicating with the council, who are after all supposed to be publicly accountable for their actions and policies.

"I will not be deterred because at least one person needs to stand up and make it clear when a policy simply does not hang together."

Mr Hickman said that Scottish Borders Council had ignored the conclusions in a report from the National Audit Office, which showed that transfer of housing to an association was more expensive than keeping the stock under local authority ownership and control.

And he claimed the highly unusual arrangements for dealing with his correspondence appeared to be at odds with the local authority’s recent pledge to be open and transparent in its decision making.

He said: "Not only has my e-mail been blocked by the chief executive without reasons being given, but there has also been no reply in response to matters that are of strategic importance since they go to the heart of democracy in local government."