Corkills Settle Out Of Court

[steven !]

Isle of Man Newspaper Article

 

I have put this in a new thread as I don't think the title of the other one is really appropriate.

 

As a member of the City Architects Department I worked in a Local Authority Grants Scheme in the UK for over 7 years. It was run on similar principles to the one the Corkill case is concerned with.

 

I had experience at every stage of the process and there were a few thousand applications and many millions of Government money was involved.

 

At the time of the Corkill trial the Isle of Man Tourist Grant Scheme had had just seventeen applications to deal with.

 

So yes, I have a lot of experience with grants of this nature. From application, to checking the paperwork . . approval . . . liaison with applicants and contractors prior to the works commencing, during and after . . . inspection . . . . payment . . . and the inevitable dispute resolution, although the vast majority of applications went smoothly.

 

It was not uncommon for Councillors to become involved in any dispute. For that you should read MHK. The authority I worked for had a catchment of nearly half a million people.

 

Occasionally even a Member of Parliament became involved. That is the nature of things when dealing with many thousands of people involving their lives, their homes, contractors and money. There were perhaps a hundred different contracting firms involved with varying levels of experience, competence and integrity.

 

I reckon I saw and got to know every trick and short cut, more or less, in the book.

 

Anyway back to the Isle of Man. I followed the whole case as closely as I could.

 

I was absolutely astounded that this case even got to court. During my time in the UK not once were the police ever needed. That is not to say there were never any problems, but nothing that could not be resolved without the need of the police and the courts.

 

As a former grants section worker I was stunned at the way a scapegoat was made out of the young lad doing the administration for the grant. I now know how the protectionist system of administration works on the Island and I am sickened by it.

 

There were other matters that simply had me shocked in disbelief at how this whole case was handled. It should never have got to court in the first place.

 

Oh, and if anybody wants to tell me I needed to be in court to make such an opinion, I was. Every day, every minute.

[ans]

You can repost this in the other thread if you like.