Judane

[Marooned in Maywick]

Why am I not surprised...?

[Infiltrator]

LOL

[mainlander]

 

Marooned in Maywick, if I decide to change my user name to "The Oracle", then you can take it that I have decided to answer questions on demand.

 

Until then, I will post my comments when and about what I want, in common with every other Shetlink user.

 

Now go and stalk someone else. Or alternatively, get a life.

[EM]

Marooned in Maywick, ... get a life.

MiM needs to get a life? Surely not. If that's true then what does that make me? A sobering thought.

[oddtablet]

However, from what I have read

 

That's a fair chunk of reading. Where did you find all that?

 

 

So, I totally agree that it is a scandal that the council messed up so badly that they are unable to recover that much money.

 

Do you agree that Judane's directors ought to feel some moral responsibility to repay the money they received (minus reasonable expenses)?

 

I have to agree wholeheartedly...with MiM

 

Where is their conscience ?

[paulb]

mainlander was looking at it from the normal mainland uk way of doing things. they don't get the stench of how sections of our business community can borrow money go bust but still keep asserts. and usually start up again with another loan.

 

any moral person that had a community debt like they have and at least two valuable buildings should sell them and raise as much as possible to repay the trust.

 

being a local company people must have known that they were struggling and they should have been better protection for the money.

 

as far as the planning matter is concerned. was it not chris hodge who lost out on that one. funny how one lot of people can be treated differently from another. but let them sue the planning folks if they failed to do there job. buying off trouble will only mean that they learn nothing and will do it again.

 

i don't think anyone was saying that they were happy to see this happen.

 

but this is another example of where there needs to be distance from all the trusts and the council. with the distance the trusties could do what was best for the folks money and not worry about upsetting so and so and others with a relationship with this family.

 

lets see mrs miller was out because she owes the cash. mr clark was out because of his alleged relationship and dr wills was out because he has personal issues with another director. so that's a tenth of the trustees out and a person who should be advising them.

[Para Handy]

A company or bank director with a conscience and or some moral responsibility?

 

Surely they think that would be classed as bonuses and not a requirement for the job

[oddtablet]

I have given you my thoughts on the matter so far, Marooned in Maywick, and really don't have anything else to say about it just now. Feel free to post your own thoughts without the benefit of my further wisdom to guide you!

 

sorry............but what further wisdom can you... ie mainlander...possibly offer

[oddtablet]

It certainly seems a very unusual situation, and I'm not sure I have really got my mind round the whole thing properly.

 

I assume it was a limited company which is why the personal assets of the directors are not involved?

 

However, from what I have read it seems that it was a business set up by local folk and employing local folk, which came to grief when the bottom fell out of the specialised knitwear market. There were then a couple of opportunities for the council to reach agreement with the company on various things (I have the impression that the council at that time would have recovered more money than in the present agreement, but I might have misunderstood that) which fell through. As it seems that the council could now be sued for more money than Judane owes (or otherwise they would just let the directors get on and sue them if they took action to recover the money), presumably the council messed up big time in some way which it is not at the moment confessing to!

 

Even in big business, it is often the same "entrepreneurs" who pop up time and time again starting businesses which sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, and I expect the same is true of Shetland. On the mainland, big companies (often foreign) are always coming in, getting millions in start-up grants, and then leaving when the grant money runs out. They never seem to have to pay any of it back.

 

In terms of council money being wasted, it seems to me that hundreds of thousands are always being wasted by councils all over the place (Gaelic school signs in areas where there will not be one single person who only understands Gaelic is a pet hate of mine!). At least there was an attempt to create local jobs involved in this particular situation.

 

So, I totally agree that it is a scandal that the council messed up so badly that they are unable to recover that much money.

 

But without knowing more about it all, I would be wary of putting in place systems which would mean that folk would be put off trying to start businesses - after all, a spectacular failure could be followed by a success with lessons having been learned from past mistakes. Presumably if the market had not collapsed, the company would still be going and providing jobs?

 

think you need to go elsewhere .............well maybe not Shetland

[mainlander]

The bit about "wisdom" was a joke, oddtablet! I'm sorry you didn't get it, and that you seem to have been distressed by it.

 

I really don't get what has upset you so much about my post, though. It's not a subject that interests me much, other than making me curious about what the council did that put it in such a disadvantageous position. As paulb said, I was just making the comparison to the normal mainland way of doing things. I wasn't saying that way was right or wrong.

 

If Marooned in Maywick hadn't asked what I thought about it, I wouldn't have bothered posting an opinion about it at all especially since, as I said at the beginning of my post, I'm not sure I really understand the situation properly. I won't make the mistake of answering questions again, though!

 

To be clear, I don't care if Judane has to pay back every penny it owes. I don't care if the council sue Judane, and I don't care if Judane sue the council.

 

And it's not just because it's not my council tax involved. If it were the council in my area, I wouldn't care about that either. They will write off hundreds of thousands on mistakes every year, and while it's not ideal, it's life.

 

I'm not currently politically motivated enough to campaign about matters or stand as a councillor (in fact, I rarely even vote in the council elections), so I tolerate whatever decisions those who are motivated in that way make. Some will be good, and some will be bad.

[trout]

oddtablet, what a bizarre post

 

Perhaps everyone needs to get off their highhorse?!

 

Going to stick up for mainlander here. They are most welcome to continue posting there ... and an "outside" view is certainly most welcome to balance the rather parochial rabid diatribes of late!

[icepick239]

parochial rabid diatribes of late!

Please explain trout what 'posters' you are referring to and what it is you find to be 'parochial rabid diatribes of late'

[trout]

sproot

[icepick239]

Interesting.

In an earlier post, I showed the Debt by Judane to SDT rising to 600K, up from the original reported figure of 400K Net.

I also included my reasons why.

Does anyone think this is a correct view?

[Spinner72]

I was wondering when Chris Hodge would get wind of this - shame he apparently won't be able to afford the necessary legal action to reclaim his investment. (According to this Shetland Times article)

 

So - £600000 from the council, estimated £500000 invested plus rent from Chris hodge, SIC gets 1/3rd if they are lucky, Hodge gets nothing, and owners get to keep building.