Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

Also

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

:rofl:

---------- Post added at 10:01 ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 ----------

Why couldn't the esteemed gentleman repair his own driveway with his own money?:confused:

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

It wasn't his driveway.:rolleyes:
Whether the museum is of enough importance to warrant the expenditure is another matter.

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

Lady Nugee has deliberately engineered your confusion by choosing to describe a single-track lane on a private estate a ‘driveway’, thereby insinuating that it’s the viscount’s personal access for getting his car into his garage. That is not the case.

There are certainly questions to answer here but as always, deliberately mischaracterising what has actually happened ensures they won’t be addressed. Such is the state of our politics.

As far as I can gather, the Estate company actually did pay for a substantial portion of the work of repairing the road. Their input paid for the repairs on the section beyond the museum, towards the farms. The museum applied for, and won, a grant to repair the first half-mile of the road, which is used by museum visitors as well as farm vehicles. The question is whether maintenance of that section of road is the tenant’s or the landlord’s responsibility. As I live on a stretch of unadopted country road I can tell you, the answers to those sorts of questions can be extremely complex and often are the reason such roads end up in that sort of condition.

I doubt we will ever learn whether it was actually the museum’s responsibility to maintain that part of the road or whether the estate used the museum as a front to get access to public funds. To be honest it would make little difference if we did. The story is only out there because of its potential sleaze value and everyone hearing it is only likely to become more entrenched in whatever view they already had.

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

My drive needs 'levelling up". Might put a claim in.
I have a museum of ancient artefacts in the garage so I should qualify ;)

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

Q.E.D.

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

No it's not as bad, I still have questions though, like how long has the drive/ track been like that and who used to pay for the upkeep? Are the villages down the track owned or tenants?

---------- Post added at 16:23 ---------- Previous post was at 16:21 ----------

And that's the really tragic thing

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

Details .....
.

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

The Peer owns the land and the roadways. The fact that he has allowed a museum to be sited & operated on his land was surely his decision. His land, his road.

A fund setup to level up the poorer areas of the country pays for the upkeep of a private road owned by a multi-millionaire. I'm sorry, you literally could not make this up. There is also a business (Tilton House) that clear benefits from the works and so erodes any (weak) attempt at justification.

This is clearly another sleaze own goal despite the half hearted attempts of some on this forum to explain it away.

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

I’ve not read much of the detail (as others have noted it won’t change my mind that it’s absolutely corrupt) but I’m rarely aware of occasions where corruption and movement of funds isn’t somehow disguised as a legal activity involving that individual, a third party or a front company. After all those laundrettes didn’t just clean clothes hence the name.

Indeed, Owen Patterson wasn’t paid to lobby and break Parliamentary procedures. Had it not been found out he’d just be declaring away his directorship on the regular reports and nobody any the wiser.

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

For those who do want to read the detail:
https://www.southeastlep.com/project...ier-to-growth/
https://www.southeastlep.com/app/upl...iness-Case.pdf

And if you want to see what is being spent elsewhere:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/getting-building-fund

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

As you can see above, the usual suspects have no interest in the actual facts. ;)

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

From spider’s 2nd link

Page 13Whilst the Estate provided £10k worth of gratis Project Management (page 30), surely it would have been more equitable for the Estate to contribute to the funding as it also benefits?

Re: Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up
 

Well I’m sure if you had visibility of all the applications and weighed up all the evidence you’d have come to a decision………and of course welcomed that decision to have been assessed on social media, and if ridiculed, you would have battled that with all the internet memes at your disposal……you are excellent at that.