I don't live in Glasgow either but if i did i would be rather annoyed that £1.5 million of my council tax or rates as it probably was then was spent on relocating residents and demolishing houses so Celtic could build a stand . I would also be a wee bit peeved that council members who are shareholders in a company are gifting land to that company that almost certainly will increase the share price of the company .
If people were so concerned about the "alleged" sale of land for £1 some 20 years ago i'm sure they would have complained at the time, but just why some people are concerned about it now is no real mystery is it?. To be honest it's a lot of ****e and I think you know that, if it was a dodgy deal then it was not the first in the history of GCC and it won't be the last either. Some sad ****ers want to harp on about the past - despite knowing very little about what actually happened. I don't know and I personally don't care. All I do know is that does not come under the heading of "State Aid" as some retarded individuals seem to think.
Here a doozy for you Dev https://www.change.org/en-AU/petiti...&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition
Did people know about it though ? The first i heard of it was when i read your post . Tbh it all reads like an episode of The littlest Hobo or sommit . Corrupt council lining their own pockets in shady land deals . Does it matter ? Of course it does . These ****s are getting away with blatant corruption and they are being well paid for it .
I know, it's quite amazing what folk will do to try and get one over on their opponents, it's desperately sad and unfortunately some Celtic "fans" are just as deranged as the sad losers responsible for this ill-fated abortion of a petition.
There's no evidence that GCC sold any land for £1, just gossip and rumour with a sprinkling of guesswork. A FOI request was made by some people but it was refused due to the costs of dredging this stuff up after all this time.
As i said earlier i'm working on the assumption that what was claimed in the article you posted was accurate . I can't understand why any freedom of information request could be turned down because of cost . Does that not defeat the purpose of having freedom of information ? Can't really work out why it would be expensive for GCC to get some lacky to check GCC's own records either . Surely if there is no truth in these claims it is in GCC's best interests to release the relevant information and quash the "rumours" For integrity's sake of course .
The wording on the FOI response says it would be too expensive to get all details of transactions with Rangers and Celtic since 1980 but also says that this does not fall within the FOI boundaries as most of the information is publicly available. They were, however, able to return details of all money owed, paid and collected by GCC from Rangers/Sevco/Celtic (they are different and treated as differently) and vice versa from Rangers/Sevco/Celtic to GCC. That blog (written by a madman, clearly) doesn't even say it was sold for a £1 - it uses the term "rumoured". Celtic and GCC were locked in a dispute about the land being sold for Commonwealth use. The District Valuer was called in - now, if Celtic and GCC were in each other's pockets, that wouldn't have happened. Celtic were given far less cash (£250,000) for the Westhorn Rec ground than Celtic valued it at (£5,000,000) and Celtic have to pay the GCC £32,000 a year to use land for car parking facilities when these facilities are otherwise not being used and, I think, these premises were part of the sale that was almost forced by GCC (the dispute went on for 2 years).
I haven't seen FOI response so i will take your word for that . This discussion is on one specific land deal though so why would the amount of info you mention be needed ? Did whoever it was who made the request not specify the information they were interested in i.e. The sale to Celtic of land surrounding Celtic park at that specific time ? That would be very easy to find i should think and not at all expensive . Your point about Celtic being at loggerheads with GCC is irrelevant unless the council was made up of the same people at the time of the dispute you mentioned as were there in 1994 when the alleged land deal was done which is highly unlikely .
[h=1]Request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002[/h] Thank you for your email received on 3 April 2013 requesting that the following information be provided to you: “I am enquiring about land deals between Rangers FC and Glasgow City Council, as well as Celtic FC and Glasgow City Council since the 1980s. If possible could you send me all correspondences between the clubs and the council in this matter, along with council minutes of meetings to discuss said land deals and any financial records related to same query also please.” The council is treating your request as a request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. On inspecting our records, it would appear that compliance with this request would cost the council more than the upper limit allowed by section 12(1) of the Act and the fees regulations made under the Act (this limit is currently £600). Accordingly we are unable to comply with your request. The council has calculated that the costs of providing your requested information would be in excess of £600. This figure has been calculated in accordance with the Fees Regulations made under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act. This includes the costs which would be incurred in locating and retrieving the information and staff time. The staff time charged reflects the true pay scale of the member(s) of staff who would be involved capped at a ceiling of £15/hour per member of staff. Any search which the council carries out for Rangers or Celtic would throw up far too many requests for us to meaningfully deal with and carrying out a global search without any parameters will always exceed the costs limit. The council has the option of complying with requests where the costs exceed £600. However, on this occasion we have decided not to due to the resources (both financial and human) which voluntary compliance with this request would divert away from our core business. However, it may be possible for the council to provide you with information on a particular topic you may be interested in which would allow us to carry out a meaningful and targeted search within the cost ceiling laid down by the Regulations. Please contact me if there is particular information that you would like to receive. Some of the information you have requested is also, in our opinion, exempt from a request under section 1 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 because of the exemption contained in section 25(1) of the Act. In other words, the information you are looking for is “reasonably accessible” to you without having to make a formal section 1 request. Records of all transactions can be obtained from Registers of Scotland. They can be contacted at Registers of Scotland Glasgow Customer Service Centre Hanover House 24 Douglas Street Glasgow G2 7NQ. Tel 0845 607 0164
You nearly exceeded your accidental post upper limit there How many land deals can there be between the OF and GCC from 1980 ? What do they mean by global search , why would they need to do that ? Are GCC files scattered all over the world ? Anyhoo i'm sure if the information is out there the obsessed will turn it up sooner or later . This constant need to dig and dish the dirt on a rival football club is tedious , self destructive and downright mental . Our game is on a downward spiral to the sewer . In fact we have been in the sewer for years now and are probably floating off the Ayrshire coast along with all the other effluent .
I'm inclined to agree and leave them to it. I for one am totally uniterested in what GCC may have got up to 20 years ago.
