The pride of Isle of Wight – its council – has been honored in the 2010 Rotten Boroughs awards, not just once, but twice!
Over the years, our council has made quite a few guest appearance on the Rotten Boroughs page – which brings attention of light misdemeanours / peculiar actions / general odd decisions / accusations of corruption at local councils around the UK.
To be featured in the yearly awards is seen as the highest privilege.
Steve Beynon
Top of the list of ‘Quotes Of The Year’ is Isle of Wight council Chief Executive, Steve Beynon, talking about his financial recompense for heading up the IWC
“I was not looking for praise” – Isle of Wight chief exec Steve Beynon on volunteering to eschew a pay rise from £150,000 to £157,500… while failing to mention that his total ‘package’ was in fact worth nearly £184,000.
David Pugh – Featured in ‘Youtube Star Of The Year’
Dear, dear Cllr David Pugh, leader of the Conservative-dominated council, also gets a special mention as runner-up in the ‘Youtube Star Of The Year’ category for his Valentine’s Day 2010 PughTube outburst, with the following entry
Isle of Wight council leader David Pugh is runner- up for his expletive-splattered, tired and emotional argument with the local Tory MP’s fiancee outside a Cowes charity event, helpfully recorded on a passer-by’s mobile.
The winner
Cllr Pugh, is knocked off the top position by the leader of the Lib Dem Council in Sheffield, Paul Scriven, who stars in a very odd video where he sings a re-worded version of ‘Perfect Day’, praising a luxury hotel in Shefield, brought to light by the Sheffield Politics Website.
Seeing that video, perhaps we should be grateful that it’s just swearing that David gets caught on video doing.
Read more about delightful county councils across the UK on the Private Eye article.
