Has Council's attack on press freedom backfired?

COMMENT by JED FORRESTER

Not Just Sheep & Rugby has been the subject of rare media attention in recent days after Scottish Borders Council chose to attack our decision to publish details of their secretive and controversial dealings with two companies based in the Cayman Islands.

There is little doubt the council intended to keep their £9.6 million deal with Lowood Estates Ltd, of Elgin Court, Elgin Avenue, George Town, Grand Cayman, and Genesis Trust & Corporate Services Ltd, of the same address, a closely guarded secret.

It is now abundantly clear that a significant number of elected members of SBC were blissfully unaware that £9.6 million of public money had ended up in the Caribbean tax haven when the local authority concluded negotiations for the acquisition of the remains of Lowood Estate, near Melrose, for development.

And we now know Borders councillors were lectured in private by a senior officer who warned them in no uncertain terms that they must not reveal details of the multi-million pound transaction. They have been effectively gagged so far as the Lowood transaction is concerned, and for now the gags remain firmly in place.

SBC has "form" when it comes to secrecy. A trawl back through our archives will provide ample evidence of the strenuous efforts the council mounted to prevent potentially embarrassing documentation linked to their £2.4 million losses in the Easter Langlee waste treatment plant debacle finding its way into the public domain.

However, SBC's tactics in that affair were thwarted on more than one occasion by the Scottish Information Commissioner, and the paperwork ordered to be released showed the council had signed up for a form of technology that didn't work, and for an offshore investment fund which had no money.

It's early days in the Lowood case, but already Freedom of Information has proved useful in starting to uncover what has actually taken place. One FOI revealed the considerable 'extras' incurred by SBC (about £1.4 million) while another lodged by ex-councillor Andrew Farquhar confirmed the Cayman Islands connection.

But when Not Just Sheep & Rugby presented this information to a wider public - in particular the fact that Borders council taxpayers' money had ended up in a tax-free jurisdiction - SBC was far from amused.

An unnamed spokesman issued this 'unusual' statement to newspapers who had followed up our story: "“As a public authority SBC was required to provide the information requested by Mr Farquhar.  Mr Farquhar and Mr Chisholm have now chosen to publicise this information in a way that, in our view, is entirely inappropriate.  The Council believes private individuals should not be subject to this level of scrutiny regarding how they conduct their personal financial and legitimate tax affairs."

And presumably a local authority who repeatedly pleads poverty but manages to find £11 million to buy a country estate should not be subjected to this level of scrutiny either. It would certainly be interesting to discover who actually drafted that incendiary statement and ordered it to be issued.

In those few sentences SBC sought to turn Freedom of Information on its head. But once information is in the public domain no public authority can put the genie back in the bottle.

It wasn't long before we were being contacted by media outlets for our reaction to the council's "outrageous" claim...their word, not ours.

 Journalism website Holdthefrontpage carried a story under the headline

 Council attacks retired journalist for publishing FoI response on his blog.

You can read their full article here:

https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2019/news/council-attacks-retired-journalist-for-publishing-foi-response-on-his-blog/

A couple of comments posted by readers of that article are worth reproducing here:

"Information that must be provided to the public shouldn't, er, be made public, according to SBC? If the information fell outside the scope of FOI then they should have refused the application"

And "This council needs to send its staff on a training course. Any information published under FOI is just that - published. Once they've given it to one person, everyone has the right to access it. Absolutely unbelievable that a council would not know this".

Scottish Borders Council may have successfully silenced its own members over the issue of Lowood's purchase. But silencing the press and media might prove to be slightly more difficult.