Really what is your problem, do you not have the ability as a local authority to contact the Chairman of our local league football team? Why straight to the press? It just seems this happens every time and this time at the height of Gillingham fan expectations and media attention in regards to a new manager. Our Chairman's take on the situation and it fully echoes my words before this video was even published... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18705882?
This all stems from Scally's vocal objections to that Chatham Pier development thingy. Ever since then the council have increased hostilities towards the club.
There is only one person responsible for all this. The Council's job is to act in the interests of all Council tax payers having satisfied itself that the finance department or the Company Secretary has had a bill. It is not their job to ring up Chairmen of companies who owe them money. It is not as if Scally does not have form. Remember the Watford Directors who lent him a couple of hundred grand and then had the cheek to want it back? And the fixed penalty driving offence when the Police had the stupidity to send it to his home address. Didn't they know they should ring him up before expecting payment and then they banned him. Unlucky I reckon! The first job of a football chairman is to get on good terms with the local authorities (once he has appointed a manager).
agree fully with what bristol407 is saying, surely scally isn't that blinkered and i'm sure the fans are not stupid enough to believe so either...the guy acts like he's never run a business i'm afraid ! paul scally, why can't you just run the club smoothly and keep a low proflie whilst at it !
I know Scally is not an angel and owes the money and likes to make out he don't but then again the council are still a joke, they don't have to keep going to the press. I understand that Scally is not the easiest man to negotiate as I know someone who had problem to do with the contract or carpeting Priestfield and had to argue to get paid. But back on the subject the council sad, they don't need to go the press, it is either that Scally pays or they threaten him with court precedings like they say and we know then he would pay, they did not need this step aswell.
So it failed in its duty of the tax payer. Four years? So what have all those chiefs in that main building at Medway Council been doing all this time? So lets contact the media but not find the number to person responsible for paying the bill, how does that work then? I bet if you failed to pay your council tax they would manage to contact you quite quickly directly Bristol just for a few hundred pounds let alone 34k?
Yeah it is amazing how long they have taken, it does not make sense, they hate us and are always on our back so why take so long to get at us, I can't believe it fully, is there something which the council are hiding.
I accept the media point but any community business just has to pay its bills the same as anyone else. The last thing a community business wants is a reputation that it will avoid paying if it can. Must go, the ITV Digital man is at the door.
I sent an email to the deputy leader of the council (who was named in the bbc article) regarding this, asking why they felt the need to make this (and other recent issues) public, and pointing out that it made both them, and the club, look inept in having this whole thing drag on for 4 years by the looks of things... This is the reply: "Thank you for your email concerning Gillingham Football Club. It is my responsibility to protect the interests of council tax payers in Medway, and also to ensure that appropriate communications are dealt with. In this case there is no dispute with the football club: they owe Medway Council a substantial sum; they have agreed that we are owed money, and have offered payment terms which I hope and expect us to accept. There is no vendetta aginst Gillingham Football Club. Indeed Medway Council does all it can to assist the club develop its future plans. The matter has been made public by Medway Council because it seems that such matters invariably find their way into the public domain in any event. It is important for us to ensure that the correct message is deciminated to the wider public. Thank you for taking the trouble to write" Personally, i think it shows that such things are important to them (particularly after the prompt reply). Also, it's good to see the matter is well on the way to being resolved quickly - which i suspect is the real reason for the release of info to the press (as opposed to "it will invariably reach the public domain anyway) Thoughts
in ths mornings council statement they have said they contacted gillingham fc...three times at least in the last year ! i want success for this club, but lets face it, other than what bristol stated about scally's ongoings, he didn't want to pay the police costs when that game towards the end of the season nearly saw no fans aloud into priestfield...right until that last moment when he new it had to be payed. scally is no saint and trust me and trys to get people to play by his rules...even the new manager will have to when he comes in ! sorry don't he brings alot of matters and circumstances on himself most of the time...the guy never learns just agree with and get on side with something that can only be good surely for gillingham fc in the long run
interesting read superbob...well done as you say it shows they want it resolved and not to punish gillingham fc. certainly different from the way it was looking this morning...whilst now presumably showing the council looking to help them come the future
First class response from Medway. It would have been really interesting to have asked for an explanation from both parties simultaneously. I think I know who would have been most convincing.
Starting with the old policing grievance first. We had agreements with the police for manning levels at Priestfield, the police wanted to change those agreements and were in negotiations with the club, the council jumped the gun and went public. The unpaid bill. This all started with a disputed bill some time ago, it was never argued that money wasn't owed just the amount, would you think it correct if the council went to the press over a dispute with you for unpaid community charge. Lastly, if this guy is responsible for looking after our money does this mean he is the person who lost our £50m pound on a risky Icelandic investment.
all i can say is if someone owed me £34K i would be contacting them a few more than 3 times a week let alone 3 times a year, especially if they claim to be as interested in protecting the tax payers interest. and anyway doesnt that money need to be invested in redoing the chatham one way system again, its long over due an overhaul, been atleast a year now!!
My favourite part of the response, basically saying "well if we hadn't done it would have got out anyway". I'm not disputing the fact that there is money owed or how much it may be just the timing of it, right before preseason training starts and when the clubs income stream is at it's smallest, I also think it was wrong for Medway Council to go public with this.
superbob - thank you for your excellent efforts in gaining a response. Also and more importantly thank you for sharing it on our forum not606. May I add, it in no way changes my view but I respect the efforts of yourself and Medway Council in their reply.
agreed jokey of course you would contact them more than a hand full of times if they owed a five figure sum or less ! thats not my point, my point is that they have contacted gillingham fc...be it the admin or whoever, but they informed gillingham and scally has comeout and stated the council have had no contact ! did he just think we'd have the trianing ground free of charge for the last four years??...answer...NO ! scally is not stupid, but neither are most the organisations he deals with.
With all this amount of agreement and apparent dialogue, I fail to see a good reason for Medway Council going public on a 'defaulter' - and they expect us not to believe that it was a vendetta ! If dog excrement was legal tender and if I was Scally I would pay the bill with £34,000 of the stuff.
looks like scally having to pay the council bill is having repercussions....O/S just cancelled any friendly game in france, though i think they will still train in france next week...lets hope it's not on a permanent basis
Come on lads, if GFC owe them money they have every right to take this action. This is a long outstanding debt. Frankly the council have gone public because its the only way they can get the Gills to pay. The council have a duty to the taxpayer not GFC.
