Oxford Times: 'So yah boo sucks to city councillors'

8.21.24pm GMT Sun 12th Feb 2006

"I imagine there are enough red faces in the Town Hall to light up the whole of Oxford."

Very occasionally a Council story breaks which you know you should take seriously, but which is in fact just too funny to do anything other than laugh. The following story appeared in this week's Oxford Times... see what you think.

***

The Oxford Times: 10th Feb, 2006

SO YAH BOO SUCKS TO CITY COUNCILLORS

Caroline Bull, the chief executive of Oxford City Council, has issued a personal apology after an abusive message appeared in committee papers.

This week the council's finance scrutiny committee discussed why the number of staff at the authority had increased by ten per cent in three years. The number employed by the city council is 1,342 - three years agi it was 1,208.

But, in preparing background reports, one manager, commenting on savings in the Town Hall's housing department wrote "So yah boo sucks to the lot of you" - and it was not edited out of agenda papers....

The message was spotted only after the first batch of agenda items had been sent out to councillors and the press.

Liberal Democrat city councillor Stephen Tall, chairman of the city council's finance scrutiny committee, said: "It's a 24-carat cock-up.

"I imagine there are enough red faces in the Town Hall to light up the whole of Oxford. But mistakes happen.

"The officer concerned has apologised to me, and so has the Chief Executive on behalf of the Council. That, as far as I'm concerned, is the end of it.

"What I'm more concerned about is that this report shows the council's work-force has escalated ten per cent in just three years under Labour.

"That represents a huge cost to the city's tax-payers. So, the real question that needs to be answered is this: 'can that cost be justified?'."

Ms Bull said: "I apologise if what was in that particular version of the report has caused offence. It was an officer-to-officer comment, which should have been edited out in the writing of the report and was not aimed at members of scrutiny.

"It may have been juvenile - but it was not disrespectful. I will investigate and take appropriate action."

***