Oban/Glenforsa News
Join Date: Apr 2001
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No info that I can find on the Glenforsa tender. It was due to be awarded at the end of Feb.
Coming back to Oban, the council tender docs make a big play of "Fly Scenic Scotland", which seems to be a sightseeing operation run by Border Air Training out of Cumbernauld. BAT has an AOC with a Cessna 172. Anyone know anything about its operations at Oban?
NS
Coming back to Oban, the council tender docs make a big play of "Fly Scenic Scotland", which seems to be a sightseeing operation run by Border Air Training out of Cumbernauld. BAT has an AOC with a Cessna 172. Anyone know anything about its operations at Oban?
NS
Join Date: Aug 2007
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A couple of weeks ago Argyll and Bute Council were inviting ideas from the GA community on how to increase traffic at Oban.
Silly me offered my suggestions for free. Must not have been good enough.
D.O.
Silly me offered my suggestions for free. Must not have been good enough.
D.O.
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It will be a bitter sweety with the tenders because they won't be able to stomach what needs to be done.
So they will just keep on trying to get someone in that will keep everyone employed and make no changes to the status quo.
It the usual council dreamland.
There is of course people that politically they will never let run it just in case they make a good job of it.
So they will just keep on trying to get someone in that will keep everyone employed and make no changes to the status quo.
It the usual council dreamland.
There is of course people that politically they will never let run it just in case they make a good job of it.
There is of course people that politically they will never let run it just in case they make a good job of it.
G
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Well thats some of it and also the fact that clock watching and anal retentive rule making and alderance and other such filthy council worker trates won't be a factor.
Councils don't know how to run airfields. Most pilots don't know how to run airfields.
Councils don't know how to run airfields. Most pilots don't know how to run airfields.
Changed PPR Phone Number
There was a problem with the old number last weekend. We had to PPR on the radio. This number change is just before the Connel Fly-in, Saturday 2 June.
Q)EGPX/QFAXX/IV/BO/A/000/999/5628N00524W005
B) FROM:12/05/31 07:02C) TO: PERM
E) AD GEPGRAPHICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DATA, CHANGETEL AND FAX NUMBERS.
TEL 01631 572910 (PPR/GENERAL ENQUIRIES)
FAX 01631 710 884 (ADMINISTRATION) 01631 710713(ATS)
AD 2-EGEO-1-1, EGEO AD 2.2 REFERS.
Q)EGPX/QFAXX/IV/BO/A/000/999/5628N00524W005
B) FROM:12/05/31 07:02C) TO: PERM
E) AD GEPGRAPHICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DATA, CHANGETEL AND FAX NUMBERS.
TEL 01631 572910 (PPR/GENERAL ENQUIRIES)
FAX 01631 710 884 (ADMINISTRATION) 01631 710713(ATS)
AD 2-EGEO-1-1, EGEO AD 2.2 REFERS.
Join Date: Apr 2001
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The Council made the following announcement yesterday on the tender for operation of Glenforsa:
Ring any bells?
NS
At this time the Council has been unable to conclude this exercise and make an award. As soon as we are in a position to conclude we will be in touch
NS
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They will never get someone to take it on if they have to TUPE in excisting council staff including pensions.
Bet they had a few tenders all of them having 2-3 perm staff and a part time admin with the rest getting made redundant.
Anyone know how much the airfield cost the council last year?
Ops that was for Oban.
GlenForsa again will be a too bitter pill to swallow.
Bet they had a few tenders all of them having 2-3 perm staff and a part time admin with the rest getting made redundant.
Anyone know how much the airfield cost the council last year?
Ops that was for Oban.
GlenForsa again will be a too bitter pill to swallow.
Last edited by mad_jock; 1st Jun 2012 at 08:57.
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Having been employee transferred under TUPE I would offer the opinion that it is hardly worth the paper it is written on. It most certainly doesn't protect pension arrangements as I know to my own personal cost. It protects wages and holiday for a limited period after which a review could easily take place and reduce numbers at little cost on statutory redundancy, been there and seen it happen.
Problem might be the mindset of former local authority employees, sorry don't mean to offend anyone, but small GA ops need a huge amount of flexibility to run successfully, you really need the right people. I'm watching with interest.
Problem might be the mindset of former local authority employees, sorry don't mean to offend anyone, but small GA ops need a huge amount of flexibility to run successfully, you really need the right people. I'm watching with interest.
I seem to recall that TUPE provides no protection at all if it can be shown that the changes are required to allow the business to survive.
If the alternative is the business cannot survive then terms and conditions can be changed at will.
However, in this instance that would suggest that the local authority would have to (at some point) declare that if unable to arrange a tender, under terms that are acceptable, it will have to close the operation. ?
If the alternative is the business cannot survive then terms and conditions can be changed at will.
However, in this instance that would suggest that the local authority would have to (at some point) declare that if unable to arrange a tender, under terms that are acceptable, it will have to close the operation. ?
Last edited by 42psi; 1st Jun 2012 at 11:02.
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TUPE or not, the whole thing is a financial basket case.
This is actually a very big problem, that may never go away. My understanding is that due to the funding requirements, they are in a catch 22 situation. Close it, and they will have to repay, keep it open, they do not make the passenger numbers, may have to repay, certainly part of the grant.
Keep it open and continue to lose 500k plus, per annum. Add in the huge subsidy for the island feeder, 1.2 million, and you can see where the public money is washing down the drain. That is tax payers money.
Great facility though
This is actually a very big problem, that may never go away. My understanding is that due to the funding requirements, they are in a catch 22 situation. Close it, and they will have to repay, keep it open, they do not make the passenger numbers, may have to repay, certainly part of the grant.
Keep it open and continue to lose 500k plus, per annum. Add in the huge subsidy for the island feeder, 1.2 million, and you can see where the public money is washing down the drain. That is tax payers money.
Great facility though
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Oban/Glenforsa
Perhaps it's time for a Judicial review which is the procedure whereby the exercise of a delegated discretionary
decision making power is examined by a court so as to ensure that the power has been
decision making power is examined by a court so as to ensure that the power has been
properly exercised for it's lawful purpose
1. In general terms the court will intervene
WW
where the person or body which has been given the power fails to act when it is required
to or when it makes a decision it ought not to have made when acting properly within the
terms of the mandate given to them.
to or when it makes a decision it ought not to have made when acting properly within the
terms of the mandate given to them.
WW
Last edited by Capt Whisky Whisky; 1st Jun 2012 at 14:24.
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Yes that would be a good idea. It is like the Eurozone crisis
, where continually hiding the problem, hoping that one day it may go away, never works. Eventually the day of reckoning will come.
So, get it out in the open, and then deal with the situation. There will be an answer, there always is, just got to find it
, where continually hiding the problem, hoping that one day it may go away, never works. Eventually the day of reckoning will come.So, get it out in the open, and then deal with the situation. There will be an answer, there always is, just got to find it
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But once again let's not confuse the two current tenders:
1) for a contractor to take over the operation of Glenforsa
2) for a project to market Oban Airport (not run it)
It surprises me that they couldn't make a decision on the Glenforsa tender. Maybe the council has been duped with the steadily creeping neo-liberal propaganda that the private sector is always better at running things than the public sector, then found to their surprise, when they got the bids in, that actually the private sector isn't remotely interested in running Glenforsa other than at rates way higher than currently achieved or anticipated by the council.
Meanwhile the annual Mull fly-in - the biggest revenue earner for the airstrip - was cancelled this year because of the tendering exercise, so they've not only spent loads of extra money on a contractorisation exercise but also denied themselves a huge chunk of the very income they're trying to increase.
NS
1) for a contractor to take over the operation of Glenforsa
2) for a project to market Oban Airport (not run it)
It surprises me that they couldn't make a decision on the Glenforsa tender. Maybe the council has been duped with the steadily creeping neo-liberal propaganda that the private sector is always better at running things than the public sector, then found to their surprise, when they got the bids in, that actually the private sector isn't remotely interested in running Glenforsa other than at rates way higher than currently achieved or anticipated by the council.
Meanwhile the annual Mull fly-in - the biggest revenue earner for the airstrip - was cancelled this year because of the tendering exercise, so they've not only spent loads of extra money on a contractorisation exercise but also denied themselves a huge chunk of the very income they're trying to increase.
NS
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2) for a project to market Oban Airport (not run it)
Right if your reading this go to Inverness College and ask them about using Oban as a project for the arts/marketing courses. Then the best one every year gets used. Also it would mean you could use the terminal for art crap as well as a gallery.
It would be a whole load better than getting some lowland outfit to do it for you and all it would cost would be the material costs.
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Oban/Glenforsa
The whole tender exercise would seem to be just that, an exercise that provided another years employment for several council personel that never had any intention of actually awarding the tender, because inevitably it would only underline what a pathetically inept clusterf**k they are making of running these publicly owned facilities.
It is inevitable that either goverment intervention or a judicial review will eventually result in another round of senior council sackings, but not before further damage has been inflicted on the local economy.
WW
It is inevitable that either goverment intervention or a judicial review will eventually result in another round of senior council sackings, but not before further damage has been inflicted on the local economy.
WW