MARY BURNS AWARDS 2007

Welcome to the MARYS, the most glittering occasion in Salford’s community calendar. Here we honour the most deserving individuals and organisations in the city for their stupid statements, dodgy dealings and iffy activities over the past 12 months.

Please dress up in a monkey jacket or yer best frock while you read this and grab a glass of warm white wine. We would be grateful if you could applaud to yourself after each award is announced. Now, without further ado, let’s get on with the ceremony…

THE `LET’S LOAN PUBLIC MONEY TO A BANK’ AWARD

Goes to…

SALFORD CITY COUNCIL

Again, there was only one winner in this section. Salford City Council over the last two years has lent around £868,000 of public money to the Higher Broughton Partnership, which is putting together the well expensive Broughton Green development. What nobody can explain (and we’ve tried, even under the Freedom of Information Act) is why Salford Council is making loans to the Partnership which includes as one of its main partners, the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Even the Audit Commission has had a go at Salford Council because the financial return on the development to the Royal Bank of Scotland “is high in relation to the risks borne”. They can say that again ! And the Commission had another go at the Council for its accounts (2005/6; 2006/7) where it referred to over half a million quid’s worth of the Partnership’s payment as a “deferred charge” and not a “loan”. The Council wasn’t trying to hide anything was it ?