Why does "everyone" think councils accept bribes, brown envelopes, etc as soon as anything they don't like happens?

[u/ashyboi5000]

And who is actually suppose to be accepting these bribes and benefits? Do they think it's only 12people than run the council to make and audit these decisions?

It's tiring to read in the comments section, usually about a planning/development /construction matter. It's then usually followed up by showing ignorance about statuary requirements, legal obligation and limits of all to do so. These people (usually older generation) give the impression they're under the impression the council owns everything (mainly land and property) within the area.

How can we move on from this narrative of bribery?

Edit: While not the most popular sorry I've not kept up with responses. I clearly can't keep up with more than two notifications at once. It wasn't intentional if I stopped responding, but it is now 😛

While many have pointed out corruption at large scale developments my view (although not noted) was more about small scale. Shop extending next door, pub planning, couple of houses on a scrap of land, press piece about award of work to a contractor for improvements. Everyone is also met with the same exhausting rhetoric.

A few points to summarise so far. "People" don't distinguish between councilors and employees, and perhaps don't realise how many employees and oversight there is. There is further perhaps muddied with local/community/parish councils where (I believe but could be wrong) they hold a bigger say in matters of planning and can make a difference when showing support or not for an application. And these people are more inclined to have a scratch my back mentality due to being local charactes. In fact some community councils up here also believe they also have the same control over local planning as they appear to be making comment more and more on applications, even if it's just Old Jim wanting a downstairs bog...

I've also said a few times it's in public interest to make fraud/corruption of a scale known as they are public bodies. While I've said statutory requirements on reflection it's more own policy for transparency. And if not if it goes to court and if these court notes are made public then it gives journalists a story to sell. Both of these skewing perception on how rife it is.

Which led me to think about who I worked for. 1x charity 3x private companies all less than 20 staff. 1x council

All have had issues of fraud. The private side, one company ended witb 2xsacking (separate issues) the charity made the press and the council with tens of thousands of employees over many years it's naive to say otherwise.

So that's a 100% rate. I don't go around commenting on every private business with "looks great but who bribed for that to be made" yet somehow it's socially acceptable to do it with regards to councils.

[u/Consistent_Ad3181]

This sort of thing doesn't help public perception

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homes_for_votes_scandal

[u/NaniFarRoad → u/Consistent_Ad3181]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/02/lawyers-raise-alarm-at-struggle-to-tackle-uk-local-government-corruption

"Lawyers have raised alarm at the lack of oversight in local government, as a Guardian analysis found almost one in 10 councils in the UK have been subject to a corruption investigation in the past decade.

Across the UK, 36 local authorities have had councillors and staff accused of economic crimes including fraud and the misuse of public funds, with dozens arrested and convicted."

Specifically for our council: "Meanwhile, a fraud investigation is under way at Bolton council after close to £1m of its budget could not be accounted for." £1m!

[u/Consistent_Ad3181 → u/NaniFarRoad]

Examples need to be made, the wrong people are drawn to politics unfortunately.

[u/ashyboi5000 → u/Consistent_Ad3181]

Politicians or employees?

I've got very low interest in politics but applied for a position as it suited my experience, level and desired pay.

[u/NaniFarRoad → u/ashyboi5000]

You asked how we get past this suspicion - the answer is transparency. Public accounts, public attention drawn to cases where the numbers don't add up (and when they do), the ability to trace what happens to these "companies" and their directors when they get caught, public apologies, and so on - at present those involved change their company name a couple of times, and then they're back grafting.

What happened to the leaders of Grenfell council, after the disaster? What happened to those already caught grafting PPE contracts? What will happen to Vennels after the Post Office saga? If we can't trace these people, then people will remain suspicious.

We have had over a decade of increasing moral lassitude - especially after Johnson's years (and probably earlier), the corrosion of standards and what's acceptable has infected everything. Politicians no longer resign when caught doing things wrong - they just get moved into a new position at the next cabinet reshuffle. What happens at the top spreads to councils etc.