Ombudsman - A Government Puppet

I received another of a number of anonymous letters which came by post over the years. I wrote a long poem to the BBC programme "That's Life" without success. It was my eight attempt to get that programme interested. In all I wrote unsuccessfully eleven times to "That's Life".
On February 2nd 1984 the Department of the Environment Planning Service wrote to me threatening me with an Enforcement Notice because my sign was still in place and asked for information on it. I ignored their letter and threat. I knew who was behind it.

I was threatened with a £100.00 fine if I did not give the information required and £400.00 fine if I gave the wrong information. On April 17th 1984 the DOE Planning Service sent me an Enforcement Notice requiring me to remove my unauthorised sign within 28 days following the date from which the Enforcement Notice took effect, viz., May 21st 1984.

My sign was still hurting and this seems to have been the councillors' last resort, to act through the Planning Service. I took no notice at this time.
Sometime in December 1983 I had written a letter to the Irish News and it was published on December 29th 1983, during all the excitement of the preparation for the High Court hearing on January 6th 1984. The letter read;

"It is understandable that you should refer to Mr. T. Kernohan as Northern Ireland's Ombudsman (Page 4, 30/11/83). Such in the listing under Government in the telephone directory.

Remarkably, and also listed under Government in the telephone directory is Commissioner for Complaints with the same address and the same telephone number. Unfortunately Mr. Kernohan is NOT Northern Ireland's Ombudsman.

The fact is that there is no Ombudsman in Northern Ireland or anywhere else in the United Kingdom to safeguard the rights of citizens by ensuring their protection against the shortcomings of bureaucracy.
The much-watered down version of the offices of Ombudsman has been imposed on us by the British Government in the form of the Commissioner for Complaints. This office is a mere puppet dangling by the strings of a 1969 Act and pulled by the so-called Mother of Parliaments, and was instituted 169 years after the original and proper office of Ombudsman was conceived and set up in Sweden.
As the powers of the modern state increase, so the need for safeguarding citizens' rights increases in equal measure, and it is only when a public administration becomes acceptable to the people it was set up to cater for that such an administration becomes efficient. The office of Ombudsman, therefore, has a most important role to play in any society and that role is twofold.

Firstly, the Ombudsman can on behalf of the government which appointed him ensure for that government the proper operation of its statutes. Secondly, the Ombudsman can retain for that government the confidence of the people it governs by safeguarding the rights under law of those people.

In Northern Ireland, however, our Commissioner for Complaints not only does not ensure the proper operation of the statutes of the parliament of the United Kingdom, but also does nothing when the statutory right of a complainant is violated simply because the Parliamentary Act under which he is made to operate allows a statutory body to waive its statutory duty in favour of a discretionary ploy when to exercise its statutory duty would expose the maladministration which in the first place caused the complaint.

In fact we have in Northern Ireland a law which allows those in certain circumstances and high places not only to break the law but also compound this by getting away with it.

Commissioner for Complaints Report CC 19/78 states in its findings, quote: "I consider that Mr. Rice suffered to some extent because Down District Council did not exercise its statutory power to abate a nuisance which manifestly existed... However, in my opinion, if the council had proceeded as was recommended by the district chief public health inspector the matter, if not settled could have been fully ventilated before the court.
Thus the court would have been able to examine all the available evidence and its decision would have been taken in the light of that evidence - then not only would justice have been done but it would have been seen to be done." End of quote.
To this day, seven years after my initial complaint to Down District Council, this matter has not been settled, has not been ventilated in the court, and justice has not yet been done."

Conners To Lose Top Job

One evening in May 1984 as we picketed outside Down District Council's headquarters, we saw the tall figure of Mr. Samuel Conners walking along the Strangford Road towards us from his bungalow nearby.

Before he went in to the Council meeting, Mr. Conners stopped with us and talked and argued for about half an hour. I will never forget how he told me in an obvious fit of restrained pique, quote,

"Didn't you put Mr. Allen in the hospital?"

I had been aware that Mr. Allen had suffered a heart attack some time previously and it may be that my campaign had put a lot of extra pressure on certain Council staff, but that was no fault of mine and I told Mr. Conners so.

That pressure was to show again, but I did not know when I was speaking to Mr. Conners that his time in his high position was numbered in months. I wonder if Mr. Conners knew.

I received a letter dated May 22nd 1984 from WG Maginess & Son, Solicitors, acting on behalf of James Carlisle, Mill Hill, Ballynahinch, who was seeking payment from me for six years of Ground Rent at £15.00 per year.

I had been out of No 56 Carlisle Park at this time for almost five years and the house looked a mess at both front and back.

In the summer the weeds were very high and these became clotted as they fell about each other in winter time. The windows had been vandalised and the little fence I had so carefully erected was now very dilapidated looking. The letter went on,

"We advise that you give this matter attention and unless payment thereof is made within seven days from receipt of this letter, please note that our instructions are to institute Ejectment Proceedings for recovery of possession of the said premises."

I didn't have the money to pay and even if I had had the money I doubt if I would have paid this bill anyway. The landlord, James Carlisle, did summons me to court, but before the case could be heard, the Nationwide Building Society paid the whole amount and added it to my account with them - so very convenient. If the landlord had taken the house off me, he would probably have had it sold it for a minimal amount and the Building Society could not let that happen.

The summer of 1984 saw the formation of the Ballynahinch Community Association! On July 10th 1984 the Down Recorder reported that I had agreed at the request of the Association, to suspend all my protests both at Newcastle Road and Down Council offices in order to provide a climate within which the Association might be able to achieve some progress with Down District Council.

The Chairman of the new Association was the Rev. CD Adams, a local Presbyterian minister and Mr. Adams was quoted as stating that the reason the Association had taken up my case was because they believed, quote,

"There was a case to be answered,"

and,

"As an Association who are concerned about anyone in our community with grievances, we felt that this should be investigated."

Mr. Adams had told a mutual friend that he would welcome a letter from me to the Association about my case. I was also told that Mr. Adams had actually voted for what I stood for in the 1979 General Election. I was very pleased. The Down Recorder reported that the Association had also asked me to tidy up the house in Carlisle Park. I was very pleased to do this also.

The same paper reported on October 10th 1984 that quote,

"A date has been fixed for the special Down Council meeting to discuss the case of Drumaness man Mr. Gerry Rice. Mr. Rice's case will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday, October 24th. Ballynahinch Community Association, which has taken up Mr. Rice's case, say they have been given the date by Council officials. A three man Association team, led by local Presbyterian minister the Rev. CD Adams with Mr. Patrick Kane and Mr. Sam Robinson, will meet council officials. The meeting will be a private session. Mr. Rice has been fighting a seven year long campaign to highlight the fact that he cannot live in a house he has bought at Carlisle Park, Ballynahinch, because of a smoke problem."

In his letter to Down District Council of July 11th 1984, Mr. Adams had requested a meeting in August. Gemma and I had met with the Committee of the Association on two occasions in order to explain our case.

Unfortunately the second of these meetings took place just after I had sent a very strong letter to the Headmaster in St. Colman's High School regarding Mr. Kane's conduct and I had to take a rather unstoppable tirade from Mr. Kane at this second meeting. This is the same Mr. Kane who told me about the Commissioner for Complaints Report five years earlier.