Braddan Parish Commissioners have announced they are to reduce the rate by 3p to 227p from 1^st April 2009.

This welcome news, for Braddan ratepayers, follows a turbulent two years commencing with the sacking of their former clerk, Mr Charles Lewin, for serious misconduct, and the subsequent - and unconnected to the reason for dismissal of the clerk - revealing of an approximate £250,000 deficit.

In a press release issued by Authority Chairman, Mrs Margaret Hodge, she explains that: “a comprehensive review of the Authority’s financial management systems, which included input from the Government’s Internal Auditors, has resulted in a root and branch overhaul of the Authority’s financial reporting systems; and the Commissioners are confident that many of the failings of the previous system have now been addressed.”

Mrs Hodge goes on to say contrary to predictions, from “certain quarters”, of a hefty increase in the rates - due to the “careful financial management policies that are now applied” - the Commissioners have not only turned around the deficit in under two years, but also managed to reign in expenditure to such an extent they can even afford to cut the rate.

Apparently “Significant savings have been made by the simple expedient of cancelling many expensive and, it has proved, unnecessary contracts; along with the avoidance of unnecessary legal and professional fees.”

A set of charts accompanying the press release are said to graphically illustrate the rapid increase in expenditure from around 2003 onwards, with a matching rise in administration costs, which has now been halted; and in some areas reversed.

This effective acknowledgment of a profligate use of ratepayers’ money, in the past, comes a mere three years after a public inquiry, in essence, concluded that the Department of Local Government & the Environment was right to be concerned about the increasing levels of expenditure.

Mrs Hodge gives a lot of the credit to the turnaround to the new clerk, Colin Whiteway, and “our newly motivated and valued team of staff.”

The announcement on the rate reduction more-or-less coincided with the news that the Commissioners and Mr Lewin had reached a settlement over his claim of unfair dismissal.

Mr Lewin has reacted by issuing a letter to Middle MHK, Martyn Quayle, and released to selected media, in which it apparently says he is now planning High Court action, against the Authority, claiming ‘wrongful dismissal’; and inviting Mr Quayle to intervene in an effort to broker a solution to the matter.

The Manx Herald’s Editor, Andrew Jessopp - who is also Vice Chairman of Braddan Parish Commissioners, and Chairman of the Public Inquiry Committee - when asked for a comment on this latest development replied that the Commissioners had not been directly notified of Mr Lewin’s letter to Mr Quayle; and no such approach, to his knowledge, had been made to the Authority.

Beyond that he said he could not comment other than to say if any action did commence it is likely it will be robustly defended, in the same way a defamation action, by Mr Lewin, against the Chairman, Mrs Hodge is being defended.