Widow wins five-year fight
A KILMUN mother has won a five-year battle to vindicate her late husband. Jennifer Connolly lost her husband Thomas five years ago.
Thomas, who was working in Broughty Ferry, was killed when a void opened up beside a trench and buried him.
He had been employed as a foreman for a company called East-West Developments, which was operating as part of a consortium with another company, Morrisons Bechtel.
The accident happened on May 30, 2001; Thomas was just 36 years old, and he and Jennifer had been married for 18 years.
Jennifer was left a widow with four children to bring up, the youngest of whom, called Thomas after his father, was just three.
Both companies subsequently appeared in court in Dundee, and were prosecuted and fined, Morrison Bechtel was fined £12,000 and East West Developments £10,000 for breaches of Health and Safety legislation, although the latter company had its fine reduced on appeal.
That was in 2004, but when Jennifer was told by the procurator fiscal that the court case was the end of the process, she was outraged.
“He said that there was no need for a Fatal Accident Inquiry,” said Jennifer. “He contended that all the relevant details had come out in the court case.
“I wasn’t happy with that; I felt that there was a lot more to be uncovered. I was determined to ensure that Thomas wasn’t blamed for the accident that took his life, so I started my own campaign for a Fatal Accident Inquiry.”
Jennifer spoke to five procurator fiscals, all of whom turned down her demands for an FAI, She took her case up with politicians and eventually approached the senior Scottish law officer, the Lord Advocate.
She said: “I was determined to get justice for Thomas, and I was really lucky to have so much support locally. The people along the shore and in Dunoon really encouraged me and helped me fight my corner - they gave me hope and the determination to fight on, and I’m really grateful for that.”
Eventually Jennifer’s perseverance paid off, and in January this year a Fatal Accident Inquiry opened in Dundee into the circumstances surrounding the death of Thomas..
“I went to court every day.” said Jennifer “It was very distressing, but I had to get closure, and this was the only way to prove that Thomas bore no responsibility for the accident that cost him his life.”
The inquiry lasted four weeks and at the end the sheriff adjourned the case to consider her findings.
On October 12 her conclusions were made public. “She cleared Thomas of any blame,” said Jennifer, “and found that his death was preventable had the companies taken proper heed of health and safety procedures; their neglect had, in effect, put him at risk.”`
Jennifer has plenty of reasons to feel aggrieved - as far back as Thomas’s funeral his employers had acted in a fashion which seems unbelievably callous.
“At the funeral Thomas’s boss stood up and announced that the company was picking up the tab for the food and the drink, and effectively encouraged people to drink their fill.
The bill came to £2,000 for food and £4,000 for drink. They paid for the food, but not the drink.
“The hotel sued me and won the case. The company eventually paid the outstanding drinks bill, but left me with the legal bill.
“So because Thomas’s boss made a promise and didn’t keep it, I got landed with legal costs of £8,000.”
The next stage is a fight for compensation at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
“This isn’t for me. My fight is over, this is for my children. So far all I’ve had is interim compensation. It never even covered the loss of Thomas’ wages, and it was made ‘without admission of liability’.
“Well, they’re liable now, and they owe our kids.”
Jennifer’s children are Lindsay, aged 18, Sarah 16, Kaitlyn 11 and Thomas, aged 9.
No date has yet been set for the Court of Session hearing, which will be at least 18 months away.


No place for Dunoon in timetable
THE threat to run passenger-only service from Dunoon to Gourock over the winter has receded, following negotiations between Argyll and Bute Council and Caledonian MacBrayne.
The council has agreed - subject to clearance from Arch Henderson, its consultant engineers - to raise the weight limit on vehicles to 15 tonnes and to reschedule the imposition of the limit for a further week until November 6.
However, after we went to press last week Calmac launched its brochure for the 2007 season.
There was one significant omission - the total absence of any timetable for the Dunoon-Gourock route.
The reason given seemed entirely logical; since that the route is in the final stages of the tendering process, there is no guarantee that Calmac will be operating a vehicle service - or, indeed, any service to Dunoon from Gourock next spring.
However both MP Alan Reid and his Liberal Democrat colleague MSP George Lyon condemned the move.
Mr Lyon said: “Gourock-Dunoon and the rest of the Caledonian MacBrayne’s routes are to be tendered under European Union rules therefore it makes no sense to exclude the Gourock-Dunoon route from the timetable until that process has been completed, and there is still some way to go before that happens.


No end to problems at James Watt
Support staff, academic staff and students of the troubled James Watt College have organised a march and rally to take place in Greenock tomorrow.
Organisers expect over 400 staff to take part in the march itself but suggest this figure could easily double when the march reaches the Custom House Quay where they will be joined for the rally by their families and friends, members of the general public and colleagues and workers from other colleges and public service organisations.
The organisers claim that the action will highlight continuing concerns over the serious mismanagement of the college - mismanagement which has recently resulted in five votes of no confidence in the Principal, Professor Bill Wardle. The college’s support staff are being balloted on strike action later this month over a pay offer; the lecturing staff, meanwhile, intend to request a ballot on industrial action if an acceptable pay offer is not forthcoming at the end of the month.
This will be the second time this year that staff have voted to take industrial action against the College management.
However, both Professor Wardle and the Chairman of the Board of Management, Mr Tony Edwards were replaced earlier this week, the former because of his ‘continuing poor health’ and the latter because his tenure in office was due to end in September.
The effect the replacements will have on the march or the threat of industrial action is as yet unclear.


House prices continue to soar
The average price of a house in Argyll and Bute is now almost £145,000, an increase of 16 percent over 2005, according to the latest survey from the Bank of Scotland.
House price rises in Scotland are continuing to outpace those south of the border, with the annual rate of house price inflation for the year to date across Scotland standing at 14.5 percent, almost double the UK average of 8 percent.
Two Argyll towns feature strongly in the latest House Price Index (HPI). Helensburgh continues to have some of the most expensive houses in Scotland, with average prices now reaching a pocket-stretching £181,259. This places the town third in the price league table behind Edinburgh and Dalkeith.
The traditional holiday town of Oban is also experiencing strong house price gains this year, up 32 percent, a figure only exceeded by Kilmarnock at 35 percent.
However, across the Clyde in Greenock, homeowners are not faring so well. The Inverclyde town is one of only two places in the Bank of Scotland survey, the other being Galashiels, where prices have dropped in the 12 months to September, with both towns experiencing a two percent reduction in house values.