
Dumfries town board boss steps down with immediate effect
The funding was announced in 2023 by the then prime minister Rishi Sunak to be put "in the hands of local people" to revitalise their high streets.Dumfries - along with Greenock, Irvine, Kilmarnock, Coatbridge, Clydebank and Elgin - was on the list.The support was subsequently confirmed by the new Labour government and Mr Nicoll had been leading efforts to invest the funds - to be delivered over a 10-year period.However, he said he was no longer in a position to lead the town board set up as part of the investment process.
'Extremely proud'
He said he was "incredibly proud" of what the board had achieved in terms of a regeneration strategy and "meaningful engagement" with others."We've begun building something truly unique and this is something that I am extremely proud of - a model unlike any other town board in the country," he said."One that is independent, community-led, and free from political interference."It's a model rooted firmly in the voice and will of the people of Dumfries."He highlighted Dumfries Shine - a community clean-up initiative - as one example that "meaningful, local-led change" was possible."My personal ethos has always been that you are either fully in or respectfully out," he added."With upcoming changes in my professional priorities, I do not want to reach a point where I'm missing meetings or limiting my contribution."The people of Dumfries deserve full commitment; nothing less."He said he would support his replacement and urged whoever it was to reflect the needs of local people not the agenda of any political organisation.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
10 minutes ago
- Reuters
Ex-trader Tom Hayes wins appeal to overturn rate-rigging conviction at UK top court
LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - Tom Hayes, the first trader ever jailed for interest rate rigging, had his conviction overturned by Britain's top court on Wednesday after a years-long fight to clear his name. The UK Supreme Court unanimously allowed Hayes' appeal, overturning his 2015 conviction of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Libor, a now-defunct benchmark interest rate. Hayes had initially received a 14-year prison sentence, later reduced to 11 years on appeal. He served five and a half years before being released on licence in 2021. A former star Citigroup (C.N), opens new tab and UBS (UBSG.S), opens new tab trader, Hayes became the face of the global Libor scandal and challenged his conviction during three days of hearings at the UK Supreme Court along with Carlo Palombo, 46, a former Barclays (BARC.L), opens new tab trader who was found guilty in 2019 of skewing Libor's euro equivalent, Euribor. The court also quashed Palombo's conviction. He was given a four-year sentence in 2019. Hayes and Palombo had argued that their convictions depended on a definition of Libor and Euribor which assumes there is an absolute legal bar on a bank's commercial interests being taken into account when setting rates. The Libor rate, phased out in 2023, was designed to reflect banks' short-term funding costs and based on daily estimates from a group of banks as to how much they would expect to pay to borrow funds from each other for a range of currencies and periods. Hayes' challenge at the Supreme Court followed a landmark U.S. court decision in 2022 which overturned the Libor rigging convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders.


The Independent
12 minutes ago
- The Independent
Why the resident doctors are wrong to go on a five-day strike
The imminent strikes by the BMA resident doctors pose a moment of sadness. It is sad for patients and sad for the NHS. We are in the economic equivalent of a Covid crisis in the NHS; if the proposed reforms aren't delivered, it will be an existential crisis for our health system. I do not say that at all lightly, but I do say it from decades of knowledge and experience. It is a relief that reforms are already starting to see things moving in the right direction, but this action will choke off that recovery and put the NHS in a perilous place. I was a GP for 29 years. It is a privilege to be a clinician and share people's lives at difficult moments. It is our professional duty to put the people we care for before ourselves. Last year's (and this year's) pay award amounts to a 28.9 per cent increase for resident doctors compared with three years ago. It is what many other people dream of, not to mention the almost unique index-linked NHS pensions. It cannot have been easy to persuade the Treasury to pay out in such resource-constrained times. Having pocketed that, the resident doctors now need to accept that there is no more money for pay – reform has to have priority. That said, there are valid issues to be sorted out in training, allocation to jobs, and working conditions. It isn't right that resident doctors can be randomly allocated to posts, disrupting lives, or find the catering arrangements totally inadequate when on call. However, the NHS 10-year plan contains within it a pledge to deal with such matters with speed. So, I just don't understand the call for a strike. It is disproportionate when there is such an open door. Without getting too Monty Python, as a junior doctor, I did one in two or one in three 'on calls', which meant working the days and also working through every other night (or third night) with time beyond 40 hours paid at a third of our normal rate. It was brutal, but our representatives worked to make things better – and from this, the current generation benefits. We wouldn't ever have considered taking action against our patients. And this action is against patients. The resident doctors may be worried about their futures, but so is every patient who now might not be treated. Polls suggest patients do not agree with the resident doctors. I hope the public supports the NHS and opposes the resident doctors this time. I hope resident doctors support the NHS – and not their leaders. The proposed action will further erode trust by people in the NHS. It is already at an all-time low, and the consent of the nation to use 40 per cent of departmental spend on a poorly performing healthcare system is unlikely to continue without improvement. This resident doctors' action almost guarantees the end of the NHS if they continue, playing into the hands of those who want to have a different healthcare system. This action is the industrial relations equivalent of the charge of the Light Brigade. The resident doctors should remember the spirit of the Hippocratic oath; first, do no harm.


BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
City traders have rate-rigging convictions quashed
Two former City traders who were at the centre of one of the biggest scandals of the financial crisis have had their convictions quashed. Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo were jailed following trials for manipulating the interest rates used for loans between were among 19 City traders convicted in the US and UK for manipulating those Libor and Euribor interest rates, which are used to set interest rates on mortgages and commercial serving their time, the US courts threw out the convictions, but they remained convicted criminals in the UK.