In The Public Domain?

Thursday, 9 January 2025

My AI Profile - A Grok of Sh*t?

I dipped my toe into the murky waters of Artificial Intelligence (AI) sometime ago - publishing a post entirely written using this new wonder. I am now indebted to Sandwell Community Activist, Darryl Magher, for forwarding a profile of me via Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok. I should say that Grok has thrown up different versions of my profile and this is just one of them.

I am including a couple of comments/clarifications, but will leave it to you, dear readers, to form a view as to the accuracy or otherwise of the piece.

My soliciting days did include a spell in Sadders, but were mostly spent elsewhere.

AI fails to mention the harassment of me by Sandwell Labour Council's bent cronies at West Midlands Police leading to several unpleasant trips to police stations and interviews under caution. It also fails to mention death threats, threats of extreme violence and threats to burn my house down, plus an actual assault on me by the next Mayor of Sandwell, Melia, who was duly convicted at Dudley Magistrates for attacking me.

I am pleased that AI has picked up the fact that I organised the UK's first ever "Corruptour" with permission from the originators of the idea in Mexico City. This involved a small party touring various sites in Sandwell including Providence Place (where Labour cost taxpayers a mere, er, £22.5 m) and the former public conveniences in Oldbury - the epicentre of the "Boggate" scandal!

A different Grok version puts the number of views of The Skidder at 1.9 m which is incorrect. At the time of writing the figure is just under 2.75 m and that does not include some Sandwell-related posts on associated blogs, As The Crow Flies and Rotten Councils.

I have fought two separate cases in the High Court Media and Communications List plus an action of the High Court, Birmingham District Registry.

This is putting it very mildly - the Labour Council, trade unions and Labour's cop pals have tried to bankrupt me and to have me imprisoned over many years.

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Tuesday, 7 January 2025

Sandwell Lib Dem "Fuhrer" Outgoing ...

Why do the Lib Dems hate Sandwell? Since 2013 - when this blog - started they have done precisely nothing in the Sh*thole Borough. Recently the Lib Dems have been doing well both in respect of winning Parliamentary seats and many council seats elsewhere. The principal reason for local Sadders failure is that the Party has been under the control of crazed, Labour-rimmer, Mark Smith ("The Fuhrer").

Year after year, the Lib Dems have avoided all Sandwell issues and maintained a vow of silence worthy of Trappist monks. Yet when an election is called they gather a few candidates and expect folk to actually vote for them! Even in Sandwell the outcome is inevitable, and the Party is humiliated.

Smith is so pro-Labour that he cannot bring himself to criticise the corrupt local Dictatorship. His rare, inane, utterances have been foaming-at-the-mouth rants against the, er, Tories even though Labour has been in total control of Sadders for half a century!

As Labour corruption riddled the Council under "Leaders", Cooper and Eling, Smith remained silent. As green space across the Borough has been destroyed by Labour (and more is threatened by the concrete mixer), Smith has remained silent. As the bent Dictatorship led the Council into very costly Government "special measures" (at a cost of £2m +), Smith remained silent.

Campaigns have sprung up to save Londonderry Fields, Brandhall, and Lion Farm, but the Fuhrer has ignored them all. Smith rarely attends Council meetings (and seldom do his selected candidates). Speak to the candidates at election time and they are completely unaware of the myriad issues raised in this blog and elsewhere. In short, they are not serious candidates, and should be an embarrassment to the national Party.

As above, the national Party has done well and last May won a rake of seats taking around 17% of the vote. In Sandwell Lib Dems' latest hilarious newsletter [What that - Ed?] the fantasist Smith boasts of the "progress" made in Sadders in '24 where his rag-tag slate garnered, er, 4% of the vote!!! In the very next paragraph Smith returns to more important matters and describes a curry night at a pub with Walsall "colleagues".

Of course, the supremely arrogant Smith won't accept his part in this shaming degringolade. This was the campaign photo for last May's local election:

In the latest Lib Dem propaganda sheet, Smith explains, without irony, that the local party is leaving X (formerly Twitter). The reason is unexplained but presumably relates to the alleged "toxicity" of the site. Yet despite the publicity surrounding 2024 Lib Dem candidate, Wikas Khan, Smith allowed his local selection and flaunted him - front left - in the above photo. Of course, Khan's abusive behaviour on X/Twitter was so bad that HE was sanctioned by that site (and more than once). Toxic indeed!

If you are sad enough to want to visit the Sandwell Lib Deb website (honestly - don't bother), Smith still has the above photo in pride of place on the header. And so he is still backing the infamous troll. Also, many regular readers will recognise the chap on the right - local campaigner and good egg, Clive Heywood, who reports that he, er, no longer has communications with Smith and the Lib Dems. And so the Skidder is helpfully providing an update of the photo for you:

BUT - great news! In the latest newsletter Smith describes himself as the "outgoing Chair". Good riddance to bad rubbish and perhaps this may herald a new dawn for a genuine Lib Dem opposition in Sandwell. There is plenty of work to be done - particularly as the Tory opposition has imploded so spectacularly - as Labour tightens its stranglehold on the benighted Borough.

And on the subject of the Tories ...

It was hard to believe that Sandwell could have a worse MP than Tom "Twatson" Watson (although Spellar ran the serial shagger close) and there were high hopes for Nicola Richards when she won what was West Brom East for the Conservatives. Alas she proved to be a disaster. Indeed, even many Tories agreed with the popular view of her locally. She also fell out big style with the WBW MP, and their inability to work together was both childish and insulting to local voters.

We still don't know what really happened in Solihull. We do know that although sitting MP, Julian Knight, strongly pleads his innocence in respect of allegations made against him and implies that his own party was involved in a plot to remove him, he was defenestrated. Richards immediately threw her hat into the ring to grab his safe seat having decided to run away from the folk who voted for her in Sadders and who she was doing a p*sspoor job at representing. She was shortlisted (despite her track record) but a strong campaign arose locally where many Tories detested her. When she was finally given the bum's rush by the Blue Silhillians she is said by some local Tories to have stormed out of the meeting, further besmirching her already tarnished reputation.

You will all be happy to note that Richards has been given a job with PR agency, Cratus Group, which seems to have detected a degree of talent and ability in Richards that has passed everyone in Sadders by. Cratus Group boasts that they "manage political and reputational risks" and so Nicola does not seem a natural fit there. They also claim to be able "to influence national policy on some of the most important issues facing the UK" - in other words, something Richards was supposed to be doing as an MP but, er, didn't. Good luck, Cratus!

Meanwhile, readers will know that the Tory MP's locally all lost their seats in '24, and that the Party's number of Councillors fell to just five. At the last full Council meeting only TWO of the five were able to manage their affairs sufficiently for them to be able to show up. You will be glad to note that the TWO who could be arsed specifically voted WITH Labour in respect of the Council Tax base, housing rent increases and, even worse, the reduction in the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme which will affect the most vulnerable Sandwell residents. YES - this "opposition" actually specifically voted FOR these disastrous Labour policies brought about by the £20m hole in the accounts under the Dictatorship. What an absolute sh*tshow!

And finally - do come shopping in West Brom (if you are wearing body armour)

There is an uprising in West Brom by small traders who are fighting the hated Town BID. This is a crackpot "Business Improvement District" which makes traders pay extra tax (called a levy) whilst providing well-paid jobs to people who are supposedly providing the services which the traders are already paying the bent Labour Council to provide anyway via their business rates. In actual fact, the principal activity of the BID team is to operate as copper's narks.

The big shops like Tesco tend to vote for BID's to destroy small shops and prevent them from providing a modicum of competition. They can afford to pass the extra tax (levy) on, in higher prices to customers, so that ordinary folk end up paying the price. And struggling small traders cannot simply up their prices in difficult market conditions.

Twelve months ago, bent, business-hating, Sandwell Labour heaped more misery on local traders with a crazed campaign exhorting folk not to buy new stuff during January. This year, the new(ish) Labour Government is shafting small retailers/publicans/restaurateurs etc with minimum wage hikes, higher rates and National Insurance increases which will inevitably cause devastation - particularly in deprived sh*tholes like Labour Sandwell.

Please support the small traders in West Bromwich - if you are brave enough to go there. And you need to be brave. Many of you will have seen the horrific scenes of machete-wielding yobs taking to the streets before Christmas - no doubt whilst the local rozzers wo/man "crime prevention" stalls in the warmth of the shopping centre or sit in the office tweeting pro-Labour propaganda:

Even a Labour Councillor, Tory turncoat Archer Williams, described how he had been "frightened" by adults throwing fireworks about in the High Street. This, in a bizarre "speech" at the last full Council meeting. Williams failed to address Madam Mayor (lol, corrupt liar Syeda Khatun FFS) - by her correct title and then collapsed into a fit of giggles. When he composed himself he said that the firework throwers were "adults, grown adults" - presumably to differentiate them from those many unfortunates in Sadders whose growth has been stunted by poverty and malnutrition? He made no mention of any police presence again, nor of the attendance of the BID's paramilitaries. And so once again, Labour Councillors are warning you about wasting your time and money in West Brom! Mind how you go!

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Sunday, 15 December 2024

BREAKING NEWS: LION FARM FIELDS "FOR SALE"

In accordance with bent Sandwell Labour's plan to destroy much of the green space in sh*thole Sandwell a new "plan" has been hatched to develop Lion Farm Fields following the collapse of the corrupt shopping centre deal. As usual with this amoral and venal Council, all this has been going on in secret.

Regular readers will know that I have been campaigning against the destruction of the massive 19 ha green space for many years (Skidders passim). In an astonishingly bent deal starting in 2011/12 corrupt Labour agreed to a top secret "options agreement" with Tory Party donor and multimillionaire, Jeremy Knight Adams (JKA), for him to build an "up-market designer shopping village" on the vital local green lung.

Lying Cllr Simon "The Sandwell Slasher" Hackett was in on the deal right from the off as was Cllr Paul "The Cipher" Moore. Bent Labour went to great pains to hide the deal referring to it in such documents as they had to make public by absurdly misleading names such as "Land at Junction 2, M5" Initially I exposed the corruption and was part of a local campaign against the proposed despoiling development. This pressure led to some panic in bent Labour and, ignoring the material fact that JKA had not fulfilled his part of the deal, then Labour "Leader", the tyrannical Steve "Squealing" Eling and his close associates, simply declared - in the teeth of the contrary evidence - that all was above board, and purported to give retrospective legality to this "deal". Once again, Paul Moore was heavily involved in this unlawfulness, putting his name to a mendacious and grossly inaccurate Council Report. Others involved in 2017/18 (at the latest) were current Leader, Kerrie, Dim Kez, Carmichael and corrupt liar, Cllr Syeda Khatun.

The destruction of green space continues apace under Labour. Only Sandwell Valley is safe (at least for now) and Labour has already destroyed Londonderry Fields, and agreed to destroy a substantial part of the old Brandhall Golf Course. [Warley Woods is safe as Sandwell Labour can't destroy it for legal reasons.] The new Labour national Government has already said that it doesn't give a sh*t about wildlife etc., and is intent on concreting-over as much green space as possible.

Folks local to Lion Farm Fields were initially opposed to the proposed development, but it is clear that the residents of Langley and Tividale Wards don't give a f*ck anymore. Indeed, in Langley, they even voted in Dim Kez's mum who is guaranteed to support her daughter's enthusiasm for this despoliation in the midst of an urban dystopia. There was also ambivalence from the b*llshitting friend of JKA, former Tory West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, but he has - thankfully - been booted-out. The local ever-shrinking band of Tory Councillors have generally pretended to be against Labour's plan to destroy The Fields, but they played that same deceitful game with Brandhall, and then turned round and p*ssed over the strong local campaign Group. Still, if the locals want another 19 ha of concrete on their doorsteps (no doubt with a miniscule "eco-park" in the middle) good luck to them.

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed the use of inverted commas around "for sale" in the title of this post and wondered about this. The fact is that whilst the Fields are technically on the open market, bent Labour is yet again trying to do a secret deal with favoured friends without a fully open and transparent process.

Sandwell has disclosed a lot of heavily redacted documents to me via a Freedom of Information request. What is certain is that the "Options" deal with multimillionaire JKA is dead having expired on 5th July, 2024. What is not clear is whether bent Labour had to pay him to go away (and I am still working on that).

In fact, even before this, in a secret Cabinet meeting in May, 2023 Carmichael and her chums agreed to:

"Designate the site for a mix of residential and employment use with a suitable proportion of open space".

Note that is when the Government Commissioners were in situ and supposed to be preventing anymore bent deals although, of course, Lead Commissioner Kim Bromley Derry also has a very lucrative side-hussle working for a major, er, property developer.

Thus bent Labour has stated in writing:

"The land is currently available for purchase to an appropriate developer"; and

"The piece of land subject to this request is currently available and the Council is open to discussions with developers".

The Council has a legal duty to dispose of the land (assuming it faces no opposition to development which seems likely given the fecklessness of locals) at the best price, and so the obvious thing to do would be to put the huge green space on the open market. But that leaves less option for corruption and kick-backs and so, yet again, bent Labour has chosen to deal with only certain developers who have somehow "found out" about the end of the JKA nonsense and "expressed an interest in the land at Lion Farm".

It goes without saying that Labour are hiding the names of the mystery developers it is already talking to, and Chief Executive, Shokat Lal, has come up with this absurd reasoning for concealing their identities:

" ... the name of the companies will reveal who the council is willing to engage with in terms of the development of land and give an advantage to other developers." [My emphasis].

Surely the more interest, the higher the amount the taxpayer is likely to receive from this scandalous situation but Lal has made it clear that only people Labour want to bid can get involved here. This is, at the very best, extremely poor practice which I will be drawing to the attention of Sandwell's arse-licking external auditors, Grant Thornton.

Alas, another very sad Sandwell story. Farewell to the Fields.

[In the unlikely event that anyone actually does want to contest this appalling vandalism I can send the large amount of new documentation by sharing a Google Drive file. That offer excludes Peter Durnell and his proxies.]

Labour Cllr Paul "The Cipher" Moore

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

We have had to remove the direct comment facility from this blog due to the malicious activity of a West Bromwich woman but we are pleased to receive comments via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com, on Twitter via our publishers @CrowMultimedia or via our dedicated Facebook Group: “The Sandwell Skidder - Speaking Truth to Power!” We are happy to publish any sensible commentary and offer a right of reply where applicable. We can also publish “guest” posts on mutually agreed terms.

Monday, 9 December 2024

The Last Days of The Skidder

Dear readers will have noticed that The Skidder has been rather quiet for the last few months. This was largely due to personal circumstances together with (a) the fact that no matter what evidence of Labour cronyism, corruption and incompetence The Skidder exposes, the vast majority of the morons who live in the sh*thole Borough want more of the same, and (b) despite the efforts of myself and others over many years to hold Labour to account, the elected opposition in the form of the hapless Tory opposition MP's and Councillors have been absolutely pathetic. Happily, the Tories have been severely culled at all levels in Sadders. But the half-century of Labour failure continues with the Dictatorship stronger than ever and, quite simply, this is exactly what the residents of the benighted Borough deserve.

Subject to the caveats set out below, The Skidder will be winding down over the next few weeks. There are still some big stories in the offing and so stay tuned for now. There are at least two Tribunal cases coming up. And "retirement" will never be total since there are certain bent individuals who will remain "on the watch list" whilst I draw breath.

I will also be writing up the definitive "History of The Skidder" as a matter of public record so that future Sandwell generations will see the contempt their ancestors had for their future. Watch this space.

Recent news

This has been unremittingly bad from the national Rachel Theeves tax bombshell Budget to local Labour disasters as shown by the following small selection of recent horrors:

Even the pro-Labour clickbait recycling works, The Birmingham Mail, recently said:

"Sandwell is one of the most deprived areas in the country and regularly comes near the bottom of rankings when it comes to health, lifestyle, poverty and school performance."

This was written in a piece explaining that Sandwell had appeared in the top ten areas nationally where kids perform the worst in English and Maths GCSE's. But then Sandwell parents don't care and so why should we be surprised?

And Sandwell's appalling reputation nationally was reported again in the Mail when dismal West Bromwich - described in a survey report as "the Black Country's crime capital" - was also in the "top ten worst places to live in the UK". Besides the awful crime rate the toilet that is West Brom scored particularly low in terms of culture - which is hardly surprising given Labour's decade-long attempt to destroy culture across the Borough, except for a few brown-tongue organisations like Multistory. It also scored badly in respect of parks and green spaces - the latter being systematically concreted-over by bent Labour across Sadders.

And Labour's hapless administration was slammed by the Regulator of Social Housing for failing to meet health and safety standards and poor record keeping. How is this even possible given the bloated Council workforce although, of course, the majority are now "working" - or "shirking" - from home? Despite huge year-on-year increases of council rents under bent Sandwell Labour the Regulator's inspection revealed a colossal backlog of 14,000 repairs. Shokat Lal (the Chief Executive) could only produce accurate records for 5% (yes that IS five per cent) of homes. Asbestos surveys and re-inspections had only been carried out on a tiny 2% of homes.

The irony of this is that bent Labour has been waging war on supposedly "rogue" private landlords yet Labour as landlords has "serious failings" according to the Regulator and "significant improvements" are needed. Once again you have to question the mentality of Sandwell Council residents who keep paying more and more rent for this substandard service, but then keep supporting Labour. Serves them right, really.

Incidentally, on the subject of landlords, a***-licker extraordinaire Gurinder Josan MP is one of the largest private landlords in Parliament. In addition to his other business interests he and his family own eight rental properties in and around the cesspool that is Smethwick. Right on, Comrade!

The UK needs more immigration rather than less, but Sandwell Labour is (now) vociferous in support of irregular immigrants (as the UK Government describes them) arriving on our beaches. (Compare and contrast the position when the vile wifebeater, Darren Cooper, was the Council's Labour "Leader" and he and the Labour Group refused to house folks fleeing civil war in Syria). Sandwell Labour backs the independent local Borough of Sanctuary campaign in its usual leftie, virtual-signalling, way. Meanwhile, besides letting council properties fester (as above) it has presided over a 345% increase in "temporary" - mainly bed and breakfast - accommodation for families in just three years. The bill to us taxpayers has risen from £400,000 in 2021 to £2.5m in the last financial year. You would have to be desperate to want to live in red Sadders, but then there are locals and new arrivals who are.

This blog has always pointed out the "good" news that inhabitants in the Sandwell sh*thole at least have a shorter life expectancy than their peers in most of the rest of the UK but, alas, yet another bent Labour stealth tax is coming with the New Year as funeral/cremation costs are hiked again - this time by a stonking 10%. These and other fees (weddings/planning etc) are going up despite Labour continually boasting of its financial acumen. In an incredible statement bent Labour blamed the public for not spending enough on its woeful services. It coyly and absurdly described this as an "under-recovery of income". It intends to fill the black hole by charging more for the, er, same services. Anyone else think there might be a flaw in this "plan"?

And so the disasters stack one on top of another. But still, that's what people in Sadders are happy with.

Orifice Latest

Rumours abound that the Oracle Fusion computer upgrade is still problematic. In a recent post:

https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2024/09/shokat-lal-on-davey-and-oracle-fusion.html

I explained that it was Birmingham Labour's contract with right-wing US software giant, Oracle, which had been a factor in driving that Council to the local government equivalent of bankruptcy. Sandwell Chief Exec, Shokat Lal, decided that the staff member in charge of this project did not need a suitable qualification and, indeed, that this was "not desirable". WTF?

It was claimed that Alice Davey (Skidders passim) was to head-up the project, but she has now left the Council altogether despite Lal re-employing her following the removal of her original post! WTF again? It seems the s.151 Finance Officer has been handed the poisoned chalice so that Lal can distance himself from any more disasters.

Farewell Alice.

Sources claim there have been big problems with paying suppliers and maintenance of staff annual leave records. There seems to be some problem with input of time sheets. Staff claim there has been little or no training on the new system. Let's just hope Lal is on top of this, and that the project is not eating money Brum-style. (Anymore info welcome on this.)

(Unless I have missed something the small rump of Tory Councillors are completely silent on the Oracle shambles so far, and so we can assume that they are entirely happy with the way the contract is running - or like much else Labour does, don't actually give a fxxx!))

Akpoteni - The Silence of the Sheep

Last March (13th & 22nd) I wrote in two posts how (then) Labour Councillor (and, incredibly, would-be Parliamentary candidate) Kacey Akpoteni ran a care [sic] Company which was investigated by the police (although no action was taken) and by care regulators in both England and Wales. The Regulators raised serious concerns and Akpoteni's Company was required to improve. Of course, bent Sandwell Labour had given their pal Akpoteni part of a valuable domiciliary care contract, and let her Company loose on vulnerable Sandwell people.

I put in a detailed Freedom of Information (FOI) Request and if you can't sleep at night you can view it, and the wholly inadequate replies from SMBC, here:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/domiciliary_care_contract_cllr_a#incoming-2800968

Suffice to say that bent Labour itself terminated Akpoteni's contract AND kicked her out of the Labour Group. I asked about the original contract and what Lal and Co. did once they became aware of the damning reports from the Regulators. Even though all this raised serious safeguarding issues, Lal has refused to respond in any meaningful way.

Normally, I would take this matter to the Information Commissioner but as the Cllr for Hateful Heath has gone, and her Company no longer has the contract, I am not going to waste time on this for several more months. The record (via the link above) shows that Sandwell Labour clearly has a cavalier attitude when (a) doling out contracts to its cronies, and (b) in respect of safeguarding issues - despite all its bulls*t to the contrary.

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Friday, 4 October 2024

Dorset Council formally apologises to The Skidder

Following the initiation of a legal protocol process Dorset Council has issued an apology (set out below) to The Skidder via its external Solicitors.

Background

The story started when Dorset decided to replace a departing Director with an "interim" one. Applications were sought via the Council's "framework" but Chief Executive, Matt Prosser, claims to have received unsolicited applications via Solace in Business Limited, the trading arm of Solace, a membership organisation formed to promote the interests of local government figures. At the material time, Prosser was the President of Solace.

Prosser received the CV of the disgraced former Chief Executive of Sandwell MBC, Jan Britton, from Solace in Business although Prosser says that Britton is not a member of Solace. Despite the appalling misconduct of Britton over many years at Sandwell (see Note One and Skidders passim ad nauseum), Prosser agreed to pay the appalling Britton £900 per day plus a payment of £125 per day to Solace in Business for the interim job.

The pathetic groveller who claims to have seen nothing, heard nothing and certainly said nothing at corrupt Sandwell!

(Later, Prosser wrote that he was a Director of Solace in Business Limited (SIB) although he is not shown as such at Companies House. The Skidder duly wrote to the Company Secretary of SIB, Ruth Hyde, querying this anomaly but she has not bothered to respond. I will now take this matter up with Dorset again.)

You can see the history of Britton's appointment by Prosser and the hapless (and now out of power) local Tories via Note Two.

The Skidder wrote to a number of (then) Dorset Councillors from a selection of political parties asking why they thought spending £1,025 per day of taxpayers money on Britton - given his atrocious record, much of which is in the public domain - was good value. It quickly transpired that Dorset's Head of Legal, Jonathan Mair, had arranged to intercept Councillor's private emails without their knowledge (this was seemingly with Prosser's agreement and a later "independent report" by one of Mair's deputies said this appalling action was actually ok although, in future, it might be nice to ask the councillors' for permission to intercept their private emails first!)

Mair then sought to bully The Skidder. It's the same old, same old story for journalists covering misconduct in local government - bullying Councils ignore the facts and shoot the messenger. Mair threatened to use taxpayer's money to protect Britton's non-existent reputation and to take legal action if The Skidder attempted to contact any of Dorset's apparently pusillanimous Councillors about the appointment. Mair also told colleagues he was contacting the pathetic local mainstream media to warn them off the story! In fact, during the recent legal process, Dorset confirmed that they did not actually go on to nobble the local clickbait brigade (hence the wording of one of the paragraphs in the official apology). Interestingly, the feeble local mainstream media were alerted by The Skidder regarding Britton's appointment, but only the splendid, and independent, Dorset Eye covered the story.

Mair then wrote to the Councillors The Skidder had tried to contact making what The Skidder considered to me grossly defamatory remarks about him and his journalism. See Note Three below (from our associated blog).

Interestingly, one of the Councillors contacted was Nick Ireland. He was then the Lib Dem opposition Leader, but is now the Council Leader following the Tory rout locally. Ireland was apparently unconcerned (a) that his private emails had been intercepted, and (b) that his Council was paying £1,025 per day for the awful Britton. There is a curious "Lib Dem" aspect to all this. When Britton was kicked out of Sandwell (without compensation other than his statutory/contractual entitlement - almost unheard of for miscreant local government officers) a very aggressive Lib Dem Councillor in the Cotswolds called Joe Harris decided that someone as hopeless as Britton was just what was needed in that neck of the woods and gave him a job immediately! All very odd.

Incidentally, Ireland did not have the b*lls to tell The Skidder that Mair had written to him (and the others) in the manner in which he had, putting the poison down. But, incredibly, Dorset then put the incriminating documents on a public website for all to see! The Skidder started the protocol process to commence legal action.

For the record, Mair wrote to all the Councillors listed in the apology below (two of whom have since lost their seats) and - so it seems - not one of them had the guts or gumption to question what Mair and Prosser were up to, nor to contact me for verification of the facts. Clearly spending £1,025 per day on someone as dreadful as Britton is not, in their view, a matter of concern.

The Legals

Mair made it quite clear Dorset would use taxpayers' money to shut me up thinking that a small independent journalist would just rollover and comply. But, fortunately, I have the excellent Mark Lewis, Solicitor, and 5RB Chambers ready and willing to fight my corner. Thus Dorset's external and commendable lawyers quickly offered an apology. This is in the knowledge that I still intend to take regulatory action against a party involved in all this.

There is also a Freedom of Information request about Britton's appointment outstanding. Realistically, it should be Dorset Councillors asking the questions given Britton's long history of incompetence and misconduct and not me, but it seems they are incapable or unwilling to do so. Poor Dorset taxpayers!

There is also the ongoing question - which I am sure Prosser will wish to hasten to answer - about declarations he made in the Register of Interests in respect of his involvement with Solace before the appointment - in particular, his alleged directorship of SIB.

There is also some evidence that at least one of the Tory Councillors who gave Britton the job, Jill Haynes, (Chalk Valleys). knew of Britton's history of gross misconduct before the interview, but ignored the facts! That also remains an outstanding issue.

Here is the formal apology:

Prologue

Incredibly the story of Britton's misconduct at Sandwell is still ongoing. This blog published the still officially secret "Cox Review" into his appalling behaviour and so that was also available for Dorset Council to see before they appointed Britton at huge public expense (see Note Four). The Cox Review confirmed, amongst other things, what this blog had been saying for years - that Britton was hiding what he was doing by using an encrypted Blackberry device rather than his Council iPhone. There is a lot more that still remains hidden ...

And after, literally, YEARS the final costs of the Hackett case are about to be revealed. This followed on from Britton's very deliberate subversion of a Council standards review which also led to the bullying and dismissal of the Assistant Chief Executive at enormous cost to the taxpayer, and then a legal claim for damages from other parties which, of course, succeeded. Watch this space folks!

Note One: https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2023/12/desperate-dorset-council-employ-jan.html

Note Two: https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2024/02/four-tories-go-mad-in-dorset.html

Note Three: https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2024/08/dorset-council-foi-response-grossly.html

Note Four: https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2022/02/here-it-is-folks-cox-review-revealed.html

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Friday, 27 September 2024

Shokat Lal on Davey and Oracle Fusion

One of the causes of Birmingham City Council's bankruptcy at the hands of Labour was/is a colossal overspend on an Oracle computer system. Having spent £100m it decided, four years later, to start again. A report described the fiasco as an unmitigated failure.

Bent Labour Sandwell has also decided to go with Oracle for its new system. Guess what? Yes, there have been problems and rumours from within (although not, so far as I am aware, from the rump of Tory Councillors) of a dramatic, er, overspend.

Insiders claim that Chief Executive, Shokat Lal, when not out partying with Labour current and former Councillors, sent a memo to staff saying that the implementation of the Oracle system had been delayed from July until October (and see further below).

Also, remember Alice Davey? She was the Council Director who so memorably humiliated chocolate p*sspot Liam Preece (Labour) in a public meeting when she was "Director of Borough Economy". Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DX2ajk1qDk

You can also read more about this amazing episode via an earlier post:

https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2023/08/bumper-summer-skidder-double-holiday.html

Davey was also supposed to be the boss of the disastrous Matt Huggins (Skidders passim).

Shocked Sandwell insiders contacted The Skidder to say that Davey had not been kicked out in yet another rearrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic but had been made the new Director of ICT and Transformation ("ICT" means Information and Communications Technology and "Transformation" means f*ck all). I duly wrote to Lal about these issues:

"THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION - PRESS ENQUIRY

THIS IS A PRESS ENQUIRY AND NOT A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

I am informed that Alice Davey has been appointed as Director of IT and Transformation on a six-figure salary plus LG pension:

Part One

1 Where was this post advertised?

2 How many applicants were there for the post?

3 Was there any external process in Ms Davey's appointment and, if so, what?

4 What IT qualifications does Ms Davey currently hold?

5 What experience does Ms Davey have of managing IT Services during her career to date?

Part Two

Oracle Fusion has been a major problem for SMBC as with Birmingham City Council (and is now part of Ms Davey's remit). I am informed, rightly or wrongly, that on 8th July you emailed all employees stating that the implementation of the new Oracle system has been delayed from July to October. Is that correct? Does this mean additional costs for the taxpayer?"

It took Lal a mere 35 days to respond to a legitimate press enquiry:

"In relation to your questions on the process undertaken for recruitment to the post of Service Director – ICT & Transformation, we would advise –

1. The post Service Director – ICT & Transformation was established as part of the phase one review of the Council’s Strategic Leadership Team. In accordance with due process for the conduct of leadership and service reviews, opportunity was in the first instance given to those individuals – in this case Directors impacted by the phase one review - and subject to redundancy to express interest in any vacant posts of a comparable level of seniority as a suitable alternative role. The post of Service Director – ICT & Transformation having been established was available for this purpose.

2. There was one applicant for this role, the application being made through the process set out in our response at (1) above.

3. As indicated in our response at (1) above, opportunity was in the first instance given to those Directors impacted by the phase one review of the Council’s Strategic Leadership Team and subject to redundancy to express interest in vacant posts of a comparable level of seniority as a suitable alternative role.

4. Recruitment to the post included the preparation of a detailed job description and person specification which set out essential and desirable levels of skill, professional knowledge, and experience commensurate with the role. A qualification in ICT is neither an essential or desirable part of the criteria for this post.

Following application and expression of interest, it was determined that the post of Service Director – ICT & Transformation was of a comparable level to that held by Ms Davey. In turn, following assessment of the extensive professional experience of leading and managing transformation projects held by Ms Davey, set against the significant senior service leadership experience deemed both essential and necessary to operate effectively in this role, it was appropriate to identify a match with this post.

5. Please refer to our response to question (4) above. Ms Davey possesses extensive professional experience of leading and managing services and transformation projects, along with significant senior service leadership experience necessary to operate effectively in this role.

Turning to those elements of your request which relate to the Council’s implementation programme for Oracle Fusion, we would advise that Oracle Fusion is complex Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERPS) for the whole of the Council and its partners. The Council has an established project team leading the development and delivery of this programme which involves staff from across the Council, it’s partners and from contracted workers.

The Senior Responsible Officer for the programme is the Executive Director of Finance and Transformation. The timescales for implementation are clearly dependent upon important technical and operational milestones being achieved, which is consistent with best practice in programme management. The Council updated the Audit and Risk Committee on progress on 18th July with External Auditors Grant Thornton in attendance.

The final costs and benefits of the system will be published as part of the project closedown. This will have to be completed post implementation when all the relevant milestones have been achieved and full costs are known."

Dealing with the Oracle debacle first it will be noted that Lal was not prepared to say whether he DID write an email saying that the implementation would be put back? Why not? What is he hiding? Has the implementaion been put back of not?

At least Oracle is NOT the responsibility of Davey but of the s.151 Officer, Alex Thompson, who joined Sadders in May. He goes by the title of Executive Director of Finance and, er, Transformation (that bullsh*t word again!) Alex appears to have a strong CV (which begs the question why he would work for bent Sandwell) although his LinkedIn profile makes no specific reference to any computer expertise.

As far as Davey herself is concerned and despite the techie-sounding job name you will note that in true Sadders-style there was only one appllcant for a job that was only advertised in-house. We have seen this sh*t before haven't we readers - notably with the disgraced former Chief Executive, David Stevens?

And although the job sounds techie Lal reassures us that an ICT qualification was "neither necessary nor desirable" for the ICT job! WTF???? Not even desirable? The clue is that the job was "on the same level" as Davey's redundant post. You will have smelt the bull*shit as you read the above.

A large part of the failure of Labour Sandwell Council has been incompetence and cronyism in addition to outright corruption. The amateurism of vast swathes of the staff has been astonishing. It looks like the Lal-era will continue the historic trend.

Oh, and did you notice that Lal dodged the question on the Oracle costs? He must know how much the contract was for and how much has been spent already. Fear not readers, a Freedom of Information request has been made as there is no possibility of the Tories ever getting the information. Let's just hope the mess isn't as bad as in Brum ...

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Every now and again we make a genuine error and get something wrong. If an error in the blog affects you please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com and we shall

use our best endeavours to remove offending material and/or publish appropriate corrections forthwith (together with an apology, if applicable).

Friday, 16 August 2024

Dorset Council FOI response "grossly defamatory"

Yet another extraordinary twist in the Jan Britton scandal. Regular readers will know that Dorset Council decided to employ the disgraced former Sandwell Chief Executive at Director level on a £900 a day interim contract (recent posts below* and Skidders passim).

In the course of The Skidder's investigations into this appointment two Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests flushed out a considerable amount of information. The Skidder, as ever, used the excellent What Do They Know (WDTK) website for the FOI requests which is, of course, a public website open for the whole world to see.

In the course of its responses Dorset also decided to grossly defame The Skidder. Rather than send evidence of grossly defamatory material direct to Skidder HQ it deliberately chose to make public the libel via WDTK.

On 30th July, 2024 The Skidder wrote a legal letter to Dorset demanding, inter alia, that it removes the defamatory material from the WDTK site. Not only has it ignored the letter completely, but it has also failed to remove the offending material.

The Skidder has had to contact WDTK directly today and they have kindly made Dorset's response "requester only" for the time being i.e. only The Skidder can now see it.

Addendum 22/08/24 - WDTK has kindly confirmed that, having reviewed this matter, they will NOT be reinstating Dorset's grossly defamatory content on the public site.

The matter is now in the hands on m'learned friends.

Prosser mystery

Those of you who read the second specific post on this scandal - set out below - will know that Dorset's Chief Executive, Matt Prosser, was, at all material times, the President of "Solace UK", a sort of medieval guild aiming to further the careers of "top"[sic] local government "workers". Solace has a commercial arm, Solace in Business Limited, to make dosh out of the jobs for the boys and girls network - mostly from the taxpayer.

Solace in Business was not on Dorset's "Framework" of recruitment firms when it sent Britton's CV to Prosser but, as we have seen in a previous post, he ensured that this would not hinder Britton's appointment in any way. And lo, so it came to pass and the Sandwell reject was appointed.

Not only did Prosser agree a £900 PER DAY payment to Britton but he also agreed a £135 PER DAY payment to Solace in Business Ltd. This was at the end of 2003. It is noteworthy that it is not just councillors but also employees - particularly senior ones - who are obliged to maintain a Register of Interests so that conflicts of, er, interest are avoided.

On 25th January, 2014 - a month or so after the appointment - Prosser wrote to the Monitoring Officer and to another senior employee stating:

"I am President of Solace the membership body - Solace in Business (SIB) is a separate arm that covers interim and development work, although I declare I am a Director of SIB for the period that I am President."

The fact that he was making his "declaration" to the senior law officer of the Council a month after the appointment suggests, at the least - that he had NOT done so prior to the appointment. Neither does he make clear in any of the documentation disclosed to date that he declared an interest when granting a Company of which he claims to be a Director payments of £135 per day.

But soft, what is this? Companies House records do NOT show Prosser as a Director of SIB! The Skidder duly wrote to the Company Secretary of SIB, one Ruth Hyde, asking if she could explain this anomaly. She has declined to reply.

There's the mystery - and it would be very convenient if it was found that Prosser wasn't a Director after all wouldn't it (even when he claims that he was)?

(Companies House says it will not comment on individual companies, but there is an enforcement issue here and The Skidder is following this up.)

* https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2023/12/desperate-dorset-council-employ-jan.html

* https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2024/02/four-tories-go-mad-in-dorset.html

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.