Terry Duffy House - A Big Thank You to Labour from Sandwell College?

Sandwell College has taken space in Terry Duffy House which is owned by Labour Party Properties Limited. I am assuming they are paying rent and so what better way of rewarding a party that has put two fingers up to the people and presented them with a second £70M building just a few months after they moved into their own £77M ski-slope?

These greedy sods were aggrieved at the lack of space at the ski-slope and hitched up with Sandwell Council (SMBC), who themselves were upset that the Tory government had cancelled their ruinously expensive Building for Schools scheme with Interserve and Barclays Bank and who were also determined to kill off The Public.

SMBC Labour group were able to use their political power to rush through closure of the Public and then for the so-called "Cabinet" to specifically resolve to suspend the Council's normal contract and procurement procedures so that they could give the contract to Interserve without any tender of competition. (How can they show that this in any way constitutes good value for money? There is NO comparator because they have rigged it that way).

I keep saying that giving multi-million contracts to a single party without anyone else getting a look-in MUST perforce be bent - as simple as that- but the burning question is why is this being done and by whom? (watch this space re the ice rink scandal). If not bent then this must constitute GROSS incompetence.

And so neither the College nor SMBC have made the details of their pathetically-named "Concordat" public even though the Council's Wolverhampton press office, aka The Express and Star, have reported it as such a good deal! The agreement was rushed through just before the Christmas holiday. Mr Darryl Magher has send a detailed Freedom of Information request to both the College and SMBC but at the time of writing, these remain unanswered. Such is the contempt with which SMBC are treating it that they have dropped it on some underling in the Museums Department to answer and he has requested "more time" to reply - fortunately refused by Mr Magher.

The College have failed to put the last TWO sets of Board minutes on their website. They are a public body but are also keeping everything secret.

Although The Public was paid for with taxpayers money and designed by an internationally-known architect, no plans for the new "Central Shit", with its "modular classrooms etc", have been made available to the people. Interserve are currently smashing-up the interior behind blanked-out windows. So-much for open democracy.

And so this tawdry affair continues with the College lining the pockets of the Labour Party that is looking after them so well! HOWZAT!

Oh, and by the way - those great socialists at Labour Party Properties Limited have paid no corporation tax on their property empire for the last EIGHT years.........

As usual, the SMBC Labour-friendly media have ignored these issues apart from vomiting out the odd press release. Compare and contrast this with the acres of space given to SMBC "leader" Pooper S-Cooper's moronic dog sh*t gimmick.

INFO WELCOME ON SMBC AND SANDWELL COLLEGE TO:

E-MAIL - thesandwellskidder@gmail.com

TWITTER @bcrover

NOTE

There was some confusion yesterday about the ownership of Terry Duffy House. The Land Registry showed only one "exact match" for the address and postcode of  TD House but this turned out to be a property owned by SMBC and which I think has been leased for 10 years to the African Caribbean Resource Centre. I have now established that Labour Party Properties Limited bought TD House from Unite on 23rd December, 2009 and it is registered at the Land Registry under title number WM742064.