Casino Costs "Cock-Up" by Sandwell Labour

Sandwell Labour are very quick to ditch their so-called principles when it suits them as the Birchley Island casino fiasco shows. I don't like to say I told you so...but....

Can I ask you to quickly have a look at my blog of 4th March, 2014 - "Hussain Hoaxed! Red Faces at the Kremlin?" which tells the brilliant story of local jester Kev Beresford humiliating Mahboob Hussain - the Deputy "leader" of Labour Sandwell Council - and also the serious stuff about Birchley Island ie the huge amount of money wasted there by Sandwell Labour plus the business about the casino.

Sandwell Labour specifically said in 2006 that they would not have any more casinos in the Borough and, since then, have also hammered High Street bookies. Of course, wealthy local MP - the expenses-guzzling Tom Watson - has also joined-in with his campaign against fixed-odds betting terminals (although he did spectacularly cock everything up by voting in the wrong lobby following a parliamentary debate on this subject).

In the Socialist paradise that is Sandwell it seems anyone can come along and gain Labour's support for a development just by promising that it will create a few jobs - look at the developing ice-rink scandal if you don't believe me. And so when Grosvenor Casino wanted a new casino to be built by St Modwen Sandwell Labour suddenly discovered they were not anti-gambling at all in an area of high-deprivation but actually rather liked the idea. Thus the spin machine whirred into action ably assisted by the arse-lickers at The Express and Star who slavishly toe the Sandwell Labour line. (Why?)

Labour still had the small difficulty of their 2006 casino ban but due to a legal loophole Grosvenor Casinos argued that they could simply transfer an existing licence that had been granted before the 2006 ban to the new site. Despite the potential for this place to bring financial misery to so many, the Comrades down at The Kremlin then backed the project as it would "create" jobs. Hussain trumpeted the scheme via the Wolverhampton C-S's who, on 17th February, 2011, were happy to assist the Council with an article modestly headed: "Oldbury Casino Scheme Brings Jobs Joy"!

It is not, of course, the way of the Pyongyang-style regime in Oldbury to "consult" on policy. "Labour Group" make all material decisions in secret meetings and then try and force them through (see again the continuing ice-rink scandal). And so the transfer of the existing casino licence was permitted but the Politburo had totally failed to take into account the interests of another casino operator in Sandwell, Clockfair, who duly went to court to have the transfer declared invalid.

I won't burden you with the history of the legal tussles but suffice to say that the High Court ruled that the decision to transfer the licence had not been correctly handled and that Sandwell Council would have to consider the whole matter afresh. The Socialists still wanted the wretched scheme to proceed but as the legal difficulties mounted it quietly faded away.

Now I sat and read the whole of the High Court judgment in this particular case although via an unofficial transcript put up on the internet by lawyers involved in the case. Normally, there is a costs order made at the end of a judgment but there wasn't one here. I surmised that either this part had simply been omitted from the "unofficial" transcript or else the decision as to costs had been reserved to a future date noting, at that stage, the legal disputes were ongoing (although the transcript would normally say "Costs reserved...."). Our legal system generally awards costs to be paid by the loser of a case to the winner. Whilst there where claims and counter-claims in this case it was clear from the transcript that in no sense of the word had Labour Sandwell Council "won" this case.

I was very surprised therefore, when the Wolverhampton C-S's wrote an article about the legal costs on 28th January, 2014 suggesting that they were "only" £5,800 and that Sandwell Council were, in any event, going to recover these from the two casino operators involved so that there would be no cost to the taxpayer. Let us have a closer look at the spin from the Express and Star and from the other Deputy "leader" of Labour Sandwell, Councillor Steve Eling (a man who, incidentally, has been described to me as being "anal" about detail):

"He (ie Eling) said: “We had to pay a total of £5,800 in employing a counsel and a solicitor to deal with this matter In the High Court and we were able to get a contribution from one of the companies involved towards the costs.”: and

Councillor Eling confirmed: “Our role in this case was limited to being the licensing authority.

“We should be able to recover our full costs rather than them being paid for by the council taxpayer.”

(Readers - ask yourselves why the Express and Star are doing this? If you find the answer, let me know).

Mystified by these statements given the case transcript I sent a Freedom of Information Request to The Kremlin and, for once, got a straight answer.

Some of the work was done by Sandwell Council's own huge legal department - headed by £124,000 per annum Neeraj Sharma - and so we won't know how much that work actually "cost" the taxpayer. Most of the work was done by an external solicitor and a barrister was, indeed, appointed for the High Court part of the legal tussles.

But far from the figure of £5,800 suggested by Eling (and excluding VAT which is not relevant here) the actual costs were:

External Solicitor - £12,500.38p (ex Vat); and
Barrister               - £9,000.00p (ex Vat).

That is a total of £21,500.38 although Sandwell Council did manage to recover, er, £3,000 from one of the other parties.

THUS ELING, THE TAXPAYER HAS BEEN STUNG FOR £18,500.28p IN RESPECT OF A PROPOSED CASINO DESPITE LABOUR BANNING MORE CASINOS IN 2006! SHAME ON YOU AND YOUR "COMRADES".

When I first floated this fiasco I was publicly mauled by Labour Councillor Bob Piper along the lines that I didn't know what I was talking about. Well Bob, as the lawyers say: Res Ipsa Loquitur!

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