Guest Blog No 3 - Bob Woods - Carry on at your Convenience!

I am delighted that Bob Woods has provided a second "Guest Blog" to The Skidder. Once again, Labour stalwart Bob highlights the lack of scrutiny at Sandwell Council, this time in the wake of "BogGate"......

Bob Woods:

The saga of the sale of three former public conveniences by  Labour Sandwell Council has already been outlined in the Sandwell Skidder ie The Council did not advertise the three buildings for sale but did a private “deal” (rather than put them out to tender or auction them) for £25,000. They then (ie AFTER the sale) spent £1,200 of public money on a “valuation” report which independently valued the blocks at £130,000!

Last week, Julian Saunders - The Sandwell Skidder - was invited onto BBC WM’s Adrian Goldberg Show on two consecutive days. I listened to both interviews and subsequently rang in to speak live on BBC WM.
I thought that Mr Goldberg was reasonably impartial though he did question if it was cock-up or conspiracy which was a bit generous knowing Sandwell Council!

The Interview on the second morning was slightly different as it had a speaker from Sandwell Council, Cllr and Cabinet Member Ian Jones. He wasted no time in trying to smear Julian as having a personal vendetta against Sandwell Council, though he did say it would be inappropriate to give details (interestingly, Cllr Darren Cooper, Council Leader, has no such compunction about confidentiality!)

Now these facts themselves seem strange and certainly would imply maladministration at the very least and are definitely reasons for further scrutiny.

There are of course some obvious questions to be asked:

1. If there was no advertising how did anyone know the three blocks were for sale?

2. In which case who told Mr Abdul Naeem Quyam about the properties? An elected official or an employee?

3. Who, if anyone, knew Mr Abdul Naeem Quyam personally? Is he a family member or family friend of anyone connected with the Council?

4. Who, if anyone, stood to gain from the sale, and any potential profits from a resale?

 When I rang Adrian Goldberg I was clear about my concern. I stated that I was a long standing member of the Labour Party and proud to be so. But that my concern was not just the sale of these public conveniences - it was a much wider issue of scrutiny and transparency.

Adrian Goldberg helpfully reminded his listeners that Sandwell council is effectively a “one party state” (his words) with only two non-Labour councillors so that there is no effective opposition to scrutinise effectively.
Well I agreed with Adrian. I said that it is therefore beholden on any council that is overwhelmingly of one party (whatever the colour) that it should be even more transparent in its dealings to avoid accusations of mendacity and wrongdoing.

Unfortunately Sandwell Council is led by a cabal who organise business so that there is little effective scrutiny by the councillors, press or, indeed, the public.

It is clear from conversations that control of the councillors is by a mixture of patronage and bullying (see Mick Davies’s guest blog on the Sandwell Skidder for more detail!) I have also witnessed this myself at branch level.

I do not know why the local press do not hold Sandwell Council to account. The Excess & Smear used to do this but now they seem to give them a free pass.

Having experienced the wrath, “banter” & caustic comments of Darren Cooper via his “personal” twitter account @sandwellleader after my first visit to the public session of the Cabinet, I can appreciate why members of the public are loathe to take them on.

I have been spoken to by Sandwell Labour Councillors about giving succour to political enemies in UKIP and the Tories, and that I should follow the party line. Well my loyalty is to the Labour party I grew up with, my trade union roots, and not the “one party state” of Sandwell Labour as it is at present.

But going back to what Adrian Goldberg said about scrutiny - effective scrutiny is the key. There are many things that Sandwell Council do which I applaud. But there is plenty that is done which raises question of honesty, transparency and even legality.

Any council worth our trust should be happy to have effective scrutiny. If Sandwell Council won’t scrutinise itself effectively, then  we need to do it for them. I am proud to be one of the #sandwellscrutineers and we will hold them to account!  

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