The appeal has no formal legal status and is an entirely private organisation but if you stump up your cash we promise to install a giant-sized fibreglass "dog-turd" in the Park to laud the achievements of The Turdmeister and particularly his glorious "No Shit, Sherlock" campaign that has so successfully checked the tsunami of canine faeces engulfing the Borough AND done so much to bring Sandwell into disrepute (Is this right? Ed.)
I am thrilled to also announce that after preliminary negotiations and with no public consultation whatsoever Sandwell Council have agreed to put £30,000 plus of taxpayers' money into this private project with the sole proviso that the Turd Statue is painted in blue and white stripes!
Yes, ok - I know I am being daft..... or am I?
A while ago, someone apparently called Jim Cadman started a campaign to erect a ghastly statue - "The Celebration Statue" - to West Brom's brilliant "Three Degrees" and set up some sort of club/appeal to raise the money by PRIVATE donations and subscriptions. There is absolutely nothing on the appeal's website stating the appeal's legal status. It is trying to raise public funds but is not a charity - at least not one which is obviously registered with the Charity Commission (I have searched for it under "Celebration Statue" and a number of other combinations). The idea was not to put this thing down at The Hawthorns but slap bang in the centre of West Bromwich.
Of course, The Turdmeister sees himself as "The Voice" of all Baggies fans and has this childish obsession with the club which means he will use our taxpayers' money to "support" the club wherever possible even when alleging publicly that Jeremy Peace is somehow "fraudulent" (his view, not mine, Mr Chairman) and attempting to whip up public demonstrations relating to the latest managerial appointment. (See also my earlier blogs about monies being paid by Sandwell Council direct to West Brom Football Club and the huge sums being doled-out to The Albion Foundation at a time when then the Council's own Children's Services are in a parlous state).
Would you permit me a little diversion here? When a Council grants planning permission for large developments it has hitherto often entered into what are called s106 agreements whereby the developer gives the Council money for what are supposed to be clearly defined infrastructure projects (the law is changing at the moment but we needn't go into that here). Thus if a housing developer wants to build an estate increasing pressure on local services it might be asked to pay for a new school/additional classrooms, a health centre or affordable housing. A commercial developer such as Tesco with the New Square development in West Bromwich might pay for defined infrastructure projects and, in that particular case, paid for the new West Brom Police Station and for nearby road improvements. It is easy to see why a grubby Labour Council would like such big planning schemes since it could get its hands on loads of money and spend it on nice "fluffy" projects - school improvements, health centres and so on AND claim the credit for so doing. But Sandwell Labour have taken this a step further in respect of five large developments ie:
All Saints/ Providence Place (an unmitigated calamity by Sandwell Council now that the "brilliant" BT contract has gone disastrously wrong and the good folk of the Borough now have a massive office block back on their hands);
Sandwell College (can you believe this? The taxpayer pays for new Spon Lane Campus but Sandwell Council syphon some of the money off for its own use via s106);
Lyng Health Centre (who funded this?);
Hartwells Residential Development;
Tesco/New Square, West Bromwich.
Between financial years 2006/2007 and 2012/2013 Sandwell Labour raked in £12m through this system. They targeted a 25% spend on affordable housing (surely a priority in Sandwell) but only spent 20% on this. But from the above five big developments above they also set up a slush fund - sorry, "pool" - for what is deliberately loosely defined as "Public Realm" works. And so rather than address what the Council admits is a shortage of classroom space, or what they themselves describe as "the existing deficiencies of the highway network" The Turdmeister and his cronies are spending money on "Public Realm" works with, natch, no or no proper consultation with, er, the public. And if you think this is all just of historic relevance, think again. Sandwell Labour state:
"Accordingly, after the introduction of the Community Infrastructure Levy [the new legal system] in April, 2015 Sandwell will continue to pool s106 contributions to provide items not contained in the Reg. 123 List".
They are not going to let go of their little "piggy bank".*
Which brings us back to The Turdmeister and "The Celebration Statue". From at least 5th September, 2012 Turdy has been promoting this private project and Sandwell Council have been doing the same via social media (and, of course, their C-S's in Wolverhampton).
The appeal's own website contains two photos of The Turdmeister Himself:
But you will no doubt be gratified to know that YOU - the hard-working and hard-pressed taxpayers - have also made an enforced "donation" to the "PRIVATE" statue via Sandwell Labour of £30,000 (Thirty Thousand Pounds!) This money has been taken from the s106 "pool". So much for "cuts" eh?
Just as an aside I wonder whether highly-paid Chief Executive Jan Britton and his officers have checked out the legal status of the recipient of this largesse? Is it normal to hand over two £15,000 cheques to a "private" appeal which appears to have an uncertain legal status?
Sandwell Council have said that they are not putting anymore of your money into this private appeal but we shall see. Last week and again on Saturday they appear to have paid dancers from two dance companies to parade around West Bromwich posing as "the statue" (I am putting in a FoI request regarding this). Once again they have given this private project massive publicity via the Council's press office - paid for by us taxpayers.....
This appeal makes great play on its support from various local celebrities and highly-paid footballers. Maybe they could stump up £30k and Mr Cadman and Co can return a cheque for £30k to us taxpayers via Sandwell Council. Oh look, I have just seen a pig flying over The Public......
THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG
e thesandwellskidder@gmail.com t @bcrover (Vernon Grant)
Confidential phone no. 07599 983737
* Sandwell Council are already planning on using some of the "planning gain" money for yet another multi-million pound leisure centre - this time in Smethwick.
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