Regular readers will be well aware that Jim Cadman has refused to answer detailed questions about his private business deal to erect a hideous statue of three of my great heroes in West Bromwich. Nor will he provide accounts for the cartoonish depiction of WBA legends, "The Three Degrees". He has also declined to provide accounts for any of his other statue "enterprises" up and down the country.
Here, Labour Sandwell Council decided to divert planning gain money for infrastructure improvements into this private business project and, again, regular readers of this blog will know the sordid history and that in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request they admitting paying "someone" (though they have yet to confirm precisely who) £30,000 of public money for this mockery. Even though they allege this is a private business project (but not one they put out to tender) to an individual who had done business with the Council in the past and whose recent business record is "interesting" to say the least, they themselves put in a planning application for it. When I questioned this, they then decided that there was no need to withdraw the application as it had not been necessary in the first place! This is what is called "good governance" in the "socialist" paradise!
The comrades have almost totally destroyed any arts provision in the benighted Borough but then diverted public funds and Arts Council money destined for the 2014 "blink and you'll miss it" Sandwell Arts Festival into a vile racist stunt for this private business - and supposedly, er, "anti-racist" - deal where black actors who were meant to portray three black footballers were forced to be sprayed gold. A total of £1,429.90 out of an already miniscule festival budget was used to support a private businessman's secret deal and, unbelievably, even though the wretched statue is to be dark brown and not gold, the cost of spray-painting the three actors was £380!!!!!
Needless to say the "leader" of the Labour Council, Darren Cooper,
Whilst Cooper has not missed an opportunity to publicise this private scheme, the officials at SMBC have been more reticent.
In 2014, SMBC said they had no plans to put any more public money into this hideosity but then in the budget documents this Spring there was an item stating that £160,000 had been set aside for it - yes you have read that correctly - One Hundred and Sixty Thousand Pounds (at a time when, for example, they are slashing the budget for the already disastrous Children's Service Department).
In view of this major discrepancy in what SMBC were telling me I made a further and very detailed FoI request. Here is the chronology:
11/03/15 - Detailed FoI submitted by email which is not returned. SMBC later say they never received it.
02/05/15 - I sent a further email (which was not returned) direct to Jan Britton, the person SMBC hold-out to be their "Chief Executive". SMBC appear to be denying that this was received too! Did he or didn't he?
07/07/15 - I send a complaint to the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO) about the apparently misleading comments already made by SMBC and that the Request of 11th March, 2015 remains outstanding and a full copy is sent to Sandwell Council. More particularly, the whole request etc is also placed by me on this blog so that the whole world can see it:
http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/technical-post-appeal-to-information.html
Now even if it was true that Sandwell Council were not aware of my request before, they were certainly aware of it now as they pick over the blog to see if they can close it down. (Britton himself is an assiduous reader and has recently reported me to West Midlands Police).
30/07/15 - finally a response from SMBC saying that they did receive my email of 07/07/15. Nothwithstanding the misleading information they gave me in 2014 and the gross delay already - they say categorically in writing:
"..the Council will respond in accordance to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act but no later than 20 working says from the date of this email".
Well folks, it is now 16th September and no response has been forthcoming. Accordingly, I have had to go back to the ICO and more expense will be incurred to the public purse - entirely because of Sandwell's cover-up.
And so what of the money raised by Jim Cadman? He has received £30,000 of public money but we do not know where it has gone and he won't say. Back in 2013 he followed the usual pattern with his statue business projects and organised a huge fundraising event at Birmingham Town Hall which was, I am told, very well attended. Here is the actual advert put out by Birmingham Town Hall where this was alleged to be a "charity gig". Cadman has steadfastly refused to confirm that his appeal has any charitable status and it is a matter of public record that it is most definitely NOT a registered charity (which, if it was a genuine charity, it actually should be given the large amounts of moolah flouting about here). So who wrote this grossly misleading copy for the following Birmingham Town Hall publicity?
"Town Hall/Symphony Hall website = event 24/07/13 £40 plus transaction fee.
West Bromwich Albion legends of the 1970s and 1980s including Cyrille Regis, Brendon Batson, Ron Atkinson, Tony “Bomber” Brown, Gary Owen, Alistair Robertson, Derek Statham and John Wile will appear at a one-off charity gig at Birmingham Town Hall to raise funds for The Celebration statue, hosted by lifelong fan Frank Skinner.
The statue, which will be unveiled in West Bromwich town centre in July 2014, highlights the careers of pioneering black footballers Laurie Cunningham, Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson who played for West Bromwich Albion in the late 1970s and paved the way for future generations of black players in this country.
The fundraising project is being led by Black Country businessman Jim Cadman with the support of Sandwell Council. Leader of Sandwell Council, Councillor Darren Cooper, said:
It is fantastic to see Frank, one of Sandwell’s most famous sons and fellow West Brom fan, getting involved and supporting this great cause. We’re looking forward to seeing this excellent sculpture in the borough next year and this event will help make that a reality".You will note that tickets were £40 a head and here is Cadman himself boasting about the success of the event:
Sharper readers will have already worked out that, unless Cadman gave lots of tickets away, he raised £32,000 at this alleged "charity gig" from ticket sales alone (800 x £40) plus donations, raffles etc although we don't know what his overheads were and how much was actual "profit" as he won't tell us, nor publish any accounts.
There is also the question of Frank Skinner's fee. One might get the impression that he was somehow doing this as a bit of a freebie as a famous "son of Sandwell" [does anyone actually call themselves that?] but anecdotal evidence suggests he received a substantial figure. Alas, I did not receive any reply from his agents to the following email I sent them. Frank's management are saying nowt and so we will have to rely of Sunny Jim to put us in the picture! "Lol"!
"I write a community blog concerning Sandwell and I have written a number of posts concerning a scandal surrounding a proposed private statue in West Bromwich of "The Three Degrees" - three black footballers who played for West Bromwich Albion.
Mr Skinner was involved at a large fund-raising event for this project at Birmingham Town Hall on 24th July, 2013.
I appreciate that this is a delicate matter and you may not wish to publicly comment but I would like to know whether Mr Skinner received a fee for this event and, if so, how much? I would also like to know precisely who actually paid him ie which account did the money actually come from?
Any assistance you can give me will be greatly appreciated."
On his website, Jim Cadman also boasts of profits from an art exhibition - sponsored by "Bentley of Birmingham" - but, once again, he will not disclose what the figures for this were.
Yet another dinner is featured on the website - "The Manchester United 5-3 Dinner" and the publicity photos show a familiar Labour figure - yet again:
Last year, Jim upped the ante and tried to organise the "Laurie Cunningham Tribute Dinner" in Brum at just NINETY POUNDS a head but this flopped. Thus he held a more modest do at The Hawthorns in March this year (although I think the tickets were still around £50 a head) and having braved the dog excrement-smeared streets of Sandwell that night to observe, I can tell you that it was actually very well attended. So how much did that event raise, Jim? What were the ticket sales, the overheads and the "profit"? What was the fee for your goodself?
Of course, sleazy Sandwell Labour shouldn't be putting public money into this crappy private project in the first place but if they are going to go ahead and divert more money to Cadman and/or the sculptor, Graham Ibbeson, why the hell are Jan Britton's staff not asking these questions themselves? How do they know how much of our money to put in if they don't know how much Cadman himself has "raised"? No doubt when they get the answers they can answer my FoI and save the ICO a lot of money too......!
And finally, you would have thought Tesco would have wanted to keep their noses clean given their recent disastrous trading history and massive losses to shareholders (declared interest - my wife is one, though on a very small scale - fortunately). They own New Square, West Bromwich and agreed to make a plot available for this awful object. Despite protracted communications they are flatly REFUSING to tell me whether they dealt with Cadman or with the crafty comrades on this. Perhaps there is a small clue in that in our final conversation they insisted they would say nothing further and I must speak not with Sunny Jim but, er, "with the Council".......
Ever been had?
The police Regional Fraud Team still want to hear from you if you have evidence of possible wrongdoing at Sandwell Council. Phone DS Wayne Haynes and his team in confidence on 0121 251 2175.
THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!
email: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com twitter: @bcrover (Vernon Grant)
Confidential phone no: 07599 983737
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