F*CK ME!!!

Well it takes a lot to shock me these days where Labour Sandwell Council is concerned but, unless some of the long-suffering staff have made an error here, what follows is horrifying even by the bent standards of elements of this sleazy bunch.

For the benefit of new readers, Wednesbury Celebrates [sic] is a secretive community association [sic] which is run as a personal fiefdom by Labour Councillors Elaine Costigan and Olwen Jones as a faggots'n'peas version of the Wheeltappers and Shunters Club.

Here are the two of them outside one of the lavatory blocks which features in the "bog-gate" scandal (which Olwen's husband Cllr Ian Jones lied about live on BBC Radio):

Regular readers will know that I have referred this organisation to West Midlands Police and to the Council's auditors in respect of a serious "sting" by persons unknown on the taxpayer and Sport England.

This piss-pot organisation has also taken over de facto control of Wednesbury Town Hall where Cllr Olwen Jones's son runs a business (see below) and where his partner/close personal friend, Richard McVittie, has a £35k a year job courtesy of the aforementioned rip-off of Sport England. Regular readers will know that none of these bodies has actually troubled to pay the taxpayer any rent so that over £30,000 is outstanding.

But Wednesbury Celebrates has also been getting money from us taxpayers via Cllr Costigan and Olwen Jones's Labour comrades to the tune of at least £5k per annum. It is important to note that, unless they are particularly stupid, all SMBC councillors AND employees are well aware of the involvement of Costigan and Olwen Jones in this organisation.

Carry on reading below if you will but, when you get a chance, please take a look at my recent posts on this subject:

http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/wednesbury-celebrates-crime-report.html

http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/grant-applications-sandwell-labour-style.html

I make no apology for showing again the totally ludicrous application Wednesbury Celebrates put in to SMBC for more dosh. In any Council other that the shambles run by Jan Britton this laughable, illiterate, sh*t would have been rejected.......

You will note that Costigan and Olwen Jones were quick to get the application in for financial year 2015/16 and the application was number "WED/01/16 ie the first for the financial year.

It is of vital importance to know that when this joke "application" was put in there were outstanding rent invoices from SMBC to Wednesbury Celebrates for over £20,000 of taxpayers' (our) money. As above, the figure is much higher now. And so, not only was the application a joke but there was a huge debt owing. So who approved payment of a further £5,000?

You won't find it easily on the SMBC website and I have had to write to Jan Britton to pin this information down but after 26th May, 2015 there was a re-shuffle of the Wednesbury Town Improvement [sic] Board.

On 9th July, 2015, Julia Elstins, the "Community Development Initiative (!) Officer for stinking SMBC wrote a formal letter of approval of the grant. Such is the hold that Wednesbury Celebrates has over the Town Hall the letter was not even addressed to the organisation but simply to: "Wednesbury Town Hall, Holyhead Road etc.."

The first two lines of the Elstins letter are crucial:

"The Town Lead Member and Vice Town Lead Member for Wednesbury met recently and agreed to fund Wednesbury Celebrates £5,000....."

The first question is why the whole Board did not meet and where these two Councillors met and where the minutes of the meeting are?

The second question is who are these pair? This is the document sent from Jan Britton:

Town Lead Members 2015/2016

Wednesbury Costigan (Deputy: O Jones)

It is clear that elements within Sandwell Council are bent (and the Police are turning a blind eye) but what the f*ck is going on here? Unless Ms Elstins or fellow employees have got it wrong, Costigan and Olwen Jones have approved an application which their organisation put in despite being thousands of pounds in debt and then approved it themselves in an unspecified "meeting" which is not minuted anywhere on the SMBC website! If this is correct then surely (at least) two Councillors should be resigning forthwith?

Of course, a senior and highly-paid  Director of rotten SMBC, Adrian Scarrott (who also features in the Sport England debacle) then authorised actual payment over of our, taxpayers', five grand despite the taxpayer being owed over four times that amount! Kerching!!!

I have not had the courtesy of an acknowledgement, let alone a substantive response, to the detailed crime report hand-delivered to West Midland Police (nor from the auditors KPMG) but will clearly now be referring this further information to them.

(Incidentally, Darren Cooper's "guru" and social media spokesperson, the Twitter troll Andrew Hipkiss, has also appeared as an official (?) spokesperson for the Jones family and stated that Richard Jones's "Five Star Academy" is NOT a private business but another "voluntary organisation"- although Hipkiss states that it does owe substantial sums in rent to the taxpayer for extensive use of Wednesbury Town Hall. In the light of Hipkiss's helpful intervention I have also formally asked HM Revenue and Customs to take a look at where Five Star's income is going since it is clearly not being paid in rent. No doubt Mr Hipkiss will also be able to help WMP with regard to these issues).

* Jan Britton is the person who purports to be "Chief Executive" of SMBC.

Please remember that if you have evidence of potential wrongdoing by SMBC you can speak in confidence to the Regional Fraud Team currently investigating Sandwell. Phone DS Wayne Haynes and team 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