And so a big shindig with costly tickets was organised by Sunny Jim at Birmingham Town Hall with Frank Skinner as Master of Ceremonies. It is rumoured that Frank received a substantial fee but his management, Avalon, have refused to answer my email about this. Jim then tried to organise a "Laurie Cunningham" dinner in Birmingham but this failed due to lack of support and a smaller event was eventually held at The Hawthorns. Regulars will again know that Jim Cadman has refused to answer a detailed list of questions I sent to him about this business deal and that he has hitherto also refused to produce accounts to show where all the money he has raised so far has gone (a feature of many of Jim's statue "projects"). I again invite him to tell the public the facts and to let us see the figures.....
Now Sandwell is a Labour dictatorship and the comrades tend to do just as they please. But even they must have been worried about openly and democratically supporting a private business deal that Cooper was metaphorically masturbating about. Thus, instead of having the matter go before a committee or the full Council to publicly vote on funding this monstrosity, they diverted £30,000 from what are called "planning gain" monies and gave it to Jim. I mean, its not as if West Bromwich doesn't need money spent on infrastructure improvements (which is what the planning gain money was supposed to be for - mostly coming from the Tesco New Square development) is it folks?
It gets worse. When I put in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request about this scandal, Sandwell Council confirmed that £30,000 of public money had indeed been diverted to Jim's scheme but that it was not intended to put any more of OUR cash in. Oh well, that's that then - isn't it?
Sadly, no. Firstly, Cooper and his cronies arranged for £1,469.90p (some of which came from the Arts Council) to be diverted from the already pathetic "Sandwell Arts Festival" to a feeble and racist publicity stunt to advertise the, er, "anti-racism" statue (one sixth of the whole festival monies). Then, the SMBC budget appeared to show that - completely contrary to the legal answer to the FoI request - Darren Cooper and Labour were actually planning to spend up to a further - wait for it - £160,000 of our money on this private scheme despite Jim boasting to the press about how much money he had already raised!
Of course, Darren Cooper happily has a "small" version of the statue in his own office which is nice given the £31, 469.90p plus of community money spent so far......
Cadman and Cooper have been assiduous in dragging in former Baggies stars to promote this wretched thing. It is to be hoped that our heroes have not been duped about the true nature of this project by persons unknown. Also, I hope they have given their time voluntarily since if they were quietly receiving appearance fees, free tickets to dinners etc to support this private business with the knowledge that the taxpayer was ultimately to be ripped-off for most of the cost, then that would be a very big scandal indeed....
When I saw what was afoot in the small print of the Council budget I submitted a new and very detailed FoI request to Sandwell Council on 11th March, 2015 - nearly NINE MONTHS AGO. In the absence of a response I sent an appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO) on 7th July. SMBC burst into life and claimed that they had never received the original request (even though the email had never "bounced-back"). Then on 30th July, 2015, a senior Sandwell employee wrote to say that the Council would reply "at the latest within 20 working days". Clearly, someone "higher-up" then decided to override this since no reply has been forthcoming. I contacted the ICO again and on 21st October, 2015 they wrote to SMBC demanding they file a full reply within 10 working days. Sandwell are continuing to break the law and failing to comply with the law and I am again chasing the ICO to take appropriate action to end this appalling breach and cover-up. Ask yourselves the question readers - why are Sandwell not replying and WHO is blocking the reply (ask Cooper if you see him at the match this afternoon....?). (And why aren't the lazy local media onto this....?)
Whilst all this has been going on, things have been a little less rosy for Jim oop North. Cadman and the sculptor involved in making these ghastly efforts, have had one great success. They placed a statue of the late comedian, Eric Morecambe, on the seafront at Morecambe in a comic pose. It is claimed by them (and others) that thousands of people are flocking to Morecambe just to see this thing which is ludicrous and like claiming that Leeds fans only visit Elland Road to see the statue of Don Revie they managed to get erected there. There are probably a handful of mentally-ill people who have travelled to Morecambe to see the statue being "Eric Morecambe fans" but most people who come across it are visiting Morecambe anyway. The statue is undoubtedly popular with people posing to have their photos taken in front of it adopting the same pose but it is hardly dragging folk in from far and wide for that specific person and thereby boosting the local economy. But Sunny Jim does not miss a trick after this "hit" and decided to start a new campaign to grace the Lancashire town with yet another Eric statue (or piece of "wall-art" as it is laughably called) but this time with Ernie Wise too (unlike Eric, I don't think Ernie had any connection with Morecambe whatsoever and, indeed, was one of the Lancastrians favourite people, a Yorkshireman!)
But the canny folk at Lancaster City Council have more brains than Cooper and Co (yes, I know what you are thinking....) and the project has hit the buffers (although Jim is desperately suggesting a new "Eric and Ernie trail" instead as local - LABOUR - politician Daniel Clifford has suggested the ultimate heresy ie that Jim GIVES BACK the money he has raised from local people and businesses!) Such is the bind that Jim finds himself in he has even produced some purported figures about the local fundraising effort although his sculptor "partner" appears to have thrown in the towel.
I attach links to two articles on this from the local paper, The Morecambe Visitor, and from another publication, The Bay. Whereas down here, you might have had the impression that the Three Degrees statue was some sort of community project with everyone acting for altruistic reasons (an impression that has been carefully fostered in some quarters), the cleverer Northeners have cut through the bullshit and set out what this really is - a private business project. You may be rushing off to the match as you read this but, if you do not have time to read the links until later, please just note this paragraph from a local Council spokesperson:
"Our position has not changed - as we have said all along, we support the principle of the project but we are not able to enter into any binding agreements at this stage and it is not within the council's remit to help a private entrepreneur fundraise for a self-promoted independent project".
This is exactly what I have been saying for a long time now but there is another subtle difference between the two projects. Lancaster City Council have no party in overall control (Labour are the largest party) and so are having to consult with and listen to the local population whereas, despite 40 years of abject Labour failure, the bloody fools in Sandwell continue to keep the Labour Dictatorship in absolute power and then wonder why Cooper and the comrades keep shafting them up the derriere whenever they feel like it! Once again "Sadwell" folk, you only have yourselves to blame.
And now all we need to know is what Mr Cadman has done with all the money raised to date.....
Oh, and three points this afternoon would be grand!
http://www.thevisitor.co.uk/news/local/morecambe-and-wise-sculpture-plan-scrapped-due-to-lack-of-enthusiasm-1-7603718
http://www.thebay.co.uk/news/local-news/morecambe-and-wise-project-will-be-located-elsewhere-in-the-country/
(Thanks to The Bay and The Morecambe Visitor and to all my Morecambe correspondents).
THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - COMMUNITY NEWS - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!
email: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com facebook: Julian Saunders
Confidential phone no: 07599 983737 twitter: @bcrover (Vernon Grant)
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