Three Degrees Statue Shocker!

You could always tell when the old wife-beater Darren Cooper was lying - his lips were moving! The late Smethwick Scumbag, who was the laughable "leader" of bent Labour Sandwell Council, had sh*t for brains and saw everything in life as either "victory" or "defeat" with nothing in between.

Cooper became obsessed with having an incredibly ugly statue of my Baggies heroes, "The Three Degrees", put up in West Brom and became increasingly desperate to get his way - even looting money from the Arts Council to promote the awful thing. He had been sold this particular t*rd by Jim Cadman, a local "businessman" (see posts passim) who has sought to profit from working with a sculptor called Graham Ibbeson to erect a series of "celebrity" statues around the country.

Sunny Jim has raised very large sums of money for his private project but no-one knows where the money is and Jim has, to date, declined to say. He had a big launch with comedian Frank Skinner in Brum (where I am told by a reliable source that Skinner charged his full appearance fee although his management company have declined to comment). After the failure to sell tickets for another do, Jim had a large fundraiser at The Hawthorns a couple of years ago but, once again, no-one knows what happened to the loot (this event also included the auction of prized memorabilia donated by generous individuals).

Cadman also persuaded the idiotic Cooper to pillage £30,000 of taxpayers money for his private business and, once again, neither Cadman nor the corrupt Council can account for what happened to OUR money.

And so it was with great interest that I viewed the latest set accounts filed by Cadman for the only company he is still listed as having an interest in at Companies House (the others have all gone bust of been dissolved for unspecified reasons). Would these provide a clue as to where the thousands upon thousands of pounds - including public money - might be? Er, no. The abbreviated accounts just filed for Cornerstone Marketing Limited made up to 30th November, 2016 seem to show very little activity with a trading loss of £11 (yes, eleven pounds), tangible assets of just £389 and cash in the bank of only £415. So where IS all the money Cadman? Isn't it time PC Plod starting asking the same question?

But it gets worse....

A high-level informant at Sandwell Council recently told me that Darren Cooper and Nick Bubalo (the now departed head of planning etc who was deeply involved in every bent deal referred to in this blog but claims, like joke Chief Executive Jan Britton, not to have noticed anything untoward) visited a company called Mar City Homes Limited about a project. Cooper told the MD that another company had recently donated £25,000 to the statue fund to facilitate the granting of planning permission and Dickhead Daz suggested an equivalent amount be paid for the statue fund in respect of a deal that was contemplated for the former Atlas Steels site in Smethwick.

It is vitally important here to note that Cooper was an inveterate liar and he (or others acting on his instructions) may not have actually secured any forced "donations" for planning permissions. He may have just been "trying it on". It is also important to note that I make no suggestion of impropriety on behalf of Mar City. I am told that the MD laughed and suggested that he would see what he could do with regard to a donation at a future date. He did not, at that meeting, make any insinuation that the Company would actually enter into such an improper agreement then or at any future date.

I should also add that due to the seriousness of the allegation I have referred this all to bent West Midlands Police who mysteriously protect Sandwell Labour and so they will obviously do sod all. (There is a weird twist to this but I'm afraid I shall have to share that with you in due course).

Whilst there is no suggestion of any impropriety on the part of Mar City it should be noted that these discussions resulted in a very unusual (at least for anywhere else but Sandwell) deal that was highly favourable to them and as a Council employee told me, did not "make sense" to Council workers who had to implement it. This involved the purchase of 41 new-build homes from Mar City at Cranford Street, Smethwick. Take a look at the Sandwell Cabinet Approval of 21st January, 2015 - it includes yet another of the Council's infamous "lock-out" provisions ie where the Councillors in the Cabinet agreed to ignore proper (legal) procurement provisions and just do a deal with a single favoured company - not letting anyone else get a look in. Even the comrades knew this would look dodgy and the minutes make reference to vague promises to ensure the deal had a veneer of legality. Just take a look at this b*llocks:

"4.2  The procurement law risk of the Council entering into this arrangement with Mar City directly without competition should not be high provided that the Council, as is proposed, structures the arrangement as a land acquisition and in doing so does not specify the works to be carried out and does not place any direct or indirect legally enforceable obligations on Mar City to carry out the works."

What the f*ck? Mar City were to build 41 houses which corrupt Sandwell would then buy but there was to be no legally-binding contract for this????? Bear in mind that the minutes specified the number of bedrooms, the layout and even the method of construction and yet none of this was to be put in the legal documents so as to make the transaction appear kosher etc!!!!

The minutes go on in respect of state aid - which is unlawful:

"4.3  To ensure state aid risk is mitigated the arrangement should be structured as a commercial land deal so that it does not provide an advantage to the developer in the market and therefore threaten to distort competition".

Eh? One imagines that Mar City were not intending to build the houses as an act of charity and were intending to make a profit and so how could this deal not be seen as conferring an "advantage in the market" when the comrades were locking-out all other competition!

Such was the importance of this deal to the party leadership even Jan Britton is said to have made a royal visit to the old Atlas Steels site! And the Council's "money man" Steve Eling was at the Cabinet meeting that approved this very "creative" deal and as he is now "leader" I am sure he and Britton will hasten to tell us all the details of the finalised deal.....

Needless to say, the Cabinet meeting that approved this odd deal was chaired by Darren Cooper.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - COMMUNITY NEWS - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

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PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!