For those unfamiliar with the bent Lion Farm deal, Cllr Hussain introduced a developer, Jeremy Knight-Adams (JKA), to SMBC with a view to him buying Lion Farm Fields for a shopping centre. In official documents Jan Britton's bent paid service lied by saying JKA had approached them (a trick they used in other cases like the corrupt ice rink plan.)
Under Jan Britton, SMBC flatly refused to say who attended a secret un-minuted meeting with JKA. I can now tell the invite was for Darren Cooper, Mahboob Hussain, Nick Bubalo AND Jan Britton himself! (Bubalo was the former head of regeneration who is a player in almost every bent land deal mentioned in this blog but who has never been interviewed under caution by corrupt West Midlands Police.)
The secret meeting was held on 14th November, 2012 and the bent Labour Council moved quickly. They decided for reasons unknown not to market the property but to do a private deal with JKA alone. In little more than a month the multi-million pound deal was brought before the Land Disposal Committee on 19th December, 2012. The matter was hidden under the grossly misleading name "Junction 2 development" and the details redacted from public view. Only two councillors were present - Cllr Hussain and Cllr Hackett. Cllr Hussain did NOT declare his previous interest with JKA and should not have voted on this. It is not known (yet) how much Hackett knew about the scheme but they both agreed it. I say this was illegal. But very soon afterwards the Cabinet - including Squealing Eling and Cllr Moore - approved it and JKA was given a legal option to buy the land subject to conditions.
Nothing happened until 2017 when Cradley Speedway attempted to have the Fields declared an Asset of Community Value. It seems JKA was tipped off by SMBC staff since he he immediately registered legal restrictions on the four legal titles at HM Land Registry which cover the Fields.
In September, 2017 "Dr" Alison Knight (posts passim) rejoined the Council. She had worked there before and been a key player in the total f*ck-up that was "Click Sandwell". Notwithstanding this massive blot on her record she was re-employed (possibly because she is said to be a friend of Mr and Mrs Squealer which she hay not denied.) When I pointed this out in a blog she reported me to West Midlands Police for criminal conduct (presumably at the insistence of the pathetic Eling!)
Eling and Co knew there were legal problems with the 2012 deal but decided,for whatever reason, that they wanted to force it through (an SMBC source says Eling thought the Council would get a capital sum plus £18m a year in business rates.) Thus he tried to polish this turd by bringing it back before Cabinet in November, 2017. Having been back at the Council for only two months "Dr" Knight produced a highly-favourable report saying how brilliant the scheme was. But where did this highly-paid "professional" acquire her skills as a retail guru and where did she get her information from? A cursory glance at the report raised the suspicion that the "facts" came from the developer himself.
Some Labour Councillors have told me informally that Eling and Co were worried that if they stopped the bent deal JKA might sue the Council for unspecified losses. Given the terms of the option - which JKA does not appear to have complied with - it is difficult to know on what basis this could have happened. Perhaps JKA made an empty threat which the thicko comrades fell for or perhaps they made this up to try and force the bent deal through?
But there was a very serious statement made by "Dr" Knight in the Cabinet Report:
"Significant progress has been made and JKA incurred significant expenditure in securing adjoining land to develop the scheme based on the existing agreement...."
This was a major allegation to make in the absence of evidence of "significant progress" since 2013 but if it was true that JKA had bought land at his own risk then there might be at least a small argument that he acted to his detriment.
In my original Freedom of Information request I asked that "Dr" Knight produce her sources for her glowing report. Jan Britton's bent paid service refused and, as far as the land was concerned, said I could search HM Land Registry (exactly the same trick his staff - including Willetts - used to try and hide the details of the sale of the building plot in Florence Road, Smethwick to Cllr Rouf's son!) No locals were aware of relevant sales and given the size of the site it would cost thousands of pounds to try and search all adjoining land. I was immediately suspicious that there was something very wrong her which the ultimately responsible Britton was attempting to conceal.
The new regime have now disclosed this morning that this statement was apparently untrue and there is nothing in the Council's papers about any land sales. So why did "Dr" Knight lie about this? Did she know that people like Melanie Dudley had been booted out for failing to prepare reports favourable to the Squealer's requirements and so went "over the top" to rim the crazed tyrant?
I have no intention of libelling JKA or anyone else but it is SMBC who have now stated specifically:
"Officers took JKA (and his agent xxxxxx xxxx's) assurance that he had bought land around the Lion Farm."
I am sure JKA will hasten to clarify whether he had bought adjacent land, as at November, 2017, and which land that was. IF he had not AND SMBC ARE STILL NOT LYING then that would be a very serious matter indeed indicative of providing the Council with false information in an effort to gain financial advantage. I will be very happy to print JKA's response in this blog.
The fact is that "Dr" Knight has seemingly made no effort to verify the facts and has mislead the Cabinet (and subsequently the full Council) either through a desire to assist the developer (and Eling?) or gross incompetence. Don't forget she also spouted other nonsense supporting the development eg that 2,000 jobs will be created etc with no empirical evidence to support this. I have today written to David Stevens requesting that Knight be immediately suspended for misleading the Council pending a full investigation.
IF the allegation of land purchases and other matters in the Cabinet report are indeed false then there must be grounds for a judicial review of the Council's decision to press ahead. This could get very messy for them. IF (and I repeat IF) JKA/his agent have mislead SMBC then there is also the question of whether he is in breach of the original option. Again I am sure JKA will write to immediately clarify the position. Watch this space folks!
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