Iqbal Padda's "Domestic Difficulty"!

 A small starter before the main course. For some years now I have been a journalist researching stories and presenting them to you. Mostly this has been via this blog but sometimes I have worked with the "mainstream media"(MSM) too. I systematically engage in collecting news about the disastrous, corrupt, Labour Council in Sandwell which is (mostly) disseminated in electronic format. The blog has had over one and three quarter million views despite the esoteric subject matter (and, I am pleased to say, is growing.) The most dangerous man in Sandwell, Monitoring Officer Surjit Tour, actually wrote an infamous letter to me which, inter alia, complained that I hung around outside Oldbury Council House trying to get stories. Yes, exactly what journalists used to do before the MSM just became a giant clickbait factory.

This blog has brought you dozens of exclusive stories from the Boggate saga to the recent scandal of 5 Labour Councillors - who claim to be spokespersons for the BAME community - cramming into a restaurant for a meeting about Kashmir despite the Covid restrictions. I have been under relentless attack from the comrades right from the off. The curious thing is that many (though not all) "Sadwell" Labour Councillors deny that I am a "journalist" which is not based on fact and seems to be wishful thinking on their part. Thus they get very upset when I do "journalistic" things like, er, investigating stories about them.

The fact is that with the exception of helping to save Lion Farm Fields I was getting close to calling it a day. I told former leader Cllr "Red" Yvonne Davies and Sandwell's Chief Executive, David Stevens, this at a meeting in Oldbury last year. Quite simply I (a) needed to earn some money and (b) have a couple of projects I want to work on before I die. As it happens the GMB Union destroyed my financial position and I hover on the brink of bankruptcy. There is absolutely no point in me working a whole week just to earn enough to pay lawyers for one hour's work. The comrades were cheering the GMB Union on but the fact is that whilst I am broke I also now have time on my hands. Thus I have been giving them fair warning for a few months that I will be intensifying my journalistic efforts and placing them under greater scrutiny than ever before. And judging by Cllr Padda's pant-wetting yesterday they don't like it up em Captain Mainwaring! Unfortunately Covid has made life more difficult but,as ever, I am grateful to my small team of helpers and my brave informants for keeping this blog going. (Though there are some big surveillance "stake-outs" starting soon on certain "persons of interest".)

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Now to business! On 7th July I posted about the mystery of Cllr Iqbal Padda's residence (see link and legal notice below.) He and his wife own a nice house in Walsall where he has been seen. But he couldn't use that as an address to be a Sandwell Councillor as it is outside the Borough. Thus Padda, who is usually immaculately turned out, claims to be living in a sh*thole on Bromford Lane, West Brom. There is a man living at the house who is not Padda. 

http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2020/07/iqbal-padda-residence-mystery.html

Padda now claims that (a) he is living in and renting the dump on Bromford Lane and (b) that he has been living there since 2017 when he left the Walsall address due to "domestic issues." Let me say that I was "sceptical" about this yarn.

As journalists did in the old days, I applied some shoe leather to the canine excrement-smeared streets of Sadders and visited Surbjit Kaur, the owner of the Bromford Lane property (and Padda's alleged landlord.) It has to be said that people close to the comrades usually clam up and refuse to speak to me but, strangely, she could not have been more helpful! She told me that Padda has been renting the property with one Surbjit Singh since February, 2017 - over a year before he stood for election.

Padda must be a very busy man since he has not been at the Bromford Lane property whenever I have called nor has his car - with distinctive personalised reg - been seen anywhere in the vicinity.

He has been regularly seen at the Walsall property (including by me personally sans turban waving his wife off to work at, er, 8.10 am.) Thus a kind friend drove me to his small cul de sac yesterday and I started to try and quiz the neighbours. Unfortunately everyone seemed to be out (although I left contact details) except the neighbour two doors away. He confirmed to me that Padda lived at the Walsall house. When I asked whether he had seen him recently he said "not for a couple of days". I questioned that statement and he repeated it. I then told him that Padda is saying he hasn't lived there since February, 2017 and he was visibly stunned. He then said he wouldn't answer anymore questions.

I had only been there for a matter of minutes when Padda turned up in his car and started berating me. I said I was doing as a good journalist and checking out his story. He absolutely insisted he was living at Bromford Lane with Surbjit Singh and had been since February, 2017. He refused to say what his relationship was with that person. He said he "regularly" visits the Walsall property. He had turned up coincidentally yesterday when I was there "to deliver some things".

I had assumed that his alleged "domestic difficulties" concerned his relationship with his wife although they appeared happy enough when I saw him waving her off to work. But he told me yesterday that, in fact, he had left home because of difficulties with his CHILDREN! He refused to elaborate further but said this twice. He is no spring chicken and I assume that his children are adults so that it is unusual for a parent to move out of his own house because of problems with adult kids but that is what he is claiming!

Foolishly I did not leaflet the four houses opposite his house as Padda told me that they were all occupied by this "relatives".

As I returned to the car a ranting woman came out of Padda's house and over to us on the opposite side of the street. She started berating myself and my driver saying she was a solicitor and she was going to call the police for harassing her in HER house. Padda cowered behind her and refused to even say who I was etc when she asked. I kept saying that the quivering Padda knew exactly who I was and how to contact me but I gave this person my contact details anyway having nothing to hide. I sort of assumed she was Padda's daughter but she refused to identify herself. I am not sure how I can harass someone I do not know and did not know was even in the property (which I did not visit and which is NOT hers either as it is most definitely owned by Mr and Mrs P!) Presumably this is not the child, if she is a daughter, who has driven Iqbal to live in the run down Sadders hovel miles away...

All very odd! The investigation continues...

DAVID STEVENS

It was well known that former Leader "Red" Yvonne looked favourably on David Stevens. In her short reign she threw the disastrous Jan Britton out on his ear. David has managed to keep his head down and not get publicly involved in the maladministration of Britton, Tour, Bubalo, Scarrott, Sharma x 2, Carter and others. If he was involved either by commission or omission he seems to be teflon-coated. For reasons unknown he has, however, refused to say whether he has ever had a business relationship with his sidekick, Stuart Lackenby.

Red gave him the top job on an interim basis and promised a competitive recruitment process for the permanent £150k+ a year permanent post. In January even the MSM were shocked when he got the job with no other candidates applying. A Freedom of Information has thrown a little more light on this outrageous decision. When are the Tory MP's going to get stuck into this nonsense?

Before continuing may I just remind you of (suspended) Darren Carter's appalling conduct in the suspension of the Cabinet secretaries. This grovelling moron claimed that he had taken "expert" HR advice before making his catastrophically-bad decision. Presumably this was from his buddy, the unpopular HR supremo "lol" Richard Luckman who recently left instantly without warning. (I have had some emails and calls about Luckman - more welcome as is any contact detail for the man himself.) But in that affair Carter and the "expert" HR sh*t the nest bigtime!

Red decided to game the system and give Stevens the job. No headhunters were appointed to try and encourage other candidates nor was the post advertised. Cllr Davies claims she was trying to "save money" and that she took "specialist" HR advice on the whitewash process. Stevens and the other three directors were invited to express interest in the top job. Let us just look at the other three candidates:

Lesley Haggar - boss of Sandwell's disastrous Children's Services. Now I don't know much about her. She appears to have a lengthy and succesful spell in Leicester before a short stint at the disastrous Children's Services in Northampton. I don't think she can be blamed for that as she wasn't there very long but perhaps Sandwell Labour thought having someone with knowledge of another absolute basket-case service would fit in well in their disaster-zone. As far as I know - and I will be happy to correct this if she contacts me to the contrary- her experience has all been in Children's Services and so she does not appear on paper to have had the range of experience to make her a serious candidate for the top job (yet.)

Darren Carter - see above about this arse-licker extraordinaire! This joke (even by Sandwell standards) could never have been considered as a challenger. Of course, Jan Britton's bent paid service tried to conceal the truth about the secretaries but I forced disclosure by starting Tribunal proceedings. Stevens himself and Red Yvonne were very well aware of what Carter had done (although some Councillors seem to think he should not face instant dismissal!) He was a total non-starter. As it is he is currently suspended!!!!!!!!

Dr Alison Knight - see blogs passim ad nauseum (and legal notice below.) Knight was previously employed by the bent Labour Councillor and was a major player in the "Click Sandwell" disaster. Despite this she was mysteriously re-employed. It is claimed that she is one of the diminutive group, The Friends of Mrs Milkman. As soon as she was appointed she wrote the infamous "Knight's Sh*te" report on Lion Farm - including information not from her own research but from, er, the developer seeking to destroy the Fields. Her performance at an Audit Committee meeting about the Fields was a total car crash and an embarrassment to all in the room. It is a mystery how Knight is even in her job let alone being allegedly touted for top dog!

And so the process was rigged so that Stevens would inevitably get the job. The invitation to apply was sent on 20th December until a closing date of 31st December ie mostly over the SMBC Xmas shutdown!

The Minutes of the meeting approving the appointment contained the massive lie that the appointment was made after a "competitive" process. This is the sort of deceit which was prevalent in the Cooper/Britton era. Cllrs Crompton, Ali and Underhill put their names to this absurdity and I wrote to them asking why they lied in formal Council minutes.

Shortly afterwards I was, er, hanging around outside OCH when Cllr Crompton (the current Leader -although Costigan is trying to destroy her) when Maria saw me and had the good grace to come out for a chat. She made a very telling remark when I said she had lied. She stood firm and said that the competitive process was what she and the other two Councillors had been "told" at the meeting. She was also told that specialist HR advice had been taken. She did not say who spun them this nonsense.

Later that day after making further investigations she confirmed that Lesley Haggar and the two above-named deadbeats were the only other potential candidates and they could have applied. Therefore this fiasco WAS "competitive". She also confirmed that the "specialist" HR advice was NOT an external source but, wait for it, from Sandwell's own jokers! (Councillor Underhill agreed with these farcical views about theoretical competition but Wasim Ali has failed to respond.)

For any external candidate it would be a brave act to apply for such a sh*t job with the bullying comrades interfering in the paid service whenever they want. Despite the money. Britton soiled the reputation of the Borough for years. I think David seems a competent person so far (despite him shafting me big style) and it may be that he would have been the best person for the job in a genuine process. However, the manner of his appointment has tarnished his authority already and he will have to work hard to see if he can bring genuine improvement after the corruption, cronyism and incompetence of the Britton era. We shall see...

AND FINALLY...

With the ridiculous Commonwealth Games plans falling apart the Comrades have offered millions of pounds of our money for another specialist sport eminently suitable for the streets of Sadders:

(Image from the brilliant Private Eye Magazine. Buy it NOW!)

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