In The Public Domain?: October 2020

Friday, 30 October 2020

Sandwell's "Sperm Donors" & More...

There is some really exciting news coming soon about The Skidder blog (thanks to the GMB we are expanding - watch this space!) And very soon your local newshound will be out and about on the dog-sh*t smeared streets of the rotten Borough doing some socially-distanced outdoor video work and so do come and have your say if you see me (and the new banner!)

Money, Money, er, Not Much Money

I mention incompetence again later in this post but you have to hand it to the corrupt Labour Council they are superb at spaffing money up the wall. Millions lost in the "brilliant" BT contract scheme; the Council accepting NO rent AND continuing to pay the maintenance on The Public; the proposed sale of Providence Place for MILLIONS less that Sandwell Labour paid for it - you get the picture. And when the comrades couldn't find a spot for the multi-million pound white elephant that is the Commonwealth Games Pool (having looked at many sites including Warley Woods) they decided to just plonk it on a greenfield site at Londonderry Fields. £73m is the latest figure for this financial and ecological disaster and this is bound to increase further.

Sandwell Labour hate business and enterprise. They believe in the hand-out rather than the helping hand. After nearly half a century of their control Sandwell is a sh*thole near to the bottom of most statistical tables of poverty, health and deprivation.

Yet in an incredible turn of events even by the standards [sic] of this socialist shower their response when Covid struck was to ask the very people they have screwed-over for 46 years to help bail them out! Then Leader, Red Yvonne Davies, Cabinet Member Danny Millard and notorious senior employee Dr Alison Knight (author of "The Knight Sh*te Report") asked the public for cash DONATIONS!

The good folk of Sandwell - bent under the burden of Labour's increased council tax, increased council house rents and (if the comrades get their way) charges to park their cars if they are lucky enough to have a job - rallied round and raised a massive, er, £2,608.50p! In a Freedom of Information request the comrades say they haven't decided what to sp*nk this huge sum on yet! Ideas on a postcard please!

If you were one of the absolute w*nkers who made a donation we would love to interview you (if your doctors will allow it) - contact details below.

Dead Sheep (Part 3)

Another Labour Councillor has died. Following on from Geoff Lewis and, sadly, Bob Lloyd - Chris Tranter has gone.

Most of you will know that pre-Covid I spent many an unhappy hour outside Oldbury Council House trying to interview the Sheep as they flocked into meetings (often in the company of local community activist, Darryl Magher.) This has been going on for several YEARS but not once in all that time has this ignorant man ever so much as utterred "hello" or made any other comment. We expect that from a pathetic cipher like Paul Moore but it is unusual for the Sheep to behave in this way (the ludicrous Peter "Zorro" Hughes does speak when asked a question but only to say that he is "reporting me to his lawyers". If this garrulous wind-bag does ever consult the leeches he should remember that they charge by the hour!)

In the bizarre world of Sandwell Labour almost every Councillor gets a "special responsibility" [sic] payment on top of the normal allowance. But our Chris was so ineffectual that in 2019/20 he was one of the small number who didn't! We watch with interest to see what the morons of Rowley Ward will do next May and whether they will vote again to perpetuate 46 years of Red Labour povery lol!

Here is a list of Tranter's achievements as a Labour Councillor:

Er.....
... That's it!

Tranter had not officially declared himself as one of the "Gang of 26" - the moronic group of Labour rebels determined to bring down the current, er, Labour administration of Sadders but he was apparently sober just long enough to join with them in the ludicrous campaign to save the obnoxious grovelling employee who was supposed to be running (!) the Council's finances but involved himself in other matters such as suspending the Cabinet secretaries (posts passim ad nauseum - and see legal notice below.) Step forward Darren Carter!

(Note that this list comprisises most of the real dross on the bent Council!)

As far as the Skidder can tell Carter is still suspended and thus taxpayers' are still paying his massive salary! Why? At least Sandwell is now theoretically "saving" £54,811 per annum from the payments to the three dead councillors (2019/20 Lewis £20,481, Lloyd £23,029 and Tranter £11,301) but with the costs of the pool and Covid don't expect a windfall folks!

Costigan and Zorro's Load of Bollards!

After 46 years of Labour poverty the corruption and cronyism of the Red Council is particluarly galling but then the Comrades are staggeringly incompetent AS WELL. This is mostly self-inflicted since the vast majority of Labour Councillors are as thick as two short planks and obsessively insular and tribal. And, as this blog has shown many, many, times a fair percentage of the staff are not up to snuff either.

A surprising number of staff are in family sinecures (or even directly related to Councillors.) Rather than jobs being open to competition, cronyism rules supreme so that "the Labour family" looks after its own. Anyone talented prepared to question the "socialist" dictatorship was dismissed (seemingly with the full connivance of the three trade unions.) No-one any good was ever likely to apply for a job under the now disgraced former "Chief Executive" Jan Britton (and two of the current most senior positions have been filled with highly-controversial retreads - Knight and Tour.) Thus a significant number of employees are (a) useless or (b) yes-wo/men (eg see the hapless Carter again!)

Wednesbury North has three of the worst Labour Councillors of them all - Inane Elaine Costigan, "Zorro" Hughes and Lachrymose Luke Giles. I am told that these rebels "lobbied" for a new traffic arrangement at Trouse Lane, Wednesbury and Sandwell's briliant Highways Department decided to install a mini-roundabout surrounded by, wait for it, no less that 60 (yes, sixty) stainless steel bollards. Costigan described the scheme of social media as "great" - though not alas for lorries trying to get round this absurd obstruction.

I am indebted to Messrs X and Y for photos and video footage. In the photo below you will see that lorries are constantly knocking the ridiculous bollards down (to be replaced by, er, cones) and whilst the lorry in the video manages to miss the bollards it only does so by mounting the mini-island itself!

For some reason the video is not linking to all social media so try this link if you can't see it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq1jfffVpXg

Well done Labour for yet another monumental f*ck-up. Vote Labour folks for more #corruption, #cronyism, #incompetence!

Twitter Joke of The Week

With a massive child obesity crisis in Sadders it is now said that after 46 years of Labour poverty thousands of local parents are actually unable to feed their own children outside school term-time. Various cafes etc have been complaining vociferously that the Government are not doing enough to help them during Covid and many claim that they are not even able to pay their rent. And yet, suddenly, a number of these allegedly skint companies are able to offer free food for kids!?!

The most bizarre offer to date is from the cafe at, er, Sandwell Crematorium! Erudite Twitter wag @Bravo1Niner asked on social media whether it was going to be a BBQ - Boom, Boom!

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

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PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!

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Thursday, 22 October 2020

Has WBA FC Profited From The Albion Foundation?

Remember when Jeremy Peace owned our beloved Baggies? This blog disclosed that the football club was getting massive kudos via its connection with The Albion Foundation, a charity which does some excellent work, but putting sod all in. The canny Peace was happy to bask in the glory of the "good works" whilst letting other people fund it - notably us taxpayers via bent Labour Sandwell Council. I pointed out long ago that in the 2012/2013 WBA FC put just £20k into the charity that year but then it got even worse. One set of accounts during Peace's reign showed that the Club put a nice round figure into the charity ie "0" (zero)! This left a very nasty taste in the mouth of most right-thinking fans but, as usual, was hardly mentioned by the local mainstream media (and Match of the Day) who continued to laud the non-existent generosity of the Club

I reviewed the state of play during lockdown and noting the change of ownership. The latest accounts for the year ended 30th June, 2019 do, of course, reflect the new ownership and the ultimate control of WBA by Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited (a mere 9,207kms away from The Hawthorns.) At the moment fans are struggling to pay £14.95 to watch a game on TV (although pre-Covid WBA were trying to flog polo shirts for £40 a pop) but the good news from the accounts is that the "highest paid director" almost DOUBLED his pay - up from £219,000 a year to £437,000 (plus a £20k pension bung which seems remarkably modest.) The Club had a turnover of over £70 million but there is no mention in the accounts of any payments to the Foundation.

This led me to look at the accounts for the Foundation itself - also for the year ended 30th June, 2019 - whereupon I shat myself. The list of donors supporting various programmes did NOT include WBA FC and mostly consisted of the Premier League, the corrupt Labour Council, various other charities/foundations and a couple of companies. Not only does the Club not appear as a significant donor (aside from some minor admin and facilities help) but, as will be seen from the document below, the Charity says it paid the Club over half a million pounds for tickets!

As will be seen below the Charity sold goods and services of £7,251to WBA FC down from a much greater £58,150 the year before.) But, incredibly, the accounts say the Charity bought £507, 890 worth of tickets from the Club. I thought this must be a misprint although noted WBA had sold the charity over £600k worth of tickets the year before. Even then I thought there must be some mistake and that the rapacious Club were not actually profiteering from their "own" charity. I duly wrote to Mr Rob Lake who runs the Albion Foundation. You will see from the exchange set out below that Mr Lake denied the colossal ticket purchases and said that the charity only (ONLY) spent £50k+ on kit and tickets for the staff. As you will see, I duly wrote back to Mr Lake pointing out the figures set out in the Charity's own accounts - but answer came there none!

This appears to be an absolute scandal (and Labour MP Preet Kaur Gill was a trustee at the material time and is named as such in the accounts.) Perhaps Mr Lake and/or the Trustees will explain this NOW?

Here are the actual emails. There was no response to my follow up.

2nd July, 2020

Dear Mr Lake,

THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION

In the past the Foundation has featured in The Sandwell Skidder blog in respect of apparent lack of funding from West Bromwich Albion FC.

I further note:

(a) that WBA FC handles the payroll for the Foundation. Is there a charge for doing this and, if so, how much?

(b) incredibly, the Foundation declares that IT buys over half a million pounds a year-worth of tickets from WBA FC (£507,890.) Why?

3rd July, 2020

Hi Julian

Thank you for your interest in The Albion Foundation.

We have an excellent relationship with WBA FC. I have replied to your queries in the text.

Hope this helps.

TEXT:

In the past the Foundation has featured in The Sandwell Skidder blog in respect of apparent lack of funding from West Bromwich Albion FC.

I have been looking at both the Club's and the Foundation's latest accounts and I have been unable to trace any donations in money or in kind from the Club to the charity (apart from some "sales" of £58, 150.) Am I missing something? Within restricted funds anything with PL, Premier League or EFL in the title is WBA FC’s contribution from the central Premier League Community Fund. This was a contribution of £740,618 for the last set of accounts.

We also receive a great deal of in-kind support such as free use of the stadium and academy facilities.

I further note:

(a) that WBA FC handles the payroll for the Foundation. Is there a charge for doing this and, if so, how much? No

(b) incredibly, the Foundation declares that IT buys over half a million pounds a year-worth of tickets from WBA FC (£507,890.) Why? I do not know where you get this figure from see below the figure is £53,519 and this includes the cost of all staff kit as well as tickets.

3rd July, 2020

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your speedy response.

1 With regard to the in-kind benefits, do you have an estimate of the financial-worth of this? Could it not be argued that the Foundation equally provides "in-kind" benefits to WBA FC via publicity and "soft" PR?

2 I note what you say about the reserved funds etc coming via the club from the Premier League etc but it is not the Club's money is it?

3. I attach paragraph 19 of the Foundation's accounts about the half a million pounds transaction with WBA FC.

End.