I have been in touch with West Midlands Police (WMP) concerning what has been going in in "Sahotaville" - the area around Brunswick Park Road in Wednesbury where property developer, Mr Satnam Sahota, has various interests - to the chagrin of local residents. We saw in a previous post* that the local Bent Blues are pals of Sahota, and even put the arm on a local resident when he had the temerity to criticise Sahota on social media. It was not surprising therefore, that WMP said there was "insufficient evidence" to look into my disquiet. Of course, many of us cling to the naive view that where there are prima facie concerns, the local Police may use their extensive investigatory powers to, er, investigate but, in Sandwell of course, that is fantasy, as we have seen for many years. Of course, WMP will say that they are too busy "engaging with the community" to bother about actual crime ...
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I don't have police powers, but I have been doing some further digging myself with interesting results. Now read on ...
Part One: A Vile Trio
Before we get into the nitty-gritty it is worth mentioning that the three local Labour Councillors who have been heavily involved with Sahota are Costigan, Luke Giles and Peter "Zorro" Hughes (aka "Alberich"). These three unwise monkeys have appeared frequently in this blog. Just by way of one example, The Skidder exclusively revealed the triumvirate's attempt to develop Goldicroft Park without actually consulting local residents**.
Giles - part of the Giles family "Greed Machine" with four of the clan now on the bent Labour Council raking in the allowances - has been involved with Sahota for a much shorter time, and the other pair have made much of "the running" with the developer. (The residents of Charlemont & Grove Vale seem to have finally seen through bent Labour and have the chance at the May election of denting the Greed Machine's finances by booting the absolutely useless Elizabeth Giles off the Council - other candidates listed on the SMBC website).
Of course, Costigan, has also been the de facto "Gold Commander" of WMP Wednesbury. Her assiduous (metaphorical) rimming of blue helmets is the stuff of legend. We have also seen many times (Skidders passim and see legal notice below) that "Inane" Elaine is an inveterate liar (and see further below) and, as was said of Disraeli, only ever tells the truth "by accident".
A police sergeant at Wednesbury was involved in the intimidation of a local resident and it would be interesting for the Police to investigate who made the malicious and ridiculous complaint (details of which are set out elsewhere in this blog). Was it Sahota or a Labour Councillor or crony on their behalf?
For the record, Peter Hughes wife, Pam Hughes, was also a Labour Councillor and on the Planning Committee for some years. Some people say that Zorro exercises a domineering influence on her. I don't know if this is true save that I did personally witness him treat her like a doormat at an event at OCH some years ago (Skidder passim).
It should also be noted that these Councillors have strong support from within the bent paid service at the corrupt Council.
Part Two: Brunswick Apartments [sic]
This address sounds rather exotic for Wednesbury. It isn't. Here it is - the building - "Block A" on the left. (Sahota and/or his companies also own the building on the right - "Block B".)
In 2006 Sahota wanted to develop both of the above buildings. We are only concerned at present with "Block A". Sahota secured planning permission to convert it into a "residential care home". He says that unnamed "Councillors" wanted to "clean and develop the area". At some point - Sahota himself is unable to say exactly when (!) - he claims that "some of the neighbours" asked him why he didn't let the building out to "normal tenants" (his words). This seems improbable given the antipathy of the neighbours towards him. He duly gave up running the building for residential care and, in breach of his planning permission, started renting out to "normal" tenants " to make all the neighbours happy". He claims that this was at a financial cost to himself as the care residents were more remunerative. What an amazing, kind-hearted, guy!
The key point here is that a number of Labour Councillors were well aware that Sahota had changed the use of the building and either they did not inform planning officers despite their frequent direct contact with them, or else they made planning officers aware but there was a conspiracy to ignore this. What is particularly galling is that, as we shall see, Sahota made further local planning applications - with the full support of Labour Councillors - whilst it was well known that he was in breach of the "Block A" terms.
On Monday 24th July, 2017 Sahota had a site meeting with Cllr Costigan and Peter Hughes together with a SMBC planning officer called Carl Mercer. I have no idea if this Mercer character is still employed by Sandwell but SMBC say that he made no record of the meeting WHATSOEVER. WTF was he doing there? Yet, despite the complete absence of any records being kept of a meeting with someone also making other planning applications AND the attendance of two Councillors, the bent Council claims that the parties did not enter "Block A" at any time but simply had a "walk around the area".
If they did not know long before this, it seems absolutely inconceivable that Costigan and Alberich were not fully aware of the change of use by this date. Local residents allege that they knew long before this.
But just a couple of months later SMBC employee Christine Phillips wrote to various Councillors on 15th September, 2017 stating that permission had originally been given for "supported living". There was also a site visit at some point in 2017 - which may be the one referred to above - and yet Ms Phillips refers to the residents as "occupants of supported living flats" which appears to be plain wrong. And this was known to Labour Councillors, if not to staff.
It is noteworthy that the bent Council refused to respond to a Freedom of Information request relating to the documentation held on the use of the property between 2008 and 2017. Of course the Police could obtain these documents, but it is highly likely that any that did exist have now gone through the shredder.
Anyway - you will all be glad to know that Sahota has come up smelling of roses. I wrote to the new(ish) Director of Regeneration, Tony McGovern, complaining about the lack of enforcement action by SMBC (and also the failure of Mercer to keep proper records). Curiously, McGovern says that the meeting was all about alleged planning issues involving "Block B" following "complaints". How this is known when the Council specifically say no records were kept remains, at present, a mystery.
But Mr McGovern states that the law does not permit the Council to take any action where the change of use happened over 4 years ago. He alleges that the Council does not know when Sahota changed the use but that it was "clearly" over 4 years ago. Whether it was over 4 years before 2017 is currently unknown.
Despite the law - and the conspiracy of silence by some Councillors (if not officers) - allowing Sahota to get away with this, he has applied for a "Lawful Development Certificate" to give retrospective legality to this con, which McGovern is granting on the nod - apparently because he had no legal power to do anything else.
Part Three: St Paul's Court
In 2013 Sahota - via one of his companies - applied for permission to convert a large former religious building to flats. This is only a couple of hundred yards further up Brunswick Park Road from "Block A". The residents were up in arms about this but "Labour Councillors" indicated their firm support for the project. A Labour Party source says that two of those Councillors were Costigan and Peter Hughes. The planning application was resubmitted in 2014 following pre-application advice from the aforementioned Christine Phillips. Nick Bubalo - our old "friend" - was head of planning at this time.
Despite local opposition the matter was approved at a Planning Committee meeting on 25th September, 2014. Please remember the date. The interesting points were that Pam Hughes voted for the development and Peter Hughes turned up as an observer at the meeting. More particularly, Costigan was on the Committee and declared a "non-pecuniary interest" stating that she had been lobbied by Sahota and by the residents. Nevertheless, she did not leave the room when the application came up, and participated in the debate AND voted. What we can tell from this is that Costigan - apart from displaying a cavalier disregard for the rules - was in communication with Sahota prior to September, 2014.
In 2016 Sahota applied for planning permission to convert the basement of the property into two more flats (nice!) and this was quickly approved by Nick Bubalo using his delegated authority. For some peculiar reason I cannot download Bubalo's "delegated report" from the SMBC website? (DC/16/59870)
As with other Sahota projects, planning problems arose. At the rear of the premises was a "storage building". Local residents told the Council that people were living in the building. It is alleged by locals they were told that people using the building were, in fact, builders working on the Kartar Drive bungalows (see below).
Sahota himself claims that he changed the use of the building without planning permission on 13th December, 2021. For once he says he did not get pre-application advice from the bent Labour Council but something prompted him to belatedly apply for planning permission on 16th February, 2022 (although, strangely, a later document says the date of the application was 9th March, 2022). By now local residents were at war with Sahota but the unnamed officer who visited the site, and recommended that retrospective permission be given, claimed that the further development had been advertised "by way of letter to locals" and no complaints were raised. Having met several locals I find this incredible, but there we are! Curiously, although Sahota was using an agent on the planning application he specifically requested that any site visit be arranged with himself and not the agent. Clearly he was well known to many planning officers and perhaps he just wanted to deal with old friends?
On the basis of the officer's site visit report Tony McGovern provided retrospective planning consent very swiftly on 22nd April, 2022 using his delegated authority.
Part Four - Kartar Drive
In a post dated 3rd July, 2022 I explained that bent Labour sold land off James Watt Drive to Sahota. It appears that he bought the land in early November, 2016 but I have not yet been able to ascertain when the relevant Council Committee agreed to sell the land to him. It appears (and this currently remains unconfirmed) that he only paid £20,000 for the plot.
I am asking the Council again (and the Commissioners) to supply the full details. Around this time Cllrs Gavan, Costigan and Peter Hughes were all on the Committee and I have also asked them directly if they have any recollection of this disposal. I will let you know if and when they reply.
Local allege (and this is specifically denied by Mr Sahota) that he set about clearing the site of old garages etc., which contained asbestos. They claim that he did not follow any proper procedures and got rid of the material by attempting to burn it on a bonfire. The locals complained to the Council, the Health and Safety Executive, Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all, but no-one in "authority" could be arsed to investigate this.
As ever, in 2017 Sahota received planning advice from Ms Phillips of SMBC. After a false start he filed a further application in 2018 ... A meeting was arranged pre-application to be attended by, er, Cllr Peter Hughes. Why? It has come to light that the meeting was specifically to be held at Sahota's Office "in Brunswick Park Apartments" - the very building where, as above, Councillors were aware that he had unlawfully changed the use of the building without planning permission!
The local residents in the small area local to all these developments protested volubly including with a 27-signature petition, but were ignored by Labour Councillors. The planning permission for five residences on the cheap plot was given on 25th April, 2018. As with a number of meetings, Costigan failed to turn-up but Pam Hughes was one of those approving the permission. She did not declare any interest.
Contrary to the planning permission and, once again, Sahota did his own thing. Following further protests from locals he was obliged - again - to apply for retrospective planning permission. On 7th April, 2021 Labour again approved the permission and, yet again, Pam Hughes approved the retrospective application and did not declare any interest.
When the bungalows were built Mr and Mrs Hughes duly rented one from Sahota. Pam Hughes was no longer a Councillor but, with the connivance of Sandwell's controversial Monitoring Officer, Surjit Tour, Zorro concealed this fact in his Register of Interests entry.
Hughes says that he has no responsibility for the decisions of his wife at the Planning meetings - ROFLMAO!
Part Five - Burns Night, 2015
Now the story takes a further extraordinary twist. Remember that we now know that Costigan was having dealings with Sahota since, at least, 2014. In January 2015 the local Labour Party decided to hold a Burns Night event in Wednesbury. One source says that Peter Hughes organised the event. Another says the master of ceremonies was foul-mouthed Glaswegian, Billy "Alka Seltzer" Gavan. In any event, a decision was made to invite Costigan and Hughes's pal Satnam Sahota. This is, of course, before Labour sold him the building plot which is now Kartar Drive and when some Councillors knew about his unlawful change of use of "Block A".
I wrote to the poisonous Hughes about the event:
"THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION - PRESS ENQUIRY
I am informed, rightly or wrongly, that you organised a Burns Night event for WBW CLP in January, 2015 - possibly at a venue called "WS10". Further, you issued an invitation to Satnam Sahota who duly attended the function.
Please confirm that this is all true or, alternatively, state what is correct in the above and what is incorrect."
He has chosen not to respond. I also wrote to Costigan:
"Email from me to Costigan 29/03/23
THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION
You attended a WBWCLP event in January, 2015 - possibly for Burns Night - with Satnam Sahota and then tried to tap him up for campaign donations.
What was the event? Did you know Sahota before the event and, if so, how,? Did he make any donations to you and, if so, how much?"
This is her astonishing reply:
"Email from Costigan to me 29/03/23
I do remember this I wasn’t aware he was even there I had no dealings with this event whatsoever so no idea who was there. I just turned up with Tony Meehan.
If I remember we sat next to Olwen and Ian Jones not sure if they might know.
(Tap him up lol not heard that before how funny.)"
Note especially, "I wasn't aware he was even there ..."
Which is rather strange as this is an email she sent to Sahota on 28th January, 2015 (with her spelling mistakes) where she does indeed try to "tap him up":
* https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2022/07/another-exclusive-tour-zorro-sahota.html
** https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2022/01/goldicroft-park-labour-scum-exposed.html
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