One of the mysteries at bent Labour Sandwell Council is how Head of Internal Audit, Peter Farrow, still has a job. As I have pointed out before, Farrow managed to miss multiple episodes of misconduct over many YEARS from Boggate, The Public, Lodge Street, The Coroner's office and much more including a number of whistleblowing complaints where Farrow effectively found that the employees who expressed concerns were liars and that there had not been any wrongdoing. His review of the apparently fraudulent SEND contract seems strange since after his investigation the contracts were - to all intents and purposes - given to the same person/his companies. Farrow is such a genius at his job that External Auditors found a host of serious problems at the corrupt and incompetent Council which he had seemingly overlooked, and these were so serious the Government had to send Commissioners in at a cost to taxpayers of at least £2m! But Farrow is Teflon-coated ...
Like many, I had high hopes of things improving when the Commissioners were appointed but have been sadly disappointed - not least by incredible delay in their responses. (I will be returning soon to the subject of bent Labour dishing out taxpayer-owned properties to pet charities and to the College which Michael Gove nationally, and all local Tory MP's and Councillors locally, seem to think is absolutely fine!)
A few weeks ago I received messages from employees telling me the same story. As ever they were too scared to speak out at work - unsurprising with what has gone on in the past - and hoped that I would follow-up on their behalf. I might as well p*ss my pants as contact Farrow, and so I went straight to the Commissioners who, after all, are supposed to be running the show.
The allegation - which could be very easily checked - is that a (male) Manager (partner status unknown) had been regularly taking cars from the Sandwell car pool (who knew they even had such a thing?) for "private" purposes. Further, his excursions were sh*gging trips with a married female employee. This was reported to the Commissioners on 9th MARCH, 2023. They asked for the names of the employees which I duly supplied on the same date. Since then, absolutely zilch. If the allegation has merit why has this not been dealt with by now - well over THREE MONTHS later? Indeed, has this conduct been continuing? Whatever the situation, these people need to clear the alleged miscreants or take appropriate action!
What the F is going on with The Scrotum?
Extraordinary goings on between bent Labour Sandwell Council and the Sandwell Leisure Trust (SLT). For those new readers who are unfamiliar with the SLT story so far here's a potted history.
Labour bullsh*tters set up SLT as a charity to run its leisure centres. At the time, Labour Councillors boasted that SLT would be a centre of excellence and be so good it would also run leisure centres outside the benighted Borough too. A crony, the aggressive Lynda Bateman, was put in charge and two Labour councillors were placed on the Charity's Board of Trustees & associated Company Board. Inevitably, like almost all of the comrades, these councillors had no business or commercial experience whatsoever.
The fact is that although SLT is nominally independent it relies for the bulk of its income from us taxpayers via the bent Labour Council and "he who pays the piper calls the tune".
Bateperson and Co. singularly failed with the empire-building plan, only running one other small leisure centre outside Sadders, in Bromsgrove. But they also became responsible for The Public via a new charity, Sandwell Arts Trust.
The wife-beater and bully Darren Cooper when he was, incredibly, the Labour Leader of the corrupt Council fell out big time with SLT. When the West Bromwich Leisure Centre was built he insisted that SLT would not run it and - to this day - it has been run by an outfit now known as "Places for People".
When Wednesbury Leisure Centre was being built SLT were desperate to get back into favour and sold their soul to the devilish Dickhead Daz, who was desperate to destroy The Public. In return for SLT shafting the Arts Trust they would get to run Wednesbury LC. And so it came to pass.
It is difficult to feel sympathy for this sh*tbag organisation (which has a history of other failures, job losses and the termination of successful sporting projects) but even someone with half a brain would appreciate how badly the organisation was hit by the Covid pandemic. You might think that even Labour Councillors would have realised this but ... The fact is that leisure centres could hardly operate and generate fees when they were, er, forced to close during lockdowns and subjected to stringent restrictions even when they could open. The Charity was in a parlous state and sensibly decided to try and rationalise its workforce, but this was an anathema to imbecilic Labour Councillors who believe that the taxpayer should continue to keep forking out for workers regardless of economics and/or sound management.
Unions and supposedly hard-left elements within Sandwell Labour Group set out to destroy the Council's "own" Charity! The vanguard of the attackers were "socialist" Cllrs poisonous Piper and gobby Fenton - neither of whom has ever run a whelk stall. As if this wasn't bad enough, the idiotic comrades then decided to "sack" SLT from running the leisure centres altogether including what may be the most expensive leisure centre/white elephant in the whole country, the multi-million pound Sandwell Aquatic Centre (aka the SAC or "Scrotum").
There appears to have been no opposition to this from the Tory MP's and Councillors (if you discount the odd tweet from Shaun Bailey). This appears to be (a) because the local Tories seem to be exclusively interested in Brandhall, dog sh*t and potholes, and (b) because they are cultish devotees of local Tory mage and visionary [sic], millionaire WM Mayor Andy Street, who tried to out-bullsh*t Labour in his support for the absurd financial disaster which was the Commonwealth Games. Accordingly the local Conservatives failed to attack the costs or ludicrous positioning of The Scrotum, nor that Labour STILL has no plan for the Thimblemill Baths building, nor the fiasco with SLT.
And so bent Labour - despite 49 years of failure and no commercial nous whatsoever - insanely thought that the corrupt Council could do a better job of running the leisure centres than SLT and decided to "sack" (or "SAC") their own Charity. What could possibly go wrong ...
It should be noted that all this is against a background of an increase in private gym provision across the Borough over the years. The "socialists" hate this. They want to undercut these businesses and keep charges to the public below economic costs. In the circumstances they cannot possibly break even, let alone make a profit.
I am also indebted to these erudite observations from Darren Stevens via Facebook regarding The Scrotum:
"A new Smethwick centre would have made a profit if it was half the size - [The Council's] signed its own death warrant agreeing it to be built for the Commonwealth Games - it will haemorrhage money and staffing and maintenance costs and the lack of usable space. It's also built in entirely the wrong place for transport and the community that surrounds it will not be able to afford to use it."
Despite the millions of OUR cash that bent Labour have ploughed into these centres - including The Scrotum - over many years (since 2004 in the case of SLT) they laughably stated this in a press release:
"The Council’s aspiration to move towards a zero subsidy to run its portfolio of facilities simply could not be met or jointly agreed through the business planning negotiations [with SLT]”.
There is as much chance of us taxpayers not having to subsidise these places as there is of Dim Kez telling the truth about The Cox Review! This is particularly so at present noting soaring energy costs thanks to the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Labour Cllr Danny Millard bizarrely stated that "this was not a position we expected to be in" - which is entirely bogus noting that Labour shafted SLT in the first place.
These morons actually think they can make money out of their, er, heavily-subsidised portfolio and decided to set up a "local authority trading company" (LATC). The Council would own the shares but, otherwise, it would operate like any other company. I pointed out in a previous post that Piper, Dim Kez and Co had not thought this through. Firstly, the Company would have to prepare reports and accounts in the usual way, and so it will be more difficult for Labour to hide the losses they would inevitably make. Secondly, there will be less opportunity to poke their noses in and micro-manage the separate business than there is with the craven SLT "charity". Thirdly, in the unlikely event the Company did make a profit it would be subject to our current high rate of Corporation Tax - which a Charity does not usually have to pay.
Having made these disastrous decisions, bent Labour actually appeared to do something right for a change. They brought in an expert to run the LATC, a Mr Mark Braithwaite, who appears to have a good track record in the leisure industry. The comrades trumpeted:
Foul-mouthed Labour Cllr Laura Rollins, who has sensibly moved out of the Borough so as not to have to live with local scum, professed herself delighted at the appointment. There are rumours - and I put it no higher - that Mr Braithwaite was to be paid around £100,000 a year.
But now these corrupt and incompetent Labour buffoons have changed their minds again. There is not to be a LTC (at least for the foreseeable) and the leisure centres (including The Scrotum) are to be operated by, er, SLT after all. How distressing for the SLT employees for Labour to have put them through all this uncertainty! Once again there appears to be total silence from the Tories (unless something is going on behind the scenes) on this astonishing volte face just months after bent Labour fired SLT. And because there is no apparent scrutiny from the Conservative Group it is difficult to know what is really going on although it is noteworthy that SLT has appointed a raft of new trustees in May and June.
Bateman is still there despite what has gone on, but she is joined by newbies Melanie Briggs, Neil King, Harry Turner, Adrian Phillips and Tracy Pearce* (with a handful of existing trustees staying on). It is not (yet) known if these newbies are Labour stooges (though see below) but neither the Council's own records nor the Charity Commission/Companies House documents show any current Sandwell Labour Councillors being appointed! This might have indicated that SLT were finally taking their allegedly "independent" charitable status seriously and that they had "grown a pair" but, seemingly, this is not the case as we shall see. The SLT website is silent of the Trust's new (old) role!
[* Addendum 24/06/23 - Pearce is a former employ of Sandwell Council!]
This re-marriage has left Mr Braithwaite as the spare pr*ck at the (shotgun) wedding. So has he been paid off? No, and here is the absurd exchange I have had with SLT following a formal press enquiry:
There are two things to note here. Firstly, although I wrote to the supposedly independent SLT they had to seek "orders" from the bent Labour Council despite Braithwaite technically being their employee. This once again appears to indicate that the charitable status of SLT is simply a front for control of their operations via SMBC. Secondly, and perhaps I am reading too much into it but, to me, this reads as if no-one has a scooby what to do with Mr Braithwaite and that policy is being made up as they go along.
Of course, dear readers, I followed up with the obvious supplementary question and got this response:
Spot the Difference!
It is an unfortunate fact that Sandwell folk are thicker than their counterparts elsewhere and this has been displayed once again by a number of local morons attacking hardworking West Bromwich West MP, Shaun Bailey, in respect of the latest revelations about Tory lockdown parties. There is one small problem with this. Local dullards have got the WRONG Shaun Bailey!
Clue: The local MP is the guy with the hair ...
This might be a timely moment to remember the Covid rules breach by a large number of gentlemen - many Labour Councillors - who piled into a Birmingham restaurant heedless of the restrictions then in force. Five of them were (then) Sandwell Labour Councillors. This matter was reported the very next day to West Midlands Police who took no action whatsoever. One rule for one as they say ...
Sneaky Labour
In a recent post I put up this image from Sandwell Corruption showing Labour's deceit:
What's The Turd of Sandwell Wearing Here?
I predicted recently that the new Turd of Sandwell, Mayor Bent? (as in Corrupt?) Billy Gavan, would soon (metaphorically) defecate on his ceremonial regalia. He is still refusing to comment on the alleged £5,000 donation to Labour and so we will have to assume that WAS a bent deal until further information otherwise.
This grotesque guy recently attended a £100-a-head fundraiser at the Hawthorns for the right-wing of the Labour Party. Watson's latest puppet, WBE candidate Sarah Coombes, was there as were the leaders of Sandwell political Sikhism, Pam Randhawa and Gurinder Josan, plus the greasy Bookie's runner, John Spellar MP. This was a purely political function and not in any way a civic one yet here's a picture of The Turd appearing to wear the Mayoral insignia? What ya up to Billy Boy?
I am told that Bent? Billy was due to open The Orchard Coffee Bar in Wednesbury the other day but the owner had to temporarily shut up due to family issues. Quite why a local business would want a serial business failure like The Turd (aka Alka Seltzer because he has been involved with so many dissolved companies) open his shop is wholly beyond me.
Interestingly Labour First, which organised the flash dinner event, didn't give much of a discount for tables of ten lol:
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