PLEASE NOTE - the Legal Notice attached to all Skidder blogposts has been slightly amended. "Version 4" of the Legal Notice dated 8th October, 2023 is, as ever, shown at the end of each post - including this one - and can I urge all readers to familiarise themselves with the new version below. Thank you.
Shokat Lal acts to protect Huggins
The (relatively) new SMBC Chief Executive is having his first go at running a local authority. Coming in when the Commissioners (lol) are in situ should have made it easier for him to free himself from the sick Sandwell Labour dictatorship. But he (or more particularly, she) who pays the piper calls the tune, and Lal was given a big pay-rise by corrupt Labour over his predecessor, the disgraced David Stevens.
Lal has lost no time in picking a fight with me (which he obviously assumes is a wise career move) but then that is hardly surprising given his previous association with Sandwell's former weirdo "Leader", the crazed tyrant Steve "Squealing" Eling. The Squealer works, of course, for another basket case Labour Council, Rotherham where a massive sex abuse scandal was exposed involving the Council and local plod. The beleaguered Council brought in Lal, perhaps because of his presumed legal expertise in matters related to RMBC's local difficulty. Here is one of a number of documents showing that the Derbyshire-resident pair worked closely together:
If Lal is suspending his own judgement based on the rantings of Eling and Dim Kez then he must surely be hastening his own downfall?
Despite his very high salary, Lal has lost no time in going out partying at the taxpayers' expense. Here he is whooping it up at a fake "business awards" event with two of his puppeteers, Labour Cllr's Randhawa and Hughes:
[And yes, folks, I do have a Freedom of Information Request in, to see how much WE had to pay for this grotesque charade.]
Prior to Lal's arrival, Interim Chief Executive Kim Bromley-Derry (who, incredibly, was then made Lead Sandwell commissioner by Michael Gove in a rigged process) began removing swathes of public records from the Council's website. This was done deliberately to hamper journalists and campaigners from digging-up dirt. Despite KBD promise that some of the information would be put back up, it wasn't. Now Lal himself has presided over the launch of a new website with even more documentation deliberately removed. [We are setting up a group to ensure that the Council replaces the missing info - starting with minutes of old Council meetings.] This is absolutely appalling and given "leader" Kerrie "Dim Kez" Carmichael's deterimination to bury the past, one has to suspect that this outrage was a political decision and that Lal is Labour's willing tool.
In the meantime, The Skidder has been bombarded with calls, texts, messages and even letters about Mr Matthew Huggins and some of the issues raised are ongoing matters. Another tranche of communications was received recently concerning the purchase of a "vintage" coffee van similar to the one pictured above. I duly sent a press enquiry to bent Sandwell.
Several members of staff had contacted me about this purchase claiming, amongst other things, that it had been purchased on ebay, that it was a heap of sh*te, and that it was supposed to be used around various sites but the Council were struggling to insure it.
Lal's team claimed that the Council had purchased the van "in accordance with procurement guidelines". It was "primarily" for use at Lightwoods but also for other events and "usage at wedding hire" (the Bride is always latte lol!) The vehicle was specifically chosen - wait for it - because of "its aesthetics aligning with Lightwoods House"! The vehicle was fully functioning and only required some "minor work".
This is the first time in a decade that bent Labour has ever been concerned with "aesthetics" and, in any event, this is b*llocks.
I pressed with further questions about the circumstances of the purchase and the insurance but Lal has pulled the plug and forced me to make a Freedom of Information request for further facts. I have, of course, done this but this means Lal has kicked the can down the road (no pun intended) and, even if Labour do not try to use loopholes in the law to prevent disclosure, it is likely to be many months before I can put the replies in the public domain. Lal is also deliberately causing more expense to the public by taking this step. He is playing the same games as disgraced Britton and Stevens. Perhaps this is inexperience or perhaps he thinks he is cleverer than them?
Incidentally, whilst making the FOIA request I have included queries about the cafe/restaurant at Lightwoods since there are ugly rumours (and I put it no higher than that) of bent Labour trying to do a sweetheart deal to give the new franchise to a crony. We shall see ...
Lal's exodus
I have referred in these posts to the so called LGA (Local Government Association aka Lying Greedy Arseholes) Peer Reviews of bent Sandwell. There have been two in relatively recent times where wrongdoing is brushed under the carpet, or not even mentioned at all, and where some jokers from other councils claim that reform is underway in the bent Borough and that everything in the Sandwell garden will soon be rosy. Lal's arrival was meant to herald a new age of management stability but what has actually happened? TWO directors are out. Gillian Douglas was a short-lived Director of Housing before realising that she was at risk of destroying her career in the corrupt Borough and jumping ship. Even worse - the top finance person, Simone Hines, is on her way. She was the eventual replacement for the useless a***-licker, Darren Carter (Skidders passim ad nauseum), and her post is one of the most important in the Council - so much so that it is a statutory position - s. 151 Officer.
With the accounting records in disarray at Sandwell, computer system failures and Grant Thornton, the supposedly "independent" auditors, involving themselves in political matters this does not augur well for the Lal era.
Of course, the one who should be out is still there ... Lal seemingly hasn't got the cojones to lance that poisonous boil.
McNally - Tour "complains" to Leading Counsel
The repercussions of the corruption surrounding the McNally case rumble on (there's more to come folks). Regular readers will know that disgraced former Chief Executive, David Stevens and the highly controversial Monitoring Officer/Head of Legal [sic], Surjit Tour, conspired with Public Health boss, Lisa McNally, to bring an absurd High Court case against me, and to unlawfully fund it with YOUR money. They fell at the first hurdle - costing you £100,000.
Back in 2018 Tour had instructed Anya Proops KC, of expensive 11KBW Chambers in London, to shaft me. One must assume that Ms Proops gave Tour unpalatable advice as no legal action was issued at that time, although Tour says Proops did say - even before McNally was employed at SMBC - that the Council could legally indemnify employees to bring claims in respect of their personal social media accounts - which, with respect to Leading Counnsel, is, in legal terms, b*llocks. There is more on this on our associated blog dealing with legal matters via the link below, and a brand new post about the Solicitors Regulation Authority's feeble response to the racism disclosed in the Cox Review at bent Sandwell:
https://rottencouncils.blogspot.com/
When Tour and the others cooked up their scheme they decided not to re-instruct Ms Proops but instructed another KC in the same Chambers, Aileen McColgan. We have seen how Tour had Sandwell Legal Department's Daughters of Cain, the now departed Solicitors Maria Price and Julia Lynch (willingly assisted my Vanessa Mahersmith) concoct a ludicrous narrative about my supposed misogyny. McColgan had returned to practice from academe where she wrote extensively about female equality in the workplace and women's human rights (two subjects I am equally anxious to promote). Accordingly she was the perfect choice to "play" Tour's corrupted hand of cards. I have commented elsewhere on McColgan's performance but, of course, McNally's case was struck out at the first opportunity (at considerable financial cost to myself), and at great cost to the taxpayer.
What happened next would be incredible anywhere other than in bent Labour but it now transpires that Tour wrote a formal letter of complaint to McColgan about her handling of the case - a case where he had personally corrupted the evidence* - along with others!
You will not be surprised, folks, that Lal is refusing to make the letter public, even with suitable redactions.
Bromley-Derry: another McNally rimmer!
Make way BBC Midlands Today's Nick Owen - your role as McNally's Rimmer-in-Chief is under threat from no less a person that KBD himself. Readers with long memories will remember the comedy gold when McNally failed to mute herself during the all staff Christmas online meeting in 2021 (my post of 5th January, 2002) refers. On the tape "The Mouth of the Mersey" is heard savaging another Council employee, Oliver Knight.
But a kind soul sent me this astonishing absolution of St Lisa to all staff from KBD himself:
Why not listen to the tape again folks and make up your own mind whether Bromley-Derry is pissing down the workforce's legs and telling them it is raining:
Dying to go to the Park?
Bent Sandwell Labour is destroying green spaces across the Borough but continues to boast about the urban dystopia's "Green Flag" parks. They even put a list up on their website. But three of the "parks" are, er, burial grounds. Yes folks, the crooked comrades have lumped in with their actual parks, Fallings Heath and Tipton cemeteries, and Sandwell Valley Crem. The latter was recently castigated on social media for its tattiness and Tipton Cemetery went national (after a Skidder exclusive) when human remains were left in an open skip for all to see. Just the places to take the kids this weekend - or maybe wait 'til Halloween?
Quote of (last) week
Discussing "a Sandwell resident" last week I was told this: "My mate said he threatened to kick his head in when he caught him giving coke [not the fizzy drink] to his 15 year-old son!" Yet Sandwell Police have been massive rimmers of the resident in question. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that the person I was talking to was ex-West Midlands Police ... WTF?
PLEASE NOTE THE SKIDDER WILL BE UNABLE TO TAKE CALLS TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY NEXT WEEK - PLEASE USE TEXT, MESSAGING APPS OR EMAIL IF YOU HAVE A STORY.
* Tour, amongst other things, purported to give evidence himself within the Court documents - rather than as a witness - when he had been directly involved in the conspiracy to bring the case and to get Cllr Maria Crompton to wrongly agree that taxpayers should pay for it.
LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)
I cannot list every previous mention of individuals referred to in the entirety of this blog. Where I refer to a specific story please follow the supplied hyperlink since this forms legal justification for later comments. Similarly references to “posts or Skidders passim” and to earlier posts mean any individuals concerned about purported defamatory or otherwise unlawful material must read later posts in the context of earlier posts. Full information can also be supplied within a reasonable time upon application via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com
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