Shokat Lal fetes bent ex-Cllr - with OUR money!

AT LAST! Bent Labour Sandwell Council's Chief Executive, Shokat Lal, who was alone this week in celebrating his one year in post in the benighted Borough, spent weeks (and taxpayers' money) trying to cover-up his mega expensive party nights paid for by, er, us. Regular readers will know that I have been fighting for the truth for MONTHS but Lal made a series of futile attempts to protect his arse. And well he might because The Skidder can now officially confirm that one of his guests AT BOTH parties was bent ex-Labour Councillor, Pam Hughes, the doormat wife of Labour Cllr Peter "Zorro" Hughes (aka Alberich).

The only reason Pam Hughes is not facing a standards investigation into her dealings with Satnam Sahota, a property developer, is that she stood down from her Council seat. Her role, and that of Zorro, in the ongoing "Sahotaville" scandal is still being investigated - though I am facing considerable delay in the provision of information from Michael Gove's Commissioners. I have already written extensively how the Hughes's have been assiduous rimmers of Sahota for many years. Amongst other things they failed to inform the Council that Sahota had turned what was supposed to be a "residential care home" into flats in breach of the conditions of his planning permission, and supported his conversion of another large building nearby into flats in the teeth of opposition from local residents. They also arranged, with Gavan and others, for Sahota to attend at least one Labour Party fundraising event.

Worse still, SMBC arranged to sell a piece of land to Sahota. The information about this is still being withheld by the Commissioners and so it it is not possible to say whether the Hughes's were involved in that decision, although a local Labour Party figure says that Zorro, for one, fully supported the sale to Sahota (but not to anyone else). At this moment in time we will have to give the Hughes's the benefit of the doubt. I should add that Sandwell Police are currently refusing to investigate the Hughes's dealings with the developer.

Having bought the land Pam Hughes failed to declare an interest whilst sitting on the Planning Committee when Sahota got permission to build 5 bungalows on the plot - yet again despite fierce local opposition. True to form Sahota was again in breach of the planning conditions, and the matter came back before the Planning Committee. Once again Pam Hughes failed to register an interest. When the bungalows were built the Hughes's moved into one of them.

I have written about all this a number of times (Skidders passim and see legal notice below). Also, one post dealt with that second planning meeting which was held online. Although Zorro was not on the Committee he was allowed to speak on behalf of his ward. This was during the Covid crisis and so the Hughes's were - or should have been - in the same house during the meeting, if not the same room. Zorro purported to represent the local residents who were sick of Sahota and universally opposed to the bungalow development. But far from speaking up for the residents Zorro used this as a platform to slag THEM off! Bent Pam, on the actual Committee, sat and said nothing even then!

Lal has already worked with Surjit Tour and his colleagues to exonerate Zorro using a specious argument that a standards complaint concerning the Sahotaville scandal was made out of time. It wasn't as I have set out elsewhere, and this is now being referred to the Local Government Ombudsman - and other action is also being pursued over this particular Lal cover-up. No action could be taken against bent Pam as she had left the Council by then.

Lal's colleagues recorded that despite all the above being patently true and well-documented, the Hughes's had found my complaints very upsetting "particularly in the light of [Pam Hughes's] diagnosis of cancer and dementia which they [the Hughes's] have NOT sought to keep secret."

During Pam's time as a puppet for Zorro, bent Labour were vehemently anti-business (unless, like Sahota, KTC Edibles and others, they were "friends of bent Labour"). I am unaware of any pro-business statements (nor indeed anything else sensible) ever having been uttered by Pam Hughes. Yet, despite her obvious breaches of the Councillors' Code of Conduct, Lal thought she was a suitable person to represent the corrupt Council at not one, but two, business awards evenings! You couldn't make it up! 

Here is Lal partying with these scumbags at the first do. He blew £7,500 plus vat of OUR cash on the parties when Labour Councillors claim that after 50 years of THEIR control of Sandwell, there are kids literally starving across the sh*thole Borough.

Despite Zorro's comments about his wife's health she was clearly up for a couple of evenings out and keeping the nose in the taxpayers' trough.

Freedom of Information Request One (and Two)

Regular readers will know that skint Labour spent £4,000 plus vat for a table of 10 at one of the fake "awards" events run by that old friend of Sandwell Labour, the late wife-beater Darren Cooper, and Cllr Pam Ramhawa, Ninder Johal of Nachural Events (Skidders passim and see legal notice below). Single tickets cost approximately £120 each despite the Council saying that the food was only worth about £8 per head (or with the wine, worth around £18 per head - good, er, business for Johal!)

If bent Labour and Lal himself think that this woo-woo event will actually do anything to win business, investment and jobs for Sadders they are, of course, delusional. It hardly helps when many Labour Councillors like Bob "From The River To The Sea" Piper actually want to see the end of capitalism and a socialist dictatorship in his dog-sh*t smeared part of the world. And Lal could have arranged to just buy a few seats at £120 a head (bad, but not so bad). Instead this event was pitched at him as a great chance to improve HIS own profile in the area and so, his ego stroked, he opted for a sponsorship deal at £400 per head plus vat for a party of 10 instead. Lal got a large pay increase over the previous (disgraced) Chief Exec, but then he is not spending his own money for these parties - he's spending OURS.

And Labour can afford such largesse since the wicked Tory Government has given them lots of OUR money via the Levelling-Up fund including for business regeneration. Of course, loads of this money is going to the "usual suspects" via bullsh*t levels of bureaucracy and talk shops such as "West Midlands Growth" [sic] (where one Shokat Lal is a Board Member). As ever with corrupt Sandwell Labour - under Blair/Brown and even under the Conservatives - they receive pots of money which they then blow on vanity projects and enriching their cronies without it ever "trickling down" to where it is needed. Look at the thousands spent on the pathetic Wednesbury market, as just one example.

This money is actually supposed to improve productivity in the Greater Birmingham area which is 14% below the national average and where economic activity is lower than almost anywhere in the country [source: The Economist]. The Economist also wrote recently that despite all the bullsh*t from former soft-furnishing salesman, Tory Andy Street, he has "hardly moved the dial" when it comes to economic improvement.

Now there is another old problem for bent Labour as I touched on above. Sandwell Labour hate private enterprise, business and entrepreneurship (unless this enriches them personally) and so serious people actually doing business in the urban dystopia hate them. Thus they only have a rump a cronies and PR wallahs as their "business contacts" such as the corrupt Council's wholly unaccountable "Sandwell Business Ambassadors". Who then, went to the parties. Now we finally know!

Initially Lal only named himself and Labour Councillors Peter Hughes and Pam Randhawa as attendees at the first function and refused to name the other guests at both functions. This blog disclosed that an employee, Nicy (correct spelling) Morgan attended and this is now confirmed. Dealing with the first event and, as above, he concealed that he thought bent ex-Labour Councillor Pam Hughes was a fit and proper person to represent the corrupt Council and bunged her a ticket. On 24th November, 2023 Lal specifically attempted to use s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act to conceal bent Pam H's attendance! This from the guy who is supposed to be cleaning bent Sandwell up!

As it transpired, Randhawa, a friend of Ninder Johal, had already been given a freebie to the event and so her seat, which the taxpayer paid for, could have gone to someone else. 

In November, Lal also refused to name the Sandwell Business Ambassador who attended nor FOUR (!) "Business School participants". In a recent blog*, following my own research, I named the Ambassador [sic] as Paul Hull (and Lal has finally confirmed that it was indeed this SBA shy retiring flower who graciously accepted a free p*ss up at our expense).

"Business School" is a term of art, meaning. "a high-level educational institution in which students study subjects related to business and commerce, such as economics, finance and management". There is only one of them in the area, at Wolverhampton University, and I duly wrote to them only to be told that no representatives on the Uni had attended the event (at least not on the Sandwell table). Once again. WTF?

After Lal wasted more staff time in this futile cover-up and a mere 129 days later he finally 'fessed up. Bent Pam H and Paul Hull had attended. And four invitations were sent not to a Business School as Lal had falsely claimed, but to Sandwell Council's own new business start-up scheme (using Levelling-Up funds) in Jack Judge House, Oldbury! Having decided to blow £4k plus vat to promote bent Sandwell as a place to do business. Lal invited four people who were getting advice from Sandwell Council (via the new Business Growth section) to four complete business novices just attempting to start businesses (and, as it was, only three actually bothered to turn up to a free p*ss-up!) Nicy Morgan reminded the invitees - people struggling to start businesses - that this was a "black tie dinner" and later exhorted them to wear their "finery". What an absolute load of w*nk!

Even if Lal thinks there is some value in being associated with a fake awards ceremony only 8 tickets were used (as Randhawa had a personal benefactor) and these would have cost £960 plus vat. Still a massive waste of public money but better than the £4k plus vat sponsorship he chose to waste.

Freedom of Information Request Three

Although he apparently did not see the need to attend to promote Sandwell himself, Lal authorised attendance and sponsorship at the Black Country Chamber Business Awards in November. This time he ONLY blew £3500 plus vat for a table of 10. Incredibly he wrote an internal email that he wanted more staff from the regeneration [sic] section of the bent paid service to attend such frivolous occasions. Further, he wants to reward employees for, er, doing their well-paid jobs by sending them on a taxpayer-funded p*ss-up. These are his precise and, incredible, words - I sh*t ye not:

It would be nice [WTF? - Ed] to give [i.e., for us taxpayers to "give"] a couple of seats as recognition where they have worked really hard or made an exceptional contribution and they could be from anywhere in the council."

How the f*ck does this nonsense promote Sadders as a place to do business????

Incidentally, and although - as above - this issue is supposed to be coming before the Ethical Standards committee, Lal has approved that not just Councillors but staff also need not declare this hospitality on their Registers of Interests. And, as with the first event, he fought against disclosure of those who did attend at OUR expense.

Whilst he did admit, this time, that bent ex-Cllr Pam Hughes was there (with Zorro) he tried to prevent disclosure on 19th December, 2023 of the identity of the employees (5) and "business representative" (3) who also attended.

I just hope this vulgarian with bent Pam was not one of the honoured guests "representing" the corrupt Council to the local business community!

I persevered. Four employees were Nicy Morgan, Jenna Langford (Regeneration Manager), Michael Wragg (Senior Social Value Officer - whatever that is), and Jonathan Percival (Enterprise Development Officer).

Incredibly, and although free booze was on offer, Lal also sent an under-18 years old apprentice along to promote Sandwell enterprise. This just shows how unserious he is about dealing with real business people and how detached from the commercial world the corrupt Labour Council is.

The three business representatives were all from the Labour crony - and unaccountable - organisation, Sandwell Business Ambassadors, enjoying a p*ss-up on us. They were: Alan Taylor (Chair and boss of MiGlass); Bevil Williams (CEO "lol" of Re-PC Limited), and Jan Denning (MD -?- of Destination Wolverhampton & Black Country).

Bevil - also Bevil James - Williams was a splendid choice by Lal as a representative of the Council. He was a Director of Computers 4 Africa which was formed in 2016 - avoided a compulsory strike off on the Companies House Register and then was voluntarily struck off in 2018 without ever filing a set of accounts. This was not to be confused with Computers 4 Africa Limited - prop.one Bevil Williams - which had an equally short life. Incorporated in 2019 this Company was compulsorily struck off in 2021, again without filing any accounts.

Bevil James was also a Director of Futures Alternative Education Services Limited. Formed in 2006 this outfit had the odd run-in with Companies House but at least it did trade. Having made a small profit in 2010 the Company was compulsorily struck off in 2014 without filing any further accounts. In 2021 he set up, with others, Caribbean Memorial Limited but resigned as a Director in 2022. That Company was struck off soon afterwards having never filed any accounts.

Bevil set up ESL Computers Limited in 2003. By 2009 the Company was trading at a loss (according to accounts prepared by the unfortunately named Wallace Crooke, Accountants) and it was voluntarily struck off in 2014 - yet again without having filed any accounts in the interim.

Our man was involved with others in setting-up 4XI Limited in 2016. It was struck off the Register in 2017 without having ever filed accounts. But Bevil Williams Associates Limited is still active [sic]. This Company was formed in 2015 solely by the man himself but the last accounts show just £22 in the bank and debtors of just £440. In other words the Company is hardly trading and, in event, current liabilities exceed assets by £198! In other words, it was insolvent at the last accounting date. 

On the face of it Bevil is having better luck with IT Refurb Limited which does, at least, appear to be trading. Curiously creditors owing the company money jumped from less than £10,000 to over £25,000 in the last two reported tax years. OK if everyone pays - and see below! This Company has net assets of just £2, 270, although that is in positive territory.

What of Re-PC Ltd - the Company he names in his Sandwell Business Ambassadors profile - where is a co-director with a Mr Barrows who was also involved with the defunct 4XI Limited (are you keeping-up folks?) This outfit appears to have made a profit for the two directors of over £15,000 in the last tax year - again, positive territory. Curiously it owes £10,776 to IT Refurb - another Bevil Company - and which may explain the sudden increase in money owed to that Company mentioned in the previous paragraph. Clearly Bevil has some reason why one Company of his is paying for the services of his other live Company. (Perhaps he will write to The Skidder and explain ...)

In short, this man is trading on a small scale and no Lord Sugar. He has also been involved in a number of failed companies and IT Refurb is only showing net assets exceeding liabilities thanks to nearly £11k being owed to it by Bevil's other Company. Let's give the chap credit for trying, but surely Lal can find more substantial business characters in the bent Borough to invite along?

As far as "Ambassador" Denning is concerned, she uses her website to promote Wolverhampton Racecourse & Holiday Inn - which is handy since both the above events were held there.

Of course, there is one person in Sadders who has a dire history of multiple business failures (with his partner having a few more on top). Surely Mr Lal should send Mayor Bill Gavan (aka The Turd of Sandwell) the next time he blows OUR money on a knees-up? (And if it is a knees-up let's hope foul-mouthed Bill doesn't wear his kilt ...)

* https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2024/02/sandwells-data-disasters-blue-badge.html

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