Smethwick - Rimmer replaces Greaser! (And more ...)

The Labour Party is full of grovellers and Sandwell is a prime example of the phenomenon. It has been sickening throughout the history of this blog to see the rampant arse-licking of Watson, Spellar, Cooper, Eling, and now Carmichael - but the particularly egregious rimmers all seem to have benefited from their faecal attraction e.g. Gavan, Moore, Khatun, and many more.

The most assiduous rimmer of Watson and Spellar has been their willing manservant, Gurinder Singh Josan (Skidders passim). Now he is set to be the MP for the new-look Smethwick Constituency in place of the pathetic bookies runner, Spellar (Warley).

Regular readers will know that I have personal experience of the duplicity of Josan. He asked to meet me, via an intermediary, to pursue the campaign by Watson, Spellar and Eling to screw their fellow Party member, (then) Cllr Mahboob Hussain. We met on three occasions at a cafe in Birmingham where he handed me piles of copy documents which he and the others wanted me to use to help destroy Hussain.

I was charmed by Gurinder. Our first meeting was slightly inauspicious. I am paranoid about time-keeping and have an obsession with arriving in good time for appointments etc. I almost never oversleep, but did so prior to our first meeting. I rushed into Brum and arrived in the caff about one minute before Gurinder and the third-party arrived. He put me at my ease with a rather good joke. I explained that, very unusually, I had overslept and had not had time to shave before rushing to our meet. He joked, "you never have to apologise to a Sikh man for excess facial hair"!

He is a clever guy, and, unlike most Labour spongers, has amassed wealth through business and property interests. Unlike most in Sandwell Labour, he is always immaculately turned-out. I liked him and made the mistake of thinking that he was becoming a friend. 

A strange episode followed in that he asked me to meet him in Smethwick at his sister's accountancy office, and to then go the the Chance Glass site with him to meet the Sikh folk who ran a skip hire etc, business there. They were being bullied by bent Labour Sandwell Council who wanted to clear the patently industrial site so that a (wholly unsuitable) property development could go ahead next to the railway, motorway and, now, the giant new incinerator. This was all dressed-up as a "heritage" scheme (lol) and was a pet project of (then) Labour Leader, Steve "Squealing" Eling, the now-disgraced tyrant, but now eagerly encouraged by Eling-rimmer and current Leader [sic], Kerrie "Dim Kez" Carmichael. Even more, bizarrely, the anti-capitalist, Corbynista - but money-grubber - Cllr Bob "Seig Heil" Piper, has indicated his support for this absurd project! WTF?

On arrival in Smethwick with a third party Gurinder was hyper and asked us to wait as he had some urgent phone calls to make. He was phoning round every influential Labour Sikh he knew in a bid to prevent the (then) useless Labour Councillor, Preet Kaur Gill, from being selected as an MP. (He failed.)

I have never been able to establish why this pair were at kirpans-drawn although there were rumours (as ever) of trouble at t'Gurdwara. These tweets seem to indicate that earthly matters were disrupting the spiritual calm of the GNG Smethwick (Gill was not an MP as at the date of the tweets):

Assuming that this pair are both MP's by 5th July it will be interesting to see how they "work together" at Westminster! Will their feud affect the best interests of their constituents and the local area?

We went down to the skip company. Now the story becomes even murkier. They were not averse to moving to another site provided that the bent Labour Council provided the right inducements. Curiously they did later quit the site and then made a £2,000 donation to Josan's lord and master, Tom Watson MP (as he then was). Obviously this was a pure coincidence and nothing to do with the negotiations. Nevertheless, no-one has been able to explain what actually went on. (The position is still uncertain in that the skip company held two long leases to parts of the site which Eling, Labour and the would-be developers were very anxious they should relinquish ... Watch this space ...)

Throughout all this, Gurinder purported to be on friendly terms. Here's a message to a third party which was forwarded to me:

When Watson was then involved in (yet another) plot - this time to screw me - I turned to Gurinder for help. It was as if the guy never knew who who I was. The "friendship" was simply a pretence to get what he wanted to satisfy his masters, and having got the mine he gave me the shaft! Many people - including many in the Sandwell Sikh community - have since told me that he is a duplicitous b*stard - and so wholly qualified to be an MP in our motherf*cker of Parliaments!

Only today, some Sikh folks have been publicly complaining about him on social media concerning - they say - his alleged intervention in "blocking" a peerage for a well-known Sikh activist. Any more on this anyone?

Gurinder has his own little harem of rimmers, notably Pam Randhawa and Parbinder Kaur. I wonder if Randhawa will benefit when he's elected? (I will write about other candidates when the full details are known on 7th June, but he is surely a shoo-in for this seat?)

Incidentally, a couple of people in the Sikh community are telling me the liar, Parbinder Kaur (Skidders passim), has been applying for a Parliamentary seat - but I am treating this as a leg-pull! Also many Sikh folk have been dropping me hints at Josan's machinations politically and at the Smethwick Gurdwara - if you want to spill the beans, now would be a VERY good time! His direct involvement in the Rajbir Singh affair also remains a mystery.

I have also written about the poisonous activities of Gurinder and Pam Randhawa in their successful takeover (until recently) of the Sandwell Police Independent Advisory Group (IAG). Happily, the two women who have run the local force recently have seen through this pair. Randhawa was removed from the IAG (apparently) but the position with Josan remains opaque. Surely the Police and/or Josan need to make the position clear?

Gurinder sees himself as the ultimate "fixer" (and see above) but this has allowed him to fly under the radar in respect of his personal finances and conduct - something those standing against him may wish to take a close look at. He says himself he has numerous business and property interests.

One class of business that did very well in the pandemic was hardware/building supplies as the nation embraced DIY (not the Tipper sort) during lockdown. Yet Warley Hardware was first in the queue for Covid grants. What about his other businesses? Did Josan businesses receive grants or loans when he is personally wealthy? ( have written to Gurinder about this but he has declined to respond. ) At least when he is elected he will have to complete the Parliamentary Register of Interests which should make interesting reading! Spellar was a pathetic MP who did absolutely f*ck all for Warley from his South London lair, but at least we could see that he was greedy little prick with all his foreign trips (including to open a branch of an English public school in Egypt) and his acceptance of hospitality from the gambling industry! And, like Watson, Johnny boy will soon be ripping off us taxpayers again from the House of Lords.

#scrapthelords!

Not just Tory contempt for Sadders ...

Sandwell Labour has always been known for "cadre development" - a polite term meaning jobs for the boys and girls, both as Councillors and employees. On the political side this has meant a succession of tribal retards being provided with a taxpayer-filled trough in which to bury their snouts.

Since Keir "Sir Woodenarse" Starmer claimed he would "sort-out" Sandwell the corruption has, in fact, continued apace, but one tangible feature of his failed interventions has been candidates being shipped-in to "represent" Sandwell people as a short-term staging post to standing for Parliament (Skidders passim). Thus a pair suddenly appeared from Nottingham only a year ago, Jennifer Hemingway (Abbey) and Luke John Davies (Smethwick) who works for an organisation based in local, er, Edinburgh - although to be fair to them, they have bought a house in Sadders. One year later, Davies is standing for Aldridge-Brownhills! 

And Chipilro Kalebe-Nyanongo was only elected for Old Warley last May, but wants away. She is standing in Droitwich & Evesham (although it really will be an earthquake if she wins that one).

Poor Sadders - stuck with absolute Labour dross like the Giles's and Melia on the one hand, and careerists who simply want to use the sh*thole Borough as a rung up the greasy ladder. 

West Bromwich BID

Rebellion is underway amongst small traders in West Brom who are forced to pay extra tax locally to the hated "Business Improvement District" (BID). They are forced to pay extra for services they are already paying the bent Labour Council and the Police for, via business rates.

I will be writing further about this in detail in due course, but there is a petition circulating amongst the small traders to stop the mad and bad scheme when it comes up for the next vote. It is great to see some folk getting off their knees for once in Sadders - although big national chains like Tesco, Sports Direct and their ilk may well combine to crush the "little people". Watch this space again ...

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

We may also add hyperlinks or references to content in our associated blogs, “As The Crow Flies!” (at crowmultimedia.blogspot.com) and Rotten Council Governance - Legal Review (at rottencouncils.blogspot.com). Reference to content in those blogs also forms part of the context, meaning of, and justification for, contents in this blog.

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Every now and again we make a genuine error and get something wrong. If an error in the blog affects you please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com and we shall use our best endeavours to remove offending material and/or publish appropriate corrections forthwith (together with an apology, if applicable).

We have had to remove the direct comment facility from this blog due to the malicious activity of a West Bromwich woman but we are pleased to receive comments via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com, on Twitter via our publishers @CrowMultimedia or via our dedicated Facebook Group: “The Sandwell Skidder - Speaking Truth to Power!” We are happy to publish any sensible commentary and offer a right of reply where applicable. We can also publish “guest” posts on mutually agreed terms.

If you consider that anything written is defamatory or otherwise unlawful please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com or telephone 07470 624207 forthwith. If your complaint has merit we shall endeavour to make immediate amends.

Sandwell: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

THE GOOD ...

May 2nd was - as predicted in this blog - a significant approval of Labour corruption by the morons who inhabit sh*thole Sandwell (and the now-annual Sandwell Scum Counter will be published soon). The Tories were - almost completely - routed. But there was one bright shining moment - the victory of Richard Jeffcoat, an Independent Candidate in Tipton Green. And his win creates a possible template for a future where there is a real opposition to bent Labour of good anti-corruption candidates since the Tories have proved they are not up to snuff and have blown their big chance.

Richard's entry into the Council Chamber on Tuesday will increase the brain cell count by a quantum leap. An Oxford grad, Richard is a professional musician in the classical tradition (and is involved in the organisation of an annual Mendelssohn Festival on the Scottish Island of Mull). He is often found fingering his organ - although not in the way made infamous by the notorious masturbator, Cllr John "W*nker" Tipper!

Living in Tipton, Richard has seen the horrors of Labour corruption up close including the satrapy of corrupt liar, Syeda Khatun, and the poisonous conduct of ex-Cllr Mohammed Yassen Hussain (aka "Billa", aka "The Tipton Tosser"). Tired of seeing Labour cream-off resources from Tipton, Richard stood as a Green candidate initially but decided to go it alone and provide a genuinely independent voice for his area - run into the ground by 50 years of Labour neglect.

Hitherto, Richard has polled well but Labour has thrown the kitchen sink at winning the Ward to keep him out. They do not want a spotlight shone on local corruption for obvious reasons. Each year community activist, Darryl Magher, and I have tried to persuade the Tories to stand down in this particular seat and let Richard have a clear run. This is unacceptable to Shaun Bailey MP & other Party figures and so they have put a spoiler candidate in each time to ensure Richard doesn't win. In one of the more disgraceful episodes of the recent election the Tories decided they had no chance of willing the seat and so Bailey and the team decided to gratuitously attack Richard with a malicious smear (and with a misspelling to boot):

Image publicly posted on X/Twitter

Shame on you, Shaun Bailey. Oh and next time you want to smear a friend of mine please don't breach copyright by using a photo I took!

Every year Richard has pounded the streets and has secured very impressive results although, until now, bent Labour has mobilised to stop him. Their candidate this time was the wooden Charn Singh Padda - seeking re-election. A Cabinet member no less.

I have written before how I admire the way some groups are politically savvy in corrupt Sandwell and work to win political influence. In bent Labour Sandwell the Sikh community is particularly well-organised and determined to see that their nominees are involved in running every aspect of Sandwell governance and policing. This is generally a good thing although, as we shall see below, not always so. 

Charn Padda (not to be confused with the liar, former Cllr Iqbal Padda - see below again) was the joker who used a picture of himself in his campaign material for his first stint in Tipton appearing to be litter-picking. Such is Labour's contempt for locals the picture was actually taken on the other side of the Borough!

Image: Labour campaign leaflet publicly distributed

And here is another example of Labour's sense of entitlement - they can't even bother to put election signs on the lamp posts the right-way up!

This year Labour began to panic and Sandwell's Sikh political leader, the deceitful Gurinder Josan, stepped up the campaigning to get Charmless Charn across the line again. It is claimed he even brought members of the Sikh community up from London to knock on doors. But all to no avail.

Image: public post on X/Twitter

I will analyse the election results in detail in the "Scum Counter" post but Richard won by a comfortable margin - and the Tory only managed 328 votes! 

The electoral system in Sadders is in a state of flux. There will be no local election next year (2025) - although there will, of course, be a general election soon. The plan is that the system MAY change in 2026 to an election for the whole 72 Sandwell seats. Whether this happens remains to be seen but Richard has at least two years to start making a difference. As above, he is very intelligent but there is an awful lot to learn and a heavy burden is already being placed on his shoulders. (The Tories have shamefully done absolutely f all about corruption. One or two of the remaining rump of Councillors are whispering that there will now be a change of attitude but that remains to be seen - and see below). The Tories have - mostly - lost the trust of the people of Sadders, and will have to work hard in the next two years to try to regain it. Richard will be wrong to trust them until he has seen them finally rise off their grovelling knees, and put up a bit of a fight.

We must not bombard Richard with requests for help and he does, of course, have to concentrate on Tipton Green matters first and foremost. But all those who hate Labour corruption and want to make the benighted Borough a better place should try and HELP him in any way possible. And he has shown - at great expense in shoe leather - that Independents who actually care about where they live CAN win through. The other Sadders wards need to start looking for smart, local, Independent candidates who can commit to work hard in their communities for the next two years and start parking their tanks on the bent Labour lawn.

THE BAD ...

Whisper it softly but there are signs that the bent Blues at West Midlands/Sandwell Police are slowly getting their act together and actually doing the job WE pay them to do. Of course, this has not always been so, and the tarnished history of Sandwell's mayoralty is a snapshot of just some of the indulgence bent coppers have shown towards their corrupt "friends and partners" at the Council (Skidders passim ad nauseum).

The usual modus operandi of the cops when faced with Labour corruption is simply to do nothing. Although in the case of ex-Mayor, Linda Horton, the police actually went through the charade of visiting her home to confirm that her liar daughter, Lucy Cashmore, was living there (Cashers was ineligible as a Councillor and falsely claimed to be living Chez Horton). The bent cops decided that she was - when she wasn't (Skidders passim). Even Labour's Bob Piper thought this hilarious and joked about the cops inspecting "Linda's phantom bedroom". The fact that, with Horton's connivance, Cashers f*cked the people of Sadders over for four year's worth of allowances did not prevent Linda becoming Labour Mayor.

Syeda Khatun's constant companion, the thuggish ex-Mayor, Derek Rowley, was also outed by this blog in respect of the sale of council-owned property at Jubilee Park. This was allegedly reported to the Police by the Council itself, but the cops took no action against Rowley despite some of the items being advertised for sale on Facebook! WTF? Rowley was out of favour with bent Labour for a while but according to the excellent Sandwell Corruption (Facebook and X/Twitter) he is now back in a Party role:

Image courtesy of Sandwell Corruption

The current Mayor, until tomorrow, is the grotesque Gavan - whom the bent Blues also failed to investigate in respect of a £5,000 Party donation which he seemingly received back from the taxpayer via extra Council allowance payments. (Gavan has repeatedly refused to confirm that he is one and the same William Gavan who made the donation - Skidders passim and see legal notice below).

The Mayor is supposed to be the civic figurehead of the Borough and, laughably, we are supposed to RESPECT him/her. Ironically the Tories knew all about the foul-mouthed Gavan, "The Turd of Sandwell", not least because he defected from Labour and then joined the Conservatives via their online portal. Even the Tories did not want a **** like Gavan in their ranks, and duly kicked him out.

At the commencement of Council meetings the Councillors are supposed to stand when the Mayor enters the Chamber as a mark of respect. Last year I asked the Tories if they would stand for The Turd and the pathetic, pusillaninous, bunch under former leader [sic] and now ex-Cllr David "Keep the NHS White" Fisher, decided they would stand. But, as above, they have spent most of their tenure on their knees anyway, and now there are only five of them left.

Now they - and Richard Jeffcoat - face an even more egregious display of Labour corruption, and it will be interesting to see if they can grow a metaphorical pair. The new Mayor is to be the corrupt liar, Syeda Khatun and her Deputy, the criminal and liar, Steve Melia. This is Labour Leader, Kerrie "Dim Kez" Carmichael and her cronies putting two fingers up to fellow Councillors and, indeed, the whole of Sandwell. It is intolerable that any Councillor who genuinely wants to fight corruption in Sadders will stand for this pair. Someone has to say to Carmichael and Labour, "enough is enough". They are not showing disrespect by not standing (or standing with their backs turned) - it is Labour who are disrespecting the people of Sandwell and the office of Mayor by very deliberately saying the a corrupt liar and a criminal are fit and proper people for these positions. Will the Tories finally show the world, and the local media, that these grotesque appointments are beyond the civic pale?

Incredibly, the Hackett saga is STILL ongoing but the Tories are fully aware of what Khatun did - or should be noting that it has all been in the public domain for a very long time, and was the main reason the poisonous Khatun was kicked off the Cabinet. For newer readers - she was part of a conspiracy with Hackett, ex-Leader Steve "Squealing" Eling and now-disgraced former Chief Executive, Jan Britton, to subvert a standards investigation into Hackett and to falsify the evidence to exonerate him. This has cost the people of Sandwell huge sums - a massive pay-off to the former Assistant Chief Executive traduced by this bunch, and very large legal costs (which, unbelievably, have still not been finalised). 

Her other lies led to a High Court action (brought by me). This person deserves no respect whatsoever, and should be shown none.

(The biggest rimmers of Khatun in Sandwell are arts charity Multistory (!) and they will, no doubt, be commemorating her Mayoralty in some way. WTF?)

Labour made much play on insisting that Councillors should have criminal record checks. Yet the one of their side who definitely does have one is Steve "Rocky" Melia! This POS was convicted after assaulting me. He had his Solicitor literally beg the Police and CPS not to send the matter to Court - such is the cowardice of the man. At a standards hearing he then openly lied - although even his Labour colleagues on the Committee did not believe him!

He was panned by the Standards Committee and they recommended that he be stripped of all special responsibility positions. Now Carmichael and her cronies have said "f*ck you" to the Committee and the Independent Person who serves on it, and that the Labour Dictatorship will do what the hell it likes.

The Mayor's position often entails interaction with schools and so safeguarding issues arise in letting this aggressive thug anywhere near kids. And what an example this pair will be to the young folk of the Borough - "if you lie and are corrupt little boy/girl, one day you can be Labour Mayor of Sandwell!"

Here's the short video of the criminal assault:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/G2jjpZzdwrc

All Rise for The Crim Liar - I don't think so do you readers?

THE UGLY ...

I have praised the political activity of the local Sikh community here and elsewhere in this blog but, alas, they have foisted some nasty and/or bent pieces of work on the local community, and Cllr Parbinder Kaur is one such. Let's just remember a few:

Preet Kaur Gill - a useless Councillor who, incredibly, has every chance of holding a junior post in Government ere long. Infamous for her anti-Muslim "love jihad" rants, which most folk would describe as "hate speech", but which the cops think is alright coming from her.

Gurinder Josan  - I have bitter personal experience of this snake in the grass but he was Watson and Spellar's little rimmer in the plot to bring down Muslim councillor, Mahboob Hussain. Not much "hope" and plenty of "hate" in that particular episode. And still questions about his involvement with the skip company who used to occupy part of the Chance Glass site, but ended up making a donation to Watson.

Babu Singh Bawa - corrupt Councillor involved in a bent Compulsory Purchase scheme. Astonishingly this bent POS was awarded an OBE (presumably the Order of the Brown Envelope). 

Kirat Singh - Labour Councillor who had to leave town in a hurry following very lurid allegations on Sikh websites. 

Rajbir Singh - arrogant person who, inexplicably became Council Leader before having to resign this post and his seat for unexplained reasons. The Sikh community know the reason but won't say but, once again, there are lurid allegations (which I have put to him but which he has not responded to). He is said to be trying to make a comeback, but I think he is going to have to come clean first don't you readers? (All info very welcome as usual).

Iqbal Padda  - another appalling liar and pathetic coward who pretended to live in Sandwell whilst living in Walsall. The strange thing is that the Tories knew he was/is a lying sh*t and yet took him on as a candidate for them when he defected from bent Labour! That says all you need to know about Bailey, Richards, Fisher, Chapman & the other Tories and put paid to any pretence that the local Tories are anti-corruption. 

IAG - Josan and one of his handmaidens, Cllr Pam Randhawa infiltrated the Sandwell Police Independent Advisory Group, and tried to take control of it, and politicise it (although this was pushing on an open door with the partisan plod). The Police finally realised what was going on and Randhawa has been booted off. Josan's status is unclear, but it seems odd if the cops have sacked the puppet but left the puppet-master in situ!

It's not all doom and gloom and anyway, if the Sikh community thinks its interests are best served by promoting bent scum then I suppose that's democracy. I am also hearing good things about Cllr Tirath Singh Dhatt - although he is relatively new and will have to agree to local Labour corruption if he wants to continue with a political career.

And so we return to another of Josan's rimmers, Parbinder Kaur, who was found to be in breach of the Council's code of conduct for lying about her property interests. She gives out the impression of being as thick as two short planks, but seemingly thinks she is entitled to a senior committee position (despite not having made any sort of mark as a Cllr so far). Here she is giving her full attention at a Council meeting.

There is not much uglier than terrorism and shortly before the recent election the Daily Mail ran a piece concerning her alleged links with proscribed terrorist groups (something which doesn't stop Sandwell Police officers lining-up to have their pictures taken with her!) Here is the Mail article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13368813/labour-councillor-parbinder-kaur-investigated-terror.html

As this blog reported, she is also keen on another proscribed terrorist group, Hamas:

Despite her lack of achievements, her lying and dalliance with terrorist organisations she has just won a stonking majority in good old Smethwick Ward. Good luck with that guys and gals!

I am sure we will hear a lot more of this one over the next two years - and I suspect for all the wrong reasons. I am already hearing about some sort of dispute with Sikhs for Labour? Info welcome please! Oh, and some Smethwick folk are saying her election boards are still up in Smethwick - past the official date for their removal? Pictures welcome.

And yes, the question of whether she is actually a nurse or not rumbles on - and she refuses to deal with correspondence regarding that issue!

We live in interesting times ...

And finally,

The Tories were aware of the stories concerning Matt Huggins who has now left the bent Council. But are they going to bother to actually start asking questions about what the hell was going on and why he was allowed by senior management to carry on? If their past performance is anything to go by, don't hold your breath!

Coming soon ...

Strange bedfellows!!!

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

We may also add hyperlinks or references to content in our associated blogs, “As The Crow Flies!” (at crowmultimedia.blogspot.com) and Rotten Council Governance - Legal Review (at rottencouncils.blogspot.com). Reference to content in those blogs also forms part of the context, meaning of, and justification for, contents in this blog.

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Every now and again we make a genuine error and get something wrong. If an error in the blog affects you please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com and we shall use our best endeavours to remove offending material and/or publish appropriate corrections forthwith (together with an apology, if applicable).

We have had to remove the direct comment facility from this blog due to the malicious activity of a West Bromwich woman but we are pleased to receive comments via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com, on Twitter via our publishers @CrowMultimedia or via our dedicated Facebook Group: “The Sandwell Skidder - Speaking Truth to Power!” We are happy to publish any sensible commentary and offer a right of reply where applicable. We can also publish “guest” posts on mutually agreed terms.

If you consider that anything written is defamatory or otherwise unlawful please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com or telephone 07470 624207 forthwith. If your complaint has merit we shall endeavour to make immediate amends.

Breaking News: Labour £8m+ Contract Overspend!

A quick post with some breaking news of, at best, yet more gross incompetence by bent Labour Sandwell Council. As with most Skidder stories I was alerted to the refurbishment of Alfred Gunn House by a concerned informant. In short the allegation was that Sandwell's current Labour Leader, the liar Kerrie "Dim Kez" Carmichael, when she was supposed to be Housing supremo - for whatever reason - accepted a wildly low estimate for this job from Seddon Construction (a firm which has declined to respond to the Skidder on this subject).

A further - and somewhat different allegation - was also received with regard to this and other Sandwell Labour contracts i.e. that even in the absence of corruption (!) the tendering process at the Cowboy/girl Council is wholly inadequate. Thus Labour signs up its preferred contractor following open tendering but then greatly expands the specification when the preferred contractor then has a free run without any further competition. Nothing is re-tendered even where there are major changes of spec. I am not saying that there has been fraud here, but in this situation the contractor has Labour with its pants down, and/or the opportunity for fraudulent kick-backs to the comrades or bent staff for extra work is self-evident.

Labour has not been totally forthcoming in a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request I submitted in respect of this particular matter (which, naturally, was totally ignored by the Council's Tory opposition before it imploded) and so the matter has been referred to the Information Commissioner. As with the overwhelmingly majority of my FOI requests this was made in the public domain via the What Do They Know website, although in recent times Shokat Lal, Chief Executive, has been trying to conceal responses from the public by having them emailed to me direct! WTF?

Bent Labour Sandwell has just admitted - thanks to the intervention of the Information Commissioner - that the agreed price for the refurbishment with Seddon was £13,996,049. However, as at 15th April, 2024, it has overspent by, wait for it, £8,282,431.09 ex Vat! The Council has refused to say whether the contract is complete or ongoing and so will yet more extra millions be heading Seddon's way?

As things stand the overspend is already almost 60% of the original contract price! Someone - other than me - needs to be asking some serious questions about this, at best, gross incompetence and/or deliberate manipulation of the tendering process.

Did the Government Commissioners raise this overspend with bent Labour and with what result? What do the partisan auditors, Grant Thornton, have to say about this - or are they going to cover-it up as with the Cox Review? Are the Tories ever going to start asking questions? Meanwhile, The Skidder will press on trying to get to the bottom of this on your behalf, dear readers.

No wonder Labour is screwing the people with full-rate Council Tax increases, rent hikes, car park rises, bin charges etc. etc. etc. Meanwhile the liar Carmichael has boasted of her supposed financial acumen (picture courtesy of the excellent @CorruptSandwell). You couldn't make it up (although she does ...)

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

We may also add hyperlinks or references to content in our associated blogs, “As The Crow Flies!” (at crowmultimedia.blogspot.com) and Rotten Council Governance - Legal Review (at rottencouncils.blogspot.com). Reference to content in those blogs also forms part of the context, meaning of, and justification for, contents in this blog.

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Every now and again we make a genuine error and get something wrong. If an error in the blog affects you please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com and we shall use our best endeavours to remove offending material and/or publish appropriate corrections forthwith (together with an apology, if applicable).

We have had to remove the direct comment facility from this blog due to the malicious activity of a West Bromwich woman but we are pleased to receive comments via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com, on Twitter via our publishers @CrowMultimedia or via our dedicated Facebook Group: “The Sandwell Skidder - Speaking Truth to Power!” We are happy to publish any sensible commentary and offer a right of reply where applicable. We can also publish “guest” posts on mutually agreed terms.

If you consider that anything written is defamatory or otherwise unlawful please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com or telephone 07470 624207 forthwith. If your complaint has merit we shall endeavour to make immediate amends.